How to score a lot of points
Throw deep early and often, evidently.
“It’s not what we know, but what our players know.”
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It’s October 11, 2014, and a lot of points are about to be scored.
In a wild game that came down to a kicker’s kick, Baylor overcame a 21-point deficit by doing these three things…
1. Going deep early and often.
Baylor passed the ball deep so often it almost felt reckless.
At first, they weren’t hitting the deep ball. In fact, they weren’t having much success at all.
With 2:13 left in the first quarter, here’s how each previous Baylor drive had gone:
13 plays, turned the ball over on downs.
Fumble.
Three-and-out.
Three-and-out.
Yes, you read that correctly. Baylor was in the middle of its fifth with time left to play in the first quarter — and don’t worry, we’ll talk about their tempo in another article.
And they were down 14-0.
So what did they do? Kept chucking it deep until it worked.
And it did.
Here’s touchdown number one:
2. Getting the ball to their best playmakers.
Immediately after that first touchdown, the Bears went right to their number one guy: #1 Corey Coleman (64 rec, 1119 yds, and 11 TDs in 2014).
The Horned Frogs blitz the nickel and played Cover 0 to the field. That was a huge mistake because all Baylor is trying to do is create 1 on 1 matchups.
Here’s the play:
Now the game plan was a little more sophisticated than I am making it out to be.
But not really all that different. Baylor knew what they wanted to do, and they just kept doing it.
They decided that the upside of these deep balls to their best players were how they were going to win games.
So they ran them even when they didn’t work all that consistently.
Because that’s how they had decided they were going to win. They didn’t abandon the plan. And they didn’t have to because their plan and style of attack is really solid (more on that in later articles!).
Let’s get to step 3.
3. Repeating steps 1 and 2.
Yes, it’s that simple.
They really did just keep throwing deep balls to their studs over and over again.
Now the plays you are about to watch are just the rest of their 5 touchdowns (all passing, all deep).
In future articles, I will dive into the specifics of these plays, and how they fit within the overall offense.
But for now, just enjoy this remarkable way of playing ball.
Touchdown #2:
Touchdown #3:
Touchdown #4:
This one is particularly exciting because with 44 seconds left in the third quarter, haven’t scored a TD all quarter and only kicked a field goal that quarter.
None of that matters. Repeat steps 1 and 2.
Touchdown #5:
Touchdown #6:
Final Thoughts
I can’t really articulate how this offense makes me feel.
A lot of times, I am just asking myself how they’re getting away with all of this. The approach to the game seems so different than anyone else’s.
They have decided how they will play, and they have committed wholeheartedly.
It’s exhilarating to watch, and I’m excited to continue studying it and sharing more information about it here.
I hope you are looking forward to this study and if you know anyone who might be interested, please share this article.
Until next time—