Texas – Nebraska Post-Mortem: Offense

When the first play wasn’t a screen, I knew we had a chance.

Fuck Yeah!

Hook em!

That was a satisfying game to watch and I won’t make one bad remark about Greg Davis until he reverts back to his old shi…..(had to catch myself).

I loved the circle routes. Such an easy little addition. Why would we not match a RB on a LB?

I saw a lot to build on.

Fozzy getting some time in the slot sounds that a grand idea. I think I would just cross train him there and not make it a full time thing. Though he missed some holes (esp. down near the goal line in the first quarter) he’s rounding into form.

Cody needs more carries, especially when the OL is creating space like that.

Can’t wait to read about our M*A*S*H unit on D.

I can haz optimism?

At one point with the wide receivers, I blurted out “I can’t wait til these guys graduate.” Seriously, the Davis, D White, Jaxon era can’t get here fast enough. Let’s hope that’s followed by Cayleb Jones. Given the mediocrity of the WR corps, I still can’t fathom how our base set is 3 wide. Would it really be that hard to scheme putting Ryan Roberson or Barrett Matthews at fullback/mythical H-back and give Cody or Fozzy a lead blocker? I’m not asking for 30 yard runs, but 2nd and 6 would be much preferable to 2nd and 9. It still seems like in a regular running situation (not a fancy draw or counter), our RBs are sitting hitting a wall at the LOS.

I’d counter that the Malcolm and Kirk drops were slightly harder in degree of difficulty from the Nebraska gimmes. But they still should have been catches and if Husker fans are going to argue for their TDs, I see no reason why our seasoned upperclassmen shouldn’t have hauled those in.

Gilbert not getting injured on these runs would be nice. Someone tell him that if he’s not gunning for a first down, sliding or getting out of bounds is acceptable. Looks like little McCoy is headed for a redshirt, which would be good for the kid.

Scip,

Well said. Thought Gilbert did an excellent job on the sideline encouraging and picking teammates up. Frankly Gilbert is only a few plays away from having a solid stat line. Say 8-16, 150 yards with 2 TDs. Still think the kid is going to be a stud.

And the offensive line.. didn’t think they had that type of performance in them. Feeling very optimistic again and it feels much better than the impending doom I felt after Oklahoma.

I am really proud of the team too. Freakin awesome game by Texas. Can’t wait to read the defense writeup. We dominated in that phase too.

I don’t mind us getting very conservative once it was obvious we had their number. We won’t be able to do that against better, non-choking teams. But our offense dominated and it felt good too watch.

The mix of draw/delay and inside running helps to slow down the defense’s aggression, which is a great thing. I hope we play White more at receiver and only use Kirkendoll in key down situations or close games. He’s our second most consistent option after Davis, which is hard to say or stomach but I think is true. So only use him when you have to and get White as up to speed as possible. Give Goodwin some more reps to. After missing the spring, by God he needs them.

Moving Fozzy to the slot or motioning him out of a 2RB/3WR set with Cody is a great idea. It’s obvious that he has better hands than most of our receivers.

Proud of our team. Suck it Nebraska.

Glory In All Red

I’m terrified GD goes back to the wheel of fortune play calling system now that we’re in the “easy” part of our schedule.

Is there any truth to the rumor that our loss to 0u opened the lines for some assistance from the Boise O staff?

Gilbert not getting injured on these runs would be nice. Someone tell him that if he’s not gunning for a first down, sliding or getting out of bounds is acceptable. Looks like little McCoy is headed for a redshirt, which would be good for the kid.

We appear to still be planning to be able to replace 21 of 22 players in case of injury… everybody but the QB. Is it simply not possible to get some 2Q or at least 3Q “real plan” snaps for the backup? Is Greg McBrown just afraid of seeing the Simmplewhite controversy again… or what?

WRT McCoy – I don’t think he’s eligible for a ’shirt, is he? He has played (not very fucking much, but he was on the field) and I thought that the “played a little bit” ’shirt was only for injuries…

(reading the NU boards, apparently they’re the only ones to drop TD passes?)

