JY With Some Quick Thoughts on Tennessee & A Preview Of What’s To Come In Trench Warfare
Posted on: September 15, 2014
Image via the Tulsa World
Good morning!
Sorry I’ve been off the grid for a few days. This past weekend the Misses and I celebrated our 7th anniversary, so my ability to be as engaged into Sooner football to the degree I normally am was a little limited. I wasn’t able to watch the game live Saturday night, but when we got home I gassed up the trusty DVR and gave it a look.
I tell ya, Tennessee has a good football team. They’re active, athletic, and very physical. Even with all that though, I know that had we executed better the game could have been cleaner than it was. When you step back and put everything in perspective, a 34-10 home win against a solid SEC opponent with a dominant defensive performance is nothing to be ashamed of. I told the wife a few years ago this would have been a nail-biter, because the defense would not have been able to shut them down like we saw on Saturday.
I’ll be honest with you. I’m an offensive football guy at heart, but this defense is fun to watch. They’re playing defense like we used to see in Norman in the early 2000’s and the Barry Switzer days. The bottom line is that if a team can’t score, then a team can’t win. That goes for us too.
I had hoped to get Trench Warfare to y’all this morning, but as I went through the film I want to approach it a little differently than I have in the past. This week I want to go through the missed opportunities we had, and illustrate how the score could have actually been 52-10 or even greater. Again, having perspective…how spoiled are we that we’re complaining about a 34-10 win? Our team is so strong that we come out with a 24 point victory having not played the best offensively, and we’re griping? I’m a perfectionist, as a lot of you are I’m sure, and this team has all the makings of one I believe will have us in the thick of the four team playoff this January. I guarantee you the coaches and players’ expectations for themselves and each other are exponentially higher than ours ever could be. So as I point things out, keep in mind that I’m very proud of our squad and what we’ve accomplished both this year and in years past.
I just want to point out some plays that would have allowed us to score TDs on the first couple of drives instead of field goals (+8 points). The final drive of the half where Trevor gets picked (+7). The blocked field goal (+3) and the Florida 4th down inside option play to Flowers that Tebow and Hernandez ran on us until we puked in the NC game in 2008.
I’m sure there will be more than those when I start breaking this thing down, but let’s step back even farther. Let’s take a breath and understand that great coaches coach for the long term. At a point when your defense is playing lights out and has given you a 24 point lead, it gives you freedom to try and run things that you normally wouldn’t run. You can bow up and try to run against a loaded box to see if you can do it. By my count we only ran one swing pass on Saturday, and Keith Ford scored on it. I’m sure we could have run it again, but how many times do you need to? Then the only thing you can do is run screen passes and swings. So again, we all have to understand that while we left a lot of points on the table Saturday night, there isn’t a reason to panic offensively. We missed some reads in the option game. We missed some calls in letting Trevor read in the option game. We had some silly penalties (Blake’s false start and Savage’s hold), and Trevor missed some open receivers.
With all that we have a lot to build on, this might be the most complete team I’ve seen us have since 2000. I say 2000 because in 2001 & 2002 we didn’t really have an offense that was as good as this one. 2003 and 2004 were really good years, but I think the defense is better this year. 2007 could be close, but again this defense is better and we run the ball better. 2008 was an offense for the ages, but we didn’t have a strong defense. So fast forward to 2014.
While it’s only been three games, this defense is going to hurt some quarterbacks. The young safeties are going to get better and as Mike has more time with them, these guys will be a lot different come Week 6 or Week 10. And, mind you, they’re already pretty good. I can name seven or eight guys defensively who could be stars this year and guys have gotten a lot better just in general. Quentin Hayes is lights out, Julian’s a stud, and the defensive line is filthy sick. Evans and Striker play in space like nobody’s business, and Sanchez gets a pick every game it seems. I was thinking about Bryce Petty (the Baylor QB) being out with back problems, and about how keyed up our defense is going to be against him in November, and how bad that may be for him. Teams won’t be able to run the ball against us, and unless a QB can move around a little bit it’s not going to be pretty.
The schedule from here on out sets up great. We have a tough one in Morgantown on Saturday that will tell us a lot about this team. Alabama struggled with them, and no doubt about it, the Mountaineers will be ready to play on Saturday. If we come out of there with a defensive performance like we had Saturday night, then my opinion of this team will be solidified. Regardless of what anyone says, a win by one point in Morgantown is a good win, so I’ll be content with that. But from an overall season perspective, when was the last time that we had our toughest games at home, three in season off weeks to heal up, an offense that is committed to running the ball, and a defense that could be one of the best we’ve seen?
It’s been a while.
