SB Nation - Tremaine Vaughns

Mizzou pistol whips Nevada, 69-17

RPT — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 21:29:15 -0000

(Photo courtesy Jonathan Brownfield, MUTigers.com)

Well, I'm absolutely soaked after the floods came on the walk back to the car after Mizzou's 69-17 thrashing of Nevada, so I'll go ahead and open up this thread for postgame reaction while I head off to take a shower.

The postgame podcast should be posted sometime soon, and Good, Bad, and Indifferent will be available after the jump on this post later in the day.

UPDATE, by rptgwb at 5:37 p.m.: Good, Bad, Indifferent now after the jump.

FINAL STATS

And, just a quick note, take anything "Bad" with a grain of salt. I do indeed realize that it was a 69-17 win over a very formidable non-BCS team.

GOOD

The Mizzou offense... Here's my thorough, in-depth analysis: They're really, really good. Three minutes into the game, Mizzou was on pace for over 3,100 yards of offense. We'll break it down a bit further:
Chase "Golden Watermelon Balls of Fury/Booger" Daniel: Hey, remember what "Heisman candidate" Graham Harrell did to Nevada? Chase Daniel laughs at you, sir. 23-of-28 for 405 yards and 4 TDs in a performance that broke the school record for career passing yardage? That would get you in the "Great" category, if it existed.
D-Wash: His 59-yard touchdown run on the first possession completely changed the complexity of the game. Nevada figured out early it had to respect the run, and that opened up the offense to have the numerical explosion it did.
Jeremy "Cheat Code" Maclin: It is sad that, outside of his long touchdown reception on the second drive, I though he was contained for most of the day? I come back to the stats and see that "contained" apparently means 239 all-purpose yards and 3 touchdowns.
Chase Coffman: Thrust the Nunchuck Upwards failed to get his trademark hurdle in this game, but he represented Aaron O'Neal's No. 25 jersey well, finishing with six receptions, 127 yards and a touchdown. Plus, he gave us in Tiger's Lair the thrill of counting his FIVE stiff arms on one play during a video replay. Looks like Thrust Nunchuck Upward learned how to Punch Nunchuck Forward.
Jared Perry: A quiet six catches for 98 yards and a touchdown (not including one called back for holding), but most importantly for Perry, no drops, when it looked like several passes could have eluded his grip.
The "other" corners: Carl Gettis locked down his half of the field, and Kevin Rutland and Tru Vaughns looked much improved today, with both making several plays on the ball at its highest point. And, although not a corner, Del Howard made a few solid plays today after being questionable at best recently.
The Salute to America: The crowd was DEAD until the B-2 flew over Faurot. Plus, the tribute to Mizzou linebacker and Iraq veteran Zach Milligan (pictured above the jump), was an awesome moment.

BAD

Conventional Wisdom: All we ever hear is about how much Pinkel hates running up the score. What should we make of the fake field goal? Everything I know has been turned upside down. What's next? War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength? Pinkel blew my mind in Orwellian fashion.
Blaine "Matthew Stafford" Gabbert: Anyone else getting concerned about his inability to back down his throws?
The Hail Mary: Mizzou seems to love giving up points on the last play of the half. I'm interested to know who was responsible for Marko Mitchell streaking down the sideline with NO ONE near him when everyone in the stadium knew what was coming.
Dap is due: This isn't a true "bad," but can we give some major love to Colin Kaepernick? As discussed in the podcast, those playfakes were absurd. Seeing the triple option out of the Pistol formation is a sight to behold.
Penalties: The stat sheet only shows 50 yards lost to penalties, but considering the plays they called back, they were worth a lot more. And a few holds ruined what was a very productive day of downfield blocking.

