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Texas/Baylor Football Post-Mortem

Posted by Scipio Tex on November 9th, 2008 under Football

Baylor has a smattering of really good football players: Robert Griffin, Kendall Wright, Jason Smith, Joe Pawelek. Unfortunately, Baylor’s studs are surrounded by a few guys who should be valeting cars at the Omni. Exploiting their deficiencies in their secondary (Jordan Lake will hit, but is a negative in pass coverage – I’ve renamed him Jordan Late), DL and at both OG positions are why we were able to get the convincing win and move on to Lawrence with our dreams more intact than our health.

Offense

Greg Davis regained his sanity, so that’s good.

We applied some learning in Lubbock though it hasn’t all quite taken. We made many of the right moves with respect to personnel: Malcolm Williams saw more snaps alongside Shipley and Cosby, we spent the majority of the game in four wide, and Fozzy Whittaker got the start at HB with Vondrell performing very well in complement. On the negative side we also watched Peter Ullman get worked in pass protection again allowing a shot on Colt. The Greg Smith goalline layup for the touchdown isn’t a salve for our terrible TE play. He had a 5 yard false start on 3rd and short on our opening drive. Their blocking was poor to mediocre. We’re not getting any production out that position and if the the coach’s litmus test for HB snaps is pass protection, then how do we justify snaps for guys who keep giving up negative plays and monster shots on the QB position? Sadly, a Ulatoski injury may mean more snaps from the TE position under the false notion that they help our pass protection.

A WR lineup of Cosby, Shipley, Williams and Collins/Kirkendoll is formidable. Williams is Threat Level Orange on the outside and helps to create the seams in which Shipley and Cosby thrive. As I’ve written before, Kirkendoll and Collins offer similar skill sets to Cosby and Shipley – it helps to have one physical freak to garner the respect of opposing safeties. If Williams and Shipley get coverage respect, that leaves Cosby covered by a safety or a scrub and that tends to result in first half stat lines like 6 catches for 102 yards and 2 TDs. Nice to see Quan back healthy, happy, and hard-nosed as ever.

The running game looked better, as it should given that Baylor’s DL is in the bottom 1/3 of the league. I’m not really interested in the running game from a volume standpoint given our offensive identity. The issue is quality. We need to be able to punish dishonest fronts, slow up the pass rush, and convert 3rd and short when needed. Whittaker provides our best skill set, but a healthy Vondrell is a perfectly solid Divsion I RB when he has a hole to run through – as evidenced by his play. Both runners had essentially identical stat lines. Fozzy also pass protected very well. A lack of variation in our running game is still an issue. You saw it in our drive after Baylor’s first touchdown – our first run was a zone play that was doomed before it hit the chalkboard and then on 2nd and 3rd down the Baylor linebackers were already in their drops before the snap. All of our short and intermediate routes were choked off and we punt. If we’re going to be a four wide offense, we need a simple counter draw with a play action built off of it. We have to give pause to LBs and give safeties a reason to take false steps.

The OL was largely very solid in pass protection. Colt had good time in the pocket and most of the big hits he took were from late blitzers like the one that caused his first interception. That’s on the QB, C Chris Hall, Ogbonnaya for releasing without checking, and the play call. One of the other significant hits he took off of the edge was on an old familiar culprit from Lubbock – the TE. Ulatoski’s loss is huge as the dropoff at the OT position in pass protection from him to Allen is Himalayan.

Colt played very well. His picks are largely attributable to “Shit Happens” and I like that he’s looking deep. He’s also very beat up. You can see it when he runs and in his body language after a big shot. I was glad to see Mack give him the hook in the 4th. He deserves a juice box, a hot whirlpool, and a couple of Tri-Delts. An amazing year for Colt.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t single out Joe Pawelek as a baller. As I mentioned in my Baylor preview, the guy is knocked for a lack of speed, but he’s very athletic and moves laterally about as well as he moves forward. Great hands, good quickness, and a skill player’s sense of anticipation. That was his fourth pick of the season. Joe Pawelek can play on my defense any day of the week.

Defense

Best stat of the game: Baylor was 1 of 11 on 3rd down conversions. Defense is about getting an offense off of the field and our TOP advantage was attributable to Baylor’s inability to sustain anything. Their offense largely consisted of four big plays, three of which were legitimate.

