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Hey PK -- What would you say you do here?


LTtxfan

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I think the jury is still out on the defense. They seem to do well enough at the beginning of games to allow us to take control of the entire game. Even in the Arky game they played well enough for us to establish a lead if the offense was able to do anything. Score at half was 16-0. Now what happens once we get a lead idk, and its something that needs to be addressed.  

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So I am not anywhere near as savvy as you lot in the intricacies of the game, but I enjoy your opinions. 

I know each player is different, but overall for the defense what are your takes on how much is it due to lack of athleticism/football savvy, unlearning old bad habits/schemes and positions (and picking up new, better ones) and coaching these guys up/scheming by the current staff?

Something like 30% - 50% - 20%?  

I really don't know.  But I am hoping it's more the middle one, and that number goes down as the season goes on.

 

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My hope is that the defense continues to grow throughout the season. Come out in the 1st quarter get stops and get the ball to the offense to score TDs. They are playing lots of players and getting game reps.

The only problem I have is they have played 4 blowouts so far, so we don't have an idea of how the defense will operate in a tight 4th quarter game.

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3 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

It's early in the season with a limited sample size and connectivity (obviously), but our defense so far is historically bad. We are #99 in the country in adjusted yards per play allowed.

Seems like we’re really hurting on all three levels of the defense. We don’t have a standout edge rusher to complement our interior DL. Our linebackers comprise of an oversized safety surrounded by very ordinary athletes (thanks to Todd Orlando’s recruiting). Our DBs could be good, but suffer from having to learn a new coverage scheme every year.
 

I’m sure we’ll eventually see what Pete K is about in a recruiting cycle or two. 

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7 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

Talent is a problem.   I thought in the spring we should move Crawford and another CB to safety, because our current safety group is not athletic enough (save Owens, who seems like he will never play anyway).   LB starts a walk-on.   Both edge rusher positions are JAGish with under the radar freshman Sorrell being the only guy out of like 6 dudes we play there who even looks like he has the right body type.   CBs should be good in theory, but get beat deep a lot whether from busted assignments or otherwise.

The big plays and not stopping the run better are both disappointing, though, even with the roster deficiencies.  Our DBs are veterans, so busting so many assignments is bad even with the 3rd scheme in 3 years.  Our interior DL has good talent and should be getting wins more consistently.  Even Rice and ULaLa ran on us.

this what I was saying awhile ago. Its game 4 and what does the defense do well? What position group do you have confidence in? We can talk X's and O's, but right now I have little faith in the Joes. I would love to help PK scheme, but if you are not good at 1 thing its hard to scheme, because how do you help the front to stop the run when you backend needs help?

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i think most of the bad can and will be addressed as much as possible this season with a little fine tuning here and there. And it will make a big difference. Its as much about Coach K learning what his players can and can't do as it is about the players mastering the finer points of the defense. As we move forward and both improve, combined with Coach K getting his players in place, I think we will be just fine. In the interim, let's hope the offense can keep scoring 70.

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Tech stats are kind of misleading.

If K. Robinson doesn't have his foot and face over the line, Texas at least prevents the TD on that drive and gets the ball back on a punt or better.

Tech's drives from the beginning of the game would have gone:

Punt

Punt (ifs and buts)

Interception

Downs

TD

End of Half

Interception

Punt

Not a bad start, really.

 

 

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31 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

Talent is a problem.   I thought in the spring we should move Crawford and another CB to safety, because our current safety group is not athletic enough (save Owens, who seems like he will never play anyway).   LB starts a walk-on.   Both edge rusher positions are JAGish with under the radar freshman Sorrell being the only guy out of like 6 dudes we play there who even looks like he has the right body type.   CBs should be good in theory, but get beat deep a lot whether from busted assignments or otherwise.

The big plays and not stopping the run better are both disappointing, though, even with the roster deficiencies.  Our DBs are veterans, so busting so many assignments is bad even with the 3rd scheme in 3 years.  Our interior DL has good talent and should be getting wins more consistently.  Even Rice and ULaLa ran on us.

   I think its all connected. Struggle stopping the run so DBs pay much more attention to it. Too much peeking in the backfield leads to losing track of receivers. No pass rush leads to lots of time for deep shots. It's all circular. Athletically, we have some guys who COULD be good edge rushers but they seem pretty happy with just chicken fighting. No one is really trying to dip a shoulder and get around the end. 3 tech isn't really trying to fire into the gap and be disruptive. It's all about want to, and when the trust is there the back end can stop flying up to shore up the run. It all starts with a disruptive front. Pig can do what they do because their guys are disruptive. We have to start throwing the punches instead of taking them.

