The Football Brainiacs

Image from Soonersports.com

Below is a continuation of my post from earlier today regarding Baylor’s ability to beat teams deep. We were looking at how Baylor was able to blow the top off of Kansas State’s defense on multiple occasions. In part A we covered the first two Baylor TDs. We will look at the 3rd and 4th TDs here and finish with a quick discussion of what Oklahoma can do to avoid the same fate

3rd TD – Goodley goes 72 yards off a simple slant route. Here again this isn’t as much about speed as it is about a busted assignment. I don’t care how fast your team is, you don’t normally get 72 yards off a slant route without there being a bust!

Defense looks like they are playing cover 4 but it ends up being split coverage with cover 4 to the far side and cover 2 to the boundary. Goodley, the outside WR (circled in blue) is going to run a slant. The corner (circled in red) is playing cover 2 so he’s going to cover Goodley and then release him to the LB (circled in white). The LB however has to carry the receiver lined up inside back to the safety. But then he has to let that WR go and come down to help on the slant route.

But the LB plays the wrong technique and gets completely turned around following the inside receiver and doesn’t back in time to cover Goodley on the slant route. What that means is exactly what you see below; a humongous hole created in coverage and its nothing but green grass for Goodley.

Baylor has great speed and if you give them this kind of space they’re going to burn you. But again, the initial space in coverage and loss of leverage on the ball is from errors in the coverage.

4th TD – Tevin Reese with a 55 yard TD pass. This looks like a bust as well. This is quarters coverage across and Baylor has a TE lined up to the left side of the formation. Baylor sells the play action well because the TE almost looks like he’s run blocking which I’ll show you in the second image. The safety (in red) who is playing a 2 read (meaning he’s playing run and the pass) bites down on the play action. The interesting thing here is that the corner is playing off with his hips turned inside and looks like he’s playing a cover 4 technique so if he plays this correctly, at the snap he would immediately begin to back out. Had he done that this play probably doesn’t work for Baylor.

Instead, as you see below, at the snap, the corner (in blue – without the arrow) actually takes a step towards the receiver and squares up to him. It almost looks like he thinks the call is a cover 2 because he’s trying to reroute the receiver. Again, the safety (circled in blue with the arrow) bites on the play action so there is no help deep. An interesting thing to note is how the TE (circled in red) is playing more of a run blocking technique. This helps Baylor really sell the PA and they get both the safety and the corner looking inside.

In the image below the CB (in blue) is trying to turn and run with Tevin Reese, the WR, but because he came down looking to jump a route his weight was already shifted forward and Reese just runs right past him. The safety’s (in blue) weight is still shifted forward so he doesn’t have a chance. Reese is going to be wide open for another easy TD

This is why it’s going to be imperative for OU’s outside corners to really play disciplined. Baylor has a good run game and they run the PA beautifully off of it so it’s reasonable to expect the safeties to bite down on occasion. I have no doubt we have the speed to stay with the Baylor WRs. Baylor hasn’t faced corner talent and speed like Oklahoma’s yet. But it’s all going to come down to being disciplined. What Baylor tries to do is give you a slant, give you a curl, etc. and as they speed up the tempo a DB can start getting a little flustered and impatient and try to jump a route. That’s when they hit you over the top.

I know speed is what everyone wants to talk about and that is certainly an element of Baylor’s offense that makes them a difficult match-up. But it isn’t just about the speed on the field, its the speed and precision of their execution. Again, this game will, in part, come down to patience and discipline and I think it helps that Oklahoma is used to playing man coverage. Simplifying the backend helps players play fast and if they’re disciplined with their eyes and their technique they can avoid giving up many big plays. As a WR in college we generally faced more zone coverage in the Big 12 and that was always easier to handle. Good man coverage teams puts a lot more stress on the QBs to make great throws and makes it harder for WRs to find space. Hopefully Oklahoma’s secondary can remain disciplined in their technique and force the Baylor receivers to actually beat coverage and force their QB to keep trying to make those difficult throws. It’s not easy, but when a defense can do that – it can make a really scary looking offense look a lot more manageable.

BOOMER!