View from the Cheap Seats-Thieves of Land
Red River War
Red River War
Can you say “Defense makes a statement?” Sure you can.
Coach K’s side of the ball allowed the dirt burglers only 3 points of the game, these 3 coming in the 1st quarter. What makes this even more impressive was the field position the D was forced to defend in the opening stanza. TEXAS gave up a 1st drive INT with said dirt burglers starting at TEXAS’ 27. This would lead to a miss FG attempt. OU’s 2nd drive started at midfield following a short punt. The D stood up forcing the land thieves into a negative -12 yards on the drive before they punted, then OU’s best drive of the day, 11 plays 38 yards, and a made FG from their own 37. OU would win the 1st quarter field position game, taking a 3-0 lead in the opening stanza. The TEXAS’ D said bring it on and would then shut out OU over the next 3 quarters. In the 2nd quarter, TEXAS’ D featured back-to-back 5 play and punt drives for OU, back-to-back forced fumbles before halftime.
Now granted, the thieves of land’s offense was suspect at best, and frankly not Miss State good at this point. The D can only play the team in front of them and they showed up BIG TIME vs TEXAS biggest rival. In fact they would not allow our friends from North of the Red River to cross the 50 after the 1st quarter till their last drive of the game with 2:30 left on the clock, this speaks volumes about how good this D is.
Though the opening 5 games of the season, the question was often asked “Where’s the pass rush?”, well the front 7 brought that pressure this weekend and made OU’s true freshman starting debut a memory he’d just as soon forget.
9 tackles for loss by the front 7 and 4 sacks by the front 7 with Michael Taffe adding both a TFL and sack on the day. The D kept constant pressure on the young QB and Coach K had an excellent scheme to contain a strong running threat. We have to say, Coach Venables opting to stay with his freshman running QB and not bring in the far better passing QB in the 2nd half was an odd call facing a 3-score deficit.
Not unlike TEXAS, OU’s defense is their strength. TEXAS and Quinn Ewers came out slow, rusty, insert adjective here and were shut out in the 1st quarter during which they failed to record a 1st down and Quinn threw a pick on TEXAS’ 1st possession.
TEXAS would have 5 drives in the 2nd quarter and in these 5 drives, secure victory.
On the 1st, Quinn settled down and facing 3rd and 5, he hits DeAndre Moore on the sideline who snags the pass and toe-taps the sideline to keep the drive alive. Following the toe tap were a couple of nice runs by Quintrevion Wisner before Sark calls the throwback pass to the TE in the Red Zone and Gunnar Helm makes one defender miss before diving into the endzone.
This would turn into the game-winning score to use a baseball term.
Second drive was a 3 and out punt.
The biggest play of the game came on the Horns 3rd drive of the 2nd quarter. Continuing his impressive day, Wisner would make an excellent move through the line and break into the clear for a 36 yard gain on what seemed to be a sure touchdown only to have the ball stripped at the 3. As it goes bouncing into the endzone, out of nowhere comes Silas Bolden on a pure hustle play to recover the ball in the endzone to complete the drive with a TD. The game is now 14-3 instead of 7-3 with OU starting at their 25.
Replay showed that Bolden was blocking a DB near the line of scrimmage and would sprint over 40 yards to make the recovery. GREAT HUSTLE young man
On the subject of WRs, TEXAS would outgain their rival by more than double on the day. One of the keys to our rushing success is the pride our WRs take not just in route running and catching the ball but in their selfless blocking for their teammates.
Once again, the defense would set the table for TEXAS’ 4th drive of the 2nd quarter. Anthony Hill would strip the land thief QB Hawkins on a QB run on OU’s side of the ball giving TEXAS the short field. Sark showed great faith in Wisner, leaving him in the game and calling his number on the 1st play. That faith was rewarded with a nifty 43 yard TD run as TEXAS put a dagger in Boomer Sooner’s hearts.
Following another OU fumble, TEXAS gets another chance as time runs down in the half. The two fumbles lead to a TEXAS touchdown and the rare double missed FG. BigBird missed wide right but Coach Venables tried to ice him with a timeout giving him the rare kicking mulligan. BigBird (Bert Auburn) overcorrected leading to a shank left. He would make his next two FG chances in the 2nd half.
Joe Moore Award Watch
TEXAS certainly held serve this week and likely gained some ground in their bid to be considered the best offensive line in football playing against a very good front. Only allowed 1 sack. This might have been their cleanest game of the year with zero false starts or holding penalties.
Sark said when he arrived the thing he learned from Saban is that to win a National Title, you must win both lines of scrimmage. He and Coach Flood have done a great job with our offensive line.
Yes, we call it the Red River War, Rivalry and Shootout much to tame to capture the intensity and outright hate in this game. This weekend marked the 120 playing of this game, a game 1st played in 1900 and now annually since 1932 at the Texas State fair in Dallas. Before 1996, the two teams were in separate conferences but since then, the schools are tied together politically. This is one of the greatest rivalry games in college football, along with Michigan v Ohio State and USC v Notre Dame, these are games which have an National following even if one or more of the teams is not very good. Games where one team historically does not dominate the other (sorry Aggies, you don’t qualify) Since 1955, the series is 34-33-3.