Long story short, while we may have looked pedestrian at times offensively on Saturday, the plays are there. We just missed them. The good news is that we have nine games left to get better. I’ve got a lot of faith in Trevor as do his teammates, and I’m excited to see how much better we get from week to week. I’ll tell you this. If Trickett gets hit as much as Worley did Saturday night, they’ll break him in half. Let me know if there’s something you want me to focus on, but that’s what I’ll be looking for when I break down the film tonight.
59 Comments
It seemed at times to me that Perine and Knight both missed some big holes. They may have been cut backs that they didn’t see or I may be over estimating the size of the holes. But it seemed like they would pick up a couple but if they hit the hole to the right it would be a 10+ yard carry. Will you check and see if its just me or if they did miss some holes.
Absolutely. I agree some creases were there we didn’t take.
Especially on read option plays!!! Trevor could have ran for a lot of yards….maybe even 200, if he had the “D-end read” down.
Especially in the zone read the threat of the QB run is critical to the success of the dive like in all option games.
First, congrats on #7. Like OU, let’s make it #8!! Agree, this is the most complete team, all the parts are available but there’s work to be done but it’s about reps together. TK, the receivers, the oline in sync. This D gives them a chance in every game. Just stay healthy. Looking forward to your breakdown.
I think that’s part of it. I’m not a fan of called gives or keeps in the option game, and it really appears that’s what’s happening there. Definitely keeping Trevor healthy has to be a priority, but the guy is elusive and smarter when it comes to contact this year.
Thanks for the kind words!
I’ve noticed that too. How can you call an option keeper an option? Theres no such thing as options or an option if there is only one option. That make sense? The play only works if you actually READ the defense and choose the correct OPTION based on the defender’s decision.
How many times on Saturday could Trevor have made twenty or thirty yards with his feet? On some plays it looked like the D-end was holding hands with the D-tackle he was cheating so bad. If he gets that figured out we are in for something special!!!
Thanks for the thoughts JY, been waiting on this.
It’ll help some when Walker and Dimon are back to give the 1st teams some relief.
Trickett is probably still having nightmares from playing us in 2011 when he was at FSU.
This
Defensively, I’d like to see a breakdown of Tennessee’s TD drive in the 2nd qtr. Granted, w/o the offsides penalty, that should have been another 3-n-out. However, they drove 80 yards in 6 plays for the score, and only 3 of those plays were positive yards. Can you break down those 3? Without those 3 plays (or the penalty) and the accidental punt/fumble, we have a shutout.
I agree this
Congrats on the anniversary JY!
Thanks for the comments.
I’m interested to see the D this week. We won’t have the time to rush the passer because WVU will be getting rid of the ball more quickly than Tenn. This will be our first real chance to see how this D performs against the style offense it was designed to beat. What they do against WVU will give us a feel for how they might perform against TT, TCU, oSu and Baylor.
Gonna be fun and, like you, a 1 point win is enough for me. In the world of college football nowadays, just get a “W” and move on.
…..as a casual fan, what I found distressing was the ability to get into scoring territory and then get bogged down settling for fg’s………as good as the d was playing we let them hang around and they came real close to making it a 10 pt game with plenty of time left and momentum…..the o needs to come around b/c even this d can be left on the field too long …….injuries and lost pt are starting to show up and phillips has apparently tweaked his back and was held out of most of the 2nd half…………..anyway, perhaps I was expecting more from the ‘dominant’ ol and not giving enough credit to tenn……..they did play their butts off and hung in there……look forward to jy’s remarks…..thxs
This may be a stupid question but I always hear that “we will get better as the season progresses”. Is that not true with every other team as well so that, would it not cancel out most if not all improvements since all teams get better over the same period of time or…is it that the more talented and or better coached teams will experience MORE improvement than less talented and coached teams?
In my opinion, it’s not about talent level. Everyone improves at doing something. To me, it’s about how fast you progress. Remember, hard work beats talent if talent doesn’t work hard. I can be more talented than someone but if I don’t work hard at getting better, I won’t improve as much as the next person.
Consider this: scratch golfer versus bogey golfer. If the bogey golfer works hard and practices doing the right things, improving his/her technique and fundamental, while the scratch golfer doesn’t, who has the chance to improve the most? The gap between the bogey golfer and scratch golfer decreases, and the bogey golfer chances of defeating the scratch golfer increases.
Now, if the scratch golfer puts in as much work on improving technique and fundamentals, the scratch golfer becomes even better, the chasm remains the same and might possibly be greater.
In short, no improvement while your opponent improves, can get you beat. Improving while at the same pace as your opponent prepares you to overcome your opponent’s improvement.
