Make no mistake - Todd Orlando Fucking Sucks

[Funk Doctor Spock 12,190]

1 minute ago, ckhorn said:

Orlandos 3 biggest weaknesses.

1. His love for the 3 man DL. This is because he loves it and maybe our lake of depth. Hager is way undersized for this role, but works his ass off and it gets him out of position.

2. The lack of overall depth on this defense. Per another post earlier. Its amazing how J. Elliot, Daniels, Giles and whoever else has flamed out. Glad to see them gone, but there are consequences.

3. Starting a bunch freshmen running around in the secondary against Tech or any big 12 team this day in time. Its going to be embarrassing until they get traction. Injuries have limits on what he can do. That's why we keep seeing so much cushion from the corners. No trust over the top. Tech has a couple of WRs that will be playing Sundays. 

Just glad we where able to pull that one out last night. Typically we have been losing those.

That 3 linemen shit fucking irks me to no end. 

[totallynotabuttpirate 5,396]

Just now, Spider2YBanana said:

That 3 linemen shit fucking irks me to no end. 

The worst was a 5 man box on 2 consecutive 3rd and 1 plays. How the hell can you expect to win the down consistently. At least Tech was trying to stop the run with 7-8 man boxes and run blitzes. 

[ckhorn 208]

Just now, Spider2YBanana said:

That 3 linemen shit fucking irks me to no end. 

The big 12 has figured our weakness, he made some good adjustments last night. Then we lost Davis and Sterns late in the 2nd half. I was trying to figure out who the shit number 27 was and when I seen it was brother Duvernay. I had to say. Oh shit!

[Funk Doctor Spock 12,190]

4 minutes ago, totallynotabuttpirate said:

The worst was a 5 man box on 2 consecutive 3rd and 1 plays. How the hell can you expect to win the down consistently. At least Tech was trying to stop the run with 7-8 man boxes and run blitzes. 

Exactly. For as shitty is at defense, at least they have some semblance of how to rush the passer.

[Funk Doctor Spock 12,190]

3 minutes ago, ckhorn said:

The big 12 has figured our weakness, he made some good adjustments last night. Then we lost Davis and Sterns late in the 2nd half. I was trying to figure out who the shit number 27 was and when I seen it was brother Duvernay. I had to say. Oh shit!

Yeah, when I saw it was the Duvernay, I was for sure we were fucked to no end. You know it's dire when we're digging deep into the 4th stringers. 

[ckhorn 208]

2 minutes ago, totallynotabuttpirate said:

The worst was a 5 man box on 2 consecutive 3rd and 1 plays. How the hell can you expect to win the down consistently. At least Tech was trying to stop the run with 7-8 man boxes and run blitzes. 

He wasn't trying to stop the run except on 3rd and very short. He was worried about getting beat over the top. You can't have it both way with little depth and injuries. When the fuck have actually shut down Tech anyway with a loaded roster.

This is my guess. This isn't the 2005 Defense. This is Defense that is built off teams coming 4 or 5 sub-par seasons and a bunch dumb asses recruited by Strong. 

[Nope 3,114]

11 minutes ago, ckhorn said:

Orlandos 3 biggest weaknesses.

1. His love for the 3 man DL. This is because he loves it and maybe our lake of depth. Hager is way undersized for this role, but works his ass off and it gets him out of position.

2. The lack of overall depth on this defense. Per another post earlier. Its amazing how J. Elliot, Daniels, Giles and whoever else has flamed out. Glad to see them gone, but there are consequences.

3. Starting a bunch freshmen running around in the secondary against Tech or any big 12 team this day in time. Its going to be embarrassing until they get traction. Injuries have limits on what he can do. That's why we keep seeing so much cushion from the corners. No trust over the top. Tech has a couple of WRs that will be playing Sundays. 

Just glad we where able to pull that one out last night. Typically we have been losing those.

As far as #2 goes, Christmas-Giles played last night 

[DixonHur 11,296]

The biggest differences I've seen this year as opposed to last is that our players consistently miss assignments, fail to contain the edge, take bad angles, and simply don't know how to tackle.  In my opinion, those are symptoms of bad coaching.

[ckhorn 208]

1 minute ago, Nope said:

As far as #2 goes, Christmas-Giles played last night 

Did he.

This sarcasm. I think he has been the biggest disappointment to the DL haul. I'll give it up for Wilburn. He's done good. He is a lunch pale guy.

[6th Street 6,392]

Need to hire Greg Robinson to fix this shitshow

[ckhorn 208]

3 minutes ago, DixonHur said:

The biggest differences I've seen this year as opposed to last is that our players consistently miss assignments, fail to contain the edge, take bad angles, and simply don't know how to tackle.  In my opinion, those are symptoms of bad coaching.

This has always been Wheeler's issue. That hasn't changed. He is pretty much all we have right now. At least we are not seeing the 60-70 yard runs anymore.

I would love to see what Orlando could do with our team loaded with Bama type talent, but that is not going to happen until we bring on a DL recruiting ace.

[ckhorn 208]

1 minute ago, 6th Street said:

Need to hire Greg Robinson to fix this shitshow

pay attention.

Gerg is not fixing this. Hopefully, we start getting healthy.

[MrPhlegm 3,413]

The fucking defense needs to quick kick more.

[jw4381 3,072]

10 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

They only had 10 points in 3 quarters because Tech’s QB is a moron who gifted us 3 turnovers deep in our territory instead of finishing those drives with scores.  It was an idiotic interception and terrible ball security from Duffey that held the score down, not any superior scheming from us that stifled what they were trying to do.

