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Big 12 Championship Skill Player Snap Counts
FOR COMPARISON: Skill Player Snap Counts and Game-by-Game Percentages of Offensive Snaps (2018 Regular Season)
FOR COMPARISON: 2018 OL Grades By Week (Regular Season)
Deep Dig Grading Scale (each snap by each player is graded as its own independent event)
FOR COMPARISON: 2018 Cumulative Snaps Per Disruption Allowed and/or Penalty Caused (Regular Season)
Big 12 Championship Versus Oklahoma:
LT Calvin Anderson - 68 snaps
DEEP DIG GRADE: 75.88
1 pressure allowed
2 knockdowns
68 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused
LG Patrick Vahe - 68 snaps
2 run-stuff, 1 pressure, 1 sack allowed
DEEP DIG GRADE: 74.86
17 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused
C Zach Shackelford - 68 snaps
1 run-stuff allowed
DEEP DIG GRADE: 77.05
68 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused
RG Elijah Rodriguez - 68 snaps
2 pressures allowed
2 false start penalties
1 knockdown
DEEP DIG GRADE: 75.73
17 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused
RT Samuel Cosmi - 68 snaps
1 run-stuff, 1 sack, 1 QB hit allowed
1 false start penalty
1 knockdown, 1 pin
DEEP DIG GRADE: 77.2
17 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused
On the defensive side of the football, the defense lost in the Big 12 championship largely due to three factors we identified in our column last week: ineffective play from the defensive line, too many missed tackles/blown contains from the nickel corner and a high frequency of coverage burns in the secondary. On the offensive side, we didn't necessarily see the issues leading to its failure coming:
First off, QB Sam Ehlinger simply missed receivers too often. One mismatch that Texas had on OU was the size of its wide receivers versus the Sooners cornerbacks. Texas even went to lengths personnel-wise, presumably, to make sure the advantage was even greater by playing freshman Brennan Eagles at a much higher clip in this one than his season average if you look at the charts above for comparison between Big 12 Championship usage and regular season.
And, at times, Texas was able to take advantage, but there were at least two balls in the first half that Ehlinger may dream about for the rest of his life and wish he had back. He had protection and the ability to throw from a clean pocket to open receivers and was simply off. Other than that, the real story was along the offensive line.
Every single player on the Texas offensive line save Zach Shackelford played at level lower than his season average per the Deep Dig grades, for one.
Calvin Anderson couldn't generate movement to save his life in inside zone. While he's been a good player for Texas this year, he hasn't done too much to show he has the strength and size to be a body mover in space. He was one of only two offensive lineman not to allow egregious disruption and/or cause penalties on a per-snap basis, but still had his overall score hampered by slightly negative plays in which the runner simply didn't have anywhere to go. It was Anderson's third-worst individual performance of the season with TCU being the worst and Tech being second-worst.
At left guard, it was to be expected that Patrick Vahe would play at a sub-replacement level as that is what he has been through most of his 875 snaps on the season. We've always felt like this Texas staff has felt obligated to play Vahe for seniority purposes and there is excitement that, moving forward, there will be true competition at the left guard spot in his absence. This competition will hopefully bring some edge and urgency to a position that Vahe has played softly at times and without sufficient motor. Even though Vahe had the worst game of the entire OL, it wasn't too far off his season average like Anderson. Vahe actually had worse games than last Saturday versus TCU, WVU and Tech. Still, it was a bottom-four performance out of a player who has been the line's weakest link all year long from a grading perspective.
No complaints on Zach Shackelford. He turned in his second-best game of the season after Oklahoma State. Since he is your center moving forward, likely regardless of other options as he will have seniority much like Vahe has had this year, it's nice to see him play up to the competition. Shackelford has had some good flashes as a player at Texas despite not being able to get much going consistently in 2018 through a little spell of injuries this season.
Elijah Rodriguez played at a level a little below his season average, but close enough to his median, as it was only his sixth-worst performance of the year from a grading perspective. He'll be somewhat missed next season, but not for games like this. The right side of the line simply committed too many penalties and allowed too much disruption which is the big key here, the final and most important piece ... the disruption allowed and/or penalties caused.
Samuel Cosmi graded out better than anyone on the line as usual, but did so despite allowing some of his worst disruption of the season. This trend among three of Texas' five starting OL had as much to do with the loss as any other aspect, to be sure. Cosmi, specifically, had to rack up points for two of the most dominating blocks we've seen all season just to elevate his score to a place where it was within sniffing distance of his own season-average thanks to the penalties caused and the disruption allowed.
