Trench Warfare: Oklahoma vs. Baylor
Posted on: November 17, 2016
Simply put, last Saturday the Sooners made plays. Everyone made plays. People were getting their hands on the ball defensively, receivers were making tough catches and you could tell that the guys were ready to play. This edition of Trench Warfare has about twice as many shots that I normally do. There were just too many things that stood out to me. So while it took longer to put together, I think it was worth it.
Jeff Mead has started to come on in the last couple of weeks. If he ever does have the light come on, his speed and size will be a nightmare matchup for defenses. This catch he made early on was one of those wow type plays.
A couple of plays later Mark Andrews checked in on a back shoulder throw that was also a heck of a catch. Mayfield has a knack of putting it where defenders can’t get to it. They’re still tough plays, but he trusts his receivers and rightfully so.
All those swing passes and screens set up other plays. As you can see Baylor is flowing to the bottom of the screen to defend the swing out left. In the meantime it’s a numbers game right, and Baker has a big lane opening up.
By the time the Bears can react it’s too late and a score for the good guys.
Defensively, while Jordan Evans had the game of his career, the rest of the team showed up too. Something that was encouraging to me was that here on third and short D.J. Ward fought off of a block and stoned the back for no gain.
Baylor decided to go for it on 4th down, and Jordan Wade came off of his block and was able to hold up the back long enough for his guys to show up. This was a big 4th down stop. Early in the game it set the tone and helped the Sooners jump out to an early lead.
The Sooners didn’t score, but they were able to pin the Bears deep in their own territory. K has talked about how the splits are so wide for the receivers and how much ground you have to cover defensively. Here, the bubble is set up outside the numbers, but aggressiveness wins out. This play was almost a safety, and again the Sooners were ready to play.
When the guys got the ball back, this play almost popped for six. Mixon took the handoff and just barely tripped on Orlando Brown’s big ol left foot. If he doesn’t trip here, he houses it.
There isn’t any way that that safety would have been able to get him one on one.
Right after that, DeDe Westbrook made an amazing catch and run for the score. The body control here is off the charts.
He puts it into four wheel drive (a hand on the ground), and shows his strength by planting his right foot and being determined to stay in bounds.
The Baylor defender had already given up on the play and had an oh crap moment when he realized that Westbrook was able to stay in bounds. He’s an unbelievable player.
Caleb Kelly made a nice play on this one. He walked up in a delay blitz on the outside…
The tackle picked him up, but Kelly was able to beat him and come around the outside of him & still make the play…on a run play. That’s so hard to do, and not a lot of players have the ability to do what the youngster just did. Oh yeah it was third down too.
Here’s Evans’ pick on the goal line. You could tell that the whole team, and especially Jordan did their homework. I can’t remember the last time I saw an inside backer for the Sooners have this type of game.
Here’s another shot of it. He almost dropped it, but was able to reel it in and make a huge play.
This was Riley’s weekly wrinkle. It looks like it’s going to be a dive, jet sweep or any of the above. What it ended up being was a lead play with Westbrook cutting it up inside.
Westbrook’s change of direction is filthy. It ended up being a nice gain up inside, and it’s arguable that the Sooners’ O-Coordinator is one of the more creative coaches in the country.
If Westbrook is able to stay on his feet, he houses it too. The Baylor defender gets a hand on him and barely trips em up.
Later in the 1st half, DeDe loaned his toaster to Mykel Jones. He must’ve had it dialed down on light toast because Baker didn’t leave it cooking long enough. Jones still put some butter on it and got it down close to a score.
Look at the surge up inside there as Perine takes the handoff to put the Sooners up by three scores. It’s a heck of a push up front. Everybody came to play.
Evans just kept showing up and darn near picked this one off too. If he doesn’t get his hand on it, it looked like Steven Parker had his clock cleaner out and ready to tell em what time it was.
The delay blitz is a weapon, and under utilized in my opinion. Evans comes right back and makes the sack on Russell. You can see Obo runnin the hoop up top, and I’d like to see Lampkin stay get his pads down and push the pocket back into Russell. This was Evans’ first sack of the day.
Play after play after play, the Sooners kept showing up. Parker made a great play on this well thrown ball that probably should have been caught. Still Parker was able to get his hand on it and poke it out of there.
Will Johnson wanted to poke around too, and on what could be one of the biggest plays in the game he knocked the ball out right before halftime. Ahmad Thomas immediately jumped on it and it’s Sooner ball. With 53 seconds to go before the half, if the Bears got a TD here and go in 21-17, it’s a different game in the 2nd half.
I really liked this play, and look at Bobby Evans with the cut block on the linebacker. That’s a tough, tough block to make, especially when the Backer is flowing outside. Perine hooks up down 9 highway and is able to help the Sooners run out the clock before half.
The theme of playmaking continued as JT jumped this screen like nobody’s business. He was was movin and would have been another score for the good guys if he reeled it in.
Look at how much ground he had covered, and not one second had ticked off of the clock from the last shot. Baylor really lucked out on this one, and again the guys had really prepared in the film room defensively.
Everybody was getting in on it. Look at Emmanuel Beal get up and knock this one down! I can jump that high too if you add four attempts together lol.
Time to go downtown…
Nice protection
Westbrook makes plays on jump balls, screens, outs, posts whatever. Dude can flat out play.
Uh oh…it’s that dude again.
You know he had to have fun. It was almost his second pick six in as many weeks. He needs to start taking some rb drills to work on his cutbacks since he’s getting so many touches haha.
Wildcat time again with 4 defenders right and 5 left. If you come back left he walks in untouched. They come back right and in spite of the contact go up 35-10. Halfway through the 3rd quarter it had to be demoralizing.
Evans sack #2! Cash Money $$$$ all day long. Dude played his butt off!
Mixon showed power, speed and vision all on this play. The O line caved the heck out of that left side…
Mixon just outruns angles, and he’s at top speed within just a few yards. Look at how much bigger he is than the DB.
Piss on the fire and call the dogs boys, this one’s over!
Perine most likely scores on this one if he sees the lane up in behind Powers. It’s fundamentally sound for him to take it up inside since Flowers’ head is inside on the lead block, but if he does take it in between Powers and Flowers, the linebacker would have to fight around Flowers and the other guy. One gap farther out makes it game over.
This was a bust by the Baylor backer on an off tackle play. This action makes it difficult to read because it looks like a dive, but it’s off tackle. The backer gets sucked up, and the safety misses.
And Perine ends up runnin down I-35 again. If Smallwood gets a better block on the DB it’s a long run, exclamation point TD for Perine.
Finally the trend continued with when the Sooners run more than they pass, they win and win big. 50 carries vs 25 passes, and the Sooners won handily. It’s gonna be a tough one in Morgantown Saturday night. McKenzie and I are gonna go up early and steal all of their matches so there won’t be any couch burnin! Boomer!