Coaching = play calling. I.e. The blitz that caused Davis's int and practicing stripping the ball?

 

day drinking don't even know if that makes sense. 

Edited November 11, 2018 by jw4381

[Funk Doctor Spock 12,190]

4 hours ago, Machinator said:

I was not commenting on his career (which was somewhat fucked by Clay Jennings), but who he is as a player right now.

I concur with this. You're right about the Okie lite game. He did well, and deserves props for that.

[Funk Doctor Spock 12,190]

52 minutes ago, jw4381 said:

Coaching = play calling. I.e. The blitz that caused Davis's int and practicing stripping the ball?

 

day drinking don't even know if that makes sense. 

Bruh, we all day drinking. We can all read drunk.

[rungeflash 322]

I really figured by this point of the '18 season I'd be using this gif on the beck sucks thread.....but holy fuck, beck really needs to take a swing at orlando's "let em chuck and we duck" defense

 

[Bill Lumbergh 7,171]

5 hours ago, longhornmatt said:

They only had 10 points in 3 quarters because Tech’s QB is a moron who gifted us 3 turnovers deep in our territory instead of finishing those drives with scores.  It was an idiotic interception and terrible ball security from Duffey that held the score down, not any superior scheming from us that stifled what they were trying to do.

As someone already mentioned, it's a bit hard not to give the defense credit for the three forced turnovers. 

Was Duffey practically begging for us to strip the ball with how he was carrying it? Sure.  But we did strip it and we did recover.

I still think the scheme was better this week than vs osu and wvu.  We looked like we adjusted nothing between those games and it was infuriating.  First the quarters of tech weren't great, but felt improved, which I'd take after wvu. 

Edited November 12, 2018 by Bill Lumbergh

[Firemans4Horn 18,046]

Grier is a few standard deviations better qb than jett Duffey and Orlando managed to give up 520 yards to Duffey. 

[Thatguy 8,686]

9 hours ago, Spider2YBanana said:

Oh, and most of the defensive end and tackles are 3* kids that are playing like their ranking. The kids who left were 4 star and higher. So you want Orlando to suddenly be a magician with average players in a pass happy league. We have one starting CB who was a 4 star, and he's hardly great. The other starter is a 3 star. Locke is a 3 star. The starting safeties are 5 stars, and 2 are FRESHMEN. Go take a look at the roster and tell tell me who you think is worth their weight at a school like Texas. Omenihu is doing his part, but that's about it. These kids can't tackle because they're not very good against better talent and scheme. We're recruiting better players. What the fuck are you babbling about?

   DL scheme makes it difficult to get to the passer. There are things you can do to help passer rushers out, like giving them an advantage by alignment. Just like there are things you can do to make the LB's job easier in run support. We, however, are not doing those things.

[Funk Doctor Spock 12,190]

13 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

   DL scheme makes it difficult to get to the passer. There are things you can do to help passer rushers out, like giving them an advantage by alignment. Just like there are things you can do to make the LB's job easier in run support. We, however, are not doing those things.

Very, very true. But it would make it a hell of a lot easier if we weren't relying on guys that probably wouldn't start for Vanderbilt.

[BabaYaga 15,290]

19 hours ago, Hamttx said:

Have you actually played football? Seriously, no internet tough guy stuff. I’m just asking?

Because conceptionally it is a viable strategy attempting to offset the advantage the offense currently possess in the Big 12 in terms of match ups. Especially when your defense is called on to defend over 80 offensive plays. 

Using ESPN stat set it shows on average a SEC college football team runs between 45 to 50 offensive plays per game. In the Big 12 that number goes up exponentially to over 70. As does the length of the games themselves due to the clock. In more simple terms by the time a Big12 team hits game 10, they have essentially played 15 games in total of a highly competitive nature. Including more drives in excess of 70 yards, and more then 40 first downs. inherently causing physical, psychological  and physiological problems for the player. In comparison the SEC player has played far fewer plays, and has the luxury of facing a couple of teams that don’t throw more then 10 times over 20 yards down field. Reducing the amount of energy required to cover the receiver.

This accumulative effort starts showing up in terms of arm tackles, missed assignments and a lot of standing around because of fatigue. So the three man front allows a DC to at least TRY to force the offensive player to expend the same amount of energy over the course of the game. Leading to poor routes, stopping short on blocks during run plays, and like their defensive counterparts, a lot of standing around. Hoping to get a stop late in the game, and allow their own offense to have possession at the most critical point of the game. And guess what? This is exactly what we seen over the last three weeks.

Even the best of players get tired. And to read on some of these threads where some couch jock cherry picks a play or two where a defensive player wiffed, was out of  position, or simply failed to give effort as a condemnation of said players skill level is sometimes totally off base. The damn guy was simply worn out playing a 5 hour game, over what amounts to a 15 game season. And still has games left.

So the linemen are…..”tired”. 

Got it.  Not the secondary.  Not the LBs.  Just the DL.  And it’s just Big12 DL.  Not the PAC, or the ACC or other conferences that all have adopted these up tempo spread offenses and run just as many plays.  Just us….Or maybe.  Possibly.  Just spit balling here, that we have been consistently unable to generate a pass rush so Orlando says to hell with it and drops back 7 into coverage…”hoping” they can contain.  Which as we’ve seen time and time again, they can’t.  Yet each game....back it comes....

