What To Do Against Ol Mizzou

Oh, that’s just fucking great – now I have to think about Shirley Hemphill’s vagina for the rest of the week.

…

Hey, wait: It’s not so bad, after all. Thanks!

Greatness, as usual. Well done, Scip.

Half witted opinion here. Don’t think the game will be as close as you have suggested. I just finished seeing OU/MU 2007, which is the first time I have had a chance to see Mizzou at more than a clip. We are better right now, by a good margin, than that same OU team last year and we are better equipped then them to handle Mizzou. Our pass rush is better and our secondary is better and more athletic than OU’s. I think those factors alone will make all the difference in the world. The Mizzou offense operates at a certain comfort level. Once they are forced outside of that level and are forced to press, that is when their talent limitations are exposed. And believe that our D will consistently expose those limitations.

I actually wonder if Mizzou will be able to put up more than 21 points while the game is on the line. Daniels has a damn strong arm, especially for a football equivalent of a midget, and that arm of his is what makes him so effective. But when he is pressed, that same strong arm will get him in trouble, since he will attempt to rely on that arm strength to bail him out, but, more often than not, those throws end up as risky throws down field.

And I was right, Daniels has no ability to throw in one motion while he is on the run. He has to set his feet first, before he can release, which makes him a bit less effective on roll outs. I say we have a very good chance, in this game, of having more picks than he does of having TDs. For all this “he’s been in that O since birth” talk, when Daniels is pressed, he becomes a riverboat gambler down field. It’s just the way he plays it seems and I doubt if he could change. The other alternative is not much better for him. If he became gun shy, then he would become indecisive and just sit back paralyzed in the pocket like a sitting duck and end up getting smacked around by our pass rush. I don’t think this will be a pretty game for Daniels. He is going to press and, quite frankly, he is not good enough to get away with it.

Maclin does not seem to be all that fast this year, considering all the hype he seems to be getting. He seemed to be faster last year, from what I can tell from the OU game. They say he is nursing some sort of injury, so maybe that is the reason, but, from what I have seen of him this year, he doesn’t really concern me too much.

I’m sort of worried about untimely personal fouls in this game. Given, Daniels height issues (I have yet to see a shorter looking Div I QB than him), I’m afraid that we may incidently run into him helmet to helmet whenever we attempt to tackle the midget, but hopefully the coaches are working on this in practice by having players tackle cut in half tackling dummies.

Oh and GC you can save this post and throw it back in my face, if it ends up being, as you say, half-witted. I’m not too concerned that it will be – not for this game.

Oh, and I forgot to add that Houston may just have himself a great game.

Our O is just too efficient for Mizzou. They have no ability to stop us on O and this maybe the game where our running attack gets off the ground. And no, the Mizzou Tiggars are not a physical team. No B12 North team is physical and they are not particularly fast on D either, although they are athletic for a B12 North team. I doubt if the outcome of this game is close or, even, ever in question. We might as well call the B12 the Big 2 and the ten little dwarves. That would be a more accurate description of the true state of this so so conference that we are fortunate enough to be in. After this game and the OU/KU, more folks around here might end up agreeing with me. Heck, maybe even GC will come shell shocked on his hands and knees in agreement, after he witnesses his mighty Tiggars obliterated on the field.

In two short weeks you’ve gone from Cytherea to Shirley Hemphill. I don’t think I’m prepared for where this trend is headed.

Scipio, you are a poet. Good point on the Mizzou defense – I’ve been wondering the same thing. With two sure-fire NFLers – Moore and ‘spoon, another likely NFL guy – Hood, and another with a good shot – Stryker, I’ve got to wonder why their play has been so… uneven, this year. Especially considering their experience. The defense hasn’t been bad, but prone to brain cramps. They’ve been costly.

I also think Daniel will have a good game and keep the game interesting.

I’m not worried about the Tigers being able to score TDs when close – as long as it’s not 4th and 1, of course – the Tigers have scored 38 TDs this year. For the most part, they can get it in the end zone. Unfortunately, OSU showed how Mizzou can be stopped and UT does not lack the athletes to implement the gameplan, which you note above.

steven, who is Daniels? Seriously, he’s a Texas boy – at least you can show QB1 a little respect by learning his name.

Frankly, I’m counting on the fact that the Longhorns aren’t from Oklahoma as being the difference maker the Tigers need. Oklahoma is our kryptonite.

Daniel is a good QB, but he lacks class.

Texas by 13

Oh, my apologies for the added S, but who really cares if I got the S right or not? The question is whether I got the rest of that about him right. Hey, I respected him enough to sit down and watch him play.

