5 quick thoughts: Texas trucks Tech
Texas completely obliterated Texas Tech to open Big 12 play. It’s hard to put a more savage beating on a team and it was punctuated by an “unsportsmanlike” penalty when Brenden Schooler stood up a Tech back at the goal line late in the game before body slamming him to the turf.
Not a particularly smart play, nor useful to the cause, but definitely illustrative of what sort of game unfolded in DKR.
Texas 70, Texas Tech 35.
The Longhorns picked up where they left off against Rice, running the ball 52 times for 336 yards at 6.5 ypc. It was pretty clear early in the game the Red Raiders were in for a beating when the Longhorns responded to the first Tech score to make it 14-7 with a 12-play, 75-yard touchdown drive in which they didn’t complete a single pass and finished with a quarterback sneak by Casey Thompson.
The game was 21-7 and it was clear the Tech defense wasn’t going to allow the offense to make a game of it.
Quick thought no. 1: The Tech D-line was not up for this
“I saw miles and miles of Texas” -Bijan Robinson, probably.
Asleep at the Wheel performed at halftime. I wasn’t there but I’ve been there before when they performed and have a good guess as to what they sang. They should have had some of Texas’ players up there singing as well because “miles and miles of Texas” is exactly what they saw when Steve Sarkisian would call a running play.
Texas maintained the emphasis on the zone running game they established against Rice and absolutely rolled over Tech’s fronts and run blitzes. The outside zone game was a near automatic gain, regardless of the back in the game, although Bijan was his usual dominant self.
18 carries for 137 yards at 7.6 ypc with another two catches for 54 yards and a score. They hit him wide open on the “mesh” play again, once again utilizing motion (Jordan Whittington swept across the formation) to confuse the Tech linebackers.
When Texas wanted or needed to throw the ball, it was easy to buy loads of time for Casey Thompson in the pocket. The Red Raider D-line could get zero push and their blitzing linebackers could do nothing to improve the situation. The number of times Thompson was able to hitch up in the pocket and hit a receiver running open over the middle was probably enough to seal the fate of this Red Raider coaching staff.
Their replacements are going to need a D-line though if they want anything to change.
Quick thought no. 2: Texas dominated with play-calling
Texas had a number of great offensive play-calls in this game. They got the ball to Xavier Worthy on some play-action, some sweeps, and an RPO off split zone on the goal line. They also hit Jordan Whittington slicing across the formation from an H-back alignment on a pass/sweep to break tendency again on split zone and score.
They put Hayden Conner in a #49 jersey and utilized some unbalanced formations with extra linemen over to run outside zone at tempo over the helpless Raiders.
Sark brought back the quarterback outside zone play Sam Ehlinger used to score on all the time from an unbalanced formation and ran it for Roschon Johnson and scored another touchdown.
This staff clearly doesn’t struggle to draw up creative designs from week to week to either break tendency or target opponents. It’s a dimension Texas hasn’t really had (certainly not at this level) in an offensively-driven league for the last decade. It hardly would have mattered how Tech played on offense, Texas had their number when the ball was in Longhorn possession.
Quick thought no. 3: Some spread-stopping looks from Texas
Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense had a pretty good day, up until deeper in the second half. Two sacks, two interceptions, a defensive touchdown, and they held the Tech run game to 3.9 ypc over 33 carries. The spread run game is the strength of this Tech offense and without it they struggle to set up the rest of their offense.
Texas Tech did most of their damage on a pair of fade routes thrown on D’Shawn Jamison, back to back, the former of which included Jamison getting taken out of pursuit by Brenden Schooler flying in for the hit.
Aside from those admittedly bad errors, Texas ended up playing a lot of conservative looks in this game designed to play “bend don’t break” and force the Red Raiders to drive the length of the field running inside. They played some tite front and dropped eight into coverage, they played plenty of quarters, and they mixed in one of PK’s favorite Leach-beaters on this play:
It’s Cover 3 cloud, the field corner plays the flat while the safeties rotate so the field safety is the field deep 1/3 defender, the boundary safety takes the middle, and the other corner is deep. Thompson took advantage to bait the throw, watch him go downhill on what he already knows is coming.
If not for the beats on the deep throws, Texas would have had a good day on defense. As far as the deep touchdowns go, Darion Dunn got a lot of snaps in the wake of the second score and played well. His place on the depth chart might need to be monitored from here on out.
Quick thought no. 4: Xavier Worthy is the deep threat
One of the most important questions for this team is how they’d protect Bijan Robinson and the run game. Sark has his obvious preference, which is dialing up play-action shots with receivers running double moves and switch routes.
To really make those work properly, you need at least one truly good deep threat receiver. There’s a few ways to get open deep but the most reliable method is to be exceptionally fast, like Xavier Worthy.
Sark obviously sees Worthy as more than just a deep threat, involving him in this game on a few different play designs, but he’s certainly not less than a deep threat. Texas had him running open down the field several times in this game and were able to draw a penalty on one target and hit him in the end zone on a fade another time.
It appeared Sark made this decision after the Arkansas debacle with several intentional targets for the freshman. Now he’s getting treated like a featured star.
Five catches, 100 yards, and three touchdowns in this contest.
If Texas is able to make the Big 12 Champoinship Game, Sark’s success in backloading the 2021 class with Xavier Worthy will have been a primary reason for the success.
Quick thought no. 5: Alfred Collins and the D-line emerge
Alfred Collins got more run in this game and made two tackles, both behind the line of scrimmage and one of them on the quarterback. Texas unveiled a fun pass-rushing set with three defensive linemen stacked behind each other before sending all three careening into the line of scrimmage at screened angles. It’s just a fun, passing downs set but Alfred Collins benefited from the chance to get a few steps of momentum before blowing by Tech’s left guard for a sack.
Definitely a positive sign the staff has some plans to make the most of his athleticism.
Overall Texas’ defensive line was much improved again and allowed the defense to stop the run while playing a lot of two-deep coverages throughout the game. They still need to develop more pass-rushing across the unit, they currently have some run-stoppers and some pass-rushers and they mix and match. Ovie Oghoufo is the top edge rusher, Ray Thornton and Jacoby Jones are better in the run game. Nevertheless, a solid day for the Longhorn front and DeMarvion Overshown lead the team in tackles.