INDIFFERENT

The tenants of The Zou: The 54,000-plus attendance figure wasn't very impressive, but given the horrible weather, I can't rail on it too much.
The blueprint is established: If you watch enough tape on Mizzou, the blueprint of how to exploit the Mizzou D is beginning to emerge. When Mizzou blitzes up the gut, exploit the soft zone with hooks. When Mizzou blitzes outside or runs a base D, run either a screen or draw. The Mizzou D-Line has been EXTREMELY prone to getting upfield too fast at the expense of filling gaps (Kansas could kill MU with the shovel pass all day long in November).
What to do?: Where do we go from here with William Moore? I've got to believe he needs to start backing off the line of scrimmage. He's yet to come up with any huge plays on the blitz, and his presence up front leaves Garrett and Howard hanging out to dry. Granted, I'm not in practice every day, but wouldn't it make more sense to have the hard-hitting but air-vulnerable Garret on the LOS and put the ball-hawking Moore back in coverage?
The O-line: It didn't seem like a great day, but I can't find anyone or anything to single out and complain about. It's nice to be an O-lineman when Chase distributes the ball as quickly as he does when he sees a blitz coming.
Kickoffs: Wolfert had me scared earlier with subpar kickoffs early in the game, but he was launching them by game's end. Plus, as Beef noted in the podcast, the coverage was outstanding, led by Team Velodrome: Gachkar and Ebner (with some help from Lambert).

The comments are open... What am I missing?

Mizzou pounds SEMO, 52-3

RPT — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 03:51:16 -0000

via images.pictopia.com.edgesuite.net (Joel Kowsky, MUTigers.com)

Overflow thread for immediate reaction. Analysis to come in the form of the postgame podcast some time in the next 24 hours.

**SUNDAY MORNING UPDATE, by rptgwb: Good, Bad, and Indifferent now added after the jump. And I promise it doesn't just say "Good: Mizzou, Bad: SEMO."

GOOD

Football's back in CoMo: The clouds loomed, rain threatened a bit, and the opponent wasn't exactly a top draw, but it was football time in Columbia, damn it.
The tribute to AO: Arguably the coolest thing we saw all night was the debut of the tribute to fallen linebacker Aaron O'Neal, who would be in the midst of his senior year if not for his tragic death. The idea to have a senior wear an unnamed No. 25 jersey in his honor at home games this year is a fantastic idea. Brock Christopher shed his name and his No. 34 on his jersey to honor AO last night, and he represented No. 25 well.
Chase Daniel: He lacked some velocity and he forced a lot of throws that would have been picked by better competition, but 16-of-17 for 240+ in less than two quarters of play gets you in the "Good."
The RB trio: We all know how much I love Derrick Washington and how effective of a battering ram Jimmy Jackson is. But Gabe DeArmond and Dave Matter told us all offseason about De'Vion Moore and, boy, were they right. Shifty, shifty, shifty.
Health: Outside of Tru Vaughns and Brock Christopher getting a little banged up, most everyone came out healthy. Jeremy "Cheat Code" Maclin kept all his ankle ligaments intact.
The backup linebackers: OK, we REALLY need a nickname for the duo of Will Ebner and Andrew Gachkar involving the word "pursuit." Ebner and Gachkar were FLYING to the ball, and SEMO didn't run a play in the second half that these two didn't seem to have a hand in.
Other freshmen: Jerrell Jackson and Jacquies Smith announced their presence with very solid performances, and Kenji Jackson saw a large amount of playing time.

BAD

Trick plays... Really? As much as I loved seeing the double pass form Maclin to Daniel to Washington, did we really need it to knock off SEMO?
Four years of eligibility: So, those snaps against SEMO are going to have Blaine Gabbert ready for Illinois next year? That's what I'm being told?

INDIFFERENT

Tinkering: Eberflus continued to fiddle with the blitz and the coverage schemes, as we saw more of the bend-and-don't-break D from early in 2007 last night. As The Beef noted in the podcast, that happy medium is still out there waiting to be found.
The backup QBs: It was hard to judge Patton and Gabbert because no one seemed to want to run up the score. Patton seemed to move the ball fine, but I was a little concerned with Gabbert. His scramble was impressive, but his accuracy was a little off, missing a lot of targets, especially high where he was hanging his receivers out to dry.

