Texas Run D 2019: Unleashing the Dirty Dime

[Burt Macklin 19000]

Ian Boyd actually wrote a really good article the bot posted on the fall camp thread, and I started to write a response and then realized it got way too long, so I decided to make a thread to discuss. 

A lot of people on here and elsewhere have been asking about Texas' run D this year, and it seems like many are worried we'll drop off in that area in 2019.  A lot of national pundits have lazily thrown out the stat that we lost 8 starters and 70+  percent of "production," however much of that "production" represented weaknesses in our defense that good offensive coaches could easily exploit. 

Overall, we were actually pretty good against the run last year, finishing 33rd in the country in adjusted line yards per Football Outsiders (https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ncaadl/2018).  However, Orlando's defenses are generally elite against the run and 2019 was a big drop off from Orlando's previous two years, where he finished 2nd and 17th.  More than anything, the dropoff was personnel related.

I'm going to focus on the reasons why that drop off occurred and highlight how this year's team can use the Dime package, to get lighter, faster, better in coverage, and most importantly, improve against the run.  

Below is a picture of our Dime package with Overshown (and possibly Brown) at Joker and Foster at Nickel.  In this scenario, Ossai will be the Rover, though he and Overshown could switch positional alignment and responsibilities pretty seamlessly. 

With Foster at Nickel and Overshown or Ossai on the other edge, you're basically using a 3-4 even though you're in dime.  Foster would probably be considered the best 3-4 OLB in the conference, besides Ossai, if he actually played that position.  He was unbelievable in the run game and blitzing last year. I remember one play against OU where he got under their LT, who was drafted in the third round, and just drove him back like he was on skates even though Foster was giving up 100 lbs in that matchup.  I think Overshown will be similar, even if not quite as good.    Ossai showed really impressive off-ball LB ability in the spring game, and his performance against UGA makes me think he's just a flat-out great football player. I think he'd be fine with run fits at Rover.  Combine that with the ability to have Ossai and Overshown essentially switch between Rover and Joker without tipping it off pre-snap, and Orlando has a counter for someone like Gundy who may try to isolate Ossai in coverage over and over.

If you have to take one of Ossai or Overshown off for Dele, then I think the defense gets quite a bit worse against many opponents. Dele might be one of our best 11 against LSU if they revert back to the power scheme they ran last year, but against most Big 12 opponents, he'll never get a chance to play the run inside the box because guys like Gundy will spend the whole game picking on him like they did to Wheeler last year.  Regardless, Dele coming along this fall has been a big (and hopefully true) development.  He gives us added versatility against teams that decide to line up in extremely heavy fronts to counter our Dime package and I think he would likely still be an upgrade over Wheeler, even if he probably can't hold up for a whole game against most Big 12 opponents.

The 4 biggest weak spots in our defense last year were Hager, Wheeler, and the Nickel (usually Locke, but Josh Thompson played there some too and absolutely killed us).  Our NT spot with Nelson and Wilbon was generally good against the run, especially when teams like Georgia and USC tried to attack us more traditionally, but when the spread gurus of the Big 12, like Gundy and Holgo, played us they became a liability.  Utilizing the Dime package will allow us to strengthen all four of those spots and make it much harder for offenses to identify weaknesses and exploit them endlessly in the run game.

The switch from Hager to Graham will be huge. Both Graham and Roach have a ton left to show on the field before they live up to the hype they've been getting this offseason, but the two of them will be  better against the run combined than Omenihu and Hager were last year.  Gundy ruthlessly picked on Hager and Bimage (as the play side DE) and Wheeler (as the weakside LB) last year and ran Outside Zone over and over. Hager and Bimage were too small to set a hard edge and that extra space meant that Wheeler couldn't make it to the ballcarrier as an unblocked weakside LB. We might as well have been playing 11 on 10. The other problem was that while people generally consider Nelson and Wilbon to be good against the run, their lack of athleticism really hurt the in Orlando's scheme at time last year. While neither would get moved off the ball much, Orlando's run D involves a lot of slanting and penetration.  Orlando prefers to counter a run heavy team by betting he can create enough negative plays to kill drives, even if that leads to some chunk runs by the opponent. Wilbon and Nelson's lack of quickness meant they couldn't slant into gaps that someone like Poona, or hopefully Coburn/Ojomo, can this year. 

