Trench Warfare | Oklahoma vs. Tennessee (Part 2)
Posted on: September 17, 2014
Picking up again in the 1st quarter, It appeared to me that Trevor made the decision to throw the wheel to Ross before the snap. I’d like to see him go through his progressions more. Following the red arrow, it’s 3rd and 5, with Neal wide open in the right flat. Trevor has GREAT protection, and plenty of time to come off of this read. Know down and distance, and if all else failed, escape between Nila and Daryl and run for the 1st. It’s an easy 1st down we should have made.
Right after the ball left his hand, Bell is wide open in the left flat too. Just making the decision before the snap is a mistake. Two wide open guys. Score should have been 21-0 at the end of the 1st.
Here it’s 5 on 4 to the right, but with a fullback across you can get 5 on 5, but you don’t have anyone to account for the players backside.
K touched on this about going weakside against the over look. Going back left, we could account for everyone and give us a much better chance. They have 8 in the box, and we only have 7 counting Rip, but if we scheme back to the weakside, it would nullify that guy on the far outside of Bell, and since he’s two gaps outside of Bell, it would give Ross time to clear.
We go with a read option, which isn’t a bad call, IF it were a true read. It’s a called give, and Alex misses the hole which is a gap to the left. If he gets outside of Darlington (#56), then the backer can’t get to em. He hesitates and gets met in the hole. If it were a true read, then Trevor keeps off of this look and gets big yards in spite of the loaded box.
We go double tackle left with Flowers in a wing. Bell is playing tackle on the right since we moved both tackles over. I counted nine for us since with a qb run game, someone has to account for the dive. They only have eight.
Again, it’s a called give, because if it isn’t, Trevor possibly scores on this play. I think since we were keeping it so vanilla in the run game they’re telling Trevor to give it. He looks very natural when he does keep it, and did up at K-State last year, so I can’t believe he’s missing reads this badly. We could have made the score cartoonish if we take off the handcuffs.
This was a play that Trevor had to throw it away. Being a young QB, he’s still not all that comfortable in the pocket. Bell has good protection on UT’s #50, but Trevor rolls to the right and negates Blake’s leverage. Some guys were starting to clear a little bit, but if Trevor’s going to escape, get up into that hole behind Ford and take off. Understand the weaknesses in the pass rush.
After a 3 and out on defense, we got the ball back with 28 seconds to go before halftime. Two passes to bell get us down inside the 40. With 5 seconds to go, Trevor forced a ball into tight coverage that gets tipped and picked off. Neal is cleared (blue arrow), and by the time he would have caught the ball, he’s on the hash. He could have shot down inside the 20 and out of bounds to give Moneycutt a shot at a fg before half.
Here’s another look at Neal clearing. He was in a full sprint, and the clock had just turned from six to five seconds. No doubt he gets out of bounds with about two seconds to go if Trevor puts the ball on em. By my count with better execution, and some freedom in the zone read game it’s a 31-7 game at half. Without the fluky defensive drive where we jumped offside on 3rd and 11, then they don’t score at all during the 1st half. Part 3 comin up. Happy hump day!
34 Comments
I assume that with the game somewhat in hand, they didnt want to take any chances with Trevor’s health. That being said he couldve slid when someone got anywhere close to making the tackle
Yeah, but he really needs to work on his slide. He looks awkward when he does slide. Needs to work out with the baseball team for a couple of weeks.
He also needs to slide on his hip/butt and not dive forward. That’s how he got injured in last years bedlam game just before halftime.
Yeah, he looks like he has no experience sliding
Maybe Cody Thomas can take him to a couple of baseball practices…
They could have taken the handcuffs off of the option game at any point, but there was never really a time when we needed to do that, so the plan going into the game was apparently limit Trevor’s carries. A good idea at this point.
Trevor played baseball growing up and in high school, he knows how to slide, but it’s different when you have to make the decision in a split second versus knowing your going into second base on a bang-bang play. The more he does it, the better he’ll get.
