presented by the Dental Offices of Wendy Swantkowski, DDS
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 the TCU game) 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 these stats will always differ from the official university stats):
Click Images to Enlarge
***Please note for 2019: -1 point has been added for any defensive penalty outside of defensive pass interference which is always considered a coverage burn and is not double-counted.***
Defensive Snap Counts By Week and Percentage of Total Defensive Snaps Played Through Kansas
Defensive Productivity Market-Share Percentages and Snaps per Production Caused Metrics Through TCU (snaps per disruption caused is colored coded from blue/best to red/worst)
VERSUS TCU
What a disappointment. It was Tom Herman's offense that looked bland, predictable and clearly outclassed in Fort Worth for the embarrassing loss to TCU (a team that the SMU Ponies beat in the same venue), but the defense continued to be what it has been all season: bad. And badly managed.
Texas had six players play 100% of defensive snaps against the Horned Frogs, which was the highest number of every-snap participants of any game in the 2019 season. In the squeaker versus Kansas, only Joseph Ossai was out there for every play. Against OU, it was Ossai, Brandon Jones and D'Shawn Jamison. For WVU it was Jones and Juwann Mitchell, for OSU it was Chris Brown, for LSU it was Jones, Ossai, Jalen Green and Caden Sterns. Nobody played 100% of snaps in the cupcakes versus La Tech or Rice.
What do you notice when you see the list of 100%-snap participants from previous weeks? The first thing we notice is, that's a lot of different dudes. It goes to show that some blame can be placed where Tom Herman and surely Todd Orlando want you to place it: squarely on the feet of injuries. And it would be supremely unfair to criticize the unit without giving at least some modicum of credence to the fact that key players have been missing and hurt, and different juggling acts across positions have had to occur to field a viable unit. That is all true. However, let's look at the six that played every snap in the abomination that was the TCU bed-wetting: Brandon Jones (predictable), Joseph Ossai (predictable), Juwan Mitchell (unlikely, but he'd at least been a 100-snap participant once before), Ayodele Adeoye, Montrell Estelle and Tyler Owens (What, what .... and WHAT?!).
Tyler Owens had played only 16 snaps on the season in those two cupcake games versus La Tech and Rice before being thrown into every-down duty in a must-win game at TCU. It makes you wonder about the decision-making on the defensive side of the football that the staff would've had former walk-on Mason Ramirez starting over Owens in the "Cowboy" third-down sub-package just one week prior as Texas was scratching and clawing to eek out a nail-biter at home against Kansas of all programs. What changed that much in a week? Let's throw out the fact that Owens struggled in the game and just think about the calculus here. In one of the two situations, the staff was clearly not putting itself in the best position to succeed via personnel it had on the field. That is simple logic. If a guy is good enough to start a whole game versus a real opponent, why is he not good enough to play a key role in the sub-package during a critical juncture of the previous week's game over a newly-minted scholarship player? And vice versa, if that newly-minted scholarship player was the correct move over Owens to help the team versus Kansas, why on God's earth does Owens start and play every snap versus TCU?
And don't tell us it has to do with letting one player or another establish continuity and get in the flow of the game. Or that it hurts a player's confidence to continually get yanked in and out of the lineup. Hell, forget about us, don't tell the cornerbacks! The Texas defensive staff is freewheeling about getting players in and out of the lineup at the cornerback position through games as Anthony Cook, D'Shawn Jamison, Jalen Green and Kobe Boyce all saw snaps subbing in for one another on various series through the game. If the defensive staff (incorrectly) values performance in practice over performance in the actual games, you'd at least think they'd stick by their best practice performers in the games rather than yank them at the slightest hint of struggle.
And we're not saying any of that is wrong. People, and coaches especially, have different philosophies. What we're pointing out is that even in these two interwoven instances -- the Ramirez/Owens puzzle and the continual in-game musical chairs (even when all the corners are healthy) -- that the one thing that is consistent is constant inconsistency. In performance. In scheme, in personnel and in ideology.
