In hindsight, the great Charles Wesley Godwin releasing an album the weekend we play West Virginia was the sign that the Red Raiders had no chance in Morgantown. Well, that, and our complete inability put together a competent offensive gameplan. I'm going to, once again, apologize for this being offensive focused, but I don't think there's anything else to discuss. The defense had bad moments, but, overall, they played well enough to win.
I was pretty frustrated Saturday, and upon rewatch, it was so obvious what happened. We got 2017-2021 Iowa Stated. Not only in terms of scheme from West Virginia, they did the modern version of the "rush 3 drop 8" which is rushing 4, but you never know where the 4th is coming from and dropping the rest; but we also got a pretty unbelievable effort from the WVU defense. I will be surprised if we play a team, including KState, that is plays as hard and disciplined as they did Saturday. It's hard to find any defensive mistakes. All that talk about how badly they wanted to beat the Red Raiders was true, and they played that way, gotta hand it to Neal Brown and his staff (cue Dril tweet).
I'm not gonna waste time posting analytics or charts or graphs from the game because they don't show us anything we don't already know. Everything was bad, and it just got worse. A couple of numbers that I can't stop thinking about, Tech won the conventional turnover battle by 2, had a running back average 6 yards a carry, only allowed 20 points, and it never really felt like the Red Raiders ever had a chance of winning. The offense felt poorly schemed, poorly coached, out-of-sync, and wasteful. None of that more prevalent than on third down (which has been an issue all season) where Tech managed to convert 2-18 opportunities.
Alright enough of the preamble, the film tells the story of this game...
So, the first time I sat there and asked myself "WTF?!" and came to the realization that we were not going to win this game was the first play above (it also caused me to take a mid game sad sports walk, which is pretty dire). West Virginia is begging Texas Tech to run here, a theme throughout the game, which makes sense on 4th and 6, they only have 5 defenders in the box. WVU only rushes 3, drops everyone into zone, most sitting at the sticks, and Tech dials up 4 hitch routes? I mean, what are we doing? A run play would've been more efficient. WVU's scheme here is not a surprise, it's what they did the entire game outside of the red zone, and we called a play that could be easily defended by it. This is a perfect example of what I mean when I say this offense has been easy to defend this season. The defense is not stretched horizontally or vertically, why not incorporate some motion here to help the QB and WRs identify coverage? The defense is not asked to think, why not run this play out of a bunch set or incorporate some crossing routes? The defense is bailed out, why do our QBs keep leaving clean pockets and cutting the field in half? Bradley runs a great route and is open, Morton will never see it. The defense is not misaligned or in the wrong personnel, why was tempo necessary here? This play feels naive, ill-prepared, and wasteful which is kind of how I'd describe the offense as a whole so far.
I put these plays in here to be fair and show that it's not all scheme related issues. I have no real problem with the first play, I'd personally go simple and throw a WR screen to the field side, but what is called produces an opportunity. The problem is the protection, we can't block 6 on 4? With a telegraphed 4th rusher? Monroe Mills decides to let the back pickup the OLB, then isn't aware enough to help pick up the loop stunt, and your LT ends up blocking no one. Even when you have a chance for a successful play, individual errors kill you.
More of the same with the second clip, the first play is a successful running play. Then you come back with a play action off of a similar look, smart offense, and your QB ends up throwing it into the dirt with three chances at open receivers. Everyone is to blame for this stuff.
I want to show some screen shots of what drives me crazy about facing these "dare you to run" defenses.
Presnap, you see a light box, I count 7 v. 5.5 (I count QB/RB as one, not everyone does). You should be able to run the ball successfully against this look. The problem is the second level, those defenders have to be play ultra-aggressive on run actions in order to limit the damage. This provides a problem for the offensive line with trying to move to LBs and Ss, but it also opens up the middle of the field for play action and RPOs, as you can see below. Unfortunately, this offense has not utilized that portion of the field at all this season.
Another example, you have an advantage in the run game, but when there is no run action, look at how the WVU back end can set up. They can comfortably drop back into their zones and look for work reading Morton's eyes. They are not put in any kind of conflict or made uncomfortable, and, as a result, there's not really anywhere to go with the ball since there are only 3 receivers in the concept. You have to ask, why no run action here if you are going to max protect anyway?
One last example... Why are we not attacking this area? You can see it here presnap.
This came back to bite us on the final drive. 3rd and 2, the shot to Martinez that was well covered.
WVU changed up their strategy some in the red zone, sent more pressure and showed more bodies in the box. We are outnumbered here and it seems pretty obvious they are bringing pressure with the man coverage shown be the motion. Morton never looks middle of the field, even though it's, once again, vacated. He's got Tharp for a first down, Bradley for a first down, and White for a touchdown. I don't know if it's QB skill, coaching, or lack of preparation, but our QBs have got to stop deciding where the ball is going presnap and then being lost if that isn't there. We saw this with Shough, who looked slow to read, and Morton never seemed to even try to read a defense. It's an issue.
Finally, to add to the even more to the frustration, we did know the solution and we did even do it. Now, it's a drop from Bradley, which is another individual error that is absolutely killing the offense right now, but this is exactly how you attack this defense. It makes WVU wrong even if they do everything right. It forces them into conflict, forces them to think, stretches their defense, and makes us difficult to defend. Completing a half dozen of these would have forced WVU to try some different things, which would have led Tech to open the playbook up some more. I don't know why we didn't see more of this.
