The Football Brainiacs

On the 3rd day O’Trenchin’ Ol’ JY gave to me…

Three Pancakes…Two Overtimes in Knoxville, and a beer in a treeeeeee.

 

After a thriller in Knoxville, the O line got a little dinged up.  Alvarez moved over to center, Farniok went in at left guard, and in two plays after a Tulsa punt, was a yard away from a touchdown.  With only four to the left defensively, the Sooners go that way.  But LG Farniok blocks down on the A Gap(1st Blue Dot).  With the whole rest of the line going zone left, it appears that he should have went after the 4i lined up on Big O’s inside eye…

 

But, he leaves the 4i unblocked, and he meets Perine in the backfield at the red x for a loss of 1.  With correct execution down here, it’s Perine walking in the endzone since Westbrook’s guy is playing man outside and has his head turned.  Little busts like this were the name of the game early on in the season.

 

Another thing that Tulsa did, that Texas later took note of, is that pre-snap there was a lot of stemming and moving around.  Here, you have to read pre-snap body language.  This is why it’s so important to keep your eyes up as an O-Lineman.  We see the circled lb already creeping up, and the outside lb(red arrow) walking up with his feet staggered like he’s gonna take off.  In contrast the opposite Lb on the end up by the numbers has his feet square and isn’t coming.  As an O lineman you have to learn body language and know that these two guys are comin right now!

 

The guys barely pick up the inside guy, as you can see the white helmet poking through the line.  Had they seen it quicker, they stone him and give him second thoughts next time.  Samaje’s distracted by it, but he should have been working outside immediately if he’s paying attention to the end guy in the picture above.  You can see that this is a very simple pickup on both accounts.  Mark Andrews(circled) has his defender beat, and this is likely a TD if Baker has any time at all.  Again, very small things become big things…

 

Again we see pre-snap body language.  Changing cadence helps in these situations to keep em from timing it up.  Still the guys gotta be calling it out.  It’s a counter called into the left side, and the guys pulling have to be ready for anything…

 

Nila(blue dot) has to come across with authority, and St. John has to be ready for that guy he’s facing up in the hole to come up hard.  If the guys are just a tick more ready, Daniel Brooks is showing us his speed and in a foot race with the Safety down the left hash…

 

Ultimately, the Sooners scored a boatload of points, but the little things kept them from really puttin it on em.  Small timing issues are sometimes all it is.  Figuring out what they’re going to do before the snap through body language, and being crisp as a unit.  It’s not always how talented a group of players is on the O’Line, it’s how well they play together.  How well they pick up stunts, notice blitzes pre-snap etc.  As the season wore on, Baylor, TCU and O-State tried to blitz & slant a lot, and it burned em.  Hopefully we’ll be able to see how the guys grew as a unit as we go on.