Excuses, excuses
Published: 10/12/2007 9:43 AM
Last Modified: 10/12/2007 9:43 AM
A day before the biggest Oklahoma-Missouri game since Billy Tubbs tangled with Norm Stewart, Sooner fans are worried sick over linebackers Ryan Reynolds and Curtis Lofton, neither of whom had much success covering Texas tight end Jermichael Finley last week in Dallas.
Now Martin Rucker and Chase Coffman, the two most seasoned, most dangerous tight ends in the Big 12 Conference, come to town and the freak-out meter has maxed out.
The message from OU coaches: Take a deep, cleansing breath.
Rucker and Coffman are oversized wide receivers, Bob Stoops and Brent Venables remind you, leaving OU defensive backs as responsible for them as linebackers.
And if you can't accept that, maybe you'll buy the explanation for Reynolds' and Lofton's long days against Finley.
"What you guys fail to realize," Stoops lectured the media this week, "is I felt the year before, (Texas) beat us running the football. And that didn't happen this game. Occasionally you get a little over-aggressive taking that away... But our emphasis was going to be that they weren't going to do the same thing they did a year ago and rush for 170 yards."
With Lofton and Reynolds making a combined 12 tackles near the line of scrimmage, the Longhorns rushed for 61. Finley's 149 receiving was a price worth paying.
"The matchup (Finley vs. the linebackers) wasn't as bad as it probably looked," Venables said. "As much as anything, you saw some young guys playing a big game, and I'm yelling at them all week, 'We've gotta stop the run! If we stop the run, we win the game.' I did a poor job of keeping (Lofton and Reynolds) with a little more depth. I overcoached them to stop the run and not be very good against the play-action pass."
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
