Post Mortem: Texas Tech v. Nevada

I wonder if the emphasis on run blocking in the Spring and Fall has taken away some from the pass proction.
Also, my biggest complaint with Harrell is that sometimes he holds the ball way too long. I know he is going thru his progressions but I think he wants to hit some big plays when he needs to trust his backs more. I still think this is a game we loose 2 years ago and the beginning of last year before Ruff is DC. The defense is positively more aggressive. This was a good mental test for us. Harrell will get better!!!!!
Wreck’em Tech

I sort of expected the defense to be right where it is. I think they will get the pieces to fall into place soon. They won’t be totally dominant, but better than the 95th (or whatever it is) ranking they currently hold. It’s the offense that has me scratching my head. We have seen some moments of greatness where they have lived up to their potential, but for the most part the offense seems out of sorts. Right now, they are surviving by covering for one another. Not a bad thing, but not the way you want the rest of the season to go.

I recall a number of comments last year from Leach about how well the group played as a team. I don’t think I have heard that comment this fall. Harrell mentioned communication issues between he and the receivers during the game. It seemed like the offensive line was not communicating well on their blocking assignments. I’m beginning to wonder if something has happened to reduce the cohesiveness of the unit compared to last year. Maybe Amendola was more of a leader than he got credit for and no one has stepped in to fill that role? I’m also pondering how well the offense is reading defensive schemes a la the Mizzou and CU games last year. Some of the commentaries have implied that Nevada tried to use some similar tactics, obviously with some success. I thought we had learned from those games.

I hope that they figure out whatever “it” is soon, otherwise this type of underperformance could get devisive and then things will really get ugly.

Anyone have any news on the secondary. What is the deal with these guys not being able to cover people? Any news on LA Reed?

I’m also pondering how well the offense is reading defensive schemes a la the Mizzou and CU games last year. Some of the commentaries have implied that Nevada tried to use some similar tactics, obviously with some success. I thought we had learned from those games

My concern is also that we begin to see a counter defensive scheme emerging – well of course … i.e. that opponents teams start to try to replicate the defensive scheme to get the Raiders off our offensive rhythm. (Yes I know that’s blinding flash of the obvious)The Nevada game reminded me a great deal of the Virginia defensive effort in the Gator bowl. (streaming video was great) Lots of pressure from the base down linemen it even appeared that the passing lanes were collapsed, Linebackers close to the line of scrimmage, tight secondary coverage on the preferred receiver by down and distance (read double up on Crabtree & knock down/bump Morris on the line ) This is two weeks in row we have heard opposing head coaches talk about "hitting Harrell" In order to disrupt his rhythm. Fluster, harasses or intimidate. Not sure that is possible in Harrell’s case. I’d bet June Jones or his defensive coordinator tells the DMN they want to pop Harrell this week. Not sack per say just hit him. In commenting on disrupting Tech’s run game the Nevada radio commentators talked about the lack of a good push by the offensive linemen because in their words "they are so used to backing up to pass block". So they don’t routinely blast bock and Nevada’s down linemen were successful defeating our O-lines technique. Mostly. This sounds familiar. Only rush when its convenient to attack a weakness in the defense. Yet folks it appears the rushing game by the Raiders won the day. A weak passing game executed – I agree running the clock out successfully and putting the nail in the coffin on the ground to boot – was fantastic. (All hail the great defensive stands i.e. no rushing scores from the 12 yard line in?? on multiple drives??? ) The defense played very well. I was waiting all night to see the Nev QB spring a Vince Young like scamper on us. No dice the defense held.
To close out looks like Al Grohs defensive scheme is being passed around – (of course it is..) I’d bet this countering defense is something neither opponent ever showed in film or previous games. Just a hunch but it’s a trend that’s going to continue.

I vented in another post so I’ll be calmer here. Despite the fact we were outgained (probably due to an unimpressive offensive scheme) the defense actually did very good. After all, all was said about Tech by all prognosticators prior to the season, all they have to do is hold people under 30 points and Tech can go undefeated. Well, lookie here. 24,19——we held two teams to under 30, one under 20. OK, now if what was said is true, we are on our way to an unbeaten year. Of course, neither of our opponents were Boomers or Horns, soooooo…let’s be cautious. The “D” IS looking better. GO TECH!

