Texas vs. TCU (Oct. 3, 2015) Film Review

[GBT]

What the hell made Strong and Bedford think Jinkins & Hughes can cover Turpin in space? Their performances against the scout team in practice? That's a bad scheme and TCU fully exploited it. Only way to simulate Turpin's skills would be to line up or D against Daje or Armanti.

Clearly we didn't do that and weren't prepared for that look under game conditions. 

Time to cut bait....Lets hope boosters see this as well, and realize another year of recruiting will not solve THIS problem.

 

[Ryan Bridges]

There was big-play potential here.

It's an RPO — the run is Power-O, the passes are Foreman on a fade or Marcus Johnson on a bubble screen. The bubble screen is taken away by alignment, so Heard checks the depth of the boundary safety. Heard decides he's too shallow, so he throws the fade; there was no post-snap read.

It's unfair to stop the play where I did to show the run would have been a huge gain, because the boundary safety would have been coming up to make the tackle. My goal was just to show that he'd be the only one, he'd be coming from about 8 yards deep and several yards to the left, and he'd have to navigate through the rest of the blocks. The blocking was as good as it's been all year. A handoff would have netted at least 5-6 yards in my opinion.

The more frustrating part is that this should have been a fairly easy completion. One thing Foreman doesn't have is field awareness. But the throw is great, and I would use this play as an argument for more deep shots downfield, even when the receiver seems to be covered.

 

[Ryan Bridges]

This is an oversimplification, but I've got very strong suspicions that Heard is incapable of adjusting on the fly. I think he's at a point where he takes a snapshot before calling for the snap, makes his decision and then nothing can change his mind.

This play works because D'Onta Foreman is a pretty good football player, not because it was the right call. Quick screen to Johnson (too bad it wasn't Daje) or play-action fade to John Burt would have been nice.

 

[utisdabomb12]

What the hell made Strong and Bedford think Jinkins & Hughes can cover Turpin in space? Their performances against the scout team in practice? That's a bad scheme and TCU fully exploited it. Only way to simulate Turpin's skills would be to line up or D against Daje or Armanti.

Clearly we didn't do that and weren't prepared for that look under game conditions.

Both plays posted above I'm pretty sure the plan was to bring help from Haines and Duke. in other words, they wanted to essentially double Turpin. The mismatches have more to do with Haines and Duke being out of position IMO.

 

[Ryan Bridges]

Both plays posted above I'm pretty sure the plan was to bring help from Haines and Duke. in other words, they wanted to essentially double Turpin. The mismatches have more to do with Haines and Duke being out of position IMO.

They're both Cover 1, so Duke wasn't going to be of any use, and Haines is playing centerfield. It's just a mismatch, but I'll make the same argument I made on Shaggy: Who else can you play there? You can't just tell Kris Boyd to go out there and follow #25, because you don't know how TCU is going to line up. It makes sense to me to put a veteran on him, disguise it (which we did — poorly) and hope they can cover a true freshman for at least the first few steps. 

 

[Ryan Bridges]

This is the Drive concept that came up last week. I still hate it.

The idea is that if the underneath defender doesn't drop back, the dig will be open. The defender doesn't drop back, but Heard throws the shallow cross anyway. Bad idea. 

Texas needs to add some variety here or something. In this instance and literally every other instance I can think of when Texas has run this, the safety jumps the dig route, so even if Heard made the correct read, the best Texas could hope for would be an incompletion and defensive pass interference ... because the safety runs the route before the receiver can.

 

[Shannon Kelley]

It's hard to defend the pass when your linebackers are within two yards of the line of scrimmage engaging blockers at the time the ball is released. 

I can't wait for college football to adopt the NFL's ineligible man downfield rule. This one's legal in college but would be against NFL rules.

I agree. RPO's are basically illegal because the Linemen always are engaging past the LOS and blocking downfield. They were supposed to crack down on this, but they really haven't. Happens every ball game in College ball.

 

[Ryan Bridges]

This exact thing happened on one of the previous drives. There's a gif on the first page.

This play works because Connor Williams and Elijah Rodriguez on the left side get a good push on the nose tackle, but you can't always count on your FRESHMEN LINEMEN TO CONTROL THE LINE OF SCRIMMAGE WHY MACK WHY?

If Texas — or more precisely, Jerrod Heard — isn't going to punish the defense for playing two-on-two on the outside with the next closest defender nearly 30 yards away, then what's the point of trying to spread them out?