Griffin is a raw stud. But you knew that. They were able to string together some offense on the backs of true freshmen, but that’s not a legitimate basis for an offense. I’m amazed by the total lack of contribution and leadership from their upper classmen skill players. Loved Briles’ creative use of vertical pick plays. Officials are attuned to watching for scrapes on crossing routes, but Baylor’s use of stop routes beneath a double move vertical is borderline genius. Baylor left two TDs out on the field because of errant throws on those plays. Some passable imitation of zone would shut that down, but Akina has yet to make it to the Jim Boeheim clinic.

The secondary was looking for a break after a rough stretch of facing four elite passing offenses. Our performance was somewhat uneven for reasons mentioned above, despite Griffin’s pedestrian stat line. Still, we showed some very good things. Earl Thomas has particularly grown over that stretch however his brief injury loss to an errant Jared Norton hit set up Kendall Wright’s toasting of Ben Wells for an easy Baylor TD. Deon Beasley had a nice pass breakup in the first quarter and then proceeded to place himself back in the negatives with a phantom 1st quarter effort on Robert Griffin in the open field and an attempt at a tackle on Kendall Wright on a crucial Baylor 4th down play that could only be described as uncommitted. He encored with an end zone PI that gave Baylor a fresh set of downs and touchdown. He followed with a solid effort in pass coverage to close out the half and a great second half. Deon, you are a mystery.

Blake Gideon was solid, but this year he has no interceptions, no fumbles caused, no recoveries, no impact plays. It’s not enough to be competent. The safety position is uniquely empowered to create turnovers – a safety that doesn’t do that consigns your defense to mediocrity. If Blake can’t become a turnover creator, he’s not useful to us.

Say what you want about Ryan Palmer, but the Death Ewok has made some plays this year and he has never been scared of contact. His third pick of the year was brought back to the house at a time when we sorely needed it. It turned the game. He also contributed a sack and that garners Mr Palmer my Defensive Player of The Game award.

The DL was primarily concerned with contain and respecting the zone read. We did OK. Roy Miller did a great job of collapsing the pocket. Center JD Walton is actually a quality football player, so we lined Miller up on the outside of Baylor’s guards on clear passing downs. Result? Two Miller sacks and several pressures on Griffin. Seeing Lamarr Houston go out with an injury is troubling, but Aaron Lewis and Kheeston Randall gave us solid minutes in relief. Henry Melton had a good game that won’t show up on the statline.

Muck was solid and made a number of outstanding hustle plays, but Bobino’s bicycle to the edge had a flat tire. Kindle was largely caught up in playing the contain game, so dominant play from him was not expected – he did have some nice hustle plays as he always does.

Special Teams

I must admit that I was taking Hunter Lawrence for granted. I watched his two missed field goals with the same stunned disbelief that I had when Crash won the Oscar. Jordan Shipley as punt returner needs to continue. We need the ability to make something game changing happen when the ball changes possession. A punt is nothing but a controlled turnover. The better your athlete catching it, the less control your opponent has have over the turnover. Kickoff coverage was very solid until a late game hiccup. Seeing guys like Aaron and Malcolm Williams returning kickoffs is a very good thing.

Final Thoughts

This game went as anticipated. It was a solid win against a increasingly respectable outfit in Waco, but Baylor is still bringing nunchuks to a gunfight. Let’s hope we see a healthy Ulatoski, Orakpo, Houston and Chykie Brown in Lawrence.

A great season is still very attainable if we TCB in Lawrence and next week in Austin.

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29 Responses

  1. Texasfootball said:

    November 9th, 2008 at 1:33 pm

    Scipio—thanks for sharing. Would like to read your thoughts on a few observations about our defense after I thank you for pointing out the “lookout” blocks our TE’s always provide in the passing game.

    Were you as happy as I was that coach Briles only ran a couple of option keeps? Assignment football must be out of the question.

    Is it illegal to actually attack the slip screen or must you hand-fight the blockers while retreating to gain a cushion on possibly making the tackle?

