Media/$9.95-er postgame analysis articles (Week 6)

[The Beast 585]

Three words for you….Jett Bush played.

[Jiggy-Z 3509]

I had Texas wining this game in the 14 to 20 point range with Rattler at QB.

OU, as a team was/is just not that good this season.  From a quality standpoint, I figured them about like U of H.

Game had  the same feel as the 2002 game.

The 4th Q was just a nutty comedy of errors, bad breaks, questionable officiating, and pinch of self inflicted dick shooting. 

[vtaenz 603]

Someone help remind me, did Ash's defense look questionable halfway into the season before he adjusted quite a bit and then we looked good? I may be remembering that as I want to in hopes that is what happens with PK.

[satyanash 15596]

(Ian Boyd) Run game report: Red River Shootout

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We have so much to discuss today and so little time. Behind the Longhorns is the biggest game of their season and an all-time classic contest in which they lost a heartbreaker. Up ahead is a home game against Oklahoma State which figures to have massive implications on multiple levels. The Cowboys appear to be one of the strongest contenders for the Big 12 Championship, it’s a home game for the Longhorns who need wins to make said title game, and they’ll have the Arch Manning in town on a recruiting visit. Let’s at least try and put a bow on some of the details from the Red River Shootout though, starting with the run game report.

Springing Bijan

Texas and Oklahoma both had big issues in this game with one particular scheme by their opponent and neither were particularly sympathetic. Longhorn fans may be tearing their hair out over Texas’ struggles with the GT counter play Oklahoma is known for (more on this later), but the Sooners gave up a cool 10 per on outside zone. It’s not exactly a secret Texas was coming into this game planning to run outside zone early and often, still the Sooners had issues.

In particular, Oklahoma had fits handling a 12 personnel split outside zone run action which had two tight ends blocking back for a potential quarterback keeper. Between the threat of Casey Thompson hitting the edge with two lead blockers and a fair amount of film against TCU of Texas hitting the cutback on split zone, Oklahoma’s linebackers were a little trigger happy to fill the cutback.

Texas ran the play four times for 99 yards at 24.8 ypc. The final carry went for two yards and came when they’d just run it the previous play for 33. Oklahoma adjusted and Texas’ early lead made it an easy choice for Alex Grinch to maintain a lot of pressure on the run game. They were not going to allow Steve Sarkisian to run out the clock by running the ball repeatedly to Bijan Robinson.

The Sooners also slid field defensive end Isaiah Thomas inside to boundary defensive end (usually plays as a 3-technique or a nose) and he generated havoc for Texas with two tackles for loss and several other plays where his penetration wrecked the design of the play. What’s the best way to respond to a defense with iffy cornerbacks who’s loading the box to stop your run in order to either encourage a high-possession shootout where they can mount a comeback? Unless you have a package which can run the ball and run out the clock against a loaded box, the best answer is to throw the ball and keep scoring. Texas threw the ball and kept scoring.

Casey Thompson finally nailed the timing on Sark’s endless variations on post routes this week and he absolutely crushed the Sooner secondary. I particularly enjoyed this call.

Thompson showed some similar footwork to his brilliant, eye-opening play against Colorado in the Alamo Bowl a few times in order to get his feet set quickly under pressure to hit throws down the field. He also took the free candy Oklahoma offered on several bubble screens when the Sooners were trying to load the box and took their chances making tackles on the perimeter. Overall Thompson played better than I expected and made all the plays Texas needed in order to put points on the board and attack the way Oklahoma played this game. They lost this game for three primary reasons.

1. Quick early scores combined with five “three’n’out” possessions (and a four’n’out) lead to a massive imbalance in which Oklahoma ran 81 plays to Texas’ 61. The Longhorn D was exhausted down the stretch.
2. The fumbled kick return.
3. They couldn’t stop counter.

