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Daily Bullets (Sept. 22): OSU Underutilized its Best Weapon in Austin

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When I think about OSU-Texas, I keep going back to that 2016 Baylor game. OSU’s results after that one: W-W-W-W-W-W-W-L-W. Maybe we see something similar this time around. 


Bullets Rundown

• Pokes should have let SS go
• Chuba takes the blame
• First three second-half drives sank them

Results

• FB: Texas 36 | OSU 30
• MGolf: 10th at Illini Invitational


OSU Bullets

• Berry says OSU blew its chances because it rode the wrong guy in the backfield. I can’t disagree. I liked how he put it though.

Texas beat OSU 36-30 because the Cowboys squandered scoring chance after scoring chance, and that squandering was rooted in Gundy and/or new offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson not realizing who was their best weapon, at least on this muggy night deep in the heart of Texas.

On five possessions, the Cowboys penetrated the Texas 10-yard line. They came away with just two touchdowns on those chances. On nine plays run inside the 10, OSU did not try a pass play. Seven Hubbard runs and two Sanders runs. On 23 snaps from the Texas 22 or closer, the Cowboys tried only four pass plays, and two of those were in the final two minutes of the game.

All that on a night when Sanders was mostly sensational. [NewsOK]

Margins are thin at this level, and we would be thinking about OSU’s defense and coaching a lot differently if you just convert four of those five inside the 10. Sanders can go so — as I stated here — let him go.

• Chuba falls on the sword.

Texas did its part, but OSU’s offensive line struggled, whiffing on several blocks on big downs and allowing penetration too often. Hubbard allowed the Horns some credit, but mostly shouldered the blame, rather than share it.

“I just made too many mistakes,” Hubbard said. “But we’re gonna be back. Mark my words. It happened. I’m going to fix this. But we’ll be back.” [GoPokes]

A valiant statement but unnecessary. We all watched what happened.

• I liked the way Guerin Emig framed things here. In their first three drives of the second half, he noted, OSU got to Texas’ 22-yard-line or closer on all of them. They came away with just three points. That cannot happen.

• Two streaks ended on Saturday — OSU winning in Austin, and Sam Ehlinger not throwing interceptions.

OSU ended Ehlinger’s streak on his 24th pass of the game, when Kolby Harvell-Peel intercepted him late in the third quarter. Ehlinger lasted 162 consecutive throws without throwing an interception. [Tulsa World]

One is a bit more disappointing than the other.

• This from Berry was good, if not really applicable on this Sunday.

Gundy can’t explain it, but I can — OSU has had better teams most of the decade. It’s not complicated. Texas has finished ahead of the Cowboys in the Big 12 standings only twice this decade (2014, 2018). Dominion of the ‘Horns is the greatest example of OSU football’s elevation. Not the 2011 Big 12 championship. Not the No. 3 national ranking that season, achieved with a rousing Fiesta Bowl victory over Andrew Luck and Stanford. Not the Big 12’s second-best record over a full decade. [NewsOK]

• Herman knows Texas got away with one: “Tonight we took a step, in my opinion,” said Texas coach Tom Herman, “because we played less than our best and still beat a really, really good football team.” [The Franchise]

• My 10 Thoughts | My notebook

• OSU, by the way, still has the leading rusher in the country.

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• OSU is struggling to crack the top 10 this week, but Austin Eckroat leads the individual portion of the Fighting Illini Invitational.

• Might only be a thing that intrigues me, but the box score on Saturday was almost identical for both teams.

Screen Shot 2019-09-22 at 7.48.46 AM.png

• A reminder that this is a thing that happened.

• Lolll

• There you go.

• One fun thing is that we had over 600 comments in our PFB+ game thread. Get involved if you haven’t. Everybody who signed up yesterday gets $30 back because OSU scored 30 points against Texas. Might be a special we run again soon ?


Non-OSU Bullets

10 traits of a humble leader. This is good.

• Haven’t read this yet but I can’t wait to: How to lose weight while barely moving.

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