OU vs. Texas Tech: Defensive Bullet Points
Posted on: November 17, 2014
Image via zimbio.com
– Want to start first by praising the adjustments Mike Stoops made in his pre-snap looks. For the most part, OU did a much better job of taking away the quick game by showing different secondary alignments leading up to the snap of the ball. This was something we saw very little of in the Baylor game and it was a real head-scratcher.
– We also saw Oklahoma play a lot tighter coverage in general. In fact, even in the red zone we saw tighter overall alignments than we traditionally see.
– OU still primarily uses a motor-mirror type technique in their press coverage. Going forward it would be nice to see them occasionally use a more physical press technique, but what we saw this past weekend was certainly an improvement over what we saw last weekend, so I’ll take it!
– Jordan Thomas looks fantastic. Very long and fluid athlete. Very little doubt in my mind he’ll be a really good corner for Oklahoma as early as next season. Looked great in both off and press techniques. Was able to align properly in the various calls from what I could tell. He lost his guy on occasion, and I would love to see him go against some speedy receivers because we haven’t had a chance to see him really challenged vertically much, but overall really liked what I saw from him.
– OU did play more man coverage than they’ve played most of the season. Still plenty of three shell coverage – sky coverages, cloud coverages, etc.
– The busts in the secondary seemed to come for various reasons.
On one occasion it was just the safety losing his man because he took his eyes off of him.
On another bust there was a WR motion to trips and the two safeties didn’t communicate to ensure who had who. Steven Parker took the guy that seemed natural based on his alignment and the release, but based on what coach Stoops said it sounds like they practice it differently. Either way, the safeties need to talk and call their man or call the ‘banjo’ coverage if they’re going to exchange men based on the release.
Another bust seemed to happen in a Cover-3 call…man just didn’t stay deep.
Another one came on what I’m guessing was a rolled coverage (I couldn’t see the back end – but could see that Sanchez was in a deep third and Jordan Thomas played a Cover-2 technique/curl to flat).
Addressing The Busts
I want to take a minute and explain why some of the busts can occur in the secondary. I’m not necessarily offering an excuse, but we have to be clear that Mike Stoops is teaching his guys what to do and on occasion they aren’t doing it. One of the biggest issues in the secondary is learning the various techniques for the calls. This means learning your alignment/assignment and knowing how to properly execute it. When you explain each call and technique it all seems simple enough. But through the course of a game, as the offense is moving faster and faster and the calls come in, a mental bust can be made.
For example, let’s say you get a Cover-2 call and you’re asked to align five yards off, head-up, and your responsibility is to get hands on number one and then sink…then look at the possible underneath routes in your zone, and if there are none, then continue to sink. Sounds easy enough, right? Yes, but when you get that call, followed by a man call, follow by a trap call, followed by a sky call, and all the while the offense is moving around, you can get busts.
Last year, Oklahoma did not have as many of these busts because (1) the safeties were more experienced and (2) OU played more man coverage.
Anyhow, just wanted to offer up some notes on that matter because I suspect some of you have been wondering about it.
– I’ve been a little hard on the LBs and their spacing in coverage, but I’ve got to give them some credit this week. Overall, they appeared to do a better job. Still not where it needs to be, but it looked better.
– It’s strange because if you take out the busts, the defense overall did a pretty good job. But it still just all felt a little uninspired. Mike called plenty of pressure calls and played tighter coverage, but I can’t help but recognize that Texas Tech doesn’t have the deep threats that Baylor does so perhaps it was just hard to get too excited.
Going forward Oklahoma is going to want to continue to recruit guys like Kahlil Haughton and Justin Reid if they plan on staying with this type of defense. There is a lot of movement on the back end and things and OU does, on occasion, what I consider a bit idiosyncratic, so they are going to want to have heady players to execute things properly.
