These games are ass!
I am out of practice from not having written the post games this season so you’ll pardon me if this is all over the place.
These games are always absolute and utter dogshit. We’ve been doing this now for, what, 16 years and they are so dumb (a retrospective on that later). And this one did not fail to meet that dumbness expectation.
But all that aside YOUR FIGHTIN TEXAS AGGIES found a way to win an ugly 21-17 game against the Arkansas Razorbacks. Let’s highlight a few things.
Offense
It was frustrating to watch wasnt it! 134 yards rushing and 163 yards passing. Not exactly pretty. We are frustratingly predictable with runs on second downs. We’ll all have to go back and watch the film, but I’m not sure if this is a matter of Klein actually being vanilla or if it’s a young QB not seeing things come open or some combo of the two. There are only so many “easy button” plays that a OC has, and I feel like Klein did a good job of calling a few of them, but man. This one was not fun.
BUT THEN AGAIN! Folks let me tell you about the absolute STONES it takes for an OC to call a pass play in shotgun in the endzone with a struggling redshirt freshman QB. Just an absolute monster of a call (on a drive that ended in a frustrating way). Marcel finished 11/22 for 163 and 2 TDs, with 13 yards rushing. Not great, but he took care of the ball and made plays when he needed to.
Three more things to highlights:
- We had the Noah Thomas breakout game. 6 catches for 109 including a long one for 58 on a filthy mfing post route.
- Leveon Moss is an every down back and when we needed him be put the damn team on his back. The latter part of this game was a collection of culture building moments.
- After the Moss drive, that little TE leak play we ran to Tra Watson is something I’ll go to sleep dreaming about in a good way.
Defense
Classic Elko game where we give up 187 yards and 14 points in the first quarter alone and then 147 and 3 points the rest of the game. This is how he operates and we’ve seen it dozens of times before.
We have some issues in the secondary—losing Tyreek Chappell continues to haunt us a bit (although kudos to Jaydon Hill grabbing that fumble late). Secondary had some bright spots with Will Lee getting several opportunities to do the seatbelt celly and Dalton Brooks making some damn hits (and not getting tossed out for targeting!).
Last thing. This defensive line did what they were supposed to do today. They met expectations and I say that with adulation because the expectations are high given how damn talented they are. My son Shemar Stewart blowing up the mesh point is responsible for 7 of our points. Incredible play. Albert Regis was disruptive all over the place. And everyone’s favorite Nic showed why hes an All American. Great day for them.
Special Teams
Tyler White might be the MVP of the game tbh. 9 punts averaging 43 yards a punt. Arkansas averaged starting on their own 18 yard line. In a dog(shit)fight offensive game like today stuff like that makes all the difference. Huge game.
JerryWorld
The first game at Jerry World was in 2009. I was at that game and we got our asses handed to us by Petrino 47-19. We then lost in 2010 with Jerrod’s bad shoulder 24-19. I will never get the image of the Arkansas fans celebrating their second half come back out of my head from 2011. It feels really good to beat Petrino. Revenge is a dish best served cold and things of that nature (him being our OC notwithstanding).
Since then we’re 12-1 against them. Isn’t that insane? 12-1. And every single time it feels like we’re going to lose until the very last minute. I dont know what it is about this game but it’s just utter hell. But man the feeling of winning it is something I’ll never take for granted because it feels like for 99% of the damn game I’m certain we’re going to lose (BUT WE DIDNT TODAY MFERS)
Overall
We move into October 4-1 which I think is solid enough. I dont know what Mizzou will be like I dont know if Conner will be back, I dont know what it will be like for us to face a top 10 team. I dont know that I give a shit about that right now. We won this weekend. Celebrate it because it feels good.
BTHO mizzou