40 Acres Sports

OU is about to lose to UCLA and start their season by losing two of their first three games. Is that a good thing or bad thing for Texas? Of course we still have to actually beat them. Personally I think it’s great for recruiting, and since we beat Ohio State in the Columbus last week all we have to do is win all of our games. We don’t have to worry about respect.

Tonight against [tag]Rice[/tag] we just need to stay sharp and stay healthy. They obviously can’t really compete with us, so start off strong early and things will fall into place. We need to make sure we’re not still enjoying last week’s victory as well as get ready for what should be a solid test in two weeks at Missouri.

First Quarter

• I still don’t like the black shoes.
• Good to see us throwing to David Thomas right off the bat, Ohio State was able to tak him out of the game last week. Fantastic grab on the first play of the game.
• A lot of single back with Vince Young under center. That’s a first this season.
• Not only is Jamaal Charles quick and shifty, but he’s got amazing balance as well. Doesn’t go down easy. Great 25 yard run for a touchdown. Nice way to start off things in your first career start.
• I still love David Pino.

Texas 7, Rice 0

• Greg Johnson instead of Richmond McGee. Not too deep, but at least it wasn’t a line drive. Good coverage too. Plus a penalty.
• Tarell Brown can’t let the runner get outside of him on the option. He’s got to force it back into the middle and the linebackers.
• An even worse job by Michael Griffin on the next play. He’s staring in at the dive fake and the QB and just let everyone get outside of him.
• Griffin looks like he is slow playing it. Are we going to rely on just the corner to cover the pitch man? That’s a flawed plan. Griffin made the play that time just because he’s ten times the athlete the running back is.
• I didn’t think you were allowed to just fall into the endzone downing a punt like that. I thought you had to keep the ball and your body from touching the line.
• Henry Melton needs a nickname.
• I thought VY was going to take that one 90+ yards. Great run but it was too easy. It kind of look like we didn’t even run a play, just told Vince to roll left and run for his life.
• Seriously, the black shoes make us look like we’re jogging. They’re terrible. Charles just kind of wandered another 25 yards for the TD.

Texas 14, Rice 0

• Okay that’s enough of that, let’s see if we can throw the thing around a little. If we get up too much we’re not going to be able to throw or it’ll look like we’re running it up. And for the 50th time, we need to get Ramonce Taylor the ball!
• At least Johnson appears to be kicking the ball where he wants. Still would like to see more distance on it, but maybe there’s some wind.
• Did we know Rice runs the option? We had a man on the running back that time but we waited back and took on the blocker instead of getting in there and blowing him up.
• I don’t know why the Owls don’t just run the option until we stop it.
• Come on Vince, you’ve got to make that throw. Limas Sweed is wide open and he tries to be too perfect. When he’s that open, lead him back into the middle of the field instead of trying to make the perfect throw to his outside shoulder.
• Pretty good run by Charles considering we only had 10 men on the field.
• Two pretty poor decisions by Vince on two plays in a row. 3rd and 15, he needs to throw the ball away or find Charles and dump the ball off instead of taking a sack. Every little bit of field position could matter in a big game.
• Better showing by the defense, but that may be because they didn’t bother to try running the option even once.
• There’s the Sweed we know. Just kind of let’s the Rice DB have the ball on a catch he should’ve easily had for a first down. Of course, moron national media who don’t actually watch any games will chalk up another interception for Vince Young and begin talking trash about his throwing ability again.

Second Quarter

• Dear Rice coaching staff: We’re faster than you.
• Michigan State beats Notre Dame in overtime. Watch them plummet in my top 25.
• Nice effort by the Rice quarterback Armstrong. Busted play and he makes a good throw and almost converts a 3rd and 21. Nice hit by Mike Griffin to break up the play, but looks like he’s injured his shoulder or something.
• We sure left that guy wide ass open on 4th and freaking 21. Who exactly were we covering? All the 10 yard routes? Luckily it wasn’t a good pass and the Rice receiver couldn’t make the play.
• Doesn’t really matter but I thought Charles was out of bounds before he fumbled.
• I like seeing big Henry Melton in the game in a non-short yardage situation.
• Vince just made the Rice DE look even slower and whiter than he really is. He’s probably still trying to figure out which way he went.
• Great, crushing block by Neale Tweedie on a VY scramble. Vince only picked up two yards but Tweedie sure made it a painful two yards for some Owl defender.
• Jamaal Charles scores easily from the 4 yard line, giving him three TD’s in the game. Our offense is far from clicking right now, but Charles is just killing them all by himself.

Texas 21, Rice 0

• It really does look like we didn’t work on defending the option at all this week. Absolutely freaking terrible. Does no one know their responsibilities? We look incompetent out there.
• Michael Huff is a touchdown machine! Of course I might have been able to score on that one, the ball bounced right into his arms.

Texas 28, Rice 0

• Brian Robison looks huge. He looks much heavier than he did last year. Still looks pretty quick and agile though as you saw on his fumble recovery last week.
• Good throw from VY trying to hit Taylor on a deep slant but he can hold on to it. That sure looked like a reception. It came out pretty late, he took a step or two with it. Well they’re going to review it, barely before the next snap.
• The booth didn’t overturn it. I guess it wasn’t conclusive, but it sure looked like Ramonce had it long enough to me.
• Aaron Harris forces a fumble at the Rice one yard line and Frank Okam pounces on it like a freaking cat. Huff is probably pissed, he was about half a second from having another TD.