Mizzou-SEMO: Beyond the Box Score PREVIEW

Bill C. — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:00:05 -0000

We're going to set up projections the same way we did for Illinois (I will not give SEMO the short shrift!), only to get enough of a sample size, I'm not going with SEMO, but with "FCS Tier 6", the estimated amalgamation of the worst FCS teams to play D1 opponents in 2007. (I've explained this before, but basically I combined the 1-AA/FCS teams into six tiers and grouped their stats together thusly.)

So without further adieu...

Mizzou-SEMO Projections

Mizzou Rushing

2007 Mizzou Rushing Offense EqPts+: 178.77
FCS Tier 6 Rushing Defense EqPts/Gm: 19.77
Projection #1: 35.34
FCS Tier 6 Rushing Defense EqPts+: 50.18
2007 Mizzou Rushing Offense EqPts/Gm: 16.21
Projection #2: 32.30

Avg Projected Mizzou Rushing Output: 33.82

Adjusted for 2008: 28.00 (Pinkel doesn't run up the score)

Mizzou Passing

2007 Mizzou Passing Offense EqPts+: 149.55
FCS Tier 6 Passing Defense EqPts/Gm: 17.32
Projection #1: 25.90
FCS Tier 6 Passing Defense EqPts+: 45.11
2007 Mizzou Passing Offense EqPts/Gm: 18.40
Projection #2: 40.79

Avg Projected Mizzou Passing Output: 33.35

Adjusted for 2008: 28.00 (Pinkel doesn't run up the score)

SEMO Rushing

FCS Tier 6 Rushing Offense EqPts+: 47.00
2007 Mizzou Rushing Defense EqPts/Gm: 8.29
Projection #1: 3.90
2007 Mizzou Rushing Defense EqPts+: 151.97
FCS Tier 6 Rushing Offense EqPts/Gm: 7.57
Projection #2: 4.98

Projected SEMO Rushing Output: 4.44

Adjusted for 2008: 2.50 (I liked what I saw against Illinois)

SEMO Passing

FCS Tier 6 Passing Offense EqPts+: 38.82
2007 Mizzou Passing Defense EqPts/Gm: 12.14
Projection #1: 4.71
2007 Mizzou Passing Defense EqPts+: 141.07
FCS Tier 6 Passing Offense EqPts/Gm: 4.44
Projection #2: 3.15

Projected SEMO Passing Output: 3.93

Adjusted for 2008: 4.50 (are the troubles with Mizzou's Passing D enough to accidentally give up a long pass to SEMO at some point?)

Projected EqPts Score: Missouri 56.0, SEMO 7.0

Special Teams

SEMO's special teams unit actually isn't that bad. Doug Spada is a stud punter--he averaged 42.6 yards per punt last year and uncorked a 47.6 yard average over 5 punts last weekend against SW Baptist (including two inside the 20). He's an average kicker--he went 2-for-4 on FGs last weekend, including misses from 34 and 35, but made a 47-yarder--and only averages about 59 yards on kickoffs, but let's be honest: he's going to be punting a lot more than he's kicking off or booting FGs, so this plays to his strengths. Their return game is nothing amazing, but it's also nothing terrible.

Unfortunately for SEMO, a) Mizzou just shut down a much better return game than SEMO has to offer, b) SEMO's never tried to tackle Jeremy Maclin before, and c) we've got Jeff Wolfert, and they don't. Special teams should be worth at least another 3-7 points on the scoreboard.

FCS Tier 6 Teams: Top '+' Rankings

Before I get to the "key players" for each team (I will not give SEMO the short shrift!), I wanted to look at something. It doesn't take a genius to realize that "FCS Tier 6" probably averaged at or very near the bottom in most categories, '+' rankings and otherwise. However, my '+' rankings tend to show that, well, everybody's decent at something. So let's look at where "FCS Tier 6" ranked the highest.