A few key takeaways:
- Brandon Jones overtakes Joseph Ossai as the most productive player on the defense, but the two remain in a class by themselves atop the rankings. The interception for Jones really helped in this game along with Ossai being a little bit quieter than usual these last two weeks. That guy being at his disruptive best is important for a defense that can't cover, can't generate organic pressure and can't tackle.
- Texas "only" missed 9 total versus TCU, and the only player with multiple misses was Ayodele Adeoye (2). It's still a lot of missed tackles, but it's less than a third of the whiffs the group racked up at the Cotton Bowl versus Oklahoma. It's the little things, right?
- Juwann Mitchell is like a breath of fresh air playing the MAC position as a bit of an undersized bulldog. I expect more 100%-snap participation games for him coming up and a continual rise up the rankings. He and Coburn in a tier of their own underneath Ossai and Jones is clearly an encouraging sign for the prospective development and growth moving forward of a front seven that badly needs it.
- The staff needs to quit jerking around D'Shawn Jamison and let him get more full games of snaps under his belt. Yes, he was burned once against TCU and didn't look his best on the play. God forbid anyone associated with this program get any egg on their face in a season like this. He's still the team's best cornerback. If your eyes don't tell you - the numbers should:
Completion Percentage Allowed (when clearly targeted via TV broadcast angle):
Anthony Cook: 67%
Donovan Duvernay: 67%
Jalen Green: 59%
Kobe Boyce: 50%
Kenyatta Watson: 50%
D'Shawn Jamison: 42%
Snaps per Coverage Burn
Donovan Duvernay: 16
Kenyatta Watson: 17
Kobe Boyce: 35.8
Jalen Green: 107
D'Shawn Jamison: 107.66
Anthony Cook: 117
Snaps per Missed Tackle
(Duvernay and Watson N/A)
Jalen Green: 35.66
D'Shawn Jamison: 53.83
Kobe Boyce: 59.66
Anthony Cook: 70.22
Onward to the offense. Lord help us.
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 the TCU game) 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 these stats will always differ from the official university stats):
Click Images to Enlarge
***Please note for 2019: -1 point has been added for any defensive penalty outside of defensive pass interference which is always considered a coverage burn and is not double-counted.***
Defensive Snap Counts By Week and Percentage of Total Defensive Snaps Played Through Kansas
Defensive Productivity Market-Share Percentages and Snaps per Production Caused Metrics Through TCU (snaps per disruption caused is colored coded from blue/best to red/worst)
*******************
VERSUS TCU
What a disappointment. It was Tom Herman's offense that looked bland, predictable and clearly outclassed in Fort Worth for the embarrassing loss to TCU (a team that the SMU Ponies beat in the same venue), but the defense continued to be what it has been all season: bad. And badly managed.
Texas had six players play 100% of defensive snaps against the Horned Frogs, which was the highest number of every-snap participants of any game in the 2019 season. In the squeaker versus Kansas, only Joseph Ossai was out there for every play. Against OU, it was Ossai, Brandon Jones and D'Shawn Jamison. For WVU it was Jones and Juwann Mitchell, for OSU it was Chris Brown, for LSU it was Jones, Ossai, Jalen Green and Caden Sterns. Nobody played 100% of snaps in the cupcakes versus La Tech or Rice.
What do you notice when you see the list of 100%-snap participants from previous weeks? The first thing we notice is, that's a lot of different dudes. It goes to show that some blame can be placed where Tom Herman and surely Todd Orlando want you to place it: squarely on the feet of injuries. And it would be supremely unfair to criticize the unit without giving at least some modicum of credence to the fact that key players have been missing and hurt, and different juggling acts across positions have had to occur to field a viable unit. That is all true. However, let's look at the six that played every snap in the abomination that was the TCU bed-wetting: Brandon Jones (predictable), Joseph Ossai (predictable), Juwan Mitchell (unlikely, but he'd at least been a 100-snap participant once before), Ayodele Adeoye, Montrell Estelle and Tyler Owens (What, what .... and WHAT?!).
