This week has been a long year, y'all. Between conference realignment and last week's painful loss in El Paso, it felt like the hits would never stop coming. With #24 UTSA coming to town a HOT 7-0, they may not! How can the Bulldogs continue to get the best of the Roadrunners in Joe Aillet Stadium Saturday night?
1) Scheme
Last week, Tech's offensive performance was TERRIBLE. A lot of that started with UTEP completely dominating Tech up front in the trenches. UTEP only blitzed on TWO of Tech's 59 plays, and yet the offensive line played like a wet paper bag against a defensive front that should have been just OKAY. Coming in to the game, Defensive End Jadrian Taylor had just 3 sacks in his two year career... Leaving the game, he had 6.5. Head Coach Skip Holtz took a lot of the blame in his post-game press conferences, saying that he got away from his game plan too early and fell into a drop-back passing game. I couldn't tell you why he thought that would work, but here we are! This week, Coach needs to figure it out... ahead of time. If we can't come in with a balanced attack against a defense that ranks 33rd overall (5th in rushing, 92nd in passing) we won't even have a chance to throw the ball against that 92nd ranked pass defense. The scheme has to attack their weaknesses, while doing EVERYTHING it can to hide ours - the Offensive Line.
2) Sincerely Yours, LA Tech
To say that one man singlehandedly led his team to victory in a football game is usually false. But last year, Tech took a 13-6 lead into the half against UTSA.... Then Sincere McCormick decided to bust loose. In the second half alone, the Roadrunners handed the ball to McCormick on 22 of their 49 plays, gaining 127 yards (5.8 ypc) and scoring THREE touchdowns. Last week against UTEP, the Bulldogs defense stifled the Miner rushing attack, allowing just 2.3 yards per carry. DJ Jackson was a MONSTER in the middle, scoring an 87.7 in overall PFF grade, including an 85.0 on his 19 run defense snaps. To have a shot against UTSA, the Bulldogs have to be able to keep Sincere McCormick under control. Make Frank Harris beat you with his arm - which is possible, certainly - but don't repeat the same mistakes of last season.
3) Full Team Performance
This one's a little bit of a two-fer. The Bulldog defense absolutely hit its groove last Saturday night after the Miners' first two drives. After giving up 109 yards and 14 points in the first 9 minutes of play, Tech's defense clamped down and only gave up 3 more (AND forced FOUR turnovers) in the next 51. The problem was that even with short fields, red zone trips, and lots of mojo from the defense... the offense just flat out sucked. The same team that scored 34 against an SEC team, 27 against the current #18 team in the country, and 37 against the #21 team in the country... couldn't muster a single touchdown against freakin' UTEP. This "key to victory" applies to every game, Tech: Score more than 3 points. If the defense can find a way to continue building on their momentum from last week, and the offense can return to form against a UTSA defense that can give up some big plays from time to time... Tech has a pretty good shot to get back in the win column tomorrow evening.
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Evan is also a contributor to gtpdd.dog, a lighthearted Louisiana Tech blog. Be sure to check out @gotechplsdntdie on Twitter, play the gtpdd Contest and CUSA Pick'Em, and listen to the gtpdd Podcast!
