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Texas WR/TE Passing Offense Talk

LTtxfan

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victory88
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Really hoping JWhitt can stay healthy because he’s pretty damn good when he plays.  Will never forget his brother calling out aggy for trying to buy him during his recruitment.  Dude switched to RB wh

sidis
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not just that, he has been the one to break us out of our fucking offensive funks the last two games. against miss state, we were really struggle bussing the offense after blue's first momentum k

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If we understand this, we'll understand a lot of other things that Sark is going to do. Prizing Teaching Ability Sark's offense requires quick decision making, adjustments, and coordinated execu

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LTtxfan

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Thx for this @satyanash

Scipio Tex        WR/TE vs Louisiana

The greatest source of consternation for Longhorn fans before the season was wide receiver on offense and linebacker on defense. This game saw exactly none of those fears realized on either side of the ball. Jordan Whittington had a career day, grabbing 7 balls for 113 yards and a touchdown. He also did this:

I haven't seen that many Cajuns trampled since they offered at free crawfish tails at the Great Zydeco Riots of 1947. Given that play and his touchdown catch later in the game, it's pretty clear that Jordan Whittington isn't easy to put on the ground. He offers complementary physicality to his skinny starter counterparts and strong after-the-catch ability. His big plays allowed me to forgive him for taking an early game angle in the red zone that would make Euclid sob. Straight lines are still the shortest distance between two points, Jordan.

Xavier Worthy showed every bit of his promised speed and quickness on a 34 yard catch and flashed similarly on a punt return. There's more in store for Mr Worthy. Joshua Moore didn't put up many stats, notching 3 catches for 17 yards, but if you watch his effort recovering a potential fumble, I see a very engaged football player.

Cade Brewer caught a touchdown and was less involved in the overall passing game than I anticipated, but his willingness to attack defenders and be physical was noticeable. Brewer will never be a mauler, but he brought willing contact to every exchange. True freshman Gunnar Helm was pressed into emergency action and did his best in tough circumstances. I'm impressed the freshman lined up right given the amount of shifting Sark does with his tight ends. Jared Wiley had spot play with an injury and understandably struggled to be effective. 

 

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Great discussion on offense -- Thx @satyanash 

Scipio Tex        Offense vs Louisiana

This morning the coffee tasted better, the sun shined brighter, and the air had more oxygen in it.

Despite a new system, new coach, new culture, new freshman quarterback, and likely some opening game jitters, Texas was very efficient against a deeply experienced defense with some legitimate dudes and a solid defensive coordinator. With a constantly running clock and Sark content to let the seconds tick down while Card processed the Cajun defense, the Longhorns fielded only 9 offensive possessions. 7 of those 9 Longhorn possessions ended in points or attempted points (5 touchdowns, a field goal, a missed field goal) and the other two possessions were a poor opening drive and an end of game run sequence with the 3rd team running back with a 20 point lead. Texas hasn't seen that level of efficiency against a sentient opponent in a while. In a Big 12 accustomed to 13 or 14 possessions between each team, Sark's deliberative efficiency was interesting to watch. If this continues, the Kansas State game may take an hour and a half.

435 total yards at 6.4 yards per play is very solid production, but the more telling statistic that explains 38 points on the board is a Texas offense that went 11 of 16 on money downs (3rd and 4th down), at one point going 8 of 8 over a 2nd and 3rd quarter stretch. Money downs are play caller's downs and the Horns have themselves a play caller. And perhaps a game strategist. The early first quarter decision to go for it on 4th and 6 on the Cajun 40 yard line is playing the macro game correctly despite the potential for journo and fan 2nd guessing.

Hey, anyone want to see a coach creating points and yards via formation and personnel exploitation? 

Touchdown by formation. Texas outnumbers the Cajuns late, the tight ends carry exterior coverage inside (and create seals on anyone trying to leak out) and Bijan jogs into the end zone.

This is how Texas will run Card. Judiciously. Solid job by Brewer on the kick out. Did you see Brewer's decision on who to block there? He bypasses the first open defender falling for the fake even though he's trained to hit first enemy jersey. Smart football player.

