Yes, it was nice we beat a pretty good team in Texas. I don't think it was worth storming the field if we beat a 2-loss team. If Texas was undefeated and ranked in the top 5, then, yeah. It was certainly encouraging considering how we looked against ISU and KSU.
That was catharsis after losing several games. Plus some of it had to do with it being UT. But really it was about seeing some good football played which there hasn't been a lot of this year.
The defense is simply looking like a second-half-of-the-season GP defense. I was never worried about the defense, he always turns it around. The defense is definitely what won the game.
I would pump the brakes on all this talk. UT was very predictable in the 2nd half with their playcalling. The fact is we still needed to bring the blitz to get any pressure on the QB. We have no pass rush from or DEs. Now, that worked against UT with Ehlinger b/c isn't the most dynamic of players but this will be harder to do against teams with more dynamic quarterbacks. UT was still able to torch us for big plays.
But the on bright side, Ben Wilson is coming back so he can provide some depth for us at LB. The healthier we can remain, the stronger this unit will be.
The offense certainly helped by actually scoring some points. But:
The offense was basically the Max Duggan show. The escape in the end zone which looked like a sure-thing safety was the best play I have seen by a TCU QB since Boykin. Several of his completed passes were within a microsecond of being sacked. I am not sure any QB we have had in the last several years could have completed some of those passes.
Yes, our offense runs thru the QB and it will only be as good as the QB play is. Duggan has to keep making the transition where he is willing to take some risks that he currently isn't comfortable in throwing. He threw an interception against UT but I was ok with it because I knew what he was trying to do. He needs to be willing to throw some passes out there to let our receivers make plays. The more he trusts in their ability to make plays, the greater progress the offense will make. The issue is more mental than execution but it is just something he is going to have to push through this season as he won't make the full mental jump until next season.
What happened to the running game? The running game Saturday was basically Duggan. Our two good running backs averaged three yards per carry. What happened to the dominant OL we saw against Purdue? After that game I thought (and posted) "finally an OL that can run block"! Is everyone we play just selling out to stop the run? Or is the OL not nearly as good as we thought early in the year?
In the past, our run game has always relied on QB runs. That is not new. Obviously, the game against Purdue was an outlier as Purdue is 2-6. They just aren't a very good football team and could very well end up 2-10 or whatever. So we are now playing against teams that are better against the run. I actually think Sewo is running harder in the last couple of games than before. It hasn't shown up in the stats but I believe it does show up in moving the chains. Anderson has been bottled up more recently and I imagine defenses key on him because of his big play potential.
If Duggan starts to improve on his downfield passing game, I would fully expect us to see improved stats in the running game. Right now, I am sure defenses aren't respecting that aspect very much.
The reality is that we will probably see more ups and downs from Duggan because is a true freshman QB. But his future is bright and other players and recruits should be excited about that.