This is very helpful. Thank you!
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There are clearly 2 parts to a blitz.
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The blitzer(s) and disguising it.
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Right coverage on the receivers to make sure that QB doesn’t have an easy out.
I saw very little of either.
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I call BS on this number. The D philosophy thread another poster counted 8 in the first half.
Would you call this play a ‘blitz’? I don’t…we’re bringing 3 all the way. #8’s pressing the receiver and doesn’t go after the QB until he realizes the guy isn’t going out and #22 doesn’t cross the LOS until 3 seconds after the snap. QB has 4 seconds to throw the ball…TD Tech. Game over. This is the kind of play that is pissing everyone off. If 8 was blitzing this is a sack.
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I’ll re watch it when i get home, he counted the same 3 I did … the long yard plys
He says the remaining 3 were in the last TD drive. We werent even line up properly cause they were going so fast…I’ll rewatch and see but I didnt count those
Even if his account is accurate he says the majority of it was on the last drive… We had 9 defenseive drives in the 1st half alone… The point wasn’t about the number 3 but that we brought players the majority of drives
In all fairness we are down 14 before they score TD on this play…and our offense had already given up by running up middle. It was last real play defense saw. Next drive TT kneeled to kill clock. The D has played 99 plays. If you want to be right on technicality congrats.
The drive started on UH 44 after offense turned over on downs…just sayin
Thanks to all for their time and effort. Meaningful dialogue is better than the coach sucks.
Still contend the tackling is terrible and there is little talent in the secondary.
My concern regarding the offense is that while it does score, it does so in fewer plays. I believe all the scoring drives have averaged 4 plays.
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I agree. CMD could do more disguising.
In regard to your number 2…what if your corners don’t cover well and also don’t tackle well? Your safeties Miss a lot tackles? What’s right coverage?
What do you do when your gonna be on field 90 plus plays? And trying not use too many subs for too many plays because they are much less capable than starters?
Do you mix in zone so you have more eyes on ball to tackle if it’s caught? Also so your guys expend less energy so they can still play in 4th quarter? We saw what UH offense did to Arizona DBs by going deep every down. Playing man all game is exhausting and we don’t have 4 good corners. Blitzing takes a lot out of your LBs…we Have no experience backups. We lost grad transfer Owens in Rice game 1st qtr. Brown and Robinson are playing almost every snap. Now Davis is gone at safety and Sprewell and Stuard are very inexperienced and it shows…they do have some nice flashes and good hits but coverage and decision making are shaky at this point.
When you play man and guy gets beat and doesn’t tackle, other players are running with their man and can’t help…so risk big plays.
The other thing is the offense doesn’t tell you what they are running and can audible also. For example opponents know by now that IJ can’t cover fade without interference…if you press him…they will audible to fade…I would.
I mentioned this before that depth is required to play this type of game, especially on D.
Gibbs was quoted by the commentators during the game that “he just now had the depth needed for his D.” Texas Tech goes 3 deep on the DL and LB and has quality depth at DB.
It was at the end of the 2nd quarter that this depth started to be noticed, by the 4th quarter we were exhausted and they made stops with their fresher experienced players.This is not an issue of S&C but more of quality backups allowing starters to sit out a series.
Many seemed to have forgotten that besides losing players whose eligibility has expired, UH saw Wilder transfer to Wisconsin.(would a powerhouse BIG10 FB program offer a scholarship to a bad DB) and an experienced DB in Winchester (6 T’s, 1 solo against TT last year.) then lost Davis in the 1st quarter.
Where is the depth and experience going to come from when we are running an O that puts such pressure on the D.
In 2015, Gibbs 1st year at Tech, here is the scores W59-45, W69-20, w35-24, L55-52, L63-35, W66-31,W30-20, L63-27, L70-53, L31-26, W59-44, W48-45, L56-27
in 2016: W69-17, L68-55, W59-45, W55-19, L44-38, L48-17, L66-59, W27-24, L45-37, L45-44, L66-10, W54-35,
In 2017: W56-10, W52-45, W27-24, L41-34, W65-19, L46-35, L31-13, L49-27, L42-35, W38-24, L27-3, W27-23, L38-34
Texas Tech D in 2015 had 5 games where their D gave up 55 to 70 points.
In 2017 they had 0 games where the D gave up 50 or more points.
Note that UH held Texas Tech to 27 points in 2017, had 5 turnovers to their 1 and had 83 plays on O to their 88. TOP was 30:50 to 29:10 in favor of Tech.
This year UH held Tech to 63 points, had 0 turnovers to their 1 and had 92 plays on O to their 100, TOP was 35:38 to 24:22 in favor of Tech.
Texas Tech lost most of their skill position players on O from last year, had OL returning with experienced depth. Tech also returned some 10 starters and depth from last years D. None or little changes from last years O and D schemes.
UH lost most of last years skill position players on O, some OL players, and introduced a completely new Offense. D lost several players on the D in LB’s, DB, and Safety’s. Little change in D schemes.
Why does it suprise anyone that this happened in Lubbock with Kingsbury’s job on the line.
Oh, and last year UT’s Orlando D lost to Tech 27-23.
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What was incredible is that 111 passes were thrown in that game, with ZERO interceptions.
Not sure what that says…
Grabbing up all the arguments the last 3 days compressed into a one on one convo:
Mike: The defensive coach sucks.
Dan: I agree but what would you have done differently.
Mike: I would have rushed more than 3 guys.
Dan: We rushed 4 or more guys more than we rushed 3.
Mike: That’s not true.
Dan: Here are the numbers.
Mike: Well, I meant blitz more. Rushing a 4th doesn’t count.
