What We Learned From TCU and the Impact On the OU Game

We all hate it when our Bears lose, particularly to the little purple team just North of here. Somewhere in Fort Worth Gary Patterson is laughing his butt off this week.

But lose we did and to be honest, we got slapped around and were fortunate to only lose by 2.

Should we have won that game going into the contest? Yes. Were we the better team on Saturday?

But regardless the outcome, I love our Bears...PERIOD! This team is an impressive group of young men and I am thankful for our coaching staff. I mean, would you have thought that we would be 7-2 and bowl eligible at this point in the season?

But here we are and all I can say regarding our Cinderella season so far is

What did we learn from the TCU game?

#1 Take no team lightly, particularly if it is the team that hates us most. TCU has talent and is a dangerous team. The bad news is, we experienced that first hand on Saturday. The good news is that they can help us by knocking off OSU and ISU. I wouldn’t bet against them as they have motivation against OSU and ISU to potentially get to 7 wins on the season.

#2 We need to win on the road. Numbers 1 & 2 fit into that game maturity that Aranda talks about. This team has the ability to win on the road, but they must prove it. Not looking past OU, but the KSU game on the road will be a big test for us regarding game maturity. If we upset OU and prove we can win on the road, we should record another 10 win season. Who knows, with a little help we could still end up in the Big 12 Championship.

#3 We need to consistently put together complete games on both sides of the ball. As should be expected, we are still a work in progress on offense. Still light years ahead of where we were last year, but we need to make steady improvement going forward. Even though we lost on Saturday, we had some good numbers overall as we rushed for 179 yards and 5 yards per carry. Passing we had over 200 yards and averaged 15.3 yards per pass. Overall we averaged 7 yards per play. In comparison TCU averaged 7.3 yards per play. Our offensive line did a pretty good job as they opened up nice holes for Smith and Ebner and gave up only 1 sack. Defensively our pass rush was ineffective and the secondary got torched. Granted, TCU’s Morris summoned his inner Buckshot (Liberty QB that beat us) and played out his mind. But, we should have contained and bottled him up and the secondary shouldn’t have had so many blown assignments.

How will this translate to the OU game?

#1 We have OU at home...YAY! We are definitely a different team at home and I do think this will play in our favor on Saturday.

#2 We take the next step in game maturity. Part of game maturity is bouncing back from a big loss. I see no reason for our team to not be focused and up for OU. After what they experienced in Fort Worth, they should have a fire in their belly and a chip on their shoulder.

#3 Consistency is the key. Both our offense and defense have something to prove against OU. Splash is good and fine, but consistently doing the right thing the right way over and over will get us the W.

Can we beat OU? Of course we can. Will we?

So in the famous words of the great Bryce Petty, “Just ready for OU.”

xoxo

BNT