[DigglerontheHoof 21,186]

18 hours ago, DixonHur said:

The biggest differences I've seen this year as opposed to last is that our players consistently miss assignments, fail to contain the edge, take bad angles, and simply don't know how to tackle.  In my opinion, those are symptoms of bad coaching.

Agree the angles taken and tackling on this team are horribad.  

[BrazilHorn 6,586]

2 minutes ago, DigglerontheHoof said:

Agree the angles taken and tackling on this team are horribad.  

This. The team seems to have forgotten how to wrap up. Lots of yards given up post contact due to just shitty effort. 

[Victorious1 140]

I went to the game in Lubbock this weekend.  

First play and I'm asking myself why do we have three safeties back?  and why are we playing prevent defense in the first quarter?

Edited November 12, 2018 by Victorious1

[Huckleberry 32,851]

21 hours ago, Hamttx said:

Using ESPN stat set it shows on average a SEC college football team runs between 45 to 50 offensive plays per game.

This isn't even close to right.

[GreenspointTexas 9,600]

Sure orlando is somewhat at fault, but i cant remember a thinner, younger, more banged up defense in Longhorn history. 

 

I still shocked we won. Specially after duvernay and cook were inserted into the game. Its clear kliff saw when cook came in, and then he promptly got burned for over 150 yards... in the 4th quarter

[JBJ 3,654]

1) We gave a lot of different fronts this game.  Stunts and blitzes seemed to finally work and I think it's because we changed our look a lot.  A lot of Okie and Over fronts.  I even spotted an Under front at least once.

2) The defense devolved when we started to play comfortable - which has been a calling card of this team.

3) More than anything, those 3 offsides jump balls killed us.  What exactly was Cook called for on the last one?

4) The onside kick and a 3-out from our offense didn't help either.

Edited November 12, 2018 by JBJ

[BabaYaga 15,290]

10 minutes ago, JBJ said:

2) The defense devolved when we started to play comfortable - which has been a calling card of this team.

Over.  And over.  And over....Every defense gets tired.  Every defense has injuries.  Not every defense goes tits up, spreads their legs, and tries to run out the clock.  

[JBJ 3,654]

Just now, BabaYaga said:

Over.  And over.  And over....Every defense gets tired.  Every defense has injuries.  Not every defense goes tits up, spreads their legs, and tries to run out the clock.  

We go conservative about one drive too early every game.  On both offense and defense.

And it's not where this team is yet.  We don't have the OLine to ground-pound teams into Bolivia.  And we don't have the talent on defense to go simple and shut good offenses down.

[torre 1,285]

For conversation,  below are the latest season defensive stats for the B12. (alphabetical order)   Note Iowa St. 

http://big12stats.prestosports.com/sports/fball/2018-19/teams?sort=ptspgopp&r=0&pos=def

RK	NAME	GP	PPG	PTS	YD/G	PASS Y/G	RUSH Y/G	TKL/G	INT	FUM REC	SACK	TD
1	Baylor	10	33.4	334	430.1	246.3	183.8	59.2	5	2	21	0
2	Iowa St.	9	20.4	184	344.4	235.0	109.4	67.8	7	5	23	1
3	Kansas	10	28.1	281	415.9	253.5	162.4	64.8	13	10	18	3
4	Kansas St.	10	25.7	257	416.7	246.2	170.5	58.3	8	5	13	0
5	Oklahoma	10	29.8	298	416.0	272.4	143.6	78.0	5	3	22	0
6	Oklahoma St.	10	31.7	317	426.9	255.5	171.4	65.7	5	5	36	1
7	TCU	10	26.0	260	355.0	208.7	146.3	65.3	5	6	24	2
8	Texas	10	27.5	275	420.1	276.2	143.9	60.8	9	5	19	1
9	Texas Tech	10	31.7	317	454.2	293.9	160.3	67.5	9	6	22	2
10	West Virginia	9	20.9	188	354.2	233.2	121.0	64.4	10	6	22	2

 

 

[LTtxfan 49,170]

Dang..... Starting to wonder if Herman should spend time in Defensive Room

Coach from Inside Texas:

One of life's mysteries is how do you make a cheerful read when the hand you are dealt is a straight running fold at best? We don't make excuses in this program so injuries matter not. It's next man up in this program. They are all coached the same. I see many similarities. What I don't see is player competition for tackles. I don't see players running thru blocks with nasty on their minds. I don't see ball skills or the urge to fight for the ball often enough. I see too many guys pull up without letting it all hang out. This defense is not fun to watch. 

Turnovers won this game and our offense won this game. We tried to give it away. One interception and two QB strips made the trip worthwhile. Watching Charles Omeninhu (90) play the game is fun. He basically was our rush. Caden Sterns (7) was enjoyable until he found the twilight zone. Chris Nelson (97) destroyed Tech's backup center but was limited in pursuit. DaVante Davis (18) had several huge plays including the GL tackle before his oskie (pick). Malcolm Roach (32) gave us quality downs mixed with not so much's. Running out of solids real quick here.

 

Omenihu (90) is our best defensive player. His stop on the 4th down sneak was athletic as hell. Baller. 

Hager (44) made two plays but was obviously hurting. 

Graham (49) was disappointing in pass rush finishing. He's not letting it all hang out. 

Nelson (97) was terrific in stacking furniture on the 4th down sneak. Tech is hurting for a second center.

McCulloch (23) played poorly. Lost contain, poor angles, and missed assignments. Sad. 

Johnson (33) has too many responsibilities and assignments. He acts confused until he finds the ball. Then he's back to being Gary. 

