Alright, we're talking about it, what actually happened? Here are the 1st quarter drives with some images and commentary:
1st possession - starting at our 13
Play 1 - pass to bond for 9.
They drop and rush 4. Almost baited an INT, but ultimately a fine play for 9 yards. Blocking is fine.
Play 2 - little designed dump to Helm, picks up the 1st down. Nothing to say here, simple play, fine execution.
Play 3 - another pass, another good protection with them rushing 4:
I with we had an end-zone view of this to see the receivers. This is a very safe choice despite having a clean pocket.
Play 4 - finally ran with Wisner, good 8 yards to the outside.
Play 5 - screen to Wingo at a stand-still. They must have seen something in the coverage that made them like this, but look at the formation. This was never going anywhere. Short side of the field, safety up, and the minute those OL start moving out the LB's/DL are coming too:
Play 6 - run up the middle. The combination blocks were a little sloppy here (the LG is falling down, and RG needs to get up and get a hat on LB). But this is fine blocking against a good team, just wasn't a seam here. 2 yards:
Play 7 - it's 3rd and 9 now. Gotta get the ball out and down field. Here we are 3 seconds into the play. Everyone is blocked, but obviously that's not going to last forever. Note 11 is basically a spy at this point:
QE bails out immediately after this and just kills it at the RB feet. That part's actually a good decision. But fortunately we actually get a view from the skycam on this one:
You have WR and TE crossing in the middle, and the WR's to the right both going downfield. Safety there, so that's bad. But Ewers not only bails out, he bails out toward the WR running toward the safety (top left). Best choice here is get it out to Helm and let him make a play. Otherwise, roll right! It's easier and you have 3 targets there. This is bad QB play on 3rd and 9. There wasn't an easy throw he missed, but a Heisman candidate has to give us a chance here.
And with that we punt. On to the second series, but first, let's note what was NOT a problem on that drive. OL play was good to great. Averaged like 5 YPC on the two runs, no real pressure issues in pass pro.
After the Mukuba pick, here's drive two:
Play 1 - Wisner just drops a huge play. The ghost of Keontay Ingram must haunt that half of the field. QE could make this easier by lofting it and leading him to the WIDE OPEN area behind him, but Wisner just has to make this play regardless.
Play 2 - Ball is snapped at 9:44. Here we are 3 seconds later. Again, a couple of things to note. First, protection is good! We have everyone blocked, it's about to start breaking down but that's just playing against a good team. But look at Ewers' eyes. He has already abandoned anything downfield. He's just desperate to get to his checkdown. You can't even really see him, but Wisner's butt is poking out from behind Banks. And that's where he is looking. Dumps it off for 2 yards. Again desperate for an EZ cam so we can see his downfield options.
Play 3 - after an offsides by the defense (it wasn't you this time Cam Williams! Take a bow!), 3rd and 4 right? No. Our effing WR false starts. We have too many for this kind of game-losing mental mistake. Come take a seat for a drive Golden. OK so back to 3rd and 9. Snap is at 8:32. They actually bring pressure here, but OL gets it picked up. So 5 is blitzing - let's see if anyone can predict where the ball should go (look at the pick that's about to happen on the 40...):
Well, LB stays with Helm but was still a decent option, but Ewers goes right. Not clipping another one, but protection fine here as well, including the LB. Ewers throws in 3 seconds from a clean pocket. Tried to hit Moore, didn't really give him a chance given tight coverage, but did identify man coverage on the outside so not a terrible decision.
Play 4 - there wasn't one and it's coaching malpractice. Our offense had been fine to this point. The first drive was really pretty good! There was no reason to play so scared here. And we boot it into the end zone. This is a game losing decision like the penalties. Sark deserves some real questions about this on Monday.
Drive 3 - Well the defense bails us out AGAIN with another interception.
Play 1 - Wisner runs for 3 yards. Blocking fine but not great, not much to say here.
Play 2 - Deep shot to Wingo. Obviously the result is good. Hard to evaluate this. On one hand, Wingo had a step and QE massively underthrew him (while falling away on the release), but on the other hand that's sort of a "failing as intended" version of this play. So not a ton of criticism from me here. BTW, gotta move these to spot fouls.
Play 3 - counter action here, pull the right guard and run for 4. Again, no issues in backfield, positive yards in the run game.
Play 4 - RG just gets totally controlled and thrown by his DT. Blows up the run. Just got beat here because he got no movement.
Play 5 - Ugh, this one. Alright, here's pre-snap. GA has just shifted to bring these 6 guys all up into the box:
OK, so time to count. 5 OL plus a RB. Now, I cannot tell you for sure how Texas plans this protection, but I would guess that the intent here is that the 6 blockers we have need to take those 6 guys. Anyone else blitzing is going to be unblocked. And...here he comes:
Now, this is tricky, because they also bailed on two of the guys who were walked up to the line (both LB's on the offensive right). So by the time we get to the image above, it looks like we have plenty of people to block everyone. But we really didn't. I'd love more input from coaches here, but my assumption is we tell our QB he's got to be responsible for secondary blitzes in this situation. And QE just never looks left.
IMO, there's no way that the OL/RB could be expected to pick this up. If all of the 6 in the box come, you HAVE to block them. Anyway, a fumble and TD later we are down 7.
A holding call on a big return takes us to the end of the first quarter.
OK, so to sum it up, the first quarter was absolutely not some breakdown of the offensive line. It also wasn't terrible! The fumble was bad but that's the kind of play that happens - well-designed corner blitz. The run game was actually perfectly serviceable. But the passing game just wasn't there. Anyway, I can do the second quarter later, but this confirmed my memory of the first quarter. Any story of the start of the game that says it was an OL problem is just incorrect.