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11 minutes ago, Jiggy-Z said:

Tech stats are kind of misleading.

If K. Robinson doesn't have his foot and face over the line, Texas at least prevents the TD on that drive and gets the ball back on a punt or better.

Tech's drives from the beginning of the game would have gone:

Punt

Punt (ifs and buts)

Interception

Downs

TD

End of Half

Interception

Punt

Not a bad start, really.

 

 

For the season opposing QBs are completing 74.4% of their throws at 8 yards per attempt (it hasnt exactly been Heisman Qbs either)

Take sacks out and the its 132 carries for 735 yards or 5.6 per rush. 

 

That is 4 games of data. 

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30 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

 

   I think its all connected. Struggle stopping the run so DBs pay much more attention to it. Too much peeking in the backfield leads to losing track of receivers. No pass rush leads to lots of time for deep shots. It's all circular. Athletically, we have some guys who COULD be good edge rushers but they seem pretty happy with just chicken fighting. No one is really trying to dip a shoulder and get around the end. 3 tech isn't really trying to fire into the gap and be disruptive. It's all about want to, and when the trust is there the back end can stop flying up to shore up the run. It all starts with a disruptive front. Pig can do what they do because their guys are disruptive. We have to start throwing the punches instead of taking them.

Agree with this, especially on the front 7, but when we are up by 4 TD's, shouldn't our DB's be more focused on preventing WR's from running past them deep more so than cheating up in run support?  

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Thx for this @satyanash 

Scipio Tex -- Texas Tech Postmortem Defense

Let's eat our vegetables first. Then we can enjoy the steak and dessert of the Longhorn offense.

In my preview, I sold this matchup as the first real test of the Longhorn secondary. There were a few plays where Texas tried to fill in test questions with a crayon. Or ate the crayon and denied having received a writing implement. Or drew a picture with some puffy clouds and a tree. In some schools of study, that will earn you a doctorate, but on college football Saturday, those are typically not A efforts.

While the Texas defense didn't quite play up to the standard of the Longhorn offense in the 70-35 slaughter of the Red Raiders, there was some good stuff as well. Texas was solid against the Red Raider running game, limiting them to 3.9 yards per carry collectively and with Tajh Brooks out, held their #1 runner Sa'Rodorick Thompson to 3.4 yards per carry. They also did a good job of shutting down Tech #1 receiver Erik Ezukanma. He totaled only 56 yards on 10 targets and 7 receptions. His longest catch of the game went for 18 yards. Non-factor.

Unfortunately, the rest of the Red Raider supporting cast went off on Texas. Backup QB Henry Colombi came in for the slower processing Tyler Shough (68 yards on 11 attempts) and he had a career day, going 17 of 23 for 324 yards and 3 touchdowns. His willingness to let it rip and generally play with house money freed the Texas Tech supporting cast and they punished the Horns repeatedly on deep balls.

Tech gained over 500 yards at 7.8 yards per play, which is how the numbers will pencil out when the secondary gives up throws of 75, 69, 40 and 38 yards. Not exactly keeping the ball in front of you. The three longest plays came on pretty much the same route concepts (Jamison got the brunt of two of them, Foster was late over on the other) and all three went for touchdowns. The fourth by a scrambling Colombi was just a great throw on a late coverage bust. We can rationalize those plays as a loss of intensity with Texas leading 35-7 early and a five touchdown final margin, but good teams don't really do that and it shouldn't matter to a prideful defense if the Texas offense has 17 or 70 on the board. If it happens once, it's a wake up. If it happens three or four times?

There's plenty of room to grow for the Longhorns on defense and part of that is already materializing with shifting rotations and new faces earning more playing time. Let's see if this game sparks a line-up move or two.

DL

Texas experimented with some different pass rushing personnel packages and worked Alfred Collins and Barryn Sorrell more into the rotation. The most amusing experiment came when Pete decided to have the Texas DL run the Veer.

That Collins sack off of the stack formation shouldn't surprise us. That formation and the down and distance allows him to just be an athlete and get after the passer. It's the more conventional assignment piece that he's been struggling with. He also had a nice tackle for loss where he outquicked a guy, but on more mundane downs he's still working to find his legs. The coaches are clearly making an effort to engage him though.