They only cost Texas four points, though.

Damn you absolutely nailed it.

My own thoughts from another site.

Some of You Need to Rethink Your Cynicism.
 
1st, there are too many of you here and elsewhere who are understating the significance of what the Horns accomplished in Lincoln. Or attempting to somewhat denigrate what they did to Nebraska by now coming to the conclusion that the Cornholes are/were over rated and not as good a team as everyone was giving them credit for being.

It’s a mistake. You’re wrong. Stop it, you’re soiled panties are showing and are starting to smell a bit.">)

As any of us that were there in Lincoln this weekend can attest, the atmosphere surrounding that stadium inside and outside was as intense and electric as any I’ve ever been around. Including the Rose Bowls. Including OU games. Except it was 95% Big Red fans breathing and screaming fire and brimstone to beat our collective burnt orange asses back to Austin with our collective hides and scalps left behind on their walls. Next to every “Welcome to Lincoln” feigned smile there were 5 or 6 “Tuck Fexas” t shirts and other examples of the fact that this was possibly the biggest and most important game in Cornhusker history. Prominent members of their press corp certainly thought that and wrote it.

So accept the win in Lincoln for what it was—-the University of by Gawd Texas imposing its will on another bigtime program who wanted to beat us more than any other team in the natioina and who had the talent on hand to do it.

Texas went into this game with a dysfunctional offense and OC that had failed to put them into any advantageous position for 5 straight games. The guys on that side of the ball had to be questioning themselves and their coaches and wondering if the media and fan talk were right about them. We were but they didn’t allow that to destory them on Saturday. Might have even been fortified by it. Who knows. Maybe Huck knows. Bo doesn’t know.

And the defense was being blamed and probed under the microscope for their lapses in the UCLA and OU games and had their own mental and psychological issues to deal with.

None of the 5 games were good preparation for this 3-2 team to go into one of the most intimidating venues in the country and take on the #5 rated team in the country. And prior to the game there was every reason in the world to rate Nebraska the #5 team in the country despite the attempts by some to downplay that now that we’ve beaten them. No. Make that now that we stomped a mudhole in them

Forge the dropped passes. We dropped some ourownselves. Forget the conservative play of the offense in the 2nd half. Forget the fact that it was the other team that played stupidly for the most part of the game and made the mental errors. Forget our brainfart with the pooched kick with 3 minutes left. None of that makes a big old Bevo shitcan. Crap happens during games. We stoned their offense and made them do things they didn’t want to do and things they aren’t capable of doing well --throwing, and catching, the ball.

Texas got back to being Texas again, and we made the rest of this season become relevant again.

I’m excited again. And you should be, too.

“but now that our staff sees what a little effort in game planning can yield…”

unfortunately we are out of bye weeks until the bowl game.

If by some miracle we see these guys again in Dallas, we’re screwed.

Nice write-up. My take: Davis did a great job using the two weeks off to design a scheme that exploited NU’s tendencies, but it only took the Brothers Pelini 20 minutes of halftime-adjusting to counter our scheme. Fortunately, our defense so thoroughly dominated the Husker O that, by that time, it was too late.

Texas won on the back of one half of solid offense and an entire game game of dominant defense. The quarter-by-quarter stats support that view:

Quarter, YPP, points
1st, 5.10, 10
2nd, 6.06, 7
3rd, 3.77, 3
4th, 5.07, 0

There’s a line of thought out there that the offense could have continued to dominate in the second half, but Mack wanted to grind out the clock and preserve the win. This doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, at least as it applies to the 3rd quarter.

First, it implies that we wanted to do something that was less likely to result in points, but also generated less risk of a turnover. I don’t believe that’s true. Our first-half game plan was hardly risky: 10 pass attempts and 27 rush attempts in 7 drives. That’s a rush-to-pass ratio of 2.7:1. We were gaining yards on the ground, not by slinging the ball around.

