Unfortunately, Cowboys already used up their good luck for the season. So many reasons for the loss which have been well documented in the above replies.
Right before kickoff I looked at my computer to read who would not be playing today, key guys on the O line and Jaylen Warren. At that point I felt anxiety which only worsened as soon as the game began. We have an average QB and it takes more than an average QB to have a championship team. Our O line because of injuries was outmanned and that made Sanders look even worse than he actually is. No good O line means no hole to run thru and that means no running game which then makes it easy for Baylor to just defend against the pass. I have to agree that Dunnās play calling was not good at all. Throwing a pass to Tyler Lacey in the end zone, are you kidding me?
The bottom line reason for defeat in my opinion was the injuries. Realizing by the end of the first half that you could not run the ball no matter what play was called, you should have benched Sanders and brought in Illingworth who could throw all day down field to Tay Martin.
I was wondering why more balls were not thrown to Pressley but then Gundy said that Pressley did not practice all week, meaning he was playing injured. I hope we all can enjoy the overall season in spite of this game because I am not hopeful for next season. The same QB and maybe an even less effective O line and another season with Dunn as OC. I like the idea of going to the transfer portal to pickup a new QB as we have all seen enough of Sanders and Dunn. There were so many opportunities to score TDs today. Really embarassing considering how much the media hyped OSU up until this game. Gundy pleased with the great fighting effort of the team. But you knoiw what coach? The fans want championships along with that great effort. I do think that Gundy deserved coach of they year for winning so many games with such an injury riddled team. Who is any good at RB for next season? The RB stable today looked not strong enough and not fast enough. We probably end up playing Houston in a bowl game somewhere in Texas. Or if someone is feeling really generous we play Notre Dame. That I would like to see.
Then weāll agree that the best two defenses are in Waco & Stilly. Compromise
All 21 of their points came from 95 yards total. Just pathetic such an amazing defense has to deal with this level of incompetence from the offense.
When is this university going to grow up and demand better out of gundy? Tired of this guy! We deserve every dig that we get from ou fans and disrespect from the media. Every year gundy pukes down his leg and we lose alittle more respect from the football world. Itās over osu administrationā¦itās pointless to keep this man. Weāve seen Baylor have three different coaches win conference championships and tcu get rid of their gundy to try and improve but this university are a bunch of cats and scared of the unknown. Loyalty has no place in sports. I canāt watch this guy coach anymore. No more spending money on going to the games anymore and supporting this what ever you want to call it. This āā coach owes it to the university and the fans to be an upstanding guy like stoops and give the keys back. Heās doing nothing but holding up progression.
I think it was more along the lines of better coaching in Waco.
For me this is what pretty much sums up the season:
Defense= Championship-caliber players and coaches
Offensively = Bowl-eligible type players and coaches
I feel like Iām being a little generous giving that title to this offense.
Honestly I think itās just the QB. The line couldāve been better this year and the wideouts were young but talented and RB room was excellent. If Sanders just didnāt turn the ball over so much this is a championship caliber offense with this defense. This is why I think Illingsworth needs to be QB next year. This proves what Sanders ceiling is if he canāt win with this Defense against that Baylor team weāre not going to get there with him.
For me, itās beyond Sanders. Heās just an overall small contributor to the many problems.
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Our OL is just inconsistent and has been since Wickline left. There has only been a couple of years since then where itās looked decent.
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We want to be a running team, but we donāt have the solid OL we need to get it done when your main guy goes down. You have to have a special kind of back to run behind this OL. I didnāt really see that at all with Jackson and Richardson playing. They are just average backs at best.
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Our indecisiveness of what we want to do game to game on offense gets mind-boggling. We decide we should game plan for a couple of games a year and just continue the same thing over and over again. We can blame poor performance on Sanders, but our game plan just looked bland and itās not like the other team doesnāt watch the film.
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We donāt have a championship-caliber coach. About the only thing, he knows how to do is get his teams to bowl games. Considering heās a former OC and college QB you would think his QB would be better developed after four years. Thatās just not who he is. You canāt convince me that a guy who has one conference title in 17 years is in any way a championship-caliber coach. Heās too afraid to pull his QB for dumb mistakes and sticks with him. Saban changed quarterbacks during the national title game and they won.
OK, I canāt waste my time with your foolishness anymore. You thought we were going to win four games this year.
Thatās not it. You just hate to be wrong. In this case, youāre wrong about the offense and defense in this game. Any person with a shred of common sense here will tell you.
Wow. I didnāt say it was primarily the defenseās fault, but they did not play up to their level. They didnāt make adjustments soon enough. We got lit up in the first half.
Youāre right. We got lit up from the 11, 37, and 48 yard line against the #9 team in the country. Give it a break!! Itās not like they scored all their touchdowns from their own 25 or 30 yard line.
The 11 Iāll give you, but if youāre supposed to be an elite defense, the other two shouldnāt be automatic touchdowns. Itās not like it was some broken fluke chunk play. Their QB was perfect almost the entire first half. We didnāt get pressure on him to make him uncomfortable. Their running game was making big gains on us. They did whatever they wanted.
Georgia was elite and gave up 41 to Bama. Itās not uncommon to need a good offense to help counter act another teamās good offense. You canāt expect a defense to be elite every single game, and even then they werenāt bad at all in this game.
When you give up 242 total yards and only 36 in the 2nd half youāve done quite enough to make sure your team wins. The offense chit the bed again.
Again, it wasnāt just some broken coverage like a DB slipped and fell down or something. We couldnāt stop anything Baylor did in the first half.
242, but only 36 in the 2nd halfā¦ that means we gave up over 200 yards in a half. That isnāt good. Itās great that they clamped down, and I knew they would, but they didnāt help us with that first half performance.
Maybe not, but when your defense holds a team to 21 points, and 242 yards total, itās not the defenseās fault the offense canāt take over the game after being on the five yard line multiple times.
Everyone else is screaming how ineffective the offense was, while you, Robert, and Michael are trying to pin this on a defense that did everything they possibly could to give Gundy a championship win.
Iāve said several times that the defense wasnāt the primary reason we lost. I donāt know why you canāt understand.
The primary reason we lost is that the offensive line was overwhelmed. We could not run. Sanders was uncomfortable. That doesnāt excuse Sanders making mistakes. The injuries worsened these problems. If Warren can go, we probably generate enough offense to win. If Godoevske plays, we probably hold the line well enough to get a few more positive plays.
HOWEVER, the defense was not elite in the first half. Yes, offense put them in bad spots, but if they hold one of those drives to a FG, itās all tied up and we kick a game-winning FG. We also got lucky on some missed FGs. The defense couldāve easily given up 6 more.
And the offense couldāve easily scored 20 more points than they did, but because we have a suck chit offensive plan coupled with a turnover machine at QB in championship games we didnāt.
Itās not that simple, the offensive plan and QB play are affected by many other things.
Yes. Like their OC and HC.