Texas vs Tech on 4th down
Texas was 50% on 4th down against Texas Tech in their 37-34 overtime defeat. Not terrible, they only went for it two times and they converted one and missed the other. A pretty normal rate.
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This wasn’t a normal game though, Texas Tech was all in on utilizing upset/comeback strategies to have a chance in this game, including going for it on 4th down eight times over the course of the game. They converted six of those eight, prolonging five different scoring drives
There was a lot for everyone to chew on after the game but the No. 1 factor in Texas’ defeat was how thoroughly beat they were on 4th down. They created one scoring drive for themselves with a conversion and blew another crucial opportunity, then yielded 27 of Tech’s 37 points by failing to stop even half of the Red Raider 4th down attempts.
This game would have been a blowout had either Tech not been so aggressive, or had they been stopped on the 4th down attempts of 4th-and-5 or longer, of which there were three (two conversions). It would have been a narrow Longhorn victory had they done even just a little better on 4th down.
So we’re going to review all the 4th downs in this game to see where it went awry for Texas.
4th-and-7 on Tech’s opening drive
This one was a little reminiscent of the Todd Orlando days. A 5-man, single-high match pressure where the blitz needed a little more time to get home. As Sark noted in his presser,
I felt like looking at the tape, we weren’t in sync enough with our pressure package and our coverage. For whatever reason, the way we had been playing pass defense early in the year, which was a lot tighter, a lot more aggressive, a lot more confident, it didn’t feel that way Saturday. Although we were getting home with some of our pressures and line games, the quarterback still had enough time to get the ball out because we weren’t tight enough on coverages. There were times that we did play it that way, and we had a lot of success. We’ve got to get those two things in sync, and we’ve got to trust our ability to cover people in tight coverage.
Steve Sarkisian, Monday press conference 9-26-2022
Jerrin Thompson is in man coverage on the boundary slot receiver and just made the comeback route too easy. No replay review to the consternation of Texas fans but I don’t think it would have changed the outcome.
4th-and-goal on Tech’s opening drive
“From four yards out, surely this is a passing play… nope.” You can almost see that thought process play out for the Texas defenders. Ovie Oghoufo races in, sees it’s not a passing play and finds his momentum turned against him as the tight end turns him inside and down to the turf. Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey was also hesitant and doesn’t meet the ballcarrier, 6-foot-5 and 230-pound Donovan Smith, until two yards past the line of scrimmage where the quarterback has the momentum to fall forward into the end zone. Jaylan Ford was almost Johnny on the spot from the other side but narrowly missed his diving tackle attempt.
This is zone-follow, a quarterback run play that feigns zone-read before turning the running back into a lead blocker in the cutback lane. It’s really more like duo or power for the quarterback, Texas used to run it for Sam Ehlinger.
4th-and-1 on an eventual Texas touchdown drive
This is quarterback counter from the Wildcat, or “Ro-cat” formation with Hudson Card flexed out as a receiver and Roschon Johnson taking the snap at quarterback. Cole Hutson pulls to kick out, Gunnar Helm leads, Bijan takes a fake hand-off and goes to obstruct backside pursuit.
Helm helps clear the hole but actually misses his man. It doesn’t matter, Roschon isn’t met by a tackler until he’s at the mark to gain.
4th-and-5 on a failed Tech drive after the half
I noted in my preview Tech might have problems stemming from Ryan Watts playing man coverage on their boundary receiver and freeing up Jerrin Thompson to poach routes on the other side of the field. They did exactly that here and Thompson landed one of a few big warning shots coming from the boundary to force an incomplete passes.
Notice Texas is in press-quarters coverage on both sides of the formation with their cornerbacks. “Soft coverage” wasn’t really an issue in this game. Nor coverage in general, unless it was 3rd-and-a-mile or 4th down.