Moro Ojomo had a terrific early series where he strung together a tackle for loss and then a big pressure on 3rd down coming off of the edge in a pressure package where he disrupted an open Tech screen on 3rd and 9. He got dinged for an offsides later, but he's been our best DL through four games. Freshman Barryn Sorrell got heavy reps and finished with 5 tackles (led the DL) and a tackle for loss. #88 has motor and energy and the coaches are rewarding that. Great recruiting find.

Jacoby Jones played physically lining up inside and outside and had a nice QB hit, collapsing the pocket on a 3 man rush on 4th down. Excellent effort. T'vondre Sweat clearly has the nod over Coburn inside and he notched 3 tackles, though Coburn continues to start. If you can find Coburn on the field or in the box score, you're working hard. Ray Thornton is physical and I appreciate that, but #46 has to work on his get off. You know who has get off? Ovie Oghuofo. You know who didn't do much on Saturday? Oghoufo.

LB

Overshown led the team with 9 tackles and made some great plays in space, largely in pursuit. I also want to show you some bad Demarvion, which will help you understand some of the success teams are having running inside and why Texas can be poor at the point of attack.

Skip to 0:29 in:

#0 stands, watches, and gets pancaked by a Tech TE spectating on a very straightforward inside run. What he's doing here defies a lot of the basic rules of linebacking. Overshown has to fire on this more quickly and use his quickness. That should be a 1-2 yard run. He should not be getting reached and pancaked by a freaking tight end lined up outside of him. (FWIW, you also see the consistency issues with Collins on this play - watch him get washed out)

Brockermeyer had a great opportunistic interception grab that he brought deep into Tech territory and was otherwise active. Like Overshown, he's watching a little too much on some inside runs. He had a very similar clip to Overshown on another Thompson run where he was also caught looking. Both of these guys are finesse linebackers and must play accordingly. Trust the keys and fire in there. Jaylan Ford notched 4 tackles in relief and that's the most I've seen of Devin Richardson to date.

DB

First, let's start with the awesome.

Terrific job by Josh Thompson. This is the best example of what's possible in PK's scheme. Thompson is in off coverage, suggests he's going to outright bail, lulls the QB into an automatic throw, and attacks the ball right through the receiver. Pick 6. He also added 5 tackles and his only hickey was missing an early tackle on Ezukanma, who is, in fairness, a very strong receiver.

I also want to praise the Andrej Karic of the CB group - Darion Dunn. Every time he's on the screen, I see him doing something physical and nasty.  He had 4 tackles and brought willing, violent contact on multiple plays. My notes have repeated "Good tackle, Dunn" and "Dunn is violent" liberally scrawled all over them. Nothing but praise for Anthony Cook. Straight up football player. 6 tackles and even when he makes an error, it's done full speed with immediate recovery.

Then there's the crayon portion of the test:

Watch both clips. In the first, Jamison does a great job of riding the receiver out and then lets up almost as if he doesn't understand the receiver eligibility rules. Then Schooler comes over the top with the "assist." He hits Jamison and frees the Tech receiver for a TD. This is...not good. On the other side of the field, Jamison gets victimized again on the same concept. Zero safety help and Jamison doesn't play the coverage as if he knows whether he has any or not. Colombi knew where he was throwing the ball on both of those plays before the snap hit his hand.

BJ Foster also had a rough outing, giving up the inside on Tyler Shough's TD run and then showing up late a couple of times on Tech throws. Was it on him entirely? I can't tell, but I know his depth and reaction to the ball in the air isn't good enough. Schooler did have a great physical tackle that was flagged on the goal line and I have no idea why. The "slam" happened in the natural course of the tackle.

Adimora had a late sack on a hard blitz and Jerrin Thompson added 4 tackles. I expected to see more of Admiroa and I still wonder if he has a role for us at safety at some future date. Jerrin got caught with a bad angle or two supporting the run, but sometimes backs spring out of the scrum pretty quickly.

Final

The defense made some big plays, but I'm a little disappointed that they weren't able to turn the big Texas lead into better play or even passable pass coverage efforts as Tech had to play predictable catch up. Texas is still figuring out its rotations and personnel in some spots and now with conference play under way there's now an imperative to coach the coachable or get the next man ready.

 

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PK isn't exactly Manny Diaz. He's been at this for a long time at the p5 level and is well thought of as a defensive mind and coach.

I'm glad that is true, because otherwise you'd have to be extremely skeptical of his hire based on early returns.

The longevity of his prior success suggests give him a bit to get it running the way he wants and he'll produce results. I'm sure that's somewhat getting the right players and somewhat his players understanding and executing the scheme.