47 Comments
Biggest problem I saw for the secondary was looking too much at the QB. When you’re a young DB, you need to watch the WR not the QB. This season has had more major bust with the DBs than I’ve seen since Bob came to Norman. Also, Mike Stoops cannot beat good spread teams unless the offense simply out scores the enemy offense. Defensive passing numbers are horrible. 3-4 scheme changes after he came back with no improvement.
Sometimes you’ll see the secondary keying the QB in zone because that’s what they’re asked to do. There was an occassion where a DB pealed off early when he was in man to get the QB which obviously wasn’t good.
Thanks. Helps us understand the method to the madness and minimizes the complaints. Looking at the roster, we have Byrd, Thomas, & Parker as the only S’s on the team. Cortez may move there but who knows. My point, we will still be young for years to come unless there is a huge learning curve before next year. Hope through our next 3 games, we can improve a lot. I think they are all talented, just need more game experience and confidence.
I think Cortez is a senior. Could be wrong.
Even in Zone you have to read routes while on the move and eyeing the QB… can’t stare down QB anymore than a QB can stare down a WR. Spatial awareness is lacking, feet stop moving, route recognition is awful. Hell I’d run half line for as many periods as it took. Mike is taking all the blame as he should because it is his defense but where the hell is Bobby Jack?
Wow! The game has become very complex and that, for a full time student. part time athlete! Lots of pressure on these young guys to be sure.
Not at LSU where you play 80% of the snaps haha
Good stuff as always. I think defense is just very tough to do consistently these days. But I’m also confident that it can be done. Hopefully the Stoops brothers will get it figured out before long. I’m also interested in seeing what JY has to say about the O as well. CT didn’t look great in the passing game, of course. But I was surprised at how crisply he executes the zone read. He looks like he’s light-years ahead of TK on executing ball fakes and knowing when to pull out and run it himself.
thanks cheezy!
My biggest issue with the team this year as we have entered conference play by both the offense and defense is the lack of an identity. The fact is we all believed after watching the Tennessee game that OU was a power running offense with an attacking blitz-happy defense. Since we have entered conference Mike Stoops has decided that he is afraid to play press man and bring pressure at the same time. On offense, we constantly are under the impression that our QB has to get involved in the game-plan with his arm early on. If we could just mimic the game-plan we used against Tech/ISU and adjusted it week to week, I believe we could be in a position for a playoff spot even with one loss. I think we realize running the ball is an attitude and if we establish that attitude early then converting 3rd and 4th downs would become easier. Mike Stoops stopped with the creative pressure packages after WVU because they went max protect but then he countered with 3 man rush and dropping 8. Unfortunately, he fell in love with the idea of only rushing 3 or 4 and he doesn’t trust the guys in the back-end but I don’t agree with his methodology. He is not protecting them but dropping more people into coverage because by rushing fewer men. He is actually asking the DBs to stay in coverage longer which is not their strong suite. If pressure is applied then the DBs cover for less time and may be able to make plays which in turn will give them more confidence and confidence is what this group lacks. We must decide who we are and be that week to week while adjusting our game-plan to take advantage of our opponents weaknesses.
Agree with much of what you said.
I’m not an X’s and O’s guy like you, K. But we let a freshman quarterback making his first start, torch us for 400 yards and 4 TD’s. Its hard for me to find many good things to say about this circus of a defense, and especially their ring-leader.
Yeah it was tough to watch at times. But I always try to find out what the mistake is…some mistakes aren’t fixable…some are.
We need to pull Clay Jennings from Arkansas as a Co D.. Won’t be able to get him just as a S coach.
He does seem to be good and has that TCU pedigree.
I am ok with offense as long as Knight gets better at reading the D in the passing game and stops going to his 1 read after a play action. Maybe that is Heupels one read offense now but need to use the whole field and playmakers (when we get them).
Good to see K find ‘some’ optimism with diagnosis. When K can’t….or is very quiet…we know things are very bad. Say….like after Baylor.
We all knew the secondary would be weak link before year even started. So not a surprise to see struggles. 109th rated struggles? That’s where I think fans are jumping off cliff.
haha it’s been a VERY strange year.