#31: Defensive 3rd Down Line Yards+
#53: Defensive Q2 Rushing S&P+
#58: Defensive 2nd Down Line Yards+
#62: Offensive Q2 Rushing S&P+
#67: Offensive Q4 Passing S&P+
#72: Defensive Q2 Line Yards+
#77: Defensive Q4 Line Yards+
#80: Defensive Q4 Rushing S&P+
#81: Defensive 3rd Down Rushing S&P+
#85: Defensive Redzone Rushing S&P+

Now, the Q4 numbers are easy enough to understand--chances are, the other team's scrubs are in by that point. That might even explain the three Q2 categories. But the Defensive Line Yards phenomenon is rather interesting. Eight of the 10 categories have to do with rush defense in some way, and I don't completely have an explanation for that. In fact, let's just move on...

Key Players for SEMO

QB Houston Lillard

If SEMO's going to exploit Mizzou's current weaknesses in the secondary, the ball's going to come from Lillard. He was a very impressive 27-39 for 387 yards and 3 TDs against SW Baptist last week and won the Ohio Valley's Offensive Player of the Week award, and even though that was against NAIA competition, that at least shows that he can throw, right? Of course, it would help if he had preseason All-OVC RB Timmy Holloman in the backfield with him, but Holloman was ruled ineligible for the first five games of '08. And backups Mike Jones and Jacob McKinley didn't exactly light SW Baptist ablaze.

WR Miles Edwards

If SEMO's going to exploit Mizzou's current weaknesses in the secondary, the ball's probably going to be caught by Edwards, who had 204 yards and 2 TDs (including an 80-yarder) against SW Baptist. He was SEMO's leading WR last year too, with 480 yards and 7 TDs.

LB Jared Goodson

He's SEMO's most highly-touted defensive player, a preseason All-OVC selection, though he only had 3 assisted tackles against SW Baptist. So maybe I'll go with senior LB Nick Stauffer instead--he had 10 solo and 6 assisted tackles, plus a fumble recovery. Either way, I'll be honest--I expect nothing from him this week.

CB Eddie Calvin

The junior Rockwood Summit alum had a career day last week, registering 3 first-half INTs. Lord knows he'll get to find out just how good he really is this week. If he comes up with 3 more against Chase Daniel, he probably has a future in the NFL awaiting him.

Key Players for Mizzou

WR Jeremy Maclin

He needs to have a big play in the first quarter so they have no qualms about taking him out as soon as possible. I want to see lots of Jerrell Jackson, Michael Egnew and Wes Kemp.

QB Chase Patton

He needs to be 100% healthy so that we don't even think about tearing off Blaine Gabbert's redshirt.

CBs Castine Bridges, Kevin Rutland, Tremane Vaughns, Trey Hobson, and whoever else plays opposite Carl Gettis

This one should go without saying. Does Mizzou really have a weakness at #2 CB, or was the Illinois game a giant outlier? Somebody here needs to step up, and I guess it'll probably be Bridges.

Ss Justin Garrett and Del Howard (the return of Deltin Garward!)

I put Garrett on the spot last week, and his performance wasn't overly encouraging. If Garrett and/or Howard are the cause of another deep-ball breakdown this week, I'll officially become the fan of the Hardy Ricks Fan Club...and maybe the Zaviar Gooden Fan Club too.

Summary

Nobody get hurt. Nobody get hurt. Nobody get hurt. Nobody get hurt. Nobody get hurt. Nobody get hurt. Nobody get hurt. Nobody get hurt. Nobody get hurt. Nobody get hurt.

Missouri 59, SEMO 7*

(In these types of games, there's absolutely no idea to predict the score. Who knows when Pinkel will call off the dogs, and how many points the backups for both teams may score? Mizzou should end up with between 49-63 and SEMO 0-14. But all I know is...SEMO's really, really not good, and we may accidentally score 60.)

