No defensive recap tonight, and I likely will not do any at all. It is just too hard to accurately describe defensive series in games I didn't see, so for this week and next, I will be offense-only.
Also, a little editor's note of sorts, no Big 12 Roundtable this week. We are going to wait until the week before Big 12 season (next week) before we get it back started. Let's commence...
Not a great start to the half, similar to the first drive of the game. Jake Sharp started out the drive with a run of 3 yards, and the fact that it was below his previous average of ~8.5 yards, forced Ed Warriner to have Todd Reesing throw two passes. Two incompletions, mind you, both directed in the direction of Marcus Henry. We need to learn how to start out halves better...
Bad drive #2 of the second half. Three runs, none of them by Sharp. Inexscusable. Plus, what is Reesing doing trying to run for a first down on 3rd-and-13. Receivers better have been covered pretty tightly, although I do agree with not taking a chance winning 24-7 that close to your goal line. Still, no lob deep or anything? Or even a dump-off to Jake Sh...oh, wait. He probably wasn't even in there.
The game ended following this drive. 31-7 in a semi-revenge game where there is already a talent disparity is way too much to overcome, and the small amount of anxiety left in me went away following the Brandon McAnderson 26 yard TD. Reesing continued his running theme in the second half, taking off twice (with a BMac run splitting the two) before a short completion to his new favorite target, Marcus Henry. The 26 yard scamper followed, effectively ending the game. Just like I already said.
Short drive, but was all we needed following a John Thornton interception. Would have liked to score on the first play of the drive, but the lack of Jake Sharp no doubt prohibited that from happening. BMac lost 3 yards on his first carry, most likely the O-Line's fault, and then Reesing did his favorite activity. No, besides throwing an incompletion. He ran the ball for a yard, before BMac punched it in from the 3. I know I'm letting Reesing have it, I am actually very impressed with his play thus far. But he still needs to be better for us to seriously compete for a Big 12 North title, which seems all-of-a-sudden a distinct possibility.
On consecutive drives, we scored TD's. Weird, I know. However, even weirder, is that one of them we only had to travel 1 yard, yet took 3 plays, and the next we had to travel 66 times that amount. Yes, 66 yards (for those of you without a calculator at hand) was traveled quickly, thanks to three consecutive Todd Reesing completions. To Dexton Fields for 19 yards, to Henry for 21 and finally the dagger, a 26 yarder back to Fields. Those two catches were Fields' only catches of the day, something that is somewhat worrisome. Henry will get taken away against the better defenses of the Big 12, and if Reesing can't spread the ball around to our plenty of options (Fields, Herford, Briscoe, Pendleton even). Now, I'm not saying this is a problem, just that he hopefully recognizes there are more receivers than simply Henry.
Scott Webb is a failure! I am totally kidding, 45 yarders are far from gimmes and Webb has proven in the past he is far from consistent beyond 40 yards. At least Jake Sharp got back on the field, just in time to take his only carry 24 yards. Warriner was so impressed, he decided to throw the ball three consecutive times, all falling to the ground incomplete. I am getting more and more angry recapping this game, I forgot how little Sharp was on the field. Sharp needs to get on the field more, I'll leave it at that.
The first time Carmon Boyd-Anderson appears in the game and he played well. We have quite a trio at RB, turning into a duo next year that will be nationally known next year IMO. Anyways, he reeled off runs of 9, 4, 8, 4 and 1 on consecutive carries, pretty impressive numbers. This was also Kerry Meier's first action, and he was sacked before completing a 5 yard pass to Russell Brorsen? You mean this guy? He might be starting to work at tight end some, a good thing considering Marc Jones hasn't seen the field at all.
A passless drive, most likely because of the 45-13 score and the diminishing figure on the clock. Boyd-Anderson lost two yards on a carry, before Meier first got the 2 yards back, then lost it back. A useless drive for evaluement purposes really, as the game was already well over and backups were in on both sides.
That is it, the drive recap of the second half of Saturday's game against Toledo. Tomorrow we finish recapping last week's action, then we start taking a look at our last non-con opponent. Florida International.
ROCK CHALK!