-----All 5 OL played every snap of the game. Dante Stills -- one of the best DL in the conference -- was non-existent Saturday. He had just 2 QB pressures, despite mostly going against our back-up RT (Matt Keeler) and the beleaguered Caleb Rogers. Rogers will have one of the highest PFF grades among any Big 12 lineman this week, and he did it on over 100 snaps, which makes it even more impressive.
We allowed just 6 QB pressures all game, one of which was the sack on 4th and 2 when WVU blitzed more guys than we had designed to block. So there was maybe just a handful of QB pressures that were the OL's fault.
UH: 31 QB pressures allowed on 70 dropbacks
NC State: 12 pressures allowed on 50 dropbacks
UT: 25 pressures allowed on 64 dropbacks
KSU: 18 pressures allowed on 61 dropbacks
OSU: 23 allowed on 79 dropbacks
WVU: 6 allowed on 55 dropbacks.
This was surely the OL's best game of the year -- I don't think it's even close.
A big question going into next week will be whether we can block Baylor's 400 pound Samoan NT. It's going to be really tough.
----- There were TEs everywhere on Saturday. Baylor Cupp played 54 snaps?? Is that right? That's 2x as many as he's played in any prior game. Tech had just over 1.11 TEs on the field per snap Saturday, which is the most we've used all year by quite a bit. In a lot of our hurry up, quick game passing stuff, we are throwing it out on the perimeter with the bigger TEs blocking. It was effective. But, for the most part, Teeter and Tharp and Cupp lined up all over the field. While they had just 5 catches for 68 yards as a position group, the TEs still had a big impact on what we were doing offensively. I wondered whether less subs / more tempo would mean less usage of the TE, but it actually looks like the opposite. We will just put our TEs at WR instead of subbing them out.
---- All 3 of Tharp's catches went for a first down. They were all super loud receptions.
------ First game in a long time that we didn't have to play a guy on defense every snap of the game. As a defense, we should be as fresh as we've ever been in week 9 of the season going into next week's contest. Hardly anyone hurt. Barely any snaps played by the defense Saturday, plus a bye week the Saturday before. This is often the part of the season where our defense collapses from within and just doesn't hold up over the course of a season.
-- Poor Adrian Frye. He's pretty clearly lost his job to Malik Dunlap. He played just 13 snaps on defense and, right when he came in the game, he missed a tackle along the sideline that lead to a big WVU gain. He did look really good on ST though.
---- Trey Wolfe made two FGs and was booming kickoffs into the endzone into a stiff wind. McNamara finally looked like an all conference punter.
---- I'm shocked Jacob Rodriquez only played 14 snaps. Those were a really loud 14 snaps. A QB pressure, 4 tackles in front of the chains, and a forced fumble that lead to a turnover. The future is bright with him at LB.
---- Tyree Wilson only had 1 QB pressure, but it was a loud one. Pretty sure it was the one that crunched JT Daniels before the Rayshad Williams interception and also knocked him out of the game.
--- I don't know if it's a change in the offense or the change in QB, or both. But Morton doesn't throw it to RBs in the flats (primarily on checkdowns) near as much as Donovan did. I like that. He's trying to push the ball downfield. At least that's what it seems like to me.
--- The inside WRs and TEs were targeted a lot today compared to the outside guys. 29 targets to the slots / TEs versus about 13 to the outside guys. WVU was playing such soft coverage on our outside guys that it didn't make a ton of sense to try and throw it over the top of the defense. I don't know what WVU's plan was to stop us through the air, but it was an awful one. Baylor will probably have a competent plan in place.
---- 41 traditional handoffs to a runningback. We've never had more than about 25 prior to Saturday and even had games (NC State / K-State ) where that count was about 15. It's really nice to be able to hand the ball off to the running back and be able to move the football, like a normal person. Lucky for WVU that we were having success running it, because we might have scored 60+ if they were stopping us and forcing us to keep throwing it.
----- Baylor is going to be an interesting test for us next week. Their players are pretty good. Objectively, I think non-Tech folks are going to unanimously agree that their players are better than ours. They also have a unique offense -- a lot of under center, power run stuff, with play-action deep shots mixed in.
Ryan left it all out on the field in everything he did. In his honor, we bring you Fields of Gold, so that others facing bone cancer can keep on playing. A portion of proceeds from every case sold is donated to The Little Warrior Foundation.
The Little Warrior Foundation's mission is to fund & find a lasting cure for childhood cancer, with a specific focus on Ewing's Sarcoma.
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