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As always, we'll give analysis along with the tiered rankings (now updated through 10 games) which are derived via a proprietary scoring formula, and based on the following advanced charting statistics (please note the distinctions in how tackles, etc. are counted and why there these stats will always differ from the official university stats):
Click Images to Enlarge
Defensive Snap Counts By Week and Percentage of Total Defensive Snaps Played (Through Tech)
Defensive Productivity Market-Share Percentages and Snaps per Production Caused Metrics (Through Tech)
It's hard to believe that the TV announcers were saying, as late as the third quarter of the squeaker the Texas Longhorns managed to pull out against the Texas Tech Red Raiders, that Todd Orlando's defense had been "sensational" in the contest.
At one point, with the scoreboard showing only 10 points for Tech, we would have had to have agreed -- especially given the circumstances. Tom Herman won't let anyone forget the defense was banged up for the contest, at least twice in interviews calling the banged-up group a "MASH unit." Even though Texas was playing a bad backup QB, it can be argued that the reason Jett Duffey was made to look like an All-Star (minus the fumbles and strips) was probably due to key defensive players missing because there isn't too much else to blame. The missed tackles were an issue, but not too bad of an issue -- the 15 total on the week was bad, only the third-worst missed-tackle performance of the season.
The three coverage burns? (1 for Anthony Cook, 1 for Kris Boyd and 1 for Davante Davis). The Longhorns were burned 3 times versus WVU, 4 versus OSU, 3 versus Baylor, 3 versus OU, 4 versus KSU, 2 versus TCU, 3 versus USC, 2 versus Tulsa and 4 versus Maryland. The game versus Tech fell right in line with the rest of the season on a frequency basis. Furthermore, the secondary generated more turnovers at the cornerback positions than we have seen all season cumulatively.
Davante Davis and Kris Boyd both had key sideline-strip-fumbles while Davis also tacked on an interception. It was enough for Davis production-wise to take his snaps per production-caused number up to a level of efficiency (10.19 snaps per production caused) that clearly stands ahead of his backup, Anthony Cook (12.25 snaps per production caused).
This fact leads perfectly to the most important note of the game: Tom Herman may be making excuses for his defense by using the whole "MASH unit" line, but sometimes excuses are actually the real reasons why things happen.
Let's just talk it out.
During this game, we had ...
1) Breckyn Hager playing hurt and on a limited number of snaps, looking stiffer than ever despite a neat throwback neck-roll.
2) Malcolm Roach, now two weeks off a return from a fractured foot and playing the DE position that Orlando decided, after seeing him play at it all last season, that Roach shouldn't be playing, hence his initial move to the B-Backer position to start 2018 spring ball.
3) Brandon Jones, one of the team's more efficient safeties in a group of good ones, out once again.
4) Caden Sterns, one of the team's best defensive playmakers, getting injured in-game and playing through it after taking some time on the sidelines.
5) Josh Thompson, an infrequent contributor outside of special teams, who was called on in this game to play the nickel during various times members of the secondary were banged up or in sub-packages, being forced into rather significant playing time himself before getting hurt himself and leaving the game.
6) Opening the door for Donovan Duvernay, who has never taken a snap in a game at nickel at Texas (or we're not sure anywhere, technically - certainly not in 2018) to man the slot corner for the entire fourth quarter during Tech's big comeback rally.
7) All the while, regular nickel starter, a slower-than-average but big downhill-hitter in PJ Locke was often having to patrol the backend as the last line of defense opposite ...
8) Either Chris Brown (an infrequent contributor himself) or BJ Foster, a true freshman who has never played either of the traditional safety positions in a game as he's usually in the joker/cowboy dime-safety role, meaning ...
9) LB Gary Johnson, one of the team's best playmakers in the box, would have to drop back into the joker role for long stretches of drives, taking him away from the line of scrimmage where he -- as the team's leader in TFLs, tackles, QB hits while being second on the team in QB pressures -- was 15 yards away from the action, while ...
10) Moving Jeffrey McCulloch into the rover linebacker role which is not as well-suited for him as a traditional edge defender, and where he (11.56 snaps/production caused) is certainly nowhere near as productive on a per-snap basis as Johnson is (7.89).
