Scouting report: TAMU O vs Arkansas Defense.

[CoachC2212]

Players to watch:

#2 Johnny Manziel, Johnny Manziel, Johnny Manziel (6'1 210 Rs/So.) Its all about Johnny with this team.

#13 Mike Evans: (6'5 220 So) leads the team with 22 catches for 575 yards and 3 touchdowns.

#84 Malcolm Kennedy (6'1 200 Jr.) has 19 catches himself and 4 Touchdowns.

#1 Ben Malena (5'9 195 Sr.) has 45 carries for 263 and 5 touchdowns.

Scheme:

Up tempo air raid, very unorthodox approach as in the coaches do very little as far a calling plays. It is very much structured back yard football, they run certain passing concepts that go back to Sumlin's air raid style at Houston. They use Smash Concepts verses cover 2, and variations verses a cover 3. They love to use mesh concepts to flood the middle and attack your line backers. As most air raid teams have in their playbook they also have the vertical concept (Manziel's favorite) They will use it verses every defensive alignment especially verses man, as they feel their wide-outs can win verses the other teams corners. They also allow Manziel the freedom to use hot routes verses any shown blitzes. Its very unique because their wide-outs are especially well schooled in the movement concepts and stay within their rules of pocket movement. Manziel has all the freedom in the world to change plays at the line and he basically runs whatever he wants to run, mostly from the line of scrimmage.

How to approach such an offense:

The approach to this style of an offense is a major challenge. The challenge is that you have to stay disciplined and very gap conscious, nothing he is gonna do is smart or fundamental. However, its highly effective because you cannot simulate it because their isn't any reasoning behind anything that Manziel does. He just goes and makes plays and does it with recklessness, and the trap every defense I have ever seen falls into is they don't stay disciplined. LSU was the best I have seen at it as they used their speed to stay disciplined and let their play makers make plays. Most get undisciplined or the coach gets to predictable. The minute that you fall prey to this his improvisation comes into play. Manziel (is an little prick) but he is unlike any player I have ever seen, in the fact that he spends his whole time going off course and changing the play while its happening.

So many blitz him and that's all well and good, but the kid figures it out. You can't just play him straight up because he figures it out. So how do you approach him. You have to do things that make no sense when you do them. You have to go off the reservation in your play calling and keep him off balance. Pre snap changes are a must. Show one thing, but do just the opposite of what you show about 50% of the time, then actually do what you show the other 50%. You have to blitz him on 1 down and sit on him of 3rd and long. Totally opposite of anything anyone else does. You never leave any gap uncovered, and you keep as much speed as you can get away with on that field. Don't sacrifice your line by not having any, then they will just run the ball. You have to out personnel them. keep at least 3 Defensive ends on the field at all times. Walk linebackers up.  I would actually post all 7 of my box at the line every play then mix up what they do. Mix up who I drop almost every play. Bring your pressures with four mostly, and keep changing it up and not allowing your players to just starting winging it. when you pressure get your push through A and B, but contain C. Literally box in Manziel, and then when you drop 7 or 6 depending on what zone blitz your using, you must stay sound in your assignments.

Coverage's behind.

Man: 10% mostly in first down as you will see a lot your smash concepts on first down. That is a zone down for a lot teams.

Cover 3: 40% as they try to attack you deep often. I would disguise my Cover 3 by dropping a robber shade to Evans side.

Cover 2: 20% Never in third and long. This is another great one to run on their smash concepts and you can disguise this with a 2 high man, look and sit on the x or z's drive route (or curl) play the Cover 2 to the deep halves for the 7 route or flag.

Tampa 2: 20% As you can drop the mike or rotate at will or sam to deep middle let the flow linebackers take all the flood underneath and Drop the roll side end out into a mirror to take away their flood plays with backside flow action.

Take chances:

You must take a chance or too at a strip or a int that wouldn't normally be one you might. This team is high octane and they are gonna score more times that they won't so get extra possessions as much as possible.


Disciplined football:

Manziel will talk and taunt, but don't play into his hands hit him in the mouth and get up and go back to your huddle. ZERO AND I MEAN ZERO penalties. Stay out of that jawing with him and punish him every chance you get.

