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Defensive Thoughts: Texas Longhorns @ Baylor Bears

Posted by HenryJames on November 16th, 2009 under Football

Things started off about as well as Baylor could have hoped on their first drive of the game. Their receivers were doing a good job of blocking on screens, they got a pass interference call when they threw the ball downfield and a pass that looked like it was headed out of bounds somehow found it’s way into the arms of Lorenzo Charles.

Then Aaron Williams made his athletic interception in the end zone, and the game was over.

Baylor ended that first drive with 53 yards. After their next six drives, they finished the first half with 52 total yards. Oof.

Baylor has some pretty good offensive linemen and receivers, but you can’t expect to do anything against a Will Muschamp defense with a true freshman quarterback. Nick Florence looked wide-eyed from the first snap, and he was probably done after Chykie Brown sacked him from behind on a corner blitz. I told ChrisApplewhite that someone should start a business where you can send blindside blitzes against people on the street.

It’s ridiculous how well coached we are on the defensive side of the ball, and when you combine it with our athleticism you get the results that you see on the field. Last year we finished with 100 tackles for loss. We’re sitting at 101 after Baylor. We won’t have the as many sacks as we did last year, but we’re making up for that in interceptions. Last year we had six interceptions. We currently have nineteen. So keep the QB in the pocket and let him throw into the teeth of our defense.

All three levels of our defense are jumping pass routes now. Our DBs basically run the route the receiver is supposed to run. Emmanuel Acho jumped a route underneath against Baylor to get his first interception of the year, and Eddie Jones made a great read, pick and return for a td.

You can see how well coached we are on Jones’ interception. If the lineman tries to cut you, it’s because the ball is coming your way and they want you on the ground. So he keeps the linemen off his legs, reads the route and makes the pick. Want to see the biggest difference between the defense of 2007 and this year’s? Marcus Griffin returned an int against Baylor in 2007, but I’m pretty sure Eddie Jones ran faster on his return. I’m not joking when I say our current DEs are probably faster than our safeties were on that team.

Lamarr Houston in the conversation for All American honors. Sixteen TFLs and five sacks are better numbers than Roy Miller put up last year. Apples and oranges as far as the defense, but Houston is playing as well as anyone in the country at defensive tackle.

The Acho brothers continue to come up with turnovers, and it they send me an email about getting money out of Nigeria I’d be inclined to believe them.

Aaron Williams is an athletic freak with long arms and leaping ability. Usually those guys tend to be Nancys, but Williams will mix it up. Just watch opposing receivers try to block him.

But our fans must find something to complain about so they found it in the performance of our second and third team defenses in the fourth quarter. I wish I was joking. Normally you get graded on a curve when you put a walkon corner and four true freshmen on the field against an opponent who kept their first string on the field. But this is Sparta Internet!

So we roll on with our last home game of the year against Kansas. We played our best game of the year defensively against them last year, and it’s going to be a mudhole on Saturday night in front of a national television audience.

Unless Clark Ford gives up a touchdown.

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34 Responses

  1. BatesHorn said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 11:11 am

    I learned a key lesson this weekend: Never, ever, read the game thread from the end backwards if you ditched the second half to go outside and enjoy a nice fall day. You would have thought it was Route 66 all over again.

  2. Scipio Tex said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 11:13 am

    Nice write-up.

    Agree on the Lamarr Houston love. The guy is as dominant a DT as we’ve had. Putting he and Kindle on the same side is illegal and unfair.

  3. TOR said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 11:21 am

    “Putting he and Kindle on the same side is illegal and unfair.”

    If you find yourself in a fair fight, you didn’t plan the mission properly.

  4. Levander Williams said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 11:22 am

    Re: route jumping – do you guys see this as the result of the pattern-match zone concept that Muschamp talks about?

    From my rudimentary understanding of the strategy, it strikes me as a hybrid of a man/zone coverage that allows for better coverage of spaces that you see with pass-oriented offenses, yet provides a way that the defender can match-up better with the receiver and create turnovers and/or limit YAC.

    In any case, Muschamp is doing some nice, innovative things with his coverages – it’s not just a theory of running better athletes out there and hoping to overwhelm with talent. HJ’s right – it’s fun to watch a team with a match of great talent & great coaching.