1st possession - starting at our 13
Play 1 - pass to bond for 9.
They drop and rush 4. Almost baited an INT, but ultimately a fine play for 9 yards. Blocking is fine.
Play 2 - little designed dump to Helm, picks up the 1st down. Nothing to say here, simple play, fine execution.
Play 3 - another pass, another good protection with them rushing 4:
I with we had an end-zone view of this to see the receivers. This is a very safe choice despite having a clean pocket.
Play 4 - finally ran with Wisner, good 8 yards to the outside.
Play 5 - screen to Wingo at a stand-still. They must have seen something in the coverage that made them like this, but look at the formation. This was never going anywhere. Short side of the field, safety up, and the minute those OL start moving out the LB's/DL are coming too:
Play 6 - run up the middle. The combination blocks were a little sloppy here (the LG is falling down, and RG needs to get up and get a hat on LB). But this is fine blocking against a good team, just wasn't a seam here. 2 yards:
Play 7 - it's 3rd and 9 now. Gotta get the ball out and down field. Here we are 3 seconds into the play. Everyone is blocked, but obviously that's not going to last forever. Note 11 is basically a spy at this point:
QE bails out immediately after this and just kills it at the RB feet. That part's actually a good decision. But fortunately we actually get a view from the skycam on this one:
You have WR and TE crossing in the middle, and the WR's to the right both going downfield. Safety there, so that's bad. But Ewers not only bails out, he bails out toward the WR running toward the safety (top left). Best choice here is get it out to Helm and let him make a play. Otherwise, roll right! It's easier and you have 3 targets there. This is bad QB play on 3rd and 9. There wasn't an easy throw he missed, but a Heisman candidate has to give us a chance here.
And with that we punt. On to the second series, but first, let's note what was NOT a problem on that drive. OL play was good to great. Averaged like 5 YPC on the two runs, no real pressure issues in pass pro.
After the Mukuba pick, here's drive two:
Play 1 - Wisner just drops a huge play. The ghost of Keontay Ingram must haunt that half of the field. QE could make this easier by lofting it and leading him to the WIDE OPEN area behind him, but Wisner just has to make this play regardless.
Play 2 - Ball is snapped at 9:44. Here we are 3 seconds later. Again, a couple of things to note. First, protection is good! We have everyone blocked, it's about to start breaking down but that's just playing against a good team. But look at Ewers' eyes. He has already abandoned anything downfield. He's just desperate to get to his checkdown. You can't even really see him, but Wisner's butt is poking out from behind Banks. And that's where he is looking. Dumps it off for 2 yards. Again desperate for an EZ cam so we can see his downfield options.
Play 3 - after an offsides by the defense (it wasn't you this time Cam Williams! Take a bow!), 3rd and 4 right? No. Our effing WR false starts. We have too many for this kind of game-losing mental mistake. Come take a seat for a drive Golden. OK so back to 3rd and 9. Snap is at 8:32. They actually bring pressure here, but OL gets it picked up. So 5 is blitzing - let's see if anyone can predict where the ball should go (look at the pick that's about to happen on the 40...):
Well, LB stays with Helm but was still a decent option, but Ewers goes right. Not clipping another one, but protection fine here as well, including the LB. Ewers throws in 3 seconds from a clean pocket. Tried to hit Moore, didn't really give him a chance given tight coverage, but did identify man coverage on the outside so not a terrible decision.
Play 4 - there wasn't one and it's coaching malpractice. Our offense had been fine to this point. The first drive was really pretty good! There was no reason to play so scared here. And we boot it into the end zone. This is a game losing decision like the penalties. Sark deserves some real questions about this on Monday.
Drive 3 - Well the defense bails us out AGAIN with another interception.
Play 1 - Wisner runs for 3 yards. Blocking fine but not great, not much to say here.
Play 2 - Deep shot to Wingo. Obviously the result is good. Hard to evaluate this. On one hand, Wingo had a step and QE massively underthrew him (while falling away on the release), but on the other hand that's sort of a "failing as intended" version of this play. So not a ton of criticism from me here. BTW, gotta move these to spot fouls.
Play 3 - counter action here, pull the right guard and run for 4. Again, no issues in backfield, positive yards in the run game.
Play 4 - RG just gets totally controlled and thrown by his DT. Blows up the run. Just got beat here because he got no movement.
Play 5 - Ugh, this one. Alright, here's pre-snap. GA has just shifted to bring these 6 guys all up into the box:
OK, so time to count. 5 OL plus a RB. Now, I cannot tell you for sure how Texas plans this protection, but I would guess that the intent here is that the 6 blockers we have need to take those 6 guys. Anyone else blitzing is going to be unblocked. And...here he comes:
Now, this is tricky, because they also bailed on two of the guys who were walked up to the line (both LB's on the offensive right). So by the time we get to the image above, it looks like we have plenty of people to block everyone. But we really didn't. I'd love more input from coaches here, but my assumption is we tell our QB he's got to be responsible for secondary blitzes in this situation. And QE just never looks left.
IMO, there's no way that the OL/RB could be expected to pick this up. If all of the 6 in the box come, you HAVE to block them. Anyway, a fumble and TD later we are down 7.
A holding call on a big return takes us to the end of the first quarter.
OK, so to sum it up, the first quarter was absolutely not some breakdown of the offensive line. It also wasn't terrible! The fumble was bad but that's the kind of play that happens - well-designed corner blitz. The run game was actually perfectly serviceable. But the passing game just wasn't there. Anyway, I can do the second quarter later, but this confirmed my memory of the first quarter. Any story of the start of the game that says it was an OL problem is just incorrect.
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