The Football Brainiacs

To start the game, we came back left with a reverse or jet sweep to Sterling.  The blocking paths show how blocking has a lot to do with angles and geometry.  Durron is up on the safety with Bell on the frontside backer, and Ford is really becoming a lead blocker on the corner in coverage on Durron.

A touch later you see what we can call getting a hat on a hat.  There are only two unblocked Tulsa defenders at this point.  One is on the 1st and 10 marker who has no chance of catching Sterling.  The second is the safety who’s on the opposite hash behind the ump.

And  a close-up of where the rubber met the road.  Bell’s block (blue arrow) wasn’t very clean, and he’s got to work to get his head outside.  Ford’s crushing the corner, with Sterling in high gear.

Sterling ended up with a 50 some odd yard run that actually counted towards his receiving yards since the ball was tossed forward.  I thought as I rewatched this that Sterling could have cut it back (blue arrow) and outran the linebacker circled in blue.  He ended up dipping in and then back out and was eventually forced out of bounds.  K.J. hustled his butt off getting across the field to make this block and had a couple of big blocks.  For a freshman he’s really blocking well.  With more reps he’s going to be a good one.

The ensuing play, everyone and their dog bit on the play action.  The safety came up hard, and the corner’s feet were stuck in quicksand.

A tick later you can really see the safety coming up, but that corner’s feet still haven’t moved.  Really nice protection off the play action.

This shot really shows how wide open Durron was.  He ended up falling a lot in the first half after a 2nd look.  He really could have had quite a few more yards and scores had he stayed on his feet.  He fell down after catching the ball on what could have been an easy score for him.

Exhibit A of the Bedenbaugh Effect in game two.   Every Oklahoma blocker’s eyes are back inside.  That speaks volumes to the technique of how you block with your eyes first.  Even as Rip is pulling around Tyler #75, his eyes are inside looking for that scraping backer.  If Rip comes around with his eyes outside, then that backer scrapes underneath him and likely stops Ford for no gain.

But Right on cue, Rips eyes allow him to make that crucial seal and set the edge for Ford to get north and south.

I’m sorry guys, but you ain’t tacklin my man Ford if you don’t come strong and bring a friend.

On the next possession here again you see how everyone’s sealed inside for Alex Ross.  I put a blue arrow on Trevor here, because in spite of his mobility, Tulsa’s #46 is paying him no attention.  Coming back on a bootleg, or in this case a naked play or sprint out, Trevor’s got a lot of green grass in front of him.

The back went in motion before the snap, and the backer went with him in man coverage (red arrows).  This vacated a lot of area for Trevor.  You can see Shead’s eyes looking to the backer right on the edge of the A.

K.J. Young again with the key block on a big play.  He may not have had a big stat line, but he seems to have taken the mantle of being the tough guy as receivers go from Jalen Saunders.  Kid weighs a buck-o-five and can block his tail off.  Being on that correct shoulder by K.J. allows Trevor the space between K.J. and the safety (red arrow) to put a move on and get to the goalpost.

You can sense how tight this team is in terms of caring about each other.  There’s four guys down there hustling trying to help Trevor.  Shead and K.J. are stoked and normally with receivers being me-me-me guys, it’s refreshing to see a young freshman receiver not caring about whether he has the ball or not.  By the way how about Trevor on the 31 yard draw play for a TD?  Dude can scoot!

I wanted to point out this play as it’s a prime example of what “turnback” protection is.  Since Trevor’s rolling to the right, all of his linemen essentially have their backs “turned” to him.  Hence the term turnback protection.

This play looked identical to the one before, so I just showed the end result on an out to Durron.  Note the middle of the field and Flowers circled in blue.  Tight ends and seam players were open all day.

Here’s a shot of Blake Bell’s first TD.  Great protection on the play action.  Blake has his man beat as he’s flat footed when Blake breaks inside.

Blake is so much bigger than that DB it’s almost cartoonish.  He showed surprising hands as he had to reach back over his head and snag this one.  It was nice to see the tight end getting involved.

To start the 2nd quarter, we catch up with Samaje.  There’s a nice crease to the left, and Flowers has a nice kickout block just to the left of Perine.  Notice how Dmitri’s head is on the upfield shoulder of the defender.  This keeps the defender from squeezing the hole…

And it allows Samaje to be one-on-one with the safety.

If the safety hadn’t made a great play on the tackle, the lane is like I-44 as both deep defenders are on our outside of the hashes.  What’s been refreshing is that not one time this season so far have we been denied on 2nd and short or 3rd and short or the run game.  I love that we can run the ball when we need to.

This was a nice play by Trevor and Durron.  You may often wonder why we put the back in motion or run so many swing passes, but note that the linebacker running out with him.  With the back in the backfield, that backer could “sit” in that area and clog the passing lane.

Trevor again shows off that strong arm throwing a deep out to Durron  on a line.  Standing on the “0” of the 30 is the linebacker who was taken out of the play by the motion.  See how it opened up the angle on the out route?

I noticed a lot of how motions and little things affected the outcome of plays.  We put Shepard in motion pre-snap.  The big reverse run early in the game affected the safety circled in blue.  I wanted to point out his feet and how the motion is taking him out wide with Sterling.

By the time the ball is snapped and is given to Alex, the safety is outside of the hash when he started three or four yards inside it.  Also Check the Bedenbaugh Effect again with a hat on a hat everywhere…

Now by the time the safety realizes that he needs to get hot and back inside to stop Ross, it’s too late.  Check out how the guys are still finishing their blocks…

This is pure speed that very few backs in college or the NFL possess.  Every one of the DB’s that are either deeper or even with Alex had their hips turned and were running, so it’s not like Alex caught em flat footed.

He’s just that fast.  I’ve watched so much football over the years it’s hard to make me say “oh, wow.”  This play did just that.

I was floored by how fast he was, or is for that matter.  Alex didn’t get to start running until the 6:23 mark, and covering 82 yards, it took him right at 10 seconds.  Not running a straight line he probably went about 95 yards or so in all and if you look real close, you can see the scorch marks on the turf.  It’s a good thing the field was wet or he would have burned the stadium down with that speed.

Here’s a play where the ball went on a long pass to Shepard, but I wanted to point out K.J. Young (red)

Look at how wide open he is running up the hash.  Sterling made a heck of a play on the catch, but K.J. could have walked backward into the end zone if Trevor puts the ball on ’em.