In the second half, we didn’t greatly change the numbers: 7 passes, 21 rushes. Our ratio of rush-to-pass increased slightly to 3:1. But that includes the last two drives which, I fully agree, were 4th quarter “grind out the clock” drives. In those two drives, Texas ran 12 times and made no passing attempts. All of the second-half pass attempts came in the third quarter, where Davis decided to switch gears and start slinging the ball around. 7 passes, six runs, 3 points. So, after two quarters of success with a 3:1 run-pass ratio, we suddenly switched to a less than 1:1 ratio for nearly a full quarter, and got nothing out of it aside from a very short FG drive and a more interesting game in the 4th.

Second, the plan for the third quarter didn’t result in successful clock-burning. On the three drives mentioned above, we burned a grand total of 5:58 off of the clock. That resulted in a shorter average drive time than the drives in the first half, when we were actually scoring.

Average drive time:
First half: 2:11.
3rd quarter: 1:59

It was only after the offense switched back to running the ball in the fourth quarter that we achieved the clock-burning goal. In the last two drives, Texas ran the ball 12 times, never passed, and chewed up 12:20.

So, what’s the point? It’s what I said at the beginning of this post: Davis’s pre-game prep was great, but we were beaten in the half-time adjustments game. Or maybe we outsmarted ourselves. Texas should have iced the game in the third. Instead, we dicked around and created more drama than was necessary.

Forget the conservative play of the offense in the 2nd half.

I agree. The conservative play, which was almost all in the fourth quarter, was very effective. It’s the non-conservative, inexplicable scheme we ran in the third quarter that people should be bitching about. I mean, to the extent that it’s justifiable to bitch about anything from a road win over an emotionally-charged Top 5 team.

Just before the start, I was not overly optimistic, but I did have hope. My one glimmer of optimism was based on the fact that we have been in Nebraska’s head (fans, coaches and players) since the first Big 12 Championship game. Can you say “roll left”? I thought you could. The only way for that psychological edge to hold up was for our defense to stop them early, and our offense to actually move downfield and score some points. You can guess which one of those I actually expected to happen.
I expected the defense to rattle Martinez. Watching him against KSU led to two conclusions. First, he is a fast and dangerous runner when given chances. Second, KSU’s defense is really, really slow.
When the offense showed that they came to play football, it all came together.
Congratulations to the whole team, for a genuine team effort.

Brick Horn -
 
Good post. When we went up 17-3 that’s why I texted you GAME OVER. I didn’t have any confidence that Nebraska could play from behind, no matter what we did on offense.
 
Clearly I’m evaluating Greg Davis on a curve here and if we can continue to establish leads early, this team will finish the year 10-2.
 
Obviously, I’d like to see our offense drop 500 yards and 45 points on someone, but I’ll take ultra conservative competence and three new wrinkles per game over what we’ve seen to date.

That circle route across the middle was successful twice – once each to Fozzy and Newton.

I only noticed it once, but I’d like to see the split backfield appear more. I like the option of Cody up the gut vs. a rocket pitch or circle route to Fozzy/Newton. Even DJ would be useful in that formation.

I’ll take ultra conservative competence and three new wrinkles per game over what we’ve seen to date.

I’ll take quarters 1, 2 and 4 from the NU game. The scheme and play-calling in those portions of the game were perfect for the situation. Quarter 3, on the other hand, was yet another in a long line of Mack Davis head-scratchers. What the fuck were we doing, and why? It wasn’t “conservative,” necessarily. It was just ineffective.

Agreed. However, I think I accepted our O’s badness before you did. 3 solid quarters out of 4 is better than 0 or 1.
 
You’re in a different stage of the grief cycle from me. Ha ha.

I bottom lined the 3rd quarter with the fact that we held serve 3-3 when they ahd the massive wind advantage. All I wantd at that time. I was thrilled going into the 4th with a 3 possession lead.

How do you know what my ass looks like in a funhouse mirror? Were you there that time?

So, where do we go from here? Do we have something we can build on from this game or did we just throw some sand in NU’s eyes in order to get a couple of scores before they could adjust?

So once again, an embarassing loss to ou results in the staff actually putting some thought in to the offense. How many years has this happened now?

ransom, next year we can start Malcolm Brown after OU.

