As interesting as this game was as a whole, the highlights are pretty boring. As you’ll see, both teams took turns beating each other with the same concepts. Anyway, let’s get to it.
DEFENSE
This game was the greatest evidence yet that the defense is improving. It held an offense that was averaging almost 6 1/2 touchdowns per game to 4, and one of those came after the offense gave the ball away at the Texas 37. But more than that, it executed a game plan requiring patience and discipline, something it couldn’t have pulled off a few weeks ago.
Unfortunately, “highlights” mostly means “touchdowns,” so there’s only one positive example to start with.
Someone Finally Comes Down With an INT
It was only a matter of time before Pat Mahomes threw a pick. Texas’ secondary nearly had at least four interceptions before Kris Boyd caught the game-clincher.
Up front, this was the story of the game: With just three rushers (mostly Malcolm Roach, Breckyn Hager and Poona Ford), the Longhorns were able to get Mahomes scrambling, and every time he fled the pocket, Malik Jefferson was there. On this play, he sensed Poona bursting free on the inside and Roach caving in the right side, so he flushed to his left. Hager and Malik were on him immediately, pushing him back and making him throw off-balance.
The second element is the disciplined play in the secondary. There’s a Tech receiver standing by himself inside the 20, but the Texas DBs know that with about 10 seconds left and only one timeout, he won’t beat them — the receivers in the end zone will. And I’m pretty sure Boyd is still levitating in that end zone.
Rub Routes
Last week, Texas shut down Baylor in the red zone with Cover 0. For whatever reason, Kendal Briles refused to adjust. Here’s one type of adjustment he could have used.
If a defense is playing true man coverage and not passing off switch routes, it’s generally a bad idea for two DBs to line up next to one another at the same depth. One player will have to go behind the other anyway, so why not start at different depths and avoid the risk of a collision? That’s not what happened on this play, though, and although it was well-executed by the Tech receiver, they could have been penalized for offensive pass interference. But no one ever seems to look for that, so bravo on the playcall and execution.
Notice how John Bonney and Dylan Haines are lined up at different depths? There’s no doubt that Tech should have been penalized for this one, but Haines should also be able to make this tackle — the receiver leaves his feet to make the catch, and Haines has the sideline to use as a second defender. Charlie Strong and Vance Bedford would do well to work with the DBs on “banjo” coverage (if the receivers switch places, the defenders switch receivers) for these red-zone situations.
This play is more bubble screen than pick, but it still forces a defender (in this case, DeShon Elliott) to navigate traffic to make the tackle. The real mistake here is made by Davante Davis, who seems confused about the coverage (check your bingo cards). All he needs to do is force the ballcarrier inside to his help, or, better yet, use his 6’2″ 197-pound frame to shed his 5’9″ 175-pound blocker and make the tackle himself. Hell, just nudge the ballcarrier out of bounds. Whether there was confusion (there shouldn’t be) or a lack of effort, this play is frustrating.
The Hager Tax
Texas may not have been able to win this game without Hager getting after Mahomes like he did. But with young guys, you take the bad with the good.
For much of the fourth quarter, Jason Hall and P.J. Locke switched roles. Recall that Locke played safety last season, so it’s not a big change for him. The reason for the change seemed to be to use Hall as a blitzer without having to spin down a safety.
As for the play itself, it’s hard to tell from this angle, but the D-line is slanting left and WHERE IS HAGER GOING? Check out the confused right guard, who is determined to block a linebacker who is determined to go to the sideline. By the time Hager realizes he screwed up, there’s a gaping hole that maybe nose tackle Chris Nelson and Haines can fill. Except Hager overcorrects and tries to get inside the guard, creating a cutback lane in his original gap and preventing Haines from making a play. Oops.
OFFENSE
As I said at the top, there isn’t much variety in the highlights. Much of it is D’Onta Foreman doing D’Onta Foreman things and the left side of the offensive line caving in the defense. Texas did, however, add a fun new red-zone play.
Baby Megatron
We finally got to see the Collin Johnson we’ve been waiting for, and ho-ly —
This is a nice red-zone or short-yardage concept against man coverage. The two outside receivers run short in routes, and the #3 receiver (Johnson) runs a corner route. The pressure is on a safety to cover the 6’6″ Johnson by himself on an entire half of the field. Shane Buechele made two great throws, and Johnson made two phenomenal catches.