    We sure fooled them with our goalline coverage on that third down pass, didn’t we? I bet they never expected us to cover all three receivers with one single defender but we tricked ‘em even though they were stationed at all three levels on that play. They tricked us back on fourth down by not blocking old 44 which allowed him to over-run the world while Griffin simply cut inside so tie goes to the runner.

    That was some “Hail Mary” coverage wasn’t it? Use five of yours to whiff or “drive by” but secretly let them catch it out of bounds to complete the tease, huh.

    We continue to dazzle me with our lack of teaching the actual game—all the knowledge in the world ain’t worth spit if you don’t take the time to explain it.

    BTW—Good take Scip.

  2. Horn Brain said:

    November 9th, 2008 at 3:37 pm

    I think the hiccup in kickoff coverage was the second coverage team. I noticed the usual suspects from weeks past in there and pointed out that we’d gone to the second set of special teams, then *presto!* 50 yard return. I think our KO coverage will be fine from here on.

    Why can’t we block a punt? We block three in two games and then I think we got a hand on one the rest of the year. Bleh.

    Aaron Williams is going to absolutely de-cleat people for three more years here. Incredibly evil.

  3. Parlin Hall said:

    November 9th, 2008 at 4:18 pm

    Nice write-up, Scip.

    The KU game should not be a major challenge. Mangino’s kept things hanging together so far, but the air just went out out of his team in Lincoln. Expect the D-line to have good day: a KU receiver remarked after the game that he’s never seen Reesing on the ground so much. It’s a toss-up whether their pass defense is worse than their run defense: Helu ran wild on them in the 2nd half, but Swift was open all day. Believe it or not, even Suh caught a touchdown pass.

    KU loses their last three. If they make it to a bowl, they lose that too.

  4. Bartoncreek said:

    November 9th, 2008 at 5:40 pm

    Rewatch the tape and watch Ulatoski. Then tell me that Allen is not an upgrade. I promise you, will think twice about that.

    Now Ulatoski may have well gotten hurt early in the game and not been capable of blocking anyone. But, I am really beginning to wonder. His superb play in the first 5-6 games has gone by the wayside and he has flat gotten killed Colt the last two. I hope he gets well and returns to form, but I am beginning to be from Missouri on that one. Allen is a guard playing tackle, but he is much better than what we have rolled out there the last two games.

    If you have the time to rewatch a little Scip or Texasfootball, let me know what you think. Thanks for the writeup.

  5. Scipio Tex said:

    November 9th, 2008 at 6:06 pm

    Barton:

    Can you list 5 examples of his bad play in the Baylor game with the relevant clock time? I’ll look again.

  6. Scipio Tex said:

    November 9th, 2008 at 6:16 pm

    TexasFootball:

    I think playing the bubble screen aggressively has to do with having the athletic confidence that you’ll break through a glancing block and blow up the guy. I think we’ll see a different play on that when Aaron Williams and Chykie Brown are next year’s starting corners.

    My hope is that knowledge of the game would grow over time with some consistency at DC, but if 75% of your time is spent putting in your basic defense every spring and summer, fundamentals and teaching moments suffer. That’s why Mack’s notion that “we’ll just plug in another great DC” doesn’t really wash. You lose a great deal of the consistency and unit understanding that makes for a great defense. We have had a defense that has been less than the sum of its parts for some time now and I think the lack of internal consistency is a huge reason for that.

    As for playing the option, man, just watch college football. No one knows how to play it any more – kids don’t see it in high school and it’s a totally contrarian offense now. I’m just waiting for someone to put in the wishbone.

  7. Kafka said:

    November 9th, 2008 at 6:53 pm

    Nice writeup.

    I wouldn’t have either Shipley or Quan returning kicks/punts. They are too valuable to the offense to risk injuring them. Remember what happened to the horn offense when cosby went out of the Tech game?

    The younger guys like Malcolm and Aaron will do a good job of returning and are much more expendable. Return teams are very risky because of the high speed collisions.

    I also would not worry that much about blocking punts. The risk/reward ratio is too high. The horns offense is scoring points. The hard part against teams like Tech and OU is for the horn D to get them to 4th down. When the punter is touched by the horns’ punt blocker, the resulting penalty is effectively a turnover by the horns.

