Sept. 2, 2003
That was a good start. We have a greatly improved defense and an offense that is about the same as last year. We are better than expected and Oklahoma State is worse. If they are a good team, we might have quite a team, because throughout the game we were the better team. Red-zone failures in the first half kept us from leading. What happened Saturday was that Bo took Bohl's guys and made them look great. Barney took Frank's guys and made them look the same. The staff as whole did a good job of adjusting as we outyarded them 3 to 2 in the first half and 2 to 1 in the second.
Start with the defense. Well-coached except for leaving Ricketts on Woods. He beat him for the TD and had him beat again and Fields missed him. Ricketts is a solid nickel corner and will be beaten by any top receiver. We have to scheme around that fact. The linebackers were terrific and our line was active, although I worry that our tackles are too small. In any case a great performance against what was supposed to be one of the better offenses in the country. Bo scripted the defenses and adjusted and outcoached Gundy. He is everything that I figured he would be.
On offense, if you didn't know that we had made changes nothing in the game would have made you aware. Sure, we motioned into the Maryland-I and put Herian on the wing. But really, very little changed. It was the same QB draws and iso's. I like the way Davies runs, but man he misses a lot of blocks. We made several execution errors in the red zone and forgot that we were out of timeouts. I know we don't have a world of talent but we must at least stop the errors. Barney is limited because Lord is limited, but we must improve. In the second quarter after the Peetz penalty, Lord ignored an open Herian and took off to run during which we were called for holding and subsequently missed the field goal. Should be a TD and ends up with zero. He makes great plays and bad plays. To me he looks the same as last year. We can't predicate our offense on QB draws and running our small I-backs inside.
We have a terrific defense and an offense that is the same as last year, But we have a strategy we can win with this year. Play like the pros do, hang onto the ball and limit mistakes and let the defense win the game. We can win this way unless the offense can't stay on the field and the D gets worn down. Offensive execution has to get a lot better for us to have a big year. But with this defense we shouldn't blow games when the talent level is close as we did last year. We will have a better year than last, there is no doubt -- the offensive progress will tell us how much better.
Keep the faith, GBR.
-- The Colonel