Texas Tech football: How Red Raiders can attack the ISU defense

Let’s take a look at the ways the Texas Tech football team could choose to attack the stingy Iowa State defense this weekend.

The Iowa State Cyclones have been at the forefront of the cloud defense revolution in not only the Big 12 but across the NCAA.  But what exactly makes this 3-3-5 scheme so difficult to solve.

The answer is versatility.  There’s just so much that defensive coordinator John Heacock can do from this alignment, which has three defensive linemen, three linebackers, and five defensive backs on the field.

Because the linebackers and defensive backs are often interchangeable in their jobs, it can be rather difficult for a quarterback and his offensive coordinator to make the correct read.  That’s especially true given that teams only see this defensive scheme once or twice per season.

Often, defensive coordinators use one of their linebackers or defensive backs to blitz thus becoming a fourth defensive lineman.  The benefit for the defense is that the offense doesn’t know which player is going to blitz whereas, in a 4-man defensive line, the rushers are far easier to identify.

Also making this scheme so effective is the fact that the defense has taken a defensive lineman off the field and replaced him with an extra defensive back makes the defense faster and it cuts down on the passing lanes by putting an eighth man in coverage.

That’s especially beneficial when trying to combat the short passing game that is so common in today’s NCAA.  Teams that like to run the “Air Raid” or some hybrid version of it love to use crossing routes and slants as the primary means for moving the football so having extra defenders in coverage cuts down on the effectiveness of those routes by putting more tacklers in the area of the receiver thus limiting yards after the reception.

Thus far, this is a scheme that Tech has not solved since the current ISU coaching staff took over in Ames back in the 2016 season.  Tech is 0-4 against head coach Matt Campbell and his defensive coordinator John Heacock and in those four games, the Red Raiders have averaged just 19.4 points per game.

So how can the Red Raiders make this year different?  It will take solid execution across the board and a disciplined performance but if they can do the following, they could finally figure out this exotic Cyclone defense.