I sure as hell hope it at least starts to pick up in the back half of the season. So far it has been hard to watch, even when we're actually limiting points.





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14 minutes ago, Starfleet Command said:

Dunn really sticks out here.  Also, hopefully we get to pick on Ceasar this Saturday.

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I'm not sure exactly how all of that is calculated, but I don't think it's that big of a deal that Dunn's giving up an 80% catch rate when he's only giving up 6 yards a reception. It seems like most of the passes against him are quick game / screen throws to the receiver behind the line and typically late in the game protecting a lead where he's giving a big cushion. They should be completing 80% of those passes against him. I've been impressed with how physical he's been on those type of plays. 

Those TCU stats are horrifying -- two guys giving up 24 yards/play. We better hit some deep shots this Saturday. We are due.

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1 hour ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

I'm not sure exactly how all of that is calculated, but I don't think it's that big of a deal that Dunn's giving up an 80% catch rate when he's only giving up 6 yards a reception. It seems like most of the passes against him are quick game / screen throws to the receiver behind the line and typically late in the game protecting a lead where he's giving a big cushion. They should be completing 80% of those passes against him. I've been impressed with how physical he's been on those type of plays. 

Those TCU stats are horrifying -- two guys giving up 24 yards/play. We better hit some deep shots this Saturday. We are due.

That's exactly it for both Dunn and Cook.

The average Dunn pass is 3 yds deep and 3 yds YAC.

The average reception against Cook is 0.5 yds behind the LOS with a 5.5 yard run.

It's OCs testing if we can cover screens and hitches from a Cover 3 drop and the DBs are winning the battle.

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1 hour ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

I'm not sure exactly how all of that is calculated, but I don't think it's that big of a deal that Dunn's giving up an 80% catch rate when he's only giving up 6 yards a reception. It seems like most of the passes against him are quick game / screen throws to the receiver behind the line and typically late in the game protecting a lead where he's giving a big cushion. They should be completing 80% of those passes against him. I've been impressed with how physical he's been on those type of plays. 

Those TCU stats are horrifying -- two guys giving up 24 yards/play. We better hit some deep shots this Saturday. We are due.

They're getting back their best CB, so they can rotate a CB to safety, and they also get another safety back. Fat Pat's rope-a-dopeing us.

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37 minutes ago, JBJ said:

That's exactly it for both Dunn and Cook.

The average Dunn pass is 3 yds deep and 3 yds YAC.

The average reception against Cook is 0.5 yds behind the LOS with a 5.5 yard run.

It's OCs testing if we can cover screens and hitches from a Cover 3 drop and the DBs are winning the battle.

Based on those numbers, expected yards per pass against Dunn and Cook are 4.5 yards and 3.2 yards respectively. Although they get targeted fairly frequently, that sounds like winning football to me.   

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Maybe the best way of sorting that information would be yards per target where you discount the yards/catch by the catch rate.  So based on those numbers Ceasar has given up 15 yards each time he has been targeted while Tomlinson has given up about 8.  Would be interesting to see a big spreadsheet of that stat for the whole conference.

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35 minutes ago, sidis said:

this defense is absolutely going to drive me to drink (more).  fuck i hate playing bad defense. 

and with our front four, we really shouldn't be that bad.

The front 4 is DTs and pieces from the island of misfit toys (the edge). I love the the Inside Texas description of the ILBs  as finesse, which means cant shed blocks or read keys, but if kept clean they can run. When you step back and take look at the defense,  there isn’t a lot of difference makers out there. PK would give his left nut to get Oassi back 

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35 minutes ago, Sawbonz said:

I’m positive I read somewhere that the new strength and conditioning coach had these guys in the best shape of their lives

every damned S&C coach that has come in from Mad Dog on have been getting these guys in the best shape of their lives.....and we still have the same old shitty results. I dont know where I got the idea that Coburn was an animal. The next time I see him be disruptive will be the first time. Fat bastard needs to lay off the cookies and press clippings. Maybe we could convince him the QB had a sash of bacon and biscuits...

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3 hours ago, sidis said:

this defense is absolutely going to drive me to drink (more).  fuck i hate playing bad defense. 

and with our front four, we really shouldn't be that bad.

We don’t have a single good edge rusher. Our front foor is not that good. 

