We need a serious upgrade on defense

[GoPokes83]

I'm not flaming the kids, they're playing well above expectations. BUT how many times have we had Bradford for a major loss and just not been able to tackle him. And to let him fumble, have time to pick it up and still score???? We need better athletes on D.

[bleedorange]

Nothing like a little '88 defense leaving us in the wet spot.

They were certainly never in danger of stopping the squats tonight,

[JimBob]

Our defense makes me want to puke.

[legelegel]

They made them punt three times in the first half.

There has been a big improvement in our defense from last year.

Sure I'm disappointed that we could not handle uo in the second half, but it has been a very good season.

[Poohness]

I wasn't going to say anything negative about our D but that last TD was embarassing. OU is just trying to run out the clock and we can't stop them. It looked like we gave up.

[GoPokes83]

They made them punt three times in the first half.

There has been a big improvement in our defense from last year.

Sure I'm disappointed that we could not handle uo in the second half, but it has been a very good season.


True... But we play 4 quarters.

They didn't stop a score since the first Q. Great kids, geat Cowboys. Just not good enough to play top tier. The FU TD just made me want to vomit. A close, well played game just went blowout. The final score's all that goes into the books.

[JimBob]

Nothing like a little '88 defense leaving us in the wet spot.

They were certainly never in danger of stopping the squats tonight,


The '88 'D' deserves better; Beckman should be proud of his coaching prowness tonight, or lack thereof.:vomit-smiley-001:

[GoPokes83]

Beckmans schemes worked great. We had players in position to make the plays, the just couldn't.

[osutuba]

The D was on the right track today. They made some solid stops and forced several 3rd and long situations. Unfortunately, they didn't make sure tackles when they had the opportunity and could not stop Bradford once they flushed him and had him in their sights.

[MemphisPoke]

Speed on defense is what we need. That and more depth with quality players.

JMHO

[osutuba]

Speed on defense is what we need. That and more depth with quality players.

JMHO
Depth is definitely an issue. The only way I could see us getting speed is to get LBs on the line and WRs in the secondary.

[GoPokes83]

But i do love THESE Cowboys!!!!

Best Bowl in years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[FalseGod]

So OU needs to upgrade by this logic as well. There were several plays they should have had Zac yet he still got away and made them pay.

[wood911]

There were at least three tipped passes that ended up being caught. Bradford fumbled twice and got them back. You just can't beat luck. The defense played well, just not perfect.
I was stunned when Lavine had Bradford trapped for a loss and Bradford outrun him to pick up a critical first down.
Zac's turnovers were as costly as the defenseive effort but Zac made some plays to keep us in the game as well. Dez and Pettigrew came up big. Until the offense can score TDs when it gets to the red zone, we're going to continue to struggle with the good teams.
It was a good game until the last 5 minutes and OU started making plays and we did not respond. When we can respond is when we are at the next level. Until then I'm happy to be 9-3 and headed for a good bowl.
If this seems incoherent, it probably is but all in all, the game was winnable but luck was not on our side tonight and we made some costly mistakes.

[mejake007]

Sometimes it just feels like everything is going against ya, almost like your fighting an invisible force.

Tonight that force was some dark overlord.

[Superaggie2]

All the bobbled passes that they caught,the fumble ran in for a TD on 4th down,the fumble that wasn't given to us.....damn I still hate these folks. Luckiest son of a ...guns ever. Must have sold their soul to the Devil.

[osutuba]

All the bobbled passes that they caught,the fumble ran in for a TD on 4th down,the fumble that wasn't given to us.....damn I still hate these folks. Luckiest son of a ...guns ever. Must have sold their soul to the Devil.
If you are referring to the fumble where the ball was stripped from Bradford's hands after he went down, that wasn't a fumble.

Remember that we had a play go our way, too. Remember the fumble by Spud that OU recovered but they called as a down ball?

[FalseGod]

If you are referring to the fumble where the ball was stripped from Bradford's hands after he went down, that wasn't a fumble.

Remember that we had a play go our way, too. Remember the fumble by Spud that OU recovered but they called as a down ball?

No, I think he meant the fumble that Bradford had that bounced right back to him and he ran in on the QB keeper.

[Tokyoken]

It was and exciting game and worthy of being called bedlam. This shootout at the OKState Corral will be remembered. The Cowboys played with high expectations and almost upset the mighty sooners. Had they played this well in the Texas game, the sooners might have won that one too. With just a little more muscle and little more speed in a couple of positions we would have had more of a chance to win. Isn't it FANTASTIC that the Cowboys are almost there? "Hey B12, Lookout, best keep your eye on the doughnut and not the hole, the Cowboys are for real!!" Go Pokes!!!

