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Texas D-Line Talk


Reese Bennett

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13 hours ago, Thiefery said:

This kid was pissing me off with his celebrations of making a tackle...after a 5/6 yard gain.. on 1st down.  Not a 3rd down stop short of the marker, not a tackle for loss, but a successful first down rush.

Same. Doesn't excuse it but I guess he was excited he got some time. Walk-on type antics but whatever 

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Scipio Tex Okie Lite Game...         (Thanks  @satyanash )

DL

The domination Texas fans have been waiting to see. The injuries on the Oklahoma State offensive line abetted that, but this group dominated at the unit and individual level for four quarters. Texas doesn't win this game without their effort.

They largely did an excellent job containment rushing Spencer Sanders. Lane discipline was pretty good and they got honest push. Further, they didn't give up the edge to OSU's sprint champion running backs, who can turn one small error into a 70 yard mistake. Texas consistently held the edge for four quarters. There are boys, there are men, and there are Ossai.

My love for his heart and effort is total. Playing injured with a shoulder harness, Ossai racked up 12 tackles, 6 tackles for loss, 3.0 sacks, forced a fumble, and snagged a fumble recovery. If you have the opportunity to name your child or dog Ossai, I encourage you to do so. In a highlight reel performance, picking my favorite play isn't easy, but the pure hustle of #46 beating a backside block from a TE and then running down Chuba Hubbard on outside zone going the other way for a negative play is right up there with his sack strip detonation of Sanders. He was just too quick and relentless for the Cowboy OL and was at his best coming on inside loops and stunts from the perimeter. The final play of the game where an exhausted Ossai ran down an elusive 4.6 40 QB with the Texas secondary exposed in a zero blitz is legend.

Ta'quon Graham wasn't that far behind Ossai in game impact. At least between the tackles. 3.5 tackles for loss, a 33 yard fumble recovery rumble, a sack, and terrific play at the point of attack for four quarters. Some great hustle efforts running down outside zone runs. Speaking of hustle, Sweat earned his surname. The big man was feeling the frisky Fall weather and repeatedly collapsed the pocket and walked back OL in pass rush along with the other half of his 700 pound tag team Keondre Coburn.

Jacoby Jones has had his second straight productive game. If he's coming on, that's good news for this defense. His sack and some solid pressures while holding containment allow me to forgive him of a careless hands to the face penalty in the early 1st quarter. As well as a heads up fumble recovery when Hubbard and Sanders messed up their exchange. Worth noting that his best pass rushes came lined up inside, running stunts. Ash is starting to get more creative up front and allowing good athletes to do athletic things. Alfred Collins had 3 tackles and some decent snaps pass rushing. Moro Ojomo had 3 tackles and one good flush of Sanders in the second half

 

Edited by LTtxfan
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23 hours ago, HtownHorn said:

Lulz at thinking losing twice to shitty teams is acceptable. That's a problem with the Tom Herman program.

Well OU is shitty only because they are OU, not because they are a bad team.

And TCU is coached by the best coach west of Tuscaloosa.

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Production catching up to presence of Texas defensive line

ByJEFF HOWE 17 hours ago

Through the three-game winning streak Texas carried into the team’s final scheduled bye week of the regular season, the defensive line accumulated raw numbers capable of backing up what the analytics and the eye test have shown through seven games of the 2020 season. In wins over Baylor, Oklahoma State and West Virginia, the group coached by Mark Hagen (tackles) and Oscar Giles (ends) accounted for seven of the eight sacks the Longhorns recorded, notched 17 of the defense’s 25 tackles for loss, chipped in with four of the team's 20 passes defensed (19 pass breakups and one interception), forced one of three opponent fumbles and had both quarterback pressures in a string of victories that has 22nd-ranked Texas (5-2, 4-2) in position to make a run at a berth in the Big 12 title game.

Based on what the seven head coaches who’ve faced Texas have said about the defensive line either before or after games, Les Miles of Kansas (0-7, 0-6) is virtually guaranteed to mention the trenches when he breaks down the Longhorns ahead of Saturday’s (2:30 p.m., ESPN2) game in Lawrence where the Longhorns will be looking for the program's longest winning streak since a six-game run in 2018.  Opposing coaches haven’t hesitated to point out the problems Texas poses for their offenses due to the athleticism, depth and size the Longhorns possess up front. West Virginia’s Neal Brown is the latest head man in the Big 12 to come away from a battle with the burnt orange impressed with what he saw.