Wheeler (45) made several tackles at the third/fourth level. He got blocked back to the third level too often. Tech's first two offensive plays pretty much describe Wheeler's entire game. Unbelievable how he keeps his job. 

Boyd (2) was aces and spaces but mostly spaces. His best play (QB strip) was accented with a selfish unsportsman's like penalty at the end. He made several big hit tackles but just as many not our standards also.

Cook (4) was solid in coverage and tackling.

Sterns (7) had his best game going (of the last five) until he rang his bell on the sideline. We missed him in our next man up program. 

Locke (11) played his best game in forever. He still had a couple of diving "fly by's" but until he hurt his toe was pretty solid in coverage and tackling. 

Brown (15) is still a big hitter but it's the part of getting to the tackle that confuses him. 

Davis (18) had a game worth remembering with an interception, a strip fumble recovery, a GL open field tackle, and saved the best for last---a tone setting big hit message right in front of our bench. DD lit up a WR in the flat with a Westbrook like running start. Yes sir.

Foster (25) had a few good tackles but coverages and angles still have his number. The closer Foster is to the LOS the better I like him. 

Thompson (29) had too many bad plays. He has a long way to go---athletic yes, football player, not yet. 

You may disagree big time on the following but I have some strong opinions that I choose to mention at the end of this whatever. 

We need a LB coach that can improve the player from where he starts out until success has merit with his play on the field. The one we have has failed big time in his position coaching. Improvement hasn't been noted on the field---if anything the entire group is trending backwards. 

We need to reevaluate our coverage skills. We are not breaking on enough balls. We don't exhibit common sense alignments with respect to down and distance in reference with the play-call. Full out blitzes just don't gee-haw with backed off alignments in the secondary. 

We have done an injustice to teaching contain, force, and turning the ball back into the pursuit program wide on defense. Our kids are not playing smart sound football and the people making decisions have not encouraged them well enough to affect change. 

We may not have good enough players to be an elite defense. That's fair. It's also fair to say we have not made many position players show improvement over a nine game span. 

I'm done.

 

 

(Scipio Tex) Texas-Texas Tech Post-Mortem: Defense/Special Teams

  Hide contents

Texas Tech QB Jett Duffey wins the prestigious Fitzpatrick/Winston Award for the Most Outstanding Offensive Production Paired With Multiple Boneheaded Turnovers In The Red Zone. The preseason 3rd string QB for the Red Raiders amassed 524 yards of offense (444 throwing, 80 rushing) while also coughing up the ball three times deep inside the Texas Longhorn 19 yard line. One was a prime example of bad ball security (is running at a tackler with the ball held out towards them good?) and the Davante Davis interception was a gift from a panicking QB. The Davante Davis strip from behind was heady defense paired with bread loaf ball security. Tech going for it on their 38 yard line on 4th and 1 running a QB sneak behind their back-up center directly at Chris Nelson was...odd. Kliff lost his mind there. I consider that possession basically a Tech turnover and a gift. 

The staff might try to sell to the media that this turnover generation was a feature not a bug (the plan was to buckle down in the red zone and force turnovers!) but Tech's stunted scoring before their 4th quarter explosion was largely self-inflicted. They were moving up and down the field at will. 

The Texas defense has now surrendered 500+ yards in three consecutive games and is surrendering over 6 yards per play against Big 12 opponents. That is bad. Even if you throw out the 4th quarter featuring the walking wounded secondary with the other brother Duvernay, Brown, Cook, Evil Kris Boyd, a fat guy in a lawn chair and a bulldog riding a skateboard, I saw enough in my re-watch to know this defense is still broken.

9 of Tech's 11 real possessions went for 48 yards or more. Texas forced one punt. 

Defense is built around clear responsibilities, cohesion and playing as a unit. We feature 11 islands each running to spots. It's Battleship Football with Todd Orlando calling out random locations hoping to get a submarine hit and a GA up in the booth putting red tacks on the coordinates. 

We allowed the only throws Duffey can make and we continue to double down on the same bad habits. I'd at least like the novelty of new mistakes. We're atrocious in almost every fundamental aspect of positional play and while we like to blame youth for our woes, BJ Foster, Caden Sterns and Anthony Cook exhibited more fundamental play in this game than their senior cohorts. 

DL 

Omenihu played really well outside of his offsides penalties, which inspired Duffey to test Boyd on free deep shots. Those didn't turn out well. Roach is getting back into the groove of things playing himself back into shape and both he and an injured Hager played acceptably, but the predictability of our DL disposition means you can minimize their impact as an offensive coordinator. Chris Nelson beat up the Tech back-up center, but our inability to keep Duffey contained in the pocket meant he had no chance to get home since Jett just scooted around the end. We tried a few snaps with Graham at NT and he didn't really seem to get what was needed from him. 

There really wasn't a coherent plan for containing Duffey in the pocket married to our coverages. Neither against the ball control offense that Tech ran early or the deep shot attack they featured late. 

The DL is actually pretty talented, but we've turned them into pawns to eat blockers while we pretend that our blitzing linebackers or safeties are queens and bishops. 

LB

They played hard terribly. If that makes sense. Tech attacked them early and often with their RBs in the passing game as they accumulated an incredible 13 RB catches and moved the chains for 10 of 15 3rd down conversions and 595 yards of offense. They're irrelevant extra bodies standing in no man's land on passing downs unless we guess right on a delay blitz and their futility on running downs or defending a screen is now a given. 

