Texas Tech football: Lessons Red Raiders can learn from Super Bowl LIV

You don’t slow elite passing offenses by blitzing on just about every passing down

Here’s hoping Texas Tech defensive coordinator Keith Patterson was watching Super Bowl LIV.  If he was, he would have seen S.F. defensive coordinator Robert Saleh give him a blueprint for how to slow an elite passing offense…and it looked nothing like the way Patterson calls a game.

Yes, S.F. lost the game and gave up 31 points.  But for 53 minutes of the game, Saleh’s defense gave Mahomes and the Chiefs absolute fits.

If fact, the 49ers held K.C. below its playoff averages in points and yards while forcing the first two interceptions of Mahomes’ playoff career.  And they did so by playing defense the exact opposite of how Patterson asks his defense to play.

Saleh asked his defense to get pressure with the defensive line while dropping seven players into a zone scheme.  That’s the recipe that seems to work best against spread offenses across the board.

Those who point out that Saleh has more representative talent to work with on his defense than Patterson does are only half correct.  He does have the best defensive line in the NFL, thus allowing him to impact the passer with just four rushers.

But like Patterson, he has a below-average group of defensive backs.  The S.F. secondary is not equipped to handle elite speed as Kansas City has at the skill positions.  Thus, Saleh didn’t ask his defensive backs to cover one-on-one very often.  When he did, they got burned as was the case with Richard Sherman on the second-to-last TD drive of the game when Mahomes hooked up with Sammy Watkins for a crucial 38-yard reception that set up the game-winning touchdown.

While Patterson has to figure out how to build a more impactful pass-rushing defensive line, until he is able to build one, he shouldn’t keep putting his secondary in a position to fail by playing man coverage and blitzing the house on critical downs.  Even if it means sacrificing some sacks (which there weren’t many of even when he did send extra rushers), it is wiser to make big-play passing offenses have to sustain long drives to score rather than just allowing them to hit huge plays because you want to bring waves of pass rushers that aren’t even going to get to the QB anyway.

In Super Bowl LIV, S.F. was in control of the game until the Chiefs were able to start hitting big plays.  When Mahomes and the Chiefs had to drive the ball by picking up small or intermediate chunks of yards, they were frustrated and found life difficult.

That’s a plan that Keith Patterson should consider adopting.  It gave S.F. a chance to win the Super Bowl and until Texas Tech has elite individual talent on defense, that’s going to be the best way to try to slow down Big 12 offenses as well.