And also, aside from the horseplay, I do respect the boy. I admire what he has been able to do given what he has. The deck has been sort of stacked against him and for him to succeed to his level in spite of that is, well, something I doubt I could ever do or, for that matter, wouild ever want to do. Just too much work involved in all that overcoming odds stuff, I suppose. I’ve never cared to be a winner and I’ve never thought there was any point to it, so I figure why put out any effort at all in that direction or any direction for that matter. Everyone has their life style and mojo.

But anyway, whether I respect him or not is besides the point, the question is whether I am right or wrong about his play. And I know I put it in a half ass way, but I believe it is reasonable to believe that he is going to lay an egg against us in Austin. I think people give him way too much credit for beating up on the poor sister of the North. Unless the refs do another OU on us, we are going to beat that boy silly.

“If we can match that intensity with 100,000 Orangebloods in full psychotic harmony, Brian Orakpo will have so much adrenaline he’ll end up clubbing Chase Daniel with a Honda Civic like he’s in a super-hero battle. Roy Miller will burrow under the field and arrive in Missouri’s backfield like Bugs Bunny looking for Pismo Beach. Roddrick Muckelroy will hit someone so hard that he knocks off their pores. "

Some of your best writing yet. I hope the crowd that shows up on Saturday knows how much of a factor they can be in the game.

It starts and ends with the pressure that the 4 down linemen can bring on their own. If they can rush Daniel out of his comfort zone, then we should be ok. Free up Muck and Norton to roam underneath and clog up the short/medium routes.

That intensity of douche could clean out Shirley Hemphill’s vagina with an eye dropper.

Whither Nell Carter?

Daniel cannot throw accurately beyond ten or fifteen yards while he is on the move, unless he takes the time to stop, set up, and then throw. This is a major f*cking limitation in a pass happy and a pass reliant O, and with our rush, he is going to be on the move quite a bit. I can almost imagine the scenario and, I have to admit, I’m sort of already feeling sorry for him.

If Mizzou does not have an effective running game to slow our rush, I don’t see how Chase will have a chance back there. Otherwise, we’re going to do to him what the Ags did to Detmer way back when. It’s not going to be a pretty site. I just hope his mom is not watching.

The only chance the Tigers have is an effective and consistent running game… …either that or four or five turnovers by us and the chances of either happening are low indeed.

Where did this Atomic Teeth website come from? Reading it is like the Bizarro Jerry episode of Seinfeld!

Feldman! Gene! Vargas!

I didn’t know Mizzou had such rabid fans, but credit to them, they at least seem to be a bit more classy fanbase than our friends from Norman or the other two Texas state schools.

Sauron’s Four-Point Game-plan for Saturday:

1. Sow dissension in the Dark Lands by blaming grievous diminishing of Oracai 401Ks on elvish currency manipulation in the Lands of Missouri.

2. Increase whispering sway of minion Applewhite on Offensive Coordinator of Rohan.

3. Send Nazgul deep.

4. Capture the Hobbit; take the Ring.

steven disabled my edit capability.

I can’t stop steven from typing things nobody wants to bother reading.

I would think we’ll see some more of the 3-3-5 and 3-2-6 we played around with earlier in the season. This game and Tech are both spots were it makes sense. Houston will slide out to end, Kindle plays a shooting gap game. We’ll probably only rush four, but one of them will always be trying to shoot an inside gap. Man up underneath and still be able to play 2 deep. Daniels won’t have immediately open receivers and he’ll have a lot of tall dudes in his face.

ack. *Daniel.

Houston got hurt towards the end of the OU game. I haven’t read anything about it. Anyone know how he’d doing?

As always, great work.

I don’t think that even the most delusional MU fan (some would argue me) believes that a win this Saturday would put our program on par with UT. That would be like saying Michael Spinks was as great a heavyweight champion as Muhammad Ali. No way, but you have to start somewhere, sometime.

There’s no doubt that the Tigers 85 scholie players can’t match up with the Longhorns 85. That’s exactly where the long, storied history definitely pays off. Fortunately, however, the Longhorns can only put 11 players on the field at one time. Although I don’t believe that Danario and Willy Mo are totally healthy (and assuming JMac and Colin Brown are healthy), the Tigers starters are in surprisingly good health going into game seven. This gives the Tigers 11 a fighter’s chance against the Longhorns 11.

I will try to keep the clichés to a minimum, but this game will be won and lost in the trenches (keep your trashcan close). I laugh at most game breakdowns that compare QB vs. QB, RB vs. RB, etc. I don’t know much about football, but Chase and Colt aren’t ever going to be on the field at the same time unless it is before or after the game. The Tigers defense will need to control the line of scrimmage enough to keep UT from having long, painful drives by slowing down the run, containing Colt and jumping slant routes. I believe that they have to force Colt to beat them over the top like Billy Dee did to the Evil Empire. If Colt can do it, then I tip my non cowboy hat to him.

