The Football Brainiacs

I’ve re-watched most of the game. Yesterday I addressed some of the criticisms leveled against young PJ Mbanasor. I used his play in the 3rd quarter because it was in that quarter that he was pulled. After watching his first half play over again, I fully believe that, while he made mistakes, his play was much better than fans and media gave him credit for. He showed a lot of promise.

What I wanted to do in this post is take a few examples from the 1st quarter to debunk some myths circulated by media folks and fans. Specifically I want to address some of the coverage issues and attacks leveled against the OU staff in how they called the game or ran their alignments. If you don’t want to read through this whole thing you can scroll down to the bottom and get the summary…

First Series

Oklahoma’s defense is going to force Tulsa to go 3 and out. Let’s look at all three coverage calls and pre-snap alignments.

1st down notice how aggressive the pre-snap alignment is. OU is going to be in man free coverage here and will stuff the run for no gain.

On the 2nd down, Tulsa still has an H-back/TE on the field. Oklahoma is again going to be in man coverage, this time with two safeties high. Notice again the pre-snap alignment is aggressive.

Tulsa is going to use a PA and a slant concept to pull the safety down, leaving Mbanasor in 1 on 1 coverage to defend his man on a 9 route. So right away they want to test the freshman deep. He holds up and prevents the pass from being completed.

To me, Thomas read should be run and then back to help the freshman. Instead, as you can see in the image below he stays down low to help Parker on the slant. Once he sees it’s not a run call, he knows Parker has help from the LB on the slant. Additionally Parker is a seasoned cover guy and he appears to be playing inside leverage in the pre-snap image above anyway. I’d help the freshman.

On 3rd down OU is again going to play man coverage. On 3rd and long they play man free. Here is the pre-snap look…

The image is cut off but you can see Mbanasor is aligned tightly. He clearly prefers being close to his man which is normal for a big cornerback and one of the things I like about what Cooks has brought. Giving them the freedom to align in a way they feel comfortable tells us that he understands, one size doesn’t fit all. Not every CB is the same and you have to allow them to play to their strengths.

Some folks may look at Sanchez and think…”he’s playing too far off!” What you have to keep in mind is the down and distance. This is 3rd and long. Sanchez wants to bait this guy into throwing something short. Why tempt fate? He’s signaling to the QB pre-snap, you’re not going long so pick a shorter route. He’s betting that he’s quick enough to break on the ball and ensure that the completion doesn’t go for more than 9 yards, which is all he needs to get the Sooners off the field.

The WR, as expected, runs a slant. Sanchez breaks on it and the QB is forced to keep the ball and is tackled. Remaining coverage across the board was good.

Primary Take Away From the 1st Series?

Despite what the fans and critics in the media may have said, Mike clearly wanted to come out and play these guys with a simple man scheme and allow his guys to match-up. Credit to him for that.

Second Series

In this series Tulsa is going to start to have some success against the Sooners.

OU stops their offense on 1st and 2nd down and now has a 3rd and 10. Mike gives Sooner fans what they’ve been clamoring for, an aggressively aligned man free defense. Mike will even bring some field pressure that comes free instantly. Jordan Evans will come unblocked.

Perhaps my biggest issue here (below) is you’ll notice how far back the FS is. Well, actually you won’t because he’s so far deep that he’s out of the picture. One might argue, “yeah but on 3rd and 10 you don’t want them to complete anything deep”. My response is that ultimately at that starting point the FS really serves little purpose other than to deter someone from throwing the post or help on a WR who beats his name and is breaking free.

Let’s face it, with the splits of the WRs, the two field side WRs are on islands all alone. Byrd doesn’t have the range to help there. And if they’re going to take anything it’s going to be the inside slant to the number 2 receiver on the field side. Having said that, this again could be an alignment that was meant to invite something short.

Problem is, the CB (Sanchez) is going to give up the inside release. He tries to be physical at the line (again, something all the fans keep clamoring for) but the big WR releases through the jam undeterred and it’s a pitch and catch on the slant for a completion. And since the FS is so deep, Tulsa get’s plenty of YAC.

Look how immediate the pressure gets there from Evans (below). He’s about to hit the QB.

So two plays later, OU has Tulsa in 2nd and 8. Below is the pre-snap alignment. They’ve loosened the coverage considerably after being beat on 3rd and long earlier. The two inside WRs on the trips (3 WRs) side will mesh. Thomas plays this so loose that had it not been for a poorly thrown ball and Parkers improvisational skills to come off his man and jump Thomas’ route the receiver would have not only made the catch but would have had a lot of green grass for YAC.

Note again, Mike is playing man coverage. This didn’t work for Tulsa but you can see how they are attacking OU’s man coverage and what kind of stress it put on the DC. When they clear Mbanasor and the two inside WRs run that mesh, if Thomas plays loose (as he did) he gets essentially walled off and the WR is running down the sideline free.