    Special teams should be focusing more on covering kickoffs and punts and doing a good job on returns. Punt blocking is important when an offense is having trouble scoring points. that is not the case this year.

    I’d like to see Fozzy and Vondrell on the field at the same time (Fozzy in the slot and Vondrell at TB). Then fozzy could be involved in the run game as a WR.

    If vondrell has a pre-assigned hole to aim for, his efficiency goes up 100%. Now that he is healthy, he is quick and has decent power. He also blocks OK and doesn’t fumble much. Obviously Fozzy is a much better runner but I completely agree that Vondrell is OK.

    Agree about taking out Colt, why risk injury? Colt has taken a lot of punishment he did not need to take this year. That is why most coaches demand that their QB gets down/out of bounds whenever possible to avoid taking a hit. That is also the downside of running your QB a lot.

    Thought Chiles ran better than in the past, much harder nosed. His TD run was sweet (to bad it was called back because of holding). Was Snow his center when the center snap was botched? Maybe Buck leaving the team had an impact on this play.

    I didn’t have a problem with the TE experiments. If you are ever going to experiment, Baylor is the game to do it.

    Maybe the TE TD (and a lot of the TE plays, in general) were to give KU something to think about.

    “Baylor’s use of stop routes beneath a double move vertical is borderline genius.”. That’s high praise.

    Basically, it is just like a pick in basketball, right? The guy setting the pick (the guy on the stop route) is stationary so he can’t be penalized for setting a pick and the pass receiver’s defender is afraid of running into him because it might be pass interference).

    Just like in Bball, the key thing is for the pass receiver to run his guy into the pick. It seems like the smart D would be just to jump switch the defenders or recognize the pick early and fight through it (just like in basketball).

    The safety position is in the process of being redefined. In the old days, you needed at least one safety who might not be super fast but was smart and could hit like a mini-Butkus.

    With the advent of 4 WR offenses like Tech’s, the safeties need to be guys like Earl Thomas, i.e. good sized, smart CBs who can run and cover well and get converted into safeties.

    I have been wondering (ever since I saw Palmer fell gresham in the OU game), if Palmer would have been better used as a safety this year. He has no fear, is super fast, and plays so much better when he can look into the play. I know he is small but the guy can hit and he is the most experience DB. Too late now, I guess.

  8. Groundhog Day said:

    November 9th, 2008 at 10:05 pm

    This team is going to be stacked next year but the big question when looking at our team is how are we going to replace Roy Miller who is having an All American type campaign?

    I’ll say it again, but I’m just not impressed with Gideon. Sure he is smart and is in position to make tackles but he just doesn’t seem to “make” plays. We can put the Ben Wells hype to rest. That looked awful. I have to take back everything I’ve said about Palmer because he has been solid all year. Aaron Williams continues to impress and Curtis Brown and Earl Thomas played well. We need Chykie back. Scipio, is it out of the question to move Williams to safety in place of Gideon?

  9. dedfischer said:

    November 10th, 2008 at 3:34 am

    I felt sympathy for you when the score was knotted at 14 and Davis called two straight WR screens using your homerun threat as a blocker and your physical possession guy as the ball carrier. They played damn good football for the last 5 minutes of the half. I had to run after that, but it appeared the ship was righted.

  10. RansomStoddard said:

    November 10th, 2008 at 5:12 am

    I would like to take the time to disagree about the offense but want to gripe about the D instead. There is a legit question whether Muschamp/Akina is an upgrade over Akina 2007. The LB play is still mediocre except for the plays when Muck ignores what he’s been told and plays on instinct. The secondary is horrible, as shown in its ranking of 163rd out of 119 Div I teams. The next play Deon makes will be his first. He is absolutely terrible. The entire secondary doesn’t cover well, has poor technique, doesn’t force turnovers and misses more tackles than a Pop Warner team. The line is okay but was owned by Tech and OSU and their 2 star recruits. I seriously think Muschamp has not been an improvement over last year, statistically or otherwise.

  11. hiphopopotamus said:

    November 10th, 2008 at 6:01 am

    Any idea what the odds are on seeing Orakpo next week?

    Chances are slim to none either way, but I’d feel a lot better about them and Todd’s safety if he leaves his helmet in Austin.

