We didn’t pressure a true freshman qb early, and he was allowed to get into a rhythm. At the same time our four linebackers rarely came forward in pass rush/run support nor dropped to help in coverage, just maintained a soft zone where Tech never threw into. This is all scheme that most of us could have recommended better going into the game.
That qb had the game of his life. Extremely accurate at all ranges, able to throw touch and bullets as required. Their receivers dropped maybe two, and not till the 4th quarter. Can’t teach that, they just all performed 110% which is hard to get college kids to do.
We have no depth. We knew it because of Arizona, but it really bit today. I mostly blame this on Herman. He had a defense full of NFL players and barely recruited replacements. Those he did recruit either followed him or went other places, either way we don’t have them now. We have a makeshift secondary in year 2 of a new scheme, where Tech has had several years of relative stability to build.
There are certainly others, but these stand out most to me.
We rushed 3 much of the time while everyone hung back. I counted often… when you give a QB 6-9 seconds doesn’t matter if you dropped back 20 in coverage. Plus their QB was extremely accurate.
∆∆∆∆ This!!! Herman liked to blow a lot of smoke but it turns out he is not that great recruiter. Don’t forget that first year he won with Levine’s recruits. Also isn’t he the one who stated he didn’t recruit per position but who was the best available? We are seeing that Herman left the cupboard dry. Applewhite is having to try to fill in all the wholes.
there is misconception and misunderstanding of techs offense (the air raid)
everyone here is saying we didnt bring pressure…that we had to pressure the qb to stop the pass
the air raid is known as the “great equalizer” for the reason that it prevents pressure from reaching the qb
the ball is out of his hands before the pressure will ever reach…in the air raid its the opposite you have to take away the short pass,to get pressure (make him hold the ball longer)…all the short passes where there all game…he wasnt hitting long passes till the second half when our dline wa s tired, and had 300yds at that point…at a different point in the game he had 10 consecutive completitions…
in a game vs tech it is completely based on your Dbs and LBs making the Qb have to think
there qb didnt have the game of his life, they didnt perform at 110% …when every passing qb you play has this similar type of performance, its not them its you. there qb regularly telegraphed his pass where it was obvious where the ball was going, we just dont have the dbs to make him pay…a good db core and a lot of those well placed passed are pick 6
the announcers regularly noted that he throws in patterns
When a QB has all day to throw it doesnt matter how good your DBs and LBs are. #11 could have mail ordered something from Amazon, had a pizza delivered, done the NYT crossword, solved Big Foot and still thrown a completion.
It was scheme… and bad tackling. That’s on the coaches.
rewatch the first half, he wasnt holding the ball long, we actually got to him a few time rather quick, but he always released the ball quicikly…
the announcers themselves noted it, that they were perfectly neutralizing oliver by quickly throwing passes to the edges…the air raid is the great equalizer bcuz it allowed teams that could recruit elite Oline to score. he definitely didnt have all day to throw in the 1st half (the second half our guys were gassed)
here is techs big play from the first half (broke off a 60yd td), not even alabamas pass rush could have gotten to him in time…stopping this is based on the DBs and LBs…
So am not really understanding what your point is. If there is nothing wrong with our scheme and we don’t have the players to run it… Then why are we running it?
i dont know if our scheme is good or not… my point is that alot of people keep pointing at the lack of pass rush, but if you watch the game, even if we had unblocked rushers, they wouldht have gotten to him in time…
the blame is on the dbs unit…at some point you have to read the qb…
When we rush 3 he had all day and we gave up ridiculously long yardage.
Look we coukd debate all night… The larger point is, we can do better. I didn’t like CMDs defense last year and dont like it now.
When Herman/Orlando carpet bagged out, once again we were told nothing would change on D…and all it has done is gotten way worse. This is nothing like Orlando’s defense.
And it’s worse at the core. Orlando’s players hit and stuck. They hit hard. Orlando dictated the style of play.
This D is positively soft after the ball gets in the air. They plug it up good on the run, but football is multi-faceted. And a gunning team like Tech doesn’t care if you stop their run. They want to know if you can stop their pass first.
The odd thing is Dorito has an explosive passing offense to practice against but they seem completely shocked when our opponent does it.
Penn State had the best D in the BIG10 with the lowest points allowed when UH played them. UH scored more points in the 1st half than anyone scored in a game against them that year.
Penn State had an All American DT who went high in the NFL draft who complained after the game. He said UH had the weakest OL he had faced all year, but when he blew past the lineman the pass was already gone. His frustration was with the Air Raid and one Case Keenum. Penn State changed the D scheme in the second half and held UH to field goals because they had outstanding talent in the DB’s.
Oh and UH almost never ran the ball against the superior DL of Penn State. Like Texas Tech yesterday, they really did not need to call many rushing plays.
That’s what I didn’t understand. Slow the qb release to give the d line more time. Most of those throws were 5-10 yards. Granted the tackling was way subpar. If the DBs can’t run with them then switch to that soft zone. But it felt like they never tried to get up on them and make the receivers work to get off the line.
We lost our most experienced player in the back field when safety Davis got injured and we either have inexperienced DB’s or non with lock down talent.
Has anyone not realized that our lack of DB talent was badly exposed by tall receivers. Both Rice and Arizona tall receivers had great games against us. Then you bring a Air Raid team with both experience and depth at OL and several 6’4" - 6’6" receivers and scheme only goes so far. After all, you have to have the talent to play up or you might get beat like the Texas Tech DB’s go beaten in the first half. In the second half they added another DB and made other changes. They have that P5 depth and overall talent.
In the 2015-16 seasons UH had several NFL players on D who played either on the DL, LB, or DB/S and many talented “Jack Boy’s”. Then you ad an offense that could kill clock and not expose depth issues and UH won many games against marquee teams.
It also occurs to me that we were trading scores with them for a while, and we did get a couple of stops in the second half, but we stopped scoring when we tried to get cute with trick run plays and too much running…which is also when they started getting pressure. Maybe our O-line wrote down at the same time (terrible time to sellout for the run game) and maybe their secondary played better coverage, but their scheme wasn’t that different from ours, we just stopped throwing and scoring, which we proved from the start we could do.
Applewhite didn’t “hand pick” D’Onofrio. He was recommended by Orlando. Unfortunately, neither Kirby Smart nor Will Muschamp were wanting to move to UH to be our new DC.