  5. HenryJames said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 11:22 am

    “Putting he and Kindle on the same side is illegal and unfair.”

    And racist!

    Bates,

    This game was over after Williams’ interception. I guess we could have left the first team defense in the whole game, but Brown has never been one to find joy in pulling the wings off of flies.

  6. Levander Williams said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 11:24 am

    “But our fans must find something to complain about so they found it in the performance of our second and third team defenses in the fourth quarter.”

    Shutouts are nice, but this is a well-made investment in the future. Another hallmark of quality coaching – let the young guys learn the hard way when the consequences of mistakes are small.

  7. texoz said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 11:31 am

    Let me throw a few more defensive numbers at you.

    Those 19 INTs are averaging 17 yards per return with 4 TDs.

    Our ratio of INTs to opponents passing TDs is almost 2-1 (19 INTS vs 10 TDs). That’s just sick.

    Finally, according to the stats, we are the best total defense.
    http://web1.ncaa.org/mfb/natlRank.jsp?year=2009&rpt=IA_teamtotdef&site=org&div=IA&dest=O

    And the rushing defensive stat is just freakish. 1.6 yards a carry.
    http://web1.ncaa.org/mfb/natlRank.jsp?year=2009&rpt=IA_teamrushdef&site=org&div=IA&dest=O

  8. magnusbleuveigner said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 11:36 am

    You got to reward the guys that work just as hard. Let them play.

    This year isn’t like last year, we’re not in a beauty pageant.

    You know your defense is really good when a decent Blake Gideon is the worst starter on it.

  9. Mysterious Package said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 11:58 am

    19 INT’s! Do we lead the nation? What is contributing to lower sack totals?

  10. Bateshorn said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 12:01 pm

    I’m glad those back ups got quality time and the game time instruction and film room experience will go a long way in the spring and the fall.

    HJ-
    Yeah. When my 8 year old asked me to go outside and play nerf football, I took one look at the 40-0 score a few seconds before half and shut the t.v. off. I love UT, but I was not going to waste an afternoon watching John Chiles drop Garrett Gilbert’s passes.

  11. ghostofagroundgame said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 12:08 pm

    I have no complaints about the 3rd team defense getting reps. Some of the players were hilariously out of position on some running plays (which is clearly inexperience). Good to blood them a little bit.

    I was a bit more upset to see Kirkendoll with 6 catches, while Malc had only one look. And Goodwin had no looks at all, while Chiles had 5 catches and at least 8 looks. The personnel decisions with our receivers make absolutely no sense, as our first-team appears to be back to what it was before the OU game. It WAS nice to see Buckner getting some looks again.

  12. UT_BKC said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 12:13 pm

    ghost – your son interrupted you during a Longhorn game and asked you to stop watching it? He wasn’t watching it holding an O’doul’s with you? What the hell are you doing man?! That is no way to raise a son!

  13. ghostofagroundgame said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 12:16 pm

    That’s Bates. I have never acknowledged any of my children, assuming they are out there.

  14. Chiles Please said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 12:21 pm

    I drop passes from the starting QB – not the backup.

  15. stuckinmn said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 12:40 pm

    There is a middle ground in the parenting vs. Longhorn football debate. I throw the nerf with my 5 year old while we watch the game. I sit in the lazy boy, he runs patterns around the living room pretending to be whatever texas player has the ball at that moment. A true win/win.

    Of course, I might have to talk to him about expectations as he was near tears when Baylor finally scored.

  16. chitwood said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 12:51 pm

    ghost, Goodwin had at least one pass thrown to him, because he dropped it. Can’t remember exactly when the play happened.

  17. ghostofagroundgame said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 12:54 pm

    Chit –

    Was it in the 2nd half? I wasn’t watching that half nearly as closely.

  18. HenryJames said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 1:01 pm

    They might have missed it to instead focus on Dan Beebe talking about his first time.

  19. chitwood said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 1:11 pm

    ghost, I think so, I just remember noticing his number since he hadn’t touched a ball all game.