Really glad GG can run a bit. That said, the kid can absolutely sling the intermediate stuff. That Kirk near TD was NFL quality. More reps down the field, please.

I knew we’d win. Thought we’d actually put more points up but I’ll take it.

Credit to Sailor, who did predict a Texas victory.
 
I chose the chickenshit “we’ll cover” option.

Ok. I had to see again what Brick’s problem with the offensive calls in the 3rd quarter are, and I just don’t get it.

First drive we converted a 3rd down with a cute little throw to the RB who was actually running downfield, not laterally, and moved the chains. We then aired out a couple of deep sideline throws to Malcolm and our freshman receiver White that could have connected to put the game away. I liked the aggressiveness there. GG made nice throws on both.

After a 3 and out from their goalline and a good return by Brown plus the personal foul, we set up in good position again. We open with another deep throw to Goodwin that would have been a score but a PI was called. Newton for 3 then GG does a QB draw that had done well the first half and we’re at 3rd and 4. GG rolls out, probably could have run for a first or TD, but opts to throw the ball to Malcolm in the endzone where he at least doesn’t lateral the ball to a Nebraska player a la Tech.

Field goal and we’re up by 3 possessions.

A 3 and out on our 3rd and last possession and we punt the ball to the 5 yard line with about 6 1/2 minutes left in the 3rd. Nebraska brings in the Sr. QB and then goes on their best and only sustained drive of the day, aided and abetted by a questionable call on Aaron Wlliams that allows them to move the chains. With a few second left in the quarter they kick their FG.

If anything it was the defense that played their worst quarter and gave up their only drive for over 6 minutes of the quarter.

JMO.

The coaching staff has not “lost” the team. Very intense and physical. Congrats to all !

Fossy will be playing WR in the show next year.

For the first time this season, GD successfully schemed against what the opposition was doing. NU plays 2 deep man under in the secondary. Once QB draws or circle routes to the RB’s clear the first wave, the secondary is essentially running away from the play if the WR’s take them deep. This was exploited brilliantly.

Ditto for addition by graduation at WR. Sad to say it but the next real contribution our senior WR’s will make is graduating and clearing the way for Davis, White, young Ship, et al. With the exception of Malcolm’s hustle covering punts they gave us nothing in Lincoln.

Dare we hope for a pump fake to the WR hitch followed by a deep pass down the same sideline to the other WR faking a whiffed block and then running a go route?

An SEC type offense is exactly what this team, and in particular defense needs. We don’t need to score 45 points to win. If we get 21, win turnovers, win TOP we win out.

That said, we can’t afford 2 pass plays for no gain and a 3rd and ten. That will kill us every time. We need-absolutely need -to be in third and 5 or less.

I was fine with the second half offense. Everyone in the country knew Zac Lee wasn’t going to score an offensive touchdown against us.

The pooch kick has been used one too many times by Mack, better to line up shotgun and have GG punt one, or if they send someone deep just run the ball. At least that way we could check out of the fake.

Even a long field goal in that situation risks a return.

If only-
- Chiles or Harris were our 2nd string back up to Garrett. (allowing a more open offense)
- Blaine Irby was never injured

…a lot of UT fans would be booking tickets to NC game.

Do we still have hope that Goodwin can be a good WR for us? If Davis can get healthy after ISU, I think Goodwin, Davis, and Kirk can be effective.

i already have my ticket to the MNC

Beowulf is putting up some good stuff here. Why isn’t he a blogger in his own right on this site?

So now it’s Bobby Kenedy that Mack must fire?

Damn, I hate fair-weather fans who know Zero about football.

We need to start completing passes to WRs. the GG running the ball stuff will be game planned for starting now. I like what Newton and Cody brought. Fozzy is a third down back. If the OL can get a push, Cody can average us 5 per. The key like you said, get him the ball with some room to get going. Dodging defenders or stop/start is not his game.

I am optimistic the OL will feel their oats after this game and start putting in some real effort.