“hard work beats talent if talent doesn’t work hard”-nailed it….and whatcha got for an infinity handicap?
Hank Haney. LOL!!!
JY, happy anny first of all! I always look forward to your trench warfare segment. It is extremely informative and I feel like I learn more about the game every time I read it. I was wondering if you could take a look at some of our running formations that we seem to struggle with. Particularly the “diamond”. I feel like this formation puts 9 of our players inside the tackles and thus brings 9 defenders inside the box as well. I understand that if you block it appropriately, in theory, you should be able to run out of this formation. My issue is that it seems to clog running lanes more than it opens them. After all, we have our 5 massive OL guys in there as well that take up a ton of space. I have been harping for years that we need to spread teams out if we want to run out of the pistol or the shotgun. have 7 of our players “in the box” with 4 split out wide. Force the D to commit to the run or to the pass w/ their defenders and attack accordingly. It makes zero sense to me to bring more defenders close to the line of scrimmage and try to run straight at them. We have way too much talent to not utilize it properly. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks again for the TW segment, LOVE IT!
Congrats on the anniversary!
I was wondering if you could look at our inability to run the ball most of the game. I realize they were stacking the box on a regular basis, but it still seemed that our O-line didn’t have a size advantage nor an experience advantage for much of the game. We should’ve had more rushing yards regardless of what Tenn did.
Not JY but we should factor in that UT had 4/5 star athletes and great coaching.
That’s still not good enough. The only way I’d be happy with the way the line played was if we were playing Bama or FSU. With 300+ lbs on their D-line and 100+ starts, you should dominate, period. I realize many of the problems stemmed from Darlington’s protection, and with this being his first true test as a starter, he gets some slack and will undoubtedly get better. But they were getting a lot of pressure on the perimeter too, and we have no excuses there.
I hear you but Butch Jones and his staff are really good coaches. If Bob ever steps down (and I hope he doesn”t) Butch would make a great replacement.
I disagree on Darlington, I thought he played a solid game. He got beat on a few plays but so did Shead, Kasitati and Evans.
What they learned about line calls against a 7-8 man box with stunts will be very useful for them in future games.
will do
Before game even ended (was there after 600mile drive), I was already saying to self ‘Can’t wait to see JY’s TWarfare’. Yeah, it’s come to that, you’ve become an intrigal part of my OU Football season :). Major props to you & Braniacs.
Was frustrating how Oline ‘seemed’ to be struggling getting any push or blocking in general.
Your summary above is on point. From a long term perspective it was actually perfect game to me. I also think in coaching eyes, love to see get tested a bit. People learn the most through adversity, things not going right. If you can accomplish that with a 42-10 win & (almost) no injuries…perfect. I’ve been absolutely thrilled w/season so far. Not struggled with teams we should overwhelm in 1st 2games (like we do SO many years) & got good slugfest in Tenn to learn well from. Couldn’t draw up better start in my mind. Love it. Hate it when teams come out of gate (too good), they’re rarely good at end of year or get punched in mouth mid-season & don’t know how to handle it.
Besides Phillips/Striker, seeing it in person I was very impressed with was Hayes. He had a great game & I’ve admittedly been a skeptic before on him. Was good to see.
Side note: saw a person by Switzer Center with a BOOM gray Tshirt on, yelled ‘Brainiacs’ their way & the guy replied back with a ‘Yep’. Wondered if was one of you guys. Was guessing Yost or Drake from characuture drawings 😉
I wish it was me that was there lol. I think your comments summarize it very well!
I look forward to your breakdown. I would guess some plays are still “bottled up” for future games and to get TK further into the season safely. Baylor, OSU and after the option will have to be available.
Congrats JY! Family first, football second. Always the right choice. Just curious if you think we went vanilla offensively in the second half?
I second John’s sentiments. Congratulations!
Thanks guys! I do think we went a little Vanilla, but the difference in this game vs the ones against La. Tech and Tulsa was the opposition being able to stop it. Tennessee has a good football team, and while we can say vanilla this or that, had we executed some things that were there then the outcome is more lopsided.
Thanx JY!
Great points, JY. Looking fwd to the breakdown.
I, like many here, think it looks like Trevor is running a “looks like the option,” that many times just isn’t. I don’t know how, or if, you could determine that from film. Some of those reads seemed pretty obvious though, and while he needs to improve, it’s hard to believe that he would miss a couple of those.
The offense clearly would be at it’s most devastating if Trevor spends more time as play maker instead of distributor. BUT, as much as I wanted to see him terrorize Tenn with his feet, and the resulting help that would give the rest of the offense, I’m happy to think long term, and say I’d rather have him available at the very end of the season. All it takes is one weird hit, and we’re scuffling every game. So it’s a tough call, but as long as we’re winning, this is smart football. If they can figure out how to do it without him getting injured, a few more soul crushing scampers would be nice.