  20. t1climb1 said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 2:05 pm

    If I’m not mistaken the ball that was nearly a pick six that Colt through was intended for Goodwin as well. He did drop a ball from Gilbert late in the game so he was thrown at only twice that I can remember.

  21. Roman Polanski said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 2:15 pm

    This is supposed to be about defense.

  22. Malcolm said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 2:18 pm

    I’ll be playing more when I out muscle db’s for those passes.

  23. BatesHorn said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 2:36 pm

    It’s been raining non stop in DC for 4 days. I think we were all getting a bit stir crazy. I practically decleated the boy when he tried to run past me out of sheer enthusiasm to feel sunshine.

    In all fairness, I’m beginning to wonder at what level the problem is Colt, god bless him. I noticed on Shipley’s first touchdown, Colt had to thread a bit of a needle to get it there, while Buckner was doing jumping jacks by himself in the back of the endzone.

    Still, I can’t imagine Colt LIKES to throw to Chiles.

  24. HenryJames said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 3:05 pm

    Put a Kansas jersey on the boy, and then pretend he’s Todd Reesing.

  25. Will Muschamp said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 3:32 pm

    But our fans must find something to complain about so they found it in the performance of our second and third team defenses in the fourth quarter. I wish I was joking. Normally you get graded on a curve when you put a walkon corner and four true freshmen on the field against an opponent who kept their first string on the field.

    Including one of the mods on another site who wrote a blurb that “it was another sluggish performance by Texas in the third and fourth quarters. In fact, things were even worse this week (than vs Mizzou).”

  26. Phenomenal Smith said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 3:45 pm

    I just don’t get how UT, or any defense for that matter, could possibly have stopped the Baylor Bears.

  27. BlintzPackage said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 4:32 pm

    John Chiles is a poor man’s Kerry Meier.

  28. Beeman said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 4:34 pm

    Am I the only one who thought Colt had a lousy game? He put the ball in defenders’ hands a couple of times, as usual, though thanks to his throwing the least catchable picks in D-I they were dropped. He also continues to dump the ball to the short man too much. On the pass that Smith volleyed to Kirkendoll, why wasn’t that thrown to Kirkendoll? Then when he does throw deep, he underthrows Ship for the 2nd week in a row and turns a TD into a long gain.

    Man it’s nice to be able to complain about stuff like this.

  29. The General said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 5:29 pm

    I told ChrisApplewhite that someone should start a business where you can send blindside blitzes against people on the street.

    They are called The Mob. Been punkin’ bitches since 1883.

  30. Dave said:

    November 16th, 2009 at 7:25 pm

    “Putting HE and Kindle ”

    Why do you do this?

  31. TKO said:

    November 17th, 2009 at 5:56 am

    “Agree on the Lamarr Houston love. The guy is as dominant a DT as we’ve had.”

    Yes, he is; certainly in the Mack Brown era.

    I’m curious as to anyone else’s prediction on his draft value come April. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see him go in the third round, even after a superb senior season and what I’m sure will be a very good combine. As quick, strong and disruptive as he is, he should be solid first round material, but I just get the feeling he’s getting overlooked outside of the Longhorn faithful.

  32. stuckinmn said:

    November 17th, 2009 at 6:56 am

    “Agree on the Lamarr Houston love. The guy is as dominant a DT as we’ve had.”

    Yes, he is; certainly in the Mack Brown era.

    Casey Hampton would like a word with you two. You can bring that guy that played center at CTJ’s high school.

  33. dedfischer said:

    November 17th, 2009 at 4:07 pm

    Houston has definitely taken it to another level this year. I think his talent might be inflated by the quality of guards he’s facing. OSU was starting some slap-dicks and I think OU started a TE at guard for a while. I haven’t paid enough attention to Baylor. I remember what he looks like against NFL talent and I’m having a hard time believing he’s in the Hampton/Rogers league.

  34. TKO said:

    November 17th, 2009 at 8:43 pm

    “Casey Hampton would like a word with you two.”

    I’ll readily grant that Hampton was unparalleled at the point of attack and utterly dominant within a three yard radius, but Lamarr Houston is much more mobile and more disruptive over a far larger area. In our current defense, against most of our current opponents, I believe Muschamp starts Houston over Hampton.

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