OUInsider - Owen Field

I know both teams had to deal with the delay and the weather but I firmly believe that OU would have won that game if it had been play earlier in the day and in good weather. We should have won the game anyway. All the things you list above contributed but the missed FG probably kept us from winning in the end.

SWS

Brent Venables is "scared?" gee I tend to doubt it. Here was our main problem last year: We couldn't run because our O Line couldn't run block. Secondly- we couldn't stop teams because our DTs had NO push.

The WRs dropped several passes of which many would have been a first down. Also missed too many FG's, Definitely missed Whaley & Fleming.

Very embarrassing loss. TT had the most total yards ever against a Stoops' team.. Then TT went on to lose every game.

Come to think if it, I can't think of having a great feeling about how we were playing in Norman since.... I don't know when.

Ball State doesn't count.

All of those can be attributed to lack of focus. When the team is focused, you get the RRS beatdown. When it's not focused, you get the TT debacle. It amazes me that people still ponder this in any way.

I seem to remember some pretty poor coverages, especially Gabe. And Martinez kept putting him back out there. And Venables kept calling for safety blitzes, forcing Gabe into man coverage.

Perfect storm.

What kills me are two things: 1. TT a 29 point underdog and 2. WE PLAYED AT HOME! but lost. Never in history have the coaches and players performed more miserably at home against a team with obviously across the board inferior players.
And I agree with several posters who make the point that offensive play calling has a huge impact on the success of the defense. No one seems to remember the reasons that Barry ran the ball--most importantly, it ran the clock and gave the defense less chance to screw up. BS doesnt seem to care about this sort of clock management and I guess it's okay if you can always outscore your opponent. To me, that is the major area that keeps BS from achieving legendary success. (reference last three regular season games in 2011).
I am not excusing BV--his defenses were prettty bad five of the least seven years, nothing near Oklahoma standards.
Prediction for the Defense: If we run the ball more this year, the defense will be better and Mike will get the credit. If we dont, I predict more shootouts in which we may or may not outscore the opponent.
In the meantime, the TT loss remains unexplainable.