3rd and 7. Texas goes to a rare 5 wide with Bijan split out inside. Louisiana correctly brings pressure on the freshman QB. We see four verticals from the receivers and a little skinny post by Bijan. An accurate zippy throw by Card, but this is about isolating a Longhorn playmaker on an inferior athlete in space. I can post a few other examples, but that's putting play makers into favorable situations via formation and matchup. Texas also effectively stopped running offense in the mid 3rd quarter. You think Sark might have a couple more ideas left? 

 

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LTtxfan

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Inside the gameplan: Adjusting against Rice

Ian Boyd       about 6 hours

Copy-of-Copy-of-four-star-julian-phillip

If Steve Sarkisian wanted to take a stab at re-establishing the Texas offensive identity this would be the week to do it.

Through two games, the Texas offense has shown only two positive dimensions, the 20 personnel package utilized to generate a spread passing attack for Hudson Card against ULL, and then Casey Thompson’s running against Arkansas.

The spread passing sets would do favors for Thompson while Card is certainly no slouch as a runner, but the identity for Texas right now is fairly thin, tends to only show up on third down, and is noticeably lacking a key dimension…running the ball with Bijan Robinson.

OIP.6R6fDJ9yaX1kO3SO3Mn3vgHaE7?pid=ImgDe

It’s no great surprise this early in the season and Sark tenure, but much of what this Texas offense does best is what they did well under Tom Herman. There’s no bevy of Alabama offensive players, largely recruited and developed by Lane Kiffin and other coaches following his formula under the supervision of Nick Saban (and observed by Sark himself). There is a superstar running back though and a chance to mix in some more familiar looks for this Texas team.

Getting Bijan going against the Owls

This shouldn’t really be terribly difficult. Bijan has already shown an amazing knack for generating positive gains under bad circumstances in Weeks 1 and 2 and there should be some good circumstances when the Texas offensive line is blocking the Owls’ front.

The million dollar question is the extent to which the Texas offense will look different when Thompson is at the helm relative to what we’ve seen with Card.

Against Rice, I wouldn’t necessarily expect too many differences, but we’ll see. What this offense needs right now is to get some easy wins and build some confidence. If Sark wanted to lean into some quarterback run schemes (pending how many are even in the playbook), there’s some potential to break some big runs in this game. Thompson has some breakaway speed and the spread-option has always been a big part of his game since he was a star sophomore running for 1,000 yards in Southmoore, OK.

A potentially instructive point of comparison here would be Texas’ game against San Jose State in 2017. Shane Buechele injured his shoulder in the humiliating debacle against Maryland so true freshman Sam Ehlinger got the start.

Texas then proceeded to trot out some 12 personnel looks and run power and a little play-action on the Spartans. Why not? There was nothing SJ State could do about it. The following week Buechele was also expected to be out and they had a very different gameplan. Texas ran 11 and even 10 personnel heavily against the USC Trojans on the road in the Coliseum and Ehlinger got 19 carries while also attempting 40 passes.

Included among those carries were some zone-read plays and then quarterback power schemes Tom Herman had been sitting on until he needed them for a big game.

How much does Sark have in the playbook for maximizing Thompson’s legs and how much are we likely to see against Rice?

The answer to the first question appears to be, “more than he’s been letting on.” Obviously Texas has a zone-read game because Card scored with it against Louisiana. Then they also have this tweak they showed against Arkansas:

That’s not a zone-read, watch Bijan’s track, he’s blocking all the way and so is Cade Brewer. You could call this “zone follow” but ultimately it’s “quarterback power.” It’s actually roughly the same play Iowa State stopped against Texas last year on 4th-and-1, but with some misdirection (it presents like their read play Card scored on the previous week) and they don’t try to run it at Mike Rose. I’m curious if Casey is stepping up to the line to check to “quarterback power” from a zone-read to make sure they have the numbers they need.