  12. Nate said:

    November 10th, 2008 at 6:57 am

    Blake Gideon was solid, but this year he has no interceptions, no fumbles caused, no recoveries, no impact plays. It’s not enough to be competent. The safety position is uniquely empowered to create turnovers – a safety that doesn’t do that consigns your defense to mediocrity. If Blake can’t become a turnover creator, he’s not useful to us.
    ————————————————–

    Yikes. Have you seen our other safeties play defense? Gideon is far and away our best safety that isn’t named Earl Thomas.

  13. PatronSaint said:

    November 10th, 2008 at 7:16 am

    A big problem I’ve seen the last two weeks equating to a ton of yards given up:

    Why can’t/don’t our corners fight through blocks on WR screens and hitches? It drives me mad seeing some receiver engage with Beasley and see him hop aimlessly around while the guy catching the pass runs right past.

    The easiest play in football is to beat a block made by a skinny guy in space, but not one member of our secondary ever does it.

  14. LonghornScott said:

    November 10th, 2008 at 7:48 am

    RansomStoddard,

    I understand how some people could ask the question you are asking, but the line of reasoning is flat out wrong.

    1)We have played an absolutely brutal heavily slanted toward offensive powerhouses who throw the ball.
    2)Our defense has held teams below their averages in scoring in every game so far this year.
    3)3rd conversions and red zone defense are vastly improved
    4)Our defense is working with all youth in the secondary save Palmer. Remember Huff and Griffin when they were redshirt freshmen?
    5)We actually do things like disguise fronts and coverages: name any other DC we did that effectively under.

    Muschamp is not a god but he is far and away the best DC we’ve had under Mack.

  15. Scipio Tex said:

    November 10th, 2008 at 8:14 am

    Kafka:

    We scored three touchdowns as a direct consequence of Quan going out of the Tech game. As for a vertical pick, you can’t switch that. Your defender on the stop is stopped. He can’t turn and run with someone who is already on the fly. That’s why you zone it. I definitely agree with you on the redefinition of the safety position.

    Groundhog:

    I think Aaron Williams could play all four secondary positions and he certainly has the mentality to play safety. I’d only be in favor of that move if Deon or Curtis can be very good player. We’d also be costing Aaron some NFL money with that move…

  16. Kafka said:

    November 10th, 2008 at 8:22 am

    I echo everything Longhorn Scott said, plus:

    Tech is going to make DLs look bad because Tech is so effective at screen plays. When you consider that the UT O is so bad at running screen plays, the UT D could not prepare for the Tech screen plays in practise.

    The UT DL was a big question mark coming into this season and has turned into a huge strength. UT has been way more successful this year at pressuring the QB with just DL pressure.

    Two of the LBs, Sergio and Muck, have had great years. Granted, most of Sergio’s success has been as a pass rusher but kudos to Muschamp for using Sergio effectively. Muck has had an amazing year. You say: “…LB play is still mediocre except for the plays when Muck ignores what he’s been told and plays on instinct”. How do you know that?

    Among the DBs, Palmer is tiny, Beaseley is not physical, and everybody else is a freshman. At least Muschamp played nickel and dime personnel when it made sense to do so (unlike previous years). Muschamp also helped out the secondary by getting much more effective pressure on the QB this season.

    The UT secondary could have been absolute fiasco this year considering that it had to face Bradford, Harrell, Daniel, etc.

    Muschamp is probably gone after this season and it is unlikely that his replacement will be as good.

  17. Scipio Tex said:

    November 10th, 2008 at 8:38 am

    Ransom:

    We’re actually a Top 20 defense if you compare what we hold opponents to versus their normal average vis a vis the rest of the NCAA. I’d also agree with everything Scott wrote. Muschamp is a massive upgrade over Akina. The key is keeping him for 3+ years. Once our defensive system is a constant, Muschamp will be able to teach the game, our youngsters will grow, and that’s when we’ll take a giant leap as a unit.

    hiphop:

    No idea. Our injury reports are as reliable as the New England Patriots.