As for the Tigers offense, Chase and company have been good and, at times, very good, but they have yet to do it against a great team. I have no doubt that the Longhorns will employ the same type of defense that has worked for the Sooners and Pokes. The offensive line will need to win most of the battles against the UT front four. I don’t want to sound like an old fart, but the Tigers can’t give up on running the ball on first down. D. Wash is key. Most of all, Chase will have to make good decisions when he is being pressured (and he will be pressured) to either tuck it and run or throw it away. He can’t get into Brett Farve mode, which has been his M.O. when facing adversity.

Okay, if none of this works, then I think Pinkel has to channel his best Denzel in Remember the Titans, Billy Bob in Friday Night Lights or Burt Reynolds in The Longest Yard (every time I think of caretaker a tear comes to my eye). See . . . aren’t you glad that you kept that trashcan close.

Finally, this isn’t going to be much of a surprise coming from a delusional MU fan, but I am predicting . . . MU 41 UT 34.

Good luck to all and I hope to make it back alive from Austin!

Scip, well done.

It doesn’t start and end with pressure from the down 4. That is a common misperception. It starts and ends with the coverage scheme and the rush scheme being on the same page. You can get pressure with the down four all you want, if you are playing cover 3 (and, critically, showing it pre-snap), Daniel will still kill you with underneath stuff. But if you can consistently bring the heat while jumping the short stuff, and, to add the cherry on top, hiding your coverage until post-snap, that’s the good stuff. Or really fucking bad stuff, if you are me.

The one thing that Scip didn’t discuss is how OSU either did a fantastic job scouting MU’s formation/down/yardage tendencies or retained Matt Walsh for some discreet services. I’ve read a few post game comments from Daniel/Christensen referring to how our zone read and counter plays to Washington were taken away. More on this at Atomic Teeth, but suffice to say…when your running game offers three options (Washington zone read, Washington counter, Maclin end around), and you play to tendency on down/yardage, competent defensive coordinators will make you very, very sad. UT shouldn’t have a problem taking away Washington as a tactical option out of the backfield, and it will be up to Christensen to make them pay for that decision.

As for UT offense v. MU defense, I’m unqualified for a broad assessment as 99.2% of my UT offense knowledge comes from Barkers. I do think it will be fascinating to see how Eberflus deploys his one mobile tactical nuc-u-lar weapon, William Moore. Against Illinois, he chose to primarily use Moore to neutralize Arrellius Benn, playing Moore either face up or over the top. Against Nebraska, Moore was used primarily as a nickle back, roaming the short zones from where he can either blitz or play as an extra man in the box, supporting the run and short passing defense. One way he has not been used essentially all year is as a true free safety. I have only seen a handful of plays in which he has been more than 10 yards from the line. I expect that we will see Moore lined up over Shipley with Garrett or Del Howard over the top, so that Moore can play the short crosses and outs and still offer run support.

To win on Saturday, Texas will have to outscore Missouri. That’s the only way Texas has a chance to pull out the victory against the high-octane Mizzou Tigers.

If Mizzou takes out one of Shipley, Cosby, or Colt. We could be in big trouble. This is a concern with the bruisers they have in the secondary.

Otherwise, we win rather easily.

Disagree that The Hobbit Won’t Choke. Get the pressure on him, put him on his back a couple times and the inner douche has always taken over.

The stubby little fingers will be pointed accusingly at teammates, the tears will flow yet again and the bench sulking will commence as the interceptions pile up like boogers at his hairy little feet in an untelevised game.

So it has always been written in Middle Earth and so shall it be written again.

Great breakdown. I don’t think I’ve seen anything with this much insight from any site. Seriously. I think you are spot on for all Mizzou’s strengths and weaknesses.

I may choke, but my arm-warmer is not only black, it’s undouchey.

I agree with SeeingRed. When things are not going his way, Daniel is almost guaranteed to pout, throw a hissy fit, and then press irrationally. He has, to put it simply, an unrealistic view of his stature and his abilities on the field. When those expectations are not met, as they surely won’t be whenever he faces a decent D, then he, almost with certainty, will attempt to play beyond the limits of his abilities. His decision making goes out the window in his futile attempt to live up to all the Bspn hype of himself that he, evidently, has fallen sucker for. He just ain’t that good, but, unfortunately for him and the Tiggars, he hasn’t been able to come to terms with this reality just yet and his play on the field will reflect this self-delusion. Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt. This game should be laugher and a pic fest for our secondary.

