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Texas Destroys Alabama - And Here's the Film to Prove It


Katfid54

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22 minutes ago, Katfid54 said:

Is football fun again? Yes.  Yes, it is.  As a throwback that I hope folks will enjoy (and because I have some unexpected downtime), I wanted to put together a quick recap of some of the plays that I found noteworthy during the game.  This is mostly going to include an analysis of big plays, because they’re the ones you remember, they obviously matter, and it’s more fun than analyzing why we got three yards on inside zone instead of five.

 

I unfortunately don’t expect that this is going to turn into an opportunity for me to be an all-the-time shitposter as in years’ past.  But hopefully if y’all enjoy this, I can do a few of these a year if there’s interest.

 

Anyway, enough about me.  Let’s watch some football gifs.

 

I’m going to break down four things in this post:

 

(1) a comparison of the Xavier Worthy 44 yard TD pass with Bama’s 49 yard throw to Jermaine Burton.  Is it a tale of two slot-fade routes?

 

(2) A look at Jahdae Barron’s interception, which may be a true Boom/Bust play on further review.

 

(3) A look at Ethan Burke’s evolution against the zone read as the game went on.  Really interesting stuff for those who were watching scheme live.

 

(4) The 39 yard bomb to AD Mitchell.

I'll roll these out over the course of the day as I have time to get it out the door.

I just can’t brielieve you didn’t work more cheese puns in. You Muenster been gone longer than I realized. 

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8 minutes ago, Katfid54 said:

Turns out, someone is coaching our defensive players on the sideline while the game is ongoing.  Weird.  For the past 14 years, I was under the impression that wasn’t allowed.

This shit gave me flash backs to previous years where our coaching staff acted like ZR was a new concept and they really had no clue to defend it.

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5 minutes ago, SA-KC_Horn said:

This shit gave me flash backs to previous years where our coaching staff acted like ZR was a new concept and they really had no clue to defend it.

Flashback to Mack and Diaz arguing on the sideline during one of the BYU debacles. 

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20 minutes ago, Katfid54 said:

Burke plays it perfectly (again).  He doesn’t run upfield.  He doesn’t crash on the snap.  He stays wide, forces the GIVE read, and then attacks straight down the line of scrimmage.  Sweat blows up his blocker to force McClellan back to the outside, and Burke is waiting there to make the tackle himself.

As quasi-inebriated as I was by this point, I specifically remember seeing Burke play this one totally differently than the ones in the 1st half. God I love seeing it.

 

Great breakdowns. Welcome back. 

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1 hour ago, Katfid54 said:

Based on my review, I think Barron played it right but it’s bang-b-ang.  At the very end of the clip, you can see Catalon hauling ass to try and get wide to help with the two WRs running down the sideline.  That suggests the look is a cover 4 look with Barron having responsibility for the flat.  Maybe something like this?

I think he played it right, too - and would have turned upfield to stick with the outside guy but Milroe telegraphed it and Barron jumped the pass instead. 

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Just now, ztejas said:

I think he played it right, too - and would have turned upfield to stick with the outside guy but Milroe telegraphed it and Barron jumped the pass instead. 

I think that's right, although I think he would've stayed with the out routeif he's playing it right.  It's the LB (Gbenda) who needs to pass off the out route and go find other work.  But it's so bang-bang.  I had to watch it about 50 times to come to that conclusion.  Without knowing the call, it's tough.

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cool breakdown, not an x's and o's fan, but I think Xavier Worthy's route was a corner route based on his initial break, how he ran the route immediately after his break, and where the high/low conflict was on the field with the safety to the left. it also makes sense because X is running away from the safety if it's a corner route and right into the safety if its a post route (skinny or otherwise).   the rest of your stuff makes sense.

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11 minutes ago, Katfid54 said:

I think that's right, although I think he would've stayed with the out routeif he's playing it right.  It's the LB (Gbenda) who needs to pass off the out route and go find other work.  But it's so bang-bang.  I had to watch it about 50 times to come to that conclusion.  Without knowing the call, it's tough.

Do you have a gif of the J Whitt pile drive block? I've been wanting to see that replay but not sure anyone has posted it. 

Pretty sure it was on this punt.

Screenshot_20230911_140153_ESPN.thumb.jpg.46d8ad937611d0385a2af7f42018e6f0.jpg

Edited by ztejas
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3 minutes ago, troph said:

cool breakdown, not an x's and o's fan, but I think Xavier Worthy's route was a corner route based on his initial break, how he ran the route immediately after his break, and where the high/low conflict was on the field with the safety to the left. it also makes sense because X is running away from the safety if it's a corner route and right into the safety if its a post route (skinny or otherwise).   the rest of your stuff makes sense.

Are you talking about this? 

YvTbfh.gif

That's a post route bro.   

If he had started from the other side of the football and run toward the same corner of the end zone, that would be a corner route. 

