The Football Brainiacs

Image via zimbio.com

Fully willing to concede up front I’m not JY or K when it comes to X’s & O’s and/or breaking down the finer points of the game, but I simply couldn’t help myself when it came to these zone-read issues the offense has been having of late. So I decided to go back and try to diagnose some of what hasn’t been working and maybe even more so, debunk one of the popular message board theories that Trevor Knight doesn’t know how to run the zone-read.

A huge reason why he won the job over Blake Bell two years ago was because of his ability to make plays outside the pocket, and I just can’t believe they’d even have the zone-read in the offense (let alone such a significant part, at least in my opinion, of what they want to do in the run game) if Knight was as bad at making the read as some apparently want to believe.

Let’s see what we can find.

First, undeniable video evidence he does know how to run it. And this isn’t even really run all that well (I’ll explain below), but you can see — when run properly — just how effective it can be.

It looks to me like the two Tennessee LBs almost stunt a little bit, you can see the OLB (#50) shuffle under while the ILB (#56) comes around off the OLB’s outside shoulder. Which, to me, seems like you should give Knight even more credit for reading the play properly and pulling the ball back out.

And, again, the ILB doesn’t even really crash down all that hard on Ford, but gets just off-balance enough that Knight recognizes it and knows he has the athleticism to still get the corner and get up field (and in this case, into the end zone).

Here you see it a click or two later and even though Ripkowski bypasses #50 for a second level block and Ford really doesn’t block anyone at all, because Knight made a good fake and the right read both LBs cannot recover in time to get out and make the play.

Knight gets the corner, puts his foot in the ground, and cuts it up the field. And because Blake Bell locks his man up on the outside, Knight has a clear path for the touchdown.

And I think that’s what is so frustrating about this whole situation. We know we can do it. It’s not really all that difficult to make the necessary read. Is he going to make the right read 100% of the time? Of course not, but I also don’t believe that’s the expectation of any of us with a brain.

Watch this play as just one example as to why I’m so confused.

This is literally the first offensive snap in the game for OU’s offense. Virtually an identical pre-snap look (pistol formation, Rip to the right of the formation instead of left but that really doesn’t change anything, and no Bell at TE here) from the example above. I’ll try and describe what to watch here prior to the video as the angle isn’t all that great to try and screen grab pics like I normally would.

The o-line crashes to their left, leaving Rip matched up with the DE. And he just absolutely squares up and destroys dude, driving him backwards at least two yards. Behind that, you can see Jordan Hicks (No. 3 LB) and Jason Hall (No. 31 S) — who was cheating up as the ball is snapped — both crash hard inside on the read action to Samaje Perine. All of which to me is the perfect example of where you read what you’re seeing in front of you, pull the ball back out (just as was done in the example above), to get the corner and get up field.

Again, I’m certainly no expert. But every single thing about this “zone-read” or “read-option” play screams to me, based on what the defense does, for the QB to keep the ball. Well, I take that back. There is one thing that didn’t really jive.

If you watch the play again, and it’s kind of hard to see because it sort of happens off-screen, but watch Sterling Shepard at the bottom of the screen. Does anyone else find it a little odd that he looks to be running an actual pass route and never really attempts to go for a block? Granted, the play is happening right in front of him and he can quickly see it get very little in the way of yards, but it just struck me as a little odd. If this were truly a play in which Knight had the freedom to make an actual read, and it wasn’t just a predetermined run up the middle, wouldn’t Shepard’s primary responsibility as the play-side WR would have been to lock up his man on the outside?

Here is the very next play, again a “zone-read” that goes for virtually nothing. On this one, you can see the Texas DE (I think it’s Cedric Reed) play it pretty well. He doesn’t really crash on the fake, but he does hesitate (as anyone who didn’t immediately crash one way of the other would) AND Tyrus Thompson is there to get a block on him regardless. So you’d have Knight manned up with a DE, albeit a very athletic one, in space AND with some help from his left tackle and yet he still decides not to pull it back out? Sorry, but I’m just not buying it.

*Total aside, but I think this play in particular is as much on Perine as it is Knight for, in my opinion, not making the right read. It looks to me like Perine doesn’t really wait for his blocks to develop and tries to bounce it outside. Whereas if he’d waited just that split-second, you can see Rip get up in the hole and what looked to me like a pretty significant cutback lane to the left off Dionte Savage. But that’s also the kind of thing that’s REALLY easy to second guess sitting here in front of my computer then it would be real-time on the field.

Another example. This is OU’s second offensive possession on a 2nd & 10. Ignoring how stupid it is to try and run the zone-read with Ross, a RB whose skill set is in almost no way whatsoever suited to that style of running, here I believe Knight makes the right decision. Though that is with the caveat that Daryl Williams lunging to make a block on No. 40 and missing forces Knight’s hand. And I think Ross might have even been able to get some positive yards were it not for Malcom Brown (keep an eye on No. 90 lined up over the LG) absolutely rag-dolling (wow!) Adam Shead.

This one, from the TCU game this time, to me is a perfect representation of the type of zone-read play we’re all screaming about where by all accounts, it looks like he walks into the end zone (admittedly that might not actually have been the case here because the deep safety could have theoretically made a play, but at a minimum he gets more than the half yard Perine did and at worst is one-on-one with a defender in space). And, again, here every indication I can see with the defense crashing hard on the read action is to pull it back out and run.

Even this play, also from the TCU game, while it doesn’t go for a ton of yards it’s another example — like the one at the top — of Knight knowing how to make the proper read. Defense crashes on the read action to the RB, he correctly pulls it back out and takes off. He just has to do a better job of (1) avoiding the tackle and (2) knowing where the first down marker is and get past it.

Look, I get this is just a handful of plays and if I had the time and/or thought you would care to see another however many examples of the same thing I’d go find them. And even after all of this, here is the most frustrating part. I’m not any more confident one way or the other as to what the damn problem is here.

I can (and did) find you examples of him being asked/allowed to make the proper read and doing so. While I can (and did) also find examples of him not being either not being allowed to make the read (i.e. a predetermined zone read play where he’s handing the ball off no matter what, which makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever) or making the improper read. I’ll leave it up to you to decide on your own.

I’m somewhat leaning towards the predetermined run scenario because (1) he accurately described how to properly execute the zone-read when he spoke on Monday following Bob Stoops’ presser AND (2) we have actual video evidence that he knows how to do it. Again, my expectation never has been nor will it ever be for him to make the right read 100% of the time. He’s going to make mistakes.

And I’m not in those meeting rooms or on the headset when Heupel calls the play in, so I can’t definitively tell you whether he’s actually making the wrong read or if he’s being told not to keep it. But it just doesn’t hold water with me that he’d be making the wrong read as many times as I/we believe we’ve seen him make.