This thread is WAY out there, but hear me out...

[CadaverDawg]

It's pretty much a given that we are going to lose this weekend. Obviously we will all be hoping for the upset, but it is not likely.

That being said, the big question is...How do you stop Manziel?

Well since we have nothing to lose, why couldn't we throw a major curveball at them and just give it a shot? They have tons of speed and Manziel is damn near impossible to contain. And they run the ball well, but not with a power running game. So why not put as much speed on the field as possible, and force them to run the ball? Most teams you want to make one dimensional and force them to pass, but Manziel will beat you with legs and arm, so that doesn't work against him. So why not reverse it and try to make them a running team, therefore milking clock and shortening the game and limiting their possessions?

Here is my outside the box defensive starting lineup.

First off, We could start a DLine filled with Linebackers plus maybe Chris Jones. But I would have them standing up and moving back and forth...no guys in a stance. Maybe put Skinner and McKinney on the ends, with Autry and Chris Jones in the DT area. Then have Market, Wells, and Z Jackson at linebackers. Then Love and Redmond at CB, and Calhoun and Cox at your safeties.

Now you have speed all over the field and coverage guys everywhere. On short yardage situations we could bring in bigger packages, but this would not only help us from being so overmatched with speed, it would also allow us to confuse them by having guys that can cover all over the place so we can bring blitzes at random.

I know this is far fetched, but since we likely lose anyway, I was thinking it would be a good idea to go small, and somewhat give up the running game a little bit in an attempt to slow the game down. And then offensively if we RTDB...we could really frustrate them by limiting offensive touches.

Fire away. I know it's not going to happen, and probably has tons of holes in the logic, but I'm interested to hear why it's so terrible and what other ways we could stop JFF.

[Barking 13]

I think I said as much in a short post yesterday... I thought what you are describing was supposed to be the "Mayhem" that I have not seen yet...

[Political Hack]

Autry's gap control has been suspect at times this year. I'd go to Smith and CJ at DTs if you're looking for speed.

That said I think our normal D will be ok against them if we can get some decent play out of the safety spot.

[Statecoachingblows**]

Not watched much of A&M this year (hate JFF) anyway, I think at this point why not try it!? What's there to lose? Bring tons of pressure and force him into a quick decision as much as possible. No spying him (break the tackle anyway I'm sure) put him on the ground every chance you get. Bring every speed guy off the edge, one on one won't be as bad if he is being rushed/ or under pressure every play. Going in with a minimal chance at best I think its probably a fine time go with every option you got and see what happens. He has been careless plenty of times why does that have to stop with us?

[geotop]

I think the best way to beat TAMU and JFF is we gotta be very efficient with the ball and score. We dont have to necessarily play uptempo. We do have to score on most possessions. We can take 10 minutes, but we have to end with a score. i think TAMU plays fast but as long as we are efficient with the ball,
I think we can get some defensive stops.

[FISHDAWG]

Autry's gap control has been suspect at times this year. I'd go to Smith and CJ at DTs if you're looking for speed.

That said I think our normal D will be ok against them if we can get some decent play out of the safety spot.

^^^^ this !! ^^^ for me, the glaring weakness we have right now is at the safety position .... that is played by a Senior

[Negative Waves]

Didn't Joe Lee Dunn do this against UK in 97 on the first drive? I remember he sent out none of the D line and had a bunch of speed guys out there standing up at the LOS.

[DawgInMemphis]

It's pretty much a given that we are going to lose this weekend. Obviously we will all be hoping for the upset, but it is not likely.

That being said, the big question is...How do you stop Manziel?

Well since we have nothing to lose, why couldn't we throw a major curveball at them and just give it a shot? They have tons of speed and Manziel is damn near impossible to contain. And they run the ball well, but not with a power running game. So why not put as much speed on the field as possible, and force them to run the ball? Most teams you want to make one dimensional and force them to pass, but Manziel will beat you with legs and arm, so that doesn't work against him. So why not reverse it and try to make them a running team, therefore milking clock and shortening the game and limiting their possessions?

Here is my outside the box defensive starting lineup.

First off, We could start a DLine filled with Linebackers plus maybe Chris Jones. But I would have them standing up and moving back and forth...no guys in a stance. Maybe put Skinner and McKinney on the ends, with Autry and Chris Jones in the DT area. Then have Market, Wells, and Z Jackson at linebackers. Then Love and Redmond at CB, and Calhoun and Cox at your safeties.

