Give me the 2007 team. Please. Were they very good? No. Were they loaded with talent on all positions? No. But my goodness, I knew they tried. Colt McCoy got beat around every game but fought tooth and nail. Chris Hall wasn't very good but he ended up playing every position on the O-line to try to help the team win. Jordan Shipley battled a leg injury. The defense stunk but again, they tried in a broken scheme and with a lack of talent. They weren't that great, and that was frustrating, but I never got the feeling that they were a bunch of entitled idiots who didn't care.
This team? This team is far more talented, but it's one of the most self-destructive, stupid, and undisciplined teams I have ever seen. Some OU fans will get mad at me for saying this, but the Sooners simply aren't that good. A good team would have ran this pathetic excuse of a Longhorn team right off the field. Thanks to the Sooners' own flaws, the Longhorns were somehow miraculously still in the thick of things, but that doesn't mean we played well. We were awful, and if we play this way in Lincoln Nebraska will blast us by 30+.
For those who complain that Muschamp and the defense gets free passes, this is your day. The offense wasn't that great still and I disliked a lot of things we did there, but they played well enough to give us a chance to win the ball game. Our defense, however, was garbage. And it wasn't that we played BAD, we played STUPID. How many first downs did we give up due to undisciplined, stupid, and ultimately selfish penalties? Let's see:
-OU's first drive, we should get a three and out. Instead, Keenan Robinson commits a personal foul so a 3rd and 13 turns into a 1st down.
-On that same drive, Kheeston Randall thinks to himself, "Oh, it's a screen. I know! I'm going to hold Demarco Murray! I'll totally get away with that!" A 3rd and 10 turns into another first down. OU eventually scores and sets the tone for the entire half.
-After a John Gold shank, we get a PI on 3rd and 6. OU scores on that drive again.
-Eddie Jones lines up in the neutral zone and negates a game-changing fumble forced by Jeffcoat.
-After stopping a 3rd and 20 (I repeat: AFTER STOPPING A 3RD AND 20!), Jackson Jeffcoat wants to be macho and commits and utterly pea-brained personal foul. I think I lost a piece of my soul right then, because I said right before, "Please, for the love of God, no penalties." OU scores to make it an 18 point game, giving them the cushion they needed to hold on for the end.
Then of course, our special teams does lovely things as well. We have a shanked punt, crappy blocking on returns, and some mistakes on coverage. And who was surprised when Aaron Williams dropped our last chance when we would have had excellent field position? I sure wasn't. I was still mad, but I can't say I was surprised. I didn't want to watch the rest of this filth so I immediately left my friend's apartment.
In a nutshell, our defense would counter every good play they made with some mystifying, stupid act. I'm tired of it. Yes, a lot of this falls on Muschamp, because that is a total lack of discipline. That personal foul is still eating away at me, and I want Jackson Jeffcoat to run next week until he pukes out his intestines. That was completely inexcusable and selfish. Maybe the defense thinks they're so awesome that they can give away first downs and still get stops. Or some other stupid idea that's floating in their hollow heads.
I know this is over the top, and I know this is harsh, but I'm venting. Again, losing happens in football and I'm fine with it. But this team shoots themselves so many times it's not even funny. If Oklahoma is going to beat us, make them BEAT us. They beat us in 2007 despite a valiant effort from Colt, and I tipped my hat to OU. But this pitiful show of penalties and unforced errors just drives me insane, and right now I dread the yellow flag after every positive play we make. It's killing me.
Mack, you have two weeks to fix this crap. I can accept that we won't be very good, but I will not accept self-destructive stupidity. Neither should you.