Thoughts on the game tonight...

[JasonB]

- The difference in the teams today was the offensive line. Our d-line played really well for most of the game, but the defense was on the field way too long because of the ineffectiveness of the offense. They played hard, but the d-line and especially linebackers were worn out by the end, when their o-line took control of the game. On the opposite side, our o-line didn't generate a consistant push. And as bad as Eckertomo was at throwing the ball, the fact is that those guys were pressured constantly. When Baylor had a 4 man rush, they batted passes down. When they blitzed, our o-line, and RBs did a horrible job of picking it up. We couldn't protect the QB.

- Bennett comes on the radio at halftime (I heard the interview in the endzone club), and says about how we are bigger and are going to wear them down in the second half. Then we come out and do a great drive, running the ball all the way down the field and in for the score. The next two drives, we attempt to pass every down and basically go three and out. That makes no sense.

- It was pretty obvious from the start that whomever decided to start pounding away would win the game. Baylor made that decision in the third quarter and stuck with it and won. Don't discount their QB though. On that long drive, he completed a coupe of third and longs into really tight coverage.

- Massey looked really, really good, it sucks we didn't get him the ball more.

- Eckert was too pumped up and nervous out there. His first 5 passes went about 3 feet over receivers heads. He also had that fade in the endzone where he just took three steps and threw off his back foot because he was scared for a blitz that didn't come.

- Defense was much better, I don't care how many yards we gave up. At the end we were just diving in there, shooting gaps, gambling, so we gave up yards to the outside. McCray is still too small and goes for the strip too often, misses, and gives up lots of yards. Very fast defense though, corners did well, safties did well, and I thik our Dline is better than it has been for a long time. Muse didn't play though? Therion looked good. Haywood looked very good. I like our defenseI just hope our offense can improve to support it.

two bad coaching decisions: One was the previously discussed go-for-it at the end of the half.

The other was going for it on 4th down at the end of the game. At that point, there were 30-something seconds left. You need a TD and a field goal anyway. Kick the field goal, then go for offsides, then the TD. There was no reason to risk the 4th down play. Yes, it worked out and we got a TD out of it, but coaching wise, it was a bad decision.

Baylor did a good job adjusting to us. They figured out we had small linebackers and took advantage. They also figured out that we were agressive, so they ran counters and cut-backs to take advantage of us shooting the strong side gaps. They also figured out that when we went to the 3-4, we were blitzing at least one, usually both, middle 'backer, so the middle zone was open. They hit a couple of those in the second half that got us out of the 3-4.

Okay, I will end on positives:
- Massey
- Defensive speed
- Defensive line
- Safeties
- punter
- Warren on returns.
- DD Lee

We will be okay when we get to conference play. I do think that the passing offense will get better than it showed tonight.