4th-and-2 on a failed Texas drive after the half
This too, is the zone-follow play. Texas runs it with motion from Gunnar Helm to execute a trap block on the backside against the end man on the line while they block down on everyone else. This is a first down but for Cole Hutson losing Tony Bradford (former North Shore champion) on an inside slant. For as strong a runner as Roschon is, he can’t just run through a 300-pound defensive tackle hitting him square with momentum.
4th-and-4 on an eventual Tech field goal drive
From the end zone view you see Jahdae Barron is playing in the middle of the field in a 3-down, flyover defense package Texas utilized a few times in this game. He just loses track of this middle curl route. Shame for Texas the spy doesn’t either commit sooner to chasing the quarterback or hang back to contest this easy middle window.
4th-and-1 on an eventual Tech touchdown drive
Zone-follow again! This time Tech is in the touchdown play formation with the tight end and three receivers to one side of the field. Texas walks down Jaylan Ford to the edge and he regrettably gets too far upfield and then tries to spin off the running back’s lead block and make the play himself. Ideally he’d have met the back a little shallower and shoved him inside to remove the running lane. Barryn Sorrell also loses his rep against the tight end who blocks down and moves him inside.
Jerrin Thompson is there in a flash to hit the quarterback before the sticks and DeMarvion Overshown gets there quickly as well but they cannot prevent 230-pound Smith from falling forward for the first.
4th-and-goal on a failed(?) Tech drive
This was a no-brainer decision by Tech, unlike some of the other aggressive calls made by Joey McGuire. I included the 3rd-and-goal just before this play because they called the same zone-follow play twice in a row and were at last punished for trying to go back to the well.
Texas has Justice Finkley in there now. On 3rd-and-goal he disrupts the tight end, then comes off and meets the running back lead block to help blow this up. Byron Murphy also rag-dolls an offensive linemen to help get the stop. On 4th-and-goal Texas finally knows what’s up and has Finkley on the wide edge with Vernon Broughton and Jaylan Ford up on the line inside. They destroy the intended lane and Smith tries to dive the other direction to get what he can, which isn’t enough.
At last, zone-follow is beaten, but the Texas offense is backed up and can do little about it.
4th-and-5 on an eventual Tech touchdown drive
Texas has a nice call on this one. They’re in tight coverage and Overshown comes from the weakside to get under the quick route and stays on it. However, when Smith scrambles ahead out of the pocket he basically Euro-steps DMO and then falls forward for the first down.
The call is solid, the personnel package is not great. They have Jett Bush as a defensive end executing an inside stunt with Keondre Coburn while T’Vondre Sweat and Jaylan Ford work off either edge. They don’t get pressure and don’t contain well.
This game Texas needed their young Edges to play more to spell Sorrell and Oghoufo. Neither Prince Dorbah nor Jett Bush gave them enough in their snaps on the Edge (Bush also played at Mike and was more effective there). Oghoufo is in this play but he drops back to carry the running back on a wheel route.
4th-and-3 on eventual Tech field goal drive
Similar to the play above, two things go wrong here. First of all, that’s a heck of a play by Donovan Smith to hit the crosser while backpedaling with pressure in his face. He made plays on virtually every single Tech 4th down conversion and used both his feet and his arm to do so.
The killer for Texas here is they’re in press-man coverage with a single deep safety and two underneath defenders in Overshown and Oghoufo (who looks exhausted). Those two underneath defenders get caught in no man’s land. They aren’t deep enough to contest the throwing windows but they aren’t closing fast enough to help the pass-rush either. Smith and the high volume of snaps has discombobulated them by this point
So there you have it. Much of this game came down to Texas not being ready to handle Donovan Smith on 4th down using his legs. It’s an understandable issue, Josh Allen and many other big, mobile quarterbacks give great defenses fits all over football in a similar fashion, but had Texas been even just a little bit better they would have survived with a win. Main take aways for the staff should be getting the young Edges more acclimated to spell the starters more (or simply trusting them) and more coaching up at linebacker.