I just feel he needs more experience with the ball in his hands, so when in a big game he will be able to make the split second decision
Patience Grasshopper…we’re only 3 games in…
Patience indeed
I’m seeing your points. To sum it up: a lot of what looked like poor execution on the line was caused by predetermined keep/give calls? I can see that because the whole point of such a play is to force defenders to react and then to wrong foot them.
In your view, is that really all that’s going on? I was unhappy with the Oline and the D secondary. If the Oline ‘issues’ are really so simply fixed, I’m much happier.
Starting to think the game plan was still to keep it simple. Is it possible the coaches felt they completely overmatched Tennessee’s young team and didn’t want to do to much before WVU on the road?
So in keeping our offense vanilla the first few games, aren’t we at a risk of not being able to execute our full offense properly when the time comes that we need it? i would think that Trevor could be gaining valuable reps at the read option against weaker opponents, that way he is more comfortable when we really need it… This vanilla crap seems like it could do more harm than good IMO. Why can’t we just run our real offense (maybe hold back a fancy play or two) and beat people with talent and execution?
Over compensation for fear of injury to Knight. Don’t trust the current back up. This is just my opinion.
I also believe it is designed to instill confidence in young backs and quarterback. Have some success and then progressively increase the reads with video confirmation with game film. just a thought.
I think they are limiting the possible hits on Knight. We/they know he can run the read option. That’s why they incorporated it into the offense, but it’s tough to beat Baylor or OSU or win a championship if he gets knocked out in week 1, 2 or 3 against an opponents that were clearly over matched.
JY, you pointed out several times Ford and Ross missed the correct hole. Is this just inexperience and we should expect it to improve, or is vision just something you have or don’t have? Are we going to hear in the 2nd half that Perrine was having the same issues?
I’m not sold on Ross’ vision. Kid can run a hole in the wind, but he hesitates at times and may not see cutback lanes. It’s something that can be learned, so I expect him to get better.
Okay, I love my Sooners but quite frankly I am no longer bullish on our running backs. Ford runs with too much body lean forward which makes him too easy to arm tackle and it negates his ability to make quick cuts. Ross seems to be slow in getting started and if a big hole is not there he is not going to break any tackles. If he gets thru the line free then he is a home run threat but otherwise a drive killer if Trevor can’t convert the 3rd and long. Perine I love the potential but need to see him sustain it thru multiple carries. Man, I really really hope I am out to lunch on the above. I do believe that they are all very good receivers and are very good in space and that may be our bread and butter going forward. I also believe that as a committee they will get us around 140-150 yards rushing a game which is not all that bad. Maybe just not good enough to get us #8.
Ross hesitates because that is how the play is designed. It’s a read option. If it was a handoff, trust me he wouldn’t be slow. Ford is powerful, he trucked Phillips in Okie drill last year. Power is not an issue and with experience he will know when to and not to use his forward lean.
Ross hasn’t shown vision, yet
Perine has good vision and has used the cutback. Again, he will get better over time. I’m excited about all of them and their potential..
Hope you are right and I am wrong. No doubt Ford is powerful, but I don’t see any lateral movement or juke ability, just straight line speed. I was waiting to see if his running style had changed but it is the same as last year. I really thought Ross would end up being the starter but I just do not see any vision and if he does not get thru the line clean it is going to be 2 or 3 yrds. Perine may be the real deal and man I hope so. He has the potential.
Don’t give up on these back yet, they are all very talented, but very young. Perine is not playing like a true freshman, and I think that makes people think Ross should be further along in his development. Like JY said, Ross is extremely fast, but his vision is a work in progress.
Ford will also learn better body position as the season moves along, but he’s a very good back.
The MOST important thing I’ve seen out of all three is the ability to protect the football. There’s bound to be a turnover eventually, but through three games they have all looked good carrying the ball.
