Us v. Them: Texas Tech Defense v. SMU Offense

by Seth C on Sep 11, 2008 12:00 PM CDT in Football

The SMU Mustangs (1-1,0-0) v. The Texas Tech Red Raiders (2-0, 0-0)
September 13, 2008 @ 6:00 p.m. Television: Fox Sports net Radio: Texas Tech Affiliates Weather: Lubbock, Texas

Statistical Leaders	SMU
Passing	Bo Levi Mitchell: 49 Comp., 80 Att., 614 Yds., 8 TD, 3 Int.
Rushing	DeMyron Martin: 15 Att., 72 Yds., 1 TD Andrew McKinney: 5 Att., 27 Yds., 0 TD Justin Willis: 2 Att., 8 Yds., 0 TD
Receiving	Aldrick Robinson: 15 Rec., 263 Yds., 4 TD Emmanuel Sanders: 16 Rec., 259 Yds., 4 TD DeMyron Martin: 9 Rec., 48 Yds., 0 TD

Statistical Leaders	Texas Tech
Tackles	Bront Bird: 19 Brian Duncan: 18 Jamar Wall: 15
Sacks	Brandon Williams: 3.0 McKinner Dixon: 2.0 Marlon Williams: 1.0 Bront Bird: 1.0
Interceptions	Rajon Henley: 1 Brian Duncan: 1 Daniel Ccharbonnet: 1 Richard Jones: 1

SMU Passing Offense v. Texas Tech Passing Defense: I'm pretty sure that SMU is going to rack up some yards on Saturday, now it's a question of how much is too much and what will make the DTN contingent happy? Before we get to that, I found a video last night of June Jones talking about the Run and Shoot with your favorite defensive coordinator, Bob Davie. It's worth checking out if you've ever wanted to know, in about 5 minutes, the basics of the Run and Shoot. In week 1 against Rice, Bo Levi Mitchell threw for 244 yards on 43 attempts, which included 3 TD's and 3 interceptions. If this is our baseline for success then I certainly think it's possible. McNeill has consistently displayed the bend but don't break rule of thumb and I think we could expect to see that same philosphy here.

Both Robinson and Sanders have been pretty good this year, each grabbing 4 touchdowns. Keep in mind that SMU has only thrown for 9 touchdowns all year, so the focus, at least for SMU has been on both of these guys. Sanders is at an inside receiver position (H) while Robinson is on the outside (Z). Mitchell has also been pretty good, especially for a true freshman, and he's already completing over 50% of his passes, along with 8 touchdowns and 3 interceptions, all of which came in his firt game. Mitchell is also doing a pretty decent job of getting the ball down the field, averaging 7.675 yards per attempt, and as we've said before, anything over 8.0 is pretty good. Given the situation, Mitchell seems to be performing pretty well.

Thus far, the Texas Tech secondary hasn't wowed us, although I'm still in the camp that says I can see the improvement. This year, the defense is giving up only 6.17 yards per attempt and in comparison to last year, the team gave up 6.03 yards per attempt. Again, that was over the course of the year. The one area that I would love to see knocked down a few pegs, is the completion percentage, where the Red Raiders are allowing over 60% of the passes to be completed. I know, it's lot of 3 step drops, so there's not much time to hassle the quarterback, but I think there will be opportunities against SMU.

I think Jamar Wall and Brent Nickerson will need to have big games and I'm with McNeill on this one, let's keep the outside recievers in front of the cornerbacks. No big plays. I'm also excited to see the continued play of the rotating defensive ends (B. Williams, Ratliff, Sesay, Dixon, Howard and Riley) and just like last week, I thought the ends got better as the game progressed. I would love to see that same type of pressure from start to finish on Saturday.

I'm going with SMU here, but only because I think they'll still move the ball, which can be problematic in any game. I need to see a passing team stopped completely before I go with Texas Tech. Prove me wrong (please).

Advantage: SMU

SMU Rushing Offense v. Texas Tech Rushing Defense: This one is easy. SMU only runs for 36 yards a game, which is good for 117th in the nation in rushing offense. For the year, the running backs, DeMyron Martin and Andrew McKinney have rushed 20 times over 2 games. Without Willis quarterbacking the team, there's really not a legitimate running threat and if history repeats itself, June Jones and the offense isn't going to start on Monday. Whitlock, Henley, Perry, Jones and Sesay have been pretty good at tackle, while we might say that Bird and Duncan had the best games of their careers last week against Nevada.