    Nate:

    My statement was forward looking. You’re also assuming that our current safety personnel aren’t capable of taking a leap once they understand the mental part of the game. Or that our personnel there are fixed. If Aaron Williams were moved there, that would change things dramatically. My comment was not “Bench Gideon now” – it’s pointing out that a guy who creates no impact plays at a impact position keeps a defense from being great.

    Patron:

    Some of those skinny WRs aren’t all that skinny. As I mentioned to TexasFootball, I think it boils down to physical confidence and experience. Deon and Curtis are physically weak and Curtis doesn’t want to give up a huge play. The “safe” play is to get the guy eight yards down the field. If you try to blow it up and fail, it could be a TD. I suspect this will get markedly better next year.

  18. Horncasting said:

    November 10th, 2008 at 8:52 am

    Ok, this is probably Football 101, and has been mentioned numerous times, but what is the deal with our DB’s not looking back for the ball?

    At this point it has to be something Akina is specifically teaching them, right? If so, why?

  19. Scipio Tex said:

    November 10th, 2008 at 9:05 am

    horncasting:

    If you’re in man, you can’t look back at the ball while you’re runninng on a vertical until the WR clues you in that a ball is coming. That’s also why everyone on your sideline yells,” Ball, ball, ball” when it’s in the air. You’re watching the WRs eyes and hands to cue you on making a play.

    That’s why being able to play zone is useful. Your eyes are always on the QB. We don’t teach zone well.

  20. Kafka said:

    November 10th, 2008 at 9:11 am

    Scipio:
    The UT O went into free fall in the first half after Quan went out. UT did better in the second half as a result of finally throwing to Malcolm, primarily because Malcolm made some huge plays.

    There is absolutely no reason that UT could not throw to Malcolm while Quan was still in the game. In fact it is easier to throw to Malcolm when Quan is in the game because Quan draws so much D attention.

    Losing Quan is devastating to the UT O because Quan is one of the two guys that Colt feels most comfortable throwing to.

    “As for a vertical pick, you can’t switch that. Your defender on the stop is stopped. He can’t turn and run with someone who is already on the fly. That’s why you zone it.”

    I would call it a stationary pick, not a vertical pick. Because the picker is stationary, it makes it more difficult to call picking on him.

    You are a big proponent of man coverage underneath, right? How is the D supposed to know when to go to zone?

    It is easy for an O to determine whether a D is in zone by simply putting a man in motion and watching how the D reacts. The O is not going to run a crossing pattern against a zone D.

    Assuming the O knows you are in man D, how do you defend a crossing pattern? You can either switch or fight through the screen.

  21. Scipio Tex said:

    November 10th, 2008 at 10:16 am

    Kafka:

    You can’t switch that. It’s not basketball. Your defender is stationary and looking back at the QB with the pick WR. He then (maybe) sees a guy running a fly coming towards him full speed. When he turns and runs, he’s done. There isn’t a human being on the planet that can turn and run with that receiver from a dead stop and stay within 10 yards.

    There is absolutely no reason that UT could not throw to Malcolm while Quan was still in the game.

    Yes, there is. The fact that Malcolm was backing up Quan. Our coaches hadn’t used him as meaningful complement to Ship and Quan all year. That contention is hypothetical. Quan going out created three TDs on plays that he can’t make. That doesn’t mean him going out was good – it probably does mean that we didn’t have our personnel properly allocated. And one of the key allocations was Shipley to returning kicks. It’s not coincidental that our two TDS on kick returns are both Jordan; one probably prevented a loss in Dallas, the other gave us a chance to win in Lubbock. He’s our most gifted kick returner.

  22. Horncasting said:

    November 10th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

    Scipio – thanks for the explanation. It still seems like every other team manages to turn and look for the ball in man coverage. Maybe their DB’s are better at reading the clues from the WR that the ball is in the air.

  23. Fico said:

    November 10th, 2008 at 6:37 pm

    OK just re-watched the game on the DVR.

    On the Griffin TD run the Bears go 3×1 with a back with Griffin. The Horns line up with 5 down 2 “backers” in the box (Babino and Acho) The rest are manned up on the receivers. Bears go option strong, Bobino has to get to the edge to force the pitch, Acho has to fill the whole the opens that Griffin explodes through. So I wont put that one on Bobino.

