The Football Brainiacs

1. For an opponent, when you get a good kickoff, and better coverage that forces you to be backed up on your own 15, that’s good right?  Well to start the third quarter, we are backed up on the 15, but right here, we just execute the run play like it ain’t nothing.  Nila(left red arrow) and Rip(right red arrow) open a good lane for Brennan to squirt through.  The k-state defender is the only guy who can make the play that will prevent a first down…

1. (cont.)…But Brennan puts his foot in the ground, get’s north and south to the safety’s soft shoulder and he gets a gain of 12 out to the 27.  You can really demoralize a defense where they know if they pin you deep they can change the game, but they can’t do anything about it.  There is no antidote for a power run game.  When you can cram it down their throat, there is no answer…no special defense…nothing they can do but take it.  And like it!

2. Here before the snap it’s cover 1(man coverage with a single high safety.  They’ve got six guys coming to our six blockers…

2. (cont.) Re-watching this game I’m really impressed with how impressive Trevor looked.  The o-line delivered a clean pocket, young man steps up confidently, and shoots a dart right to Saunders just out of his break.

2. (cont.) Jalen makes two guys miss right after the catch, and is off to the races.  Durron Neal out blocking again.

2. (cont.) Here, it looks like Jalen’s gonna score.  He cuts back up underneath the defender…

2. (cont.)…and the ball comes out.  Watching the replay on this, if he doesn’t get it stripped he scores.  He’s getting ready to cut it back to the goalpost and k-state hit it just right.  Luckily, the K-State defender’s momentum takes him past the ball, and Jaz’s feet are already stopped.

2. (cont.) Heads up hustle play here by Jaz hopping on the ball.  Saved us three points for sure.  Some will say we got lucky, but I say we just out hustled them for the ball.

3. In the stands I thought that K-State had just made some of those Bill Snyder trademarked halftime adjustments.  Watching the tape on this, it looks like that we just didn’t turn Trevor loose.  This is a called give all the way.  Since we’d had so much success with Clay running it, I guess they wanted to see what Finch could do up there one on one on the safety if he broke through.  Still though, Trevor’s playing lights out to this point, and look what happens if you let em keep it.  The d-end goes down inside on the give, and you have Rip outside lead blocking for your qb who, just a week ago housed a 50+ yard td run.

3. (cont.) The red arrow is where Finch is.  Ripkowski’s leading for Trevor, and his defender’s shadow is just starting to become visible to the far left.  Sterling and Daryl have their guys locked up.  If we let Trevor go here, it’s a big play.  Turn em loose coach!

4. This is literally the same look both offensively and defensively as we had on the big play to Saunders earlier.  Before the snap Bronson was flapping his arms.  K-State thought he was trying to get the crowd to be quiet, so the people around me were making fun of him saying “you’re not at home big boy!”  What he was doing was signaling to Clay that we needed to fan the protection since that backer was coming…

4. (cont.) Trevor again stepped up big on 3rd down.   He could have thrown it to any one of his receivers as they were all open.

4. (cont.) Jalen goes down to get the pass.  You like that we get the first down, but if this throw is a bit more accurate, we’re off and running again!  Look at how wide open Durron is down at the bottom.

5. Check the purple arrow.  He was lined up in the bottom a gap.  Gabe(top red arrow), is expecting this guy to flow with him, but since he’s in a twist, Gabe has no one to block…

5. (cont.) Once Gabe recognizes the twist, he’s quickly upfield to the safety.  The linebacker’s slow to come over, and Clay is up in behind Gabe…

5. (cont.) Here we see Gabe blocking the safety(bottom) and Nila with a good block five yards downfield(top).  Brennan goes right in between the two of them and get’s all the way down to the k-state 47 for a gain of 10 on 2nd and 5.  Gabe just did a great job processing information quickly, and then doing something about it.

6. The last 3rd down throw and this one were the only bad throws I’ve seen Trevor make to this point.   He just throws it too high here to Jalen.  If he’s able to put it on him in stride, the guy covering Jalen wouldn’t have caught him, and the only other defender on that side(circled) has his hips turned and is running.  Jalen would have had to put a move on the safety back on the other side of the field, but I like our chances in that matchup.

7. On the very next play though, Trevor comes right back and puts it right on Jaz’s numbers.  Knight’s footwork looks a lot better here as he’s up tall and not too far out over that front foot.  Gets us to 3rd and short, and you can’t help but like how Trevor just shook that bad throw off, came right back and got it done.

8. On 4th and short, if you don’t give me double a gaps to run against, I’m goin’ qb sneak all day.  Look at that gap in behind Savage and Ikard there.  No doubt that Trevor gets it much easier than he did had we gone with the sneak.

8. (cont.) Can’t help but like Ryan Mueller as a player.  He’s all over Trevor and didn’t bite on the fake at all.  If this is Bell it’s over and is a 6 yard loss, but Trevor’s just too fast.

8. (cont.) This was one of those plays that was going to go the way that it was called on the field.  If it was called short I don’t think we get it overturned, but we got the call of first down initially, and subsequently, there was not enough to overturn it that way either.  There were several points in this game where we put the game in Trevor’s hands, and he didn’t disappoint.  This may have been his breakout game.

9. How can you not like the enthusiasm Coach Norvell brings.  Nice form on the kick and to quote Napoleon Dynamite…”you must have gotten three feet of air there…”