There’s no doubt Thompson has years of experience on box counts and quarterback runs in the spread offense.

Here was another interesting play from Texas, which could be an obvious upside of playing Thompson heavily.

A bad miss by Derek Kerstetter obscures what is otherwise a reasonably well-blocked play. Jake Majors shines in this scheme and Christian Jones has the quickness to make reach blocks on the back end. Junior Angilau looks awkward lunging at his man here but he does seal him outside and allows for the cutback.

Way back when Gary Kubiak was mentioned in connection with Texas I mentioned the obvious fit between this scheme and the Texas roster. It’s downright impossible for a backside contain player to force a “give” read by a quarterback with Thompson’s speed on any outside zone-read play and still make the tackle on the running back, so you can always get a numbers advantage.

You won’t get angles and numbers THIS good...

split-OZR-vs-Hogs.jpg

…but you’ll help your team out. As has been emphasized for months now, this is also the run scheme in which Texas’ O-line clearly has the greatest comfort. They spent 2020 working on it and it suits the quickness of players like Jake Majors, Christian Jones, and Andrej Karic.

Sark could easily scheme some outside zone plays from the shotgun for Bijan which don’t even ask Thompson to pull the ball down much, if at all. No defense is excited to stop the Texas outside zone game by giving away a backside edge to a fast quarterback, the Owls may scheme up some disguises but Texas needn’t overly involve the quarterback run.

An outside zone-heavy approach, perhaps mixing in Andrej Karic at right tackle, could allow Bijan to dominate the Owls and pile up gaudy stats. This would then build confidence for the rest of the offense.

Moving forward on offense

A bigger question here is what Sark intends to do after the humiliating performance by his offensive line against the Hogs? Keep running the same offense and just take an opportunity to get better? Or zero in on some spread schemes leftover from the previous era and let Thompson cook in the offense he was recruited and developed to execute for three seasons?

Speaking of offense suited to Thompson, these were also familiar concepts.

These were both "FUCK Greg Davis" staples. The bubble screen seems like a predetermined read and not a true RPO, but Brewer blocks it well and Jordan Whittington was recruited by Herman for his ability to be a flex running back on concepts like this.

The second play is whip-dig, inside receiver runs a whip route and the guy outside of him runs a dig behind him. The idea is to hold the inside linebacker with the whip so the dig can get open behind him with a big passing window. Arkansas obliged and Thompson has an easy pitch and catch to his top receiver for a big gain on third down. Again, you won’t get looks this good very often, but these are simple spread concepts which pair well with a zone-option run game and Texas’ personnel.

Texas worked the whip-dig combination very heavily back in 2005. The threat of the zone-option run game and Vince Young scramble tended to occupy the minds of defensive coordinators and consequently there was typically a lot of space to attack with two-man route combinations to the field involving tight end David Thomas and the slot (usually Billy Pittman).

To what extent will Sark adjust his approach this season to run something closer to the Herman offense or a simpler, zone-option spread? We may not fully know until Texas Tech, if then.

However in many regards, this offense has the makings of a strong Herman offense. Brewer is arriving at Andrew Beck levels of effectiveness after returning for a fifth year and cutting some weight. The offensive line found an identity at the end of 2020 which has carryover into this season. Casey Thompson and Hudson Card alike have years of experience in this sort of system (remember they ran this at Lake Travis). Jordan Whittington is a close proxy to what Devin Duvernay and Lil’Jordan Humphrey offered as volume receivers in the slot. Finally, Bijan Robinson is the star running back Herman has lacked ever since he waived goodbye to Ezekiel Elliott with a hand adorned by a National Championship ring Zeke helped place on his finger.

Sarkisian has his own system he wants to get to, emphasizing downfield shots and quarterback play in the pocket. To make the most of his time at Texas, he may need to borrow more from his predecessor’s plan until the roster has been reworked in his image.

The goal has to be to clear space for Bijan Robinson to run in. Whether this happens due to vertical play-action shots, RPOs, outside zone, or even inside zone, determining the best course needs to be Sark’s priority if he wants to avoid embarrassments in Big 12 play.