But as I mentioned, the ball is poorly thrown and now the Sooners have another 3rd and long. Below you can see that pre-snap look. Mike is going to give Sooner fans what they want AGAIN…aggressive pre-snap alignment across the board in man coverage.

In fact this time, the safety is going to align initially in the path of the slant to help out Sanchez. But notice also this time on 3rd and long, the offense is in a 3×1 alignment (as opposed to a 2×2 the last time the slant was completed). This is going to give the QB a potential near inside route to the field. So Byrd is going to immediately back out and rotate over to the opposite side, clearing space for the receiver matched up against Sanchez.

You’ll also note that Tulsa is going to clear the LB out by releasing the back to the flat. Sanchez again tries to bump the WR but the WR is undeterred by the jam and gets the inside release for the completion on the slant.

As you can see above, it’s another 1st down on 3rd and long. For you SEC fans, Mike has so far run exclusively man coverage in the game. And Tulsa is starting to really put a strain on the coverage.

So he wisely decides to go to his quarters coverage. This way he protects himself against the quick slants and the mesh’s.

However, in this concept players have multiple reads. The LB has now been removed from the box because of the wide split of the number 2 receiver to the near side. The LB may have a responsibility to reroute/carry on a deep route and has to clue the running back who is set to his side.

Now OU has a good pass defense called and quarters gives enough run reads so that Mike still playing a numbers front. However, he’s now out numbered in the box and Tulsa sees that. They have a run option on every play and they run the ball right up the middle for 8 yards.

So Mike goes back to his man free defense with an aggressive alignment on the very next play and this time instead of Sanchez it’s Mbanasor who is beat to the inside for a completion on the slant.

So a few plays later, with an H-back/TE on the field Mike runs his 2 man under. Sanchez plays off. He breaks on the short route but misses the tackle and it turns into a 1st down.

Later Series – Run Game Starts to Work

Later in the 1st quarter Tulsa is going to bring out some bigger personnel and challenge OU in the run game. For all the talk about how the OU safeties are supposed to be hitters, they didn’t prove to be as good in the run game as one would expect.

A big play springs open here. The NG is going to get double-teamed and he’s cleared out. The DE also gets beat. Notice the far safety isn’t even reading the QB right now and the ball has already been snapped and they’ve got the H-back pulling to block. The near-side safety, Byrd, tries to be aggressive but it would appear he doesn’t remain assignment sound and ends up crossing the formation to help in the run game. The RB cuts back the near side and there’s no safety there to fill. Tulsa picks up a huge gain.

Something of note that was positive on that play was Mbanasor flashed some serious speed. He was way behind the other defenders when the RB broke free and he beat everyone to the man to save the TD.

On the very next play, Tulsa is going to run a no huddle hurry up PA. The assumption here is that after the big run, they’d get the far safety (Thomas) to bite on the PA. He doesn’t. But this is what is really perplexing.

He plays pass the whole way. It’s three on two with Thomas playing over the top. Sanchez man runs a shorter route. Notice the inside WR at the top of the screen (below) look at the depth Thomas has to play this route.

Now look at it a tick later…

The WR actually beats Parker and somehow beats Thomas as well! And Thomas is behind even Parker! It doesn’t result in a completed pass due in part to an athletic play by Parker to disrupt things and in part due to the lack of a PI call (Parker got there early) and in part due to an underthrown pass. But it’s tough to understand how in essentially two on one coverage, one man gets behind his man and the safety.

So What am I Trying to Say?

Everyone who has been reading my stuff here at TFB for a while now knows I’m usually the first person to defend the players. And you also know I’m not shy about leveling criticism against coaches. But the criticisms leveled against Mike after the game just weren’t fair or accurate in my opinion.

Let’s go through a few of the common phrases we hear chanted by some fans and media folks…

Myth #1: “The DBs weren’t physical at the line and they played too far off”

FALSE. They tried and you saw the result. His best cornerback, in fact, was repeatedly beat to the inside playing a press technique. Additionally, the off coverage OU fans saw in the 2nd quarter weren’t man coverages. They were quarters coverages. They were an attempt by Mike to try to stop the bleeding. The DBs have to play off in this coverage because they are clueing multiple receivers.

Myth #2: “Mike didn’t bring enough pressure”

FALSE. Sometimes pressure was immediately there, not just in the first quarter but throughout the game and the DBs didn’t hold up.

Myth #3: “Mike made it too complicated”

FALSE. For the most part Oklahoma played man free against 10 personnel and 2 man under against 11 personnel. In fact in the 1st and 4th quarters OU played man coverage on all but 2 downs. Not sure how he can make it any simpler than that. At one point one of the safeties whose sole responsibility was man coverage busted. He had no run read. As a coach, there is literally no way to make that player’s assignments any simpler.