As an example, below is a play where OSU ran outside zone successfully against us that highlights many of our personnel deficiencies from last year. I could've found about twenty other plays to show, but wading through OSU film to find a good example was making me want to punch a hole in my screen. 

On this play, Wheeler was actually the strongside LB, but his poor play still shows why our 2019 D has so much room for improvement.  Wheeler, as often happened, was way too slow to read the play and made the RG's job easier than winning a spelling bee against a room full of Sooners.  Now, watch Bimage run himself so far out of the play that he looked like he was sprinting to the sideline for a sub.  Not every play had Bimage and Hager looking that bad, but they were generally getting driven way out of the play and failing entirely to set an edge. Wilbon does ok on this play, but there were many others where he and Nelson were too slow to get play side and allowed a clean running lane.  Look at 27:54 for an example of this.  Finally, watch how Locke plays patty cake with the 190 lb slot receiver and then try to guess a side to jump, instead of stacking and shedding his man, so he could make the play.  

If you compare this to our personnel in 2019,  either Ossai or Overshown should be better at speeding over from the backside than Wheeler in 2018 and will likely also be better at diagnosing the run plays earlier than Wheeler did.  Graham should hold the edge better than Hager did last year and Coburn/Ojomo should be more effective slanting on run plays than Nelson/Wilbon were. I expect Foster will be a pretty huge improvement in the run game, and I think he'll be an improvement in coverage from the Nickel as well. He just has a better sense for the game than either Locke or Thompson did last year.  

There's no doubt that CB is more of a question mark than last year, and McCulloch could struggle in his first year at ILB, however, even if a few of our new starters struggle, we likely improve at more positions than we downgrade, and the defense overall should have less obvious weaknesses for good offensive coordinators to attack. 

[SuperSurly 21]

Strong effort, enjoyed the offseason read and I like the optimism. We may have better athletes on D which is an advantage, while gametime snaps played is a disadvantage. We will get better throughout the year - I'm hopeful that we don't make mental mistakes against LSU. - Chad

[Machinator 32098]

1 hour ago, Burt Macklin said:

I remember one play against OU where he got under their LT, who was drafted in the third round, and just drove him back like he was on skates even though Foster was giving up 100 lbs in that matchup. 

The play referenced:

 

[Yesh 904]

With Foster on the LOS, and Sterns coming on a blitz from the other side, is it possible that Bimage had playside C gap responsibility?  Neither Wheeler or Locke seem like they are concerned with playing the run with urgency.

[futureman 22420]

1 hour ago, Burt Macklin said:

Ian Boyd actually wrote a really good article the bot posted on the fall camp thread, and I started to write a response and then realized it got way too long, so I decided to make a thread to discuss. 

A lot of people on here and elsewhere have been asking about Texas' run D this year, and it seems like many are worried we'll drop off in that area in 2019.  A lot of national pundits have lazily thrown out the stat that we lost 8 starters and 70+  percent of "production," however much of that "production" represented weaknesses in our defense that good offensive coaches could easily exploit. 

Overall, we were actually pretty good against the run last year, finishing 33rd in the country in adjusted line yards per Football Outsiders (https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ncaadl/2018).  However, Orlando's defenses are generally elite against the run and 2019 was a big drop off from Orlando's previous two years, where he finished 2nd and 17th.  More than anything, the dropoff was personnel related.

I'm going to focus on the reasons why that drop off occurred and highlight how this year's team can use the Dime package, to get lighter, faster, better in coverage, and most importantly, improve against the run.  

Below is a picture of our Dime package with Overshown (and possibly Brown) at Joker and Foster at Nickel.  In this scenario, Ossai will be the Rover, though he and Overshown could switch positional alignment and responsibilities pretty seamlessly. 