As always, thanks for the analysis. It helps me understand and, as someone below said, minimizes frustration. Too bad our coaching staff feels bound by a code of silence.
Second, once in a fourth and six and another time in a fourth and ten/eleven, Tech stayed on the field as though they were going for it. And sitting at home watching? It seemed like it would be a good bet. I was thinking afterwards just how shakey our defense has become when you see Tech %$$#^&&** Tech lining up to go for on fourth and long and you’re thinking, well, it’s no worse than a 50:50 chance.
Thanks Jed! I wish OU would do a film study show with the offensive and defensive coordinators instead of the HC.
Appreciate the analysis and the time put into it. I’ll give you all my nickel’s worth:
Every time the opposing QB drops back, my blood pressure skyrockets, b/c I have no idea what the secondary is going to do or not do. 🙂
Thanks Ace! And I feel you haha
I also agree that I really liked J.Thomas 1st start. Looked solid.
In hindsight, moving Julian to corner rather than safety was probably biggest blunder of year IMO. He’s done respectable job & understand why Mike thought to be good idea due to experience. But can’t help but to wonder how far along J.Thomas would be by now with Julian at safety. Seems we’d have been MUCH better off in long run.
Will be interesting to see if Julian comes back in at corner when healthy. I’d stay w/Thomas, what do we have to lose at this point. I’d like Julian & Stevie at safety.
K, as you went through all those different defensive schemes, it made my head hurt. With the youth of the secondary, wouldn’t it have been wise to simplify the defense? That’s exactly what MS said he was going to do last year, but it doesn’t seem that’s what has happened. It sounds like the scheme is very fluid and requires the secondary to make lots of split-second decisions. One or two busts a game happens, but when it’s 6-8 busts, seems like that’s on the coaches.
That also brings up the quality of the position coaches. Tech had lots of freshmen playing in the back, and they did ok. Why aren’t we able to coach these kids up better?
I suspect the coaches feel it is simple enough and I’m sure for a lot of people it looks easy enough. But clearly there is an issue.
What was it that Bobby Bowden, supposedly, said to the boosters and the FSU fan base when he took over a losing program: the freshman I lose with today will be the sophomores, juniors and seniors I win with tomorrow.
We have to be patient: every team has gone through its share of problems. Alabama, LSU, Texas, Ohio State, Oklahoma, etc. has never won it all every year. They’ve had years where they were not relevant. Imagine that: USC, FSU, Oklahoma, Texas, LSU, Florida, Ohio State, Michigan: irrelevant. But it happens. OU got a little unlucky: they got to the big game and didn’t win them all. We had four shots and won once. I’ll take that.
It will not be this way forever. Just as the players have to get back at it, win or lose, so do the rest of us. We have to get back to being fans, as quickly as possible, win or lose.
I had a friend make a terrible mistake. It cost her her job. When we finally answered my call, she started to explain the situation. I wasn’t interested in her explaining the situation. It didn’t matter to me. I immediately interrupted her: I told I’m not here to judge you. I’m here to be your friend.
When you continue to be scrappy, hustle, refuse to quit, good things will happen. Relentless, perseverance is just as important as talent. If we can’t demonstrate perseverance, as fans, the OU players will have to go it alone.
Being down 14 early in the second half seemed to wake the team up.
They responded well, unlike some of the onlookers.
LOL!!
So, K, bottom line, OU went away from ‘man’ because lack of experience and trust of the young corners and implemented a more difficult-to-understand-and-play zone scheme that more severely taxed the young DBs than if they had stayed with ‘man’? And even though the safety talent isn’t as deep, took Wilson and moved him to corner. Sigh of relief that the CBs played tighter coverage this week. Any idea as to when Haughton and Reid make their decisions? Really need those two going forward.