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LTtxfan

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Thx for below @satyanash

Burton:  Is it just me or are the Texas wide receivers seemingly more vested in becoming total players? The Horns receivers are giving legitimate effort as blockers. Marcus Washington has not received many targets but he’s absolutely had some key blocks early in the season. Sometines for receivers, all it takes is for them to be willing blockers, to occupy a defender only momentarily. The Texas WR corps is absolutely doing a better job overall of occupying defenders than they have in quite some time. The effort is absolutely there. 

 

Jeff Howe:  

— I loved the first series of the night for the offense because the 9-play, 69-yard march to a game-opening touchdown was everything the Longhorns didn’t do in the loss to Arkansas. After opening the drive with a jet motion flip pass from Casey Thompson to Xavier Worthy, the second play of the drive saw the offensive line get a good enough flow and create enough of a wall on a zone run that Bijan Robinson was able to cut it back for 17 yards into Rice territory.

— Sarkisian said throughout the week leading up to a night where the Longhorns posted their largest margin of victory since the 2005 team beat Colorado by 67 points (70-3) in the Big 12 title game and had their first 400-yard rushing performance (427) since 2017 (406 in a 56-0 win over San Jose State) that they needed to come up with more ways to get Worthy involved. The Longhorns went to the true freshman early and often. Thompson connected with him for a first down on fourth-and-3 from the Rice 41-yard line on the opening drive with Worthy breaking two tackles on his way to the 10-yard line. The play set up the first of Bijan Robinson’s three first-half rushing touchdowns.

— The motions and shifts in Sarkisian’s offense didn’t fool Arkansas last week, but he made them count on Saturday. The flip pass to Worthy, for example, helped set up Robinson’s 6-yard touchdown run with Thompson faking a jet sweep handoff to Worthy before handing the ball to Robinson, who worked over the Rice defense on his way into the end zone. If a coach utilizes jet or orbit motion but never gets the motion man the ball, the tactic becomes nothing more than window dressing. The defense never has to account for the motion man in that instance, but emphasizing motions and shifts with a purpose can help out a Texas offense whose offensive line remains a work in progress, to say the least.

— Sarkisian used more than pre-snap movement to help out the offensive line, which had some bright spots on a night where there were some noticeable issues that the group has to continue to work to fix. On a 72-yard touchdown run by Roschon Johnson out of the Wildcat formation, for instance, Texas went to 13 personnel (one running back, three tight ends) with Gunnar Helm and Jared Wiley helping spring Johnson free over the right side of the line.

— Texas tried to dial up a few deep shots, including on Thompson’s interception when he had Worthy open, but a free Rice rusher drilling him as he was releasing the ball resulted in an interception (the only drive of the first half where the Longhorns failed to put points on the board). The aforementioned 31-yard completion to Worthy was the longest completion of the night for Thompson, but he fired a bullet to Kelvontay Dixon for 22 yards on third-and-17 from his own 7-yard line in the second quarter. Thompson's best throw might have been a 13-yard touchdown pass to Worthy on a back-shoulder ball for the final points of the first half. Overall, Thompson looked in his first career start like he has any time he's entered a game in his career. That's to say he was poised, patient and moved the offense up and down the field while getting points at the end of drives.

— One other thing Sarkisian deserves credit for is mixing up his formations and scheming guys open as opposed to relying on his wideouts and tight ends to consistently beat the opponent's coverage on their own. The best example of this was Thompson’s 20-yard touchdown pass to Wiley in the second quarter to make it 37-0 where a bunch formation into the boundary and a designed late release got the junior tight end wide open down the sideline for an easy score.

— Worthy and Keilan Robinson showed in this game that they bring a different level of functional speed and explosiveness that, outside of Bijan Robinson, the offense lacked last season. Keilan Robinson looked like he was shot out of a cannon on his 65-yard touchdown run in the third quarter where he swung around the right end and split the Rice secondary without ever getting touched, while Worthy racked up 117 all-purpose yards, 20 of which came on a punt return in the second half.