Dan: How often would you have blitzed?
Mike: More than we did.
Dan: How often though?
Mike: At least half the time in obvious passing downs.
Dan: Here’s the numbers.
Mike: We should have disguised the blitzes more to be more effective.
Dan: So you want us to put 7 up on the line, rush 4, blitz 1, and have 2 run back to help the 4 DBs cover 4 WRs and the RB?
Mike: Don’t put words in my mouth.
Dan: Then how many and how often?
Mike: Are you related to him? Our coach sucks.
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Appreciate the work breaking down the plays. There is still something fishy about these “delayed blitzes”. That happens multiple times with different guys where they aren’t going 100% or at some point 2nd guess the blitz or give up on it when they get near the line. Are they being taught to try to read something? Or is it just to try to confuse the QB? Regardless of what he was told on that play, Sprewell needs to go make the play. The problem may be that he is trying to make them think too much.
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Great post!!! The negative effect these offenses have on your own defenses are documented. I’ve posted that same happened to Bennett at Baylor …gave up 37 game for 2 years…Briles Inc avg 45 on offense.
Don’t get me wrong I think it’s exciting and King and Stevenson are great to watch…but your defense pays for it.
Very well said. I had some of the similar sentiments after I calmed down from the initial anger and disappointment of the game. Plain and simple I felt like our guys were extremely exhausted.
It was a great game plan by Kliff Kingsberry. This also justifies why Major Applewhite started sitting people so early against Arizona. A lot of people questioned him for doing that but this is probably some of the rationale. Thanks for the write up and information.
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Thanks This isn’t exactly a delayed blitz. I know what 2002Coog is talking about and it’s littke different as S doesn’t come up till after snap.
This is actually an adjustment made on field by Anderson. TT shifted and Anderson pulled them out Cover 2…and into Cover 3.
You may already know this but just in case…I’m Cover 2 two deep safeties each have 1/2 field. The CBs will generally play the flat area…there are lot different variations and ways to play it.
When Cover 3 call is made…it’s still zone but now the deep field is divided 3 ways for deep passes …remaining safety and two CBs. The SS now plays under and would cover flat that LCB would have had in Cover 2…LCB is now man to man on WR.
Anderson made same call earlier and TT ran into it…Sprewell flew into backfield…missed TFL at 3 yards deep. I think got no gain.
So Sprewell walks up…he has run/pass cover responsibility. He probably has that wide side flat. But no receiver is out there…he’s got nobody between him and QB. If he runs at him he probably throws out bounds. Davis would have attacked that. The WR to his side is covered by CB. Only other receiver to his side was lined up as wing off of RT. He blocked down on our LDE because it was bootleg action. When he blocks down Sprewell should know he’s good attack. There aren’t any other receivers to possibly go into flat that he has coverage responsibility for…make sense?
[quote=“Buyercoog, post:28, topic:13946”]
This year UH held Tech to 63 points
[/quote]
This was my favorite line.
I’ve gone over these conversations before during the Sumlin days. When you ask Cougar fans if they would prefer to have a wide open offense or a shut down defense, you get two replies. Yes, I want both. or Yes, wide open offense is more fun to watch than a shut down defense.
Now of course during the Spring it was pointed out that Baylor and FAU ran the ball more than they passed. So even though Briles runs the spread, we were assured the defense would not be on the field as much as in a Kliff Kingsbury type spread offense.
One thing that is deceiving though, is time of possession when relating it to the amount of time a team is on the field. If the team runs the ball 3 times and punts, it uses a lot more time off the clock than if they throw 3 straight incomplete passes and punt. So just looking at the play by play, the first scenario shows the defense was off the field for 1 minute and the second shows they were off the field for 20 seconds. Both times the defense got the same amount of rest.
I think another thing to take into account is conditioning. It rained a lot last week but it wasn’t always thundering. I’m curious how much time Texas Tech trained inside and how much time we trained inside.
There were several games during the CTO era where the defense would “start slow.” We would basically play soft coverage and let the opposing offense do what they wanted for a few drives. This would result in a tie, 7, or even double digit deficit early in the game. But CTO was just playing rope-a-dope. Then when the opposing offenses were feeling good about themselves, the adjustments would come and the whole game would change and we end in victory formation up by double digits.
I say all this because I think this is exactly what Gibbs did to us on Saturday.
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This offense can be scary. But when it stalls it’s a problem as mentioned.
Another thing…CMA seems compelled to go on 4th down a lot. And when we don’t make it…a tired D comes back on with half a field to go.
I’m all for being aggressive but there is a consequence for failing.
Before the half I thought he should have punted TT back inside 10…UH was getting ball start 2nd and would be 28-28 most likely.
KK probably would have been a bit more conservative from so deep in own territory and long way go not much time. Instead he got ball own 40…scores with 3 secs left…if had go another 30 yards who knows?
If D had been playing well in 2nd quarter I wouldn’t question but they had been failing in recent series
While your breakdown is very thorough and at times accurate it comes across as somewhat apologetic. We got out butts beat and rather than blame it on the fact that their receiver is taller than our CB we just need learn from it (as best we can) and move on.
not sure what is apologetic about it…
i say in there our db groub isnt very good…and nothing can be done about it
i note watkins is our best bet at CB but note he also gets beat…
the taller comment was made only for the meyers vasher matchup, i noted about numerous other matchups none of which had to do with height…did you only read the meyers line, because i dont even mention anything about height beyond those 3 lines
apologetic: this is why this is okay…my whole post is that we need to make changes, Johnson was our cb1, i was advocating for watkins to be our CB1 and to be cautious of how we match players up
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