Football Articles
Post-Mortem: Texas Tech
Posted by Hiphopopotamus on November 1st, 2009 under Football
In a game filled with what-the-fuck moments, it was only fitting that the fourth quarter and the outcome was defined by them. For nearly three full quarters, our defense had put together a tremendous effort. Pressuring the quarterback, contesting passes, forcing turnovers and keeping Tech off the scoreboard. But as he hasn’t been for weeks, Todd was not Todd. And the offense sputtered. And then, just as he was about to be sacked (again), he spun away and fired a dart to Dezmon Briscoe. Touchdown Jayhawks. That was our Todd. 21-14 good guys with a quarter to play.
And then Tech found a ground game.
Baron Batch ripped off a 44 yarder. Torres came up with a fantastic catch at the five. We get a huge break as Leong blatantly pushes off and moves them back to the 20 for 1st and goal. And then Batch rips off a 19 yarder and it’s as if it never happened. Great penetration by Johnson moves them back to the four. Tharp saves a TD on 3rd down, but it was only for a minute as Batch punched it in on his second effort the next play. Note to Arist Wright: Use your arms when you tackle, not your shoulder. 21-21 with 11 minutes to play. And the rest was history.
QB
Never in my wildest imagination did I assume quarterback would be our problem this year, but how wrong I was. For all of our problems – and there’s a laundry list of them – if we were getting the Todd Reesing we’ve come to expect, we’re sitting no worse than 7-1 and possibly 8-0 right now. To me, it’s wildly apparent that the groin injury affects his movement and accuracy and instead of playing within those limitations, he’s trying to overcome them. The groin may have started this downfall, but it’s how he’s handled it upstairs that’s compounded the problem. I honestly don’t know whether he or Kale Pick gives us a better chance to win on Saturday, and that is simply unthinkable.
RB
Jake certainly doesn’t have his burst back, but I actually thought he looked pretty solid yesterday and I wish we’d have used him more. He ended the day with 50 yards on 10 carries and he was never taken down for a loss. Toben has to be our short yardage guy (the TD he punched in was a thing of beauty), but you’ll have a tough time explaining to me why we’re running him outside if Jake is able. Despite how much pressure Todd was under yesterday, I thought both did a nice job picking up blitzers, as they usually do.
WR
Dez has an uncanny ability to leave you wanting more, doesn’t he? He finished with 9 grabs for 110 yards and what at the time was a huge TD. And yet I just left feeling like he left so much out there – specifically the drop in the middle of the field early in the third quarter. Unbelievably, Kerry was nowhere to be found, and as soon as we found him, he fumbled(*), Tech scored and the collapse was on. And as we’re all of a sudden accustomed to doing, we ignored everyone else out there. Wilson had 2 grabs for 20 yards. McDougald had 1 and dropped another would have been first down trying to run with it before he had the ball. And we didn’t even look at Biere – disappointing, but part of that was how much we needed his help blocking.
(*) That was absolutely a fumble. But it was WAY less of a fumble than Swindall’s in the 2nd quarter – when we would have gotten the ball at the Tech 32. Instead we got it at our own 32, moved it to the Tech 27 and Branstetter pushed a 45 yarder just right. It’s easy to look at the final score and think this shit doesn’t matter, but it absolutely does and if we’re going to review anything that’s close, then we need to get it right a little more often. Swindall had literally secured the ball, turned and advanced over a yard.
OL
Talk about a unit that has regressed. I would analyze the play of Jeff Spikes, but there’s literally no point to doing so. For how much they rave about his athleticism, and how decent he is in run blocking, it’s truly astounding how bad he is when he faces speed rushers. It’s as if he has no clue how to set in his stance and set up a wall. I’m thinking Tech wishes they had Sharpe against the Ags last week, although perhaps SPikes made him look just a tad better than he really is. Hawkinson had his struggles with Henley here and there on the other side, but I remain pleased with his play and optimistic about his future there. On the inside, we were also unimpressive, letting Whitlock get in for a couple of sacks. And while unimpressive was apt for our pass protection, atrocious is a more suitable description for our run blocking, as we created almost no space and virtually ignored anyone that didn’t start with their hand on the ground. Guys, it’s legal to block those linebackers. I promise.
DL
This unit had a spectacular first half and a decent third quarter, but someone forgot to tell them we had 15 minutes to go. As he always does, Laptad stood out, but nearly everyone had their moments. And most impressive (Sans 4th quarter) was that they played as a complete unit. We generated pressure on the outside, got push on the inside and never let up contain. They couldn’t find space to run the ball and while they had some time back there, we were making them pay if they didn’t get it out after their first couple reads. Then the 4th quarter started, we put on ice skates and things got ugly in a hurry.
