Trend Watch: Texas Versus Baylor

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"Worse than Baylor" chants: So much funnier when they were directed towards the Aggies.

Garrett Gilbert's overall play: A week after he looked like Chris Simms Version 2.0, Gilbert regrouped and not only looked like a leader trying to encourage his teammates on the sideline, but also made much better decisions on the field, throwing only one interception that was only his fault for thinking it was a good idea to target EBS.

He made plays with his feet as well, gaining 79 yards on only eight carries. Though Mack Brown mentioned in his Monday press conference that Gilbert left some rushing yards on the field against Baylor, the game on Saturday and the game against Nebraska represent major advances for his confidence in that area and, as mentioned before, Gilbert's ability to improvise and pick up positive yardage on broken plays will greatly help the offense.

Penalties: Again. This time, 11 for 103 yards. Crushing.

1997 comparisons: Those 2007 comparisons are so early October. Clearly, the best comparison now is the last team in the Mackovic Era, which finished 4-7 and was the last time to lose three straight games at home. Bottom line is that those three losses in 2007 don't look so bad now, huh?

The need to get younger players on the field: This team badly needs the extra month of practice making a bowl game would provide, so finishing the season with at least two more wins is an important goal. The other important goal is developing players for next season, particularly along the offensive line, where Michael Huey's injury will provide more playing time for Trey Hopkins and Thomas Ashcraft and Paden Kelley probably needs some work if he's going to start next season. At defensive back, AJ White, Carrington Byndom, and Adrian Phillips will all be major contributors. The young wide receivers should have been playing more anyway, but is there really any reason for James Kirkendoll to ever see the field again? If he's bled for the program, the injury certainly wasn't sustained blocking any one. Play Darius White, Mike Davis (uh, where was he for the first couple quarters, GD?), and DeSean Hales.

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Ability to recover fumbles: Coaches will often say that there isn't much they can do to work on creating turnovers. However, when players continually fail to fall on fumbles, instead trying to scoop them up on the run, it's clearly an area that needs more emphasis and one more sign that individual players are often trying to win the game by themselves, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. The team's recovery percent of 26 ranks 112th in the country.

Blake Gideon, junior safety: It's on both Muschamp for putting him in situations where he can't succeed and on Gideon himself for failing to make open-field tackles. At this point, he's clearly a liability and all that success securing interceptions last season looks like a result of playing in the same defensive backfield as Earl Thomas.

The punt return game: More problems for the Longhorns in what has been a season-long struggle. Once again it was Curtis Brown fielding punts inside the 10-yardline and struggling to secure the football trying to make a play. DeSean Hales please?

Running the ball in the red zone with the clock ticking down: Just really stupid. Really, really stupid.

The red zone offense: Four field goals in five trips to the red zone is not acceptable. But then, little about this season has been. The team's touchdown percentage in the red zone is now 41%, 115th in the country. In the four losses this season, Texas has converted only five of 17 trips into the red zone into touchdowns -- 29%.

There being anything left to say about this team: None of these problems are new to this game. None of them appear to be close to being fixed. What else is there to say?