Mizzou can’t do shat on D. They can’t take anything away without overcompensating and leaving gaping holes in other areas. On D, Mizzou is just plain slow and not all that physical either, other than when they are spearing you when you are mid-air. Evidently, the demographically diverse youngsters in Mizzou, GC, are a hell of alot slower than their counterparts down here in Texas. Only Weatherspoon is worth mentioning as an athlete on their D and only he probably has a chance at the pros. Their secondary is just slow as shat and can be picked apart any day of the week.

I just don’t understand where all this respect and fear of Mizzou is coming from. They are a gimmick team that can look all world against bad defenses, but, aside from that, from what I can tell, they are nothing more than your regular, joe blow average team.

Getting pressure on him and putting him on his back have jack to do with his choking. Confuse him and make him second guess his presnap read, and put him behind in the second half and he tries to win the game on every play. You can call that choking if you want to. I sure did last Saturday. But this whole notion that he is afraid of contact is ludicrous. Watch this at 1:11:

Daniel is, and isn’t, a lot of things. But one thing is for sure, dude does not have a glass jaw.

@ 1:11 – At first I thought all those black Tech players chasing him were wearing bear suits.

We always knew he had heart and was a good kid. He was just too short and fat to play qb for us. We’d rather put all our eggs in wishy washy out of state qbs.

Or Colt McCoy.

Hey Claude – is Maclin fully healthy? The OSU game was the only Missouri game I’ve watched this year, but he didn’t look as explosive as he did last year.

The best thing about this game is that it will give us an idea of how good OSU really is. Texas by at least 14.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm……..

The one encouraging thing for me, without getting too much into stats and all is this…….

 Last year Texas only handed 3 teams their worse defeat of the season, TCU, Rice, and ISU………. Nothing to be proud of.

 This year Texas has handed each team their worse beating of the year so far. There have been no “scares” like last year, other than the game that should have been close. Last year we beat Arkie State by the same margin as OU this year!!

Maclin bruised his knee in the first half and said that he didn’t feel like he could fully stride. All signs point to full health this year. Until that game, he had looked just as explosive and a much better receiver.

There is a myth that Maclin is a fantastic return man. I don’t really buy it. He is really damn fast, but he doesn’t have great vision or set up blocks well. I can think of several times he’s missed very open lanes, including twice in the KU game last year. Of course, when you have a 4.3 guy who gets to 5th gear in 3 steps, you can live without great vision. If you give him an obvious open lane, he’ll hurt you, but he isn’t Darren Sproles.

Gene – thanks for the clarification.

as everyone knows.every year Mizzou’s defnse always gets off to a rough start and gets better as the season goes on.. there is always that game that sparks the defense and really turns it around. Last year, it was the Nebraska game where Willy Mo jacked Lucky up on the Hb Flare.. after that Mizzou’s defense looked like a whole differnt team, peope where flying around and hitting people, and just having fun… I think this is the game, it might not be fun, more stressful, but i think Mizzou’s defense is gonna show up.. as for the offense, Last saturday is what happens when the person who carries your team on his back, has a bad game… lets hope it doesnt happen again. Sure you have Maclin, and a whole house of excellent recievers, but when your QB gets flustered and cant read the defense as well, they cant get the ball in their hands. which helps if you have a running game, something to soften up the front 7, Mizzou ran the ball a total of like 8 times in the 2nd half? You have to run the ball to keep the defense honest, OSU linebackers were automatically takeing a drop step, they were thinkin pass pass pass, not run, pass, pass,.. it gives u a couple of more seconds to let plays develop if u dont know if it is a run or pass… although… gosh dang. Pinkel, needs to mix up which downs he runs the ball and throws the ball.. it was getting ridiculous when i even knew evrytime when they would run the ball… Washington is a great running back. soo let him get the ball in diffrent looks. not just 2 running plays… Chase is not someone to quit or give up on a bad game. He will bounce back with a vengence, i dont think he was flustered at all with the loss last weekend… im thinking MU 30 TX 28

UT Defense thoughts:

Don’t think it is wise to make a really young secondary adopt a defense “as dark and complex as a Nigerian beat poet”. That will only confuse the young guys and lead to missed assignments. Complexity in D scheme is especially a problem when confronting an efficient no huddle O. By the time the DC gets the D determined, communicated to the field and is understood by the guys on the field, the O may have already snapped the ball. There is a solution to this problem, anybody figure it out?