LB
Play from our backers was probably as good as it’s been to date. We don’t have any playmakers at the position, but yesterday they at least made all the plays we needed them to. We never found them horribly out of position, we played the screens well and they weren’t able to make a living over the middle of the field (which was a huge concern pre-game). A week after his best showing date, we never saw Springer (correct me if I’m wrong) and made our living with Tharp, Dudley and Wright. Aside from Arist deciding he could knock Baron Batch off the goalline with his shoulder – which he shockingly could not – the holes were filled and the tackle was made. Nothing great and to be a good defense, you need more but this was as good as they’ve been.
CB
I’m starting to wonder if we teach our guys to find the ball when it’s in the air. If I were an opposing OC that trusted my quarterback to put a deep ball down the sideline close, I think I’d call at least one every series. Has to have about a 75% success rate, be it by completion or pass interference. For the third week in a row, we started with one guy and finished with another on one side – this time it was Beshears getting yanked and Patterson getting the call from the pen. For those keeping score, Beshears makes it four straight years we’ve played a true freshman at corner (5 in all, including Corrigan Powell’s go round) and only Harris has come back to play the position again – and even he took a leave of absence for a year before regaining his spot (by default). On the bright side, he was again pretty solid on the other side – despite giving a giant cushion nearly every play.
Safety
Might be our best position on the field – if we’re including the nickel. Stuckey was solid as always. Thornton ha d a nice showing in his return to action, with 7 tackles and 2 passes broken up. Lubbock Smith stayed active and made some good hits. Murphy got blown out of his jock on an early move by Detron Lewis, but was solid the rest of the way. And Bradley McDougald – in his really odd third down role – had a nice INT and return for about 40 yards or so. If there’s one spot I’m not worried about, it’s safety.
Going forward, it’ a crapshoot. Right now, I have no faith in this team to win even a single remaining game. And anyone who does, is just following them blindly. In no way do we resemble a team that can be counted on to come out and win games. Fortunately, neither does three of our remaining four opponents. And those are the only three we have to win. Let’s just say I haven’t booked my flight to Dallas.
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Hiphopopotamus said:
November 1st, 2009 at 9:10 pm
FYI, we’ve opened as 3.5 point favorites this weekend.
mojave_reject said:
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:20 am
As a Tech fan I’d like to apologize for the officiating. We’re working on phasing out the lead paints used in the Jones’ referee dressing room.
Hiphopopotamus said:
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:19 am
Appreciate you recognizing it was horrible, but I’ve come to expect that in the Big XII. The calls might have hurt, but we had every chance to win and repeatedly fumbled it away.
Phenomenal Smith said:
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:42 am
I honestly didn’t think Kerry Meier was capable of making a mistake. I am shocked by his humanity.
I haven’t run the numbers, but do Tiger fans want KU to beat KSU? I’m thinking yes.
kuoirad said:
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:49 am
I think it’s time for a new cornerbacks coach. That and we need to start recruiting some taller kids for those positions…
I think we have the capability to go 3-1 over our last 3 games. But none of those games are a gimme anymore, which I kinda thought KSUck and maybe Misery were at the start of the season. The Nubs are a crapshoot, but at least we have them at home. Hell if I know. 2-2 would make me happy, I think. I *REALLY* want to win this weekend, and oddly want to beat the Nubs more than Misery right now. Texas is going to be a(n ugly) loss.
Triston27 said:
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:53 am
Can someone please explain this Todd Reesing injury to me? Better yet, explain it to Ed Warriner. We ran more qb draws this week than we have the previous 2 weeks combined. Or so it seemed. This led me to believe that maybe TR wasn’t actually injured. Then I saw us run the “option” and you knew he was hurting. But that didn’t stop us from running it. And is it really an “option” if you know Todd is going to pitch it after 2 steps?
Hiphopopotamus said:
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:13 am
Phenom: Absolutely you do. Because our ceiling is 4 league wins. And honestly, theirs is probably six – even though the likelihood of that happening is incredibly low.
oirad: Wholeheartedly agree. We never have any idea how to play the ball and we rarely have a clue how to play the man while the ball is in the air. I know we can’t expect Saban/Alabama type performance, but I really hope we’re teaching something similar to this – and it’s hard for me to believe that we are.
And 2-2 would not make me happy. Come on now. We look like dogshit, for sure, but those are three very winable games against teams we hate. A 3-5 league record is unacceptable.
Triston: Groin injury likely doesn’t bother him nearly as much running straight forward, but rather on lateral movement. And as Tech was speed rushing upfield, we were trying to take advantage of the space they left open in the middle (as A&M did with Jerrod Johnson a week ago). But without his shiftiness, Todd isn’t Todd running the ball either. If that’s how we wanted to attack them, we should have gone to Kale Pick a lot sooner than we did.
Phenomenal Smith said:
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:14 am
I think we have the capability to go 3-1 over our last 3 games.
