2023 BYU Postmortem: Offense

The glow of a 29 point win always papers over in-game issues that are subsequently revealed or remembered on rewatch. After another viewing, it’s pretty clear that the Texas defense and special teams powered that margin. A more consistent throw game and some strength inside would have allowed a 49-6 style rout.

I liked Sark’s gameplan for starting Maalik off fast, preferring that Murphy get some tosses in early on neutral downs rather than having him throw his first ball on a 3rd and 11. There were also some bright spots in the running game, powered mainly by Brooks and some effective zone blocking combos.

The Horns compiled 354 yards on 60 plays for 5.9 yards per play. Unfortunately, they also turned it over twice, had another fumble that Xavier Worthy self-recovered on a lucky bounce and Maalik had two other throws that would be turnover worthy against a more athletic group of safeties.

Texas was a dismal 2 of 5 in the red zone, including two failures that ended on the BYU 1 and 3 yard lines. Despite the postgame attempt to hype the Cougar front as the next coming of ’09 Nebraska, they are above average and BYU was ordinary in the red zone against a weak prior slate. This is a Texas problem.

As for going for it on 4th down from the 1 and 3, the analytics on point differential (for both the TD vs. FG attempt and a failed TD with opponent offense backed up) are pretty straightforward in favor. However, tthe best thing coaches can do to aid the correct analytics decision is to make more inspired play calls that suggest learning from the prior failed attempts. So I get the frustration all around.

Touchdown drives of 39, 26 and 8 yards along with a 74 yard special teams touchdowns may have inflated our post-game sense of offensive production. Obviously, an offense can only gain the yards available to it and a 39 yard touchdown drive is a good thing, but Texas also squandered starts at the BYU 40 and the Texas 49 with no points. It’s important to attribute the good thing to the primary causes.

On the positive side, Texas converted 6 of 11 on 3rd down and did hit explosive runs of 38 (Brooks), 34 (Blue) and 23 (Robinson) yards. Texas also won the Middle 8 of the game 7-0 after being dominated by Oklahoma and Houston there 14-0 over the last two weeks.

QB

Maalik Murphy’s stat line was bus driverish (16 of 25 for 170 yards, 2 touchdowns, 1 interception, 1 fumble) but he delivered a few good throws and managed the offense. To my eye, we started walking back some of the offense after the second turnover. That written, I’ve seen plenty of nervous first time starter QBs thrust into a game in the middle of a season and it can look much, much worse. A quick scan of other college games will confirm.

However, while we can grade him developmentally on a curve for the spot he was throw into, scoreboards and future opponents force you to take your earned letter grade.

On rewatch, he threw multiple balls with bad mechanics, including this successful shot to a wide open Adonai Mitchell:

Mitchell had significant separation on the defender but too much air under a duck launched off Malik’s back foot made it a more interesting play. Here’s the other angle to give you an idea how open Mitchell was.

Maalik struggled with getting the ball out on time a few times and his mechanics fell apart too often in clean pockets. As for Good Murphy, here is a good example of converting a gimme where the ball comes out on time:

That’s a called shot against a known coverage. Worthy and Helm clear out, predetermined read to Mitchell. So Murphy is capable of rhythm passing, but needs some help and a clear picture. A little deeper stat dive bears this out.

Murphy was 9/10 for 51 yards on throws behind the line of scrimmage. On all throws beyond the line of scrimmage, he was 7 of 15 for 119 yards – a 46.7% completion percentage. While all QBs pad their accuracy stats with tosses behind the line, Ewers was completing 64.5% of his passes beyond the line of scrimmage. That 18% margin has a lot of offense in it. How Sark bridges that gap going forward will determine Maalik’s efficacy. If he nails more play calls like the second Mitchell touchdown, we’re in good shape, but open-ended offense is a more dangerous proposition.

RB

A fantastic game from Jonathon Brooks, which can pretty much be written on repeat every week. He maximized several runs and was strong in the passing game. Brooks went 16-98 rushing at over 6 yards per tote and added 4 catches for another 40. He’ll be a 1,000+ yard rusher very soon.

Pretty wicked stiff arm for a finesse back…

CJ Baxter spent a good portion of the game tip-toeing around instead of planting and burrowing for whatever he could when the blocking went bad. Not much after contact either. This was a step backwards compared to how lively he looked against Houston. 9 carries, 22 yards. He did block though.

Keilan Robinson had a terrific misdirection run where he looked like the most dynamic player on the field. Left me wanting more.

Jaydon Blue was strong in mop up duty and his juice around the corner warrants some consideration for real playing time if Baxter isn’t feeling it.

WR/TE

Worthy struggled to get on the same page with Murphy. 10 targets yielded only 4 catches for 27 yards. He was an effective decoy though.

Adonai Mitchell notched an efficient 2 touchdowns and 59 yards on only 3 catches with one misfire.

JT Sanders had 4 catches for 37 yards, including a 20 yard catch that probably bailed Maalik out of a pick. He looks like he’s about 80% now.

Malik Agbo played well. Good effort level. Noticeably different motor on Saturday compared to some of his OL friends.

OL

It’s fun to save the best for last. But not this time.

As a whole, this unit played below standard in the run game, particularly as the field compressed. Big Humans are great PR and play well on the message boards, but big humans that aren’t very strong or powerful get knocked back off of the ball on covered up inside runs the same as small humans. The difference is that they do it with higher pads, less motor and less leverage. This is an OL of screeners.

Hayden Conner had his worst game since last year’s Alabama game. Any game where he can earn a draw in the run game is a win for Texas and he usually always pass blocks very well. He was bad in both phases against BYU.

DJ Campbell has seemingly reversed his strengths and weaknesses from early in the year. He pass blocked well and was below average in the run game. Cole Huston got some snaps in relief, but he’s coming off of an injury. I’m not sure if he’s an improvement yet.

Jake Majors was game and actually did a good job screening on zone blocks, but his lack of pop was revealed in compressed space. Seeing the entire interior lose across the board on multiple goal line snaps was jarring.

Kelvin Banks had the best game of the unit, dominating as a pass blocker and playing adequately as a run blocker, particularly in zone concepts. Christian Jones was uncharacteristically average all around.

This unit didn’t play well. For a massive group, they don’t move people and that’s impacting how defenses align in goal to go. Heads up, don’t gap it (why risk choosing the wrong gap and getting screened off), dare Texas to move ’em. Running directly behind this interior without some sort of angle advantage makes little sense.

Final

The Texas offense was as disjointed as one might expect with a new inexperienced QB, but the lack of supporting play on the offensive line and some meandering exploratory play calling on the play sheet didn’t help. Texas needs to find some ways to maximize an imperfect offense with some very dangerous weapons.

Sometimes, being clever means less cleverness when experiencing straightforward down to down success and more deception when down and distance scream for convention.

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