Some Thoughts on Texas at Kansas State

It's been almost 48 hours since Texas lost to Kansas State in one of the season's biggest upsets and it might finally be okay for me to talk about it without weeping. The loss will certainly be one that's remembered by Longhorn fans for a long time. It was made much worse by the seemingly perfect storm of events from earlier in the weekend that had set up the Horns for a real shot to defend their national title. Here's a few of my thoughts on the game loss debacle from Saturday night:

Gene Chizik and the defensive game plan. Chizik is one of the most respected defensive coordinators and his name pops up for pretty much every available head coaching gig that comes available, but something has been off with the defense all season long. Against Kansas State Chizik blitzed early and often but never got any pressure on the KSU quarterback and never adjusted. We left ourcornerbacks out there by themselves and they didn't respond well. We have a great run defense and an awful pass defense, why don't we ever run any nickel?

Jevan Snead just needs time and a little help. He didn't start out well but as the game wore on the true freshman started to look more comfortable. He didn't have much protection early on, the KSU defense brought everyone at him and the offensive line did a terrible job picking up the blitz. He needs more experience and needs to learn he doesn't always have to rocket the ball as hard as he can, but he'll be a fine QB whenever (or wherever) he gets his chance. Tough kid.

Maybe we should try not to fumble as much. It was a problem last year but we got away with it, we put the football on the ground way too often and it finally resulted in a loss. The game was tied at 21 in the third quarter before Jamaal Charles and Selvin Young turned the ball over on successive drives. Sometimes it's because they're fighting for extra yards, sometimes it's bad luck, and sometimes they're just too careless, but there's never any excuse for fumbling the football. They're two of the best running backs in the conference, but the coaches can't feel too confident putting the football and the game in their hands.

Why can't we convert short yardage? If our linemen could get any sort of push on short yardage running plays Colt McCoy wouldn't have needed to convert a 4th down with a QB sneak and wouldn't have been injured. We don't seem to be able to get any push up front and our running backs have no place to go. Since defensive tackle/fullback Derek Lokey broke his leg the Power I formation has been ineffective. I think the best short yardage formation may be the single back with Jamaal Charles back there, he may not be the biggest guy but he's effective inside the tackles and has plenty of speed to get around the edge. A play action pass mixed in every now and then would be nice too.

Why do we even have replay? Instant replay in college football doesn't work. At all. On the series of downs near the goal line that resulted in McCoy's injury I thought we scored on both first and third down, neither play was reviewed. On the drive in the fourth quarter that led to KSU's game clinching field goal the WR clearly dropped a pass that gave the Wildcats a big first down, again no review. On the gutsy pass play that gave K-State the last first down they needed, it looked to me like the receiver could have been down before he got the first down. Guess what? No review. What's the point of having review if close calls that decide football games aren't given a second look?

Do you smell something burning? It may just be our safeties getting torched deep once again. Michael and Marcus Griffin are solid players and Michael in particular is a great defensive back, but why in the world are they so susceptible to the trick play and play action passes? Week after week opposing offenses run the same stuff and they keep letting receivers run by them without noticing. Are they not being taught to read the uncovered offensive lineman to determine pass or run? Maybe they need to worry a little less about flying up to stop the run and a little more about covering somebody.