In da Film Room: Brandon Harris vs. Texas Tech

The bowl game against Texas Tech starkly showed that when you win the battle in the trenches, you will win more games than you lose. LSU’s offensive line dominated a weak Tech front seven. There aren’t a lot of clips here where someone in his Brandon Harris’ lap or coming off the edge fast. The problem for the LSU’s passing game is still the same as it’s been all year. Even though the pocket was clean, Harris still under threw a plethora of targets.

12:20 1st Quarter, 1st & 10 on the TTU 13 -

I think this is a good read by Harris. We’ve talked about how we wanna throw the corner against man coverage when no one drops into that deep third/quarter to take away that route. It’s just another under thrown ball. Even though the defender is outside of Foster Moreau, with a corner route we can put some air on the ball and throw over the defender, which Harris doesn’t do.

12:15 1st Quarter, 2nd & 10 on the TTU 13 -

This is something that I think we’ll see run more in 2016 the more Harris develops and the coaching staff trusts him. This is a run play with a built in “now” throw to Dupre. The corner is off so Harris takes it and throws an accurate ball. When the defense is giving you a gift, you have to unwrap it. There are 10(!) guys in the box and in 2016 we have to be able to make defenses pay for this.

7:50 1st Quarter, 3rd & 4 on the LSU 37 -

I’m not sure exactly what the read progression from Harris on this mesh/pick concept. Tech is playing Cover 1, so I would expect him to try to throw the corner route to Dupre. Guice’s defender gets caught up a bit in all the action inside so he’s late getting to the swing route and maybe that’s who Harris was keying. It’s an accurate ball and then this magician wearing No. 5 makes another defender disappear.

12:43 2nd Quarter, 1st & 10 on the LSU 10 -

No view of the downfield routes but this is LSU’s bread n’ butter downfield playaction pass. Good on Harris for keeping the play alive and keeping his eyes downfield and kudos to Jeter for leaking out even though he didn’t have a designed route on the play.

11:47 1st Quarter, 1st & 10 on the LSU 24 -

Damn Tigers, back at it again with the RPO’s! (I’m sorry for that). I can’t tell who Harris is reading here. The most common design for this type of play would have the quarterback back read the weakside linebacker and throw the slant (which LSU did do this past year). When the right guard, Clapp, goes to the second level he ignores the Will and goes to block the Mike so that could be an indication that Harris was reading the Will. Something is off though. I don’t really see Harris’ head turned to the Will so I kinda feel like he’s reading the Sam because the route by Dupre is more of a drag than a slant so he could potentially get over that strong backer while Harris makes the read. I’m 90 percent sure it’s the former but you never know.

11:14 2nd Quarter, 1st & 10 on the LSU 38 -

LSU is going to roll out and run your classic smash concept with Diarse and Quinn here. Earlier, I wrote about throwing the corner route if the no one drops to the deep third/quarter. This is the inverse. TTU is in Cover 3 so the cornerback drops deep and takes away the corner route by Quinn. Harris doesn’t panic and when Diarse finds some space outside the flat defender, Harris delivers a nice throw.

10:48 2nd Quarter, 2nd & 5 on the LSU 43 -

Another “now” throw by LSU packaged with a run play. Harris does have to work on getting the ball out a tad quicker but, as God as my witness, those Tech defensive backs come downhill in a hurry. Time for the ol’ wheel route from Quinn for a touchdown.

10:07 2nd Quarter, 3rd & 5 on the LSU 43 -

More of this mesh/pick play that LSU ran in the first quarter. You can really see Jeter and Quinn deliberately setting picks. I would imagine LSU does this because, first, they know Harris probably isn’t going to get to his 4th and 5th progressions and, secondly, it might free up a route against man coverage. Tech does a good job of bracketing the corner route (and then Harris panics and throws it anyway). The swing is covered but eventually Dupre would have come free on the shallow crossing route.

8:36 2nd Quarter, 3rd & 8 on the TTU 39 -

Once No. 7 for Tech runs with Jeter on the crossing route, Harris knows he has man and decides to throw the hitch route to Diarse (who runs a good pattern) but the throw is in the dirt.

6:52 2nd Quarter, 2nd & 12 on the TTU 44 -

EZ PZ. Jeter makes a nice block.

2:57 2nd Quarter, 2nd & 6 on the LSU 30 -

Same RPO slant/drag from before. That linebacker muddies the read for Harris and then when he pulls it from Fournette, he doesn’t feel like he can get the ball into Dupre. This ended up getting called back for ineligible man downfield.

2:26 2nd Quarter, 2nd & 11 on the LSU 26 -

Same play that Harris put it in the dirt on the throw to Diarse. This time, Tech is in zone but the corner is playing a similar technique so Harris throws it again and this time completes it.

1:40 2nd Quarter, 3rd & 2 on the LSU 34 -

Here’s a good example of what I was talking about earlier about the corner route. Yes, the defender is outside of Quinn but he makes that subtle stick move to the post before coming to the corner and he’s able to shake the defender a bit. That defender has to turn all the way around to locate the ball. There’s a lot of area to put that ball over the top and down the field. Throw the ball well and this is a big play.

15:00 3rd Quarter, 1st & 10 on the LSU 25 -

What do off corners get? Comebacks. Dupre gets himself open and Harris can’t put the ball anywhere near him. Harris also has to watch his eyes on this play. That flat defender almost gets underneath the route because Harris is staring at Dupre the whole time.

14:20 3rd Quarter, 3rd & 6 on the LSU 29 -

Because Tech is in man coverage, Harris feels like he can go to Dupre on the slot fade route. It’s a good idea, you’d read this route almost like you’d read a corner route. It’s a good ball and I’ll put the drop on Dupre although the defender might have punched it out.

11:39 3rd Quarter, 1st & 10 on the LSU 20 -

I don’t know how many times this season Harris threw behind his receiver on the play action post route, but here it is again.

10:55 3rd Quarter, 3rd & 10 on the LSU 20 -

I don’t know what LSU is teaching on the dig route that Jeter runs but this is zone coverage and normally should sit down in the zone and not run across the field like you would against man coverage. Harris is throwing to the right guy, but that guy should be stationary, I believe.

9:04 3rd Quarter, 3rd & 8 on the LSU 27 -

Third time Harris throws to Diarse on this concept. Timing and throw are really good.

5:20 3rd Quarter, 1st & 10 on the LSU 22 -

Tech is in man. When Jeter’s dude falls over he’s open. Drops happen at every level, it’s just frustrating when you have team with a case of drops multiplied by bad throws.

5:13 3rd Quarter, 1st & 21 on the LSU 11 -

And then sometimes you remember how our receivers are all ballers.

4:53 3rd Quarter, 1st & 10 on the 50 -

What happens here is that the defensive tackle for Tech, when he gets swatted and regains his balance, looks up and sees Harris already ready to throw. He’s smart enough to not still attack the quarterback and locates where the ball is going to thwart this screen.

4:48 3rd Quarter, 2nd & 10 on the 50 -

This is what happens when you hit the post in stride.

11:38 4th Quarter, 1st & 10 on the LSU 45 -

Harris has time to at least look at Quinn running to the sideline but the coaching staff might have him read this concept short to deep so the read is fine.

10:12 4th Quarter, 3rd & 5 on the 50 -

Same slot fade to Dupre against the same coverage, this time it’s a big play.

9:14 4th Quarter, 1st & Goal on the TTU 3 -

I actually think that Harris can float the ball over to the back of the endzone to Moreau, not sure why he doesn’t.