The Football Brainiacs

I’ll be going through the 1st quarter breaking down the offensive plays and giving you some thoughts. Look for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters in the next day or two:

1. On this 2nd and 10 play, it’s Finch’s opening seven yard run.  The two blue lines are Ikard and Irwin, pulling around, with Irwin being the top blue line and Ikard, trailing.  I inserted a little blue arrow pointing at Adam Shead.  His guy ultimately makes the play here, so Adam has to do a better job of cutting him off.  I’m not sure I like the scheme here, as you’re asking Shead to do something very difficult, when it would be much easier to have your center (Ikard) block back onto that a gap, and pull Shead instead.  Roy has the red arrow pointing to the path he takes.

1. (cont.) Here a tick later you can see Ikard and Irwin squaring their guys up. Ikard’s doing a good job turning his head and getting his eyes upfield.  The little blue arrow again is Shead who is clearly beat.  Think for a second, the natural leverage Ikard would have blocking back to that A gap.  Why this is significant, is that the little gold arrow is the only guy who could have made the play on Finch as the safety’s standing on the bottom hash.  If either Shead blocks this guy, or we scheme better, block back with Ikard and pull Shead, this may have been a td on the 2nd play.

1. (cont.) One frame later, you can see what might have been if we block #93.  #55 isn’t fast enough to get there, and Roy could give him a quick head fake and be gone.  You can see Shead completely turned now.

1. (cont.) While this was a good run play, it could have broke.  On this final picture the linebacker #55 still isn’t there.  You see the safety still isn’t to the hash yet, and if we block 93, no one catches Roy.

2.In years past, we’ve gotten spoiled by guys like White, Bradford, Jones.  Here, Derrick Woods is circled.  Blake has to recognize that his guys are covered earlier, and come off of that read.  If you look at Blake’s head, he’s dialed in on the Saunders.  He could have dropped it off to Clay for a gain of six or seven at least or  zipped it in there to Woods.  Also, as he sees the receivers bottom side, he has to know down and distance.  You don’t expect to make a 2nd and 20 a first down, but you have to chip away at it.  With better pocket feel, he shuffles to his right, and either throws it to Woods, who clears here, or at least pump fakes and takes the path I’ve drawn with the red arrow.  Either way it could have been a good play, as both backers are zoned in on Clay (blue arrows), and by the time Blake throws it, the top backer is all the way to the middle of the OU symbol.  Lots of green grass to either run here or give Woods a chance to operate.

3. Here’s Finch’s second run of the game.  Bester is going to block (blue path), and the lane is opening up inside of Tyrus for Finch.  The player circled in blue is the guy who ultimately makes the play.

3. (cont.) A second later, Shead  has his guy walled off, and the play is starting to develop.  Bester, who I showed in the earlier picture is blocking here.  What kind of technique he’s using I couldn’t tell you.  He throws his shoulder into this guy instead of facing him up, using his hands, putting his helmet in the middle of his chest and planting him.  This is one of those plays I bet he’s catching crap for in the meeting room.

3. (cont.) Right here, I’d like to see Roy stretch this out towards the sideline just a bit more(note the crooked arrow).  He’d set the safety up for the cutback if he took him outside a little more.   Early in the game though, and can’t fault him for playing hard, Roy just plants his foot and gets upfield for a gain of five.  You see the small red arrow is Bester who’s blind shoulder technique didn’t work (shocker).  Tyrus is doing a good job staying with his guy after the defender’s counter move, and it’s nice to see Bronson hustling downfield.