DB 

Boyd exhibited no situational awareness and got thoroughly used by Antoine Wesley for 100 yards of 4th quarter yards on 2 catches. In my preview, I warned that Boyd had to do his work early against a big receiver like Wesley and he proceeded to allow free releases on 90% of Wesley's routes. Watching Michael Griffin marvel at his inability to properly recover against a ball in the air on a go route (hint: keep running and close distance, don't half hop while reaching an arm up) in the postgame LHN was amusing. Boyd did have an opportunistic strip on Duffey when Jett wrong-handed the ball on the sideline. 

To PJ Locke's credit, he brought heavy contact on several tackles and didn't give up any deep balls. The muffed onside kickoff was a tough deal. He played average, which means it was arguably his best game of the year. 

Davante played really well before going out - two turnovers and five tackles, two TFL. Tough break for #18.

Anthony Cook does some good things and is really in tune with the game given his lack of experience. A tough 4th and 10 PI call in the 4th quarter on the Tech 39 yard line hurt his game grade. 

Caden Sterns was playing well (7 tackles, 2 PBUs) until he got lit up the Tech RB on the sideline. If we're going to play Every Man An Island defense, this island at least exhibits some native instincts and range. Tech was his ideal opponent. Iowa State will treat him less kindly unless we commit to playing him deep backing whoever covers Butler. 

Josh Thompson was a tough watch for the second week in a row. He's not very interested in the job that we ask of him right now. 

There's probably a role for Chris Brown in a coherent defense where he can act as a general clean up guy and run enforcer. In our Aleutian Islands defense, he's just another guy looking to get exploited in space 1 on 1. 

There were a few 4th quarter sequences late where Texas dropped eight into coverage. With eight in coverage and four Tech receivers on routes and a RB in the flat or pass blocking, Duffey found receivers multiple times 12-25 yards downfield with no Texas defenders within five yards. If we directed our defense to simply man up across the board and then play quarters behind them with four de facto safeties spaced across the field like tripwires with orders to stay on top of deep routes, keep eyes on the QB and close to the ball, an intermediate route in the middle of the field isn't possible without an Aaron Rodgers throw as three DBs collide into the pass catcher, but where there's a will, there's a way. This is a concept that could be imparted to a group of 12 year olds in a backyard in about thirty minutes. I'm not sure what the disconnect is. 

Special Teams

Terrific job by Cameron Dicker converting from 52 and 46 on the road. He also made a great tackle on a Tech kickoff return. Bujcevski punted acceptably again, averaging 42.7 per kick. 

Tough onside play to Locke. 

Final 

The defense is busted and it's probably not getting rehabbed this late unless Brock Purdy will play like a freshman for this first time this season in front of a big crowd in Austin. The 4th quarter injuries exacerbated our issues greatly and I'm happy to give a free pass on several plays, but youth isn't why Tech was hitting Antoine Wesley for 57 and 43 yard completions late.

Edited November 12, 2018 by LTtxfan

[TheFlagship 432]

I’m disappointed at how terrible McCullogh has been this year. I had high expectations for him. Seems like he has some bad weight too.

[Slacks 6,819]

22 hours ago, torre said:

For conversation,  below are the latest season defensive stats for the B12. (alphabetical order)   Note Iowa St. 

http://big12stats.prestosports.com/sports/fball/2018-19/teams?sort=ptspgopp&r=0&pos=def

RK	NAME	GP	PPG	PTS	YD/G	PASS Y/G	RUSH Y/G	TKL/G	INT	FUM REC	SACK	TD
1	Baylor	10	33.4	334	430.1	246.3	183.8	59.2	5	2	21	0
2	Iowa St.	9	20.4	184	344.4	235.0	109.4	67.8	7	5	23	1
3	Kansas	10	28.1	281	415.9	253.5	162.4	64.8	13	10	18	3
4	Kansas St.	10	25.7	257	416.7	246.2	170.5	58.3	8	5	13	0
5	Oklahoma	10	29.8	298	416.0	272.4	143.6	78.0	5	3	22	0
6	Oklahoma St.	10	31.7	317	426.9	255.5	171.4	65.7	5	5	36	1
7	TCU	10	26.0	260	355.0	208.7	146.3	65.3	5	6	24	2
8	Texas	10	27.5	275	420.1	276.2	143.9	60.8	9	5	19	1
9	Texas Tech	10	31.7	317	454.2	293.9	160.3	67.5	9	6	22	2
10	West Virginia	9	20.9	188	354.2	233.2	121.0	64.4	10	6	22	2

 

 

Iowa State is right up there with the other teams we've beaten... 

[Slacks 6,819]

Quote

Johnson (33) has too many responsibilities and assignments. He acts confused until he finds the ball. Then he's back to being Gary. 

Malik had more responsibilities... and got bashed every game, even though he was the best defensive player almost every week... good to see people are understanding what's going on here.

Quote

I’m disappointed at how terrible McCullogh has been this year. I had high expectations for him. Seems like he has some bad weight too

He's playing out of position... I don't even know what position he's playing... Is he playing B? I haven't gotten to watch the Tech game...  He should be an edge defender, not a 2nd level defender.  He's not a good fit for defending the spread passing game. I think he's another that's going to be better as a pro than at UT.  I'd give him an edge with minimal coverage expectation and watch him make tackles... but i don't know how to put him in that position against ou, wvu, tt, osu, bu, etc.

He was also coming off a torn pec to start the season, so probably didn't get in the best football shape.

