Much has been made of JJ's alarmingly thin stat line from the Texas matchup, but on rewatching the game, I was struck by how much attention he garnered even when he's not the intended receiver on a play. Case in point is the incredible "75 yards through the Heart of Texas" screen pass to Trey Henderson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GinsMCava04&t=6s&ab_channel=TheCoachPlays
While Sark is technically correct that it was a sim pressure and not a true blitz and the Longhorns had seven in coverage, just look at where those seven are:
The edge defender at the top of the screen to JJ's side (unclear if LB or DE to me because I can't see his jersey number) drops into a shallow zone, while the CB plays man on him and the safety is dropping deep to help out and take away the threat of a post from Smith. THREE guys are working to defend JJ. Removing the three D-linemen who come in on the pass rush, that leaves five defenders to the play side. One is a linebacker covering the middle of the field and one is the nickel who blitzes, leaving three DBs to cover our three eligible receivers, Henderson, and the convoy of offensive linemen releasing to lead block for him.
We can all agree that it was a terrible mistake to bring a DB on a blitz from the overloaded side, but the fact that the extra body was dedicated to triple teaming Smith meant that Texas' D was hilariously outmanned at the point of attack.
That's the JJ Smith effect. You can't guard him using the usual tactics, and when you finally do, there's nobody left to defend the other superstar skill players on this offense.
