Media/$9.95-er postgame analysis articles (Week 8)

[TwiceHorn 31269]

37 minutes ago, Atticus said:

Talent is certainly part of the issue, but poor communication is directly on the coaches.
Are Joseph’s recruiting connections worth his coaching deficiencies?

The front and the back are showing more signs of disconnect as the season progresses.

Injuries aren’t helping, but shortening the rotations on the back end might help bring serviceable play through reps as a unit. 
 

Seems too that constant rotation of the players, sometimes seen as beneficial, might be exacerbating the problem.  Scip, Gerry, and Bobby all mentioned that.

[satyanash 14281]

(Scipio Tex) 2023 Houston Post-Mortem: Offense

Quote

Let’s start with the good. Texas scored touchdowns on 3 of their first 4 drives to stake out a 21-0 lead in the first quarter of play. That’s a pretty good way to start a football game. The Longhorn offense was poised and methodical as Ewers took consistent profits on check downs to the running backs while hitting receivers on short and intermediate routes. Sark was aggressive in maintaining the ball, going for it early on a 4th and 2 to Xavier Worthy on the Houston 30 yard line.

That conversion led to a touchdown and Texas was 3 of 5 on 4th down for the game (the two misses were the Auburn fake field goal and a bad play call against a UH blitz to Adonai Mitchell in the 2H). When a deep shot finally presented itself, Ewers dropped a lovely dime to Xavier Worthy in single coverage:

The RedCat was also successful in addressing red zone and short yardage woes as Savion Red had 3 successful plays converting short yardage situations including a late, critical down and this goal to go burrow into the end zone:

Great effort from Red on all three of his attempts. Hard to imagine a better 3 carry, 9 yard box score.

The Longhorn running backs were very productive as Brooks (20-99 rushing, 8-51 receiving) and a now seemingly healthy Baxter (6 carries, 42 yards, 3 catches) combined for 201 yards from scrimmage. The Horns needed all of those yards. When Ewers went down and with Maalik Murphy looking a bit too adrenalized to throw anything but high fastballs, the Texas offense leaned on the running game in the late 4th quarter to break a 24 all deadlock with runs of 6, 15, 7, 2 and 16 yards to cap off a 53 yard drive with this CJ Baxter touchdown.

Note Christian Jones’ terrific block on the Houston 4i. DJ gets out on the backer while an injured Jake Majors stalemates the nose. Major props to Jake for playing through pain and going when the team needed him. So ends the good…

After a sizzling start, Texas was largely stagnant against a poor defense, averaging 5.2 yards per play against a group surrendering 6.2 yards per play against the likes of Sam Houston State, Rice, Texas Tech and UTSA. Texas was also 3 of 12 on 3rd down (and 1 of their last 😎 against a team allowing opponents to convert over 50% on 3rd down. The Horns totaled only 360 yards of offense and did very little for a large middle chunk of the game.

The period between the end of the 1st quarter and the last scoring drive was fairly bleak. The Texas passing offense lost all of its rhythm, as did the running game. Ewers was 16 of 17 for 170 yards and 2 touchdowns in the first half. In the second, the Horn passing game was a toothless 9 of 15 for 49 yards. Xavier Worthy had 5 catches for 86 yards and a touchdown in the first half. He added only one more catch for 7 yards in the second half.

The end of half Bert Auburn fake field goal decision was remarkably stupid. If Sark wanted to go for it on 4th and 6 on the UH 26 yard line, keep the offense out there and go for it. I’m all for it. Houston is terrible on those downs and the Horns were 3 for 3 on 4th down at that stage of the game. With a conversion, you give yourself the opportunity to drain out the entire clock and go up at half either 24-7 or 28-7. Or just attempt a field goal.

There’s no schematic advantage to making a kicker a primary receiver/runner on a fake kick when Houston showed no indication that they were overplaying for the block. If anything, they looked ready for it. It was an odd call by a head coach who gets way too lost in his own head when he decides it’s time to “make something happen” in a game that was 21-7 with the Horns in control. It’s true that the Texas defense wasn’t required to fold over the next 2:33 and allow their second consecutive touchdown drive before the half, but Sark abetted a bad circumstance.

