The Football Brainiacs

Day 12 and welcome to day 12…fiiiive golden hats, four mountaineers, three pancakes two overtimes and a beeer in a treeee…..

 

So looking for a main idea or a theme of what the guys have done better since the Texas game, there are a few things that stand out.

1.  Samia has started every game since, and Alvarez has been able to stay healthy. I’m a firm believer more so in the Willie’s and the Joe’s than the x’s and the o’s.
2. The guys have just done a much better job picking up twists, slants and stunts.  Really they’ve just been executing at a much higher level.  Hopefully these’ll help you see what I mean.
3. It can’t be overstated how more time in a system helps you play faster and cleaner.  The more you see things, and the more you work at those movements, they become second nature.

 

 

In this post you’ll be able to see stills from Texas Tech, Baylor and Oklahoma State.  The very first offensive snap against Texas Tech as Man-Cub and I were settling in, Mama was none too pleased as i said “Holy $#%+, we’re getting better.”  What I saw was the twist/slant you see below.  The beauty of a zone scheme is that you block whomever shows in your gap.  The End goes outside, so Brown lets him go, since he knows that Mixon has end man on the line of scrimmage.  The outside backer shoots down into the gap that the end vacated…

 

 

Here it is a tick later, and you can notice that Mixon is facing his man up, and Big O is facing up the backer.  Darlington is heading up to the Mike backer, while Alvarez has the A gap handled.

 

 

One second has come of the clock in all, as the ball was snapped at 14:05, and you can see how clean this play looks.  Something that the guys struggled with mightily early in the season, and especially against Texas was picking up slants and twists.  I know people get frustrated at times when Coach Stoops goes back to Execution, but here’s what a really well blocked play looks like.  The fact that it went pop-pop-pop really made me happy.  Man-Cub giggled and Mama gave me a pass.  Notice Westbrook by the 1st down line.  See him carrying out his route?  He does this later in the season too…:)

 

 

Jumping ahead to Baylor, something else that got a lot better that wasn’t great early on is how well Mixon and Samaje are blocking for each other.  While this play didn’t score or break for 20, it was a heck of a play by Samaje and the o line in general.  First off, notice how the whole Baylor team is pushed to the hash or past?  Second, look at Samaje in this shot as he’s cutting the End…

 

 

Here he is finishing the play within the SAME SECOND taking out another Baylor defender.  Mixon has smooth sailing up for the first down and down inside the five.  These two guys have embraced the idea of being on the field together at the same time.  It gives defenses fits, and it makes the offense so versatile, it’s hard to load up against any one thing.

 

 

To finish the play, Mixon makes a “Soft Shoulder Cut” on #48 right above the scores.   #48’s “Soft Shoulder” is his right shoulder.  The reason it’s called that is that he’s coming upfield towards Baker, so all of his strength is to the left side of his body.  By Mixon getting vertical towards the goal post, he creates an arm tackle situation by attacking #48’s Soft Shoulder since #48 will have to reach at him with his right Arm.  Mixon has the power advantage by him setting up the defender with the head fake outside and forcing him to break down.  You can see all or parts of six Baylor defenders walled off to the left.

 

 

Here, it’s just a zone right with Mixon taking his turn as the lead blocker.  As you can see by the blue box, there’s definitely a numbers advantage by running right…

 

 

By simply running away from the numbers advantage the defense had left, the Sooners didn’t even have to block em all.  Just get hats playside on hats, and the Baylor defenders can’t close the gap in time…

 

 

The previous shots didn’t do justice to how wide the hole was.  You can see that three Baylor defenders are unblocked to the left, but it doesn’t matter.  Any of you who have been around a while have heard me say that running the ball is as much about outnumbering people at the point of attack as it is being physical.  Alabama is/are masters at this, and they are lauded as being more physical than everyone.  While they are very physical, they are also very smart and scientific with how they scheme to numbers.  Why wouldn’t you want to get Derrick Henry one on one with a safety?  To that point why wouldn’t you want to do the same with Perine or Mixon?

 

 

Going back to my earlier point about picking up slants better, and also in a previous post about reading body language, this is a great example.  Bedenbaugh is a savant at teaching his offensive line what to do.  His young tackles, Brown and Samia have gotten light years better as the year wore on at noticing pre-snap body language.  Playing defense at times is like playing poker.  If you’ve ever seen the movie Rounders, Matt Damon’s character talks about every player having a “tell.”  Good poker players make people “tell” them what they’re going to do next based on their body language, sub-conscious nervous ticks etc.  The Middle linebacker just an instant before the snap gave it away by stepping a half step to his left “telling” the o-line that it was a slant.  Especially down by the goal line, if the middle backer is moving over a gap, someone has to fill his gap and so on and so on.  Baylor overloaded the left of the offense, and slanted inside.

