Grading the Team's Performance (Week 1)

Discussion in 'On The Field' started by Hpslugga, Sep 1, 2013.

  1. Hpslugga

    Hpslugga 2,500+ Posts

    As mentioned here back in December, I've decided to amp up the volume of criteria for the offense and defense. So without further delay, here's how the Horns did against the Ags:

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    Offensively: Let's just hope that slow start was a one-time incident because playing that poorly against a few of the teams I see on UT's schedule will certainly lead to some frantic finishes and some losses. In the grand scheme of things, however, I did like what Major was doing as a playcaller. Ash looked like he was in La La Land for the first 25 minutes of the game, but finally realized he had to play and from that point I'd give him a solid B average. The run game is still a work in progress simply because of the unreliability of the line, but I did like what I saw from the backs.

    Defensively: Look, you can't give up an efficient performance by a team that came off of last year ranked 84th in the nation in passing efficiency. This "bend but don't break" crap isn't going to get it done against the better teams on the schedule because these stats that you're seeing by these hurry-up no-huddle teams are usually chalked up on sheer volume. That is to say they run a crap load of plays, and they can do that since they don't waste any time getting to the LOS like others do. Bend-but-don't-break is incompatible with HUNH. There needs to be a lot more opportunism and aggression in this unit, and I just didn't see it last night. What really concerns me was the QB's repeated ability to find the TE on that bootleg play that they kept running in the first half. Oklahoma and teams like them notice things like that. Individually, I really liked what Dalton Santos was doing out there as well as Diggs, Reed, and probably a few others I've overlooked.

    Special Teams: Damn it, the kickoff cover unit once again has revealed early signs of being a liability and I do not like that. Wish I could have seen more by the PR team, but it's kinda hard to do that when the other team's punter is consistently giving them a high kick that forces a fair catch. Fera's looking pretty good so far, as is Rose of course. Always glad to hit that positive grade on the KR metric in the absence of a lot of attempts.

    I saw that BYU was defeated by a rather pathetic UVA team (4-8 last year, no indications of significant improvement from what I've heard). This means 2 things:

    1. Obviously BYU is going to be hungry and pissed off wanting to get their first W at home against Texas.

    2. They really suck and this is the perfect opportunity for the Horns to go up there and [Mike Leach]roll the f**k out of somebody[/Mike Leach] to keep the momentum going against Ole Miss.
     
  2. arieshorn

    arieshorn 1,000+ Posts

    I saw this tweet from Longhorn Network.... The Horns had 7 TD of 20+ yards tonight, not a single FBS team did that in the entire 2012 season.

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  3. Uninformed

    Uninformed 5,000+ Posts

    Thanks.

    To me it appears that your turnover category in the offense stat is underrepresented in the assessment. Turnovers are one of the most important stats for offenses.

    I didn't think our defense played too poorly. In the first half when our offense was problematic, it appeared to me that our defense hung in there and kept the game in check. Reed in particular played extremely well as did Diggs.
     
  4. addicted to Horn

    addicted to Horn 1,000+ Posts

    The thing that bugged me was seeing how our O-line was not able to open running lanes in the first quarter/first half. I know they did great in the second half, but thast was against a teamn with no depth that was clearly exhausted.

    Scoring on several plays of 20+ is great, but will be be able to score on the OU's of the world when we get inside the red zone? To do that we have to be able to run the ball.

    Next week I want to see our o-line play the run better in the first half.
     
  5. Hpslugga

    Hpslugga 2,500+ Posts


     
  6. Horns11

    Horns11 10,000+ Posts

    Our defense wasn't exactly the definition of "ball hawk" last night. NMSU's turnovers were more about their bumbling hands and lack of execution than they were about our guys "forcing" the turnovers. If that was, say, TCU... we would have been shutout in the turnover battle (although probably not on the scoreboard).

    Our DL seemed subdued. Maybe Davis was instructed to keep the DT's plugging so we didn't give up any big gainers up the gut on the ground. Jeffcoat was awesome but mostly just in run support. If Reed was a hair quicker, he'd probably be mentioned as an all-conference type candidate.

    Our blitzes were mostly picked up. That's not a good sign. Either we telegraphed everything (most likely explanation) or we're just not good at shedding blocks and getting an early step on the offense. I think we'll dial up the blitzes this week because BYU crumbled yesterday with pressure.