I also agree with you about, running when the D is killin’ it and you have a 20 point lead. Another point is that if your game plan is to wear down the opponents D-line, so you can ground and pound in the 4th quarter, you’ve got to keep bashing at them, even if it isn’t producing consistent yards, I think, and hope to get a few that work, while you’re beating them down for later in the game. Having said that, it still felt like this was the O-line’s first look at first rate, fast athletes on the defense, and it was giving them some problems.
I think our defense is potentially ridiculous this year, play makers everywhere, but I have some cautious concern that they looked as great as they did because they were facing 3 true freshmen. If you’re getting that kind of pressure on every down, everything’s gonna look good. It’s not out of the question that they’ll be able to spend that much time in the backfield against a better, more experienced line, but we haven’t seen it quite yet.
My main takeaway was what a difference even one or two unnecessary penalties can make. If we do nothing but eliminate the penalties, most of these other concerns will be much less significant. Tenn. only had 1 penalty all game, and that’s why they hung in as well as they did.
To run TK or not, that is the question. I get the “we want him there at the end of the year” mentality. But it does no good for him to survive to the end of the year, and drop 1-2 games. Our goals are too high.
With a couple of exceptions, most teams in the Big XII could beat us if we don’t bring our “A” game. Our “A” game includes Trevor making plays with his feet. Playing too conservative is not a recipe for making the playoffs.
I dunno the trade-off; guess that’s why Bob makes the big bucks.
the encouraging thing is that, judging from the way all of them, Stoops, Heupel, Knight, have answered questions on that very topic, it appears that they are evaluating as they go and have thought it through pretty carefully,
One thing I’d like to see is if you could breakdown how much slower a ZR run is in developing as opposed to a straight handoff. Since we’re not letting Trevor really run from the ZR, it seems to me like a straight handoff would be quicker and more effective by allowing a RB that extra split second of knowing he’s getting the ball and making a move to the gap he’s running through? Or you could maybe show via media clip how defenses aren’t respecting Trevor on the ZR, how much room is there if he keeps it, and what the outcome could be if our coaches weren’t so scurred.
I’m an optimistic person as they come but I do want to make a few points.
Not impress with play calling. 2 TO’s just to call a TE/Hback shuttle pass? A wheel route on 3rd down to Ross from the red zone?? Run on 1st & 2nd down for most of second half and put pressure on Trevor for a long 3rd down conversion. I understand we were burning clock and didn’t want to show to much. Also we knew the D would hold but we could’ve thrown on a couple 1st downs for short yardage to “mix” it up and control time of possession with more 1st downs.
Take the rose colored classes off and this is how OU losses that one game a year. If we don’t make those two INTs it could be a different story. Momentum shifts, we go back and tell our offense, flip the switch from cruise to attack, not easy to do.
Our D got burned a lot on 3rd down. Offensively, our 3rd down conversion was not good.
We get a kick blocked and have a ball bounce off our guy on a punt.
I guess you can say we dominated but that’s not how I see domination.
TK just needs to run 3-5 times a game. Hopefully, the coaches will let him.
Watch the replay and see what happened after his first ZR run. I’ll save you the trouble…he handed to Ford up the middle the next two plays…big gain followed by untouched 10 yard TD.
I’m like everybody else here…I watch the game, not thinking about how OU looks beating the team they’re playing, but thinking about how they need to look to get to the championship they covet. Having said that, OU beat a 21 point dog by 24…which ain’t half bad.
It’s easy to say that we were “saved” by tough D and a couple good int’s, but we can’t be selective in our thinking. Tenn was “saved” by a motion penalty on 2nd and 1 (which almost certainly stopped a scoring drive by OU) and an offside penalty (which kept their only TD scoring drive alive).
OU is growing every week. I think they’ll get there…just get a “W” and move to the next one.
i agree. as long as lessons are learned with wins and not losses, let em be ugly wins or even ugly blowouts….didn’t the school with the collie running around the sidelines get out-gained by rice…not rice AND beans…just rice?
“I watch the game, not thinking about how OU looks beating the team they’re playing, but thinking about how they need to look to get to the championship they covet.”
I tell you, I’ve been trying to articulate that for a while now. With your permission i’d like to borrow it and use it. It sums up how I watch our teams perfectly.
I’m fluttered. Of course.
Thanks JY. I had been not very happy with the Oline play. We didn’t move them like I thought we should….and they got way more penetration than I thought they should have, resulting in much lower rushing productivity than I thought we should have had.
