Ignoring TCU and the Tequilla baggage that comes with them for a moment, it's a great analysis and I hope our DC Pete K. has been chatting with Patterson in the off-season....almost every team U-Dub faces runs HUNH / spreads.
I'm glad this year we have a good secondary that has the talent and smarts to execute this sort of read-option D. Whether the pass-rush makes them not having to cover too long is the big question.
This.
And the part that is very interesting to me for those that aren't very familiar with how Patterson's defense is run is how they break their 11 man defense into 3 different and distinct groups.
When you think about defense in a manner that is designed to cause disruption and confusion for the offense and to capitalize on the opportunities that they are presented, nobody right now does it better than that defense schematically. It's played everything from spread to ground/pound teams and have held up against all styles. Sure, there's going to be examples where the other team out executes, etc. as Baylor has a few times in the last 5 years. And as is pointed out in the articles, when Baylor has beaten TCU in the last 5 years (3 of the 5 games), the margin of the Baylor victories have been one score games. In contrast, when TCU wins they tend to be blowouts. So it's hard to say that Baylor has some kind of scheme that makes them the kryptonite for the TCU defense. It's more that Baylor has one of the best offenses in the country and one of the things that they specialize in (stretching the field) is one of the few areas where you can really attack the TCU defense.
The TCU vs Oklahoma game last year was another great example. Oklahoma hit 2 long passes to set up scores but by taking away the short passes, it turned Oklahoma's offense into only being able to succeed by taking shots down the field. Ultimately, that failed them in the long run.
