Couple of observations... (1) Our defense seems to be VERY energy-oriented. I know all defenses are, but ours seems to be an extreme. They are 10 times as good at home as on the road. They dominate in games they are "up for" -- OU, Colorado #1, even Colorado #2 & Washington for a while -- until things went bad. When the offense has problems (Colorado #2 and Washington), it seems like the defense loses that energy too. I hope those defensive tackles we recruited this year can step in fast, because up-the-gut run defense appears to be a real problem. (2) Everyone here knows I don't like Simms, but watching yesterday, I don't think he's too far off from what we need. He probably won't ever have that "innate ability to win" that Applewhite does, but if he can learn to use his receivers more, he can be successful. What Applewhite did yesterday was simply let his receivers make plays -- our receivers are better than any defenders. With Simms' throws, it's all up to Simms -- he throws darts and if he hits, great, but if not, the receiver is helpless. Applewhite's slower throws let the receivers go and make things happen -- finding the ball and trying to make the catch, and as a result, we saw the type of offense that we expected throughout the year. The receivers are the playmakers, and if Simms can just put them in position to make more plays on their own (and he should be able to), he'd do much better. Throwing deep makes throwing short that much easier. (3) I saw a lot of people b****ing about Davis, but I personally didn't see anything bad from him today or in the CU game. It's an offense that's designed to be balanced, but capable of going all-run or all-pass when necessary. This is great in that you have both comeback-ability and hold-the-lead ability depending on the circumstances. An offense like Colorado or Nebraska looks great, but they can't make comebacks. Similarly, a pass-attack like Washington can't run clock effectively. What Davis needs to do is figure out Simms' strengths and use them, because it looks like his offense requires an Applewhite-type QB right now (this is kind of the OU problem too -- Mangino built an offense around a cerebral QB in Heupel. Without that, it fell apart). I'm starting to generate more faith in Davis' abilities than I had a few months ago.
The alleged #1 defense in the country gives up 68 points in it's last two games against ranked opponents, two of it's most important games of the season, and they're not overrated? OMG
Sorry dv, beating the #20 team in the country is not Mack Brown winning "the big game". It was nice to see Major go out with the gamewinning drive though...
Well, compared to the other wins they have, this is the biggest. Maybe the 3rd time's a charm next year in Dallas..... NOT!!!!!!!
Timing, I'm just saying look at other stats (turnovers, total yards, first downs, number of plays, time of possession etc) in the game before calling the defense overrated. You are only looking at points allowed. Yes, Texas did surrender 68 pts in its last two games. I was keeping track of the stats online last night. I didn't for the CU game so I can't speak for that, but although UW was winning the game until the 4th qtr (which I assume is why you think the UT defense is overrated - points allowed), the UT defense was controlling many stat categories which determine what makes a good defense. For an alleged # 1 defense, those numbers were pretty high like total yards, but give us +7 turnovers and I guarantee we'd have shut down UW on the scoreboard. Maybe they're overrated by your definition, but not by mine.
Sorry to disappoint ya'll but GD isn't going anywhere. I wanted to kill the b*stard when they showed him in the booth with those old man half-glasses. He stinks at making adjustments, and no way do we win yesterday's game if not for Applewhite's heroics. We won in spite of Davis, not because of him. Mack is so loyal to this guy that he brought him over from North Carolina. About the game, our lack of defense really shocked me. Carl Reese did a good job at changing things up after halftime, and putting pressure on Pickett in the second half. Derrick Johnson had a helluva second half. Jammer showed why he's the best corner in the country as well. Roy and BJ tore it up and refused to drop passes for once! Huge win for the program and a step in the right direction for the Longhorns.
sorry, bgm but washington is a good football team, and it is a quality win for this program whether you like it or not. Hey, FSU plays a ton of nobodies in conference and thus gain a little respect by playing UM and Florida annually As for OU, duke, im not afraid of stoops and your sooners and guess what i would be happy to wager on a texas victory next yr, with or without roy williams n your team
though I do believe that UT would be better off without GD. . . there is no way that mack brown will fire his offensive coordinator after an 11-2 season and a top 10 finish and in which they had a shot at the national championship in their own control as late in the season as the big 12 title game.
my point was that the Ga Tech game is often viewed as big for both teams, and washington is comparable, plus i was tired of the constant UT jabs so I hit back
There is just no debating with some people about his Texas defense so I'm just going to lay out the stats and let ya draw the corresponding dots. These season stats include Washington's debacle against Miami and the Colorado loss for Texas. Texas Total defense rank #1 - 236 yards/game Scoring defense rank #3 - 13.7 pts/game Washington Total offense rank #50 - 391 yard/game Scoring offense rank #47 - 28 pts/game Holiday Bowl stats Washington Total offense - 444 yards Offensive scoring - 37 points As you can see, Texas gave up 214 yards and 24 points over it's season average which includes the Colorado game. Texas is playing Pac 10 defense when any kind of offense shows up to play them... OLE!!!!!