Summary:

This will be the toughest test all year, they are the best offensive team save maybe Oregon in the nation. You just have to play great and disciplined and never quit on a play as just when you think you have him you don't. They are gonna score, you just have to do the best you can and possibly get a lucky turnover possibly. However, getting young players to play like patient veterans is the task that really only one team has been able to figure out how to do. You just have to play with a high motor and keep you're athletic defensive ends on the field and get after him. Anyways, I again don't predict games, but this one will probably be our toughest test outside of Alabama left on our schedule, so just cheer your guts out and hope for some breaks defensively and a dominating run game. WPS

[sowmonella]

Fantastic read. Thanks for doing this and keep em coming. :razorback:

[CoachC2212]

Your welcome, I have fun doing it, and it's helping me stay on my toes and learn some new things while studying these teams..I appreciate the sentiment

[razorjack12]

Your welcome, I have fun doing it, and it's helping me stay on my toes and learn some new things while studying these teams..I appreciate the sentiment

I thouroughly enjoy your posts.  Keep it up.

You said aTm and Oregon have the best offenses.  I might throw Baylor into that mix as well.

[Chief Mac]

Great post coach!  Very in depth but simplified enough for everyone to understand.

[SemperFi]

Nice stuff coach.....thanks for taking the time to do this. Question for you; don't you think that we should assign a spy on Manziel? Go with the 3-4 and have one of our LB's with speed like Spaight to track Manziel? Thoughts?

[Chief Mac]

  I thouroughly enjoy your posts.  Keep it up.

You said aTm and Oregon have the best offenses.  I might throw Baylor into that mix as well.

Agreed...all three of those offenses are fantastic and put enormous pressure on every defense they play against.

[PygmalionEffect]

As we know, Manziel makes a lot of plays by evading the initial rush and moving around where he needs to in order to buy time for his receivers to come open.  Since he has 2 or 3 very talented receivers that basically cannot be covered for any material amount of time, this is very effective.

Because of this, I don't think it is important to try to improve your blitz by having the player try to anticipate the snap and move up to the line.  All this does is communicate to Manziel exactly what you are getting ready to do, and so then he burns you with the hot read or just evades the blitzer with his running ability.

I just wonder if a delayed blitz would be effective where the LB, safety, or corner stay in their normal position until the ball is snapped and then come in.  You get there a little later but it has a much better chance of being a surprise to the o-line and the QB and what you are trying to do is eliminate the 3-4 second scrambling plays where Manziel hits a long pass or gets the back seven down field so he can scramble for yards.

Our DEs might be able to contain the corners consistently, he's obviously going to get around them some, but where he and all QBs are effective is when they can step up in the middle, so I would mostly run the delayed blitz up the middle and surprise him as he evades the initial four man rush. 

[SoCal Hog]

Thanks for posting your analyses of the Hogs vs. opponents. I learn a lot. I appreciate all the work you put into it.

[ballz2thewall]

i wonder if this is the one time where a bend-don't-break defense will really pay off.....

i can't believe i said that but i just don't see anything coming from "go get him" schemes.

basically a zone coverage and try and hold him to the line of scrimmage by not taking the bait and chasing him through the backfield.  he'll get extra time doing this with a benddon'tbreak approach, for sure.  but i've not seen anyone benefit by sending in blitzes because it just creates chaos where he thrives.  keeping the coverage intact would be key here, and i don't know if we're disciplined enough to do it.

i think perhaps that slowing him is the key to stopping him.  forcing them to accept a grind is the only chance as i see it.  this is a bottom line assessment, not considering all the what-if's.

what do you think?

[razorjack12]

Agreed...all three of those offenses are fantastic and put enormous pressure on every defense they play against.

McWilliams, stop agreeing with me.  This could become a trend.   