With Foster at Nickel and Overshown or Ossai on the other edge, you're basically using a 3-4 even though you're in dime.  Foster would probably be considered the best 3-4 OLB in the conference, besides Ossai, if he actually played that position.  He was unbelievable in the run game and blitzing last year. I remember one play against OU where he got under their LT, who was drafted in the third round, and just drove him back like he was on skates even though Foster was giving up 100 lbs in that matchup.  I think Overshown will be similar, even if not quite as good.    Ossai showed really impressive off-ball LB ability in the spring game, and his performance against UGA makes me think he's just a flat-out great football player. I think he'd be fine with run fits at Rover.  Combine that with the ability to have Ossai and Overshown essentially switch between Rover and Joker without tipping it off pre-snap, and Orlando has a counter for someone like Gundy who may try to isolate Ossai in coverage over and over.

If you have to take one of Ossai or Overshown off for Dele, then I think the defense gets quite a bit worse against many opponents. Dele might be one of our best 11 against LSU if they revert back to the power scheme they ran last year, but against most Big 12 opponents, he'll never get a chance to play the run inside the box because guys like Gundy will spend the whole game picking on him like they did to Wheeler last year.  Regardless, Dele coming along this fall has been a big (and hopefully true) development.  He gives us added versatility against teams that decide to line up in extremely heavy fronts to counter our Dime package and I think he would likely still be an upgrade over Wheeler, even if he probably can't hold up for a whole game against most Big 12 opponents.

The 4 biggest weak spots in our defense last year were Hager, Wheeler, and the Nickel (usually Locke, but Josh Thompson played there some too and absolutely killed us).  Our NT spot with Nelson and Wilbon was generally good against the run, especially when teams like Georgia and USC tried to attack us more traditionally, but when the spread gurus of the Big 12, like Gundy and Holgo, played us they became a liability.  Utilizing the Dime package will allow us to strengthen all four of those spots and make it much harder for offenses to identify weaknesses and exploit them endlessly in the run game.

The switch from Hager to Graham will be huge. Both Graham and Roach have a ton left to show on the field before they live up to the hype they've been getting this offseason, but the two of them will be  better against the run combined than Omenihu and Hager were last year.  Gundy ruthlessly picked on Hager and Bimage (as the play side DE) and Wheeler (as the weakside LB) last year and ran Outside Zone over and over. Hager and Bimage were too small to set a hard edge and that extra space meant that Wheeler couldn't make it to the ballcarrier as an unblocked weakside LB. We might as well have been playing 11 on 10. The other problem was that while people generally consider Nelson and Wilbon to be good against the run, their lack of athleticism really hurt the in Orlando's scheme at time last year. While neither would get moved off the ball much, Orlando's run D involves a lot of slanting and penetration.  Orlando prefers to counter a run heavy team by betting he can create enough negative plays to kill drives, even if that leads to some chunk runs by the opponent. Wilbon and Nelson's lack of quickness meant they couldn't slant into gaps that someone like Poona, or hopefully Coburn/Ojomo, can this year. 

As an example, below is a play where OSU ran outside zone successfully against us that highlights many of our personnel deficiencies from last year. I could've found about twenty other plays to show, but wading through OSU film to find a good example was making me want to punch a hole in my screen. 

On this play, Wheeler was actually the strongside LB, but his poor play still shows why our 2019 D has so much room for improvement.  Wheeler, as often happened, was way too slow to read the play and made the RG's job easier than winning a spelling bee against a room full of Sooners.  Now, watch Bimage run himself so far out of the play that he looked like he was sprinting to the sideline for a sub.  Not every play had Bimage and Hager looking that bad, but they were generally getting driven way out of the play and failing entirely to set an edge. Wilbon does ok on this play, but there were many others where he and Nelson were too slow to get play side and allowed a clean running lane.  Look at 27:54 for an example of this.  Finally, watch how Locke plays patty cake with the 190 lb slot receiver and then try to guess a side to jump, instead of stacking and shedding his man, so he could make the play.  

If you compare this to our personnel in 2019,  either Ossai or Overshown should be better at speeding over from the backside than Wheeler in 2018 and will likely also be better at diagnosing the run plays earlier than Wheeler did.  Graham should hold the edge better than Hager did last year and Coburn/Ojomo should be more effective slanting on run plays than Nelson/Wilbon were. I expect Foster will be a pretty huge improvement in the run game, and I think he'll be an improvement in coverage from the Nickel as well. He just has a better sense for the game than either Locke or Thompson did last year.  