I’ll take the noose from around my neck and get off the chair, now.
good deal. No need for that!
Happy belated anniversary, JY! Thanks for the write up, looking forward to Trench Warfare!
Yes sir. Thanks!
nice JY. is there a scholarship left? i’m ready to strap it on and go get em. you got me fired up for sure. hell with it, i’ll walk on. 37 year old tackling dummy…
Let’s do it together! As long as they bring a defibrillator to practice I’m down!
me too , you have me thinking I could do this ,, but then I remember that I’m 58 years old and run like a duck 🙂
Congrats on the anniversary JY but why would you get married during such an important time? HAHA, I’m sure your wife is as good as mine and mine avoids me during an OU football game, she may not understand the passion but she accepts it.
I’m looking forward to your eval because I was thinking about some of the things you said while I was watching it live. I have convinced myself that Bob was fairly sure he could win this game with defense and wanted to test the O without giving away any strategy he has for the revenge games in conference that he has a history of “bringing the wood” in.
In a normal game I would be down on the O line but the Vol’s were stacking and determined to shut down the run. A good effort on their part but even though out numbered, we still moved the ball well enough to win the game in a respectable fashion. Penalties hurt us more than anything else IMO. I questioned why we weren’t running Knight out of the ZR because it was open( think it was all preplanned) and my biggest question was why we couldn’t beat them over the top, this was either not wanting to show too much or not being prepared for the way they attacked us. I hope your breakdown may answer a couple of these questions.
How come we didn’t see the diamond formation against the 8 man fronts? It’s not like that formation isn’t already on tape. Big boy ball would have help defeat the 8 man fronts IMO.
“They’re playing defense like we used to
see in Norman in the early 2000’s and the Barry Switzer days. The bottom
line is that if a team can’t score, then a team can’t win.”
BOOMER!
SOONER!
Congrats on the anniversary JY! Love the posts as usual. I learn so much from your posts, adds another level of enjoyment in watching my alma mater. I saw the game again on my DVR, maybe you could comment/ educate us on any of the below.
Pros:
1. Williams looks good.
2. Against seven man fronts (i.e that awesome 1990’s sega genesis college football game run that Perine had in 4th) line looked much better, like they were supposed to
3. On D, I notice Tapper gets doubled more than anyone else, even though he was lined up over the strength of their O line. Does that mean coaches fear him the most?
4. St.John actually looked good subbing from Thompson in 2nd half.
Cons:
1. Tyrus Thompson bear hugged the DE Derek Barnett on a number of pass downs. Man he is strong but definitely WWE. I think he and Daryl should switch sides. Is he going to struggle against speed guys or is Barnett really that good/ aberration?
2. Darlington not too strong (relative of course). I think on some zone blitzes? and stunts where the guard froze and couldn’t help, he got pushed back a lot.
3. Neither the guards or Darlington very good at getting to second level. Lots of whiffs there or too slow. Maybe we need one dancing bear that can pull etc?
4. I know we want to keep the same personnel to do the tempo thing but major tradeoffs in going from Bell to Rip in that Bell < RIP blocking. I'm sure you've seen the plays. If we really are more talented than competition, maybe forget tempo and just sub in Bell and Rip accordingly?
Tennessee did an excellent job of clogging the inside, and that caused some early issues with our running game. It wasn’t so much that our interior was getting beat, they just schemed to push our runners outside. Lot’s (and I mean LOTS) of slanting on their defensive line. Smart move by Tennessee.
When we did run outside, Tennessee had enough speed to counter some of that, but if they didn’t have AJ Johnson playing, it would have been a different story…that guy is unbelievably good.
The run plays called in the first half paid dividends in the fourth quarter. Which opened things up a little.
Tennessee is a solid defensive team, and they will give the teams on their schedule some trouble. Butch Jones has clearly recruited well as they have talent all over the field.
In the end, they just couldn’t match up with us, but I suspect we’ll be hearing more about Tennessee as the year goes along.
Happy Anniversary to you and your bride, JY.
This one was even more special with the addition of little man to the family.
As for the game, I don’t agree that the Vols are a good team, but will agree that they have a nice collection of some very talented young players.
Not many teams will sell out to stop the run like the Vols did, but if they do the O-line and coaches will have a better plan to counter it from this game experience.
I think the O-line performed well overall considering the stunts and blitzes they were having to read on the move. Loved the blocks Darlington made on LBs on the Ford TD run and the long Perine run in the 4th.
“The bottom line is that if a team can’t score, then a team can’t win.”
Reminds me of the Karate Kid: “A man can’t see, he can’t fight.”