All along there were going to be ups and downs this season. We have another tough away game this week, so a lot of these post we have seen in the last day or so will possibly be back. Then in a couple of weeks, we will possibly see posts again praising progress and such. Nothing wrong with that, to be expected with the ups and downs.
When you looked at the numbers last week, they showed OU wasn't as bad on defense as the Tech game indicated and was more a reflection of the good offenses they have faced (on average entering the game, opponents scored as much against OU as they did other opponents and total yards per play was roughly the same against OU as other opponents). Yeah they had some injuries, but the two guys who were replacements in the front 7 this week were ranked in the top 100 and top 150 respectively in the 2015 class, they were replacing talent with talent. Add in Stoops having the propensity to crap the bed against good teams when it matters, but steamrolling teams that are down...you could really tell he was going to try and make this a statement game.
So I am not shocked about the outcome of this game. I am not happy with how it went down, but this outcome really isn't a surprise with me.
What is irritating me is the team's inconsistency on a couple of different levels. The first is we still have not played a good game for all four quarters this year other than the opener. TCU was close, and this relates to the offense more than the defense, but we are still not at the level where these guys are able to focus for all four quarters and be productive.
The second inconsistency part that is really bothering me is how they play on the road versus home. Won't break down the numbers again, but it is insane the difference with our team at home and on the road. I get that playing better at home than the road is the norm, so it isn't necessarily that, it's how drastic the difference is. When I ran the numbers last, per differentials, I want to say it was something like we were 4 TDs better at home than on the road. This has to improve.
Why this really worries me is we saw it on a drive at the end of the OkSU game after getting down, and at times against OU, the effort wasn't there. Some were trying hard, but you could see a lack of effort from a couple of people. Routes weren't being ran as hard, pursuit wasn't as hard, etc. It is really hard from the players view to keep focused when you have been as bad as KU has recently, but there is a real opportunity in the last three games. We have to come out firing in those games. We can't be playing with this effort in those games. When you look at the past couple of seasons, the last games they basically just mailed it in. That can't happen this year...so it is important this last road game before these last three games, they really improve on this consistency part, which will hopefully lead (or be due to) keeping at it all four quarters
We need a spark somehow in this game against WVU, not necessarily to lead to a win, but to lead to some good vibes for these last three games
When you looked at the numbers last week, they showed OU wasn't as bad on defense as the Tech game indicated and was more a reflection of the good offenses they have faced (on average entering the game, opponents scored as much against OU as they did other opponents and total yards per play was roughly the same against OU as other opponents). Yeah they had some injuries, but the two guys who were replacements in the front 7 this week were ranked in the top 100 and top 150 respectively in the 2015 class, they were replacing talent with talent. Add in Stoops having the propensity to crap the bed against good teams when it matters, but steamrolling teams that are down...you could really tell he was going to try and make this a statement game.
So I am not shocked about the outcome of this game. I am not happy with how it went down, but this outcome really isn't a surprise with me.
What is irritating me is the team's inconsistency on a couple of different levels. The first is we still have not played a good game for all four quarters this year other than the opener. TCU was close, and this relates to the offense more than the defense, but we are still not at the level where these guys are able to focus for all four quarters and be productive.
The second inconsistency part that is really bothering me is how they play on the road versus home. Won't break down the numbers again, but it is insane the difference with our team at home and on the road. I get that playing better at home than the road is the norm, so it isn't necessarily that, it's how drastic the difference is. When I ran the numbers last, per differentials, I want to say it was something like we were 4 TDs better at home than on the road. This has to improve.
Why this really worries me is we saw it on a drive at the end of the OkSU game after getting down, and at times against OU, the effort wasn't there. Some were trying hard, but you could see a lack of effort from a couple of people. Routes weren't being ran as hard, pursuit wasn't as hard, etc. It is really hard from the players view to keep focused when you have been as bad as KU has recently, but there is a real opportunity in the last three games. We have to come out firing in those games. We can't be playing with this effort in those games. When you look at the past couple of seasons, the last games they basically just mailed it in. That can't happen this year...so it is important this last road game before these last three games, they really improve on this consistency part, which will hopefully lead (or be due to) keeping at it all four quarters
We need a spark somehow in this game against WVU, not necessarily to lead to a win, but to lead to some good vibes for these last three games