There's no doubt that CB is more of a question mark than last year, and McCulloch could struggle in his first year at ILB, however, even if a few of our new starters struggle, we likely improve at more positions than we downgrade, and the defense overall should have less obvious weaknesses for good offensive coordinators to attack. 

how long did that take you?

[texifornia 56566]

Bumping because actual football content deserves to be read.

[Sock Drawer 214]

3 minutes ago, texifornia said:

Bumping because actual football content deserves to be read.

Yeah, that's kinda rare. But we're not short on political opinion, so there's that.

[sushihorn 3233]

Dime as a base against spread teams is going to be nasty.  Even more options to cloud up the QB's reads and switch coverage responsibilities even post-snap.  All that speed with big hitters like Foster and Overshown on the back end is going to be solid in run support as well.  The 404 Tite Front is specifically designed to clog the middle and to spill running plays to the sideline.  With 4 safeties on the field, I feel pretty good about the way that pursuit will turn out.

My main concern is with teams that can run it vertically with power or simply inside zone.  That's what Texas did to ISU last year.  They played a light box with 5 and an overhang defender.  Everybody else had to arrive from depth and they couldn't get there until the RB was well past the LOS on many occasions. 

[Fud 9546]

There are several ways to skin the OZ cat, but the way I think Texas approaches/will approach it will be the playside DL (DE and NT) stringing out the RB towards the sidelines keeping him from turning the corner early and funneling him to the cornerback, with the linebacker (Shark) hopefully not overrunning the ball. If all three are doing their job, then it's easier to not get skinned by the backside run option and RPO. If not, then you're getting booty blasted and are hoping for a big negative play to stall the offense. 

[Katfid54 8593]

34 minutes ago, Fud said:

There are several ways to skin the OZ cat, but the way I think Texas approaches/will approach it will be the playside DL (DE and NT) stringing out the RB towards the sidelines keeping him from turning the corner early and funneling him to the cornerback, with the linebacker (Shark) hopefully not overrunning the ball. If all three are doing their job, then it's easier to not get skinned by the backside run option and RPO. If not, then you're getting booty blasted and are hoping for a big negative play to stall the offense. 

This.

Compare Texas vs. oSu 2017 with Texas vs. oSu 2018.

The ability to stop OZ in 2017 was basically the ENTIRE difference between those two games.

[Burt Macklin 19000]

On 8/25/2019 at 5:01 PM, SuperSurly said:

Strong effort, enjoyed the offseason read and I like the optimism. We may have better athletes on D which is an advantage, while gametime snaps played is a disadvantage. We will get better throughout the year - I'm hopeful that we don't make mental mistakes against LSU. - Chad

We’re definitely low on experience, but guys like Boyd, Wheeler and to a lesser extent, GJ and Locke made their fair share of boneheaded plays that would usually be attributed to inexperience if not for the collective number of starts for those guys. 

I say that just to make the point that I’m not sure how many extra brain farts our defense will have that last year even with so much less experience.

On 8/25/2019 at 5:23 PM, Yesh said:

With Foster on the LOS, and Sterns coming on a blitz from the other side, is it possible that Bimage had playside C gap responsibility?  Neither Wheeler or Locke seem like they are concerned with playing the run with urgency.

Possible, but Bimage looked more like he was trying to play the F gap than the aC gap on that play. There’s no way that’s what he’s coached to do on that play.

Plus, he and Hager were getting killed on OZ all game, even when they had a simple assignment.

1 hour ago, sushihorn said:

Dime as a base against spread teams is going to be nasty.  Even more options to cloud up the QB's reads and switch coverage responsibilities even post-snap.  All that speed with big hitters like Foster and Overshown on the back end is going to be solid in run support as well.  The 404 Tite Front is specifically designed to clog the middle and to spill running plays to the sideline.  With 4 safeties on the field, I feel pretty good about the way that pursuit will turn out.

My main concern is with teams that can run it vertically with power or simply inside zone.  That's what Texas did to ISU last year.  They played a light box with 5 and an overhang defender.  Everybody else had to arrive from depth and they couldn't get there until the RB was well past the LOS on many occasions. 