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LTtxfan

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Scipio Tex -- 2021 Texas-Rice Postmortem: Offense

WR/TE

The coaches clearly made a point of involving Xavier Worthy in the game plan to get him loose, build confidence, and weaponize the young freshman. Some DeSean Jackson in that young man. A big part of this offense's upside is going to be found in developing Worthy. Moore had a long catch and Whittington was quiet with one catch.

It was good to see Jared Wiley feeling better. He had some good lead blocks on Rice little guys and he caught an easy touchdown among his three receptions. Obviously, he's feeling better and we need him. Cade Brewer had a nice catch where he decided that running into his blocker's back was a good idea. He'll watch that on film and laugh.

 

Thx for this @satyanash

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LTtxfan

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(Scipio Tex) 2021 Texas-Texas Tech Postmortem: Offense

This just in... Bijan Robinson has now slaughtered more people in space than the entire Alien franchise. 

The Longhorn offense also murdered Texas Tech in space, up close, and everywhere else, turning 11 offensive possessions into 9 touchdowns. This is how you want Texas offensive drive charts to look:

10-75-TD
9-80-TD
12-75-TD
6-40-TD
9-84-TD
3--5-INT (Bench Casey Thompson!)
2-7-TD
6-87-TD
3-75-TD
6-60-TD
9-46-Downs

Texas ran 75 plays for 639 yards at 8.5 yards per play and put 63 on the board (7 were from Josh Thompson). Once again, Texas found its footing in the ground game, relentlessly running outside zone until Tech tried to adjust and then the entire running game repertoire opened up for 336 yards. The Texas offensive line and running backs are pretty good at outside zone. WHO KNEW?

Steve Sarkisian was all over Tech DC Keith Patterson's junk defenses early, burned him badly (see the Bijan flat touchdown toss), and when Patterson called off the dogs into tepid 3 man rushes and bad zones, Tech was reduced to read n' react without the athleticism to the do the important "react" part of the equation. Texas put Tech on islands and the better athletes won.

Finally, it's strange to consider that while the Longhorn passing game was hyper efficient and Texas receivers compiled more YAC than a Tibetan ox cart, Texas missed on several open deep throws that would have gone for single play scores. Thompson might have had a 400 yard day. The Horns have got to hit those for the whole offensive ecosystem to truly flourish against better defenses.  

 

WR/TE

DeSean Jackson -- True Freshman Cal Highlights

https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=87&v=b7dYbfeooJ0&feature=youtu.be

Xavier Worthy:

 

Just sayin'. 5 catches, 100 yards, 3 touchdowns. Football speed for days, scrappy as hell, and clearly smart to process Sark's offense as a freshman. Whittington had an early drop that irritated me given his recent run of same, but he was great after that, grabbing 5 catches for 93 yards and a touchdown. Marcus Washington had a catch for 22 yards and cost himself a likely touchdown tripping up on his own feet. Cade Brewer blocked well and has done so all year.

Final

A dominating offensive performance. It began with the coaches emphasizing the team's strengths and then giving the offense several beater plays against Tech's defensive tendencies. The offense executed and you could see the confidence, physicality, and speed of play increase with each success. That will encourage Sark to put even more on their plate. Positive feedback loops and all of that. The Texas offense will be a confident bunch heading into Ft Worth.

 

Thx for this @satyanash

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Slacks

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So... We have to figure out why this offense struggles against 3 deep zone.  

Part of it is the OL not giving the QB enough time to wait for the WRs to get into the soft spots.

Part of it seems like coach doesn't want to take what the defense will give.  The TD play to Whittington had been open all day.

Again, I wish I had all-22 to watch what the hell is going on vs only being able to watch the QB and OL most of the time.

 

 

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SarkAfterDark

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On 10/2/2021 at 3:00 PM, Snacks said:

So... We have to figure out why this offense struggles against 3 deep zone.  

