The Football Brainiacs

Much of what I’m going to say here I’ve talked about before regarding Baylor in one context or another.

Defending Baylor Space

As most of you know, one of the hallmarks of Briles’ offense is the extremely wide splits of the wide receivers. Among other things, this makes it very difficult to get help over the top in a man free defense. It also makes the quarterbacks read easier as it forces the free safety to declare before the snap.

Last year and throughout the early part of this year OU was playing primarily cover 1 man and cover 3 (or some form of 3 deep). In the past few weeks, as you’ve watched Oklahoma’s defense get better, they’ve been playing a lot more quarters/palms coverage. In theory this allows OU to play some aggressive man concepts with some zone concepts as they read wide receiver releases, but it also gives them plenty of help in the run game.

In the quarters coverage Oklahoma’s LB lines up outside the tackle, his job is to carry the inside receiver to the safety or cover him if he runs a drag. He also has run reads and against the past few teams, he’s been close enough to the box to actually be involved in the run game.

With Baylor’s splits though, in that defense, they are going to force the LB to either play closer to the box, negating his effectiveness against the pass or forcing him to play further from the box negating his effectiveness against the run.

The Spread offense is about match-ups and space. And while, Baylor’s alignments simplify the defenses reads, it also creates so much space against serious athletes that it becomes hard to out-leverage them.

Pick Your Poison

Statistically, Baylor has a top 5 rushing offense in the country. You’ve heard this a million times but they are the ultimate offense when it comes to creating run pass conflicts. The space forces you to declare numbers. If you show a pass defense with your pre-snap alignment they’ll run. If you show a run defense, they’ll pass. Everyone wants to do that but not everyone can. Baylor can run the ball and coach Briles emphasizes it.

Last year when coach Patterson was defending WVU’s offense, he refused to give up numbers in the pass game and WVU kept running the ball on them with success. As a fan of GP, I was rather perturbed. Getting run on feels like the ultimate sign of disrespect for a defense. So watching a defensive minded coach that I look up to get run on…sucked. But with TCU’s ability to move the ball in the air on offense, it proved to be effective in the second half. A few run blitzes by TCU and a few mistakes by WVU and their offense stalled. GP forced them to go on long sustained drives and because his team tackles well, it worked.

Should OU do this? It worked for them in 2012. Well, it depends. I think OU’s strategy in picking their poison is going to depend on Stidham…

Defending Stidham

If Baylor’s starting quarterback were playing, I’d assert with quite a bit of confidence that OU is simply going to have to outscore the Bears. While they’ve been better on defense, the talent isn’t to the level that it could have significantly slowed that Bears offense down, especially as the game wore on. The precision of the passing game and added running ability of the starting QB is just too much strain on a defense that isn’t stacked with NFL draft picks…and even then it can be tough.

But the starting QB is out. Baylor’s offense relies on precision through repetition and Stidham is just a freshman so by definition he doesn’t have the numbers of repetition. Having said that, he was surprisingly accurate in the Kansas State game. To me, if OU can do the following to Stidham, they can have success.

– Find a way to make Stidham make reads. Baylor’s alignments force defenses to declare pre-snap and it simplifies the QB read so the game becomes more about accuracy and less about reads. OU however, rolls coverage a lot. You don’t want to get too fancy – that’s how you get busts – but I think throwing some rolled coverages in, zone blitzes (OU does that well as well) can force Stidham to read things and maybe hold the ball. Disguising things as much as possible pre-snap. Additionally, find ways to use your free safety more aggressively in coverage. Dropping him to the deep middle of the field every time only serves as a leverage device (and it’s not very effective because of the depth). Your outside CBs are going to be on an island regardless. A deep FS isn’t making it all the way over on a go route so find some varied ways to use him.

– You can’t just all out blitz Stidham all the time. He’s shown he can beat cover 0 and a guy like Coleman can take a stop route or a slant to the house. But in the KSU game I saw Stidham drop his eyes when he felt pressure. So you certainly want to pick your spots early and make him feel pressure early so that he hears footsteps all game. Young guys don’t trust their line and once a qb drops his eyes…he’s yours. Don’t let him get comfortable. But you don’t want to just pressure him early. Part of making a young QB uncomfortable is having him read something pre-snap and see something different post snap. Making him find space in tight zone coverages as well.

– Figure out whether to lean on letting them run or taking chances with your secondary in the first quarter. If Stidham isn’t accurate against the Sooners, then don’t let them run. Keep numbers against the run till he proves he can consistently beat you with the pass. If he’s on point in the pass game, then be patient and give up some run and hope that slows the clock enough to allow your offensive to win the game.