...we have to deal with in Texas:

From the Houston Chronicle:

[quote]Failing to go high in Cotton reveals Raiders' limitations

By JOHN P. LOPEZ
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

DALLAS - Alabama kicker Jamie Christensen's toe took a divot out of the Cotton Bowl turf, appropriately enough, considering Christensen snap-hooked the winning field goal low but through the uprights.
"I had high hopes he would miss that kick," Texas Tech coach Mike Leach would say later, deadpanning his way through talking about a 13-10 Cotton Bowl defeat.
It was a result that Leach lamented while admitting Alabama played the better all-around game. He felt the Red Raiders could have won, should have won and perhaps with a break here or there would have won.
But in reality, the Tide's third-quarter seven-point lead seemed insurmountable. The strangling, pressing defense the Tide played against Leach's often-unstoppable offense was that good.
The Raiders' only touchdown came on a short field after a short punt and led to the final-play dramatics. But the big story there was that it was the Raiders' only TD.
This offense helped Tech become a feared threat in the Big 12 and nationally, ranking first in Division I football in passing each of the past four seasons. This offense has scored 50 or more points 16 times under the creative hand of Leach.
This team, because of Leach's offensive vision and ability to bring the best out of slightly better-than-average quarterbacking talent, can score 40, 50, even 80 points almost by accident.
But this is January.
The question of just how far this transformation of Texas Tech football can go was never more clear than in the frustration the Raiders felt on this warm, sunny day.

Is that all you've got?
In January, when championships and big-time bowl games are won, more often than not defenses are put together much like the one that shut down and overwhelmed the Raiders offense.
Not always do defenses rank second nationally in scoring like Alabama's. But if you've ever wondered if Leach's quirky spread-and-read offense is good enough to win at the BCS level, or just good enough to put up big numbers and win, Monday's effort did nothing to convince you otherwise.
Tech's offense can be astounding against most teams and many Big 12 opponents. But teams don't get to January bowl games and the biggest stages without quality, athletic defenses. Witness Tech's defense helping the Raiders get to the Cotton Bowl by ranking 25th nationally coming into Monday's game.
Leach bristled only once after Monday's loss, when he was asked about his calling frequent fade routes for receivers down the sidelines.
"The defender was right here," Leach said, gesturing. "There's a huge amount of grass (behind the cornerback), and our thought was that if we would whip this guy's (backside) and throw the ball here, we would get some yards."
Over and over, the Tide cornerbacks were up to the task, but what would you expect in January?
Leach kept trying to loosen the Tide defense with fade routes and slants. The Tide secondary kept making plays.
"Everybody was talking about if we can hold them to 29 or 30 points, we'd have a chance to win," Tide safety Charlie Peprah said. "We didn't see it that way."

Numbers don't lie

What Leach has done for the Raiders has been remarkable. And when asked about facing a defense like Alabama's, he said it was nothing new, citing the top defenses the Raiders have played in the Big 12.
But counting Monday, Tech faced four defenses ranked in the top 20 nationally. And against those four defenses, the Raiders averaged 18.5 points. Against everyone else, they averaged 57.
Even if you take away the three laughable gimmes in non-conference play, the Raiders averaged nearly 20 points more against other opponents (38.8) than against the top-20 defenses they faced.
Leach has long said that he never worries about the opponent so much as his team's ability to get the job done offensively. It's a philosophy and approach that has served the Raiders well. After all, they have become a consistent winner and they did get here. They can put on spectacular scoring shows.
But in January, there are no gimme defenses. You'd better worry about the opponent.
You'd better tweak the usual fare thrown at the other guys. In January, it's about playing in big-time BCS games, facing the most athletic opponents and taking the next step.
Leach has brought this program close. But Monday didn't answer a lot of questions about how far this offense can carry a team.

john.lopez@chron.com[/quote]

The Houston Chronicle is a joke, they did not run a single Cotton Bowl story until the day afterwards.  Compare to the other major newspapers in Texas, each of which ran a full page story nearly every day.  The president of the Chronicle is a Texas A&M graduate, and employs mostly Texas A&M graduates.

By the way, John Lopez is a Texas A&M graduate (no way!!!!), so take whatever he says about us with a grain of salt in the first place, but let's analyze:

[quote]But in reality, the Tide's third-quarter seven-point lead seemed insurmountable. The strangling, pressing defense the Tide played against Leach's often-unstoppable offense was that good.[/quote]

Notice he never mentions the play of OUR defense, even though we held them in check pretty much the entire game save for the last drive and the 2nd play of the game (which should NOT have been a touchdown, btw) considering how badly our offense was playing.

[quote]This team, because of Leach's offensive vision and ability to bring the best out of slightly better-than-average quarterbacking talent, can score 40, 50, even 80 points almost by accident.[/quote]

Rewind, repeat.  This is the only argument they can EVER come up with.  But, it will be thrown out the window next year, when we have a real blue chip QB running the offense instead of these one and done'rs.

[quote]Not always do defenses rank second nationally in scoring like Alabama's[/quote]

Yeah, uh, ok.  That only happens once a year I guess.  Great comment.    ::)

[quote]Over and over, the Tide cornerbacks were up to the task, but what would you expect in January?
Leach kept trying to loosen the Tide defense with fade routes and slants. The Tide secondary kept making plays.[/quote]

Despite the fact that our #1 receiver was blatantly held and/or interfered with on several different plays where there was no call.  More than one were critical situations.  Example:  3rd and 7 in Alabama territory, fade to the left side, our receiver is shoved violently to the ground well before the ball gets there but there is mysteriously no flag.


I love the fact that this guy can only talk about defense, but he never mentions ours, which was ranked in the top 25 and did a pretty darn good job on Monday despite the position they were put in constantly.  This years' offense was not even close to even last year's offense, which itself was still not close to being our best offense under Leach.  We've had a couple of down years in our offense due to poor quarterback play (honestly, our last 2 QBs were below average, honestly only getting to play because they were seniors).  Fortunately, that problem is solved next year.

The funny thing is, this guy whines about the refs every time we win a game, never when we lose.  The officials were terrible in our game, from start to finish, on both sides.  The best example is Alabama's first (and only) touchdown, which should have been blown dead for a 2 yard loss considering the fucking receiver's knee was on the ground when the catch was made, but that's all done for.  Notice he never mentions that, even though it's been replayed over and over again on Fox.