Comments on: Defense wins championships

By: BrickHorn

BrickHorn — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:06:01 +0000

Beergut,

The D gave up 32 points in that game. Only 10 of those points were scored in the second half. Of the 22 first-half points allowed by the defense, 19 occurred in drives that immediately followed Chris Simms turnovers. The other 7 points were scored by CU’s defense on an interception return.

Take away Simms’ interceptions, and we blow out CU in that game. The D was dominant until a string of turnovers forced them to play with little to no rest and their backs to the goalline, and was really only responsible for 13 of CU’s 39 points.

By: Bob in Houston

Bob in Houston — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:42:55 +0000

“Also, wasn’t this the game where Benson was knocked out in a freak accident with Mike Williams?”

Yes.

By: Beergut

Beergut — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:35:38 +0000

I think the 01 loss to Colorado in the Big 12 championship game can be blamed in large part on the defense, although Chris Simms’ turnovers helped.
People forget that Colorado was simply running the ball at will, and they weren’t being stopped. IIRC, they had a play, 34b or something like that, where they kept running right behind Andre Gurode and they kept running it over and over and over again b/c the defense wasn’t stopping it.

Also, wasn’t this the game where Benson was knocked out in a freak accident with Mike Williams?

By: BrickHorn

BrickHorn — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:27:07 +0000

But to be more reasonable, those posters need to remember without the D at least doing a reasonable job the rest of the game, we don’t have a shot with our shit offense going like it was.

Bingo. We lost that game 12-7. It’s tough to blame scoring ONCE on a pathetic defense at home with a Big 12 Title Game appearance on the line on the defense.

By: SlickStreet

SlickStreet — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:11:48 +0000

El General–one could say that (that GD benefitted tremendously by Vince’s presence). Kinda goes without saying. It’s just one example, but I consider the stark difference approaching halftime vs OU in ‘02 vs ‘05. We had the latter somewhat under control, but the bomb to Pittman in the last moments really stunned ‘em. Stoops later admitted as much. He said it was a backbreaker and caught OU off guard (considering our enormously predictable, protective playcalling for several years). Maybe GD was just setting up OU for that all those other games.

Brick–I’ve many times heard people complain about our defense’s failure in the ‘06 aggie game. And, for whatever reason, Chizik was impotent vs the option.
But to be more reasonable, those posters need to remember without the D at least doing a reasonable job the rest of the game, we don’t have a shot with our shit offense going like it was. Additionally, said D likely pooped out having to hold the fort.

And, in response from those posters, we’ve been reminded about Colt being hurt. Well, it’s obvious he was a shell in the second half. What about the first? Watching him warm up and then seeing him hit nearly all of his passes the first 30 minutes while we had zero points is hard for the apologists to reconcile.
Ripped off on the Sweed call? Maybe. But then remind those guys that we had tremendous field position the first half and still couldn’t get it done.

Speaking of field position, you mention the ‘04 OU game, and that was the best FP anyone could have dreamed about the first half, yet we had that goose egg going into the locker room. Though down only 6-0, it felt like an unscalable mountain. I figured if we couldn’t even get a simple FG after starting with such incredible position time and again, we weren’t going to score.

By: BrickHorn

BrickHorn — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:48:55 +0000

To this day, Chuck insists that the defense was to blame for the 2001 Big XII title game loss, because it was unable to stop CU from scoring in the drives that followed Simms’ interceptions. The defense is also to blame for failing to prevent A&M from burning out the clock in the final drive of the 2006 one-touchdown-at-home-against-a-.500-team embarrassment, for giving up 200+ yards to Adrian Peterson in a 12-0 shutout loss and for running out of gas in the fourth quarter of the 2002 OU game in which our offense had a string of roughly 79 straight 3-and-outs.

When your fans are that stupid, why fire your best buddy just because his job performance is woefully subpar?

By: El General

El General — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:12:25 +0000

There was just as much fetal position play calling in 05, it was just that with Vince those plays turned into touchdowns. I mean how hard is it to call a zone option roll out pass where Vince decides whether to hand off run or throw? It is the opposite of a play call. The greates offense in that GD orchestrated was the abdication of decision making.

By: Nordberg

Nordberg — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:40:30 +0000

That’s true. In rewatching some old games circa 2000-2003, it’s really obvious how much we’ve improved offensively (and regressed defensively). Watching us get our shit packed with Chris Simms, Cedric Benson, Roy Williams, Bo Scaife, etc…. I’d forgotten how depressing that was.

By: SlickStreet

SlickStreet — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:04:15 +0000

in fairness to Greg, though, we haven’t seen nearly the amount of fetal position playcalling starting ‘05 that we had those five straight losses.

By: echeese

echeese — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:29:25 +0000

And it would be the defense’s fault.