The Football Brainiacs

On the fourth day O’Trenchin ol’ Jy gave to me—

Four mountaineers, three pancakes, two overtimes and a beeer….in a treee.

Jumpin right in, here we see the body language of the defenders I was talking about in the previous post.  Since WV runs a 3-3-5, all three linebackers are showing that they’re blitzing.  It may be a fake, but as an o lineman, you have to be ready for all of em.  With 5 o linemen, and Samaje, you have 6 blockers for their six rushers…

 

Right off the snap, we see the play action left with Samaje carrying out the fake.  Baker knows that with the type of protection he has on, slide protection(meaning the o line is sliding to the left), the end man on the line of scrimmage to the right is going to be unblocked.  Some teams have an adjustment where they would have Perine go to the right to pick this guy up.  On this play the Sooners didn’t, and had to get the ball out quickly.  It was an inch or two overthrown to Baxter down the left sideline.  I’d like to think that if the protection is adjusted with Samaje blocking that guy instead of going play action left, or if the protection is slid to the right, Samaje would run right into the end man on the left side.  6 on 6 gives you more time and time for the receiver to separate.

 

 

This play is a called qb draw and it’s a great front to run it against.  5 defenders in the box against six blockers again counting Samaje.

 

 

AS soon as the ball is snapped going left to right, Big O has to get his d-end to come upfield on the outside to create a lane.  Farniok at Guard is going to check O’s end to see if he comes inside, and if no one shows in his gap, he’s getting downfield.  Darlington and Nila(two blue dots) are going to handle the nose and the mike(the other two blue dots).  Whatever those two guys do, twist, etc, Nila and Ty have em.  It looks like right here Ty is looking upfield to the blitzing backer and Nila’s going to handle the nose.  Samaje is going to lead up into the hole on the will(weakside backer), and St John like O, has to get his guy to come upfield to the outside.  If you check the red dot, you can see that the D-End has given St. John a head fake outside and is looking to set St. John up for an inside move.

 

 

If you look again left to right, Big O has gotten his guy to commit outside.  Farniok’s left hand is on O’s back, “checking” or “feeling” that side to be conscious of anyone showing in that gap.  As I thought, Darlington has come off of the double team and picked up the backer.  Nila has got the nose one on one.  St. John has been set up, and has given up the inside to his defender.  St. John needs to mirror what Big O is doing on the left.  Also, Baker has to let this thing develop just a tick longer, but the defender that is working against St. John spooked him a little bit.

 

 

So let’s imagine for a minute if St. John inside blue dot doesn’t let his guy come inside.  He would have been out by the hash.  Then, if Baker lets it set up just an instant longer, St. John has stayed with it enough to get his guy overpowered, but Baker takes off outside.  If you check Samaje’s head on the hash, he’s inside out on the backer or he’s “kicking him out”.   Nila’s “washing” his guy outside, and before the O-Line had earned Baker’s trust, his internal clock was ticking really fast.  Had there been a split second longer or blocked a little bit better, you see all the green grass to the goal post.

 

 

The final score in the West Virginia game was 44-24, but at halftime, it was 24-7 sooners.  Then it was 24-14.  Then 24-17.  Then 27-17.  Then 27-24.  The Sooners went on to hit a big play to Durron Neal, and score a defensive touchdown to make it 44-24.  It was a lot closer than the score suggested.  In my opinion, the second half of the West Virginia game was the beginning of the performance at Texas.  The guys didn’t play particularly well from an execution standpoint, and had a ton of 15 yard penalties on defense.  Still they came away with a 20 point win.  I think it gave them a false sense of security, and maybe let them think that they could play bad and still kick a good WV’s butt.  Did that play into the preparation mentally the next week against a bad Texas team?