    On the long TD pass to Wright. Wells made the correct read and turn and then for some reason tried to grab the receiver instead of just running, and he just got run past.

    On the PI on Cu. Brown on the double move you guys are discussing, Brown failed to get lined up before the snap putting him at a disadvantage from the beginning. They appear to be in a zone based on the corner opening to the ball as well as Thomas flying up “to pull the chain”, so in reality they could have switched the route, although as been mentioned this is difficult especially with a young guy. Cu. Brown must work over the stop route every time to defend this play. He did show good closing speed and committed a good penalty.

    The next play was a food play b Beasley looked to be in a two shell with Thomas playing the vertical of #3 to the other side placing Beasley on an island. He was in a control position and made a good play on the ball.

    In the 3rd there was a deep pass to Gettis that was nearly missed. Gideon and Brown looked to be playing Cover 4 and they switched the routes as they should have. Gideon just got flat run by on this one. Gettis can fly but Gideon need to take an angle to cut off Gettis route and cause him to alter his route and slow himself down.

    Soon after they throw another deep ball to Thomas White (#3) the call is cover 1 or man free. Again the corner and nickel are playing at levels and on this route Palmer must go under the stop route as the out route run by White is past the first down marker, White simply turns it up at the sideline. Thomas should have been rotating that direction with the roll out and should have been on top, but instead he was in no man’s land with his eyes on Griffin.

    Final play I looked at was the long run by griffin on the option in the 3rd. Thomas comes flying up and goes directly to the back. You always have to play QB to RB meaning he should have stopped at the LOS feathered the QB (string out the play) and force Griffin to pitch and then himself and pursuit could take care of the running back. You can not let the QB go uncontested on the option.

    Honcasting – as Scipio stated it is customary to not look back for the ball in man coverage. In man coverage you are in one of two positions out of control or in control. Out of control means you are trailing and in this case you never look back for the ball…. young DBs happen to trail a lot in man coverage thus the lack of looking back for the ball. In control means you are even or in front of the receiver, i.e. Beasley on Gettis in the end zone. Also when you know you can’t get run past, or no the boundaries, for example in the end zone you can look back and make more plays on the ball.

  24. Fico said:

    November 10th, 2008 at 6:38 pm

    OK just re-watched the game on the DVR.

    On the Griffin TD run the Bears go 3×1 with a back with Griffin. The Horns line up with 5 down 2 “backers” in the box (Babino and Acho) The rest are manned up on the receivers. Bears go option strong, Bobino has to get to the edge to force the pitch, Acho has to fill the whole the opens that Griffin explodes through. So I wont put that one on Bobino.

    On the long TD pass to Wright. Wells made the correct read and turn and then for some reason tried to grab the receiver instead of just running, and he just got run past.

    On the PI on Cu. Brown on the double move you guys are discussing, Brown failed to get lined up before the snap putting him at a disadvantage from the beginning. They appear to be in a zone based on the corner opening to the ball as well as Thomas flying up “to pull the chain”, so in reality they could have switched the route, although as been mentioned this is difficult especially with a young guy. Cu. Brown must work over the stop route every time to defend this play. He did show good closing speed and committed a good penalty.

    The next play was a food play b Beasley looked to be in a two shell with Thomas playing the vertical of #3 to the other side placing Beasley on an island. He was in a control position and made a good play on the ball.

    In the 3rd there was a deep pass to Gettis that was nearly missed. Gideon and Brown looked to be playing Cover 4 and they switched the routes as they should have. Gideon just got flat run by on this one. Gettis can fly but Gideon need to take an angle to cut off Gettis route and cause him to alter his route and slow himself down.

    Soon after they throw another deep ball to Thomas White (#3) the call is cover 1 or man free. Again the corner and nickel are playing at levels and on this route Palmer must go under the stop route as the out route run by White is past the first down marker, White simply turns it up at the sideline. Thomas should have been rotating that direction with the roll out and should have been on top, but instead he was in no man’s land with his eyes on Griffin.

    Final play I looked at was the long run by griffin on the option in the 3rd. Thomas comes flying up and goes directly to the back. You always have to play QB to RB meaning he should have stopped at the LOS feathered the QB (string out the play) and force Griffin to pitch and then himself and pursuit could take care of the running back. You can not let the QB go uncontested on the option.