Yeah. I actually really like what we can do with dime if LSU has actually implemented an RPO heavy scheme. Having Overshown in the box will allow Orlando to disguise assignments and make it difficult for Burrow to figure out who he’s supposed to key on.

i definitely think there will be teams where Dime isn’t our best look. Hopefully that’s where one of Dele or Juwan can step up. I like seeing Juwan so high on the depth chart. Sounds like he’s coming on fast due to good instincts and football smarts.

 

[JBJ 3649]

On 8/25/2019 at 5:23 PM, Yesh said:

With Foster on the LOS, and Sterns coming on a blitz from the other side, is it possible that Bimage had playside C gap responsibility?  Neither Wheeler or Locke seem like they are concerned with playing the run with urgency.

This is exactly correct.  We are slanting into an Under Front.  Bimage is supposed to get wide and cover C.  Foster becomes the DE and does a blitz with Sterns.  Locke basically becomes SS role and is free(r) to play pass. 

Wheeler was the big oopsie.  He should attack the guard's outside shoulder which would probably have lead him to shoot the AGap as the guard commits to Bimage way too long. Instead, he waits patiently for the guard to come to him downfield and close to the wrong side of Wilbon even.

Not that Bimage's play was stellar.

Edited August 27, 2019 by JBJ

[Katfid54 8593]

If Bimage has C gap there, when he rips outside the tackle, he has to make a pile, instead of overrunning the line and turning into the backfield. He has to make a pile and, if not make a pile, at least move laterally back down the LOS.

[Burt Macklin 19000]

29 minutes ago, Katfid54 said:

If Bimage has C gap there, when he rips outside the tackle, he has to make a pile, instead of overrunning the line and turning into the backfield. He has to make a pile and, if not make a pile, at least move laterally back down the LOS.

Yeah, even if he had C gap, he did a god awful job of manning that gap. You still have to attempt to close the OT back inside when you see the OZ action.

[Zavala 1384]

9 hours ago, sushihorn said:

Dime as a base against spread teams is going to be nasty.  Even more options to cloud up the QB's reads and switch coverage responsibilities even post-snap.  All that speed with big hitters like Foster and Overshown on the back end is going to be solid in run support as well.  The 404 Tite Front is specifically designed to clog the middle and to spill running plays to the sideline.  With 4 safeties on the field, I feel pretty good about the way that pursuit will turn out.

My main concern is with teams that can run it vertically with power or simply inside zone.  That's what Texas did to ISU last year.  They played a light box with 5 and an overhang defender.  Everybody else had to arrive from depth and they couldn't get there until the RB was well past the LOS on many occasions. 

The college game doesn't do this much, but in HS against spread we just to have the DBs in dime play "line" where they are all about 7 yards off the ball at the same depth. Then pre-snap reads are tough to figure out what players have what zones or what positions they are even playing. It worked really well, but since the college game is a different animal I don't know. Just thinking about how the nickel and dime backs can also cover and send CBs or safeties instead of them, or all the different zones you can run with 6 dbs. It's amazing if the 5 inside guys can occupy enough linemen and the DBs are willing to fly to the ball and tackle.

[JBJ 3649]

14 hours ago, Katfid54 said:

If Bimage has C gap there, when he rips outside the tackle, he has to make a pile, instead of overrunning the line and turning into the backfield. He has to make a pile and, if not make a pile, at least move laterally back down the LOS.

I don't think he could have "won" his battle either way.  He is fighting for C-gap from 4i against a reaching tackle.  He is outleveraged by the playcalls. 

Absolute worst-case would be for him to get reached by the guard and have the tackle free at the second level.

The correct choice is to engage the tackle and then fight to get outside - or at least not lose ground.  If that's an impossibility, he could just go low on the tackle.  He isn't the hero in either of these cases, but he could buy a bit of time for secondary and pursuit. 5-yard gain vs 10-yard gain type stuff.

But Wheeler wasn't even reacting to his read. He needs to slide when the guard slides, and when the guard zones he needs to be in his butt crack. The DL slant makes this play hard for Bimage, but it makes it easy for Wheeler. This would have been a TFL for Malik - granted that's a high bar.