Out of frustration, Sark then attempted to “get it back” by having Ewers throw with 26 seconds left in the half from the Texas 25. Ewers took a huge hit on a jailhouse blitz and the rattled Horns limped into the locker room up only by a touchdown, wondering what the hell happened to their skunking of an inferior opponent. That’s two consecutive weeks of Middle 8 fail. Texas has lost the Middle 8 minutes (4 minutes end of half, 4 minutes beginning of 2nd half) 14-0 in two consecutive games decided by a score or less. If that continues, enjoy the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando.

Offensive Line

They surrendered no negative plays in the run game. UH had a sack on a jailhouse blitz before the half but that was covered above and Ewers effectively self-sacked on the drive before that. The other sack was on JT Sanders. Pass blocking was generally fine, but while the run blocking didn’t surrender negatives, the lack of push inside was notable. Majors has a legitimate excuse but Conner and Campbell don’t. It’s irritating to watch some members of this unit to continue to go through the motions down to down for large stretches. This offensive line needs to understand that the entire Longhorn gameplan against BYU hinges entirely on their efforts this Saturday.

Quarterback

Great start. Ewers was 9 of his first 10 for 110. 16 of his first 17 for 170. He had some questionable decision making as a runner putting himself in peril and another self sack. He finished poorly, though I’m not sure how much of that was him playing through injury or the script running out. Murphy came in…excited. Hopefully, he’ll chill out on the rocket balls against the next set of Cougars.

Running Back

Rock solid. Brooks had 150 yards from scrimmage and barely missed 100 rushing while Baxter looked the healthiest and best he’s been since the injury against Rice. We’ll need them to have as many as 40 combined touches next Saturday.

Wide Receiver/Tight End

Helm had a bad hold and Sanders blew a pass pro for a sack (though the QB needs a better internal clock on play action when he knows his blindside is being protected by a questionable pass blocker) but JT moved a little better and looks around 80%. Worthy was terrific in the first half and disappeared in the second. Adonai Mitchell was quiet outside of his 14 yard touchdown catch. He also had a couple of blocks! It’s striking to see Houston spam their greatest hits on the same play over and over while Texas seems to require carefully constructed set pieces on every drive rather than just building out some core stuff of their own.

Final

The Texas offense started spectacularly, but quickly fell into inconsistency before a final clutch drive running the ball. Absent Ewers for the foreseeable future, now is a good time to establish a firm identity with the backup (or backups) rather than begin each week’s game plan anew trying to orchestrate a symphonic masterpiece. Absent an experienced starting QB and with a defense whose metrics are disintegrating, it’s time to button up the offense and game management for the final stretch run.

 

[Codaxx 5601]

11 minutes ago, satyanash said:

(Scipio Tex) 2023 Houston Post-Mortem: Offense

 

Wide Receiver/Tight End

Helm had a bad hold and Sanders blew a pass pro for a sack (though the QB needs a better internal clock on play action when he knows his blindside is being protected by a questionable pass blocker) but JT moved a little better and looks around 80%. Worthy was terrific in the first half and disappeared in the second. Adonai Mitchell was quiet outside of his 14 yard touchdown catch. He also had a couple of blocks! It’s striking to see Houston spam their greatest hits on the same play over and over while Texas seems to require carefully constructed set pieces on every drive rather than just building out some core stuff of their own.

I am going to disagree here. This is a play that looks great on the chalk board, but it is just poorly designed. Any play that asks Sanders to block the opponents best pass rusher 1 on 1 is a poor design. This is obvious mismatch in the favor of the defense.  Lets not make excuses and say  "QB needs to realize this play design is fucked, so he has to throw it quickly". 

[utexas8 1433]

This is crazy to me. Everyone still believes in Texas except for us lol. I don’t see it, with ewers out and the defense getting worse + all the injuries. We can beat BYU without ewers but k state won’t be easy.

I guess it helps that all the top teams minus Michigan have played down to their opponents too.

[Kwix 2186]

2 minutes ago, utexas8 said:

 

 

 

This is crazy to me. Everyone still believes in Texas except for us lol. I don’t see it, with ewers out and the defense getting worse + all the injuries. We can beat BYU without ewers but k state won’t be easy.

I guess it helps that all the top teams minus Michigan have played down to their opponents too.

 

 

Nothing too crazy about that projection.  Basically saying Washington drops a game and Texas wins out.  Getting healthy will be the biggest factor for Texas.  Not trending in the right direction at the moment.

