Texas-Alabama Post Mortem: Defense and special teams
The Texas defense clawed and fought for four quarters, even dominating for a good stretch of the game. Over a time span encompassing the entire 2nd and 3rd quarters, Alabama had 6 drives for a total of 23 yards on 25 plays. Texas held Alabama to 20 points and brought a level of physicality that the Tide hadn’t seen since they faced Georgia in the national title game. The Longhorn defensive line won many more fights than it lost while the Texas secondary demonstrated a coordinated cohesiveness that I haven’t seen in Austin against a quality opponent since 2017. The Texas secondary created some terrific combination coverages out of quarters variants, keeping eyes on the quarterback and attacking patterns instead of stubbornly defending grass. That’s what it’s supposed to look like and good zone secondary play has as much to do with preparation, decisiveness, focus and communication than 40 times in shorts or your high school star rankings. Hey, why not both?
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Alabama also helped with a few timely drops and a receiving corps that, while still very fast, doesn’t have anything comparable to the skill level of prior units.
I was even more impressed with the Longhorn defense on the rewatch. Tackling was largely good and there were some serious licks being doled out.
I have to give a special mention to Alabama QB Bryce Young. He’s a resilient mental stud who endured a ton of physical punishment, receiver drops, penalties and covered targets only to persevere and pull out the win with excellent throws and timely scrambles. 95% of the QBs in college football would’ve wilted physically or mentally in Austin. He’s an absolute gamer and winner.
The play that killed Texas early – the McClellan 81 yard touchdown run – was one of the few fundamental lapses from the defense in the game.
Outside zone. Sorrell gets reached playside – which is the beginning of the negative cascade – and it goes from poor to very bad as Jaylan Ford blows his key with a bad angle, getting lost in the confusion. It gets to dire 81 yard untouched touchdown territory as Guilbeau gets physically controlled by a TE while Cook gets sealed. This was a commonplace occurrence last year, but Bama made Texas pay for one lapse and it was an uncharacteristic one contrasted to their 61 other plays from scrimmage. Oddly enough, Sorrell played this exact same play perfectly a few snaps before and notched a tackle for loss.
DL
A personal source of irritation for me has been my stubborn notion that the Texas defensive line is actually talented and they were being held back by a number of factors, some outside of their control, which led to them playing with a dutiful listlessness instead of energized athletic joy. Not to mention some fairly awful fundamentals and occasionally questionable effort. Well, we just saw what this unit can look like, even if against a less than classic Bama offensive line. The defensive staff kept up a relentless rotation inside while shortening the bench outside to pretty much just Ovie and Sorrell. They also employed creative twists and stunts while varying alignments, assignments and, yes, even let them pin back their ears and go from time to time.
Vernon Broughton is a feast or famine guy. He’s taking a gap – even swim moving on a running play – and he’s trying for a TFL or a QB pressure or getting blown out. A good change up and he had two QB hits, including a big pop on Bryce Young that got his attention early.
Well, that’s some officiating right there. T’Vondre Sweat showed why he has NFL potential with that devastating inside rush on the goal line, only to be robbed of a safety as the officials disgraced themselves fabricating and then picking up a targeting/roughing penalty. Moro Ojomo was everywhere in a way that the box score does not reflect and he played with his best leverage and pad level I’ve seen in years. Consequently, he’s no longer shooting his hands too high and drawing hands to the face penalties. Collins is still getting into the swing of things, but had a nice QB hit while dominating the Bama center on a pass rush in the 4th quarter. Byron Murphy continues to be Mr. Hustle and had an amazing play running down Bryce Young on a scramble to prevent a first down in the 2nd half. I think he’s more 3 than a nose, but his energy anywhere on the field is a boon. Oghoufo earned a persistence coverage sack, fighting through a Bama tackle with dogged effort and made several solid edge sets. Sorrell had some good plays as well, despite getting reached on that fateful outside zone run. Coburn had some good moments, most notably holding firm against a double team on a 4th and short.
Well done by all. They notched six HARD hits on the QB and were consistently disruptive. You don’t have to just eat blocks to set up the safeties and linebackers. These guys got to taste some blood. No turning back.
LB
Jaylan Ford rallied after the 81 yard TD run miscue and led the team in tackles with 10, including 2 tackles for loss and an untouched sack that was more on Bama blowing their blocking assignments than Ford going off, but we’ll take it. Overshown had a ton of hustle plays, but he’s not a true edge rusher. In limited snaps there, he’s just not strong or skilled enough to mount an honest pass rush off of the edge. Gotta run him through gaps and bring him on delays. They got the lion’s share of LB snaps, though I saw a little of Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey and a Jett Bush appearance early.
DB
Great total unit play despite losing their most experienced starter fairly early in the contest. Defensive backs are not required to be a bunch of islands. They can link up and play team defense. Like OL, DBs who are all on the same page can operate at a level that is greater than the sum of their parts and it’s a pleasure to watch when it happens. Safeties Anthony Cook and Jerrin Thompson were the lynchpins to that effort. Whatever Cook’s deficiencies as a pure coverage dude, he is a good tackler, he sees what’s developing, and he commits. 9 tackles, 2 tackles for loss. I didn’t realize how many Bama guys Jerrin Thompson absolutely popped until the rewatch. His weight gain has been good for him and he’s a much more decisive and effective football player than last year. 7 tackles, many of them from depth. Kitan Crawford is a better athlete than both of the aforementioned, but knowing your job and doing it consistently always takes primacy at safety.
D’Shawn Jamison had a near INT that would have gone for six and then missed a good portion of the game with a foot injury. Texas filled in with Austin Jordan and Jamier Johnson who performed admirably, though Jamison’s absence was really felt late. Ryan Watts played a very strong game as a tackler and zone presence until the 0:32 mark of the 4th quarter. An expertly timed Watts blitz had Young dead to rights, but Bryce got small and performed a Houdini escape, transforming a sack with Bama in big trouble having to squander their last timeout on a running clock to a 19 yard scramble first down and guaranteed field goal territory. Games can turn just like that. Watts is probably just sick right now. He had a great hit on Young on the same blitz earlier in the game. Jahdae Barron played really well and secured the primary role over Guilbeau at nickel. At least in my eyes. The freshman played his hardest, but you saw the difference in athleticism on some missed tackles both early and late.
Special Teams
On balance, Texas played well. Unfortunately, a missed chip shot field goal at the end of the 1st half haunted the Horns. More promisingly, Bert Auburn drilled four other kicks, including a pressure packed 49 yarder to put Texas up 19-17 deep in the 4th. If you were offered 80% from our field goal kicker before this game, you’d take it.
Danny Trejo punted really well, particularly in the second half, notching a 61 yard booming effort then a gorgeous 50 yarder that pinned Bama on the 1 yard line. Trejo had dinner plates for eyes against ULM and though Bama didn’t try to pressure him, it was nice to see the young man step up.
Will Stone had 4 touchbacks in 6 kickoffs. Return games were negligible for both teams.
Final
The Texas staff created a terrific game plan and the Longhorn players battled for four quarters playing smart, fundamental football on 95% of their snaps. This game had to instill some much-needed confidence in Longhorn athletes and some sorely needed mutual belief between players and staff. A staff that trusts their athletes to let it go and athletes who trust that they’re being put in a position to succeed are an absolute virtuous circle. It’s how you eradicate underperformance and feed decisive aggression.
The Texas D learned some things about itself against the Crimson Tide.
Now do it again.