Part of it is the OL not giving the QB enough time to wait for the WRs to get into the soft spots.

Part of it seems like coach doesn't want to take what the defense will give.  The TD play to Whittington had been open all day.

Again, I wish I had all-22 to watch what the hell is going on vs only being able to watch the QB and OL most of the time.

 

 

ESPN sometimes releases the Skycast version of the game which will give you mostly an all 22 but I have no idea when they are released or how to find them. 

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LTtxfan

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Thx for this @satyanash   

Scipio Tex postmortem on tcu game

Sark lacked confidence in the Texas passing offense and the Horns had to adjust to a game plan meant to protect Casey Thompson. That was evident fairly early with Thompson misdialing on open Longhorn receivers, twice trying to throw interceptions to TCU linebackers, and reaffirmed when he threw up a punt into triple coverage before the half.

Given the passing game struggles, it is not coincidence that Bijan got the ball on 3rd and 4 with goal to go (TD), a 3rd and 9 in the 4th quarter (9 yard run, first down), and a pair of 4th quarter goal line carries that screamed play action situation against a sold out TCU run defense (Texas failed to convert). The coup de grace was a 3rd and 6 handoff late in the 4th quarter that Bijan converted to effectively seal the Longhorn win. Texas ran the ball in those situations not just because Bijan is awesome, but because Sark couldn't trust his passing game execution.

The Texas passing offense was bad. That's an aggregate statement that encompasses the QB, one WR, and one OT. It does not encompass Sark, who realized pretty quickly that he was going to be calling the passing game with his laminate tied behind his back. This despite the fact that TCU was starting a terrible cornerback opposite Hodges-Tomlinson and has a couple of safeties that were begging to be exploited down field after the Carter targeting ejection.

Warning: I will break down each unit and evaluate their actual level of play. That means when Casey throws the ball, the receiver catching it is irrelevant to the quality of his throw and decision making. I'm evaluating the throw. If your response is "Yeah, but still" or "But winners win and look at this drive data against Rice!" or "receiver drops drain the psychic energy of the QB and make his arm weak" then we watch a different game and that's cool and have fun and be a fan. Conversely, it also means it's not Thompson's fault when Christian Jones surrenders a free run sack - even if you feel he "should do something and be a winner" - or that Xavier Worthy's drops happened because Thompson coats the ball in Crisco.

QB

Casey Thompson played poorly. As I've written for several weeks running, he has a weak arm and his inability to throw the ball with any velocity, variety, and rhythm down the field is costing the Longhorns easy points and creating turnover opportunities. "It's fine because we won" isn't sound thinking. Sark is scheming up touchdowns in the passing game that are turning into wasted downs. See the Longhorns' first play from scrimmage in the contest. Should've been a Joshua Moore TD. That inability to counter punch will be exploited by better opponents.

Thompson finished the first half 6 of 14 for 47 yards and an interception. He was 2 of 7 for 11 yards in the 2nd quarter. Beyond the stats - which are influenced by factors outside of his control like drops - grading his actual throws and decision-making yields a D grade. He played better in the second half, but Sark limiting him to 8 passing attempts despite a TCU secondary begging to be exploited was not due to Sark's negligence. It was appropriate caution. The wide-open RPO touchdown to Jordan Whittington was a key play and it certainly punished Patterson for crowding the box. Tip your hat to Casey for delivering there. The other long completion to Whittington was a poor throw made right by an exceptional effort from the receiver. Those two throws effectively comprised his statistical second half rally. Again, I'm not relying on inference. I'm watching the plays and grading them.

Thompson did run the ball opportunistically and his best play was a 41 yard scramble on a roll out where he eluded one Frog defender and then took advantage of green grass to take the ball out past midfield.

