The Football Brainiacs

Image via The Tulsa World

For the first time, perhaps all season, Oklahoma put together a complete game against a power five conference opponent. It wasn’t without mistakes but it sure looked fantastic at times. Here are some thoughts I had:

– Last year against Baylor Oklahoma played a cover 1 man defense almost the entire game. This season Oklahoma has played quite a bit more zone. But this past weekend Mike Stoops brought back more man coverage. And I can’t help but wonder if perhaps it was an attempt to get the players ready to match up man-to-man against an explosive Baylor offense next week. I hope so because a lot of those zone calls are going to get eatin up by Baylor.

– The interesting thing was, we also saw more press looks on the edges. This is something OU will do sometimes when they are in a split safety look and they’re running, say, cover 2 man-under. Or when they stagger their coverage. But against Iowa State we actually some press coverage in a single high safety look on both edges! It was really fun to watch Julian play that way. He had a ball caught on him out of press coverage and a penalty was called on the same play but he didn’t actually get beat, he just didn’t get his head turned around. But other times, he was so physical in his press technique that the wide receivers just couldn’t even get into his route. He did what a good corner does, he x’d out his receiver. He also did a nice job in his press mirror technique. I like to watch a corner when the ball doesn’t get thrown in his direction. People are quick to jump on a corner when a ball gets caught on him but you’ve got to also notice how many times, good corner play prevents a quarterback from even going the corner’s way.

– Sanchez looked good. He got a little aggressive on a play that cost him. Last week when Mike was asked about Sanchez, he actually said that Sanchez sometimes takes unnecessary risks but I think part of that happens when you play so much off-coverage. You either get yourself in a situation where you appear to be breaking late and aren’t able to close the gap (which is something you’ll see on occasion with Julian) or you break early and prevent the hitch or the slant but you get beat later on the double move. It’s tough to find that line.

– When the young corners came in at the beginning of the game, there was definitely a drop off. That is to be expected since they haven’t had the reps but I was still a little surprised at how hesitant they looked compared to the two starters.

– The defensive line played with great effort. A couple weeks ago in the second half of the KSU game, the defensive line really didn’t perform very well. Even big Jordan Phillips was having trouble one-on-one with KSU’s center at times. For OU’s defensive line it’s really about effort. When they’re giving you everything, they do a nice job of controlling the line of scrimmage. Obviously, it’s a huge help for them to know that they’ve got a lot of depth behind them and with Walker and Dimon back, they do. So I’m hopeful we will see a defensive front that it is able to really handle the Baylor run game.

– Coach Mike Stoops was a lot more aggressive in his calls overall. I would still like to see him play even more aggressively. There were a couple third downs where he called some zone-blitzes and there were some mistakes in the way the defense played them that allowed for 3rd and long completions. 3rd down for the Sooners should always be a pressure/man down because of how well they play out of those calls in general.

– The underneath coverage and the zone coverages, in general, were much better as well. The back 7 did a much better job of matching patterns through zones and then handing off their receivers. This was especially noticeable with the linebackers.

– The linebackers also did a better job of not allowing offensive linemen to wall them off at the second level. This seem to be happening because overall, they were playing faster and reacting to what Iowa State did much better. I suspect part of that was also the talent level of the offensive line but the speed at which Evans and Dom were reacting to plays was still noticeable. My guess is, we’re going to see them playing really fast and looking really prepared for the Baylor run game.

– Parker looked pretty good in coverage again. He had a play against Bibbs where he got caught flat footed and wasn’t able to turn and stay with Bibbs and was forced to hold him but other than that he continues to give OU a good additional cover guy. You’ll likely see a lot of him and Q Hayes playing man coverage this weekend so it’ll be interesting to see how young Parker matches up with Baylor’s speedy receivers.

– Overall, the defense just seemed more dialed in than they have in the past few weeks. They were reacting to things quicker. But I do believe this has something to do with the more aggressive play calling early on. Players get used to playing downhill early and pushing the issue and I think it sets that mental tone that results in a more focused defensive game throughout.

– I’ll leave the offensive notes for JY’s Trench Warfare breakdown, but the thing that really stood out to me, and I’m sure to y’all was the way Oklahoma used Trevor Knight in the run game. That outside run to either side out of the diamond formation with a lead blocker was deadly and thinking as a defensive minded person it would be very difficult to stop. It forces you to play the offense even…because they can run it to either side but it also forces you to play them honest up the middle because OU has an inside power play out of that same formation. You also can’t fly down-hill against it because OU could show run action and pass out of that formation since all the guys in the backfield can actually catch. And Trevor is the key to that play because, as a runner, he gives you the extra blocker. Really tough thing to stop, especially when your lead blocker is getting a good chip on the linebacker (as was the case for OU).

– Related to the note above, this look is also difficult to deal with because OU TE trades and get numbers against the run on one side. From there they force the defensive front and potentially the LBs to react to the trade in order to not be outnumbered at the point of attack. The problem is, when Trevor’s running, they’re then out numbered or even to the weak-side because of the adjustment. That doesn’t even include the fact that OU get’s a one-one-one look with the receivers on the outside. Again, it’s really a difficult play to stop, especially when the other team doesn’t have an talent advantages up front.

– One of the best things was just seeing Honeycutt back to form and striking the ball well! That was a bit of a highlight for me because I really didn’t know if those misses against KSU would have a more lasting effect.

Overall, it was great to see the Sooners play well!