Texas Longhorns 45, New Mexico Lobos 0 - Shooting From the Hip

I’d argue the final score in half the games we play isn’t a true measure. Fact is, the score is what matters. Reps, snaps, health (hope there’s nothing I don’t know about) are what matters. Every time we reach 60:00 on top, we’re fine. Not perfect. Fine is plenty good enough.

Give the opponents their due — they’re probably doing funky stuff that makes us look bad but just delays the inevitable. We’ve gotten some valuable PT for a generally young team. We’ ll get better. Were the schedule different — with a couple of the better teams we play before mid-October on the schedule later on — I’d be totally comfortable with this team. I’m pretty comfortable as is. We can hang with anybody. (Except maybe Alabama)

As is . . . I’ll take this versus what we were the last couple of seasons. Ask Arkansas and Wisconsin and Auburn if they’d trade places.

We just won the game 45-0. We beat New Mexico 17-0 in the first half on 4 possessions. Four. I’m pretty sure the Lobos didn’t return a kick past the 25 all game. We’re ranked 17th in the country, does anyone think there are 16 teams that could win this game 45-0? I sure as hell don’t, we weren’t even playing offense most of the time. We gave Case the entire 4th quarter and let Ash throw it around like it was a 7 on 7.
Are people mad because we don’t know how good this team is? Because I don’t think we are any worse than what we have showed on the field thus far, which is a sloppy 37-17 win and a 45-0 bludgeoning.

Berated this team last week for not throwing it enough. This week when they do that people are upset about not running more. Fans want 100 yards from Brown, Bergeron, Gray, Monroe, Daje Johnson, Jeremy Hills and have a couple of jet sweeps by Shipley and Goodwin and expect Ash to air it out for about 300 yards in 20 attempts, leaving an entire quarter for Case to throw for about 150 yards. Of course when it doesn’t happen, something’s wrong with this team.
Not to mention the defense which needs to shut out the opposing team with net negative yards.
And please add in a couple of special teams touchdowns.

A triple option team can be very frustrating to play even when you whip them because they stay on the field so long. UNM didn’t score, but they were able to grind out first down after first down and each one seems like it takes 2 minutes off the clock. You look at the box score later and see that the other team didn’t get all that many yards and can’t figure out why you’re upset. A normal Big 12 team will hit a 30 yard pass and then go 3 and out all in about 1 minute, so it seems like you’re defense was really stout. A triple-option team will gain the same amount but they’ll take up half the quarter doing it. Then we you score quick, they get the ball back and do the same thing. Even though UNM was beat 45-0 they possessed the ball for 8 more minutes than UT. It’s nothing to be concerned about. It’s just the triple-option.

And the defense’s inability to just get off the field. We would have 2 downs where we would stop them for small gain and then they would get the first on third down,
There were entirely too many third downs where we just could not for the life of us get the stop. For playing a team which is supposedly that much inferior to us it just felt like we struggled too much in the first half. For all the talent on the defense, we should be blowing them off the ball every snap and seeing alot of individual matchup wins. Across the board it seemed like no one except Jeffcoat really flashed anything. I turned at 3 or four points during the game where we stopped New Mexico and just told my friend, Ou completes that or KState breaks that run for an extra 10 yards at least. Maybe extrapolating from our performance to Big 12 offences is wrong, but I just didn’t feel positive about our defence for a long time.

Second, we got away from horizontal passing, but we still rarely took shots down the field. Ash turned into the checkdown king. I remember seeing a few times where he would check down and we would get a good gain but there was a better option opening up down the field. We left some yards out there not because Ash was making bad decisions but because he wasn’t making the best ones. At least that’s my first impression from the stands.

Third, the game plan still remained too conservative. Ash seemed to have his snaps controlled down to the last detail. Case came out and threw it all over the place in blowout time (and looked pretty good doing it). I just think we are running the ball when we should be developing the passing game and threw it around when all we needed to do was run down the clock.

The second half was much much better and I did walk away from the game feeling good, but it wasn’t all sunshine and peaches.

Did you guys see how bad PSU’s kicking game is now that you got their kicker?

Offensively, it felt like a scrimmage drill. The coaches made a decision beforehand to throw the ball around to give Ash more work. We could have rammed the ball down UNM’s throat for 300 yards, but that was not the game plan. I can understand the reasoning and accept the results. This will not be the game plan the rest of the way, but UNM allowed it for the extra QB/receiver work.
Defensively…hmmm.
Yes, it was a triple option. They can be frustrating. But we just don’t seem to be playing the option particularly well. Where UNM got 9-18 yards on way too many 3rd and longs, West Virginia or Kansas State will get 15-40 on those losses of containment. This is a play discipline problem, and must get fixed. Yes, the defense shut UNM out, but we didn’t exactly give UNM any kind of viable field position the entire night. Put them at the 50 yard line 4-5 times and see if we shut them out then. If UNM had been able to throw the ball worth a damn, which they couldn’t with their freshman QB, I doubt we would have shut them out.
Special teams with the exception of FG kicking are the best we’ve seen in a while. The coverage units may be the best of the Brown era, at least so far. It’s nice to have a punter who can kick like that consistently.
Summation: The offense is what it is and is working out the kinks. We spread the ball around nicely. We still need to find a way to hit the deep ball, which will be a key component keeping our running game going against better defenses.
The defense has looked like less than their hype for two games now, as a UNIT. Individual brilliancies abound, but cohesive chemistry seems to be lacking. I’m actually a little worried. The defense is still damn good, but we need them to be better. Still, I trust Diaz implicitly. He knows what he is doing. (I hope.) I DIDN’T MEAN THAT!! Diaz, forgive me my grievous fault.