Tyler Owens had played only 16 snaps on the season in those two cupcake games versus La Tech and Rice before being thrown into every-down duty in a must-win game at TCU. It makes you wonder about the decision-making on the defensive side of the football that the staff would've had former walk-on Mason Ramirez starting over Owens in the "Cowboy" third-down sub-package just one week prior as Texas was scratching and clawing to eek out a nail-biter at home against Kansas of all programs. What changed that much in a week? Let's throw out the fact that Owens struggled in the game and just think about the calculus here. In one of the two situations, the staff was clearly not putting itself in the best position to succeed via personnel it had on the field. That is simple logic. If a guy is good enough to start a whole game versus a real opponent, why is he not good enough to play a key role in the sub-package during a critical juncture of the previous week's game over a newly-minted scholarship player? And vice versa, if that newly-minted scholarship player was the correct move over Owens to help the team versus Kansas, why on God's earth does Owens start and play every snap versus TCU?
And don't tell us it has to do with letting one player or another establish continuity and get in the flow of the game. Or that it hurts a player's confidence to continually get yanked in and out of the lineup. Hell, forget about us, don't tell the cornerbacks! The Texas defensive staff is freewheeling about getting players in and out of the lineup at the cornerback position through games as Anthony Cook, D'Shawn Jamison, Jalen Green and Kobe Boyce all saw snaps subbing in for one another on various series through the game. If the defensive staff (incorrectly) values performance in practice over performance in the actual games, you'd at least think they'd stick by their best practice performers in the games rather than yank them at the slightest hint of struggle.
And we're not saying any of that is wrong. People, and coaches especially, have different philosophies. What we're pointing out is that even in these two interwoven instances -- the Ramirez/Owens puzzle and the continual in-game musical chairs (even when all the corners are healthy) -- that the one thing that is consistent is constant inconsistency. In performance. In scheme, in personnel and in ideology.
A few key takeaways:
- Brandon Jones overtakes Joseph Ossai as the most productive player on the defense, but the two remain in a class by themselves atop the rankings. The interception for Jones really helped in this game along with Ossai being a little bit quieter than usual these last two weeks. That guy being at his disruptive best is important for a defense that can't cover, can't generate organic pressure and can't tackle.
- Texas "only" missed 9 total versus TCU, and the only player with multiple misses was Ayodele Adeoye (2). It's still a lot of missed tackles, but it's less than a third of the whiffs the group racked up at the Cotton Bowl versus Oklahoma. It's the little things, right?
- Juwann Mitchell is like a breath of fresh air playing the MAC position as a bit of an undersized bulldog. I expect more 100%-snap participation games for him coming up and a continual rise up the rankings. He and Coburn in a tier of their own underneath Ossai and Jones is clearly an encouraging sign for the prospective development and growth moving forward of a front seven that badly needs it.
- The staff needs to quit jerking around D'Shawn Jamison and let him get more full games of snaps under his belt. Yes, he was burned once against TCU and didn't look his best on the play. God forbid anyone associated with this program get any egg on their face in a season like this. He's still the team's best cornerback. If your eyes don't tell you - the numbers should:
Completion Percentage Allowed (when clearly targeted via TV broadcast angle):
Anthony Cook: 67%
Donovan Duvernay: 67%
Jalen Green: 59%
Kobe Boyce: 50%
Kenyatta Watson: 50%
D'Shawn Jamison: 42%
Snaps per Coverage Burn
Donovan Duvernay: 16
Kenyatta Watson: 17
Kobe Boyce: 35.8
Jalen Green: 107
D'Shawn Jamison: 107.66
Anthony Cook: 117
Snaps per Missed Tackle
(Duvernay and Watson N/A)
Jalen Green: 35.66
D'Shawn Jamison: 53.83
Kobe Boyce: 59.66
Anthony Cook: 70.22
Onward to the offense. Lord help us.