11) Finally, the thing we started this all out with: Davante Davis getting injured early on in what was his best game of the season.
That's a lot of moving parts and pieces and substitutions and mental math going on on the sidelines to figure out who goes where and why. One series could have featured Foster at the Joker and Thompson at the nickel with Locke and Brown at the safeties while another could feature Johnson at the joker and Locke at the nickel and Foster and Brown at the safeties, etc. etc. The fact that Donovan Duvernay was ever in the game, period, should likely tell us all that we need to know.
Still, as we chart these games every week, you can tell this column is getting out a little later than usual. Orlando's substitutions and sideline personnel-juggling was not only an issue for the Longhorns but also a bit of a drag on our own productivity. Whereas, in some weeks, we can get away with just copy/pasting a whole line of 11 numbers across a row of the spreadsheet per-snap through entire series', in this one, we were kept on our toes, having to make meticulous notes of who had entered and exited the game between literally each snap. It was like nothing we've had to do with the charting on the defensive side of the ball in the history of the Deep Dig because it wasn't only due to the injuries on the back end, but also due to the staff having to go a little easy on guys coming off injuries up front in Hager, Roach, and to some degree, Chris Nelson -- who's availability was in doubt as recently as last week versus West Virginia, having actually been declared out prior to the contest by Herman himself.
In short, we need to make up some time and move on to the offense. We will say, however, that Texas fans should be happy to come out of this one with a win as that is not how things have generally gone in Lubbock whenever the Red Raiders begin to mount such spooky comebacks. When we take into consideration the fact that the defense truly was the MASH unit Herman will not let us forget about, it makes the victory all the more important -- and the only fact that really matters is that Texas is still in the mix to win a Big 12 title. Will it be, if this level of play continues on the defensive side of the football?
Probably not. But the excuses for the bad play against the Red Raiders are, indeed actually reasons.
When addressing what was a very leaky unit in Lubbock, they absolutely hold water.
The Absolute BEST in family and cosmetic dentistry for the Houston-Memorial Area
Now Accepting New Patients --- 281-293-9140
As always, we'll give analysis along with the tiered rankings (now updated through 10 games) which are derived via a proprietary scoring formula, and based on the following advanced charting statistics (please note the distinctions in how tackles, etc. are counted and why there these stats will always differ from the official university stats):
Click Images to Enlarge
Defensive Snap Counts By Week and Percentage of Total Defensive Snaps Played (Through Tech)
Defensive Productivity Market-Share Percentages and Snaps per Production Caused Metrics (Through Tech)
It's hard to believe that the TV announcers were saying, as late as the third quarter of the squeaker the Texas Longhorns managed to pull out against the Texas Tech Red Raiders, that Todd Orlando's defense had been "sensational" in the contest.
At one point, with the scoreboard showing only 10 points for Tech, we would have had to have agreed -- especially given the circumstances. Tom Herman won't let anyone forget the defense was banged up for the contest, at least twice in interviews calling the banged-up group a "MASH unit." Even though Texas was playing a bad backup QB, it can be argued that the reason Jett Duffey was made to look like an All-Star (minus the fumbles and strips) was probably due to key defensive players missing because there isn't too much else to blame. The missed tackles were an issue, but not too bad of an issue -- the 15 total on the week was bad, only the third-worst missed-tackle performance of the season.
The three coverage burns? (1 for Anthony Cook, 1 for Kris Boyd and 1 for Davante Davis). The Longhorns were burned 3 times versus WVU, 4 versus OSU, 3 versus Baylor, 3 versus OU, 4 versus KSU, 2 versus TCU, 3 versus USC, 2 versus Tulsa and 4 versus Maryland. The game versus Tech fell right in line with the rest of the season on a frequency basis. Furthermore, the secondary generated more turnovers at the cornerback positions than we have seen all season cumulatively.
Davante Davis and Kris Boyd both had key sideline-strip-fumbles while Davis also tacked on an interception. It was enough for Davis production-wise to take his snaps per production-caused number up to a level of efficiency (10.19 snaps per production caused) that clearly stands ahead of his backup, Anthony Cook (12.25 snaps per production caused).