But the unit that scares me the most is the OL. There were many instances where the NM d-line just beat our guys one on one and blew up plays. NM? Really?

We don’t yet know what we have. This is the both the bane and the joy of early season football, and one of the reasons we’re so obsessive about it – for awhile you just don’t know how good your team is. In the second half of the year you might have a good day or a bad day, but you kinda know what the team is. Right now we don’t. And when you care as much as we do, that uncertainty is uncomfortable as hell. It’s why we chop and dice every last thing that happens, searching for signs of what the team really is. Some years you know less than others – and this one is pretty unknown – but early on it is typically the same.
I’m not going to worry too much right now, but I’m also not going to try to convince others they don’t need to worry. Mostly we still just don’t know.

Whether that was a good decision or not, we can debate, but I felt a lot better after hearing that.

Probably at some point in the first quarter, Brown may have wished we had practiced against it. However, I would rather they be preparing for Ole Miss, OSU, and OU personally.

I think the frustration with the defense is, yes they kept them out of the endzone, but the poor tackling is gonna kill us when we play a team that can zoom down the field with a missed tackle. i.e. WVU. If we can’t bring down the runner for a seemingly easy 5 yd loss and watch him reverse field and pick up the first down? Time to do some more tackling drills.

Dalton Santos? Brings the heat.

Cobbs? MIA

Edmonds? Almost took off a head, but mostly covered runs into the line.

Last year, the excuse was that it was a new scheme and that they were still learning. And this year’s excuse?

This year’s excuse is turnover and youth in the lbs and secondary fwiw.

could turn some of those long first down conversions into 7s. And what was frustrating also was more often than not, a defender was there to stop the play early. There was also a few instances where you could see where Ash would’ve benefited from having a big tight end in the area to toss the ball to. Thought for sure we’d see Ash woo us with the deep ball but I guess that’s coming against better opposition. Can’t believe Brown only got two runs—but we know what we have with him at least. Got to see some new faces on the offense which was great and it was a W. All in all, it’s another game the coaches can use to sharpen the tools.

To me the linebackers look slow and tentative. Not confident, unsure.

Just my imagination ?

I haven’t seen the Lbs yet but that sounds consistent with youth and the option. We have reamed several d’s over the option over the years and been fine over the season.

Blitz pickup is better than it was for much of last year but still not where it needs to be, and looked like it regressed some from the Wyoming game.

QBs weren’t checking out of plays, especially obvious run calls when NM was stacking the box. This may have been deliberate – coaches wanting the QBs to run the call as played to set up later instruction maybe?

Percentages are still very poor on the handful of downfield passes attempted.

Good things:

Injuries to DLs and LBs are always a concern against cut-block heavy schemes, but we came away healthy.

2nd and 3rd stringers got a significant number of snaps working several different concepts and gasp actually produced instead of just burning clock.

Excellent ball control: No turnovers on offense, 2 on defense. I only noted one pass that was even close to being picked off.

If someone comes to harvest those organs and doesn’t use anesthesia.

Thanks for taking the time to write this up though, 60.

We are better than we were last year…. but I can’t still quite put my finger on it….

We’re still not where we need to be. And since it looks like our competition has gotten stronger…at least our schedule has.

11-2 which i thought was doable… is now looking more like a 9-4 ceiling.

How we played in week 1 will get us killed by a WVU type team. Week 2 will get us killed by a TCU or a KSU type team.

Went to the game thinking we could win 10 this year and now think it’s more likely we win 8 or 9. It’s really hard to say that when you look at the stats. I’m not worried about the defense. I thought the LBs would need some time to get coordinated, but I expect the defense to get better and better. Unless the offense is holding something back, I’m just not sure they can compete at the highest level against top quality competition. The passing game was really disjointed. The OL contributed greatly to this, but it was hard to tell if the main problem was the WRs, the QB, or the play calling/scheme. I have no idea why Brown carried the ball twice in the entire game. My biggest concern in watching the game live is that Ash basically has two reads—lock on receiver and dump off. He’s got the dump off down, which is good, but at some point he’s going to have to throw downfield effectively. The only time he looked halfway capable of throwing downfield was in the last drive when they picked up the pace. I hope I’m wrong and that the big issue last night was that the O coordinators were just holding things back and that they actually can open up the offense at some point.

nobody’s pulling for them more than I am. I think we’re all in with Ash. Looking at his statistics alone, he had a great night and really did what he was asked to do. And granted, I’m biased. I absolutely hate with a passion any offense resembling a short passing west coast style. It’s just that there are some things you can see in person that you don’t always pick up on on TV and this is the first time I’ve seen Ash in person. He just doesn’t seem to see the field very well. Maybe that will continue to develop. Sure hope so.