Mizzou Pass Defense: An Autopsy

RPT — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:05:11 -0000

So after taking a day to digest what happened in St. Louis, I whipped out the TiVo to try to figure out exactly what most Mizzou fans were thinking: what the hell went wrong with our pass defense?

I went back through Juice's first four touchdown passes (before my TiVo cut out) to try to assess what the scheme was, what went wrong, and who exactly was to blame.

TOUCHDOWN PASS NO. 1:

The situation is stated in the top left corner of the diagram. Mizzou leads 7-0 but Illinois has worked into MU territory. The Illini line up in the Gun, with Dufrene left of Juice, a split end out wide on the left, a tight end to the right, and Judson and an unspecified slot receiver on the right. The left side of the field, both offense and defense, is unidentifiable but is also fairly inconsequential during the course of the play.

The play begins with a playfake from Juice to Dufrene, which at first appears to suck in Sean Weatherspoon. As the play develops though, Spoon shuffles along the line of scrimmage, showing himself to be playing a QB spy. Brock Christopher sits in a zone to take away the middle of the field.

The secondary is where the problem begins to occur. William Moore, lined up on the slot receiver before the snap, is sent on a nickel back blitz. This leaves safety Justin Garrett in man on the slot receiver (who I think was Arrelious Benn), who runs a post route and forces Garrett to the middle of the field. This route keeps Garrett from providing any support over the top, leaving Kevin Rutland in man-on-man with Will Judson on the right sideline. Judson barely gets by Rutland and goes up to make a great catch for the touchdown.

Here's the kicker, though. The coverage from Rutland was OUTSTANDING. But here's the thing about playing defensive back - you can be in perfect position and be step-for-step with the receiver, and if you don't make a play on the ball, it doesn't mean squat. Rutland NEVER looks back at the ball, giving Judson a chance to go up over him and get it.

Moore and/or Eberflus can be faulted for the ineffectiveness of the blitz, as Willy Mo is easily picked up by the IU O-Line. Moore is officially taken out of the play, but at the speed that this play developed, I'm not sure that it would have mattered.

VERDICT: Eberflus sent Moore on the blitz hoping that either A) Willy Mo would get to Juice first or B) Garrett and Rutland would be able to hold their own in man coverage. He was wrong about Part A, and very nearly right about Part B. This one is pretty much ALL on Rutland. A good defensive back has to have an innate sense of when the ball is in the air and show the ability to go up and make a play on it.

Breakdowns of the next three TD passes after the jump.

TOUCHDOWN PASS NO. 2:

On the second TD pass, Illinois comes out with trips left, one back left of Juice, and Chris Duvalt isolated on the right sideline. Mizzou comes out in the nickel, with both Christopher and Weatherspoon showing blitz. The key matchup, before the play at least, is making sure Carl Gettis is on Benn in the slot with William Moore not on the field.

The trips set of receivers on the left runs a very common combination of routes. The X receiver runs a slant with Tremaine Vaughns in man coverage. Benn runs a drag across the middle with Gettis on his tail. The inside receiver, which looked like the UI tight end, runs a deep cross with Christopher lagging behind. On the right side, Castine Bridges is left alone in man coverage on Duvalt, who runs a wheel/fade.

Eberflus sends Spoon on the blitz and, stop if you've heard this before, gets easily picked up by the Illinois O-Line.

The question here becomes the usage of the safeties. Garrett sits in what looks like a Cover 1 over the top, but after watching the tape 15-20 times, I can't figure out exactly what Del Howard's assignment was. Howard creeps up towards the line of scrimmage for a split second until turning and trying to recover towards the Bridges/Duvalt pairing. I literally can not figure out what he was trying to do.

VERDICT: Once again, though, the coverage doesn't appear to be the problem. Castine goes step-for-step with Duvalt and is in great position to make the play. But JUST like Rutland before him, Bridges fails to make a play on the ball, and all of the sudden Juice begins to feel the momentum.