The solutions are there, which is encouraging, but man, does this unit have so much to clean up. If it's not scheme, it's individual errors, if it's not individual errors, it's scheme. They are not good enough to overcome this level of mistake riddled and wasteful football.
I was pretty frustrated Saturday, and upon rewatch, it was so obvious what happened. We got 2017-2021 Iowa Stated. Not only in terms of scheme from West Virginia, they did the modern version of the "rush 3 drop 8" which is rushing 4, but you never know where the 4th is coming from and dropping the rest; but we also got a pretty unbelievable effort from the WVU defense. I will be surprised if we play a team, including KState, that is plays as hard and disciplined as they did Saturday. It's hard to find any defensive mistakes. All that talk about how badly they wanted to beat the Red Raiders was true, and they played that way, gotta hand it to Neal Brown and his staff (cue Dril tweet).
I'm not gonna waste time posting analytics or charts or graphs from the game because they don't show us anything we don't already know. Everything was bad, and it just got worse. A couple of numbers that I can't stop thinking about, Tech won the conventional turnover battle by 2, had a running back average 6 yards a carry, only allowed 20 points, and it never really felt like the Red Raiders ever had a chance of winning. The offense felt poorly schemed, poorly coached, out-of-sync, and wasteful. None of that more prevalent than on third down (which has been an issue all season) where Tech managed to convert 2-18 opportunities.
Alright enough of the preamble, the film tells the story of this game...
So, the first time I sat there and asked myself "WTF?!" and came to the realization that we were not going to win this game was the first play above (it also caused me to take a mid game sad sports walk, which is pretty dire). West Virginia is begging Texas Tech to run here, a theme throughout the game, which makes sense on 4th and 6, they only have 5 defenders in the box. WVU only rushes 3, drops everyone into zone, most sitting at the sticks, and Tech dials up 4 hitch routes? I mean, what are we doing? A run play would've been more efficient. WVU's scheme here is not a surprise, it's what they did the entire game outside of the red zone, and we called a play that could be easily defended by it. This is a perfect example of what I mean when I say this offense has been easy to defend this season. The defense is not stretched horizontally or vertically, why not incorporate some motion here to help the QB and WRs identify coverage? The defense is not asked to think, why not run this play out of a bunch set or incorporate some crossing routes? The defense is bailed out, why do our QBs keep leaving clean pockets and cutting the field in half? Bradley runs a great route and is open, Morton will never see it. The defense is not misaligned or in the wrong personnel, why was tempo necessary here? This play feels naive, ill-prepared, and wasteful which is kind of how I'd describe the offense as a whole so far.
I put these plays in here to be fair and show that it's not all scheme related issues. I have no real problem with the first play, I'd personally go simple and throw a WR screen to the field side, but what is called produces an opportunity. The problem is the protection, we can't block 6 on 4? With a telegraphed 4th rusher? Monroe Mills decides to let the back pickup the OLB, then isn't aware enough to help pick up the loop stunt, and your LT ends up blocking no one. Even when you have a chance for a successful play, individual errors kill you.
More of the same with the second clip, the first play is a successful running play. Then you come back with a play action off of a similar look, smart offense, and your QB ends up throwing it into the dirt with three chances at open receivers. Everyone is to blame for this stuff.
I want to show some screen shots of what drives me crazy about facing these "dare you to run" defenses.
Presnap, you see a light box, I count 7 v. 5.5 (I count QB/RB as one, not everyone does). You should be able to run the ball successfully against this look. The problem is the second level, those defenders have to be play ultra-aggressive on run actions in order to limit the damage. This provides a problem for the offensive line with trying to move to LBs and Ss, but it also opens up the middle of the field for play action and RPOs, as you can see below. Unfortunately, this offense has not utilized that portion of the field at all this season.
Another example, you have an advantage in the run game, but when there is no run action, look at how the WVU back end can set up. They can comfortably drop back into their zones and look for work reading Morton's eyes. They are not put in any kind of conflict or made uncomfortable, and, as a result, there's not really anywhere to go with the ball since there are only 3 receivers in the concept. You have to ask, why no run action here if you are going to max protect anyway?
One last example... Why are we not attacking this area? You can see it here presnap.
This came back to bite us on the final drive. 3rd and 2, the shot to Martinez that was well covered.
WVU changed up their strategy some in the red zone, sent more pressure and showed more bodies in the box. We are outnumbered here and it seems pretty obvious they are bringing pressure with the man coverage shown be the motion. Morton never looks middle of the field, even though it's, once again, vacated. He's got Tharp for a first down, Bradley for a first down, and White for a touchdown. I don't know if it's QB skill, coaching, or lack of preparation, but our QBs have got to stop deciding where the ball is going presnap and then being lost if that isn't there. We saw this with Shough, who looked slow to read, and Morton never seemed to even try to read a defense. It's an issue.
Finally, to add to the even more to the frustration, we did know the solution and we did even do it. Now, it's a drop from Bradley, which is another individual error that is absolutely killing the offense right now, but this is exactly how you attack this defense. It makes WVU wrong even if they do everything right. It forces them into conflict, forces them to think, stretches their defense, and makes us difficult to defend. Completing a half dozen of these would have forced WVU to try some different things, which would have led Tech to open the playbook up some more. I don't know why we didn't see more of this.
The solutions are there, which is encouraging, but man, does this unit have so much to clean up. If it's not scheme, it's individual errors, if it's not individual errors, it's scheme. They are not good enough to overcome this level of mistake riddled and wasteful football.