Now you have speed all over the field and coverage guys everywhere. On short yardage situations we could bring in bigger packages, but this would not only help us from being so overmatched with speed, it would also allow us to confuse them by having guys that can cover all over the place so we can bring blitzes at random.

I know this is far fetched, but since we likely lose anyway, I was thinking it would be a good idea to go small, and somewhat give up the running game a little bit in an attempt to slow the game down. And then offensively if we RTDB...we could really frustrate them by limiting offensive touches.

Fire away. I know it's not going to happen, and probably has tons of holes in the logic, but I'm interested to hear why it's so terrible and what other ways we could stop JFF.

We'll definitely need to put speed on the field, but using LB's in place of D-linemen is probably going too far. ATM has a very good offensive line. You take away the power rush from an opposing D-line (you'd be giving up a lot of meat subbing in LB's for D-linemen) then they only need to worry about the speed rush... in essence making our pass rush one dimensional. I think they would gash us on the ground big time.

Any way you slice it, it's a tough task. I think you try to force JFF to pass the ball as much as possible and you throw the kitchen sink at Evans. If the other players beat you, so be it. Jam Evans off the line and ALWAYS have help over the top with him. Contain Manziel's scrambling as well as you're able to and force him to throw to someone other than Evans. They're going to score points - no way around it.

[slickdawg]

Didn't Joe Lee Dunn do this against UK in 97 on the first drive? I remember he sent out none of the D line and had a bunch of speed guys out there standing up at the LOS.

Yes. First play of the game, Tim Couch burned a timeout. Hilarious.

[Mjoelner34]

I'd go with Alexander the Great's hammer and anvil. Have the right DE and right OLB maintain gap control and stay at the line of scrimmage while bringing the left DE and left OLB into JFF's face on every pass forcing him to scramble to his left and into the waiting right DE and right OLB.

Sure, it may not work but why the hell not try it? We didn't do this last year and only gave up almost 700 yards and 38 points.

[Vancleave]

Problem is Mike Evans. JFF will throw it up if you rush him and then we will either get a pass interference call or evans makes the catch. We need to SLOW the game down as much as possible. Run the ball and the clock, play keep away from JFF.

[deltadawg99]

I'd put Matthew Wells on Manziel to spy on him the whole game. Wells can fly, but for whatever reason is a liability in coverage.

We have to be rotating the DL constantly throughout the game to keep them fresh.

We are also going to have to roll the dice and blitz him. Last year we ran a lot of 3 defensive linemen and dropped 8. That gave Manziel all day to throw the ball and even though the secondary would have good coverage for a while, Manziel would improv and create something with his legs or the WRs would eventually get open.

Oh and another thing, BENCH NICKOE WHITLEY. If I were Kevin Sumlin I would pick on him the entire game. Complete liability in both the pass and run defense.

[ckDOG]

KEEP HIM OFF THE DAMN FIELD. That's how. 60/40 run to pass on offense. Dak (assuming he plays) and JRob/Shump getting 70% of runs to wear out defense interior and Perk can get the rest with draws and 3rd down stuff.

Doesn't matter our strategy on D. They will find a way to burn us. Our only shot is establishing a power running game that controls the clock and wears out their D. Capitalize off a TO or two and we have a shot.

If we play a finesse game with majority passes and Perk trying to slash his way to yards, it's blowout city.

[Coach 57]

This is a bad week. I haven't been on here posting for a while due to it, but I'll drop my 2 pennies in here. First of all I know you guys are going to disagree & won't like the idea but the best way to slow JF down with our personnel is with a 30 front to start out with Chris @ DT or even Eulls. PJ, Virges, quay or anybody else are just too slow between the 20's this is what we need. One thing I have noticed is that our LBs lately are REALLY slow and have had trouble "filling". But beyond that tackling in open space is absolutely KILLING us! I'm not just picking on LBs either. It is an issue from the front to back. This is one team if you don't tackle well against.....they will eat your lunch! But I would go with the old 3-3-5 look. But everybody MUST maintain gap integrity! It is ABSOLUTELY PARAMOUNT! UM did it and have JF fits. I think that UM's defense is FAR faster than ours. But you can get Johnny boxed & blitz him in his face he makes mistakes. But for our personnel we need to use a 3-3-5. I think our 2nd string backers will actually look better this weekend & we must sit Nikoe in this game. They will work him like a janitor in this game.

[Jack Lambert]

Who is the Freshman LB that is real fast? Don't remember his name. Make him Johnny butt paste Saturday.

Also I think they are going to score 95% of the time they get the ball. So why not on side kick every time we kick off and go for it on 4th down. Law of average should hand us the ball one or two more times then we would.