 

 

[Magus Ossis 2,798]

I seem to recall a great deal of despondency when our offense repeatedly failed or only marginally succeeded in scoring enough to win despite good defensive showings. I have little doubt that my gestalt opinion is colored by what I wish to be true, but here it is: while there was merit in the criticism leveled against Mensa and his offensive braintrust and similarly in the accusations made against TO, what we have seen and continue to see are largely characteristics of the stage. We still have only one full class on campus recruited by this staff. We have had to play backups who were behind true freshmen. The offense was and the defense now is plagued by more than casually consequential injuries.

Maryland was ugly, and the losses to OSU and WVU stung. But we don’t get blown out. Our offensive woes seem to be abating. We are redshirting some players, likely at cost and with benefit. We are still in the running to get to 10 wins in year 2, 2 years sooner than MB did. Mack, btw,  inherited a team that (granted, looked terrible in 97) had won the conference 2 of the last 3 and had veterans of the Sugar and Fiesta, including a guy named Ricky. I am cautiously optimistic that TO and the defense will, as depth, experience, and health improve, show us more of what led some in the summer to agonize that we’d lose him after this year.

Split our last 2 games, and we’re 2 games ahead of last year with another top 10 class incoming, in part due to defensive stands early in the season. Eke out a home W Saturday, and we are in the hunt to play in the CCG. I think TO is likely competent but not so great as to be able to make chicken salad out of you know what. I may be in the chorus calling for TO’s  head before too long, but I am not as of today.

[Hamttx 419]

On 11/12/2018 at 9:21 AM, BabaYaga said:

So the linemen are…..”tired”. 

Got it.  Not the secondary.  Not the LBs.  Just the DL.  And it’s just Big12 DL.  Not the PAC, or the ACC or other conferences that all have adopted these up tempo spread offenses and run just as many plays.  Just us….Or maybe.  Possibly.  Just spit balling here, that we have been consistently unable to generate a pass rush so Orlando says to hell with it and drops back 7 into coverage…”hoping” they can contain.  Which as we’ve seen time and time again, they can’t.  Yet each game....back it comes....

No one in this conference has a pass rush. Those that have tried through various means have gotten burned. It is nature of what is currently being run, and run well in the Big 12. The accumulation of the additional plays just further exacerbates the fatigue teams are experiencing not having the numbers to substitute.  

For reference name me one D-line man in the Big 12 that gets, or more importantly demands a double team? The answer is there isn’t one, not a single defensive player that gets doubled up. Compared to someone like Clemson where you have arguably two that could a problem on a single team, we don’t gave one in the entire conference.

Edited November 14, 2018 by Hamttx

[BabaYaga 15,290]

14 hours ago, Hamttx said:

No one in this conference has a pass rush. Those that have tried through various means have gotten burned. It is nature of what is currently being run, and run well in the Big 12. The accumulation of the additional plays just further exacerbates the fatigue teams are experiencing not having the numbers to substitute.  

For reference name me one D-line man in the Big 12 that gets, or more importantly demands a double team? The answer is there isn’t one, not a single defensive player that gets doubled up. Compared to someone like Clemson where you have arguably two that could a problem on a single team, we don’t gave one in the entire conference.

I'm not sure where the idea that Big12 defenses are having to face more snaps.  Looking back at a complete season (2017) for reference, Big12 teams averaged 74 offensive snaps per game.   For comparison the Big10 offenses averaged 71.5 The SEC:  70 The PAC:  72 The ACC:  74.5   Almost every team has migrated to an up-tempo, prolific offense and every defense has had to adjust.  This notion that the we have to run this dog shit 3-man front because we face "additional plays" doesn't bear out.  These additional teams are not "getting burned" based upon what's being run any more than anyone else.  I've also seen the argument that Texas "talent" on the defensive side of the ball is being diluted.  I don't buy that excuse either.  When these players go to other schools with top notch defensive coaching they kick much ass.     Offensive snaps per game 2017

[taybo20 2,825]

I don’t think we run a 3-3-5 because of the number of plays. 

[Thermos H. Christ 478]

 

On 11/12/2018 at 9:19 AM, Victorious1 said:

I went to the game in Lubbock this weekend.  

First play and I'm asking myself why do we have three safeties back?  and why are we playing prevent defense in the first quarter?

I mean I'm not saying I necessarily agree with it, but I'd say it's because Kliff/Tech's whole thing is playing offense like it's the last 2 minutes for the whole game. That's why we roll out looking like we're defending against a hail mary on the first play. Make them take the short yards over and over and bet that you will make a couple of plays and/or they will screw up a couple of downs in a row before they can march all the way down the field 6.5 yards at a time. I'd say that's the idea, anyway. Just trying not to give up the explosive play.

[satyanash 14,481]

On 11/12/2018 at 6:10 PM, LTtxfan said:

Dang..... Starting to wonder if Herman should spend time in Defensive Room

Coach from Inside Texas:

One of life's mysteries is how do you make a cheerful read when the hand you are dealt is a straight running fold at best? We don't make excuses in this program so injuries matter not. It's next man up in this program. They are all coached the same. I see many similarities. What I don't see is player competition for tackles. I don't see players running thru blocks with nasty on their minds. I don't see ball skills or the urge to fight for the ball often enough. I see too many guys pull up without letting it all hang out. This defense is not fun to watch. 

Turnovers won this game and our offense won this game. We tried to give it away. One interception and two QB strips made the trip worthwhile. Watching Charles Omeninhu (90) play the game is fun. He basically was our rush. Caden Sterns (7) was enjoyable until he found the twilight zone. Chris Nelson (97) destroyed Tech's backup center but was limited in pursuit. DaVante Davis (18) had several huge plays including the GL tackle before his oskie (pick). Malcolm Roach (32) gave us quality downs mixed with not so much's. Running out of solids real quick here.

