Baylor vs. Army Defensive Review

Baylor played a good run-stopping defense against Army and it proved to be effective. Army struggled to run the ball and in turn to pass it without turning it over. Baylor's defensive line got plenty of pressure on Dahman and stacked run behind the line of scrimmage regulary.


Defensive Tackles

Wow, what a game these guys had. Robinson and Gary combined for 9 tackles, 4 TFL and 2 sacks on the day. They set the offense back 17 yards and provided a push on basically every play. Robinson showed good pass rushing skills for a 300-pounder and Gary was a rock against the run.

Behind them, Dan Gay, Vincent Rhodes and Quincy Jenkins got some playing time, the three combining for 4 tackles on the day. Morriss was especially impressed with the play of Rhodes and the steps he's taking.

Grade: A


Defensive Ends

Marcus Foreman and Montez Murphy completed the defensive line play combining for 11 tackles, 2 TFL, 2 sacks for -15 yards and 1 forced fumble. They were playing sideline-to-sideline, and Foreman had a great play running down Jones from behind. I was a little disappointed they didn't dominate even more, considering the size of guys they were going against, but it was on the road, Army was charged up for their home opener and really I should be happy with our defensive line combining for 20 tackles, 6 TFL and 4 sacks, right?

Geoff Nelson got in the game a little bit, but didn't have any tackles, though Morriss did say he played well.

Grade: B+


Linebackers

Colin Allred is the man. Two plays back to back in this game perfectly capture how I think of Allred. Army ran to the right and Allred brings the guy down in the backfield, but is called for a 5-yard facemask. It was a kinda nit-picky call, but there it was. The next play, Allred blows right past the blocker and totally blows up a reverse and the play ends with a loss of 12 or so. He just keeps coming and doesn't let anything disrupt his intensity. The crazy thing: Allred only ended up with 3 tackles on the day, but his presence had an undeniable effect on the game.

Jamal Harper also ended up with 3 tackles on the day, which is surprising considering how well the defense played. I would assume that Army's weak offensive line gave many of the tackles that would normally fall to the linebackers to the D-Linemen. Nick Moore ended up with 3 tackles as well, and Ben Hixson got in on a tackles, too.

The linebackers were active and showed good poise on the road. Their disruption of plays was key to holding Army's rushing attack in check.

Grade: B+


Secondary

Selling out to stop the run seemed to cost the secondary some shut-down ability, as Army rolled up 228 yards of passing offense. I'm not sure how upset we need to be about that, seeing as how, like against SMU, we gave up some yards on their last drive with a bunch of walk-ons and second/third stringers getting experience. On that last drive Army got 48 yards of passing and 13 yards in a penalty for the score. So, without that last drive we gave up only 180 yards of passing and 3 points. And I'd take that any day and twice on Saturday.

Baylor's secondary grabbed two interceptions, one on a very aware play by Maurice Linquist, grabbing a tipped pass from a prone position on the field. Additionally, Willie Andrews got two TFLs, one sack for -11 yard, and Mo Lane grabbed FOURTEEN tackles. The starting cornerbacks combined for 10 tackles, and the secondary forced two fumbles.

Considering the number of players played against Army and how deep we went on our depth chart, the secondary did a very good job of bottling up Army's offense and forcing turnovers.

Grade: B+


Overall Defense

The defense won this game for us, and it's been a long time since our defense has kept us in a road game this far from home. Forcing turnovers, hold Army's starter to 3.3ypc, and their team as a whole to 3.7 yards per play, the defense played very well. Taking out that last drive of the game, the defense allowed 236 yards of offense or 3.37 yards per play. That is a fantastic effort on the road.

There are still things that need to be worked on, specifically the three step drop passing attack that we've seen three games in a row now. I'm sure we've been selling out to stop the run and that affects it somewhat, and I'm sure we're not showing a lot of originality on defense to disguise some of what we'll do in conference play, but this is something that needs to be addressed. If we could close that option down some, then we'd truly have a defense ready to go toe-to-toe with any Big XII offense.

Grade: B+  ¶ 9/19/2005 0 Comments

  Baylor Defeats Army - 20 - 10


Well, Baylor is 3-0 on the season for the first time since 1996. I'll take it, even though the team hasn't put together a good, solid game yet. The game against Army, by all rights, should have been a much better win, with a much bigger margin, but a win is a win. We are halfway to a bowl game and are undefeated, I'm satisfied with the results, if not the individual performances.
Now let's take a closer look at the game and how Baylor played it.