Will have an update on Haughton tomorrow. Spoke to him at length last week. As far as Julian at safety…I don’t know that I’d be sold on that only because the way they played him at corner was very similar to a safety alignment. He had some good games at corner and I feel like he would have been better playing more physical throughout the year. He doesn’t have the quick feet that Zack and JT have but he’s got size and length that would be valuable. I think rolling the coverage his direction more often would have been great. He could beat guys up in the flat.
idiosyncratic – I see someone found Thesaurs.com on the old interweb this morning. Appreciate the information!
And someone missed the dictionary when spelling Thesaurus.
You’re welcome 🙂
I would like to know what happened to Stanvon Taylor, he looked to have a lot of upside when he played some last year and I have yet to see him take a snap at CB in conference play.
He did indeed. And with his closing speed, he seems like he would have thrived in what OU is doing. But you never know what’s going on behind the scenes and in practice.
As always, a very fine explanation. Like some others have noted, I thought OU was simplifying the defense. BV complicated things and OU never had a strong defense. I wonder how many times a simple defense gets fooled compared to how many times OU has “fooled” itself trying to be clever….that goes for the O too.
Thanks Cush
This question might be hard to answer, but how many defensive secondary busts are common for average, good, and great CFB defenses? Just trying to get a feel for what is normal, sub-par, and hopefully, excellent.
That’s a very good question. Anything I offer would be anecdotal. But one thing seems apparent…we haven’t seen this many busts since coach V was here.
I agree. Context is often everything. I have a feeling that part of the issues may revolve around whether you want to try to have an elite defense. The simplest defensive schemes even if played well can be exploited by the top offenses. In order to successfully compete against those teams a little bit of complexity is needed. Occasionally, I think it’s possible that the most physically talented athlete may not be as talented conceptually. Also, we don’t know whether some of these players would simply make mistakes under the pressure of game conditions, even if things were simpler. According to what we hear, these are all plays that they haven’t had trouble doing correctly in practice. Dunno exactly what the answer is, but I appreciate your efforts to find it.
Well stated, SK.
Every time I look at the final score I have to remind myself that 6 of those points were meaningless in terms of the games outcome and that the defense held them to 10 points in the second half.
Now if we can just get the young DBs to quit believing their lying eyes.
I think the coaches biggest mistake with this defense has been being overly complex. I’ve coached pups before in the secondary and it can age you as fast as a having triplet teenage daughters. Just getting them to understand alignment can be a year long challenge. If you are supposed to be 6 yards off and 1 yard inside dammit that’s where you better be. Then getting them to understand where they need to have their eyes.. reading 3 through 2 or 2 through 1 or whatever you’re asking them to do… point is it is very easy to get them confused. Right now the OU back 7 looks like a baseball player suffering through an 0-37 slump. They have zero confidence, zero trust that the other players will be where they are supposed to be, and have a combination of over thinking and too many players trying to do too much instead of doing their job. When defenders try to do too much it will kill you! Control YOUR gap, keep YOUR hat in YOUR hole, eyes in YOUR window, play YOUR assignment. Its fundamentals, its basics. They need to cut down on the number of coverages they are playing. OUs athletes are just as good if not better than 99% of cats they will line up against. If you have the better athletes and you coach the hell out of fundamentals, technique, and effort, that’s all you need! Ok I have to stop because I’m getting fired up like I just got torched in 5 periods of 7 on 7.
Pretty much dead on.
the hits just keep on coming. Another set of perceptive comments here, Super K.
“I couldn’t see the back end”–don’t know if they’re still doing it ’cause I don’t subscribe, but at one point Soonersports.tv package included 4 alternate camera angles including the big view. Maybe someone needs to give you a subscription…:-) for the benefit of the group of course…
Haha I have a subscription so I can check. I just don’t check it often 🙂
Always good to hear your takes K!
I’m impressed with Jordan Thomas. He’s had some mistakes, but there aren’t many true freshman that don’t. He appears to be the kind of player that will really learn from those issues and move forward. I really like his upside.
Thanks super keith!