Post Game Reaction: Oklahoma

Beating Oklahoma is sweet as nectarine. For those fans who don't view Oklahoma as our biggest rival, you are as strange to me as the concept of buying organic food in bulk. The outcome of the game was all you could ask for. It was neither beautiful nor decisive, but when Texas beats Oklahoma for the second straight year -- and fourth time in the last five -- there is much glory to go around. We have a fire-breathing coaching genius directing our defense, a QB that will take a Last Temptation of Christ style beating and keep playing on, and a team with heart and guts. We’re 6-0, have won 4 of the last 5 against OU and have completely reversed the tide on "big-game" Bob. It took someone special to break the "Mack can't win the big-one" curse, but Mack has adapted to the changing times and has figured out a way to save his big-game coaching image at Texas. So the question must be asked; has the curse not been broken, but meerly only contained and released north of the Red River? (Anyways, that's a story for another day).

As for the game itself, I couldn't sumarize my feelings of the game better than how this person described it: "I’m proud of our team and their effort and the majority of our staff who aren’t sitting dumbly in the excrement of their own smug self-satisfaction. In an alternate universe, Greg Davis is employed as Process Manager Grade 3 at the Port Arthur DMV. This is the guy who goes on break when you’re next in line and sits staring at you at his desk slicing up an apple during the noon hour rush knowing full well that he could take a longer break one hour from now when no customers are in line. Longhorn fans who still carry his water are Gunga Dins of irrationality"(scipio tex).

I fail to see how there can be anything other than disappoint about, and condemnation of, Greg Davis' performance on Saturday. Not only was his actual game plan and actual play calling a disaster, but the manner in which it unfolded betrayed his fundamental misunderstanding of his own roster of players, generally; his quarterback's strengths and weaknesses, in particular; the Sooners' defensive roster; and a feasible path to even modest success.

That he did not blaze the Sooners for 30 or more points is not the concern; it was the way that he bumbled through 40 passes at 3.2 yards per attempt and 6.0 yards per completion that give his critics an armory of weapons with which to blast him. The final box score shows Texas with 40 pass attempts and 40 rush attempts, but a proper accounting of the plays -- setting aside the 4 sacks and several scrambles -- reveals a mere 29 genuine attempts to rush the football. In the first half, Texas picked up 66 yards on 11 rushes (or 75 on 10 if you dismiss the speed option); in the second half, Texas rushed for 98 yards on 18 attempts. (BON)

Greg Davis both misunderstands his personnel and has demonstrated a failure to strategically adapt thus far in 2009. Colt McCoy is a better quarterback than he was as a sophomore, but his limitations are at this point, I think, unassailably established. He is not good enough -- either as a passer or a runner -- to beat defenses all on his own. He is a very good quarterback, with helpful feet and useful accuracy, but he must be a complementary component of a larger strategic vision. He cannot be the centerpiece. He is not, as some hoped after last year, as good as Vince Young in his own way.

If Texas wants to book a trip to the Promise Land (Pasadena) or even it's nearby suburb of a very good season (Big 12 Championship and Fiesta Bowl) the defense/special teams will have to lead the way because the offense simply can't be trusted. Texas is basically an elite SEC defense/special teams paired with a Mountain West offense. One that can win a lot of football games, but you’ll need a management strategy for your ulcers. Let's hope that the "new" Mack Brown, the one with an ipod, is willing to adapt to the changing season and prove that his team hasn't played near their best game yet.



Stats gathered from Burnt Orange Nation