WR/TE

Xavier Worthy looked like a freshman, dropping three balls and blocking terribly at some key moments. He and Josh Moore combined for absolute whiffs on the play side of a Casey Thompson called run near the goal line in the 3rd quarter (go to 1:21 in the Youtube full game to see it). The coaches on the sideline were not pleased. Whittington was fantastic and an absolute bright spot in an otherwise poor performance by the receivers. 3 catches for 79 yards and a beastly effort on his downfield catch to bail out Thompson's throw and a nifty touchdown with YAC burning a loaded Frog box. Washington is a game blocker. Brewer played well as a blocker, Wiley often did not.  

 

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HtownHorn

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On 10/4/2021 at 2:50 PM, DanTheHorn said:

Well Bucky was all over the TEs this morning saying they can't catch, they can't block and two of them are afraid of contact. Its almost like they got paid and this is no longer a free agent year.😉

This is true. Go watch Bijan's 1st TD run against TCU. Wiley wanted nothing to do with 2 different TCU defenders. Ran past the 1st one, and barely touched the 2nd one.

I also now see why Sarkisian was yelling after the play that set up Dicker's final FG. Wiley, Moore, and Worthy all whiffed on their blocks. It was a TD play had those 3 executed.

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Iguana

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4 hours ago, HtownHorn said:

This is true. Go watch Bijan's 1st TD run against TCU. Wiley wanted nothing to do with 2 different TCU defenders. Ran past the 1st one, and barely touched the 2nd one.

We have been running that play the same all year. He runs right at the edge defender and dodges him.  I am pretty sure when we want the QB to keep the ball he blocks the edge defender. Otherwise he dodges him.  I do not understand what the next play is off of it.  

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LTtxfan

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Thx for this @Pig Bellmont  

Nice stats for Offense:  Here's how UT's offense stacks up vs. rest of the nation through Sark's first 5 games: No. 2 third-down conversion % (55.2%), No. 5 rushing offense (265.8), No. 6 scoring offense (43.8), No. 11 pass efficiency (168.75), No. 22 total offense (470), No. 90 passing offense (204.2)

 

FA3OY9uXMAAcNSI?format=png&name=small 

 

 

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LTtxfan

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6 hours ago, 6th Street said:

Casey had a poor game at TCU but it was only his 3rd start and hopefully he gets better from here. The accuracy issues hopefully are fixable 

Tcu game Casey looked terrible working thru his progressions, and stared down several WRs before throwing to them.  It was his first road game start, and at times it really showed his inexperience.

Hopefully it was a one-time thing or else blOU is gonna eat Casey's lunch.

 

Not sure how accurate, but heard this statistic today -- In the last two TEXAS/blOU games, blOU defense has created 25 negative plays for the TEXAS offense.

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LTtxfan

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Thx for this @satyanash 

Scipio Tex:  Postmortem blOU (Offense)

Much of the Longhorn recipe for big play success on offense rested on Casey Thompson’s ability to hit the critical throws that Steve Sarkisian schemed up against the Sooner secondary. Not only did Casey coolly nail a very high percentage of those throws, Sark’s play calling freed up as many wide open Texas receivers in one game as I’ve seen in a very, very long time. The 38 point, 355 yard first half destruction of the Grinch led Sooner defense was remarkable. The Sooners had no idea what hit ’em. Whether it was Texas attacking the edge on 3rd and short with receiver sweeps, a steady diet of Bijan on wide zone, red zone rub routes to spring Joshua Moore, or Casey Thompson going deep on play action to an open Moore and Worthy.

QB and play caller both like it when a game opens like this on a simple keep ’em honest throw out wide:

Washington got a strong block and Worthy humiliates Jaden Davis for a 75 yard touchdown on the first play of the game. Later…

Moore is open by eight yards, but Thompson still needs to sink the open shot. Nothing but net. 

Texas was crushing the Sooners in every way conceivable, repeatedly attacking the edges of the Sooner defense to slow down the pass rush, create pause, and force Texas wide outs into single man coverage against OU’s weak secondary on play action.

What explains the second half?

