This years rendition of the Sacred Chisholm Trail Rivalry didn't go as planned. I am reminded of the great quote from Dennis Green, "They are who we thought they were and we let them off the hook." After an initial 3 and out, Texas was ready to lay down (just as expected, ask Tre Walker). Had we only Passed with Waters or Ran with Sams on the first drive, we would have ended Texas's season and Mack Brown's Career.
The Good
Tyler "just can't stop it" Lockett had 13 Receptions for 237 yards. Sams ran for 6.0 yards per carry. Waters completed 63% of his passes and averaged 9.2 yards per pass. Blake Slaughter played a very strong game with 10 tackles (6 Solo) with 3 Pass Break ups and a QB hurry. Overall the defense didn't play great but it wasn't bad. Texas averages 6.3 yards per play on the year and we held them to 5.6 on Saturday. Texas is averaging 32 points per game and they scored 31. Our defense also had 3 three and outs and only gave up 3 points on the first two drives. The defense played more than well enough for Texas to get freaked out by our offense which should be super studly right now.
The Bad
Sams didn't throw. Waters ran 18 times averaging 1.4 yards per carry. Our coaches must be high. Collin Klein is special and is not on our team anymore. If we coach to our current players strengths, we can win games (probably most of them). Our cornerback Roberts had serious problems with coverage and KU got lucky and won a game.
The Stupid
It is Simple Math. Sams averaged 6.0 yards per carry and Waters averaged 1.4 . Essentially we are losing 4.6 yards for every time Waters runs the ball. If you take 10 of Waters carries and give them to Sams you should gain 46 more yards per game. Those additional 46 yards could easily be 3 first downs and an additional 9 plays to work with. Those 9 plays should get you more touchdowns.
Ole Miss averaged 6.0 yards per carry and won by 21. Sams averaged 6.0 yards per carry and barely played.
I can make the same case that Waters should throw the ball 10 more times instead of running it. Collin Klein averaged 8.7 yards per pass last year and Waters is averaging 9.5 (obviously Waters interception rate need to go down but on Saturday he didn't throw a pick).
Either one of the above solutions should be tried before we panic and give up on the season. The fact that we haven't tried it yet makes me want to panic.We have to trust our QBs to be able to throw the football. I don't feel like the coaching staff trusts either QB and I don't know why.