TOUCHDOWN PASS NO. 3:

So, if blitz ineffectiveness played a small role in Juice's first two TD passes, it finally blew up in Mizzou's face on the third. Illinois comes out in trips right with a back and the X receiver to Juice's left. The inside slot receiver runs somewhere between an out and a corner route, with Garrett shading his coverage towards him on the right sideline. The Z receiver (Judson) on the far right runs a deep drag, taking Bridges (in man coverage) with him. With Garrett being sucked down and Castine being dragged across the field, this leaves a HUGE hole over the top.

Spoon and Christopher are both sent on a blitz and get little to no pressure on Juice. The blitz's failure once again leaves the secondary hanging out to dry a little bit. But, this time, it wasn't a failure to make a play on the ball that cost them.

William Moore, who was playing off of Duvalt in the slot, falls for a pump fake by Juice on the stop-and-go/wheel route. In that split second, Duvalt catapults by Moore and absolutely torches him en route to a wide open catch in the right side of the end zone.

VERDICT: The blame here is four-fold. Eberflus gets a share of the blame for continuing to send ineffective blitzes while the secondary struggles in man-to-man. Christopher and Spoon each take some of the blame for being swallowed whole by Illinois O-Line. But a large portion of the blame falls on Willy Mo, the All-American who not only bites hard on the pump fake, but gets burned over the top in the process. But let's give credit where credit is due: it was a great pump fake from Juice and a very well-run route from Duvalt.

TOUCHDOWN PASS NO. 4:

So, 45-28 in favor of Mizzou in the fourth quarter. This one's over, right? Not so fast, my friend.

On the third touchdown pass, the misdirection of the pump fake ate up the Mizzou defense. On the fourth, the playaction to the halfback left of Juice absolutely undressed the secondary.

Juice play fakes to the back, and Spoon and Luke Lambert each take a step up expecting run. Both recover from misstep to settle into what appeared to be zone coverage over the middle. The two backers, along with William Moore, are charged with watching the drag/slants of the tight end and Benn out of the slot to make sure they aren't wide open over the middle.

But the real Charlie Foxtrot on this play is what happens on the right side of the field. To say Justin Garrett bites hard on the play fake is an insult to all things that bite hard. Garrett flies in from the safety position in run support, only to realize the massive void he's left over top once he sees that Juice has the ball. Tremaine Vaughns, lined up on Judson on the right side, bumps Jusdon off the line and stays with him for five yards or so. It is at this point where goes from looking like he was in man coverage to looking like he was in a shallow zone of a Cover 2. After the bump, Vaughns tries to settle into the flats, but looks over and sees that Garrett is nowhere to be found in support over top.

Both Garrett and Vaughns scramble and scamper back towards the streaking Judson as fast as they can, but 12 yards of separation isn't the easiest gap to make up. Judson reels in the pass, and, once again, IU makes it a game.

VERDICT: This time, there's no blitz to blame. All of the blame falls on the duo of Garrett and Vaughns, primarily on Garrett. There's always the chance that there was a miscommunication and Vaughns should have been in man coverage, but it looks like Mizzou was running a pretty basic Nickel Cover 2. Garrett gets sucked in on the play fake like Juice is a Dyson vacuum, and 65 yards later, Judson punishes him for it.

WEDNESDAY UPDATE: Dave Matter answers my question from above, indicating that there was indeed a miscommunication. This takes a lot of heat off of Justin Garrett:

Illinois’ longest pass capitalized on a classic case of miscommunication in the secondary. On Illinois’ first series of the fourth quarter, Illini receiver Will Judson blew by cornerback Tru Vaughns, who appeared to expect safety help over the top. But strong safety Justin Garrett was helping double-team slot receiver Arrelious Benn, leaving Judson 7 yards behind Vaughns when he hauled in Williams’ pass down the right sideline. He jogged to the end zone for a 65-yard score.