    All four of the "main" DB starters (Diggs, Byndom, Phillips, Thompson) had a couple of bad angles throughout the night. Phillips looked like his OU game self on a couple of those TE drag routes. Diggs did the same on an early first down that should have been blown up at the LOS. Diggs and Byndom still look like they're going to the Deion Sanders school of hard knocks over the summer by shoulder tackling every time they use speed. Diggs corrected this later in the game on a good low tackle of the TE. I think these things are correctable, unlike last year where it was just par for the course.

    Regarding the bend-but-don't-break stuff, I think that's kind of what they were going for last night. And it nearly worked except for one series. We gave up more yards than we probably should have because of their TE play, but I don't think anyone in Division I expected NMSU to have a functioning TE game this early in the season.
     
  7. Clean

    Clean 5,000+ Posts

    It seems to me that we have all the same problem areas as last year.

    On third and three, we can't just line up and give the ball to the tailback and expect to get it. OL didn't overpower NMSU. Gray had 28 yds and Brown had 3. Forget about Overstreet and Bergeron padding the stats after the game was over.

    Ash was Ash. If we play the first 25 minutes like that against OU, we'll be down 28-0.

    The defense was still giving up too many yards. Safety play by M.Thompson looked no better than last year.

    Special teams were erratic too. Shanked a punt, Got 2 PFs on one kickoff, etc.

    I don't have a warm feeling in the pit of my stomach this morning.
     
  8. HornHuskerDad

    HornHuskerDad 5,000+ Posts

    I hope we saw "first-game jitters" last night. There is a lot of room for improvement, and those improvements need to be implemented quickly. Better offensive line play and a more aggressive defense are two of those improvements. The offense will be able to score, but we don't want to see any more game like WVa last year. You should never lose a game in which you score 40+ points!

    HHD [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  9. Hoop

    Hoop 500+ Posts

    I agree that there are improvements to be made, but let me pump a little sunshine here. Bend don't break is ok with me if the final score is 56-7.

    I agree that the slow start will kill us in games against some of the other teams on our schedule. I'm going to chalk this one up to first game sloppiness. Nothing seemed to be working smoothly. The team looked shaky, the audio in the stadium went out, and then the picture on the jumbotron went out. Even the fans seemed somewhat disengaged (at least the folks sitting around me). Oh, and the Exes Center kept running out of beer and Dr. Pepper.

    The positive side of this thing is that the team won BIG. I think this was the largest margin of victory since the 2009 team beat UTEP 64-7. As long as we make improvements and build momentum, I think this team can be very good.
     
  10. El Sapo

    El Sapo Bevo's BFF


     
  11. Jim Bob

    Jim Bob 1,000+ Posts

    Kickoff coverage was indeed disappointing. When you have a nice, high kick two yards deep in the end zone, the return man should not be untouched before he reaches the 25. Especially a return man named Shapiro. As they did last year, our outside guys cheated toward the middle instead of maintaining their lanes. It's a great way to get burned.
     
  12. pflugervillehorn

    pflugervillehorn 25+ Posts

    The measuring stick for this offense needs to be on 3rd and two do we run or pass against someone like OU? If we can get that two when we run it, our O-line has made serious strides.

    The O-line from last night is not there yet.
     
  13. hornpharmd

    hornpharmd 5,000+ Posts

    I was very pleased for a season opener. took awhile for the offense to get going but once they clicked they clicked. WR's are blocking great. Mike Davis needs to protect ball better. OL provided really good pass protection. DaJe is the truth. Overstreet will be pushing for more touches. Defense needs to get more pressure. LB's looked much better. Not sure why McCoy got playing time...would rather see Swoopes in there.
     
  14. Texanne

    Texanne 5,000+ Posts

    Winning beats the alternative, but there is a lot of work to do.
     
  15. 1963_Frosh

    1963_Frosh 250+ Posts

    Was the slow start due to pigheadedness in wanting to run the ball against a defense stacked to stop the run? Why not take a couple of quick passing TDs in the 1st quarter if that is the case? Is the coaching staff stubborn or slow-witted?
     