In a 17-13 win over the Mountaineers on Nov. 7, Texas held West Virginia to only 43 net rushing yards on 25 official attempts. It’s the second time in three games where a Longhorn opponent failed to break the 100-yard mark on the ground (Baylor ran for 64 yards on 21 carries in a 27-16 loss to the Longhorns on Oct. 24).  Chris Ash’s defense holding the Mountaineers to 1.7 yards per rushing attempt and 4.7 yards per play went a long way toward Texas winning a third conference game in a row, the first time that's happened since the 2018 season. While the Longhorns won in the red zone (five West Virginia trips inside the 20 netted only 13 points) and on third and fourth down (a combined 6-for-19 afternoon trying to move the chain), Brown said the ability of Texas to put the clamps down on his offense was all about what happened at the point of attack.

“I thought they really handled us up front early in the game,” Brown said less than 48 hours after processing the loss. “I thought No. 93 (T'Vondre Sweat) was dominant. That was the best I’ve seen him play. I thought he was really good with his hands. Tore off blocks. We had a good plan for (Joseph) Ossai going into the game, but I thought their interior guys were the story. I really did. Thought they played extremely well and made it difficult for us. We couldn’t maintain blocks, didn’t do a very good job maintaining blocks. Some of that’s us. A lot of that’s them.”

The defensive line playing winning football is nothing new. Even though the numbers available in the box score were slow to come (four sacks and 16.5 tackles for loss by the defensive line as a group through the first four games of the season), Football Outsiders has liked and continues to like the Texas line as one of the best in the nation in 2020.  Heading into the Kansas game, the publication ranked the Longhorn defensive line fifth nationally in line yards per carry allowed (a formula developed to measure offensive line success rate) and leads the nation in line yards per carry allowed on passing downs.

Texas is also No. 11 in the country in opportunity rate allowed (the percentage of opponent carries when four yards are available that gain at least four yards), 47th in power success rate allowed (the percentage of opponent runs on third or fourth down, two yards or less to go, that achieved a first down or touchdown) and 13th in stuff rate (the percentage of carries by running backs that are stopped at or before the line of scrimmage).  Considering the Longhorns ended the 2019 season ranked 60th in line yards per carry allowed, 70th in opportunity rate allowed and 45th in stuff rate (power success rate allowed is the only category where the current group is pacing behind last season’s unit, which had a No. 37 national ranking), head coach Tom Herman is getting the kind of disruption up front he desired when he made the move from Todd Orlando to Ash. The exciting news for the defensive staff is the group Brown singled out presumably has a lot of good football left to play in 2020 and beyond.

There’s no better example of the young, talented depth within the group than watching Sweat put together his best performance as a Longhorn (four tackles, one tackle for loss, one pass breakup and a batted pass that led to a fourth-down stop) on a day when Keondre Coburn left the game in the first quarter with what Herman later said was a mild high ankle sprain. Sweat (sophomore), Coburn (redshirt sophomore) and Alfred Collins (true freshman) are slated to be back next season.  Ossai is likely to be a high pick in the 2021 NFL Draft and Ta’Quon Graham is expected to move on from the program after the season, but the expected return of Marqez Bimage (opted out of the season due to COVID-19 concerns) and the recent emergence of Moro Ojomo (two sacks in the last three games) as a reliable presence leaves Texas an offseason move or two away from once again boasting a formidable defensive front. That move could be Jacoby Jones returning for another season due to the NCAA granting fall sports student-athletes an extra year of eligibility or the Longhorns winning the transfer portal sweepstakes for a prized edge defender.

As for the immediate future, Herman acknowledged recently that what Brown’s staff did by focusing on trying to slow Ossai down — limiting him to three total tackles and one tackle for loss following his historic outing in a 41-34 overtime win over Oklahoma State that included a walk-off sack on fourth down in overtime — is going to happen. What Herman needed was everyone around Ossai to step up once he started becoming the focus of opponent's game plans and that’s what the Longhorns have seen come to fruition from the supporting cast heading into the final three-game segment of the regular season.

“I don't know, to be honest with you, what team's game plans are in particular in terms of how they handle Joseph Ossai and whether or not that's 'freeing up' some other guys, but I do know that those guys are definitely playing at a high level, or at least they have been the last couple of weeks,” Herman said. “They continue to play that way and we need them to because Joe is a guy that is going to garner everybody's attention. When and if that does happen, the other guys need to be there to make plays and thus far, the last few weeks they have.”

https://247sports.com/college/texas/LongFormArticle/Texas-Longhorns-football-defensive-line-production-presence-Tom-Herman-Chris-Ash-Joseph-Ossai-154898008/#154898008_9

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