The Football Brainiacs

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Yesterday Coach Bob Stoops announced that Jordan Phillips will undergo back surgery. We (The Football Brainiacs) had already heard about this possibility early last week from some of our sources but did not want to divulge it publicly. We wish Jordan a speedy recovery.

Now the question is how does this effect the defense?

Make no mistake losing Phillips is a big blow. Phillips was a guy who could man both your A gaps. Not to overstate it but he was your Vince Wilfork in a hybrid front; a wardaddy who was starting to play like a guy who would eventually get drafted in the 1st round. Why is that so important? In part, because you’re allowing the rest of your teammates to play a 1 gap technique including your defensive ends who, in a 3 man front, would traditionally be playing a 2 gap. To put it in simple terms 2 gap means you’re attacking a man and playing both sides of him, 1 gap means you’re attacking a gap and are responsible for that single gap. In case it isn’t obvious, 1 gap responsibility is a lot easier. Phillips made everyone’s job easier and he did it effectively against the run.

But we’ll also miss his presence as an interior pass rusher. In fact now that Corey Nelson and Phillips are out we’re really only left with one elite pass rusher in Striker though Tapper is coming on. Jordan gave us the ability to bring 5 on a stunt and get a man free or even if the line picked up the stunt perfectly they were stuck in a 1 on 1 with Phillips which isn’t a place you want to be.

Right now we’ve got 3 guys that we’ve seen in Phillips spot: Wade, Peterson and QRussell. As a true 2 gap NG I’d say only QRussell really has the size to play that spot naturally. Wade and Torrea are about 30 lbs lighter than Phillips and neither of them appear to even crack the 300lb mark. People have different numbers they like but I personally want an NG that’s at least 315 natural. When I say natural I mean it’s just part of their DNA. They work at it but they aren’t so far off their natural sitting weight that it’s torturous to maintain or it starts to seriously hinder their athleticism. QRussell has that kind of size but he doesn’t have Phillips athleticism and it seems he isn’t quite ready for whatever reason.

So against the run without Phillips we’re having a hard time keeping the backers clean. The first offensive linemen to make contact with our NG is almost immediately at the second level because we don’t have the presence at that interior position to force the guard and the center to stay on that block. That created too many running lanes for Texas’ backs at the first level and keeps us from having those backers come in clean. In my opinion Torrea is a pure 1 gap player. He’s got great quickness which is something I loved about him when he played in high school but he probably doesn’t have Wade strength. While Wade isn’t big enough in my estimation, I do believe that experience and growth in his technique will help carry him as he continues to develop physically.

What a lot of this means against the run is that there is a lot less room for error. When you’re only getting 1 LB coming in clean and there is still a lot trash to get through we’ve got to make those tackles. Too often we didn’t. A 2 yard loss on 1st down would turn into a 3-4 yard gain. This is where our problems are exacerbated by the loss of Corey Nelson. With Corey’s experience and ability you can mask a lot of the deficiencies at the NG position in the run game but also in the pass game because you can rely on him as a blitzer or as a great cover LB. How many times in that first Texas drive were we in in 3rd and long running Tampa 2 and got out of position at the LB spot which allowed a completion? I believe I counted two which is two too many.

It also puts more pressure on Coach Montgomery (and I think he’s up to it) to get these guys playing with excellent technique up front. Regardless of size improving our ability to keep leverage on a guy is going to help and that’s going to come from good coaching and reps.

So what do we do now? First, I think the scheme is sound. I think playing in the 3 man hybrid front gives you the best shot against all the 10 personnel we see. It allows us the ability to get to the QB quicker, it allows us to change our coverage, and it allows to better defend the QB run game. Where we are having problems is against the big sets. TCU tried to big set us and it didn’t work and they quickly went away from it but that was when we had Corey Nelson. ND was able to do it but I think it was obvious Jordan wasn’t 100% and Dom Alexander showed his youth on a number of plays there. Some might suggest going to a 4 man front against the big sets but then you have to ask a couple questions. 1) do we have the depth? You’ve got two interior guys playing right now in Torrea and Wade and a converted DE in Chuka so that doesn’t give you much rotation if you start playing them at the same time. The other question is what is your alignment? You go to the old 1 gap under front and you’re changing peoples gap responsibilities and D-line techniques mid-season. You’ve only got one guy in rotation at the 1 tech assuming Torrea and Chuka play the 3 and you start to becoming vulnerable against the outside QB run game even against big sets. Moreover I’m not sure how the alignment of a the old 4 man under is going to help the problem people seem be complaining about, namely the interior part of the defense.

To me you’ve got to stay with your scheme/alignment and recruit to it and continue to develop the players in it. But I hope we get to see more Quincy Russell because he’s only going to get better with game reps. Wade is getting better because he’s getting snaps. If Quincy comes along then as, JY and I were talking about last night, as the year goes on you might be able to beef up your line but still keep your quickness at that 4i spot by moving Torrea over there. He shows an incredible burst sometimes but just isn’t a natural at that NG position. If you’ve got Wade and Russell rotating inside with Torrea at the 4i and Chuka on the other side then you line up Tapper and Striker as your OLBs. Now you’ve got beef on the line and a more physical edge presence. But you’ve also still got enough speed on the edges. I understand why they want Tapper where he is. He gives you the athleticism to disrupt a play by crashing that B gap. But Torrea has shown on multiple occasions that he can get off the ball and beat his man, but playing the NG spot that’s not always a great thing. Torrea next to Wade gives you quickness but more beef in the middle and Tapper outside makes us more physical on the edge as well. We actually saw coach Mike line up Torrea and Wade next each other on a few plays against Texas in short yard situations.

The other thing that is going to help is Dom Alexander getting reps. He’s still making a lot of costly mistakes but he’s also doing things better. In the first few games he was timid. But in the Texas game who didn’t love seeing him scrape over the top on Texas’ first drive and blow up the ball carrier on the edge? I know I did.

I know a lot of folks probably think the defense is chopped up for the year and, to be honest, there is no question losing Corey and Phillips is going to hurt…bad. But the defensive scheme is better and they’ve got to recruit to it. The players play with more discipline and effort and as long as those things don’t change our defense can still be a solid unit. I know we’re going to take our lumps but the future is bright. This year a lot of young guys are going to get reps, they’re going to develop physically, and they’re going to be more sound in their technique and responsibilities. All that, in my opinion, bodes well for the future.