The Football Brainiacs

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Hello there Sooner faithful!

While everyone no doubt is concerned about the O-Line, and to a degree rightfully so, I wanted to shed some light on the play of the guys up front. The good news being that it’s a talented group. The bad news is they obviously haven’t put it together just yet.

The first six drives on Saturday night yielded an interception and five straight punts. They had some success but after watching the tape, it just seemed like they couldn’t get out of their own way. Again, dropped passes in clutch situations and penalty after penalty seemed to get them out of rhythm.

On the very first drive, the Vols defense seemed a little timid and the OU offense was doing well. As you know, on the opening drive of the game Dede Westbrook drops a pass that resulted in an INT. The second OU drive had a big scramble by Baker Mayfield, and a long pass down the sideline to Joe Mixon only to be called back on a holding penalty. After that, it looked as though the Tennessee defense really started to settle in.

If the Sooners don’t have those two big mistakes early, I think you could make the argument the offense gets clicking and early and this is possibly a much different game. That didn’t happen, however, and we all saw the end result. Still, you can’t make mistakes and play behind the chains on the road in a hostile environment.

But with all that out of the way, let’s get into things. (Ed. note – Comments will appear below the picture they are in reference to.)

Here,  we can see a well blocked counter play with Jonathan Alvarez pulling around to the right. As K pointed out in a separate post, Alvarez looked pretty stout on the power plays, traps and counters. He’s gonna be a weapon pulling around. It’s a nice lane for Samaje Perine to get into here and have some success on the ground.

There were quite a few plays where OU had success running the ball early and the one above is no exception. Still though, it went Drive No. 1: Dropped Pass resulting in an INT. Drive No. 2: Holding negated the long catch-and-run by Mixon. Drive No. 3: Dropped Pass. Drive No. 4: False Start…and on and on and on. Like I said before, the line has some talent they just have to be more disciplined. Coming off of your own goal line is never easy, especially on the road, but they were able to get it out of there due to the run game.

Here again on the same drive, you can see they have some good space for Perine to get into. This is on 3rd and 3, and they convert with ease. Having Tulsa this coming week and the bye prior to taking on West Virginia, I’d expect that time will be used to help these guys polish up and get ready for conference play. The situation isn’t totally bleak, but being raised on the wishbone like most of us were, unless OU is cracking eight yards a play on the ground Sooner fans aren’t happy.

This was a nice drive that helped OU get out of the field position pinch they were feeling early on. Perine went for nine on this play, and it was nice to see Lincoln Riley not abandon the run game even though they struggled at times. While it wasn’t prolific, they’re really close to having some things open up.  With three first-year starters up front, it’s going to take some time to get it ironed out but the schedule sets up nicely for them to do so.  OU will need to get better every week, and I guarantee that if they don’t have it figured out by the time they go to Manhattan in October things will be tough.

Fast forward to money time, and I just thought this was a cool shot of Perine and Mayfield right before the first OU touchdown.

This was just a great play by Connor Knight and Josiah St John (and Perine with the peel back block). Yes, you read that right. You can see the 4th and Goal graphic at the bottom of the screen, and C.Knight (#89) is lined up at tight end just at the top of the OU graphic. Directly across from C.Knight, I want you to note how the DE is lined up. He’s shaded (lined up inside) over C.Knight ever so slightly. What this means is that pre-snap, the DE the OU offense that he’s slanting inside. He’s lined up in the gap, and the walked up corner standing on a 45-degree angle in the end zone has outside contain.

This is important because C.Knight and St. John have to know that the DE is slanting into the C-gap, and the backer is going to fill hard in the B-Gap or between St. John and Nila Kasitati. If they don’t see that right now, then Tennessee easily blows up the play.

If you check the small red arrow, that is C.Knight driving his man to the ground and getting a knockdown block on 4th and goal. You can see St. John putting the backer on the ground at the goal line as well. Perine’s now legendary fake and kickout on that corner I pointed out earlier and it’s a two-on-one situation in OU’s favor. Mayfield does a great job setting this up as he fakes outside only to then cut up inside of Perine’s block. I don’t know about you guys but on 4th and ball game if you can’t run the ball and/or you’re not any good up front, I seriously doubt the coaches are going put the game in the hands of the o-line. So they must believe in this offensive line’s ability.

I just thought this was odd. It’s clearly the final TD of the game, and another Houdini act by Sterling Shepard that simply left my jaw on the floor. If you get a chance, go watch this play again and tell me if you see #13 for Tennessee just stop. It’s crazy. If he’s going hard on this play, then he knocks Shepard out of bounds and it’s 1st and goal. Now maybe OU still goes on to score and gets the Zack Sanchez INT to ice it, who knows. But I guarantee you Tennessee would have preferred to take their chances rather than what we all know actually happened. Still…

What’s good for OU and bad for UT is Shepard taking flight and somehow staying in bounds for the next four yards. Again, the defender (#13) just stops on the play presumably assuming there’s no way Shepard can stay inbounds. At this moment he’s having that not so fresh feeling and he’s realizing that he just made a mistake that could cost them the game.  And it did.