> Highly touted D is having trouble in zone and not wrapping-up
>O-Line & Ends mediocre against bottom-dwelling BCS teams
>QB, while doing basics well, has not hit a “big-play” pass and doesn’t have that p-zazz thing
>when time of possession is as skewed against us as in 1st half, despite the score, the feel is a slow grind

Had I not watched the game and just known the score, I would have been much more excited.

QB’s attitude and play go a long way to setting the team tone. Until Ash plays with more confidence and passion it is going to be difficult to get the machine rolling on all cylinders.

As of today, Ash is the man. He is a good kid to boot. I hope he gets more comfortable in his football skin.

Went to the Texas/Wyoming game. I saw about the same as other posters. Due to my high seat, about 3 rows from the top in the north endzone, I could not see much detail such as individual match ups, but up that high you do get to see the whole field in a panorama view.
Came away from that game with some doubts about the 2012 version of the Longhorns winning 8 games. Certainly felt like my pre season optimism was only that.
1. OL has a long way to go, if you can only dominate bottom half FCS teams once they grow tired, you are not going to dominate top 25 teams at any point.
2. Ash has improved, grant that to all his supporters. But Ash is; first not a leader, second he does not see the field clearly or quickly enough. Ash will never be any better than what he currently is. And with that sad statement, he is much better than Case McCoy. As long as Ash is the QB, Harsin/White is restricted as to how they call a game.
3. The Unspeakable on the BC board; Texas’ defense actually misses Blake Gideon.
They don’t miss him physically but they do mentally. There is a reason this slow white guy started 50 consecutive games for the Longhorns. He knew defense, he knew where everyone was suppose to be and he made sure they started the play in the right position. Against Wyoming, Texas had blown coverages, they were out of position and they look lost at times. Hopefully these problems can be worked out as the season progresses.

No1 is correctable and will get better as the year progresses, stay away from injuries and the OL has to improve as they play more as a team.

No.2. Unfortunately, I think this is as good as it gets. His lack of leadership is much more disturbing than his lack of field vision. The game has slowed down for him about a step but it needs to slow down about 2 more steps for him. Since he is the best we have now and possibly for the next year the coaching staff will do what it can to help him be successful by playing conservatively. Against the good teams like OU, WVU, TCU, and KSU, that will not be enough for us to win.

No.3 Should be correctable, but did not see any improvement at all in the New Mexico game. Don’t believe that Demorco Cobbs is an every down player, seems totally lost most of the time. The defensive unit will have to lead the way if this team is going to win 9+ games.

Places where I saw much improvement, special teams, let me chirp in with everyone else, Dalton Santos is a player, can’t wait for him to start getting some line of scrimmage snaps. Overall kick coverage has been exceptional. Texas will score with their special teams several times in 2012.

Lack of turnovers, I give Ash the credit along with the coaching, Texas is not good enough to beat, Baylor, Iowa State, Ole Miss, OSU, TT, if they turn the ball over. First 2 games that has not been a problem and that is a feather in Ash’s cap.

I think this team has a ton of talented players, but I’m afraid they are a year away from being great.

After one game, I can tell you right now that kid has IT, and he’s a RS freshman who just played his first game against FLORIDA. Two games into his 2nd year, after playing Wyoming and NM, can you say the same for Ash?

But I don’t think that fans are asking too much in wanting to see a bit more from him, given the level of competition he’s faced so far. Whether its connecting on a deep throw or two, just to show we’ve got that in our bag (and not for nothing, but to show he AND THE WR’s can actually do it), or recognizing the coverages he’s seeing and checking out of running plays when 10 or 11 guys are in the box, I understand those that have watched and been left wanting. I’m not numbering myself in that group, but I get it.

after reflecting a bit (see comments above), I think Ash did more positive things than I originally gave him credit for. He didn’t look very good at all in the first half. He did check out of plays in both halves. In the first half, they didn’t work out and he held the ball too long. In the second half, he made a couple of audibles and they turned into positive yardage. Definitely some evidence that he is improving in his overall managing of the game. 16 of 22 suggests that he was accurate with what he was asked to do. Honestly, until his last drive, I remember him throwing the ball downfield, both for incompletions, and both bad throws. So 0 for 2 isn’t much to draw conclusions on. I thought he looked pretty good on the last drive when they sped up the pace and he actually got into a rhythm. I’m not as concerned about the deep ball as I am about the intermediate ones. Eventually he will have to make those plays or we lose, but he really didn’t get the opportunity to make too many of those the other night.