The Football Brainiacs

On 3rd and 6 Bama went with a dime look.  4 down, 1 linebacker and 6 db’s.  Nickel simply put means 5 db’s.  Dime has you at 6.  Bama believes they can do this because of how good their defensive line is.   They can generate pressure without committing additional people to the rush via blitz.   Quinnen Williams is at the top A gap, and he just won the Outland Trophy as the nations top interior defensive linemen.  Raekwon Davis and Isaiah Buggs are no slouches either.

Jake Fromm, the UGA QB threw for over 300 yards on the Tide, so there are gains to be had.  Still he had to deal with a lot of pressure.  In this shot you can see that the Bama D line has pushed the pocket back four yards by the time that Fromm gets into his drop.   Quinnen Williams gets a one on one and blows by his man for the sack.   One of the keys to this game will be whether the Sooner O line can control the line of scrimmage and dominate the Bama D line.  If the guys up front give Kyler time he’ll light the Tide up like a pinball machine.  The Sooners need to be able to run the football and force Alabama to bring more personnel down into the box to create one on one matchups in the pass game.  Everyone’s talking about how the Sooners are gonna get beat like a drum, but I don’t think that is the case.  The Sooners offense man for man is as talented as a unit there is in the country.  Premier Wideouts, one of the top if not THE top O line in the country, and two legitimate threats at tight end.  And by the way the backs aren’t that bad either.  If the defense continues to come together like it has the last couple of games this could be a game for the ages.

Fromm has no chance to make this play because of how quickly Quinnen Williams is on top of him.  Think for a minute though if he’s protected, in spite of the dime look, Georgia has a free runner on the 31 yard line.  If he’s protected, think of how many yards are there on an easy completion.  There are holes in this secondary, and again THE key to this game is going to be protecting Kyler.  You gotta think about what our #5 can do given that kind of free run, and Kyler has a quicker release.

This is a basic power play on 2nd and short for the tide offensively.  It’s a good combo up to the linebacker and a nice pull up to the other backer.  What the tide does isn’t exotic.  It’s basic, and they really try to out talent and out execute the other team.  Where Riley exploits looks and matchups like a wizard, the Tide want to outnumber and overpower you.

Alex Leatherwood is the blocker up on the linebacker (right blue arrow).  He’s as good as they come and a guy who was one of the top 5 offensive linemen in the country at the Opening along with Creed Humphrey.  He’s kicked inside playing guard and is a powerful, athletic guy.  The tide have a lot of talent, and I think another key to this game is how MOTIVATED the Sooner defense is going to be.  They have to do extra work in preparation, film study, technique and playing with discretionary effort.  If the Sooners do their homework and buy into Ruffin’s game plan, I think they can get a few stops.  The Sooners are starting to believe, and make no mistake about it, they’re going to Miami to win this game.  In this age of participation trophies, the Sooners will have none of it.

The Tide has three very talented physical backs in Damien Harris, Najee Harris and a guy from Tulsa, Oklahoma, named Josh Jacobs.  Josh was a guy that K and I were jumping up and down to get the Sooners to offer a few years ago.  He played QB at McClain, and basically dropped back and took off every play.  They all catch, run and are nasty.