Beowulf is putting up some good stuff here. Why isn’t he a blogger in his own right on this site?

I have many regrets in life. Allowing this to happen will not be one of them

Well then, how about me? I’m prolific

“We pissed away half a season with foolishness, but now that our staff sees what a little effort in game planning can yield, I expect to see us finish this thing strong.”

But why has that been a recurring theme with this staff? How many times have we seen post-OU-loss adjustments which could easily have been pre-OU-win adjustments?

This was basically the offense we thought we were going to get when all the “downhill running game” talk started. Why does it take half a season to do things the gurus (not me) on this site were pointing out BEFORE the season even started?

This was a great win, but it was born in some nasty, and unnecessary, losses.
“What will be” will sit in the shadow of “what could have been.”

Scipio:

I was a surprised as anyone at how the offense played. And pleased. And a bit frustrated, since it proves (again) that it’s not a matter of talent deficit but one of coaching, scheme and playcalling.

Things I liked:
- A thoughtful game plan that featured several complementary plays out of the same personnel and formation.
- OL blocking with aggression and purpose. I saw numerous examples of OL who engaged their man and drove them out of the play. Well done.
- Gilbert improvising out of spread formations when coverage overmatched his receivers. This is a necessary compliment to our offensive concept if we’re to be effective.

I didn’t care for the regression to a conservative approach in the 2nd half – combined with the inexplicable pooch kick, this screams of Mack Brown going into the shell and trying to burn the clock and escape. Frankly, I think this can be subtly counterproductive, sending the message that we’re really playing beyond our ability and need to get the game over with before we fuck it up.

Which we nearly did by playing with retracted gonads.

I’m perfectly happy playing this 1st half style of ball – we just need to stay committed to it.

My hope for the next 2 games is that we get some playing time for Case McCoy. REAL playing time. Not 4th Q, hand offs for 2 minutes. If we let GG run more, then we’ll need Case to be 1st Quarter ready.

beowulf -

First of all, f you. Okay, now that the customary formalities are out of the way, we may proceed to the debate.

The defense may or may not have had their worst quarter in the third. I haven’t digested the stats for the D the way I did for the O. Suffice it to say that if the worst quarter our defense has in a game involves one long drive by the opponent for 3 points, then the D is kicking ass and taking names.

That said, there’s no question that the offense played their worst football in the 3rd quarter. The third quarter represented the lowest average time of possession per drive, the lowest YPP and the second-lowest scoring total. Regarding the latter, I think it’s unquestionable that a touchdown was ours for the taking at the end of the fourth. Only Mack’s class kept us from scoring in the fourth. And the third-quarter field goal was, as you note in your post, largely the result of excellent defense and special teams; the offense’s drive stalled out after 20 yards.

So, statistically, there can be no doubt that the offense played by far its worst football in the third quarter. It failed to ice the game, either by scoring a touchdown or killing clock.

There is, however, a legitimate debate to be had over what was the precise cause of the offense’s poor third quarter play. Your citation of the failed deep passing attempts is essentially an argument that execution, not scheme or play calling, was to blame. That’s fair. I would only point out that, even if you are correct, then the “the offense was just running out the clock” crowd is still wrong. Davis may have been trying to ice the game through points, but he wasn’t trying to run out the clock in the third.

My counterargument would be that we went away from what was working and moved towards a riskier scheme that was unlikely to succeed given the match-up disadvantages. Davis chose to attack Nebraska’s strength. I believe that could have been an effective strategy, if used sparingly and opportunistically. In practice, however, Davis devoted too many plays to this counter-intuitive approach and squandered an entire quarter.

Sure, we could have converted some of those passes you mentioned. But we didn’t, and the reasons we didn’t are because: (a) our receivers aren’t very good and (b) Nebraska’s defensive backs are excellent. Davis should have known that and mixed an appropriate number of passes into our successful run-heavy game plan. Throwing four straight times, resulting in a stalled drive to start the third, after gashing Nebraska for two quarters on the ground is just stupid.

