GoldAppleCorps

Every team is getting delay penalties these days. They're taking the edict to "immediately wind the clock" seriously. When you get an INT or a fumble, they're not waiting for the celebration to stop. They're winding the play clock. Same with punts and kickoffs. Take away lesson: Be ready with your unit for sudden changes (or obvious ones).

From a desk on the edge of Waco: FIGHT!!!

Hurd will play Wildcat or RB sometimes. He's their "power runner" when they need one. No mistake, he's a big strong guy. If he and Charlie Brewer are run threats at the same time, the defense has to rally to whomever has the ball quickly. Fortunately, it's not too hard to figure out. Just clinical gap assignment, as Baylor just doesn't possess enough heavy bodies for an effective lead blocker.

Let's not start putting in the 2nd teamers yet. This isn't the 2005 Bears, and we're not 2005 Texas. Baylor's poor rushing defense gets its numbers because of single points of failure. Meaning, on a given play, the DL will slant and one guy doesn't get the message. There's a big backside hole (insert your mom joke here), and the RB goes for whatever's left of the field. It isn't like they just get drove play after play. Ditto pass defense. Four guys play man, one plays zone, and the X receiver is running all by himself. I'm not concerned about the Texas offense against Baylor's defense. I'm confident that, even if Baylor tightens up their mental game, Texas still has the athletes to score. Baylor does have horses on offense. They have to score on the big play because they lack the strength to power rush inside the 20. However, they execute that impossible to defend back shoulder fade that, when run perfectly, can't be stopped once the ball is in the air. The Texas defense has so many movable pieces that they create confusion interchanging with each other. If each man does his job, it should mentally overwhelm Baylor's OL, leading to QB pressure and, with enough frustration, easy turnovers. Texas should be rightly considered the overwhelming favorite, but we're still going to have to execute. Baylor would really like to leave Austin laughing about Texas being back.

Do you remember how Texas fans were so incensed the last 2 years when our offense had all these awesome weapons, talent at WR, QB, and RB, and still couldn't put two 1st downs together? It's because, fundamentally, you have to threaten a power run - otherwise the defense just tees off on your lanes and makes throwing even a quick slant impossible (dropping LBs and DBs just love to run those things back for easy TDs). Baylor is exactly that. Even down to the screaming about how bad their OC is. If this were a 7 on 7, Baylor would own. Their receivers a quick, wily, and talented. If Charlie Brewer gets time, he's going to find an open man. That open man will be tough to tackle. Baylor gets huge chunks of yards on long rainbow passes that land at the boundary over the backside shoulder. The problem is, the Texas defense cannot by typically read pre-snap. They jump, shift, fake pressure, drop, and roll coverages to an insane degree. As such, Texas fans are likely to see the very familiar attempts to swing passes to RBs, pitches to WRs, etc in order to slow the rush or avoid pressure. I don't see it working well. There is simply no cure for an OL that can't block an inside run.

I'm hoping that, if your intent is to hold blatantly, you could at least do it while shoving your defender backwards. That should keep you out of the end zone. There's gotta be a flaw in my logic, otherwise Mike Leach would have tried it already.

Shack's holding at the end of the game left we with a question. We were trying to kill the clock, which had like 5 minutes still left. We had four downs to play with, so we could kill a little over 2 minutes just standing there if we did nothing. We ran a play. We gained yards. Shack held. OU accepted the penalty. We moved back, but the down stayed the same (duh!) and the clock kept running! What would prevent us from gaining yards over and over by having our OL deliberately hold their opponent, probably getting a penalty, but always keeping the clock running against the 25 second play clock until the game was killed off? This is obviously very unsporting behavior, but it would put the defensive coaches in a position of either accepting the penalty and keeping the clock running, or declining the penalty and accepting whatever gain the RB managed to generate from a blatantly holding OL.

I've watched an insane amount of Baylor football. I'm no dummy! /charlesdemar If you do not pressure Charlie Brewer, he will find an open receiver. That receiver will run for an amazing chunk of yards. He will be fast, athletic, and hard to catch. If you pressure him, the Baylor offense blows up, because they cannot run between the tackles! Nod your head if you remember how that limits an offense. Baylor has a great QB, fast athletic receivers, and dynamic RBs. However, if you keep your defensive pressure aligned no more than 7 yards from the LOS, they're reduced to slinging the ball quickly and hoping for pass interference. Our defensive length, experience, and versatility (even in-play) is designed to cause fits for what Baylor wants to do. Defensively, they're a hot mess. They have a talented player at just about every position group, but they have no link up play. The DE's can't reliably spill to the LB's who can't agree with the DB's on what the coverage should be. They hope for individual effort, like at DT beating his man for instant pressure. What's more likely is that a supporting player is going to blow his responsibility entirely, leading to an uncontested "length of the field" run. Stopping Collin Johnson or LJH in particular requires coordinated defensive play where defenders bracket and pass off players. While Texas lacks the linear speed to consistently run away from most defenses, it's unlikely Baylor will be able to reliably cover. In short, Baylor lives off the big play, since they cannot power drive the ball. Their big plays do happen - it's just a matter of limiting the damage and fighting again. When attacking the Baylor defense, don't get frustrated. Take the short runs when they're there and don't take sacks. They will bust coverage more often than they'll individually shine. Protecting the football just goes without saying, since the football is always life and opportunity. Baylor is not a terrible team, but their strengths play into Texas' strengths. If Texas avoids beating themselves, there's not a lot Baylor can do about it.

