2023 Wyoming Post Mortem: Defense/Special Teams
Before this game I wondered how Wyoming was going to score on the Longhorn defense. The answer came early in the contest. Go to the 1:26 mark of the video.
A combination of bad and inexperienced play in the box met poor luck and a lack of foot speed on the back end to create a Wyoming touchdown.
What happened?
Vernon Broughton gets whipped play side 1 on 1 (he is standing way too high and turns his shoulders) and Anthony Hill vacates his gap while drifting towards the line of scrimmage where T’vondre Sweat is being double teamed on the backside. Hill is in the wrong spot and gets caught up in the trash. A player as quick as #0 should never give up depth when he hasn’t located the ball. False steps = scores.
Behind them, cornerback Ryan Watts is in pure man coverage and the receiver sells pass. Watts total focus should only be on the receiver and he’s shocked to see Waylee squirting out of there. He’s not well positioned to make a play anyway. Meanwhile, Jerrin Thompson is rotating into the middle of the field pre snap away from the run and that destroys his angle. Notice that he’s actually moving away from the flow of the play (that’s the call) and then has to reverse field when he sees the box bust. Thompson lacks make up speed and Waylee houses the 62 yard run.
Wyoming wouldn’t find the end zone again for the rest of the game. Wyoming got a score, but didn’t really score. After that run, Wyoming running backs were bottled up to 89 yards on 29 carries in their standard running game and their passing attack averaged less than 5 yards per attempt. Any consternation Texas fans were feeling after that run was more a function of the Texas offense struggling and a 3rd quarter ball control nightmare than actual threat. Wyoming was basically incapable of explosive plays unless Texas defenders made multiple compounding errors.
The only other meaningful Wyoming offense was a 10 minute 17 play, 77 yard drive that started on the Cowboy 4 yard line and erased nearly the entire 3rd quarter. The Texas defense and staff got ball controlled and Wyoming converted three 3rd downs in the passing game and a 4th down. My main issue is with how that drive began. Wyoming was backed up in their own end zone and rattled off three consecutive runs totaling 15 yards to give them breathing room. Given the game context and inexperience at QB, that can’t happen as you know they’re not throwing there. Throttle that drive in its infancy when you know exactly what they’re going to do. Texas eventually held firm on the strength of Sorrell’s outstanding sequence near the goal line and the Cowboys kicked a field goal to force a tie game going into the 4th quarter.
That was pretty much the extent of the Wyoming offense. That 3rd quarter explains the time of possession disparity (Wyoming controlled the ball for 38 minutes) and how the Cowboys limited the game to only 9 drives for each team.
Excepting the Waylee run and the 3rd quarter drive, the Texas defense played very well. They gave up a net of 3 points in the box score (held Wyoming to 10, scored on a pick six finally attacking the quick out) and we’ll take that any day of the week and twice on Saturday. You’d just like to see them press their advantages a little earlier.
Defensive Line
They struggled with some of the angles in the Wyoming running game. Texas actually over penetrated at times. Example: watch T’vondre Sweat on the second play of the game. He destroys the guard on the backside and then runs blindly upfield with the flow of the blocking, actually creating a massive cutback lane for Waylee. What should be a 3 yard loss becomes a 5 yard run. #93 should get flat if he can’t find the ballcarrier. Waylee is a good back and Wyoming’s running game is much more patient and nuanced than what Texas typically sees. Their OL also doesn’t mind brawling for four quarters.
From my watch, Alfred Collins and T’vondre Sweat headlined the DL effort. Sorrell had a couple of terrific sequences, but was otherwise average. Byron Murphy was uncharacteristically quiet and had little impact. Being a touchdown scoring diva is going to his head! Burke played less than 30 snaps and didn’t have any game impact. Vernon Broughton batted down a screen, got a no gain stuff near the goal line when he slipped his blocker and had a nice pressure, but he’s shaky on standard run downs against physical OL.
Linebacker
A rough start for Anthony Hill earned him a lengthy benching until he was re-inserted later in the second half where he made several good traditional fills on run plays. David Gbenda played hard and had one of his more quietly effective starts. He “saw” the Wyoming running game better than his cohorts, which is atypical. Jaylan Ford was above average on run downs. Jett Bush got a lot of run (over 30 snaps) and played pretty well. He always brings physicality.
Defensive Back
Jahdae Barron was the player of the game. Absolutely exceptional in run support and in coverage. He led the Longhorns in tackles with 9 stops and he had multiple critical stops on 3rd down, including a terrific play busting up a 3rd and 3 screen where he ran through a hold and form tackled the receiver for no gain. Absolute stud. Every action in the Wyoming passing game was centered around forcing Barron to switch so they could throw at the safety or opposite corner.
Wyoming only had 136 passing yards on 28 attempts, but their quick out game was an a constant irritant and it exposed a lack of speed (Thompson) and instincts (Crawford) in the Longhorn safeties who had to range to the sideline to challenge. It was their entire passing game and the 6-5 245 pound Svoboda did a nice job getting it out there quickly and accurately.
Evan Svoboda threw only one ball between the hash all game. His 27 other attempts were all outside of the hash, with 80% no deeper than 9 yards! 22 of his passing attempts were behind the line of scrimmage or from 0-9 yards. He threw six balls between 10-19 yards and attempted zero throws 20+. He was particularly effective attacking right, going 7 of 10 for 69 yards. That’s the Wyoming passing game. They didn’t do much different than their film showed coming in, though Svoboda showed better consistency and accuracy on that route than the starter.
Jerrin Thompson got picked on a bit for 3.5 quarters in the passing game until this:
Great job. Had to punish Wyoming for going to that well so many times.
Special Teams
Texas created some hidden yards that helped the three touchdown win. Ryan Sanborn punted exceptionally well (48.3 average and a pin inside the 5) and Xavier Worthy had 4 punt returns for 59 yards, including a big 32 yarder. Liona Lefau did a poor job on Worthy’s first quality punt return when he bypassed the eventual tackler to run upfield. Keilan Robinson ran hard on kickoff return and averaged 26 per return.
Texas needed that special teams juice on a day where the offense didn’t show up until they decided that running the ball on a small defense with safeties deep might be worth a shot.
Final
The Texas defense held down Wyoming for the vast majority of the game and also contributed a coup de grace defensive score. The offense’s failure to score points or do much of anything for most of the game played in Wyoming’s favor and allowed them to turn it into a rock fight. If the Texas defense had been staked to a nice lead and Wyoming was forced to throw the ball around, score separation would have certainly increased.
Through three games, the Texas defense clearly sets the floor for this football team.
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