I have long held the belief that the college game is unique in that, while these athletes are incredibly skilled and talent imbalances abound, emotion/effort, execution and discipline, and planning can enable a team with inferior talent to take down a more skilled opponent. In most cases, the glaring mistakes, odd bounces, and other asynchronous events even out over the course of the game, leaving it to talent and execution to determine the outcome.
The Cats have the capability to be exceptionally disciplined on defense, maintaining lanes, filling gaps, and tackling. The proof of this the absence of big plays given up throughout the season. I can recall our CB, VanHoos, getting snookered on a play action early vs. Purdue to give up a long pass TD, and some poor discipline and tackling vs. Iowa that led to a long TD run. But that's about if for home run plays given up on defense (I imagine there are a few more). Same is largely true on ST, where we had a break down vs. Michigan.
Iowa was the turning point. In the games that followed, the Cats held Saquon Barkely, a very good RB (6.1 YPC), in check for 3 quarters before he made most of his numbers in Q4 on a few long runs. Terrell Newby of Tommie Armstrong of Nebraska were also bottled up. And then there was Wisconsin. These were not blowout games where the opposition abandoned the run. They were Big Ten slugfests, much like we saw in the championship game, and the NU run defense was stellar. There is a clear blueprint for the Cats, and the way they finished the season after the debacles at UM and vs. Iowa tells me that they have bought into it.
If the Cats continue their brand of disciplined run defense, Hurd, Kamara and Dobbs can be contained, eliminating home run plays and forcing UT to consistently make plays on longer drives in order to gain points. This increases the probability of mistakes that kill drives and/or field position. It sounds like the ideal scenario for the Cats on defense is to force Dobbs to make plays in the passing game, much like what transpired vs. PSU (Hackenberg), Nebraska (Armstrong is an awful passer), and Wisconsin.
This still may not be enough. Big plays on special teams can negate this field position strategy pretty quickly. Also, I believe our offense needs to take an evolutionary step forward in order to present a credible downfield threat in the passing game. This is not an outlandish thought, but our receivers will need to find ways to "reinvent" themselves in terms of gaining separation and making more plays.
