The Football Brainiacs

Starting off in the 1st quarter, we really got on track when we ran the ball with Samaje Perine.  Optimus Perine as he likes to be called had a career night.  Like I’ve pointed out on posts in the past, you want to get your back in one on one situations.  Getting Perine in a one on one matchup is a mismatch all day for other teams.  The true freshman Man-Child finished with 242 yards and 4 TD’s on 42 carries.  Wow.

We’ve gotten this look against a lot of teams.  WV is playing an odd front with a head up nose and a linebacker in the A gap to the left side of the offense.  So cutting a line down Darlington’s back, there are 5 defenders left of center for us, and two back to the right.  By bringing Ripkowski across the formation to the right it creates a numbers advantage for us.

I’ve said it enough times to be a broken record, but running the ball is as much about outnumbering people as it is being physical.  As Rip makes contact outside, it’s a hat on a hat.  The linebacker circled in blue gets caught behind Daryl’s block, and there’s a very clean seam for Perine to get into.

WVU has 8 in the box by walking the corner up outside, to follow Neal’s motion.  The weakness of the defense is back to the weakside (offensive right).  While there are six people in the box to our left, there’s only two back to the right.  With Rip coming back to the right, we again have a numbers advantage of 3-on-2.

If the corner inside the numbers to the right doesn’t read run so quickly, or Sterling gets something on him, it’s a huge play.  Even still, it’s 3rd and 2.  Getting a gain of four on short yardage is nice, and much needed at this point in the game.

It seemed like we ran this play a lot, and it caused them to start walking their safety down closer to the line of scrimmage.  By bringing Rip across, we’re again 4-on-4 to the right.

Right off the snap, you can see how quickly the lane opens up.  We could have gone left against the same numbers, but coming right, it gives you less defenders to navigate as a runner.  So as Rip makes this block, it’s wide open.

I would have liked to have seen Samaje cut back inside and carry this guy into the end zone.  Nevertheless it’s a great run on even better blocking.  He may have been playing it safe by getting out of bounds and keeping the ball away from the defenders.  We’d had some funky stuff happen to this point and he probably didn’t want to risk a turnover.

Here’s another look at it.  The only defender left is the safety way down field next to the official.  That’s smooth sailing.  Nice to see everyone finishing their blocks.

Here was the screen to Alex Ross that got good yards.  Rule of thumb for O line on the screens are first guy out kicks out, and inside guy turns back inside.  Notice that Darlington’s head is working inside out to catch the immediate threat.  This is something we’ve done much better since Bedenbaugh has been the coach.

While our linemen are big dudes, they’re also good blockers in the open field.  With Darlington looking back inside, he’s able to pick that guy up.  If he’s not looking for him and goes up to WV’s #35, then Ross gets tackled for only a couple.  By doing the little things he and Savage got Ross out past the 50.

This is a front you have to be able to run against.  When teams drop six in coverage, our five linemen have to be better than their five defenders.  This is what Notre Dame did to us in Norman 2 years ago.  They played coverage and whipped us up front.

Not the case in Morgantown, and look at the gash right up the hash.  #8 is the only player who can make the play, and he can’t do it before it’s a first down.

Blake Bell looked pretty good blocking Saturday night.  He took out the linebacker on this play putting Samaje one on one with #35 circled in blue

A tick later everyone’s blocked and the showdown ensues…

But a one on one with Samaje’s a mismatch.  He just flat runs over Nick Kwiatkoski, who’s a Jr. and has played a lot of ball for the Mountaineers.

Two seconds later he’s smashin’ people down at the 3 yard line.  Kid’s a straight up beast.  Look at how far Bell pushed his guy down field.

WVU lined up and tested our manhood with this formation.  They dropped 10 guys in the box.  Their deepest player is about 3 1/2 yards off the ball.

We brought Jordan Smallwood in on this formation, and that’s him leading to the far right of the screen by the goal line.  He’s a beast too, and will give us versatility down the road with formations due to his strength.  I circled the two DB’s w/baby poop yellow, because they got big Adam Shead pulling around to make it 7 on 7 right, and Smallwood is leading.  Since #9 has contain responsibilities on the QB he takes an outside path.  Samaje’s right down the A gap making that distance too much for the DB to close.  Really a nice statement physically running against a 10 man box.

Here’s the blocking on Ross’ kickoff return.  Connor Knight is on the XII emblem with the small blocking path, and Durron Neal is leading up in the hole…

A split second later, Connor locks up, and Durron’s still looking for someone to block…

We’re still locked up, and Durron is getting ready to face up the kicker….

But Ross just outruns ’em.  Durron didn’t have to block anybody and showed some major league wheels on this run.  He can flat out fly.  Do yourself a favor and watch the highlight of this again.  The yard markers are a blur as he runs by.