Texas' running woes start and end in one place--the line...Wait , what??? Not so fast my friend.  There is more than just problems with the line. Given the offense's problems, of which the OL is the most glaring, the OL is a convenient scape goat.  Let's be honest, you are asking the line to run block against defenses that know the running is coming.  And if they don't know that's ok too.  Let's start where everybody else has.

This years  OL is the same as last year. They had a good but not great year last year.  So what's the haps pops? The haps is that their get off is super slow on the run side.  If you watch the 3&2 from the first drive you can see that CU smokes our line off the ball, badly.  It looked like CU was calling the cadence.  I do not think for a moment that CU has better athletes.  Our aggression is lacking, but CU obviously rehearsed Colt's snap count. Both problems are coaching errors.

Speaking of coaching errors, a CU LB commented about Texas being predictable. Someone is tipping the defense. No play action, no pump and go, no QB run on the read option, Chiles always running in the wild horn.  Who is tipping them off?

Did anyone else notice how frequently Shipley was behind their Defense or in one on one? Where were their safeties?

......oooh....ohh...

Man in the back row....

Playing the run???

Right,Ofcourse that didn't last long and they figured that out and started double covering Shipley more often in the second half . Then the FoZ sprung one.

Speaking of recievers, let's talk receivers.  Did anyone notice how well Colt distributed the ball in the first drive?  Kirk, Buckner, McGee, Shipley and Chiles all had catches..... but after Kirk's drop that stopped almost immediately. We'll come back to this.

What about WR blocking...it was atrocious.  Greg Smith missed several.  That is his sole purpose in FB.  Kirkendoll and Buckner were terrible too. Evidently Chiles is too good for blocking. But who can blame them? All they get is bitch work. (See above)  You could tell by their body language they were frustrated that Colt kept forcing the ball to Shipley, even in double coverage.  No way that works against good CBs.

Speaking of forcing the ball to Shipley, can someone remind Colt that his girlfriend is very attractive and to please quit gawking at Shipley, I would say he jeopardizing more than INTs.

How about some decent play calls? If all your plays are within ten yards, why shouldn't the defense load the box?  If it is a pass you already have more than enough defenders. And if it is a run, its a win for the defense.  Lets go down the field to Williams.  So waht if he drops it?  It will back the safeties off.  Everybody still remembers him from Tech 08.

Can we please let Colt scramble?  It really places the defense in a dilemma and opens the field up.

Here is the cure, let's sum it up.

Change Snap counts, more play action, more aggressive run blocking, spread the ball, throw it long, let the tiger out of his cage. All of this can be fixed in one week. And BTW, we will be running like Forrest Gump if we do these things..

I have a lingering suspicion that the lack of these fundamentals is deliberate.  Could we have a surprise for OU???

P.S. I don't proofread all you get is flow.

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