Thoughts on Houston

[JasonB]

Yeah, it's late, I was on vacation.

- They made a significant defensive adjustment this week, as we played a ton of zone. It kept the linebackers closer to the LOS and in the middle of the field, and at least contained Houston's running attack after getting absolutely gashed in previous weeks.

- When we did go man, Houston's QB read that space would open and got his 20 yard runs.

- Not as much confusion on assignments this week on the zone read. More fundamentally sound than the past few weeks.

- Houston's left tackles held. A lot.

- That said, most of the times Houston didn't score was because they stopped themselves. When you watch Houston on defense, the LBs and Safeties defeat blocks by staying low and using their agility to aggressively make a play. They don't try to straight up engage bigger players. When you watch our LBs and Safeties, it is absolutely shocking how high they stay. They open their entire bodies up, allow themselves to be easily blocked and completely taken out of plays, even against much smaller blockers like when a WR is blocking a LB. They have absolutely no shot to defeat a block. There are certainly problems with speed, athleticism, and taking the wrong angles. But the way they take on blocks is pretty shocking.

- Not sure why Castle played so much?

- 98, 91, and7 on the second team DL were pushed around quite a bit.

- West and Jones have quickness and get to the second level often, but don't have the elusiveness you see out of upper tier backs to make guys miss in the secondary. Hopefully when they put on weight in the offseason program, they can start turning some of those 8 yard gains into 20 and 30 yard gains. The isolations and space are there to make it happen, and it would really take the offense another step forward.

- Still concerned about the limited number of "go up and get it" throws to Sutton after the first few games of the season. When it is called, Davis is throwing the ball much flatter than he did earlier in the season and it keeps Sutton from being able to make a play or get an interference call.

- For the past several weeks there has been a trend at half, where the opposing defense calls a lot of stunts and delayed blitzes in the second half. It absolutely torches us. There are two problems. First, our offensive line doesn't pick up the new blitz schemes and lets people run free. Not get beat, but absolutely run free. On one play, Brown lets the inside guy run free. Line lets him run right by him because he thinks he is supposed to swing for a pass. Davis got past the guy but unfortunately Brown, who was not blocking anybody, didn't pick up the delayed blitz from the MLB, who got to Davis. On another play, the LT moves inside to pick up a blitzing linebacker, leaving the DE with a straight path to Davis. It seemed like the LT thought he would get blocking help from a RB, but there was no RB on that side of the field and nobody else adjusted. There has absolutely been a pattern of limited missed blocking assignments in the first half, and a lot of them in the second. Some of that may be exposed because we move to more of a passing attack when we fall behind and the defense is able to call a lot of blitzes and pin the ears back. But it is shocking.

- The final thing I will say is that there are not "hot route" adjustments being made by WRs on a max blitz. There are times where there is a blitz on our right side. Davis will immediately look at the blitz side for a WR to pop in the open space, but the WR has his back to Davis and is running the designed long route down the field. Davis has no option and runs for his life. I'm not sure what the "route tree" looks like for this type of offense, but surely there is some blitz recognition hot route concept that should be executed. Davis and the OL are getting hung out to dry a little bit in those situations. Not sure if it is all on the WR, or if the QB or C is supposed to be modifying the protection package and failing.