The Football Brainiacs

I haven’t had a chance to re-watch the game. I was taught to never do anything you have to apologize in advance for but since I haven’t re-watched, I apologize if there is anything off about my notes below.

OFFENSE

*Offensively, OU has to continue to recruit open field speed. In the tOSU game I noticed how much open field speed their offensive skill guys had. The Sooners have Badet (and now Brown) but they need to continue to recruit that because when those guys touch the ball, it scares for me the other DC!

*Related to the note above, when you’ve got a ton of open field speed it limits a team’s ability to use too much confusion on the defensive side of the ball. Baylor tried to use a lot of pre-snap movement to confuse OU and it worked at times. When you’ve got more guys like Badet on the field, you and they know that they are limited in terms of who can actually run with that offensive player. It forces them to show their hand earlier.

*I though it was absolutely brilliant for Lincoln to use a twitchy guy like Abdul to run the rock the first three quarters and then to bring in a powerful bruising back like Sermon to finish them off. Just a savage move. It’s these kinds of things that make Lincoln so tough to deal with.

*Mead is finally seeing the consequences for his lack of effort. I wish him well but all these players have to understand that there are a lot of guys who will gladly fight for a ball to be on the field. If it’s not something you want, that’s fine but don’t expect to be on the field.

*Related to the note above, Lincoln is beginning to remind me a bit of Pete Carroll in two ways: he’s a true players coach and he’s going to actually let the guys compete and the best will play. A lot of coaches say that but in reality it doesn’t happen.

*I know there were a lot of complaints about Lincoln not running the ball in the first half and even he admitted that he probably got a little impatient in the second quarter. But in his defense, the look Baylor was showing was definitely not one favorable to the run game. When someone is going to show you a lot of cover 1 (which was essentially cover 0 since the safeties were never going to make it on top of either outside route based on the pre-snap alignment) you have to hurt them deep.

DEFENSE

*My general thought here is that Mike Stoops is a traditional defensive coordinator in a non-traditional era. What I mean by that is that his instincts, while football sound, will often lead you astray against the modern (post-2008) offenses. I’ll give an example.

Traditionally a defense is going to start a game feeling out their opponent, seeing how conservative they can get away with being. So, you’ll rush as few as possible and see how few guys you need to get to the QB. The problem with that is, you’re playing rhythm offenses. So, while you’re feeling them out, they are getting comfortable. Then when you increase the speed (pressure) it isn’t going from 0 to 60, it’s going from 30 to 60. At the same time, your DBs have been playing slower on the back end because of the coverage help. Now, they’re suddenly dealing with a game that has sped up due to your increased pressure up front. They aren’t acclimated to the speed you’ve dictated.

Anymore defense is about creating negative plays and turnovers. I said it earlier in the week, look at the trend in the championship games Saban has played in. The offenses are tough to stop even when you have talent and a good DC.

I’ll consider writing more on this later but I’ll close this point by saying, if you look at the best defensive guys in the country, Patterson, Narduzzi, Arranda, Saban, Orlando, Venables etc. they are much more aggressive. That does NOT necessarily mean they are going to bring a dog or blitz every down. It means they are going to create movement up front, they are going to show you different pre-snap looks, they are going to try to create negative plays on first down, etc.

Mike knows defense. Anymore, it’s not about how much you know, it’s about building on the correct premise. Bend won’t just break anymore, it’ll lose you the game.

*I don’t have a problem with OU employing their bail technique but they cannot give up that much space. You can bail and stay on top of the route and still manage the space better. That was just too easy for Baylor and honestly too difficult for our DBs. They’ve got to get closer to matching their guys in the zone. I’m not saying be super aggressive in that regard but they can definitely tighten that up.

*Steven Parker has really grown into a fine player and a great leader who plays with emotion. I like it!

*OU has to do one of two things: Either Mike has to get him some big interior defensive linemen that can collapse the pocket or he’s got to start moving those guys around more. Watching them get almost no interior pressure is problematic. I know that’s the hardest pressure to get but you’ve got to stunt, twist…do something more often than they are.

*I know some of you have been critical of JT and I suspect he himself would admit he didn’t have the best game but let me repeat two things again:

Denzel Mims is a beast. I followed him closely during his recruitment. OU was close to offering but for some reason never would and I knew it was a mistake. As I mentioned, he was the TX state champion in the 200 m at 6’3/6’4. He’s a great athlete. What’s scary, is he might be an even better DB. JT will face a lot of good WRs but that size athleticism combo that Mims has is exceptional.

Two of the issues he had were understandable. One was a banjo coverage call and the interior DB played it straight man (or perhaps it was man and JT played it wrong). In other words, it was a communication issue. The other deep ball I recall, JT was slightly stacked and turned his head and they put the ball over top of him. It was a good play by Baylor if I recall. On top that, it was Mims in full stride down the sideline. There aren’t many people that can run with him. Again, I’m sure JT would admit he didn’t have the best game but I want to be careful not to overstate it. Having said that, he definitely needs to rebound quickly. Iowa State is a team that has some twitch to em.

*Obo is your best guy up front both against the run and the pass. You can’t drop him in coverage that much.

*It looks to me like OU is so much more successful when they are in their 4-man front alignment (1,3,5,7). That odd front alignment (4i,0,4i) just feels too shaky.