Teams have trouble with other teams in their conference all the time. A couple years ago KU held their own against OU and UT. That was a playoff OU team by the way and Texas was #9. Stop overreacting already over a close game. I swear it seems like some people would rather us lose and and be right with their own opinion then the team to win, regardless of how close it was. Theres already quite a few people I only see appear in threads when the team is down in the game, give their 2 cents on Monty and Smith, then disappear after TU takes over. Just enjoy a win.
You're right. I think most of our melt is the seeming lack of energy out of the gate from TU, especially on offense.
ECU did some things that other teams have not against us. They almost exclusively went strong side when they ran their plays. They played away from Collins all night. They moved the pocket a lot as well. Ahlers is pretty effective in those situations actually. And ECU's offense was probably the most efficient they've been all season TBH. Yeah they've put up a ton of yards and pts in other games, but they seemed to find a rhythm early and kept plugging away at us.
Against SMU, our defense adjusted as SMU was trying to go away from Collins. Then Gillespie started having Collins moving around a ton. He'd line up between Player and Stevenson on the line one play. He'd line up as a rush end on another. I believe on the play he got the interception to seal the game, he lined up on the line and dropped last second. He was 15 yards down field and Buechele never saw him coming underneath the receiver. It's amazing some of the things you can do when you have the best athlete on the field on your team. (Remember how we used Charles Clay in combo with Damaris Johnson? Those 2 cats were frequently the best players on the field no matter who we played). Expect to see more moving Collins around on defense to really confuse the QB and offense. It also helps when you've got Treyvon Reeves and Justin Wright who can absolutely fly to the football. I've been watching TU football for 30 years and I cannot remember a more talented, more athletic group of LBs in old gold and royal.