Stats that matter
- 4-0-1 When ranked #1, TEXAS’ record against the burglars of dirt.
- 18:00 zero, 12:00 21- TEXAS scored zero points in the 1st 18 minutes of the 1st half followed by 21 in the last 12 minutes.
- ZERO-Touchdowns allowed by the TEXAS D
- 2 of 6-6 red zone attempts but only 2 TDs. TEXAS is only 5 of 10 on Red Zone TD attempts in SEC play. This needs to be better to win it all.
- 0-1- Defense only allowed OU in the Red Zone once, ZERO TDs allowed
- #1- TEXAS’ D is #1 in the nation in scoring D, averaging only 6.3 points allowed per game.
Offensive Players of the Game, a CO this week.
Quintrevion Wisner with his best game as a Horn. 118 yards rushing and a TD to go with 4 catches. The fumble the only blemish, Coach Choice has some work to do.
And
Gunnar Helm who lead all pass catchers with 5 grabs for 91 yards and a TD. Young man has grown from “blocking TE” to a weapon in the passing game. He would “high point” a ball between 2 DBs at the 3 in a highlight reel type catch. Climbing the John Mackey Award (best TE) ladder along with the NFL draft boards.
Defensive Player of the Game
Anthony Hill LOVES playing in the Red River War. Following a great game last year, he turned on beast mode this year. Lead all tacklers with 11, recorded 3 and a half tackles for loss, 2 sacks and forced fumble. He is the heart and soul of the D.
Honorable mention: The defensive line with relentless pressure on OU’s young QB.
Special Teams Player of the Game
Silas Bolden. In addition to his great hustle play, he added a 55 yard punt return.
Cheap Seats ranking of our most memorable RRW games
2008 48-38, #5 TEXAS trailed in the game by double digits not just once but twice. The win was sparked by Jordan Shipley’s kickoff return for a TD. OU ranked #1.
2005 Bomar Beat Down, ranks so high because we were on a long losing streak.
1994 Stonie, nuff said
1977 Before there was Stonie, Johnny Johnson stuffs Thomas Lott 4th and 1 to seal the win. TEXAS was playing with unlikely hero, 3rd string QB Randy McEachern
1989 The Legend of Peter the Great begins. Peter Gardere starts as a freshman against OU leading to him as the ONLY TEXAS QB to go 4-0 in the Red River War.
2022 49-0 Just cuz it's fun to put a beat down on your rival.
On Deck
Anyone who claimed they did not circle this game when the schedule came out was fibbing. Georgia coming to Austin for a night game. DKR is going to be LIT. Do you want to know why TEXAS moved to the SEC (besides $$$$ of course)? Games like this. #1 TEXAS v Top 5 Georgia with College Gameday in DA HOUSE. Georgia brings a top-10 passing attack to town and is a respectable rushing team. The most balanced and talented team TEXAS will face this season on both sides of the ball. This will be the best defense TEXAS has faced to date. We see a 28-24 type TEXAS win but remember, we are shameless homers.
Trap Game:
The Athletic ran a “trap game for the Top 25” article, someone must be bored but the Cheap Seats thinks they missed by picking the Pigs game. We seem to recall Sark took us up to play the Pigs and we were shellacked. Think Sark will have the Horns ready for what will be an emotional and season-salvaging game for Soo-iee pig? We certainly do. Coming off such an emotional game awaits Kentucky visiting DKR and we certainly can see a bit of an emotional let down. Not to mention, Kentucky plays some really good D and the Horns will have Aggie on deck. It’s the SEC, there are no easy games. Interesting fodder.
Fighting Mack Brown’s
Sadly Mack’s charges stumbled and bumbled into yet another loss vs Georgia Tech. At 3-4 with a tough final 5 games, not sure Mack will get the Tarheels to a bowl game.
Playoff projections
It’s been 2 weeks since we offered our thoughts and lots has happened. On a sad note, we have now passed the halfway point of the college football regular season.
- TEXAS remains our top seed with a sound thrashing of rival OU
- Oregon moves into the #2 seed with one of the best games of the weekend knocking off former #2 tOSU.
- Clemson continues to impress after their early loss to Georgia, passing Miami who was on a bye
- BYU appears to be the cream of the BigXII crop as ISU faces a tougher schedule down the stretch
That covers the projected conference winners, the next 4 teams listed will host a home playoff game.
Miami Think they run the table but lose to Clemson in the ACC title game
Georgia
tOSU Pedophile State and Big Blue remain as hurdles to a rematch with the Ducks in the B1G title game
Bama Schedule is still hard, they are still Bama
Notre Dame Aggie win looking better every week.
Iowa State
Aggie LSU and TEXAS are their biggest remaining tests, they go 1-1 in those games, and they sneak into the last CFB playoff spot (since best G5 is automatic).
Navy Unbeaten and better than Army. Yes an emotional pick.
Teams with a shot still: LSU, Pitt, Tenn, Pedophile State
Game highlights
