Think this might have had a little to do with GMac's 3 broken ribs? In any event, we showed we would have a hard time passing and they still couldn't stop us from running. What does that tell you?
I've watched the BCSCG several times on my computer and really tried to pay attention to the sacks: what situation, protection, route calls, Texas' call. I think they defended our passing game very well considering that they were basically playing us for the run all game.
The very first sack was on what looked to be a screen. It's hard to tell because the play was blown up almost immediately off the snap. I believe Valchos or Johnson released their man a little too soon which put GMac into an immediate retreat and a linebacker legally knocked over Ingram which made taking a sack the only option.
The second sack was a coverage sack. We went to our bread-n-butter hitch patterns and nobody came open until the defense was on top of McElroy. Just good bump coverage to throw off the timing for what is usually a quick, low-risk completion.
The third sack was a rare fire zone blitz call where James Carpenter ended up blocking no one when the DL dropped and the linebacker rushed.
The fourth sack was another coverage sack but it was on crossing routes against man coverage...another situation where we should have had an advantage but were defended well.
The fifth sack was a well played defense of the bootleg game. They had one too many rushers on the boot side and immediately dropped McElroy coming out of the boot.
Texas defended our passing game very well. Some of it was simply that Texas was well scouted and prepared for our comparatively simple passing game to what they typically prepare for in the Big-XII. Some of it is that we got ourselves into predictable situations offensively. Ultimately, despite being well prepared for our offense...they were not physically capable of winning in the run game more downs than not. They really tried to take away the inside zone from us but simply got a heavy helping of the outside zone stretch which was lethal because it allowed Julio to clean out his man coverage DB and hit for huge plays.
Certainly, it would have been interesting if McCoy was uninjured. We certainly would have needed the pass game more and they seemed to have it properly diagnosed. Of course, like I pointed out, passing more could have helped the simplistic nature of our passing game which made it easier to defend for Texas.