    Honcasting – as Scipio stated it is customary to not look back for the ball in man coverage. In man coverage you are in one of two positions out of control or in control. Out of control means you are trailing and in this case you never look back for the ball…. young DBs happen to trail a lot in man coverage thus the lack of looking back for the ball. In control means you are even or in front of the receiver, i.e. Beasley on Gettis in the end zone. Also when you know you can’t get run past, or know the boundaries, for example in the end zone you can look back and make more plays on the ball.

  25. SlickStreet said:

    November 10th, 2008 at 7:09 pm

    “A lack of variation in our running game is still an issue.”

    Scip, if folks like yourself and, probably, several others can see this as a limiting issue, why doesn’t GD (or whoever) do something to rectify it?

    This has seemingly been an issue for sometime.

  26. SlickStreet said:

    November 10th, 2008 at 7:10 pm

    “A lack of variation in our running game is still an issue.”
    (you may have answered this already–I’m admittedly a bit too lazy right now to review all the comments)
    Scip, if folks like yourself and, probably, several others can see this as a limiting issue, why doesn’t GD (or whoever) do something to rectify it?

    This has seemingly been an issue for sometime.

  27. Kafka said:

    November 11th, 2008 at 9:46 am

    Scipio:
    “You can’t switch that…Your defender is stationary…When he turns and runs, he’s done. There isn’t a human being on the planet that can turn and run with that receiver from a dead stop and stay within 10 yards.”

    The intended WR (IWR) goes down field until he is almost even with the stationary picker. He then makes a 90 degree cut to the left. He is not going close to full speed at the instant he cuts. In addition he now now has to run horizontally for awhile before he makes another 90 degree cut upfield (again, not going close to full speed during the cutting process).

    The DB defending the pick sees all this in front of him and has the shorter radius route. My guess is that there are some humans that play DB for the horns that could make that switch and defend the route as long as they see the play coming.

    Defenders frequently switch when playing zone and can do it because they see the play in front of them.

    Having said that, the DB covering the intended WR can also fight through the pick. Obviously the stationary pick defender has to leave room for the intended WR defender to slide through.

    The key point is that the offense can easily test whether a D is in zone. If the O thinks the D is in zone, they are much less likely to run a crossing route. The D has to be able to defend crossing patterns when they are playing man to man.

    I should have said that there is absolutely no Good (emphasis on good) reason that UT could not throw to Malcolm while Quan was still in the game. I will admit that there are an infinite number of bad reasons not to play or throw to Malcolm while Quan is in the game.

    Ship is a good returner. I contend that:
    * he is irreplaceable on offense,
    * that returns are extremely risky
    * that Ship has been injury prone in his career
    * that the horns score well enough on offense that returns are less critical than in previous years
    * that UT has a tremendous amount of talent, so the guys replacing Ship on returns might do a great job, too

    It is a matter of risk management. Having Ship do returns works great until he is injured and then the season is ruined. There are specific times when you might need to take that risk but most of the time it does not make sense.

    Having Quan return punts or kicks makes absolutely no sense from a risk/reward perspective.

  28. p said:

    November 13th, 2008 at 2:15 pm

    Kadka…..Scipio…

    The route could hypothetically be switched if the two DBs were on the same page. I think that is a recipe for disaster. The best solution is just to take the proper angle back to the receiver. Remember the idea here is “coverage”. By that I mean you wanna discourage the QB to make that throw. If the DB looks to be headed to the area the ball will be thrown to, then a smart QB will look elsewhere, realizing that forcing it there could result in a turnover. Our DBs seem to almost wanna run under the pick, which takes away any hope of being anywhere near the ball when it is completed. I am pretty sure this is what Scipio is referring to.

  29. p said:

    November 13th, 2008 at 2:24 pm

    Scipio………….

    I have been saying the same thing about Gideon for months, and I was crucified for it. He just never seems to be in the frame when a play needs to be made. He makes for a great safety to get a guy on the ground when he already has the ball. AW and Thomas would make a great pair back there, but would leave the cupboards pretty bare on the edge. Unless Vasher2 (aka Monroe) can contribute next year, who will be out there with Chykie??

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