OL: Mike seemed to be happy with his O-Line play. I believe he insinuated that they were blocking well and it was Harrell who was causing most of the difficulty by hanging onto the ball for longer than he should. Olson played about half of the game in place of Reed at LT and did a good job. I’m not sure how much time Edwards got in place of Hamby at LG. Hamby is better at center than guard, though and I’m curious what the drop off would be to Edwards at guard.

Carona: Looked to me like he was starting his motion way too late when the center of the line had collapsed. He didn’t start moving toward the ball until it was already down. He’s got to trust his center and trust his holder to get that kick down for him and tighten the timing of the kick up. Was either Carona or La’Cour who chased down the returner on that blocked kick (they were both in there, i think Carona got the tackle, but i couldn’t tell). I like that, though.

Defense: I have to apologize for doubting them Saturday. They played very well. I still don’t like the bend-don’t break style, but when they could force 3rd downs, they stepped up and got off the field. That seems to be Ruffin’s modus operandi: keep everything in front of you on first and second down. Try to allow only a short gain or get an incomplete pass. Once in a third down situation, bring pressure to prevent the conversion. I think Nevada was 4/15 or something pretty low.

Harrell: My mind has started to wander in how he could have had that bad of a game. Most of Harrell’s bad games in the past have been because of receivers + ints. That game he was throwing all over the place and it was 100% on Harrell. Not ints and none of the short out routes that he would normally throw interceptions on. RRS guys say that he had open receivers most of the night, he just wasn’t finding them. I’ve narrowed it down to 2 possibilities:

1. He’s hurt and no one’s said anything. This is highly possible, especially after hearing about how on-fire he was in practice (though with our secondary’s showing thusfar, I have to question how much that was him and how much that was the secondary).
2. This is all a massive gamble on the part of Leach and Harrell to ham up these struggles against a specific defense to try and get false tape out there. Showing that dropping 7 or 8 is the best way to defend and that you can get pressure with 3 and 4 linemen. This will get teams to try to defend us using a zone scrunched between 5 and 35 yards since they won’t respect Harrell’s deep ball past 35.The running game is to force people to keep linebackers near the line of scrimmage, middle of the field, opening up the slots to the outside and the wides to the inside. Yes, that’s it.

RB: I’m very, very excited about the potential next year from the 2 back set. Baron Batch playing power back and Harrison Jeffers as the speed guy. Batch can lay the wood on blocks too. Though both he and woods very effectively sealed the corner on morris’s two carries. Batch also got the springing block on Wood’s second longest carry. I don’t remember about the TD.

Yea, you read that right Total yards against your defense is a Bull S number.
Here is why.

Take Nevada’s 488 yards of total offence and divide it by their 14 drives and you find that they averaged 34.87 yards per drive, 5.95 yards per play, and 13.5 yards pre minute of possession.

Take TECH’s 420 yards of total offence and divide it by their 14 drives and you find that
they averaged 30 yards per drive, 6.19 yards per play, and 17.5 yards per minute of possession.

Two of NEV’s drives started inside TECH’s 35 and both of those ended in field goals.
Tech only started inside NEV 30 once and that ended in a missed field Goal.

You can also figure that NEV scored .0452 points for every yard they gave up while TECH scored .0717 points per yard given up.

I could go into yards per pound of lineman, but let’s stop here.

Now if you factor in the TT variable: that being that Tech always has and always will play at the level of their opposition: you will find that that the "Ruff an Tuff" played exceptionally well since they allowed the sputtering offence to gain more yards per play, more yards pre minute of possession and the Holy Grail of stats more points per yards given up.

In the ebb and flow that is collage football in the end the only stat that counts is the score, and the subjective opinion of the referee as to whether or not you are chastising your opponent by your handling of the ball after making a, touchdown,