Hatemay's Game thoughts: Pants Action Edition

Okay, yeah, this one sucks big.  Join me after the jump as I discuss my thoughts on the last second loss to TCU.

Quarterback-  Kellen Moore had a pretty good day against TCU's secondary.  This was a defense that was burnt twice by quarterbacks this year, and had a "bend but don't break" mentality against the Heisman hopeful.  Moore was 28/38 with 320 yards and two touchdowns.  Moore played well, but it was evident he was up against the best defense we have seen.  The lack of a deep threat allowed TCU to jam our receivers at the line of scrimmage. Moore was shaky on the last drive of the game, no fault of his own, we had plenty of chances to mail this one in, but it wasn't so.  Moore did distribute the ball 10 different receivers, but it is clear that the lack of a down field deep threat kept us from striking on one play, such as TCU could.  Coaching point for next year, develop Dallas Burroughs as a deep threat to burn defensive backs.

 

Running Backs-  D.J. Harper ran well.  He ran very well.  I do not know the extent of his injury, but I think it is concussion related, since he look like he got his bell rung pretty bad.  Harper made good cuts, and was not to be brought down with only one TCU defender.  Drew Wright needs to hold onto that ball.  I am not sure why Doug was healthy enough to play the last series of the game, but wasn't healthy enough to rush the previous series when Wright rushed.  I know hind sight is 20/20, but I would have put Doug in, let him ice the game, and take our chances with Wright or Lambert next game or two.....

 

Wide Receivers-  Had a pretty good game.  Only a few places we could have improved was a would-be reception by Matt Miller in the first half near the 10 yard  line, that could have helped if we would have scored on that possession.  Also, Mitch Burroughs needs to hold onto the ball...... Dang.

 

Offensive Line-  This was the best defense our offensive line has faced, and despite the injuries we have had, they did a pretty good job.  We had a 100 yard rusher and gave Kellen good time for throws. 

 

Defensive line-  Didn't get alot of pressure on Pachall.  It didn't help that we did not blitz line backers to help with the pressure.  But, we stopped the run when they did run.  Injuries aren't helping but someone needs to step up. Great job by Tyrone Crawford on the scoop and score.

 

Line Backers-  Had a quite night due to the fact that TCU did not run the ball much, and we did not blitz much.

 

Secondary-  Here it comes.  Someone had a chance to show up and make an impact, and they wet the bed.  It did not help that three touchdown passes came with no safety help.  Our coaches were so concerned with stopping the run they put George Iloka in the box, which left one high safety.  But, when TCU would motion a running back out of the backfield  then the remaining safety would cover that running back leaving no safety help.  This was a recipe for disaster.  There was a series before the 2nd half and when we went to our base defense with two safeties and stopped TCU's offense.  The same base defense held TCU for spurts in the 2nd half.  It was tough to watch.

 

Special Teams-  Minus one play were great, and we all know what play I am talking about.  I could see from the south end zone that the laces were in.  That does not help a kickers chances.  I saw the Stanford game later in the night and the laces were in with an extra point attempt and the kicker shanked an extra point. 

 

This was a tough defeat.  Let us all pray to God, Allah, or Buddah or whatever that we can get into an AQ conference.  I would use the rest of the season for some of the young bloods to get some good minutes to get them prepared for next year.  We must develop a deep threat for next year.  We won't have Kellen Moore, so we need to develop  some one to stretch the defense to help out the starter for next year.  Guys gotta get healthy.  Lets face it, this was not the team that faced Georgia.  We were missing five starters from the Georgia game, three on offense, two on defense, and the two were where we needed them most, at corner back.  It is a terrible system we live by, it is a lot to ask of our team to go undefeated each year.  If we were in a conference that allowed us one, two, three, or in some cases four losses and we could still play for a BCS bowl it would not hurt as bad.  I am not a bad loser, been on lots of losing teams in my day,it just sucks that we aren't given any wiggle room.

 

We had many chances to ice the game.  We could have stopped TCU on the 2nd possession, but we allowed a 70 something yard reception for a touchdown.  We had a chance after Crawford's touchdown to drive the field and go up by two scores, but we didn't.  Drew Wright could have held onto the ball, and he didn't.  Alot of fingers could be pointed, but it was a team loss.