 

Omenihu (90) is our best defensive player. His stop on the 4th down sneak was athletic as hell. Baller. 

Hager (44) made two plays but was obviously hurting. 

Graham (49) was disappointing in pass rush finishing. He's not letting it all hang out. 

Nelson (97) was terrific in stacking furniture on the 4th down sneak. Tech is hurting for a second center.

McCulloch (23) played poorly. Lost contain, poor angles, and missed assignments. Sad. 

Johnson (33) has too many responsibilities and assignments. He acts confused until he finds the ball. Then he's back to being Gary. 

Wheeler (45) made several tackles at the third/fourth level. He got blocked back to the third level too often. Tech's first two offensive plays pretty much describe Wheeler's entire game. Unbelievable how he keeps his job. 

Boyd (2) was aces and spaces but mostly spaces. His best play (QB strip) was accented with a selfish unsportsman's like penalty at the end. He made several big hit tackles but just as many not our standards also.

Cook (4) was solid in coverage and tackling.

Sterns (7) had his best game going (of the last five) until he rang his bell on the sideline. We missed him in our next man up program. 

Locke (11) played his best game in forever. He still had a couple of diving "fly by's" but until he hurt his toe was pretty solid in coverage and tackling. 

Brown (15) is still a big hitter but it's the part of getting to the tackle that confuses him. 

Davis (18) had a game worth remembering with an interception, a strip fumble recovery, a GL open field tackle, and saved the best for last---a tone setting big hit message right in front of our bench. DD lit up a WR in the flat with a Westbrook like running start. Yes sir.

Foster (25) had a few good tackles but coverages and angles still have his number. The closer Foster is to the LOS the better I like him. 

Thompson (29) had too many bad plays. He has a long way to go---athletic yes, football player, not yet. 

You may disagree big time on the following but I have some strong opinions that I choose to mention at the end of this whatever. 

We need a LB coach that can improve the player from where he starts out until success has merit with his play on the field. The one we have has failed big time in his position coaching. Improvement hasn't been noted on the field---if anything the entire group is trending backwards. 

We need to reevaluate our coverage skills. We are not breaking on enough balls. We don't exhibit common sense alignments with respect to down and distance in reference with the play-call. Full out blitzes just don't gee-haw with backed off alignments in the secondary. 

We have done an injustice to teaching contain, force, and turning the ball back into the pursuit program wide on defense. Our kids are not playing smart sound football and the people making decisions have not encouraged them well enough to affect change. 

We may not have good enough players to be an elite defense. That's fair. It's also fair to say we have not made many position players show improvement over a nine game span. 

I'm done.

 

 

(Scipio Tex) Texas-Texas Tech Post-Mortem: Defense/Special Teams

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Texas Tech QB Jett Duffey wins the prestigious Fitzpatrick/Winston Award for the Most Outstanding Offensive Production Paired With Multiple Boneheaded Turnovers In The Red Zone. The preseason 3rd string QB for the Red Raiders amassed 524 yards of offense (444 throwing, 80 rushing) while also coughing up the ball three times deep inside the Texas Longhorn 19 yard line. One was a prime example of bad ball security (is running at a tackler with the ball held out towards them good?) and the Davante Davis interception was a gift from a panicking QB. The Davante Davis strip from behind was heady defense paired with bread loaf ball security. Tech going for it on their 38 yard line on 4th and 1 running a QB sneak behind their back-up center directly at Chris Nelson was...odd. Kliff lost his mind there. I consider that possession basically a Tech turnover and a gift. 

The staff might try to sell to the media that this turnover generation was a feature not a bug (the plan was to buckle down in the red zone and force turnovers!) but Tech's stunted scoring before their 4th quarter explosion was largely self-inflicted. They were moving up and down the field at will. 

The Texas defense has now surrendered 500+ yards in three consecutive games and is surrendering over 6 yards per play against Big 12 opponents. That is bad. Even if you throw out the 4th quarter featuring the walking wounded secondary with the other brother Duvernay, Brown, Cook, Evil Kris Boyd, a fat guy in a lawn chair and a bulldog riding a skateboard, I saw enough in my re-watch to know this defense is still broken.

9 of Tech's 11 real possessions went for 48 yards or more. Texas forced one punt. 

Defense is built around clear responsibilities, cohesion and playing as a unit. We feature 11 islands each running to spots. It's Battleship Football with Todd Orlando calling out random locations hoping to get a submarine hit and a GA up in the booth putting red tacks on the coordinates. 

We allowed the only throws Duffey can make and we continue to double down on the same bad habits. I'd at least like the novelty of new mistakes. We're atrocious in almost every fundamental aspect of positional play and while we like to blame youth for our woes, BJ Foster, Caden Sterns and Anthony Cook exhibited more fundamental play in this game than their senior cohorts. 

DL 

Omenihu played really well outside of his offsides penalties, which inspired Duffey to test Boyd on free deep shots. Those didn't turn out well. Roach is getting back into the groove of things playing himself back into shape and both he and an injured Hager played acceptably, but the predictability of our DL disposition means you can minimize their impact as an offensive coordinator. Chris Nelson beat up the Tech back-up center, but our inability to keep Duffey contained in the pocket meant he had no chance to get home since Jett just scooted around the end. We tried a few snaps with Graham at NT and he didn't really seem to get what was needed from him. 

