It seems that everyone is in a panic now over UT's D and especially the secondary. I have been accused of panic for problems that can have long term negative implications for the program. But it isn't time to say that what we saw yesterday is even a particular short term negative.
Jones game planned giving a lot of respect to BGSU. There are things he could have done that would have made it a bigger win... but the risks were greater as well. So what he did is focus on the run game then put UT in a lot of man coverage. The hope was to stop their run game first, which they did, then generate a pass rush... which they didn't very consistently.
BGSU appears to have assumed that's what UT would do. In response, they took a lot of deep shots and had some success. They called MANY run blitzes in the hopes of getting UT to throw it more and speed the game up. UT's GREATEST success is that the OL and RB's ran right over a team that was committing pretty much everyone to the run. Even though BGSU isn't a great D... it is impressive when they throw everything against the run and you still get almost 400 yds on the ground.
Could UT have played more zone? Probably but then BGSU goes to their controlled pass game and keeps UT's D on the field all day. How ugly could that have gotten on a hot and humid day in the 4th qtr? Could UT have passed it 30+ times and lit their D up? Yes. Dobbs probably could have had 500 yds passing against that secondary.
Instead, the secondary got burned a few times. Several times they got burned even with guys in almost perfect position. If you don't sack the QB and then he throws it that precisely to a guy who makes a great catch... you ain't stopping it. About the only thing they could have done better was to jam him off the line... but that was a pretty big WR.
SO... while I believed that UT should have kept them to under 20 points... I believe COMPLETELY that the 30 was a product as much of the game plan as the secondary. The only thing I found truly disappointing is that UT didn't get more effective pressure on their QB than they did. But tip your hat. Their experienced OL played extremely well.
Jones game planned giving a lot of respect to BGSU. There are things he could have done that would have made it a bigger win... but the risks were greater as well. So what he did is focus on the run game then put UT in a lot of man coverage. The hope was to stop their run game first, which they did, then generate a pass rush... which they didn't very consistently.
BGSU appears to have assumed that's what UT would do. In response, they took a lot of deep shots and had some success. They called MANY run blitzes in the hopes of getting UT to throw it more and speed the game up. UT's GREATEST success is that the OL and RB's ran right over a team that was committing pretty much everyone to the run. Even though BGSU isn't a great D... it is impressive when they throw everything against the run and you still get almost 400 yds on the ground.
Could UT have played more zone? Probably but then BGSU goes to their controlled pass game and keeps UT's D on the field all day. How ugly could that have gotten on a hot and humid day in the 4th qtr? Could UT have passed it 30+ times and lit their D up? Yes. Dobbs probably could have had 500 yds passing against that secondary.
Instead, the secondary got burned a few times. Several times they got burned even with guys in almost perfect position. If you don't sack the QB and then he throws it that precisely to a guy who makes a great catch... you ain't stopping it. About the only thing they could have done better was to jam him off the line... but that was a pretty big WR.
SO... while I believed that UT should have kept them to under 20 points... I believe COMPLETELY that the 30 was a product as much of the game plan as the secondary. The only thing I found truly disappointing is that UT didn't get more effective pressure on their QB than they did. But tip your hat. Their experienced OL played extremely well.