If you look around college football, there aren’t many 30 carry-a-game backs anymore. Bama, Georgia, etc. all use a variety of backs, and we are just younger than they are. The talent is there, the season is young.
although he has been tripped up at the shoelaces a time or two, I don’t think Ford is easy to arm tackle. I’ve seen him run through several as he goes thru the line. And, although he hasn’t made a lot, he’s made a few nice cuts and his spin move has been spectacular.
In addition to the wham block (play), OU seems to have the personnel to do a counter trey with Ross. He has the speed, and power if it doesn’t go off smoothly.
Percy Harvin will show you how it’s done. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qhg9YsKkxc
I love our running backs. If they can emulate the same combo of quick first step through the hole and overall speed of Percy Harvin, that will be very nice. Some ridiculous skills there.
Man, I hope we see TK keep the ball more on those reads if the defender keeps crashing down on the RBs. Gash WVU for big yards and take ’em out of the game early. If Maryland can put up yards and points on this WVU defense, OU’s offense should be able to as well. Thanks for the TW JY, much appreciated.
JY, thank you for pointing out the wheel route. During that play, everything was open to the right and then I see Trevor turn left and throw to Ross and I was dumbfounded. Our WR’s are quick so if they use the slants/skinny posts, they will create separation on the cut. Trevor has to throw as they are making the cut – timing. It’s not there, yet.
Whomever is calling the plays is obviously missing the blocking count advantages. Makes me wonder if it is the coaches fault more than Trevor’s since they appear to be in control of plays? Did we miss the count advantages on most plays, or just a few critical ones? Inquiring readers would like to know… 🙂
Great points about TK’s progressions. He’s pre-determining far too often who the receiver will be in 1st 3 games. While at game, there was a play where if he kept it there was enough green to cover NJ on wide side of field. Killed me. I’m confident about the ‘vanilla’ theory. I’m ok with it for now. Guessing JH wants to work on many things individually before putting it all together and these games have been perfect for that. We’re just frustrated fans not seeing the inside picture of what they see IMO.
I’m pretty sure the coaches are sandbagging with the offense, but OUr guys need to play smarter too. JY illustrated how it would have been 31-0 at the half if just a few things would have been done better. I am still very confident in the team’s ability, but they have to go do it. That includes the coaches.
Thanks again, JY for doing this. Pleasure to read.
It sure looks like they’re trying to keep things basic, in terms of not confusing the players with too many or any options to think about. Whether they think the players need to learn the basics first before taking on any options, or whether they’re just being cautious, I don’t know. It looked to me like the fade to Ross was a called play, just like the others, where they just wanted to try that play from the get go.
It’s a little weird, but it’s a bit encouraging to see how, with what appear to be a few very simple changes–a blocking assignment corrected, a couple of reads allowed or made properly–these scores could easily be, as you say, “cartoonish.” That and clean up a few penalties and we could be looking at some “Looney Tunes” in the near future.
I have the sense that the ball security and overall lack of mental mistakes are much improved over recent years at this point.
New to the site and I think this and the previous write-up are great. This week would be a great time to really break-out the zone-read instead of the don’t-read-and-give. WV is giving up almost 7 yards per carry and almost 8 yards per pass attempt against Alabama and Maryland.
Great post again! I wish that television stations had the option for diehard fans to watch the game from a whole field view (like tecmo bowl) and then zoom in when appropriate. So maybe you could watch the game from camera angles like they have now or watch the game from another feed with the whole field. A multiple feed football game at the disposal of one’s remote! That would be a money maker and a boon for game film amateur fans like us.
I like the “what we could have done better” viewpoint, but can we maybe do a mix of the positive and negative with this stuff?
Well, I guess we’ve finally made it, at least according to the Tenn QB:
“I mean, that was an SEC game,” Worley said. “Oklahoma’s an SEC opponent. They were tough, both offensively and defensively, so going on the road like that early in the season against a non-SEC opponent, that’s good for a lot of these guys to learn from and grow from.”