Let's look at it like this: Patrick Vahe was Texas' worst OL in 2018, that much cannot be argued. In accomplishing this feat, he allowed disruption and/or committed a penalty once every 18.62 snaps. Not Tristan Nickelson-2017-bad, but miserable nonetheless. Now realize that three Texas players allowed disruption and/or caused a penalty more often on a per-snap basis in this game than Vahe did on the season: Patrick Vahe, Elijah Rodriguez and Samuel Cosmi. So, not only was the interior of the line compromised at the guard positions, the best player on the line (Cosmi at right tackle) uncharacteristically played down to the level of his peers, allowing disruption or causing a penalty well over twice as often versus Oklahoma than he did over the course of the entire regular season.
In the first meeting with OU,
Anderson (76 snaps) allowed 1 TFL (76 s/dis)
Vahe (76 snaps) allowed a stuff, a hit and 2 pressures (19 s/dis)
Shackelford (76 snaps) allowed a pressure, a TFL and had 2 holding penalties (19 s/dis)
Rodriguez (76 snaps) allowed a run-stuff and had a holding penalty (38 s/dis)
Cosmi (76 snaps) allowed no dispruption and had a holding penalty (76 s/dis)
So, for the first meeting, on average, the snaps -- across the board -- per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused was 45.6, where as in the Big 12 Championship, it was 37.4. When you add in the fact that every single player on the OL, save Shack, played a worse game overall on a snap-by-snap grading basis, most importantly Calvin Anderson, who didn't allow a horrible s/dis number but was still very ineffective in numerous run-situations, you have this offense in a spot where it's not operating optimally.
And it's why it felt extra hard to swallow on the times when Ehlinger had a clean pocket and simply couldn't deliver to one of Texas' main, true matchup advantages in this contest -- it's long-bodied, jump-ball, beast WRs when they were open.
We said in this column last week that this was the best OL of the Deep Dig era and that continues to be true. We hope that the unit is ready for a tough month of preparation for a Sugar Bowl matchup that will pit it against an SEC opponent in Georgia, who despite some roster turnover in the front seven from 2017 to 2018, has now played a year of near-championship level football in that conference. You know they'll have athletes.
As Texas does. Here's hoping that they show out versus the Dawgs with more urgency, power and motor than we witnessed versus the Sooners last week down in the trenches.
The Absolute BEST in family and cosmetic dentistry for the Houston-Memorial Area
Now Accepting New Patients --- 281-293-9140
Click Images to Enlarge
Big 12 Championship Skill Player Snap Counts
FOR COMPARISON: Skill Player Snap Counts and Game-by-Game Percentages of Offensive Snaps (2018 Regular Season)
FOR COMPARISON: 2018 OL Grades By Week (Regular Season)
Deep Dig Grading Scale (each snap by each player is graded as its own independent event)
FOR COMPARISON: 2018 Cumulative Snaps Per Disruption Allowed and/or Penalty Caused (Regular Season)
Big 12 Championship Versus Oklahoma:
LT Calvin Anderson - 68 snaps
DEEP DIG GRADE: 75.88
1 pressure allowed
2 knockdowns
68 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused
LG Patrick Vahe - 68 snaps
2 run-stuff, 1 pressure, 1 sack allowed
DEEP DIG GRADE: 74.86
17 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused
C Zach Shackelford - 68 snaps
1 run-stuff allowed
DEEP DIG GRADE: 77.05
68 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused
RG Elijah Rodriguez - 68 snaps
2 pressures allowed
2 false start penalties
1 knockdown
DEEP DIG GRADE: 75.73
17 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused
RT Samuel Cosmi - 68 snaps
1 run-stuff, 1 sack, 1 QB hit allowed
1 false start penalty
1 knockdown, 1 pin
DEEP DIG GRADE: 77.2
17 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused
On the defensive side of the football, the defense lost in the Big 12 championship largely due to three factors we identified in our column last week: ineffective play from the defensive line, too many missed tackles/blown contains from the nickel corner and a high frequency of coverage burns in the secondary. On the offensive side, we didn't necessarily see the issues leading to its failure coming:
First off, QB Sam Ehlinger simply missed receivers too often. One mismatch that Texas had on OU was the size of its wide receivers versus the Sooners cornerbacks. Texas even went to lengths personnel-wise, presumably, to make sure the advantage was even greater by playing freshman Brennan Eagles at a much higher clip in this one than his season average if you look at the charts above for comparison between Big 12 Championship usage and regular season.
And, at times, Texas was able to take advantage, but there were at least two balls in the first half that Ehlinger may dream about for the rest of his life and wish he had back. He had protection and the ability to throw from a clean pocket to open receivers and was simply off. Other than that, the real story was along the offensive line.
