Texas trying to find an identity for Oklahoma
It's not a convenient time to retool the Texas offense, what with one loss already on the record and Oklahoma warming up the buses for the ride to Fair Park today.
But the Longhorns, after suffering mightily with turnovers and inconsistency in a 20-point defeat to Kansas State, spent the past week simplifying things for today's matchup with the 10th-ranked Sooners.
Longhorn coaches were talking about tweaks, not wholesale changes. They want to get quarterback Colt McCoy and his receivers on the same field, philosophically speaking, when it comes to their non-verbal reads. And, if backup quarterback John Chiles sees action, they want him to have a firm understanding of where his receivers will be if routes must be changed based on what the Sooners' defense is doing.
"We're getting back to the bread and butter," said Texas receiver Nate Jones, the team's leading receiver,
But problem is, the Longhorns haven't established a bread-and-butter play this season other than short passes — the hitches and receiver screens. In previous Texas-Oklahoma games, the Sooners have shown that the short plays won't work against them.
Former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer, who now is a game analyst for XM Radio, said this week that Texas lacks the identity needed to win this game.
"I just think that Texas hasn't found themselves," Switzer said. "They don't know who they are yet. And I say that from a coach's perspective. They're struggling offensively, they've got some problems, I've seen. It's so important to have an identity, you've got to have something to hang your hat on. They don't have a running game, I don't know what they're trying to do, and they've got quarterback problems now."
Kansas State, with two weeks to prepare, created the Longhorn quarterback problem. The Wildcats did so by figuring out the Longhorns' offensive tendencies. The Wildcats blitzed with their 3-4 defense, with coaches instructing their linemen to put up their hands to deflect what likely would be a low, short pass.
On one of those blitzes, Colt McCoy suffered a mild concussion as his pass was picked off just before halftime. He had two others deflected for interceptions. A fourth was picked off and returned for a touchdown.
Colt McCoy said he's expecting a swarming blitz from the Sooners coming from the corners, safeties and linebackers.
"They're probably going to blitz us just as much as anybody else," Colt McCoy said. "We have to be sound. We have to know what we're doing."
In their two-game winning streak over the Sooners, the Longhorns figured out that deep passes, thrown against a secondary that gambled and jumped routes for interceptions, was the best way to beat Oklahoma.
Texas did so in 2005 on its way to a national championship. Receiver Billy Pittman, then a sophomore, caught two touchdown passes, one of which was a 64-yarder off a wheel route that hadn't been used that season.
A year ago, Colt McCoy blew open the game in the third quarter with a 33-yard touchdown pass to Limas Sweed, a play that was changed at the line to beat a blitz. Later in the quarter, Colt McCoy and Jordan Shipley combined for a touchdown on a wheel route, which can kill a risk-taking defense because it allows a receiver to use a double move.
The defense also forced five turnovers to help Texas coast to a 28-10 victory.
The Longhorns' receiving corps probably will be at its healthiest against Oklahoma. Brown said Sweed's nagging injuries — he had a sprained wrist and ankle — have healed. And Pittman, who had to sit out the first three games because of a suspension, has gotten back into rhythm with Colt McCoy.
"So we just feel like a lot of the guys are getting back for the first time," Brown said. "And even though some of them may not be 100 percent, just having them out there is really good for the spirit."
Brown also acknowledged this week that in hindsight, Texas abandoned the running game too soon against Kansas State. The Longhorns ran it 19 times in the first half, 13 in the second, although some of those rushes were quarterback scrambles.
Texas' rushes (32) and yards (113) were season lows.
"I know we were trying to come back, and if we would have come back just a little, we would have kept running the ball," said Charles. "It's just something that when you get so far behind, the running game isn't in the play book anymore because it's going to run time off the play clock. I think they did the right thing for us to try and come back."
Meanwhile, the Oklahoma defense was having problems in a 27-24 loss to Colorado. The Sooners blew a 17-point lead, primarily because the Buffaloes were successful running the ball and using play action passes.
The Buffaloes did nothing exotic in the comeback. They blocked and ran. The Sooners, who lead the Big 12 in sacks, had two against Colorado while building their lead. However, they couldn't mount a rush during the Buffalo comeback.
By game's end, the Buffaloes had the ball 82 snaps to OU's 46. They kept the ball nearly 18 minutes longer.
And they also left a game plan for any opposing offensive coordinator.
"I think coach is going to have a great game plan for those guys," said Sweed, the Longhorns best deep threat.
See more at www.statesman.com
|