This fact leads perfectly to the most important note of the game: Tom Herman may be making excuses for his defense by using the whole "MASH unit" line, but sometimes excuses are actually the real reasons why things happen.
Let's just talk it out.
During this game, we had ...
1) Breckyn Hager playing hurt and on a limited number of snaps, looking stiffer than ever despite a neat throwback neck-roll.
2) Malcolm Roach, now two weeks off a return from a fractured foot and playing the DE position that Orlando decided, after seeing him play at it all last season, that Roach shouldn't be playing, hence his initial move to the B-Backer position to start 2018 spring ball.
3) Brandon Jones, one of the team's more efficient safeties in a group of good ones, out once again.
4) Caden Sterns, one of the team's best defensive playmakers, getting injured in-game and playing through it after taking some time on the sidelines.
5) Josh Thompson, an infrequent contributor outside of special teams, who was called on in this game to play the nickel during various times members of the secondary were banged up or in sub-packages, being forced into rather significant playing time himself before getting hurt himself and leaving the game.
6) Opening the door for Donovan Duvernay, who has never taken a snap in a game at nickel at Texas (or we're not sure anywhere, technically - certainly not in 2018) to man the slot corner for the entire fourth quarter during Tech's big comeback rally.
7) All the while, regular nickel starter, a slower-than-average but big downhill-hitter in PJ Locke was often having to patrol the backend as the last line of defense opposite ...
8) Either Chris Brown (an infrequent contributor himself) or BJ Foster, a true freshman who has never played either of the traditional safety positions in a game as he's usually in the joker/cowboy dime-safety role, meaning ...
9) LB Gary Johnson, one of the team's best playmakers in the box, would have to drop back into the joker role for long stretches of drives, taking him away from the line of scrimmage where he -- as the team's leader in TFLs, tackles, QB hits while being second on the team in QB pressures -- was 15 yards away from the action, while ...
10) Moving Jeffrey McCulloch into the rover linebacker role which is not as well-suited for him as a traditional edge defender, and where he (11.56 snaps/production caused) is certainly nowhere near as productive on a per-snap basis as Johnson is (7.89).
11) Finally, the thing we started this all out with: Davante Davis getting injured early on in what was his best game of the season.
That's a lot of moving parts and pieces and substitutions and mental math going on on the sidelines to figure out who goes where and why. One series could have featured Foster at the Joker and Thompson at the nickel with Locke and Brown at the safeties while another could feature Johnson at the joker and Locke at the nickel and Foster and Brown at the safeties, etc. etc. The fact that Donovan Duvernay was ever in the game, period, should likely tell us all that we need to know.
Still, as we chart these games every week, you can tell this column is getting out a little later than usual. Orlando's substitutions and sideline personnel-juggling was not only an issue for the Longhorns but also a bit of a drag on our own productivity. Whereas, in some weeks, we can get away with just copy/pasting a whole line of 11 numbers across a row of the spreadsheet per-snap through entire series', in this one, we were kept on our toes, having to make meticulous notes of who had entered and exited the game between literally each snap. It was like nothing we've had to do with the charting on the defensive side of the ball in the history of the Deep Dig because it wasn't only due to the injuries on the back end, but also due to the staff having to go a little easy on guys coming off injuries up front in Hager, Roach, and to some degree, Chris Nelson -- who's availability was in doubt as recently as last week versus West Virginia, having actually been declared out prior to the contest by Herman himself.
In short, we need to make up some time and move on to the offense. We will say, however, that Texas fans should be happy to come out of this one with a win as that is not how things have generally gone in Lubbock whenever the Red Raiders begin to mount such spooky comebacks. When we take into consideration the fact that the defense truly was the MASH unit Herman will not let us forget about, it makes the victory all the more important -- and the only fact that really matters is that Texas is still in the mix to win a Big 12 title. Will it be, if this level of play continues on the defensive side of the football?
Probably not. But the excuses for the bad play against the Red Raiders are, indeed actually reasons.
When addressing what was a very leaky unit in Lubbock, they absolutely hold water.