 

 

If you look at Baker’s eyes, he’s reading the end man on the line of scrimmage who I circled…

Also you can see the whole entire line has negated Baylor’s slant.  At this point, there are four unblocked Baylor defenders and only three who can make the play.  The middle backer has to stay inside to account for the fake to Samaje.  By slanting, it makes Baker’s read really easy, as he’s reading the end man.  If the end comes down hard, he’s going to pull it…

 

 

And that’s exactly what he does.  This is a lead option which means that Baker has a lead blocker in Mixon.  Joe leaves #48 unblocked since that guy can’t make the play anyway, and leads on the outside.  The fake to Perine has taken the middle backer and #48 out of the play, and by Mixon leading up on the safety, Baker’s got smooth sailing to the goal line…

 

 

To finish off the play, what Mixon does is a small thing, but it shows the level of teaching that Bedenbaugh has provided along with Coach Boulware.  A lot of times when guys are lead blocking, they want to run outside and get downfield quickly.  They don’t realize that the defenders are going to be working from the inside coming out, so Mixon has to be educated to turn back inside.  That’s exactly what he does as you can see his numbers.  Baker walks in untouched as a result.  Again, Mixon and Perine have gotten soooo much better at blocking for each other and in general.  Extremely well executed play down by the goal line.

 

 

Phil Bennett, Baylor’s D-Coordinator must be Venables’ long lost brother.  He’s going to blitz you, twist you and everything you can imagine all the time.  The outside backer, again poor old #48 at the last minute tips his hand and runs up outside.  Big O sees it and calls it out to give Nila and Dru Samia a heads up since they’re running a counter right into the blitz…

 

 

It’s already a big play…Nila has inside leverage on the backer as #48’s upfield momentum has prevented him from closing down hard by just a little.  I put an arrow on Dru Samia’s head.  Since I want you to see how he’s already got his eyes upfield looking for the middle linebacker.  Against Tulsa earlier this year, the Sooners ran this same play into almost the same blitz.  There’s a shocker since Baylor’s coaching tree went to Tulsa… Anyway, the guys were better at being ready.  Even though the backer didn’t fill hard, Samia could have handled him since his head was turned and looking.  He’s got his inside(right) shoulder dipped so he can cut off the curve and face up the linebacker…

 

 

Here’s a great shot of the gate opening for Samaje.  Dru is getting up on the backer and Nila has stoned the outside blitzer…

 

 

And just like that…1 with the downblock by Big O on Oakman, 2 on the kickout by Nila on poor ol #48, and 3 with Samia being technically sound coming through the hole, popped Perine for a game changing long td that ultimately won the game for the Sooners…

 

 

Fast forward a couple of weeks to Okie Lite, and teams were still running slants.  Big O once again does a masterful job of washing the slant down.  He did so well, that ultimately Samia didn’t have anyone to block when he came around the corner.  Samaje busted it for the long td run due to great blocking and Westbrook staking his claim for an academy award.  Just like he did against Texas Tech, Westbrook was in tune with what was going on and engaged.  That’s the difference and why the offense is clicking so well.  The guys are selfless and really want each other to succeed.  There’s no selfishness.  Guys are truly selling out for each other…

 

 

This is very similar to the cutback run Samaje had against Baylor for the TD.  It’s zone left, and Okie Lite just over pursues…Great vision is an attribute that’s way too underrated for great backs.  Playing more and seeing things more has really helped Mixon.  He’s a different back than he was early in the year, and is coming on at just the right time.  Sterling and Baker are circled and watching to see what Joe does…

 

 

Again talking about how everyone’s truly engaged with seeing the team succeed, how often do you see the QB and star receiver looking like the old Redskins’ o-line on the counter trey?  Baker and Sterling get simultaneous pancake blocks to open the gate for a 60 plus yard sprint for Mixon to the end zone…

 

Ok guys, now I’m off to start working on the Clemson preview.  Hopefully this shows you how the guys have gotten better.  The ability has always been there.  The intangibles, extra film study and strong leadership are really evident right now.  While I’m hopeful the Sooners win this Thursday and again on the 11th, the evidence suggests that they’ll definitely be prepared an ready to go.  Boomer!