Oklahoma State vs. Texas A&M: Can The Hott V Be Stopped?

I will guarantee that whoever Google's "Hot V" will be sorely disappointed if they arrive here. With Sam in international waters picking up a "package" for the Medellin Cartel, I figured now would be a good time to get back into writing sober. We're going to take a quick look at how the Cowboy O stacks up against the Aggie D.

First a small disclaimer, I already know that there have only been two to three games played, so please, when you email me to tell me what a jerk-off I am, invent a new reason. Now then, Let's dive into a few numbers. The Aggies come in with a 10th ranked rushing defense, 32nd ranked pass defense, 9th ranked scoring defense, and 15th ranked total defense. They are giving up a mere 68 yards on the ground, and a paltry 109 yards through the air. The have only allowed 21 points in their two games, and have recorded 11 sacks to go along with two interceptions. Wow, I mean, holy shit. You know what, we might as well not even play the game this weekend, we'd probably just get embarassed. No way we score on that D, hell, the New England Patriots could only score like 10, maybe 14 points on that beast. But, something is giving me a faint sense of hope, perhaps, even a glimmer of confidence. What, you may be asking, could give me hope in the face of those stats? Well, a few things. Get all nasty and hump the jump and you can find out.

First thing we need to understand, A&M hasn't played a decent team yet. Idaho has the 106th ranked total offense (out of 120, ouch), and has only managed to average just under 300 yards a game. Have they been playing defensive juggernauts? Well, if you consider Bowling Green and North Dakota juggernauts, then sure (to be fair, Bowling Green has a top 25 defense, but they've played Idaho, Morgan State, and Wyoming). SMU has a top 50 offense, but made their bones against UTEP and Northwestern, and still only managed 30 points a game. What does all this mean? It means we don't really know anything about how the Aggie D will handle W2B, JR, SmiFF, Anyium, Whitemon, and all the other weapons we have. I have serious doubt's about their 3 man front being able to slow down our run game without help, and if the bring up a linebacker or two and double Blackmon, we will have single coverage on every other receiver.  But I'm getting ahead of myself, lets all take a moment to pleasure ourselves to some Oklahoma State offensive statistics.

The vaunted Cowboy offense has lived up to it's reputation this year, and after 3 games has the 2nd ranked total offense (and it should be first, but Kansas let Georgia Tech skullfuck them Saturday, and that pushed the Yellow Jackets over the top. Way to represent KU, giving up 621 rushing yards and 164 passing yards). Joseph Randle has 388 yards and 7 TD's on the ground, plus another 117 receiving. Jeremy "SmiFF" Smith adds another 141 and 3 TD's. Our numbers through the air are sicker than Tara Reids nether regions. Brandon Weeden is 95 of 131 (72%) for 1154 yards and 8 TD's (though he does have those 6 picks to go with it). He has completed passes to 15 different receivers (to put that in perspective, Tannehill has completed passes to 9 receivers), so we sling it around all over the field. Now, while we have played Tulsa, Arizona, and ULL, none of which play much D, they are all about on par with the resistance that A&M has faced, so I think these numbers stack up well.

What do I think all this means for Oklahoma State Saturday afternoon? Like I mentioned earlier, the odd front A&M uses will struggle stopping Randle or Smith until they're in the second level (unless they bring a 4th, which they do a lot. Really, the only reason A&M uses a 3 man front is to be different than Texas), and once they've passed the lineman watch out Aggies. The biggest threat to Weeden on passing downs is Tony Jerod-Eddie, a senior who has played in every game the past 3 seasons. Keeping him away from Weedens spine will be imperative, but I'm worried about a blitzing linebacker more than I am anyone on the D-line. It will be up to Smith or Randle to handle the blitz from Sean Porter and Johnathon Stewart (the Aggies blitz almost every down, so in essence they have a four man front, but try to disguise where the 4th will be coming from). Honestly, I will be surprised if they get to Weeden more than once or twice, our O-line is too experienced, and too strong to get pushed around much. If they do get heat on Weeden, we'll just gentlemen like Levy Adcock, Michael Bowie, Nick Rush, and all those sexy beasts get angry and pound the rock down their sheep loving throats.

I think that we will be able to move the ball well on the Aggie defense, the game will be decided by the battle between the Cowboy defense and the Aggie offense. If we hold them under 400 yards, we win by 14 or more. Some people think that we will give up 600 yards rushing against A&M, after we gave up so many to Tulsa. Those people are stupid assholes, who apparently think the fact we were up 30 and playing at 2 am had nothing to do with it (Mark Rodgers, I'm looking right at your bitch ass). Am I concerned at the way Tulsa moved the ball? Sure (just read my comments in the game thread. The result of 12 plus hours of drinking and a midnight kickoff), but I don't think that's indicative of our true ability on defense. I've also heard the argument that we gave up 400 yards to Arizona and 330 yards to ULL, as proof we are poor on defense. I'd like to counter that by saying Arizona only scored 14 points, and ULL gained half their yards on the backups (and almost half their points off Weeden interceptions). I'll get into greater detail in a twin post to this one (but, you know, the opposite) later in the week, so I'll leave you with this:

Go Pokes Motherfuckers