 

There's going to be fans for every team in every sport who will still bitch after a win, especially a close one against a lesser opponent.  There are plenty of Texas fans that still believe a CFP spot is attainable.  They just aren't the vocal ones at the moment.

[Brothahorn 10085]

This is crazy to me. Everyone still believes in Texas except for us lol. I don’t see it, with ewers out and the defense getting worse + all the injuries. We can beat BYU without ewers but k state won’t be easy.

I guess it helps that all the top teams minus Michigan have played down to their opponents too.

Texas and Michigan should be the Rose Bowl matchup.

[Monahorns 34]

3 hours ago, Valmy77 said:

Surely full of too much unreasonable sunshine for you? 

It's important to remember this is the fans' fault. Of we just posted meaner things on the internet, the secondary would play better.

That isn't my point.  The point is that those who make money writing about Texas football need to be more honest or more circumspect about their analysis.  There really isn't much they have right about this team.  It probably doesn't change what happens in Belmont but the way over hype is dishonest and sets up fans for more disappointment than is necessary.  Then a banality like "tackling and not blowing coverages sets a baseline" for defense.  That is true in Junior High and across all eras of football.  But Texas has to have Ryan Watts on the field to get that level of performance.  Every team in America has to deal with playing backups. Texas has more talent to pull from if the coaches are doing their jobs, there doesn't have to be such a huge drop off in play.

[Monahorns 34]

2 hours ago, satyanash said:

The Horns totaled only 360 yards of offense and did very little for a large middle chunk of the game.

 

 

2 hours ago, satyanash said:

It’s striking to see Houston spam their greatest hits on the same play over and over while Texas seems to require carefully constructed set pieces on every drive rather than just building out some core stuff of their own.

 

These comments are very important to understand the nature of Sark's teams at Texas.  Every year there is some portion of the game where there is literally no performance.  In year 1 it was the 4th Q.  In years 2 and 3, there have been slow but positive starts, a terrible 3rd Q, then strong ending.  That pattern doesn't always play out but the middle game lethargy is consistent.  

 

The second quote is probably part of why Sark has such consistent lulls during the game.  The defense does the same thing.  It's the same with the roster.  Game performance is determined by a carefully controlled group of starters.  Once anyone goes down it throws off the balance and chaos ensues.  That is true for every team but I have seen multiple times where opponents lose a player and the backup comes in and plays well.  Not as well as the starter of course but there is a level of execution that I don't see with Texas.

I am critical of Sark because these have been obvious observations from a nobody like me watching tv since his first year.  I thought the defense had turned a corner but that seems not to be the case.  I am hoping they prove me wrong against BYU and on through the season.

[Foosters 17730]

43 minutes ago, Monahorns said:

That isn't my point.  The point is that those who make money writing about Texas football need to be more honest or more circumspect about their analysis.  There really isn't much they have right about this team.  It probably doesn't change what happens in Belmont but the way over hype is dishonest and sets up fans for more disappointment than is necessary.  Then a banality like "tackling and not blowing coverages sets a baseline" for defense.  That is true in Junior High and across all eras of football.  But Texas has to have Ryan Watts on the field to get that level of performance.  Every team in America has to deal with playing backups. Texas has more talent to pull from if the coaches are doing their jobs, there doesn't have to be such a huge drop off in play.

I think his "tackling and not blowing coverages line" was a tongue-in-cheek admonition to the portion of the fan base who thought Watts had reached his ceiling and his loss would not impact the D as much. 

[Monahorns 34]

1 hour ago, Foosters said:

I think his "tackling and not blowing coverages line" was a tongue-in-cheek admonition to the portion of the fan base who thought Watts had reached his ceiling and his loss would not impact the D as much. 

Good point.

[LTtxfan 48966]

Oct. 23rd

Does Texas Have an Offensive Identity? | Resiliency | Lunch With the Coach |

[RollingPresidential 632]

I agree with what Ryan is saying. We looked dominant in three games this year and have looked middling (Rice, Wyoming, OU) to bad (UH). The amount of talent the $9.95ers say we have varies week to week with how the team performs. It's very annoying! I will never forget Justin Wells tweeting "Wait til you see this coaching staff" after Herman was hired and then it was all of his Houston guys. 

[CurlyDumps 4439]

Three weeks ago Scipio was all jazzed about getting Texas -4.5 vs. OU.