 

[Ryan Bridges]

Nice work, Taylor Doyle.  :huh:

 

[Ryan Bridges]

During the broadcast, Chris Spielman made it sound as though Texas always spot drops and doesn't match routes. That's not true, and it wasn't the case here. They're just at an athletic disadvantage. 

Bonney should have been "walling off" the receiver here, basically stepping in front of him and cutting him off. 

 

[Ryan Bridges]

Doyle ends up on the ground way too often.

Notice how Foreman gets another two yards after getting hit? That's the biggest difference between him and Gray. 

 

[utisdabomb12]

Nice work, Taylor Doyle.  :huh:

At least he didn't fall down, progress. 

 

[utisdabomb12]

Doyle ends up on the ground way too often.

I can't even understand how he falls down so much. I mean if could just stay on his feet he would be a substantially better blocker. 

 

[utisdabomb12]

Ryan did Elijah Rodriguez get many reps on Saturday? 

I'm hoping he's actually replacing Flowers and not just getting late snaps at the end of the game. Hell, the one block you posted above is probably better than anything Flowers has done all year. 

 

[Ryan Bridges]

Ryan did Elijah Rodriguez get many reps on Saturday? 

I'm hoping he's actually replacing Flowers and not just getting late snaps at the end of the game. Hell, the one block you posted above is probably better than anything Flowers has done all year. 

I've only seen him in that one 1st-quarter drive so far but I'm with you. From the little that I've seen in this and the Rice game, I don't believe he's not an upgrade over Flowers. 

 

[utisdabomb12]

Nice work, Taylor Doyle.  :huh:

These are the type plays where it's difficult for me to judge the offensive coordinator. This is a big play most likely if the offensive line can block for 3 seconds. 

 

[utisdabomb12]

I've only seen him in that one 1st-quarter drive so far but I'm with you. From the little that I've seen in this and the Rice game, I don't believe he's not an upgrade over Flowers. 

This is what the Oklahoma State fans told me about Wickline. He likes to ease the younger guys in (which is why I said in another thread that us starting Vahe and Williams really tells you how bad the OL situation is as it's completely antithetical to what Wickline likes to do). 

I would be willing to bet Rodriguez and Raulerson are both getting a good amount of reps by the end of the year. I have no clue how good Rodriguez and Raluerson are, but from the limited amount I've seen they are for sure an upgrade over Flowers and Doyle. 

 

[utisdabomb12]

Williams (FR)

Rodriguez (RS FR)

Raulerson (SO)

Vahe (FR)

Perkins (JR)

If Perkins is healthy I think we will see a lot of this rotation at the end of the year. That will possibly be what we roll with next year too. I can't even fathom the possibility of two true freshman and a RS FR getting significant snaps at the same time though. 

 

[Ryan Bridges]

Here's an RPO with Power-O, a bubble screen or a go route.

The run is outnumbered, so the choice is bubble screen or go route. The throw is behind Marcus Johnson and forces him to stop, negating any chance the play had of success.

Here are two reasons the go route is better:

1. It's basically 3-on-2 on the screen side, but it's clearly 1-on-1 to the single-receiver side. The safety will try to help but he has zero chance of getting there if the throw is outside the numbers.
2. The screen depends on Armanti Foreman's ability to block and Marcus Johnson's ability to catch and then not hesitate, all things he's terrible at; the go route depends on 6-foot-2, 184-pound John Burt's ability to outrun, outjump or outmuscle a 6-foot, 170-pound corner. 

I don't know why Heard went with the screen except that it's a safer throw. Texas won't beat TCU with safe throws. 

 

[utisdabomb12]

Here's an RPO with Power-O, a bubble screen or a go route.

The run is outnumbered, so the choice is bubble screen or go route. The throw is behind Marcus Johnson and forces him to stop, negating any chance the play had of success.

Here are two reasons the go route is better:

1. It's basically 3-on-2 on the screen side, but it's clearly 1-on-1 to the single-receiver side. The safety will try to help but he has zero chance of getting there if the throw is outside the numbers.
2. The screen depends on Armanti Foreman's ability to block and Marcus Johnson's ability to catch and then not hesitate, all things he's terrible at; the go route depends on 6-foot-2, 184-pound John Burt's ability to outrun, outjump or outmuscle a 6-foot, 170-pound corner. 

I don't know why Heard went with the screen except that it's a safer throw. Texas won't beat TCU with safe throws. 

Heard doesn't even look to the right or middle of the field. This was either predetermined to go there or Heard isn't going through his progressions. 

If Heard waits about another second or two, it looks like nobody picks up the RB out of the flat.