[PygmalionEffect]

i wonder if this is the one time where a bend-don't-break defense will really pay off.....

i can't believe i said that but i just don't see anything coming from "go get him" schemes.

basically a zone coverage and try and hold him to the line of scrimmage by not taking the bait and chasing him through the backfield.  he'll get extra time doing this with a benddon'tbreak approach, for sure.  but i've not seen anyone benefit by sending in blitzes because it just creates chaos where he thrives.  keeping the coverage intact would be key here, and i don't know if we're disciplined enough to do it.

i think perhaps that slowing him is the key to stopping him.  forcing them to accept a grind is the only chance as i see it.  this is a bottom line assessment, not considering all the what-if's.

what do you think?

All good QBs defeat defenses when they have time and throwing lanes.  Manziel isn't Peyton Manning but he's evidently pretty good at picking up his open receivers and fairly accurate.

I think playing conservative on defense plays right into their hands.  I doubt we can get near the pressure with our 4 man rush that we've gotten in previous games.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I just don't see much difference in trying to cover receivers with six defenders vs seven.  I think the 5th man can be more effective in disrupting them by rushing than sitting back in coverage and watching the ball being thrown over their head like happened last week.

Of course you need that 5th rusher to be fast, patient, and a good tackler.  If we put someone in there that gets excited and just runs past JFF or leaves his feet on every pump fake, then it's not going to work.  Don't know if we have that person on our team.

[MuskogeeHogFan]

All good QBs defeat defenses when they have time and throwing lanes.  Manziel isn't Peyton Manning but he's evidently pretty good at picking up his open receivers and fairly accurate.

I think playing conservative on defense plays right into their hands.  I doubt we can get near the pressure with our 4 man rush that we've gotten in previous games.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I just don't see much difference in trying to cover receivers with six defenders vs seven.  I think the 5th man can be more effective in disrupting them by rushing than sitting back in coverage and watching the ball being thrown over their head like happened last week.

Of course you need that 5th rusher to be fast, patient, and a good tackler.  If we put someone in there that gets excited and just runs past JFF or leaves his feet on every pump fake, then it's not going to work.  Don't know if we have that person on our team.

I think we will need our front four going all out to get to Manziel, a selected 5th rusher off the edge or up the middle and a "spy" on Manziel. If we don't get pressure (but pressure that still contains Manziel) on Manziel he will pick our Secondary apart and this will be a long, long day.

[ballz2thewall]

All good QBs defeat defenses when they have time and throwing lanes.  Manziel isn't Peyton Manning but he's evidently pretty good at picking up his open receivers and fairly accurate.

I think playing conservative on defense plays right into their hands.  I doubt we can get near the pressure with our 4 man rush that we've gotten in previous games.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I just don't see much difference in trying to cover receivers with six defenders vs seven.  I think the 5th man can be more effective in disrupting them by rushing than sitting back in coverage and watching the ball being thrown over their head like happened last week.

Of course you need that 5th rusher to be fast, patient, and a good tackler.  If we put someone in there that gets excited and just runs past JFF or leaves his feet on every pump fake, then it's not going to work.  Don't know if we have that person on our team.

i'm with you on this as well.  this will be a schizophrenic day; rational approaches are likely to fail.  if our defense could improvise it'd be great.  where jm seems particularly dangerous is finding that open deep receiver after a backfield scramble.  more time plays into that and i don't know if we can stay focused and wait on what's coming as far as our coverage is concerned.

[Whoopigsooie]

I would have loved to have seen Oregon or A/M play this year play against us during Mallet's second year or Wilson's 1st as a starter. Talk about fireworks. Mallets team had the advantage over Wilson's mainly because of Knile Davis being healthy so i think that would be our best shot at them. Then again Wilson's team was pretty darn good as well.. Either one would be something to see.

[razorbackkid]

Excellent.

[OneTuskOverTheLine™]

Another good post, but your summary could have been this...

We blitz, no we fake blitz, no we pretend to fake.. Wait a minute... I'm getting dizzy.

[Kevin]

As herb brooks said in miracle:

YOU don't

Defend them, you attack them!!!!

You cannot be scared to get beat.

I hope we show them things they have not seen

[Chief Mac]

  McWilliams, stop agreeing with me.  This could become a trend.   

haha!  Quit making sense and I will stop agreeing with you