Every single player on the Texas offensive line save Zach Shackelford played at level lower than his season average per the Deep Dig grades, for one.
Calvin Anderson couldn't generate movement to save his life in inside zone. While he's been a good player for Texas this year, he hasn't done too much to show he has the strength and size to be a body mover in space. He was one of only two offensive lineman not to allow egregious disruption and/or cause penalties on a per-snap basis, but still had his overall score hampered by slightly negative plays in which the runner simply didn't have anywhere to go. It was Anderson's third-worst individual performance of the season with TCU being the worst and Tech being second-worst.
At left guard, it was to be expected that Patrick Vahe would play at a sub-replacement level as that is what he has been through most of his 875 snaps on the season. We've always felt like this Texas staff has felt obligated to play Vahe for seniority purposes and there is excitement that, moving forward, there will be true competition at the left guard spot in his absence. This competition will hopefully bring some edge and urgency to a position that Vahe has played softly at times and without sufficient motor. Even though Vahe had the worst game of the entire OL, it wasn't too far off his season average like Anderson. Vahe actually had worse games than last Saturday versus TCU, WVU and Tech. Still, it was a bottom-four performance out of a player who has been the line's weakest link all year long from a grading perspective.
No complaints on Zach Shackelford. He turned in his second-best game of the season after Oklahoma State. Since he is your center moving forward, likely regardless of other options as he will have seniority much like Vahe has had this year, it's nice to see him play up to the competition. Shackelford has had some good flashes as a player at Texas despite not being able to get much going consistently in 2018 through a little spell of injuries this season.
Elijah Rodriguez played at a level a little below his season average, but close enough to his median, as it was only his sixth-worst performance of the year from a grading perspective. He'll be somewhat missed next season, but not for games like this. The right side of the line simply committed too many penalties and allowed too much disruption which is the big key here, the final and most important piece ... the disruption allowed and/or penalties caused.
Samuel Cosmi graded out better than anyone on the line as usual, but did so despite allowing some of his worst disruption of the season. This trend among three of Texas' five starting OL had as much to do with the loss as any other aspect, to be sure. Cosmi, specifically, had to rack up points for two of the most dominating blocks we've seen all season just to elevate his score to a place where it was within sniffing distance of his own season-average thanks to the penalties caused and the disruption allowed.
Let's look at it like this: Patrick Vahe was Texas' worst OL in 2018, that much cannot be argued. In accomplishing this feat, he allowed disruption and/or committed a penalty once every 18.62 snaps. Not Tristan Nickelson-2017-bad, but miserable nonetheless. Now realize that three Texas players allowed disruption and/or caused a penalty more often on a per-snap basis in this game than Vahe did on the season: Patrick Vahe, Elijah Rodriguez and Samuel Cosmi. So, not only was the interior of the line compromised at the guard positions, the best player on the line (Cosmi at right tackle) uncharacteristically played down to the level of his peers, allowing disruption or causing a penalty well over twice as often versus Oklahoma than he did over the course of the entire regular season.
In the first meeting with OU,
Anderson (76 snaps) allowed 1 TFL (76 s/dis)
Vahe (76 snaps) allowed a stuff, a hit and 2 pressures (19 s/dis)
Shackelford (76 snaps) allowed a pressure, a TFL and had 2 holding penalties (19 s/dis)
Rodriguez (76 snaps) allowed a run-stuff and had a holding penalty (38 s/dis)
Cosmi (76 snaps) allowed no dispruption and had a holding penalty (76 s/dis)
So, for the first meeting, on average, the snaps -- across the board -- per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused was 45.6, where as in the Big 12 Championship, it was 37.4. When you add in the fact that every single player on the OL, save Shack, played a worse game overall on a snap-by-snap grading basis, most importantly Calvin Anderson, who didn't allow a horrible s/dis number but was still very ineffective in numerous run-situations, you have this offense in a spot where it's not operating optimally.
And it's why it felt extra hard to swallow on the times when Ehlinger had a clean pocket and simply couldn't deliver to one of Texas' main, true matchup advantages in this contest -- it's long-bodied, jump-ball, beast WRs when they were open.
We said in this column last week that this was the best OL of the Deep Dig era and that continues to be true. We hope that the unit is ready for a tough month of preparation for a Sugar Bowl matchup that will pit it against an SEC opponent in Georgia, who despite some roster turnover in the front seven from 2017 to 2018, has now played a year of near-championship level football in that conference. You know they'll have athletes.
As Texas does. Here's hoping that they show out versus the Dawgs with more urgency, power and motor than we witnessed versus the Sooners last week down in the trenches.