No. 1 essentially amounted to an inability to consistently block the Sooners’ movement up front in order to deal even MORE damage down the field against their secondary. The only adjustment I would have liked to see from Sark would have been to run “duo”, as I projected in my Gameplan column before the game. Duo would also have been potentially vulnerable to Sooner line stunts, but ideally you stack the line with tight ends and just double team those guys and make the linebackers tackle Bijan. I’m not sure Sark had a good plan in place for the event in which he had to sit on a lead for most of the game and run the ball…an understandable offense.

I’d also like to note Caleb Williams made four different, massive plays I’m not sure anyone else in the league could make save perhaps for Spencer Rattler. The deep prayers to Marvin Mims were perfectly placed and one was thrown on the run while the other was thrown off his back foot under duress. To knock some of Draft Twitter’s “QB1” out of the game early on after forcing a pair of turnovers AND to defend Oklahoma’s zone run game as well as Texas did would certainly have lead most reasonable minds to conclude a Longhorn victory. Especially given the early success with the punt block and bubble screen to Xavier Worthy.

For Caleb Williams to come in and the Sooners to bring back their older, power-option football tactics and make a few massive throws on 3rd-and-5 and then 3rd-and-19 with a freshman quarterback playing his first meaningful football in the Red River Shootout? That’s just a bad beat in my book. The biggest, inexcusable issue was Texas’ defense of Oklahoma’s counter runs.

Defending Oklahoma

“I think they started running counter more. We had some injuries and we’re undersized a little bit at a specific position – defensive end. They started running counter, and that’s their bread and butter. Even after the game, I said it: counter, counter, counter, counter. You’ve got to stop that counter. We didn’t stop that counter.” – Moro Ojomo, 10/11/21

It wasn’t really the direct snap play which killed Texas. Every variation of the counter was a disaster for the Longhorns, they were absolutely crushed by the play.

I think if we did a run game report for Oklahoma we’d see Texas defending the mid zone play the Sooners have relied on this year quite well while variations of counter absolutely accounted for nearly all of their run game production save for the 66-yard touchdown by Caleb Williams. The long run by the freshman was the same zone follow play Texas uses for the Roschon Johnson package. Here were some of Texas’ issues against counter.

Texas played three defenses against the Sooners and only one of them could ever really stop this play. They blitzed the edge against it a few times, the results there were decidedly mixed, as you’d expect. They did stop it once with an edge blitz. The two base defenses they played were the 3-down scheme and then the 2-4-5. In either instance, the way the play is defended is actually consistent, the outside linebacker is supposed to box in the first puller.

The whole key to stopping this play, especially for a defense which plays their safeties at depth to avoid the sorts of issues which plagued Oklahoma in this game (our corner is 1-on-1 against a fast receiver on a post, pray for us!), is how well you play the first puller. Texas almost never played the first puller very well. Here’s how the play looks on the chalk board, which illustrates the primary issue for Texas against any spread run game:

When blockers are moving, the spread out defense is up against it getting defenders to the point of attack. The backside linebacker in particular has a long way to go and a tough angle against the play side tackle. Texas’ emphasis on vision quarters this season also leaves them in a tough position getting defenders to the ball, the safeties are never going to arrive in a real hurry, you need to buy time for them.

The cornerbacks and safeties are taking their initial steps backward, the goal is to avoid run/pass conflicts from spread offenses resulting in receivers getting behind the defense. This puts a greater onus on the front six though to not get big holes blasted through the front which then ask the safeties to plug massive leaks and make open field tackles.

The way to stop counter is to stuff the first puller. If you blow up the angle on the first puller, the second will struggle to reach the second level to find someone to block and ends up being wasted. Texas very rarely played the first puller well and the second usually had a great angle on the linebacker.

What Texas wants to do with their outside linebackers is squeeze the first puller inside so the second puller has to try and get wide around and potentially also get hit and held up by the outside linebacker, or else try and lead inside but be unable to find a defender because there’s no space. In example 1, Ovie Oghoufo manages to get hooked by the pulling guard, which allows the lead blocker to get outside of him and get a good angle on the Will linebacker (Ayodele Adeoye).

