The Football Brainiacs

This week Oklahoma travels to Lubbock to play Texas Tech. Anytime Oklahoma plays Tech we all expect to see the ball in the air quite a bit. But last weekend Oklahoma struggled mightily against the pass, especially in the second half.

Defenses, anymore, cannot survive without good or even elite coverage ability and right now, for various reasons, OU is far from that. This weekend freshman Jordan Thomas will get the start at cornerback and I very much look forward to seeing the young and talented freshman play a full game. Last week, by the time he came in Baylor had mostly pulled out of the five wide and began running the ball more so it was difficult to see how he would have dealt with some of the challenges that set posed. However, it did appear he was breaking on the ball quickly which is critical to stop those short routes…especially from an off position.

Texas Tech’s staff surely saw what we all saw, namely that OU struggled when Baylor went to five wide receiver sets. OU will need to be prepared to deal with that in case Tech decides to attack them in the same way.

Last week the plan against the five wide appeared to be a combination of cover 0 house blitzes and 3 man zone blitzes with cloud coverage behind it. It would have been nice to see OU take away some of the pre-snap reads on the outside from a single high look with some press on the edges even if they bailed. Perhaps even some cover 1 robber to allow 4 man pressure to get there while playing tighter coverage across the board while still maintaining safety help with a roaming defender underneath. Part of the issue you deal with when someone goes 5 wide on you is they force you to declare certain things early just by virtue of the fact that you require a minimum of 5 players to match 5 WRs.

Let’s look at the cover 0 look. As you can see in the image below, OU has no safety help and five DBs to match their five WRs. Traditionally in a cover 0 you play off coverage but you’ve got to trigger on the quarterbacks drop. Petty will 3-step drop and though the pressure gets in there immediately, OU isn’t able to get to the hitch route quick enough to make the call effective. Look at each DB below. Sanchez on the far side is still giving ground by the team Petty is about to throw the ball though in fairness he’s likely reading the quarterback there. Hayes is still in a back-pedal. Parker has already begun to break, which is great to see. Thomas is buzzing and ready to break and Julian appears to be doing the same thing. But still it doesn’t matter because it’s pitch and catch and an easy pick up for the Bears.

Below we’re going to see the same look. The number 1 receiver to the field is going to take his free release and run a slant.

Again, the pressure gets in immediately but it’s an easy throw and run after the catch for Baylor. Zack can’t get there in time and this plays yields a 13 yard gain:

Here Baylor is going to get a back in the backfield and OU will go to a cover 1. They’ve got a stacked set to the field. To the boundary we see Julian off about 7 yards. If he’s going to play that technique, he’s got to be willing to break quickly otherwise this becomes too easy.

 

Julian gives far too much ground here and it’s easy pickings. Additionally on 2nd and 4 Baylor has an easy option to the field as well.

Another thing OU tried against the 5 wide set was a zone blitz with a cloud 3 coverage on the back end. The problem that’s going to happen as this transpires is that ultimately Petty knows pre-snap that it’s likely some kind of zone blitz call because of the defensive alignment. And he knows that if OU does bring the boundary pressure then the WR has ample space to run his route or adjust his route accordingly.

 

You don’t need me to tell you that overall the defense had a bad day. Julian had a difficult day for certain but it was a bad day all around. Sometimes it was a bad call. Sometimes it was a perfect call but the defense didn’t execute properly. But you’ve got to look closer to really understand what the problem is.

For example, most of you recall the deep ball in the second half where Julian walked up and was about 5 yards from the LOS. While, OU attempts to make that call look like a cover 1…if you watch the play all the way through it’s a cover 3. Julian’s mistake here was not physical like many are trying to suggest. His mistake is in technique. First of all, in that coverage call there is simply no reason to let a man get behind you. He has underneath help and I get that OU is trying to disguise the call as a cover 1 but he has to know that that he can’t do that at the expense of the deep zone. He should have been open and running way before he attempted to. Secondly if you watch the play through, look at what happens once Julian is in a trail.

Julian getting beat here isn’t so much about him not flipping his hips fast enough. It’s about him not understanding his technique in cover 3. And then once the man has a step, he’s still trying to read the quarterback instead of getting in phase. Additionally, while the Baylor WR is in full sprint…if you keep watching the play, Julian is drifting…meaning he isn’t just running vertically he’s moving horizontally as well. I’m surprised the Baylor receiver didn’t beat him by more because of the way he attempted to play this. This mistake actually demonstrates Julian has good. But his technique throughout this play is poor. And the problems are compounding when he doesn’t use the proper technique once he is beat.

 

This next play is one where I’d say you’ve got a bad call and a bad play by a number of people on defense. Here you’ve got Baylor in a 3rd and 5. I say I don’t like this call because you have to ask yourself…on 3rd and 5 do I want them to run or pass? I want them to run. But what Oklahoma does is play 7 in the box and show them cover 1 telling them…we want you to pass. My call here is probably a quarters call with my safety playing a little shallow because I am going to be outnumbered to the field. But I take that because they’ve got to run the ball for 5 yards. And if they do attempt to pass out of that set then I’m in a sound pass defense. Instead they are licking their chops because a) they’ve got cover 1 off and b) the deep safety isn’t aligned correctly – should be aligned in the middle (and if OU teaches him to align as shown below then you’re basically putting Julian one on one with absolutely no safety help because there is no way the safety from his starting position can help Julian on anything deep).

Another issue you’ll see as the play transpires is Ahmad Thomas has an opportunity to get under the route but doesn’t. His assignment is the H-back. But when the H-back blocks, Thomas simply get’s caught false stepping back and forth and is stuck in no mans land instead of dropping into an underneath zone or getting into a passing lane to help Julian on the hitch.

I can’t blame Julian for being forced to give up the hitch here. Which he does.

However, where I do praise and fault Julian is in the image below. Julian actually breaks on the ball and closes the ground really well to even put himself in a position to possibly break this play up. But look at his technique. He reaches in for the ball with his right hand instead of securing the tackle with his right hand and attempting to break it up with his left. He misses the tackle with this attempt and the WR turns this into an even bigger gain.

Here is an example where the call is great and it should work to perfection but there are major issues with the execution that, as a DC, it would just rip your heart out.

OU is man across the back end with no safety help showing an all out blitz. But in reality they will drop two guys underneath. Despite that, they will confuse the line and get a free blitzer in. Striker will have a kill shot on Petty but instead of sacking him, he’s going to let Petty get him up in the air with a pump fake. So no matter what mistakes occurred on the backend, Mike’s call put them in a position to get a sack but the player makes a mistake.

The other issue is that they are man to man but Zack appears to believe that they’ve got a banjo call to the boundary which means that he will pick up the outside release of the number 2 receiver in man. They have to communicate this call to each other. Whether that’s the call or not, I have no idea but one of them is wrong because Thomas plays standard man and follows the number 2 receiver. Sanchez also takes the number 2 receiver…

…leaving the number 1 receiver running wide open.

OU has some talent but they’ve got be more disciplined in general. People can argue whose responsible but right now it just has to be about getting the whole defense to play with more discipline. Wanted to note in the image above that I put an arrow on the near corner because I wanted y’all to note how Jordan Thomas is lined up in a more aggressive press technique. Again, looking forward to seeing him this weekend and looking forward to the defense overall bouncing back!

Boomer!