Tomorrow night, the Dogs head down to H-town to take on the Intellectually Brutal Rice Owls at 6:00 PM Central. Each week, I'll take a look at the opponent and offer some last second advice on how to win the game. Hopefully the coaches are reading!
1) Force Rice into third and long
Rice wants to be a team like Stanford, which means they want to line up in the I-formation and pound the rock between the tackles. If Tech lets Rice average 6 yards per carry on first and second down, it'll be a long night for the Dogs. Diaco and the gang should prioritize run defense on standard downs, much like they did against Bowling Green earlier in the year. With teams that prioritize their run game, you want to force them into situations where their QB will have to beat you with his arm. Rice's QBs, Stewart and Green, aren't the biggest threats, particularly on third down. Against Baylor, Rice converted 4 of 12 "passing" third downs (AKA 3rd down situations with 5 or more yards to gain). Wiley Green was 4/6 in throwing completions, but only 2/6 on conversions. Tom Stewart was 2/3 in throwing completions, but 2/5 on conversions (he was sacked twice). Rice also ran once on 3rd and 10, but was stuffed for a one yard gain.
2) Rush the dang passer!
Tech absolutely needs more from their defensive front in passing situations. As Ben said on BTB Radio this week, Willie Baker only has 2 QB Pressures in 104 pass rushes. That won't do! We need more from the big fellas up front If we're going to have success in the long term, defensively. Rice isn't going to torch the DBs like James Morgan did, but that's not a reason not to make the pass rush a huge priority this weekend. Rice has allowed 10 sacks so far this year. Most of them come when Tom Stewart is in the game. I'd love to see Diaco dial up some pressure on both of Rice's QBs. They don't have the receiver depth to consistently beat Tech's DBs off the line of scrimmage, so making Green and Stewart chuck the ball early plays right into the Dogs' paws.
3) Play your game
If you've listened to or read any sort of game preview this week, they're all pretty much saying the same things. Tech should be good enough to win this game handily. The Dogs should be able to go down to Houston and play their game for four quarters on both sides of the ball. The reason everyone's saying these things is that they're true! Tech showed last week that the offense reaches its highest potential when they establish a run game to complement J'Mar and the passing game. So far this season, Rice is allowing over 180 yards per game on the ground--Tech will take that week in and week out. They're also allowing 250 yards through the air. Skip needs to come out with a balanced game plan that sticks to the Bulldogs' strengths and plays to Rice's weaknesses, and the Dogs will be victorious tomorrow night.
Evan is also a contributor for gtpdd.dog, a lighthearted Louisiana Tech blog. Be sure to follow @gotechplsdntdie on Twitter for more!