Texas 35, Rice 0

• We’re up by 35, but we’re not really playing well at all. Charles and the O-Line are dominating and the defense has made some big plays, but everyone else is kind of just going through the motions.
• There’s the Rice Owls I know, a running play by the QB on 3rd and 11. They’re really running as much spread option as they are wishbone.
• The FSN spotter isn’t very good. There’s a big difference between number 31 and 11.
• Give Ramonce Taylor the ball!
• Holy cow. We just had Henry Melton at fullback and David Thomas at tailback on 1st and goal at the 1. Melton scored easily but that sure was an interesting lineup. Of course the announcers are oblvious as usual.

Texas 42, Rice 0

• If Greg Johnson can kick the ball 9 yards deep into the endzone, how come his other kicks didn’t even come close? We need more consistency out of kickoffs. (Duh!)

That’s the end of the first half. Nice to have a solid drive by Vince and the offense to end the half. Come out and do the same thing to start the second half and then the backups can play the rest of the game. I think we know we can line up and run it down their throats, but we’re up 42 so let’s come out and throw the ball around a little. By the way, Rhett Bomar fumbles a lot and OU is not good.

Third Quarter

• Big hit by Michael Huff on a Rice 4th down. Big time.
• Decent looking drive so far, exactly what I was looking for. Good mix of runs and passes.
• Another bad decision by Vince. Tries to thread the needle with three defenders covering his man. Interception for Rice.
• Well they’re reviewing it now. I think it was a catch, but I also thought Taylor caught that ball in the first half. Call reversed. A break for the Horns, they’ll have another chance to get some points.
• Oooh, nice catch by Sweed but he was out of bounds. Still nice to see him make another tough catch in the end zone.
• That was close, his right foot was in bounds but I’m not sure when he got control of the ball.
• Good kick by Pino for the field goal. Right on the money.

Texas 45, Rice 0

• That’s so weak. He stepped out of bounds a split second before the kicker hit him.
• Great break on the ball by Huff but he drops the ball when the WR undercuts him.
• Meanwhile, the rest of our defensive backs have no ball skills. They’re there with great coverage and they never seem to make a play on the ball and break up the pass.
• That looks like a terrible pass interference call against Cedric Griffin. Sure looked like was in much better position and wasn’t even close to the receiver in the only angle FSN is going to show us. Sure wish they’d show a replay but that looked like good coverage and a pitiful call.
• We finally figured out what the heck we’re doing on the option. Go attack the quarterback and force him to pitch, and then send everyone else to swarm the back.
• Field goal for Rice after a sack by Brian Robison forces them into a 4th and forever.

Texas 45, Rice 3

• They haven’t been Southwestern Lousiana in ages. Get a clue, you get paid to do this.
• Glad to see we’re throwing the ball with Matt Nordgren in there, he needs the experience.
• We’re on offense and Gene Chizik looks pissed in the booth. Nice.
• Great punt and coverage.
• Glad to see so many half-ass fans leaving with a quarter and a half to go. Embarassing as usual. Show up midway through the first and then leave midway through the second.
• Oklahoma State is really bad. They’re barely beating Arkansas State.
• Tony Hills, Jr. has hurt his wrist. Looks like he’s in a lot of pain.
• Why are we getting Taylor carries now and not earlier in the game? Nice touchdown run. He looks a little down, I’m guessing he’d like to have been getting the ball more earlier in the game.
• Pino shanked the heck out of the extra point, I couldn’t see the hold.

Texas 51, Rice 3

• Johnson sent another one deep. Maybe he should’ve been kicking off in previous weeks too.
• I love how clueless the announcers are. They’re claiming every single person on the field was a backup and then Kelson makes the tackle. I saw Aaron Ross on the field as well.

Fourth Quarter

• Robert Killebrew was trying to get his requisite one personal foul penalty per game. Nice pressure on the QB though.
• Nice return by Quan Cosby. Must’ve been some sort of penalty on the play though.
• Henry Melton is surprisingly quick
• Nate Jones has been passed by a ton of guys on the depth chart. He was this team’s 2nd or 3rd wide receiver at times last year and now he never sees the field.
• Just saw Derek Lokey in the game. Glad to see he’s healthy after his foot injury, but with our DT depth I was hoping he’d redshirt.
• Wow, they just almost switched to the USC game. Seemed to forget for a sec that Dallas viewers would probably want to watch the UT game.

Texas 51, Rice 10

• Glad to see Chris Ogbonnaya get some carries at tailback. WR turned tailback turned fullback recently. Had a pretty good Spring when no one else was around.
• The pom squad is much better than the cheerleaders.
• Someone get these idiots a roster. If you have a QB and a DB both #13, I would guess that the one that’s playing quarterback right now would be the QB.

Final Thoughts

That’s the end of the game, a dominating yet somewhat lacking performance. I guess if this is our letdown after the big win last week than that’s one thing, but we just seemed slightly off all night long. Vince had a decent game but was really sharp throwing the football, though I’d blame a lot of that on the play calling. Offensive coordinator Greg Davis called a much safer game tonight and didn’t give Vince much to work with in the passing game. Defense started off very poorly against the option but made some really big plays. Two defensive touchdowns are always appreciated, and they settled in a bit as the game wore on. We were much stronger against the option later in the game, both in gameplan and execution.

Overall it was a blow out and a victory and now Texas has two weeks to get ready for Mizzou. We played well enough tonight to beat most teams on our schedule, but we can and will need to play better this season if we plan to have the season we want to have.

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