Rule of thumb:  Post routes break TOWARD/across the ball:

Post.png.2895e29880dc80b46310b787245975fd.png

 

Corner routes break away from the ball:

Corner.png.ba8cb69029a6bdc3cf279445997e8e00.png

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12 minutes ago, troph said:

cool breakdown, not an x's and o's fan, but I think Xavier Worthy's route was a corner route based on his initial break, how he ran the route immediately after his break, and where the high/low conflict was on the field with the safety to the left. it also makes sense because X is running away from the safety if it's a corner route and right into the safety if its a post route (skinny or otherwise).   the rest of your stuff makes sense.

I had the same thought, but since it’s run from the field (wide) side, maybe it’s still considered a post?

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I know there are a lot of Xs/Os folks out there.  So if there was something you saw, happy to discuss it here.  I am, however, not going to make a gif-on-request of Jordan Whittington getting called for holding.

Also, if there's something you're particularly interested in, let me know here or via DM and I can include it in a future one of these (and let's hope it doesn't take another 5 years for me to do the next one).

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10 minutes ago, lilMAC25 said:

I had the same thought, but since it’s run from the field (wide) side, maybe it’s still considered a post?

he stems the safety by faking a corner and goes to post.  it is just run from the slot or a tight postion so it looks like a corner because he has to try to get "inside" the safety to fake the corner to get him on his hip.

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4 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

The interesting thing on the ZR plays is the different movements of the tackle.  some he blocks down, one he pulls, another he "walls" off.  I wonder if there is any read off of that for the D.

Great thought/comment.  I wondered if the pull was designed to suck in Burke more.  I.e., sometimes defensive linemen are taught to follow pulling guards.  If you couple a pulling action with ZR, maybe you further incentivize the DE to give a PULL read? 

image.gif.73a7fc58e23d802beeea902ec2db46e2.gif

Also, it's probably not technically a "zone" read, since the line blocks down and the tackle pulls.  It's really a Power Read (although the term "Power Read" in option parlance means something different).  So for ease of discussion, it's a ZR-type look. 

I re-watched this a few times to see if there was no read and it was just Burke misplaying it so badly he makes it look like ZR?  But I don't think so.  It sure looks like Milroe is reading him. 

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7 minutes ago, Katfid54 said:

Great thought/comment.  I wondered if the pull was designed to suck in Burke more.  I.e., sometimes defensive linemen are taught to follow pulling guards.  If you couple a pulling action with ZR, maybe you further incentivize the DE to give a PULL read? 

image.gif.73a7fc58e23d802beeea902ec2db46e2.gif

Also, it's probably not technically a "zone" read, since the line blocks down and the tackle pulls.  It's really a Power Read (although the term "Power Read" in option parlance means something different).  So for ease of discussion, it's a ZR-type look. 

I re-watched this a few times to see if there was no read and it was just Burke misplaying it so badly he makes it look like ZR?  But I don't think so.  It sure looks like Milroe is reading him. 

I think the QB always looks like he's reading him to keep the DE in conflict but on the pull I think it was a auto give call, IMO.

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@Katfid54 ok thanks. I guess your comment was confusing because you were saying it was definitely a post as though some one was saying it was something else, like you were arguing with someone else's position. I think everyone knew he was running toward the corner and not the middle of the endzone (post vs. skinny post).  it was a good pass in that X could catch it, but if thrown correctly X catches it in stride and can Prime Time into the endzone untouched.  but yes the conflict with the safety part is cool.  every now and again the TV guys will show that but often times not.

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1 minute ago, troph said:

@Katfid54 ok thanks. I guess your comment was confusing because you were saying it was definitely a post as though some one was saying it was something else, like you were arguing with someone else's position. I think everyone knew he was running toward the corner and not the middle of the endzone (post vs. skinny post).  it was a good pass in that X could catch it, but if thrown correctly X catches it in stride and can Prime Time into the endzone untouched.  but yes the conflict with the safety part is cool.  every now and again the TV guys will show that but often times not.

I was probably arguing with myself.  On the first watch, I thought we had run the old Tom Herman/Devin Duvernay slot fade (i.e., what Bama did).  We haven't had much success with the fade; Quinn doesn't throw it great, in my opinion.

So when I re-watched and realized the play was the NCAA concept, I thought it worth noting that it was a concept and not simply a "Yo, Worthy, go deep" play.

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13 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

I think the QB always looks like he's reading him to keep the DE in conflict but on the pull I think it was a auto give call, IMO.

As always, it's tough to know what's going on without the playcall.  But after watching this like 20 more times, I now think this was an RPO and the read is actually of Gbenda.

image.gif.717f49d76c992f96e06da161f2f5fabd.gif

Milroe is obviously reading something here.  This is not a fake read.  But when you watch the give after Burke's crash, Milroe's head doesn't turn.  I think he's actually reading Gbenda to see if he'll bite on the run and, if so, he's going to throw the quick out.  Basically Power with a backside OHIO concept? 

