Several non-stop trends to note in the 21st century:
Global warming (sadly)
More strikeouts in baseball
Offenses besting defenses in college football.
The Red River Rivalry has been played 117 times (62-50-5 in favor of Texas). Check out the dates of the 4 highest scoring games in the fabled Texas-Oklahoma series:
2021 OU 55, Texas 48
2020 OU 53, Texas 45
2018 Texas 48, OU 45 “Dicker the Kicker”
2016 OU 45, Texas 40
Notice a trend??
Another benchmark of defensive futility. Check out some defensive stats of Arkansas State, a respected Sun Belt program that has spawned the Power 5 coaching careers of Gus Malzahn, Hugh Freeze and Bryan Harsin during the past decade.
VERSUS:
Memphis 680 yards of defense
Washington 367 yards of passing defense to an anemic offense that scored a total of 17 points in its prior 2 games
Tulsa 663 yards of defense
Georgia State 503 yards of rushing defense
Coastal Carolina 683 yards of defense
Even Arkansas State’s new coach, Butch Jones, must be wordless at this point — no small feat since Jones is the master of meaningless platitudes.
Not convinced yet? Then you probably did not watch Ole Miss’ 52-51 thriller over Arkansas which featured three TD’s in the last 82 seconds of the game. In August, Alabama’s D was reputed to be one of its best in a decade. What does offensively-challenged Texas A&M do with its backup QB against the Tide: 41 points!! Have they cleared the fans off the field yet in College Station?
Probably just as well that Bo and Woody have passed on. If they had not, they might have had coronaries watching 21st-century defenses flail away.