Advantage: Texas Tech

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Comments

Pressure

As important as pressuring the qb is, why don’t our corners get up more on the line and rough the opposing wr’s up, just like the defenses that have had success against us do? 3 step drops are all about timing routes. If the qb is taking 3 step drops and the pass rush can’t quite get to him quick enough (or at all), then why don’t we bump the crap out of the wr’s to throw off their timing? Combine that with cloging the middle, leaving at least 1 safety deep, and as long as the ball isn’t in the air yet, and the cb’s hit the wr as they come off the line, we should be golden, right?

by boombacloud on Sep 11, 2008 12:37 PM CDT 0 recs

pressure

I think the size of our corners vs the size of the receivers has something to do with it. I don’t know the size of our corners but i would be willing to bet they are not over 6’ and they do not weigh over 195 lbs. if you bump them then that leaves the opportunity for the miss of the bump which would free the wr’s up for a long gain because just as our corners lack size i would imagine they do not have the speed to catch up to a wr in full stride, just a thought.
If McNeill is going to run this bend don’t break style of defense, i think it is going to be a rarity to see bump and run coverage. Unless LA Reed comes back, who does have size and considerable speed. We’ll see

by allknowing on Sep 11, 2008 1:12 PM CDT up 0 recs

well,

I don’t think it has a whole lot to do with the size of our corners. Brent Nickerson is 6’0’’ 190lbs, not super athletic, but knows the defense and is very fundamentally sound. Jamar Wall is 5’11’’ 195lbs, and probably the most athletic guy on our defense. When LA Reed 6’2’’ 205lbs comes back near the start of conference play he may take Nickersons spot and add his tremendous size and athletic ability. Really the only guy who lacks good size is LaRon Moore. He is about 5’9’’ 180 lbs, but is like Wall in the fact that he is a serious athlete.

All that being said, it wouldn’t be a problem if that was the style of play that Ruff wanted to use on defense. The real issue is having solid man-to-man corners who can play bump and run. Wall is the closest thing we have to that, but he has struggled in coverage to say the least so far this season. Nickerson doesn’t have the tools to play that style of defense. Reed would be capable, but lets be honest, the guy hasn’t played a snap of defense yet. I would be shocked if Reed was able to come in and be a lock-down type corner with his experience level.

It’s not really like we are getting shredded in pass coverage. I mean, yes, Wall has been beat deep 2 weeks in a row by biting on a fake, but Wall is going to step it up. You know that he is probably our best DB and he will bounce back and be a great player for us as the season progresses. The thing that looks bad on our pass defense is the fact that teams are throwing the quick, underneath passes over and over again. We have an experienced secondary that is very sound and won’t make a whole lot of mistakes that lead to big plays. I would be very surprised if teams continue to beat Wall deep. I really look for our secondary to be very impressive and put together some complete games over the course of the season

liquidsmoke

by liquidsmoke on Sep 13, 2008 1:44 PM CDT up 0 recs

Secondary size

Most are 5-10 to 6-0. That will be the reality this year. However, that will change in time. We have much taller secondary down the depth chart. We just will not see that size this year and will start to see it next year.

The problem is not so much size with our secondary. Our problem right now is philosophy. You can not give up 12 to 15 yards automatically on the corner or to any reciever and expect to do well. That is the problem right now. I have no problem in giving some recievers some cushion. But not 12 to 15 yards!

This is a product of secondary used to being the primary stopper of the run of Tech’s past. They had to give ground to the point that they could cheat to see if the play would be a pass or a run then commit to the defense for either. This is why our secondary gets burned on certain long developing play actions plays which have more than not resulted in a TD or huge gains.

boombacloud is right that our Secondary needs to jam the recievers more especially in offenses which have a quick pass system. If they need to respect a receiver, then 5 yards is more than enought. If its not, then we have huge problems and the secondary coaches are not doing their jobs properly.

The Tech Defense has to be more aggressive and more dominating. They have to set the tone of the game and bring fear into the players of the other team to the point that they are focusing on the next hit than on the job they have to do.

You know you have that kind of intensity when QBs are looking at the ends or at some LB before every play because is hears their footsteps even when they are not there. This is seen in QBs that have happy feet and scramble when they should have stayed in the pocket longer. Some QBs make a nice name for themselves with happy feet like Tebow which is sad. Because they make horrible NFL QBs.

But Our secondary just can not be sitting 15 yards off the line an expect to be effective against a good team. Thus one of the reasons why Nevada racked up the yards they did. Our secondary gave up 10 to 15 yards as a freebee. We should not be giving up that many yards. If our Sr. are just not able to jam and get coverage, then this is not our season and we should be spliting some time with our tall Freshmen and Sophmores where their primary is to jam then cover.

by Pablo M on Sep 11, 2008 3:41 PM CDT 0 recs

they play at the 1st down line. I still don’t like it.

by kayakyakr on Sep 11, 2008 4:30 PM CDT up 0 recs

Totally agree

*NEWS FLASH* most wide receivers don’t like getting hit! I like aggressive defense. I say don’t just jam them and try to throw off the timing. The first 2 plays of the game, hit them as hard as you can right at the line! Knock them off their feet. If they happen to stay up, let the safety cover. Making the guy across from you nervous about having to go up against you is worth the risk of a big play early in the game.

Of course no one plays football this way anymore, but it would be exciting if they did. They don’t have to jam and press on every play, but I agree they need to play up a little tighter so that when the receiver runs a short curl or slant they don’t have to make up 5 yards just to get there in time to make a tackle.

by NM99 on Sep 12, 2008 8:36 AM CDT up 0 recs