  16. MrMojoRisin

    MrMojoRisin 25+ Posts

    I was impressed by the pitch and catch to M. Brown. I believe that Ash saw the linebackers coming, moved M. Brown away from the blitz, and pitched it away from the blitz. Granted, the DE for a better team would have tried to cover M. Brown. If Daje is back there, good luck. This seemed like a real improvement to me. Ash still had his problems, but he did a lot of good out there. As things got rolling, Ash made good decisions on when to tuck it and run, as evidenced by that long touchdown run. Good stuff, I thought
     
  17. Statalyzer

    Statalyzer 10,000+ Posts

    What surprised me, although it seemed to work ok, is that several times when NMSU went 4-wides, we'd have Diggs, Thompson, Phillips, and Thomas/Evans guarding them man to man with Byndom as the lone safety.
     
  18. LonghornCatholic

    LonghornCatholic Deo Gratias

    Not asking Slugga to do this, but I would be curios to see how we compared to other top teams in week one using the same criteria.
    Minus the scary slow start I thought we looked pretty good, but admit I don't study our performances as closely as others.
     
  19. Hpslugga

    Hpslugga 2,500+ Posts


     
  20. blonthang

    blonthang 2,500+ Posts


     
  21. horninchicago

    horninchicago 10,000+ Posts

    I noticed one of the metrics is 86% red zone scoring, of which we didn't do. However, were we even in the red zone all night? Was the goal line interception from within the red zone?
     
  22. Hpslugga

    Hpslugga 2,500+ Posts

    ^ 1 for 2 in the RZ and that INT he threw in the end zone was from the 20.
     
  23. horninchicago

    horninchicago 10,000+ Posts

    Yeah, not too good. Thanks. Pretty impressive to score 56 points and only visit the red zone twice! I get the red zone zone importance, however. Where does the 86% come from? Seems you have to get to the red zone quite a bit during a game for that to be a meaningful number. Perhaps a minimum number of red zone trips to make it more meaningful?
     
  24. kbrown

    kbrown 1,000+ Posts

    I climbed my first fourteeners this weekend in Colorado. Challenger pt. and Kit Carson Peak. Obviously I've been outta touch with how things went Saturday. I'm curious if our J.C. guy Harrison got any playing time on the OL or if any of our incoming freshman oliners got any time either. I know Cochran and Hopkins are returning from injury but from what I'm reading it sounds like our o-line is still problematic. I say play em all till we find some that can play!
     
  25. Hpslugga

    Hpslugga 2,500+ Posts


     
  26. horninchicago

    horninchicago 10,000+ Posts


     
  27. Horns11

    Horns11 10,000+ Posts

    "I'm curious if our J.C. guy Harrison got any playing time on the OL or if any of our incoming freshman oliners got any time either. I know Cochran and Hopkins are returning from injury but from what I'm reading it sounds like our o-line is still problematic."

    Harrison got plenty of playing time at LT. He wasn't the starter, but he sure seemed to be in the mix whenever something good was happening, so that's promising.

    Flowers, Porter, and Estelle seemed to get the bulk of the backup minutes. Riser had a nice pulling counter on one of the 4th quarter drives. Didn't see most of the freshmen, which is hilarious considering how all of these dudes who got playing time were in place last year to get meaningful minutes, yet didn't. Mack was all "blah blah we've never had a two deep at OL before" back in February, and then doesn't bother using the new guys to create one.

    Obviously, the run blocking left a lot to be desired. If we play the same exact type of game against BYU, we'll probably still win by 2 TDs, but that might not be enough to satisfy if Gray gets 20-something rushing yards again.
     
  28. NRHorn

    NRHorn 2,500+ Posts

    This just in-
    A. UT sets offensive school record
    B. Defense holds team to a 2 yard per carry avg
    C. Horn fans *****
    Not surprised by any of the three. I actually predicted this type of thread would happen in June.
    Are you guys playing too much PS3?
    Defense swarmed to the ball. Tackeling was awesome
    Ash in Lala land. Dam I've heard it all now.
    Aledo 44 HP 3. Sounds like some coaches were in Laila land to me.
    Don't throw stones, my friend.
     
  29. LonghornCatholic

    LonghornCatholic Deo Gratias

    You predicted a "Grading the Team's Performance" thread?
    We've been having them since the 60's
     
  30. Hpslugga

    Hpslugga 2,500+ Posts


     

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