timing, our defense is very good, gimme a break bowl games arent exactly a good judge of anything considering our motivation for the holiday bowl and the long layoff which helps the underdog scheme for us. I will tell you we have a very good defense and it will stay that way for a long time. We didnt play as well as we could last night but dont forget majors 3 picks which led to im guessing 13 UW points. Yes it wasnt our vintage defense but once we adjusted on their te we controlled the 4th quarter and vs CU they got 24 points off turnovers which caused the d to be on the field too long thus they were winded. So thats 15 points not on turnovers by CU thats a pretty solid job, if you ask me.
Can't disagree with you there. Except for that stretch in the late 3rd/early 4th, the 2nd half was a bad performance for the # 1 defense. Maybe what I'm trying to say is we didn't play like we did in the regular season, but our defense did its job - stop UW to allow our offense to comeback. One half doesn't take away from the job the team did all year.
Applewhite is not getting his due here. Texas does not win that game without him, period. We need to petition the NCAA to let him play another year, based on his coach being a moron. I am so sad to see this guy go. Applewhite doesn't start a game (and rarely plays) all year, then comes up with his best game ever at UT? That is so freaking amazing. He did it with UT's offensive player of the year on the bench, and with the defense flat-out sucking. Yeah, it was a little rough there in the 2nd quarter, but what do you expect when you haven't started a game in over a year? Rust was inevitable (and The Cat is calling for Simms to come in after 2 picks? PLEASE.). When the game was on the line, Applewhite was there, unlike the guy Mack chose to put out there the rest of the year. Mack, you ruined my senior year, leaving me on the bench while the clearly inferior player lost our only 2 big games of the year for us. Heck, I'll save your ass anyway. Gotta love Major. I doubt Major is the kind of guy Mack goes looking for on his little recruiting trips where he sweeps everyone off their feet. But damn, that's what makes it so fun to root for him. Major the red-nosed Longhorn, you led us to victory.
Major was awesume, solely kept them in the game (well, Roy and BJ saved him on on a few, but at least he had the sense of good situations to throw a jump ball). UT's D is not bad. I can say our D isn't as good as OUs, but no one else has a convincing case for having a better D. Miami's might very well be, but they haven't played any teams with O yet, so we really know about them for sure until the Rose Bowl. NU, Florida, Tenn, they all have solid Ds with a couple of bad games against quality offenses on fire, that can happen. I would certainly take the defense of UT, NU, Florida or Tenn over the #2 or #3 ranked teams, or anyone else outside or Norman or Miami. That is some pretty darned good company in my book. I will say the one problem I have with UT's defense is the downlinemen are poor pass rushers. That has been the one weak link from them having a consistently wicked defense. As it is the UT defense was great when they blitzed, but shabby against the pass w/o blitzing because they got no pressure against quality lines. With the quality of the secondary and speed at LB, had the regular DL been explosive the D might have been trully the best in the land.
Right on DS. I think if major had played all year, they could POSSIBLY be undefeated. Their defense is pretty good, but I wouldnt call it the best. Colorado ran all over them, and the Washington RB broke off for a couple of pretty long runs, including 2 TDs.
<B>Applewhite doesn't start a game (and rarely plays) all year, then comes up with his best game ever at UT? That is so freaking amazing. He did it with UT's offensive player of the year on the bench, and with the defense flat-out sucking. </B> It wasn't just HIS best game ever, but THE best game ever at UT -- at least in terms of yardage (I believe he broke his own record). The funny (and sad) thing is that for the last game and a half, our offense finally looked like what we saw last year and had expected in the preseason and all season long.
look well agree to disagree but in the past 5 years that game and the clemson game have been the hyped up ones for you in the ACC and i disgarded the clemson one based on its about the Bowdens coaching against each other. Maybe FSU views teams like Tech as patsies but i doubt it, if so they wouldve been upset a few more times than has happened. Anyways we were favored to beat washington and we did, it doesn't matter how we did it and i do think they are a solid football team and well coached by neuheisel. Dont ever tell me i have a losers mentality, because thats farthest from the truth, and while i was pissed at being in San Diego not Pasadena, it wouldve been awful to lose to UW, and i prefer to take the good with the bad and I got excited when I posted because in part this is a quality win for the team, not on the scale as Nebraska but quality nonetheless and it does help begin to shed mack browns image as a good coach only against bad teams. In full its a positive end to a frustrating finish and I prefer to build on it for next yr.
