Thoughts on the game
Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2016 10:46 am- This was the first game in the Morris era where attention turned from trying to win individual matchups to being able to watch the team as a whole. Huge change after the bye week. A lot of players stepped up their game.
- Carroll played a lot after Rhone got injured and had easily his best game as a Mustang.
- A big difference in the game was how well Clemons played. He has been solid so far, but he was awesome last night. I can't count the number of times he ran all the way across the field and made a play in the opposite flat. The hit on the fumble was great. He was a star.
- One slight thing about the uniforms - make the pink on the helmet match the uniform number.
- As much as the Houston DL dominated in the OU game, our DL dominated their OL even more. That was a crazy good performance. The switch to put Lawler on the strong side and Pruitt on the weak is really paying off, Minor and Green are playing great, and Gary really is stepping up as well.
- Our OL against their all star DL - no sacks. Against Tulsa we allowed no sacks by getting rid of the ball quickly. Not so last night - Hicks had all day to throw.
- Anyone know why West was suspended for the first quarter? I thought Guillard looked really quick back there.
- We threw the fade to Sutton! Finally
! Nice throw and a nice catch.
- Houston did a huge favor by playing with one safety in the first half. They had no respect and would push their second safety up to press our slot in man coverage. It was super easy to read. Whenever they did that, we just sent Sutton deep, the lone safety would roll over and the middle of the field and opposite sideline were wide open. Last TD in the first half was a great example. Sent Sutton on a deep post to occupy the safety and it left Proche wide open on the corner route. Gaines TD also took advantage of it.
- We had another TD lined up when Hicks had his pass deflected or arm hit and then we missed the FG. On that third down play, the safety rolled over and our WR on the other side ran a post and had inside position. Easy TD if HIcks had seen it and throw it.
- In the third quarter, Houston used two safeties and took away the middle of the field. That is why Hicks had all the errant balls to the sideline in that period and threw incompletions.
- Something to keep your eye on - HIcks is much better with touch and throwing to the outside when he throws to the wide side of the field. Especially to his left. The drive we made a FG, on second down we ran right to get the ball on that hash, and then on third we tried to run a corner route to the long side of the field. HIcks saw it covered and wisely threw the ball out of the back of the endzone over the middle after holding the ball too long. But the Sutton TD and Proche TD both came on throws to the long side of the field to the left into the space. This was an important adjustment from our offensive staff. We have a habit of running a lot of WR screens and jet sweeps to the compressed side of the field instead of the open side. The staff I think finally figured out we have enough athletes now to take advantage of the space on the open side.
- Carroll played a lot after Rhone got injured and had easily his best game as a Mustang.
- A big difference in the game was how well Clemons played. He has been solid so far, but he was awesome last night. I can't count the number of times he ran all the way across the field and made a play in the opposite flat. The hit on the fumble was great. He was a star.
- One slight thing about the uniforms - make the pink on the helmet match the uniform number.
- As much as the Houston DL dominated in the OU game, our DL dominated their OL even more. That was a crazy good performance. The switch to put Lawler on the strong side and Pruitt on the weak is really paying off, Minor and Green are playing great, and Gary really is stepping up as well.
- Our OL against their all star DL - no sacks. Against Tulsa we allowed no sacks by getting rid of the ball quickly. Not so last night - Hicks had all day to throw.
- Anyone know why West was suspended for the first quarter? I thought Guillard looked really quick back there.
- We threw the fade to Sutton! Finally
! Nice throw and a nice catch.- Houston did a huge favor by playing with one safety in the first half. They had no respect and would push their second safety up to press our slot in man coverage. It was super easy to read. Whenever they did that, we just sent Sutton deep, the lone safety would roll over and the middle of the field and opposite sideline were wide open. Last TD in the first half was a great example. Sent Sutton on a deep post to occupy the safety and it left Proche wide open on the corner route. Gaines TD also took advantage of it.
- We had another TD lined up when Hicks had his pass deflected or arm hit and then we missed the FG. On that third down play, the safety rolled over and our WR on the other side ran a post and had inside position. Easy TD if HIcks had seen it and throw it.
- In the third quarter, Houston used two safeties and took away the middle of the field. That is why Hicks had all the errant balls to the sideline in that period and threw incompletions.
- Something to keep your eye on - HIcks is much better with touch and throwing to the outside when he throws to the wide side of the field. Especially to his left. The drive we made a FG, on second down we ran right to get the ball on that hash, and then on third we tried to run a corner route to the long side of the field. HIcks saw it covered and wisely threw the ball out of the back of the endzone over the middle after holding the ball too long. But the Sutton TD and Proche TD both came on throws to the long side of the field to the left into the space. This was an important adjustment from our offensive staff. We have a habit of running a lot of WR screens and jet sweeps to the compressed side of the field instead of the open side. The staff I think finally figured out we have enough athletes now to take advantage of the space on the open side.