Stay Classy Tulsa

First, let me say I’m fine with "running up the score." If you score 100 points against me, I don’t care because I couldn’t stop you. But when you throw a pass with about 27(?) seconds remaining and a 21-point lead, that’s where you cross my line.

Let’s take it further. Sure, UCA was still throwing the ball. The Bears were down 28. But after scoring the touchdown to cut it to 21, there was no onside kick. They elected to kick it deep; I’m sure expecting that TU would just run out the clock. And they looked to be doing just that. Until – and this is from memory, so it could be wrong – 27 seconds, and they take a shot at the endzone. One kneel down ends it. But instead the completion moves the ball down to the 1. Again, the game is over right? Wrong. Instead TU runs the ball in.

Fine, say "you should have kept them out" if you want. That may be true, but taking a knee there is the right decision.

It was classy enough when you pull out your starter and then put him back in. You’re welcome for that interception. I wish you could have heard me laughing, because I certainly was.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest:

• Give me Nathan Brown any day. He played error-free football Saturday night, completed 73% of his passes, and led the offense in scoring most points than any FBS team had against the TU defense.
• The fake punt got some criticism on here by people who weren’t there. The play was set up perfectly. If you’ve seen our punt formation, you know there are three guys back as a second line of blockers. Well, after all of TU’s defenders start dropping back for the return, there’s one man – and only one man – that’s close enough to make the tackle before Beard gets the first down. All three of those second line guys looked like they had no idea the fake was on. If just one of those guys gets a hand on the defender, Beard runs for the first down and another 5-10 yards. It was a perfect call that was far from perfect in execution.
• The defensive line was often just a step away from getting to Johnson. But that extra step was the time he needed to complete 82% of his passes. Fortunately for the Bears, two of his four incompletions were intercepted, both in UCA territory.
• TU was successful on 10-of-12 third-down plays. Just when it looked like the defense would get a stop, TU would convert again. The two times they were unsuccessful, TU still got points as they settled for field goals. Oh, and six of those conversions were run plays.
• Speaking of TU’s run game – they were just gashing the Bear defense. It didn’t seem to me like it was just a bunch of missed tackles. It was just wide open space for the most part.
• Both teams were perfect on scoring in the red zone.
• The kickoff coverage was obviously lacking. I’ll be interested to see if the coaches attribute that to TU’s athletes or missed assignments.
• I was disappointed that the little throw-back pass worked against us. I mean, UCA runs that play often. You can’t fall for it defensively.
• Being within 8 points at the half certainly had to be a surprise to the TU fans in attendance. The UCA gameplan was executed perfectly in the first half and kept TU off balance defensively.

The Bears played well. I was happy with the performance. If I were to make score predictions, mine would have probably been pretty close to the final. I expected TU to score in bunches. They did. I expected UCA to be able to score. I don’t think I expected TU to run the ball like they did.

I hope the rant at the top comes across well. My blood pressure rises every time I think about it, so the writing is probably all over the place, like my mind is. I’m sure most will disagree and that I’m overreacting, but I’m pretty manic when it comes to sports. Just ask my wife. I’ll probably change my mind in a couple of days but not yet.

Well, the Bears are 4-0

But the 51-6 win over Quincy, while obviously convincing, still leaves me wondering how good this team is. We have looked great at times in every game and have also looked the opposite of great a few times as well.

What I’d like to see improve:

• The start. We did score in the first quarter. But we went three-and-out and followed that up with a fumble. (cutting Rico Moss some serious slack here since he got injured on the play and basically landed on his head.) Sound familiar? It should we did the exact same thing last week… I know this week’s ended with a missed field goal attempt.
• The run game. The starters (Grimes and Ceaser) only combined for 10 carries, but they also only had 24 yards on those carries. This against a team that averages giving up278 a game.
• Getting into the endzone when we have first-and-goal. We struggled against UC Davis in the redzone, and scored X times on fourth day plays inside the 10. We settled for a field goal after 1-and-goal from the 8. We were stopped on 4th down twice!
• A game where we don’t fumble the ball.
• Too many plays that result in negative yards.

The positives:

• The punt game. Three blocked punts and one that was hurried (and possibly tipped) into going just 19 yards. On the flip side, Jonathan Beard has been booming them (42.8 yards per) and dropping them inside the 20 (4 of 11). Zero of his 11 have been returned.
• Marquez Branson must have heard there were scouts in attendance. Boy, did he show up tonight. 5 catches, 174 yards, 3 tds. And showing some break away speed against the Eagles.
• Nathan Brown has played smart football – other than maybe not sliding feet first a couple of times. (joking) He’s only made two throws that I – an untrained eye of course – thought were bad ideas. One against HSU and one tonight. The 5-yard completion to Willie Landers looked like a sure interception for a touchdown out of his hand. Somehow the ball squeaked through the defenders arms and into Landers’.
• There were plenty of plays for over 20 yards tonight. Landers had two catches over 40 yards.
• CJ Chaten looked very quick out there against a tired Quincy defense.
• There are plenty more, but I’ll probably get to those in the next few days.

I’m a positive guy at heart. I, like most or all of you reading, believe this team is extremely talented and has the potential to do some amazing things in the Southland Conference this season. I’m just ready for them to put a complete game together. The positive side of me says that we’re going to see that complete game soon.