Quarterback

Shawn Bell played every meaningful snap and didn't completely suck. He completed 20-30 passes (66.7%) for 205 yards and 1 TD. The problem: 2 more interceptions. Bell has GOT to cut that stuff out. He gives two INTs to a Big XII team and that's probably going to turn into 10 points. We can't spot Big XII teams 10 points in ANY game. But he did do some thing well. Yards per completion were up to just over 10 ypc. That's good for moving the chains. On two of his incompletions he simply threw the ball too hard for the receiver to catch it. He was aware of where the yardage markers were and also picked up some yards with his feet. With a few things going differently, Bell could have had a dominating performance (sounds like the story of the entire Baylor offense), and so I can't completely bash the guy. He got us the win, and the defense saved him from having his turnovers hurt us, so I won't grade him down too much.

Grade: C+

Running Backs

I really, really like our combination of running backs. They didn't completely blow away Army in this game like I wanted them to, but I think that has more to do with Bell's struggles than their own. Mosley looked outstanding on a few of his draw plays, and Whitaker shook some guys to the ground. If we can get a decent passing threat going downfield, then it will open things up for these guys and I think their production goes up considerably.

Mosley grabbed 77 yards on 16 carries(4.8 ypc), most of them in the first half. Whitaker grabbed 60 yards on 12 carries(5.0 ypc) many of them in the second half. And that seems to be the way that Baylor is going to play things. Mosley is the hammer and is going to pound on the opponent until they are just tired of tackling him. Then in the second half, Whitaker is going to run around the tired defense and pick up chunks of yards. He should also make those screen plays Morriss loves really come alive later in the game. Against Army, both running backs had some good success, and if we'd run the ball a few more times, their production would have been much more substantial. Againts A&M they just need to keep following their blockers and finding the holes the O-Line is opening for them.

Grade: B+


Wide Receivers

These guys are getting better every game, and with the addition of J Fields, they should be ready for Big XII competition. Zeigler is getting the production that many thought he would, but Trent Shelton has picked things up and is showing very good ability to catch the ball and grab yards. Against Army Shelton grabbed 5 passes for 84 yards (16.8ypc) and Zeigler grabbed 3 passes for 29 yards (9.7ypc). Shelton did fumble the ball at the 2 yard line and cost Baylor an almost certain touchdown, and that will hurt their grade for this week. Shaun Rochon has also turned things up and become productive for the Bears. It seems whenever we need a clutch catch, Rochon is there to deliver. Against Army he caught 4 passes for 29 yards (7.25ypc). The numbers might not blow you away, but I wouldn't be surprised if 3 of those four went for first downs. J Fields made his presence known with 2 catches for 42 yards (21ypc), and showed good technique catching the ball with his hands. It's good to have him back after missing him the first two games to a hamstring injury.

The receivers are running good routes and are doing a much better job of catching the ball. If Bell can work on getting it to the receivers in the medium range (15-18 yards from the LOS), then these guys are going to be able to make long gains and really open up the offense. He did a better job of that this game and it showed in the production totals. Look for Baylor to continue to have success against A&M in the passing department, in two weeks.

Grade: B+(without the fumble at the 2, the WRs earn an A+ for the game)


Offensive Line:

Well, there were three plays that will keep the O-Line from having a perfect game: 2 botched snaps and a sack. The good news is that the snaps will almost certainly be fixed over the next two weeks and giving up 1 sack isn't too bad for an O-Line that has shown great improvement.

Without those two snaps and the sack, the bears ran for 4.96 yard per carry. The line did a good job on the draw plays and are getting out on the screen passes. There are definitely improvements that need to be made, but they have improved every game and over the next two weeks, they will add starter Travis Farst back to the line for the A&M game. They'll be 100% healthy and should be confident going into the game after a very good non-conference slate.

Grade: B+


Offense Overall

The pieces separately look like they are ready to go, but we need to be much more consistent in our play. That all falls back to Bell who must prove that he can lead this offense, put the guys in the position to make plays, and return to his error-free play of last year. Bell was given all the praise last year after the A&M victory, and he earned it, but this year he has not performed at that level. He hasn't been as bad as Dane King was the year before, but he hasn't faced that level of competition, either.

In this game, the offense did enough to secure the win. Winning was never in doubt, but it wasn't a blowout either.

Grade: B  ¶ 9/19/2005 0 Comments