The dust has settled. The whirlwind of emotions I experienced last night, ending with disappointment, has faded. Thanks, in part, to some delicious pancakes from Kerbey Lane.
As much as the sky seemed to fall last night, and I could easily point to several situations that if were done differently would have lead to a victory instead of a loss, I have a few positive thoughts worth mentioning (looking forward to the immediate dismissal from my fellow RRS posters). I'm not a football expert though and don't pretend to be.
I know it's hard not to focus on the poor outing from the Defense, but consider this... FWIW, it's the first time i've seen us play zone coverage for most of the game. Most of the time, our corners are on an island playing man coverage while our focus is mainly on stopping the running game. With that being said, i wouldn't expect us to be perfect in zone coverage (Kansas State has perfected this coverage, we're just not there). It's clear our DB's are still learning how to cover down field and how to follow the QB's eyes. Did anyone notice Pete playing WR's on occasion? He would drop back a lot and it would leave 5 in the box against the pass (we'd sometimes blitz Allen too). I feel more confident going into the Baylor game in terms of schemes now that we've played a pass happy offense. I'd even go as far as saying we are more experienced than Baylor coming into our next game (for this season at least). I wonder if we will see improvement from our DB's against the spread next game. One concern: I guarantee Baylor has been preparing for us since the day after their Lamar game, with their Bye week and game against Rice.
Consider this, TCU lost a very similar game last year to Baylor.. and TCU ended up doing well last season. Are we TCU 2014? No. But I think the Baylor game will be closer (as long as Pat can run around) than we may think. In fact, I think it may be very similar to yesterday's game. I don't see Baylor's D stopping our offense anymore than TCU's defense stopped our offense. Furthermore, we had 0 take aways. I'm confident we will have 2 next game (It's Baylors QB's first season to start... we just played against a veteran play caller- who clearly made a few mistakes that could have cost him- not to mention his inability to close out the game because that pass in the end zone was not on target.)
Another thought: There's a definite possibility that we could end this season 9-3 and play A&M in the cotton bowl.
Thoughts? Please, crush me now.
As much as the sky seemed to fall last night, and I could easily point to several situations that if were done differently would have lead to a victory instead of a loss, I have a few positive thoughts worth mentioning (looking forward to the immediate dismissal from my fellow RRS posters). I'm not a football expert though and don't pretend to be.
I know it's hard not to focus on the poor outing from the Defense, but consider this... FWIW, it's the first time i've seen us play zone coverage for most of the game. Most of the time, our corners are on an island playing man coverage while our focus is mainly on stopping the running game. With that being said, i wouldn't expect us to be perfect in zone coverage (Kansas State has perfected this coverage, we're just not there). It's clear our DB's are still learning how to cover down field and how to follow the QB's eyes. Did anyone notice Pete playing WR's on occasion? He would drop back a lot and it would leave 5 in the box against the pass (we'd sometimes blitz Allen too). I feel more confident going into the Baylor game in terms of schemes now that we've played a pass happy offense. I'd even go as far as saying we are more experienced than Baylor coming into our next game (for this season at least). I wonder if we will see improvement from our DB's against the spread next game. One concern: I guarantee Baylor has been preparing for us since the day after their Lamar game, with their Bye week and game against Rice.
Consider this, TCU lost a very similar game last year to Baylor.. and TCU ended up doing well last season. Are we TCU 2014? No. But I think the Baylor game will be closer (as long as Pat can run around) than we may think. In fact, I think it may be very similar to yesterday's game. I don't see Baylor's D stopping our offense anymore than TCU's defense stopped our offense. Furthermore, we had 0 take aways. I'm confident we will have 2 next game (It's Baylors QB's first season to start... we just played against a veteran play caller- who clearly made a few mistakes that could have cost him- not to mention his inability to close out the game because that pass in the end zone was not on target.)
Another thought: There's a definite possibility that we could end this season 9-3 and play A&M in the cotton bowl.
Thoughts? Please, crush me now.
