Quarterbacking 101: Brandon Allen vs. Texas

Brandon Allen and the Arkansas Razorbacks absolutely destroyed Texas in the Texas Bowl last night.

I’m going to break down the long touchdown pass that got the route started.

First, you can see here that coach Bret Bielema likes old-school football. He has nine, almost 10 players in the box. That’s rare these days because everyone likes the spread offense. But when you’re facing a running game and offensive line like Arkansas, you better believe Texas will stack the box.

From the look on this picture, I’d assume that Texas is in a one-high safety defense. That is the typical defense that coaches run when facing a run-heavy team. They do that to bring an extra tackler to the box. The passing game should be able to find massive holes in this defense.

On this play, quarterback Brandon Allen executes a great play-action to his running back to the right. The action sucks up the linebackers as they see run, allowing the Arkansas receiver on the right to run his route cleanly.

This actually looks to be a cover 1 defense because the corner ran with the crossing receiver. I’m not sure why the safety is so far in the middle of the field, though. He should have been peeping that deep post and helping out his corner. He’s in no-man’s land and Allen just stepped up and launched the ball deep down the field.

The receiver made a great adjustment to get a “legal” push-off and was able to come down with the long touchdown pass.

If last night is any indication, Arkansas is going to be trouble next year in the SEC. Allen was throwing seeds all over the field and really impressed me with his arm strength, mobility and accuracy on the run. With this big bowl win over Texas and momentum heading into recruiting, Arkansas can be very scary next year.