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1 hour ago, Codaxx said:

The front 4 is DTs and pieces from the island of misfit toys (the edge). I love the the Inside Texas description of the ILBs  as finesse, which means cant shed blocks or read keys, but if kept clean they can run. When you step back and take look at the defense,  there isn’t a lot of difference makers out there. PK would give his left nut to get Oassi back 

Having a guy like Ossai back would completely transform the defense. A great edge rusher compliments stout interior linemen by forcing the offensive line to pick their poison. Any non-elite offensive line has to double team at least one of them, which means someone eventually beats their block and ends up in the backfield. This would also help our oversized safeties... er I mean linebackers, stay free and execute their assignments.

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Not having a plus edge rusher was an issue foreseen a mile away. The real disappointment is the interior DL, which had in fact flashed the ability to be disruptive across schemes in 2019 and 2020. The double team point is a two way street, if you have an interior player consistently drawing a double team then it puts both opposing tackles on islands without guard help and your ends should get around them on athleticism alone a couple times a game. Instead they seem to have not progressed much outside of Ojomo. Particularly disappointed in Coburn and Collins. The former has a unique blend of quickness and power bulked out of him; I thought the new S&C might help him trim down and get that back but he’s still just a space eater. Lack of development from Collins is really disappointing too. The physical talent is undeniable. They seem to be working him in more every game and he seems engaged by all available accounts so hopefully they light can come on over the course of this year.

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Good thing ou's offense is sucking, it at least buys us some leeway. Our offense will score pretty much whenever we feel like it, so we just really need the D to come up strong on a handful of plays. 

I'm not worried about the cockroaches porous defense, so we'll win that one. I don't know if it'll be a beat down like tech, but our D held strong for the first two quarters, and that's really all we need against those filthy fucks from FTW. 

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2 hours ago, oldhorn2 said:

every damned S&C coach that has come in from Mad Dog on have been getting these guys in the best shape of their lives..

I think the only time this actually happened was when that Bulgarian power lifter dude showed up in the late 80s and Jeter and Dronett and those guys each gained about 40 pounds over one off-season.

 

I’m sure it was simply coincidence that a walk on quarterback got busted for fraudulent testosterone scripts around that same time

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13 hours ago, gmr548 said:

Not having a plus edge rusher was an issue foreseen a mile away. The real disappointment is the interior DL, which had in fact flashed the ability to be disruptive across schemes in 2019 and 2020. The double team point is a two way street, if you have an interior player consistently drawing a double team then it puts both opposing tackles on islands without guard help and your ends should get around them on athleticism alone a couple times a game. Instead they seem to have not progressed much outside of Ojomo. Particularly disappointed in Coburn and Collins. The former has a unique blend of quickness and power bulked out of him; I thought the new S&C might help him trim down and get that back but he’s still just a space eater. Lack of development from Collins is really disappointing too. The physical talent is undeniable. They seem to be working him in more every game and he seems engaged by all available accounts so hopefully they light can come on over the course of this year.

In fairness to the staff, they at least tried to address that deficiency, bringing in Davis, Thornton, and Oghoufu. They just aren’t very good. Thornton can hold an edge against the run, Oghoufu is pure upfield speed rush with no contain, and Davis barely gets on the field. If you could combine Thornton and Oghoufu you’d have a pretty good player. Of course, you probably wouldn’t have been able to get that player in the portal. 

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13 hours ago, Spider2YBanana said:

I'm not worried about the cockroaches porous defense, so we'll win that one. I don't know if it'll be a beat down like tech, but our D held strong for the first two quarters, and that's really all we need against those filthy fucks from FTW. 

Four of their best players are back this week. Don't take it too lightly.

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27 minutes ago, Duane Moore said:

In fairness to the staff, they at least tried to address that deficiency, bringing in Davis, Thornton, and Oghoufu. They just aren’t very good. Thornton can hold an edge against the run, Oghoufu is pure upfield speed rush with no contain, and Davis barely gets on the field. If you could combine Thornton and Oghoufu you’d have a pretty good player. Of course, you probably wouldn’t have been able to get that player in the portal. 

https://gfycat.com/terriblegrouchygrasshopper

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Brothahorn said:

Untll then coach is going to call his plays no matter what.

Adjustments are for suckers.

What do you want him to do? Our linebackers are iffy, our pass rush sucks. Our DBs aren’t very reliable. There’s not a lot of options for him. When he’s blitzed this year, we get beat. 

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22 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

What do you want him to do? Our linebackers are iffy, our pass rush sucks. Our DBs aren’t very reliable. There’s not a lot of options for him. When he’s blitzed this year, we get beat. 

All true.  We need a major talent upgrade.  ESP in the front 7.  

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  • blacklab changed the title to Hey PK -- Keep the Sacks and Turnovers Comin' !!!
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