Snow and Walters were particularly effective dominating Nebraska’s touted DTs. These are two guys to build around. Let’s hope we actually develop them and they improve from here unlike any of our other lineman the last 4 years.

I mentioned last week that it sure was quiet on the 40. Like we actually had a plan and were working on something rather than scratching our balls wondering why we sucked. Wish I knew what was going on over there and who was putting the work in with our o-line and gameplan. It certainly didn’t feel like it was a Davis job. Major?? Will?? Hell, maybe McWhorter finally stepped up and said if I’m going to be the scapegoat, at least let me go down doing it my way. Who knows, but it would sure be interesting to know what was happening at Belmont.

Brick. The defense was superb for the game. No question. No debate. They were the cat’s meow.

But the offense did its job in the 3rd quarter far better than you are giving it credit for doing. I don’t know why the fact that the defense gave up a long drive consuming nearly 6 minutes of the quarter doesn’t factor into your single issue of Texas not possessing the ball in the 3rd quarter so that means the offense went south during that time.

BS.

Up until the Nebraska O got stingy with the ball on that long 16 play/83 yard drive, the 2 offenses had possessed the ball for around 5 1/2 minutes for Texas and 4 1/3 minutes for Nebraska.

During that time Texas did put the game away by going up 3 possessions with that FG which accomplished nearly the same had Malcolm held onto the perfectly thrown pass from Gilbert in the endzone.

Of the passes thrown in the 3rd, one converted a third down. One would have a been a TD but was a PI instead that put us near the goalline. And one was a dropped ball by Malcolm in the endzone.

This is really a silly arguement so I’m done.

You’re right Beowulf. Complaining about our offense just to do it is lame. I think Davis mixed it up a little bit in the third, we got 3 points out of it and got close on some other chances down the field. That’s great! You need to take chances down the field from time to time to open up your run and more conservative gameplan.

Just fine play calling there. I was a little scared that we would be too conservative in the 2nd half since the D was dominating, but we did enough on O and then some. The game could have easily been 27-6 without the pooch brainfart and if we don’t kneel on the 5. I just have no complaints (except for the obvious pooch) about our scheme or play calling. This game was a put it all on the line game and we did that. Happy we dominated.

As someone who despises Greg Davis, I have to give props when the offense doesn’t crap the bed. So, props to Davis and the offense. It wasn’t particularly pretty, but it was a critical win I didn’t expect (because of them) and they finally did their part. So, credit where credit is due.

GD’s “grand strategy” is "continuing to make weekly tweaks in our game planning to provide different looks and cause pause in the enemy’s defense. "

Just imagine what opposing DCs must think. “Will they use their speedy WRs with quick screens or throw to the backs over the middle?” “Under center or empty backfield spread?” “Will they try to get the edge with the DJ Monroe package or rely on misdirection for runs up the middle?” “Run their stable of running backs or their QB?” “Are they using a coherent play-calling scheme or a Ouiji board?” Phew!

GD has succeeded in creating more film for the remaining opponents to breakdown than they can possibly digest. Glazed-eyed Cyclones FTW.

Unfortunately the set-up phase cost us two losses, but we’re set for our second-half surge. And, at least we’ve changed direction.

I have an issue with our wideout route design, mix and calls . Davis seems to rely on simple routes the success of wich is entirely predicated on one on one matchups. The pros have to do that because everyone is….. well a pro. In college a little creativity using crossing routes, motion, legal picks(glancing), double moves etc… go a long way. Davis rarely does much of anything with his outside guys other than the streak pattern or an occational stop and go variation. Hell many Texas high school offenses run more intricate routes. I applaud the running QB option because Davis cannot succeed without it.

 It amazes me that OU with equal or even inferior talent can get their wideouts wide open consistently and our outside guys always seem be battling for a jump ball.

It amazes me that OU with equal or even inferior talent can get their wideouts wide open consistently and our outside guys always seem be battling for a jump ball.

The fact they won a game they should have after finally pulling their collective heads out of their asses doesn’t change the fact that the offensive coaching generally sucks ass. And I include Mack Brown in that assessment and hold him responsible.