The Football Brainiacs

Image via mysanantonio.com

After watching some film on Texas, here are five thoughts about Texas and five corresponding thoughts/responses about Oklahoma.

1. Coach Strong has Texas playing some even front, but a lot more 3-3-5 odd front. He plays it the way a true 3-3-5 is played…very aggressive. They will blitz a lot, both to stop the run and pass. They’ve got some good players in their 3-man front, but their nose guard (Hassan Ridgeway) is out of position. He’s athletic and quick, but he’s a little light in the rear. They also lack depth at the position. They do have a big ILB (Steve Edmond) they like to like to blitz a lot as well, who helps mask some of the issues on the interior part of their defensive line. It seems Strong, in realizing they don’t have a ton of depth up front, is trying to be aggressive in attempt to create negative plays on early downs.

OU should…run the ball a lot even if they are unsuccessful early. Texas’ defense lacks the depth, so the run could pay off big later in the game. The OU running backs are going to need to wade through a lot of trash because the Texas defenders will be flying around, getting into gaps, and playing extremely aggressively. However, when you play like that you also create creases. Running backs with bad vision will struggle. Running backs with good vision could rip off some nice runs.

2. Texas flies to the ball on defense. They really are a team playing with great effort. As a football fan, I really like watching their effort on defense. They tackle better than we are used to seeing from Texas teams in recent years and even if the first defender misses, they’ve got secondary players running to the ball.

OU should…match or exceed that effort with their own intense defensive performance. Oklahoma needs to be flying to the football on defense. On offense, put the ball in Perine’s hand and let him smash up against the defenders a little bit. They might not want to rally to the football as much in the second half.

3. From what I saw in the Baylor game, Texas plays primarily man and Cover-3 coverages. They’ve got the corners that can play in a WR’s face and play a closed press technique. In fact, overall their secondary appears more athletic than Oklahoma on the edges. One thing I noticed in the second half was the CBs playing a lot of shuffle technique. This is often done for different reasons. In this case, I think Strong was trying to get his CBs helping in the run game as their front started to wear down.

OU should…look for some hitches and slants early when they get those cover (shuffle) techniques. As the game wears on those corners are going to break harder on the short routes. Along with them trying to get involved in the run game, there might be some opportunities for some double moves later in the game.

4. Texas has a couple really nice running backs. They’ve got good vision and they are strong runners. They’re also pretty physical on the right side of their o-line.

OU should…take the run away early. Don’t let the backs get any confidence early on. All you need in a rivalry game is belief. If Texas has some early success running, their defense will play better and their offensive line will only get stronger as the game wears on. OU shouldn’t have any trouble playing their safeties down since Texas hasn’t proved they can throw consistently. Also, quarters coverage could be good to get the safeties those run reads and still be sound against the deep passing game.

5. Texas’ quarterback, Tyrone Swoopes, has a big arm but he’s not a quick decision maker right now. They’ve got some talent at wide receiver, but he’s just not getting the ball out of his hands fast enough. Texas is doing everything they can to put him in a position to succeed. They run downhill a lot out of the ‘ace’ and I-formation. They’ll roll Swoopes out, they’ll run some option. But at the end of the day he has to be able to stand in there and make throws against OU or any defense.

OU should…play a lot of guys near the line of scrimmage…stuff the run on first down and get after Swoopes as much as possible. A part of me says to mix the coverages a lot, because it looks like he’s not seeing things well and you may be able to bait him into something. But you also don’t want to risk any busts. No need to give up free points. I like when OU runs their Cover-3 zone blitzes. They play lock on one side so it makes it look and feel a lot like man free (it fooled me until I went back and looked again and edited my notes in the defensive post earlier this week).

The point here is you want to pressure him, give him some things to look at pre-snap, and then change it on him (something OU does a lot). But you want to make sure you’re putting your players in a position to crowd the receivers because Swoopes threw his INTs against man coverage. In other words, it wasn’t about him misreading the defense. It was simply about him getting pressured and then throwing the ball with poor placement allowing the defender to make the play.

In fact, I’d be all for OU playing Cover-0 and bringing more than Texas can block. Double A-gap blitzes or anything that frees a defender up the middle can really jar Swoopes. A couple of times he was rushed instantly up the middle and just launched the ball up in the air for anyone to grab.

Final Note: After watching Texas, I’m convinced they have some real strengths to their team and a win over them would say a lot about the Sooners. Don’t be fooled by their record. They’ve played their opponents tough. They just don’t have enough bullets in the chamber on offense right now. But their quarterback is young and OU is going to face a player who obviously has taken more live snaps than he had earlier in the season. Coach Strong has done a fine job bringing effort and toughness back to this Texas team. They are thin at some positions, but they’re better than their record indicates and this is obviously a rivalry game. A big win here, especially a blowout, would be a great win for Oklahoma.

Have fun and be safe y’all!