Good luck with that.
Triston, your comment sounds like mine re Gabbert after the Okie State game. Would someone please tell Yost that his QB has a bad ankle?
Phenomenal Smith said:
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:17 am
Hiphop, re KSU, I have been relying on your prediction that they’d be 6-2 after 8 games and finish 6-6. That’s still good, right? In fact, they’re worse than you thought they’d be.
Hiphopopotamus said:
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:18 am
I think we have the capability to go 3-1 over our last 3 games.
Good luck with that.
Of course we have that capability. In no way am I confident it will happen, but let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that three of our four remaining opponents have looked anything resembling good this season. The fact is, we don’t have to be good to win those games.
Triston27 said:
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:34 am
Hiphop, I agree that straight forward running probably doesn’t bother him as much, but what was with all the options? TR wanted no part of that, he didn’t even bait the d-end into thinking he was going to keep the ball. It’s a complete waste when he’s just looking to pitch it right away. You start the play trying to gain back a 5 yard loss everytime.
Hiphopopotamus said:
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:48 am
Phenom: Well, some of that prediction was based on Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska being halfway decent – or perhaps a little better than that. But yes, I’m standing by it until proven differently.
Triston: There is no reasonable explanation, especially when we tried to run them with Opurum.
kuoirad said:
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:52 am
Hiphop: Well, happy with 2-2 over the next four games maybe isn’t the right word. Maybe “not angry” would be more correct. I think anything less than 3-1 will be a disappointment, yes.
If the defense keeps bringing their B+/A- game like they more or less have been (minus the dbacks, I guess) and the offense can straighten up into B-/B range, I think we’re in good shape. I don’t know enough about the kitties’ game, but I think only the Nubs’ D should worry us (thank dog Suh isn’t a left end), and Misery looks to be passable on both sides of the ball.
It befuddles me too, but I find myself thinking we should look to start Pick if Todd can’t be mobile and find passing lanes – I’ve seen too many passes batted down the past few weeks.
kuoirad said:
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:56 am
And wrt running Sharp up the middle and Opurum around the end – someone wanna go visit Warriner with a clue-by-four?
That being said, do we have any two-back sets in the playbook? Something where we make the defense think “are they coming up the middle with Opurum or around the end with Sharp?” Or is everything 4 and 5 receiver sets?
Hiphopopotamus said:
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:54 am
Mangino says Todd will start.
Oirad: We have a pretty decent amount of 2 back sets. However, we use them about as often as we fake punts.
Gene Claude said:
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Mangino’s and Pinkel’s coaching philosophies are so maddeningly different…you guys will rotate a set of bodies through a trouble position, which I’m sure is tiring. Pinkel will stick the same guys out there over and over again because he doesn’t trust anybody until they have “proven it in practice.” Both are annoying.
The Big 12 North obviously sucks harder than Jenna Haze at a bachelor party, but, like the bachelor party, these final four weeks are going to be very entertaining.
Gene Claude said:
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Also, isn’t it interesting how much misery (not Missouri, jackasses) loves company? Can you imagine how sad MU / KU fans would be if NU was playing great? The fact that all 3 teams totally suck makes everyone a little bit happier than they otherwise would be…until KSU sneaks up and wins the north. Then we can all point fingers at each other for letting Grandpa go to Dallas without us.
travis said:
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:09 pm
“I think we have the capability to go 3-1 over our last 3 games”
Thanks for that, it helped break up my monday….
BluManGrp said:
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:49 pm
“I think we have the capability to go 3-1 over our last 3 games”
Thanks for that, it helped break up my monday….
You laugh, but there was nothing wrong with the statement. The 4th game is not to be mentioned. Nov. 21 is only a figment of your imagination.
kuoirad said:
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:27 pm
travis:
C’mon, minus the UT game, you don’t think we could run the table if Todd and the offense wake up, with the defense playing like it’s been the past two games?
KSU – more schizophrenic than Missouri. Got *LIT UP* by Tech, then turned around and *LIT UP* aTm, who turned around and *LIT UP* Tech. I have no clue what’s going to happen this weekend, I don’t know them well enough to begin to hazard a guess, other than our kick/punt coverage needs to be as spot on as possible, else we’ll be giving up (probably) at least one return TD. Can’t imagine this isn’t a winnable game.
Nubs – horrible offense, decent defense. Like we’ve been. If our offense wakes up, should be a winnable game.
MIssouri – schizo. QB still (right?) hobbled with ankle injury, O-line a little suspect. Defense ok, can definitely score on them.
It’s possible/doable to win all three. Will we? Dunno. I think it’s going to come down to Todd. If he can get back a modicum of his swagger and confidence, the offense goes with him, and the defense should be ok. If not, this could be a long 4 weeks…