Kyler Murray. Darren Sproles, Quentin Griffin. Squashing those little guys through the OL is like trying to stomp a cockroach that ran under your kitchen table. Keeping up with him when he scrambles is paramount. I remember one game against the Huskers where the Texas defense basically put 10 men on the LOS. At the snap, they'd move to different positions, but they just dared Taylor Martinez to throw over them. The lack of ability to diagnose coverage before the play left Taylor crushed into a confused heap.

Every time Ehlinger drops back to pass is an opportunity for the hybrid multi-front whiz-bang defense to cause chaos. Ideally, you don't out-scheme TCU's defense. You out-play them. Bring in 2 TE, keep your blocking sound, and turn the game into a walrus battle. Sometimes, football is just a simple matter of seeing who's tougher. Take your yards, wait for the safeties to spin down, and see what happens when Colin or LJH go one on one. TCU is a well put together football team. There's no, "Simple. Just do this!" game plan. We're just going to have to whip it out and see who's is biggest.

The cure for this is to watch the football games. Against ND, we used an insane amount of offensive gimmicks to paper over the fact we couldn't do anything as a team. We just tried to find that one magic individual who could score high school style TDs by himself. The defense tried to find individual efforts. It all added up to a dice roll at the end that went in our favor. USC helped us by not having a run game. Texas' D got some key pieces back that led to them playing with cohesion, and the end result was the Trojans hoping to cash in on deep balls. Offensively, Texas showed it could run when it wanted to, and find open receivers afterwards. No particular phase was dominant, but each complemented the other and melded into an actual game plan. Of course, actually getting FGs sort of helped the score too. There are teams on Texas' schedule that perform better than the Horns showed on Saturday night. They're not world-beaters yet, but this was real, workman like win by a team that combined the physical preparedness with the mental discipline to execute. They need to keep getting better, but this was in no way the "Hey, look what we found!" Notre Dame style win.

Devin Duvernay is a luxury player that well functioning offenses use to rip the top off of a defense. When the DBs and LBs are going every which way to help cover running lanes and the mid/shallow routes, a player like Devin uses the extra time afforded to the QB to race by the entire secondary for a wide open bomb. Needless to say, none of that described Texas last season. Upfront blocking = running lanes = slower defensive rush = better pass protection = time for routes to develop = more Duvernay touches. For all the chicanery and window dressing, you still have to block an inside dive to win at football.

I had to go back and check the top of the video to make sure I'd read the name right. Good God! That's a defensive back!

That's a part of the Maryland article that made me smile. The writer said last year's offense did well against a top rated Texas defense. The defense that played against Maryland wasn't the 2017 Texas defense. It was the 2016 defense with different players and coach. They still played with the "better wait and see, my teammate might mess up" approach. Even though Orlando had drilled them all summer to know their role, then execute with bad intentions, the defense played that first game unsure and timid. The Texas players have put in the work to be elite. We know that. It comes down, then, to the mental aspect as sports usually does. It gets calle swagger or momentum or mojo or a bunch of other terms, but it all means conquering the mind. Once you've done the preparation, knowing that you'll act instinctively without second guessing or doubting produces championships.

Rather be inside the tent pissing out...

From what I've seen, Tre Watson has the work ethic and the understanding of what it takes to compete. He walks like the job is his, and it will be if none of the other guys match his focusness. Toneil Carter has the "million dollar talent and a ten cent brain" tag creeping up behind him. He can still save himself, but he has to realize that the Longhorn uniform isn't something you take off when you're done with it. The media and the fans follow you everywhere. It may be unfair, but that's your choice when you pick the Burnt Orange. There's someone there for your spot if it's too much. He should be option 1a, instead he's #3 by default. Daniel Young just does everything right. By rights, he should be a complementary or change of pace back. Thus far, overall offensive ineptitude forces him into the featured role. He's owned it through dedication. Of course, all of this is tosh if the OL can't open up a gap. Between the return of the TE to the Texas offense and new widebodies, there's every reason to believe that will happen. However, right now it's all just theory.

The Maryland game had to happen. Texas has talented athletes at every position. What they lacked was trust. Someone would miss a tackle or alignment, his buddies would get to thinking rather than playing. They'd try to anticipate mistakes rather than play their position. It led to everyone getting to the ball a second too late. During last summer, the defense learned to trust the coaches and each other. They spent the whole summer learning to rely and scheme and their buddies. They were ready! Then, during the 2nd quarter of the Maryland game, they faced adversity. Someone made a mistake. The team panicked. They forgot what they'd practiced, and went right back to playing like they had the year before. As a result, mistakes created mistakes. The snowball rolled just enough that Texas stood on its own field looking like the kid who threw up at his own birthday party. I believe Todd Orlando used that tape. I believe he asked his unit to try things his way. Don't think. When the scheme is called, know your role. When the ball is snapped, execute it violently. Trust that your buddies will do the same. Mistakes will happen. Tackles will be missed. Get right back up, and go again. In the end, the opponent won't be able to match your intensity, and they'll be forced to react to the defense - rather than dictate terms. Before you're old and wise, you have to be young and stupid. It's why we like older players. They've got talent, yes, but they've already made the mistakes and (hopefully) learned. The defense had to come through Maryland in order to prove that trusting your coaches and teammates was the way to go. It's now up to the players, as they age out and new ones come in, to teach that lesson.

Westbrook drew a flag for embitchifying Leland McElroy.

Yeah. If that's some backup WR returning the punt, then he gets there early for a PI call, or gets there late and whiffs on the breakup. Instead, it's an All-World DB who checks the receiver, checks the pass, and instinctively gets there just as the two intersect. He aims his hit to, um, "break up" the completion.