Same thing. Now that this is on film, defenses would be foolish to play man coverage against trips sets in the red zone. I guess they’ll play Cover 2 to the trips side, which opens up more space for Foreman to run. Not ideal.
Speaking of Foreman
Though only one of them showed up on the scoreboard, Foreman scored two touchdowns on Counter-H. It makes sense to look briefly at the anatomy of the play — I don’t think we’ve done that yet.
There’s really three major components: the down block by the playside guard (Jake McMillon) and tackle (Connor Williams), the trap block by the backside guard (Kent Perkins), and the lead block by the H-back (Andrew Beck). Any time the down blocks are getting as much movement on the defensive tackle (identified by the #1) as they are here, it’s really bad news for the defense. And this is important: When Texas runs the 18 Wheeler — or really anytime they need a few yards — they run a concept to the left with the left side blocking down. The reason is that it’s easily the most dominant block for this offensive line. They destroy everyone. We’ll look at the problems later.
Safety #38 had a bad day trying to tackle Foreman. He ran himself completely out of the play on this one. And yeah, it’s Cover 0, so Tech has an 8-on-6 advantage. They had more success with Cover 0 later (it’s part of the reason the run game slowed down in the fourth quarter).
Here’s another — also Counter-H — where #38 just whiffed.
Williams seals off the backside linebacker and Caleb Bluiett pops the playside linebacker, leaving safety #38 to make the play. He can’t do it. (I guess Foreman does have some wiggle, huh, Tech coaches?) Gfycat only allows 15-second clips so I had to cut this one short, but unless the Tech player who ended up with the football decided to hold the ball next to Foreman’s left arm for a while before running off with it, Foreman had possession of this football beyond the goal line. For any Big 12 officials reading this, that’s called a “touchdown.”
Let’s take another look at those down blocks.
This time Texas is running Power. Watch where the Tech end and tackle wind up.
Guess who missed another tackle.
This play is Split Zone (or Slice Zone) — everyone blocks inside zone and an H-back kicks out the end man on the backside, which often creates a cutback lane. No cutback needed this time. Bluiett, a senior, had a great tweet this weekend:
He should get some glory for this dominating block. Also, once again, Tech is playing Cover 0 — 9 vs. 7, and Texas wins.
18 Wheeler
OK, so I tried to emphasize the left side’s dominance because it helps explain what’s right and wrong with the 18 Wheeler package. Before we get into that, though, I want to clear up the notion that the 18 Wheeler is some sort of gimmick or trick play package that’s been figured out. Look at how much push the offensive line was getting. Look at what the offense was doing when it was outnumbered 6-to-8 and 7-to-9. Now imagine trimming that numerical advantage by one and letting a T-Rex in football pads carry the ball. It makes a lot of sense. It’s not a gimmick, it’s an awareness that “Hey, we’re kicking your ass with seven or eight blockers. What would we do with 10?”
One problem: If all you’re going to do is run out of it, you should let your best runner (Foreman) carry it. Sterlin Gilbert called a pass play out of it — the first of the season — and it worked to perfection. He should have called it again. But I want to be clear: The concept is fine. It’s not the problem. Sometimes Swoopes misses the holes, but Sterlin’s apparent lack of creativity is the bigger problem. Defensive coordinators everywhere know that when they see it, Swoopes is running it, and he’s running it to the left. If that’s the best Sterlin can do, then the package needs to be scrapped.
Anyway, here’s what it looks like when it works.
Every playside defender on the line of scrimmage gets washed down, cutting off the pursuit from the backside. The playside defenders off the LOS are left trying to tackle Swoopes by themselves — and they have lead blockers to deal with.
Here’s what it looks like when it doesn’t work.
The down blocks don’t reach the backside linebacker. I don’t know if that’s because the defensive line was slanting and impeded them from reaching the second level, or if it’s by design. I’m leaning toward the latter; they probably didn’t think the backside linebacker could get over and stop Swoopes one-on-one when he only needed a yard. They may have been right, but the other problem is that Perkins almost missed his assignment, and so he and Beck both ended up going for the same guy. That left a second second-level defender unblocked. Foreman could probably find a way to beat two guys for three feet, but Swoopes can’t.
Hopefully Sterlin figures these things out. At least he’s moved away from the tendency to try to spread defenses out with the 18 Wheeler. Now, I’d like to see him add more constraint plays, let Foreman run it, or scrap it altogether.