Just rewatched the first quarter. Planned on doing the whole game, but there’s just so much on defense that is inexplicable, I got tired. One player (and the scheme) stood out though.
On two plays in the first 5 minutes that we were absolutely gashed (a 25 yard screen and a 30 yard quarterback run), our standup end, Reese, somehow was responsible for both contain AND the running back out of the backfield. I just do not get that scheme. Both plays were predictable disasters.
1. The first play at 13:53 of the first quarter we have a chance to force a punt and get off the field on 3rd and ten. We have a six man line with the stand up end responsible for the back out of the backfield? But no one else stunts to become the contain man? Then, for some unexplained reason, Reese has a perfect opportunity to blow up the play in the flat, but runs right by the back, (who had not caught the ball yet), which allows the running back to catch the ball inside him and go right up the vacated middle for 25 yards. A terrible play by Reese and a terrible scheme.
2. At 9:20, again first qtr, five man front, again the running back fakes a block and runs into the flat and is again picked up by Reese. This time he has good coverage on him, but turns his back and fails to realize that the quarterback is running. For some reason, he tries to push the RB down the sidelines and out of bounds. Why? It was almost as if Reese was blocking for the quarterback! When Reese took the RB, again no one had contain. But Deslauriers was in position spying the QB. And in another inexplicable move, the quarterback rolled right and Deslauriers rolled left to cover no one. The QB took off for 30 yards in the space vacated by Deslauriers.
You could run that formation, (trying to trick the offense into not thinking an end was dropping into coverage) if you have a very athletic defensive end AND a linebacker or stunting DT becoming contain. We had neither. A defensive end cannot be the contain man and cover a running back. period. Clearly, Josh Heupel figured that out.
I argued last year that our defense really was not that bad, but in retrospect, the scheme was still bad, but we had guys like Wax, Barron, Cinco that were good and if they were on the field vs Tennessee , neither of those two plays are successful, and probably Tennessee has 55 fewer yards, and has to punt at least once, maybe twice.
Anyone who has played or coached needs to watch just those two plays and let me know if they have any confidence at all in Robinson.
BTW, I thought Tennessee’s offensive line was excellent, and executed nearly flawlessly on run plays and did all they had to do to pick up our unimaginative pass rush.
