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2022 Baylor Bears Post Mortem: Defense

by: Paul Wadlington11/26/22

While the Texas run game delivered a thorough Bear beating in the 4th quarter to seal a double digit win, the Texas defense turned in an equally impressive second half performance laying bare the Baylor run game and play action identity that had carried Jeff Grimes’ offense throughout the year and a pretty successful first half of offense in Austin. Most encouragingly, the second half shutdown of the Baylor offense came with halftime tweaks that stopped Baylor cold and gave the Texas offensive brain trust the time and space to figure out that they probably just needed to throw their play sheets in the trash and hand the ball to #5 and #2. Without the Texas defense dominating the second half, does the Texas offense have the patience to Run The Damn Ball?

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That the Texas defense achieved with an officiating crew that has assessed a total of one penalty for 1.5 yards against Longhorn opponents in the last eight quarters they’ve officiated Texas games is…special. Aside from the statistical improbability of it all, one thing I know from watching decades of football is that outside zone heavy teams who rely on play action never ever commit holding infractions.

For the game, Texas held Baylor to their offensive season low of 101 yards rushing, with 30 rushing yards on 14 carries in the second stanza. Texas was even more impressive late against the Bear passing game despite busting a first half coverage that allowed a 47 yard touchdown pass and another free shot to Ben Sims in the end zone. Blake Shapen found too much time and too many open receivers early on, going 12 of 20 for 153 yards and 2 touchdowns, but in the second half the Baylor play action game disintegrated in the face of better recognition, more active hands with batted balls and pass break ups and a better understanding of the limitations of the Baylor passing game. Shapen’s 2nd half stat line was a woeful 6 of 16 for 26 yards and an interception.

Texas also started getting off of the field. When the other team is determined to make every drive 4 down territory, a defense has to save its own life and Texas eventually did just that. Baylor’s early offensive success came on protracted drives (they converted 4/5 on 4th down overall) but Texas only allowed Baylor to convert 1 of their last 10 3rd down attempts after they started at 4 of 8. If you can’t get 4th down stops, make the 3rd down stop so convincing that 4th and 6+ doesn’t have quite the same appeal.

If it felt like Baylor was having success running the ball, that was more a function of early success in the passing game and their ability to keep converting 3rd and 4th downs. No individual Baylor runner or run hurt Texas. The proof? Baylor had 32 standard runs from their running backs. They totaled 101 yards at 3.2 yards per carry. When their passing game dried up, their running game disappeared as well. And the Texas defense dominated.

When you contrast how this game script went with lesser Texas defensive efforts against Texas Tech and Oklahoma State on key downs and stopping repetitive trips to the well, there was a clear adjustment to what Baylor was doing on the field as the Horns systematically denied Blake Shapen his comfort throws.

Overall, Texas held Baylor to 56 yards on 30 plays in the final half of play and zero offensive points. There were 29 points scored in the second half and the Texas O was responsible for all of ’em.

TLDR? The Texas coaches won halftime.

DL

A great group effort from all of the interior guys, but the insertions of Collins and Ojomo on the edge with DMO on the opposite edge firing in at SAM linebacker changed the complexion of the defense. Oghoufo was having trouble holding up to the volume of outside runs and this was also degrading his pass rush. Substitution and a scheme tweak solved the problem. Alfred Collins had 4 tackles, a sack (he pushed his OL into a scrambling Shapen) and two big pressures. Moro Ojomo was also extremely active, notching 7 overall tackles including an early hustle tackle for no gain on a 3rd and 8 midfield run that had Baylor gotten a few positive yards, would have led to a 4th down conversion attempt and quite possibly a scoring drive. A fresh Oghoufo was reinserted late and pass rushed well in the late 4th quarter. Coburn played well, despite being visibly frustrated by holds as he tried to pursue on outside zone. On the running play after Baylor converted their 4th and 3 with the sideline pass to Qualan Jones, you can see a held Coburn turn to the official in disgust with his hands held out as if to say,”Seriously?”

Overall pass rush was lacking, particularly in the first half, but it was also clear that they had a directive to play run first. Eventually, they started to get the feel of Baylor’s rhythm and did a better job of getting Shapen off of his spot and disrupting throws with hands up or forcing an off balance throw.

LB

RGIII’s color analysis did a good job of breaking down how Ford made this play, but that was his 7th forced turnover of the season (4 ints, 3 forced fumbles). That’s elite.

I picked the Texas linebackers as the most crucial defensive players for this game in the IT preview and they turned in their best collective linebacking performance of the season. Ford and DMO were fantastic. It certainly showed up in the box score as the two combined for 27 tackles, 4 tackles for loss, an interception and 3 pass break ups. Ford is the Texas Defensive MVP but DMO’s last two games have me wishing he had one more year of stability and instruction. Tucker-Dorsey was solid with 4 tackles and a pass break up. You won’t find Blackwell in the box score, but he stuck his nose in there and re-routed some Baylor runs.

DB

The second half was terrific after a shaky first half. Terrance Brooks seemed to largely supplant D’shawn Jamison for most of the game, but Jamison saw some snaps late. Jahdae Barron turned in another strong game (2 tackles for loss, 1 sack, a pass break up) but he dropped another potential Pick 6 for the second straight week. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t responsible for the busted coverage, but I’m not 100% on that one. Jerrin Thompson did a nice job cleaning up in the run game and drew a tough recognition job as single high safety. Ryan Watts gave up a couple of throws underneath, but was very solid in run defense. The first half wasn’t too hot, but the second was as good as any this season.

Final

Texas held Baylor to 3.7 yards per play (75-280 overall), a season low in their running output and dominated the Baylor passing game over the last 30 minutes of play despite the Texas offense digging them holes at the beginning of each half. They rallied, adjusted and took over.

That was a satisfying win.

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