[jakeman]

Nothing like a little '88 defense leaving us in the wet spot.

They were certainly never in danger of stopping the squats tonight,

Haven't even bothered to read the rest of the thread but I just have one thing to say about our defense.

We Stink.

Maybe Mike should pay a little closer attention.

[legelegel]

Don't look now but we are 9-3. We lost two games by wide margins to uo and Tceh.

Take a look where these two teams are ranked nationally in total offense and scoring.

I like our team. I like our defensive improvement. We are on the move Cowboy Fans.

Now quit bitching, finding fault, and find something else to drink this morning besides alcohol.

http://justbet.com/sportsbook/football/college/offensive-stats.htm

[CaliforniaCowboy]

I'm not as upset with the "D" as I am with the offense (play calling). The offense gave them a TD on an interception (okay "maybe they could have held them to a FG), and Zac fumbled another one to them, then fumbled them a 2-point XP... That's at least 8 points (if held to FGs), which ended up being 16 points in reality.

If the offense doesn't put them in those bad positions, AND get held to FGs themselves in the 1st half, then they did enough to win that game.

If our defense is bad, then so is the goon defense, the goon defense gave up tons of points and 1st downs to our offense. After all folks, we were playing one of the very best offenses in the entire nation.

I just hate it when fans start playing the blame-game.

Everything could have been better on both sides of the ball, but it wasn't.

[CaliforniaCowboy]

PS... I just found a Shiner Bock in Dad's fridge... so Phooey on finding something else to drink.

[Tokyoken]

Nine and three so far, not bad at all. With the new DE that just verbaled, who looks like an interior lineman to me, our recruiting class seems to be picking up some serious steam. Kepp those recruits coming Coaching staff!!! Go Cowboys!!!!

[rodbakeriii]

The thing I see is that if we just played with a better pass rush, this entire defense would be better. It really is THAT simple.

[Poke John I]

We are all disapointed with our loss and the fact that our defense could not stop the Sooners. I also thought we should have tried several onsides kicks just to try and keep the ball away from them. Also notice that the Sooners had minimal luck stopping the Cowboys unless we aided them with fumbles, penalties, on an interception.

However, this is the era of the spread offense and nobody does a good job of stopping a well run spread. Sometimes it's a sucess if you can just keep them from scoring one out of every three posessions. Our defense if better than last year by quite a bit. We do need to improve our one on one tackling in space. Beckman needs to run a lot of one on one tackling drills to determine his starters. You had to play defense to start for Eddie Sutton and Beckman needs to let the team know that the best one on one tacklers will be on the field. As Vince Lombabdi said, you beat people by out blocking them and out tackling them.

Our '88 defense was great for the era but it would have trouble stopping todays well run spread offenses. Defenses will eventually learn how to slow the spread down but it will take a few more years just like happened to the Wishbone formation.

[bleedorange]

Our '88 defense was great for the era but it would have trouble stopping todays well run spread offenses.

The '88 Defense wasn't good for any era. They made Tri-delts look tough to score on.

[rodbakeriii]

The '88 Defense wasn't good for any era. They made Tri-delts look tough to score on.

Yeah, +1.

'88 D was truly awful. Worse than now.

[JimBob]

Yeah, +1.

'88 D was truly awful. Worse than now.

+2

[Inky29]

I loved the effort in this last game but like others said, it's hard to beat luck. The tipped pass to Gresham (2nd tipped TD pass this year against the defense), two fumbles that were easily recovered (the ball is oblong and should bounce funny) is just bad luck. There are some obvious upgrades in speed that need to be made but I have a hard time calling anyone out because I personally think they gave it their all but if you just aren't fast enough you just aren't fast enough. For years we've put the best athletes on offense and we really need to start putting a few more over on the defensive side.

[orangeo]

No moral victory, but I thought we played as well as we are capable of at this point. I am sure Gundy and his assistants are completely aware of the defensive shortcomings, but recruiting great defensive players is the most difficult chore for any school. There are only a handful of those players every year and dozens of schools vying for them. We can only hope we start to get more of those players each year as facilities improve and we start winning more regularly.

As for our difficulty in scoring in the red zone, I can't figure out exactly why. I think Gundy has done a pretty good job as O coordinator, but sometimes his play calling can be a little wierd. Sometimes I think he is too stubborn, trying to run the ball near the goal line repeatedly when he could just throw it Dez or Pettigrew. That might also explain Dez's lack of touchdowns in big games.

All things considered, this season was pretty good. Nine wins and close losses in two of three games against top five teams. Wins against all BigXII north opponents. Very good bowl possibilities. If we win our bowl game I don't think you could reallistically ask for more. Next year we have a great schedule and it could be a great season.