OFFENSE
Let’s look for silver linings or something.
18 Wheeler Still Works
There were some nice blocks on Tyrone Swoopes’ two touchdown runs.
Caleb Bluiett doesn’t get his guy on the ground, but he does knock him back into the end zone. Brandon Hodges controlled the end the whole way.
Same play. Jake McMillon and D’Onta Foreman cut two OK State players, and Armanti Foreman was doing some great blocking near the goal line. Swoopes did the rest.
Pick Up D’Onta in Your NFL Fantasy League Next Year
Both of D’Onta’s touchdown runs came on counter plays. On the first one, he’s lined up on the playside. Even though McMillon is tossed aside right in the middle of the play, Patrick Vahe gets enough movement on his trap block to leave a huge hole for D’Onta to burst through.
The second touchdown was a counter-H run, and note that D’Onta is aligned away from the playside this time. I point that out only because the variety makes it more difficult for the defense to guess where the ball is going. Vahe does a really great job moving the nose tackle out of the hole, but OK State could still have blown this play up if the defensive end didn’t just fold at McMillon’s feet. The safety and linebacker were out of position because they expected the ball to be spilled to the outside.
A Good Time to Involve the Tight End
This was such a great playcall. I know there were some debates among fans when Major Tennison decommitted about whether a pass-catching tight end is a necessity or a luxury in this offense. I hope it’s evident to everyone by now that it’s the latter. It’s still cool when this happens, though.
I’m pretty certain the free safety would be responsible for any vertical route by the #3 receiver here, but it doesn’t matter. Someone got sucked in by the play-action, and when Andrew Beck is getting this open and going 39 yards for touchdowns, do you really need a dynamic pass catcher for that role?
DEFENSE
Confusion Was Still an Issue
I tweeted during the first series that Texas left a receiver completely uncovered (Mason Rudolph didn’t notice). It wasn’t really a sign of things to come I guess, but there were still some busted coverages.
I have no idea what’s going on with the front seven on this play, but it’s OK because the coverage is broken too. The boundary side DBs (John Bonney and DeShon Elliott) seem to be playing Cover 3. I can’t tell what they’re playing on the other side, but it wasn’t Cover 3. Elliott seemed to think he could let the slot go because there was going to be a safety in the deep middle, but there wasn’t. How does this keep happening?
Lapses in Run Defense
I love the way Breckyn Hager plays football, but when you fly this far upfield, you’re not doing a good job “containing” the play. If he had gone only three yards upfield instead of seven, the ballcarrier would have been forced back inside to Malik Jefferson and Anthony Wheeler for a short gain. The other issue is that Brandon Jones takes a very bad angle. He has no business going underneath the block of the slot receiver. Over and over there are failures in this defense from guys trying to do other people’s jobs in addition to their own, and winding up doing nothing.
Hager loses contain again on this run. He crashes down on the stretch run action away and lets Rudolph escape contain. It’s frustrating, but I’ll say this: I’d take 11 guys running around with their hair on fire, setting everything else ablaze, over players who do crap like what’s in these next two plays.
Most of Tackling Is Effort
OK State is running the same route concept on both sides of the field. Texas is in 2-Man. Paul Boyette got a nice pass rush but wasn’t able to affect the throw. OK State’s best receiver beat Davante Davis one-on-one — sometimes you get beat, it happens. But what the hell is Sheroid Evans doing? I don’t know what Holton Hill did to tick the coaches off this time, but as I tweeted during the game, he is learning a valuable lesson right now about coaches costing themselves their jobs to prove a point.
Right before the half, Texas is playing Cover 2. Notice how deep Malik is at the snap specifically to take away this kind of throw. In his defense, he was inches away from tipping the ball, and it’s a great throw. At the same time, I could make a 1- or 2-minute lowlight video of receivers catching passes that went just above Malik’s fingertips over the past 1.25 seasons. It’s infuriating. From there, you have Kevin Vaccaro doing whatever the hell that crap is. This play should have ended with a debate about targeting.
There is way, way, way too much talent on defense for these things to be happening. I can accept young guys making boom-or-bust plays from time to time like Hager. But you can’t have seniors like Evans and Vaccaro looking like they’ve never seen another human up close before. Coaches always talk about wanting their players to play fast and not think — that’s not happening right now. They look tentative and don’t seem to have any confidence in what they’re doing. It should be unacceptable for the fans, and it should be unacceptable for Charlie Strong. I’ll be shocked if there aren’t changes announced on the defensive staff by Monday.