Example 2 features Jaylan Ford as the Mike linebacker boxing in the first puller, which goes decently well, not great. It’s a tough ask in the 3-3-5 for an inside linebacker to box in a guard. Luke Brockermeyer also boxes in the second puller but then there’s a large gap created by right tackle Tyrese Robinson mauling Jett Bush and Ovie Oghoufo coming late because he’s defending the boundary screen.

Example 3 sees Ray Thornton looking to box the play in but thudding against the guard without having enough impact and the ball actually going wide of him which shouldn’t happen without the back having to turn to the sideline and slowing down.

My initial thought from Texas losing Jacoby Jones was, “they don’t have enough good outside linebackers now, they need to play more 3-down with Moro Ojomo or Alfred Collins as the Jack.” On review, I’d say that’s actually wrong. The 2-4-5 is still a solid bet with a few adjustments. First of all, Jett Bush is actually a legitimately good outside linebacker who made a lot of plays in this game. When he has to play heavy on a tackle and play an interior gap, it goes awry as you can see above.

Let him play outside-in and box in runs? He’s one of the best linebackers on the team. Ray Thornton is probably normally a good boxer on this scheme and just got caught on the final play, perhaps he was worn out like many other defenders clearly were from playing nearly the entire second half and defending 81 snaps. Ovie Oghoufo continues to be a good pass-rusher who’s still learning the art of edge run defense at outside linebacker. Barryn Sorrell isn’t an automatic solution either, he’s promising but still learning edge play and has similar issues as Bush when playing inside.

Pete Kwiatkowski does need to abandon the 3-down defense when anyone save for Alred Collins is the Jack unless the position is playing a 5-technique. This wasn’t a regular problem against Oklahoma but it happens more than it should, which is zero times. They just don’t have the hybrid Jack who can be a heavy, strongside end. In general they don’t have the ideal outside linebackers for this scheme yet. If you watch Michigan this season, who’s executing this defense very well, they have 6-foot-6, 265 pound Aidan Hutchinson as their Jack, and teams can’t hit the edge on him at all.

The frustration from fans with the deep safety philosophy I’d also push back against. Where do you want to get beat? Down the field 1-on-1 or in the box where there’s still a lot of chances to close and make a tackle before the offense scores? Instead I think Texas just still needs time and practice in defending different spread run game tactics with an honest box, particularly on the edge.

I would be curious to see how Chris Adimora, a very good tackler in 2020, would fare as a starting safety but there’s usually a reason the coaches start who they start. The biggest issue for Texas is defending the edges better so running backs can’t hit the second level hard and square. No one looks good at safety when they regularly race downhill and find a square running back with room to make a move.

Next up is Oklahoma State and an outside zone-heavy run game with a very good running back in Jaylen Warren. If Texas defends it as well as they did against Oklahoma’s zone running game in Dallas, this conversation may be shelved till a later date. If Casey Thompson keeps punishing 1-on-1s down the field, Texas’ run defense may hardly even matter.

 

[Atticus 4214]

2 hours ago, vtaenz said:

Someone help remind me, did Ash's defense look questionable halfway into the season before he adjusted quite a bit and then we looked good? I may be remembering that as I want to in hopes that is what happens with PK.

The TCU stood out to me for Ash, it was pretty bad. PK did much better before you even adjust for personnel and where the game was played.

Edited October 12, 2021 by Atticus

[Monahorns 39]

On the counter you also need backside T or Nose to play across the hat not run around the OL away from the play and try to catch an RB from behind.  Also a LB should be able to beat an OT to the other side of the LOS and make a play.  But that would take a LB who knows his keys and how to attack.

[Dilligas 689]

On 10/11/2021 at 10:35 AM, LTtxfan said:

SARK has made adjustments on offense due to the obvious problems blocking by the current O-line personnel.

Gotta believe PK has to make adjustments on defense immediately.   Better schemes and rotations for current personnel -- can't be stubborn now because the results against Arky and blOU prove that it's not working... 

 

Got damn this sounds eerily familiar after the last 10 years (offensive and defensive)! Guess the question is will Sark recognize/force a fix or will we repeat the same fucking scenario and be looking for another HC in 3 years. Fucking meathead, narcissistic football coaches