Mizzou saw the trouble tht OU’s no huddle caused and will attempt to exploit it again. UT has excellent athletes who should match up pretty well with Mizzou (except for Macklin (unless he is hurt)). Really important to avoid busted assignments because of the no huddle. UT should have a predetermined D that they line up in when under time pressure (i.e. the D calls are too slow to be implemented before Mizzou runs the play). Maybe something like man responsibility on the skill guys with two safeties deep. If there is time, go into something slicker but at least the default D will permit the horns to reduce confusion.

I would not stunt a lot unless required. UT got good pressure on Bradford with the front 4 last week. UT may be able to do the same again this week. I doubt that Mizzou will block as effectively as OU. Keep it as simple as you can (i.e. do the stuff you have practised a bunch) and still be effective. The UT front 4 should eat up Mizzou’s OL. I don’t want to get so fancy that our guys are confused. College (especially at a school like UT that values academics) isn’t like the NFL; practise time is limited so schematic complexity has to be limited.

When UT does blitz, use mostly zone blitzes so that there are still plenty of pass defenders. Pressure from an unexpected direction is very effective. Also easy to do when you are playing nickel and dime.

Consistently force Chase to his left so that he has to throw moving to his left. It will make a huge difference in the types of throws that he can make effectively.

Play a nickel and dime most of the time.

Legally impede Macklin’s and Coffman’s progress of the LOS as long as possible to disrupt the timing of the pass patterns. The horns doing the impeding needs to keep an eye on the QB to make sure that they do not accidentally pass interfere. Might want to combine this with delayed blitzes (by the impeder).
 
Keep some people home to defend the screen play because Mizzou is going to throw so many screens against UT. UT did not look vs the OU screen but should do better when playing nickel/dime and I’m sure Muschamp will emphasize screen D in practise this week.

1 more D thought: UT linemen should keep their hands up because Mizzou is going to throw short a bunch and Chase is short. UT did this effectively against colorado so they will probably do it well against Mizzou (i.e. they at least have mastered the technique of effectively blocking passes even when fully engaged by the OL.

Now that I saw the Espn video showing how OkState exploited the wide splits of Mizzou, I understand the utility of having the DE stunt inside and the DT to take outside responsibility. Be interesting to think about how Mizzou will try to exploit that stunt.

It may be that the UT DEs are quick enough to take the inside route and still provide contain. If so, there would be no need for the DT to stunt outside. That would be nice for Roy Miller.

Austin,

This might not be the best game to try to reinvigorate the Mizzou running attack. The UT DL is nails against the run and also puts a ton of pressure on the QB.

A better approach is for Chase to throw short passes very quickly so that the UT DL does not have a chance to either pressure Chase or stop the running play (since there is no running play). You want to minimize the opportunities for the UT DL to impact the game.

The “throw short passes very quickly” was exploited by both OSU and OU (last year). If you are confident you will get pressure very quickly, your secondary jumps short routes. I believe I’ve read that you guys have played a lot of cover 2 with man under. That is ideal for jumping short routes while offering some insurance over the top. The way you keep stunts honest, and force teams to pull safeties up is to be able to run the ball, or at least have a credible threat of it. If you guys truly are playing man underneath, I would love to see some planned Daniel draws out of the no back set. Run the coverage off and try to take advantage of an eager pass rush.

Gene,

I’m not sure that UT is going to have to stunt. The OU O line is better than Mizzou’s O line and UT dominated OU’s O line.

I haven’t seen UT jumping short routes this year. Considering how much youth UT will have in the secondary, they will probably play the short routes conservatively (i.e. hit the receiver and try to jar the ball loose rather than try to break up the pass). There is way too much risk of giving up the big play when you try to break up short passes.

Running Chase on planned runs against UT is a good way to get him hurt. Not much point in winning the battle if you lose the war (applies to Colt running too much, as well). At least Chase gets down most of the time. Much better for Chase (and Colt) to tuck it and run when the opportunity presents itself.

The smartest thing is for Mizzou to to throw short to guys like Coffman, Macklin and your TB.

I spent quite a bit of time in Columbia. We used to climb around on the Pinnacles, rappel and climb on the cliffs by the Missouri River, and pull parachutes behind cars in the flatlands by the Missouri River. I’ve attended many games at far out field.

Not much discussed… but Mizzou is currently 83rd in the country in total defense. Mediocre against the run, lousy against the pass. I’m sure their offense is explosive, etc, etc. But we should score on three-quarters of our possessions, seriously. Their defensive numbers are night and day different from OU’s. Greg Davis has a better chance of slowing us down than they do.

“We need our defense as dark and complex as a Nigerian beat poet.”

That is the best line I have ever read on any message board, ever.