This is my attempt to draw it up:

Power-OHIO.JPG.b634cdb62b2731ba12b39a9e47a39209.JPG

Also explains why Milroe's eyes continue to widen as the out route widens.  He's internally checking to make sure he made the right read and to see whether that route was open.

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19 minutes ago, Katfid54 said:

I was probably arguing with myself.  On the first watch, I thought we had run the old Tom Herman/Devin Duvernay slot fade (i.e., what Bama did).  We haven't had much success with the fade; Quinn doesn't throw it great, in my opinion.

So when I re-watched and realized the play was the NCAA concept, I thought it worth noting that it was a concept and not simply a "Yo, Worthy, go deep" play.

Yeah it wasn’t recess football, but the throw was off enough it surely looked like it. 

Edited by troph
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52 minutes ago, Katfid54 said:

I know there are a lot of Xs/Os folks out there.  So if there was something you saw, happy to discuss it here.  I am, however, not going to make a gif-on-request of Jordan Whittington getting called for holding.

Also, if there's something you're particularly interested in, let me know here or via DM and I can include it in a future one of these (and let's hope it doesn't take another 5 years for me to do the next one).

And if anyone has access to All-22 film, I can do some really badass analysis with that....

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3 hours ago, Katfid54 said:

Defenderresponsib.jpg.0dee116e58ad50ed83b884ab25ddc633.jpg

If Barron did play it right, this is really horrific read by MIlroe.  If he’d checked, he could’ve hit the next receiver for a decent gain down the sideline.  Instead, he simply assumes man coverage and never even checks to make sure Barron has left the area.  He telegraphs his pass the whole way, and it’s a free football for Texas.

Your instincts are correct.  This is zone.

...I mean the play itself not what you drew.

Edited by JBJ
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2 hours ago, Katfid54 said:

Part 3:

 

Ethan Burke was a big part of the story of the game for a lot of reasons.  But one thing that I noticed early on was that Bama had obviously schemed to attack him with the Zone Read. 

 

They ran various plays to put Burke in conflict.  But I’m going to try and focus only on ZR.  Here’s the first time they ran it against Burke:

 

PAbe5a.gif

 

Burke gives a hard keep read.  He’s almost all the way to the center when Milroe pulls the ball:

 

 

 

BurkeZR1.jpg.a24d99911874d6f1e7de050152f85e7e.jpg

Catalon tries to fill the alley but misses and Burke is fortunately able to get Milroe by the shoe to prevent him from ripping off another 5 or 10 yards.

 

Gain of eleven.

 

The second time they ran zone read was literally the next play:

 

4HBt-Q.gif

 

Burke attacks deep and Milroe hands the ball to McClellan. 

 

NfMkbw.gif

 

Frankly, I’m not sure he was in a position to make a play on either Milroe or McClellan that play.  He chases the RB but his angle is too poor to run him down.

 

Texas pulls Burke after that play for several plays.  The next time Bama runs ZR, Sorrell is in at EDGE:

 

d38eaP.gif

 

Sorrell stays flat, doesn’t chase, and forces a GIVE read.  Byron Murphy and Alfred Collins both shitwhip the Bama OL, Jaylon Ford fills the other gap, and the play is snuffed for a loss of 1.  That play takes Bama off schedule, Watts breaks up 2nd down in the end zone, Milroe runs for his life on 3rd down, and Texas is able to force a field goal.

 

Bama doesn’t go back to ZR the next drive or for the rest of the first half.

 

The next time they run ZR, it’s 13:16 in the third quarter, and Burke is back at DE:

 

ens-8r.gif

 

This time, Burke slow-plays it, forcing the GIVE read.  Catalon fills from the safety position and slows McClellan, who is then gang-tackled by errbody.

 

Bama runs ZR again against Sorrell in the late 3rd.  It doesn’t go great.  Here’s the last time they run ZR and the play that stood out to me the most.  2:15 left in the 3rd.  2nd and 9.  Bama finally gets the Burke matchup that it has been exploiting all night:

 

SU7NEj.gif

 

Burke plays it perfectly (again).  He doesn’t run upfield.  He doesn’t crash on the snap.  He stays wide, forces the GIVE read, and then attacks straight down the line of scrimmage.  Sweat blows up his blocker to force McClellan back to the outside, and Burke is waiting there to make the tackle himself.

 

Turns out, someone is coaching our defensive players on the sideline while the game is ongoing.  Weird.  For the past 14 years, I was under the impression that wasn’t allowed.

Bo Davis is really good at his job when not getting leg whipped by a LB. I would also say that trainer we hired to help with DE/Edge technique is doing a fucking awesome job.

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1 hour ago, dcar00 said:

The interesting thing on the ZR plays is the different movements of the tackle.  some he blocks down, one he pulls, another he "walls" off.  I wonder if there is any read off of that for the D.

Coach Ervin said today with Burton that you have to look at the OTs now a days because guards pull a lot on boots and other passing concepts. So, I imagine Bama was absolutely playing games with the OTs to get false reads from the Texas defenders.

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