There really wasn't a coherent plan for containing Duffey in the pocket married to our coverages. Neither against the ball control offense that Tech ran early or the deep shot attack they featured late. 

The DL is actually pretty talented, but we've turned them into pawns to eat blockers while we pretend that our blitzing linebackers or safeties are queens and bishops. 

LB

They played hard terribly. If that makes sense. Tech attacked them early and often with their RBs in the passing game as they accumulated an incredible 13 RB catches and moved the chains for 10 of 15 3rd down conversions and 595 yards of offense. They're irrelevant extra bodies standing in no man's land on passing downs unless we guess right on a delay blitz and their futility on running downs or defending a screen is now a given. 

DB 

Boyd exhibited no situational awareness and got thoroughly used by Antoine Wesley for 100 yards of 4th quarter yards on 2 catches. In my preview, I warned that Boyd had to do his work early against a big receiver like Wesley and he proceeded to allow free releases on 90% of Wesley's routes. Watching Michael Griffin marvel at his inability to properly recover against a ball in the air on a go route (hint: keep running and close distance, don't half hop while reaching an arm up) in the postgame LHN was amusing. Boyd did have an opportunistic strip on Duffey when Jett wrong-handed the ball on the sideline. 

To PJ Locke's credit, he brought heavy contact on several tackles and didn't give up any deep balls. The muffed onside kickoff was a tough deal. He played average, which means it was arguably his best game of the year. 

Davante played really well before going out - two turnovers and five tackles, two TFL. Tough break for #18.

Anthony Cook does some good things and is really in tune with the game given his lack of experience. A tough 4th and 10 PI call in the 4th quarter on the Tech 39 yard line hurt his game grade. 

Caden Sterns was playing well (7 tackles, 2 PBUs) until he got lit up the Tech RB on the sideline. If we're going to play Every Man An Island defense, this island at least exhibits some native instincts and range. Tech was his ideal opponent. Iowa State will treat him less kindly unless we commit to playing him deep backing whoever covers Butler. 

Josh Thompson was a tough watch for the second week in a row. He's not very interested in the job that we ask of him right now. 

There's probably a role for Chris Brown in a coherent defense where he can act as a general clean up guy and run enforcer. In our Aleutian Islands defense, he's just another guy looking to get exploited in space 1 on 1. 

There were a few 4th quarter sequences late where Texas dropped eight into coverage. With eight in coverage and four Tech receivers on routes and a RB in the flat or pass blocking, Duffey found receivers multiple times 12-25 yards downfield with no Texas defenders within five yards. If we directed our defense to simply man up across the board and then play quarters behind them with four de facto safeties spaced across the field like tripwires with orders to stay on top of deep routes, keep eyes on the QB and close to the ball, an intermediate route in the middle of the field isn't possible without an Aaron Rodgers throw as three DBs collide into the pass catcher, but where there's a will, there's a way. This is a concept that could be imparted to a group of 12 year olds in a backyard in about thirty minutes. I'm not sure what the disconnect is. 

Special Teams

Terrific job by Cameron Dicker converting from 52 and 46 on the road. He also made a great tackle on a Tech kickoff return. Bujcevski punted acceptably again, averaging 42.7 per kick. 

Tough onside play to Locke. 

Final 

The defense is busted and it's probably not getting rehabbed this late unless Brock Purdy will play like a freshman for this first time this season in front of a big crowd in Austin. The 4th quarter injuries exacerbated our issues greatly and I'm happy to give a free pass on several plays, but youth isn't why Tech was hitting Antoine Wesley for 57 and 43 yard completions late.

After reading that, it's very difficult to see us beating ISU. Especially since we won't be able to score at will against them like Tech, and we probably won't be +3 in turnover margin.

[Spawn of Cthulhu 2,241]

Perhaps TH should just hire a new DC every year. Manny and TO had nice first seasons and then cratered in year two. Next year we could take Elko, not sure yet who we should rent in 2020.

[MOODY 126]

What are the odds today that we give up a first possession score to Iowa State?

 

[Hank Chinaski 6,314]

On 11/13/2018 at 4:03 PM, Magus Ossis said:

I am cautiously optimistic that TO and the defense will, as depth, experience, and health improve, show us more of what led some in the summer to agonize that we’d lose him after this year.

I think TO is likely competent but not so great as to be able to make chicken salad out of you know what. I may be in the chorus calling for TO’s  head before too long, but I am not as of today.

Agree with this. He's probably not as great as he seemed after last season, and he's probably not as bad as he seems now. The truth usually lies somewhere in between, though that generally bores us. 

[Goo Punch 4,275]

Well he did his thing tonight. We smothered them.

Edited November 18, 2018 by Goo Punch

[Fat Bastard 600]

Credit where credit is due. Did great tonight. Great win against a damn well coached team. Hook ‘em

[Coach pop a bitch 5,459]

He didn't suck tonight

[BabaYaga 15,290]

We matched up well against the children of the corn.  Very well in fact.  TO also called a great game, and their young QB looked very much like a young, confused QB.  Gary spying him was a fantastic move.  This three man front started with Charlie.  Worked well his first year with M.Brown locking down the middle and demanding a constant double team.  Then it fell apart when he left.  Last year with Poona, more of the same.  He drew two guys to block him, freeing up others to get to the QB.  Without this disruptive body in the middle, we just can't get to the QB consistently.  Even with 5-6 dropped back into coverage, you can't cover these receivers for very long and defend against a balanced offense.