Originally published at: The Shock Has Worn Off, What the Heck Happened on Saturday?
‘He sat in there and said straight up that’s the most embarrassing offensive performance he’s ever been a part of.’
A lot of things contributed to this embarrassing loss. But, the common thread for almost a decade now is extremely poor play by the offensive line. It’s the same pattern every season - lack of talent and lack of depth. An early injury (or two or three) and the offense is hobbled for the rest of the season. When will anyone ever learn from this? More resources, better coaching, whatever it takes - just fix it! It’s fundamental. It’s obvious. You’re getting paid millions of dollars to make this program successful but everyone keeps making the same mistake. Why???
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Yeah, since Joe Wickline left the OL has been nothing short of disastrous.
And you’re right about the importance of the OL in football. When the Dallas Cowboys were going to Super Bowls and winning them in the early 90s, they had the best OL in the NFL. Then they traded that away and haven’t even come close to sniffing a Super Bowl since.
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I mean… Dallas has had really good, even elite, offensive lines since the mid-90s… Dallas has had other problems.
I’m a little relieved we lost this one in some ways. I feel like I’ve been trying to mitigate people’s hype all summer long and everyone was just losing their ■■■■ minds. Now, we can be reasonable about how long it takes to rebuild a team and cheer for the positive steps forward.
I’m not going to sit here and say this wasn’t a big loss. It is, and Eric Morris deserves a lot of criticism for it. However, if we’re going to be fair it’s his first game and still could get better given Morris’ previous history.
I find it strange how you guys are ready to dump on him and make the excuse that we never should’ve gotten rid of the man who placed us in this position in the first place. Morris wouldn’t be here if we wouldn’t have gone 4-20 (0-18) over the last two years.
I watched Texas Tech nearly lose at home to Abilene Christian a couple of years ago, and they still finished that season out 8-5. If you’re going to be okay with Gundy getting his @55 kicked by USA and Iowa State as long as it gets us bowling. Then you better be ready to offer those same conditions to Eric Morris, and especially since he’s not given anyone a reason (with his previous history like Gundy) to suggest he can’t still have a decent year.
I agree with this. Now that the miraculous turnaround is out of the way we can properly assess the program.
New coach for the first time in 21 years.
92 new players - quite a few from non-P4 schools.
A program that was 4-20 in its last two seasons.
Let’s take a breath and watch how the rebuild unfolds (or doesn’t).
Agreed. I actually have a cousin that played on the OL under Les Miles. He said there’s absolutely NO WAY Les would’ve accepted a performance like that, and that the practices would’ve been unbearable the following week after such an embarrassment.
That was the biggest question mark for me going into this season (even over the defense). I wish we would just become a dominant team at grounding and pounding our way to the other side of the field if we’re not going to get creative with any of our skilled position players.
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Bottom line is we went and got a coach known for offense, and he brought his big three along with him. What we got was 10 points, 7 turnovers, and an O-Line that got pushed around all game by TU.
The first test was an absolute choke-job failure, and no one should be confident in this staff or team until improvement is seen on the field. Which won’t be next week, by the way. That might be a shutout.
Splat.
Coach had strong faith in braves pre-game. Coach found OL need wompum potion. Coach perhaps wise to re-think strategy and tactics.
NCAA on track to cause last breath of brave, fan or cheerhawker during blistering hot day games of early season. Make first six weeks of season night games only.
How to fix things?–you WIN.
Are we sure about that though? Because Oregon had 500 yards of offense to Boise’s 274 and barely escaped on their own field. I don’t expect OSU to beat Oregon, but I don’t see it being another 69-3.
You are absolutely right. And my biggest concern is that the line won’t get any better. You can’t coach up mediocre talent. There are no secret blocking schemes that will change things. We are stuck with an average (at best) offensive line for the next 11 games.
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Why do you think the O-line can hold up better against Oregon than Tulsa? Why do you think our receivers can get open against Oregon but not Tulsa? Why do you think EM can outcoach Lanning but not Lamb? I don’t see how we can stay within 28 points of Oregon on our best day.