Perhaps it’s the law of offensive gravity. What goes up, must come down. Maybe Sark ran out of tricks to flummox Sooner coverages. What’s clear is that Texas started losing 1st down when Grinch rallied his troops. The Sooner front started getting home and 1st half heat started turning into second half hits on Casey. The more time Texas spent in 3rd and long, the less satisfactory the results. Texas was 1 of 6 on 3rd down conversions in the second half and Casey Thompson spent far too much time under duress as the offense had to play in a pure drop back passing game that it wasn’t well-suited to execute, in contrast to the first half of play action wizardry and edge attacks that slowed the Sooner pass rush just enough.

Over roughly the last 16 minutes of the game, Texas was outscored 31-7.

Texas had six second half possessions (nine in the first half, scored on six). Three 2nd half possessions were three and outs – each with a significant negative play on 1st or 2nd down (-4 yard Robinson run, a Thompson sack, Majors penalty). The other three? A field goal drive to put Texas up 41-23, a drive that ended on downs on the Sooner 24 yard line, and then the tying touchdown drive to notch it up 48 all. Those last two drives were the Horns’ final efforts. The Texas offense had regained its composure late, but other units rendered that fact irrelevant.

WR/TE

Xavier Worthy played the best game a Longhorn freshman receiver has ever played and is living up to the DeSean Jackson comp. 9 catches, 261 yards, 2 touchdowns. Unreal. His combination of fire, playmaking, and pure ability (watching him stiff arm Jaden Davis into the ground on one catch and then point at him is exactly the right amount of chippy the Horns are missing). I’ll cover the fumbled kickoff in the D/ST writeup. Suffice to say, he should not have been returning a kick five yards deep in the end zone in that situation.

Joshua Moore had his best game of the year. 4-70-2 touchdowns. Jordan Whittington played really well until injuring his clavicle and we’ll need others to step up. Marcus Washington blocked well and made a great effort on sideline/end zone catch that could have been but for a half inch. Jared Wiley caught a touchdown and would have had another if not for an overthrow. He is the worst pass blocking tight end I’ve ever seen at Texas. Brewer caught 2-18 and competed hard in all phases.

 

 

Edited by LTtxfan
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pacman

pacman 7354

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THERE IS REASON TO BE BULLISH ON THE TEXAS LONGHORNS

Texas may have left the Red River Showdown with an L after crafting a three-score lead at one point in the game. But, at the end of the day, they showed plenty to be excited about for the next few years, from both a talent and schematic standpoint.

This game showed just how much potential they have with speedy wide receiver Xavier Worthy, who won PFF’s True Freshman of the Week for his 90.6 grade against the Sooners. And true sophomore back Bijan Robinson will make all the Sunday morning highlight reels after breaking 10 tackles on 20 attempts and picking up 126 of his 137 rushing yards after contact. Quarterback Casey Thompson did miss some throws, but he still earned an 83.1 passing grade on the day.

Head coach Steve Sarkisian also had himself a day in the play-calling department. From the play-action passes to the RPOs to the pre-snap motion that can confuse the defense, Sark did more than his part to create positive plays for his offense.

One play, in particular, stood out to us at PFF HQ. Take a look at this 39-yard reception to Xavier Worthy, and watch the receivers and Thompson look over at the sideline and act as if they were getting a call before abruptly snapping the ball and catching the defense off guard:

 

 

 

 

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LTtxfan

LTtxfan 49141

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From Inside Texas video:

  • Dixon brings more speed to WR lineup in place of Whittington for okie lite game 
  • When Marcus Washington is lined up in the slot, it may really help blocking in TEXAS running game vs okie lite  (he's been blocking really well) 
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UDontKnow

UDontKnow 10439

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31 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

From Inside Texas video:

  • Dixon brings more speed to WR lineup in place of Whittington for okie lite game 
  • When Marcus Washington is lined up in the slot, it may really help blocking in TEXAS running game vs okie lite  (he's been blocking really well) 

Speed is what Sarkisian wants. I have been puzzled by lack of time for Dixon. It gives another option for when Worthy is being blanketed or having an off game.

Sarkisian needs to get Washington some easy completions to build up the receiver's confidence. Reward him for his dogged effort in blocking. 

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