The Football Brainiacs

So how did Army have so much success?  Is Oklahoma’s talent defensively down that much?  My answer to that is a resounding no.  They aren’t all that small up front either.  The average weight of Army, while smaller than many division one offensive lines, they still average 289 pounds.

When you look at the front below, Army has 6 bigs, with two slotbacks.  They’re called slots because they’re lined up outside the tackles.  Army’s tight end is 250, so he’s not a small guy either.  Long story short, you have 6 big guys to Oklahoma’s three.  Mark Jackson is about 239 and Ryan Jones is 236.

My point is that with the personnel that Oklahoma has on the field in the below picture, they’re not “out-beefing anyone”.  Neville is 330 at the nose, Bledsoe goes 287 and Mann goes 264.  No doubt they’re very talented players, but that group of 5 across the front averages 271.  On top of that, instead of a true linebacker down on the goal line, you have Kahlil Haughton playing the Sam.

Not to get too long winded here but Army not only has a numbers advantage up front with 8 blockers, but they also have the size advantage.

 

 

Stanford, among others, gets as many big bodies on the field as they can.  Oklahoma never combats that.  Time and time and time again we see Mike Stoops defenses not present a heavy goal-line package.  I found out late that Tyreece Lott and Marquise Overton were out hurt as well as Tre Brown.  I was screaming for Tre Brown to come in the game on Saturday because it seemed that the corners couldn’t get off blocks.  Nevertheless, look at the alignment.  The same defensive front with the same personnel.  Now, look at how many blockers Army has.  There’s no wonder that they could get 3 and 4 yards at a clip.  They could double team damn near everyone up front.  It’s an absolute miracle that the inside linebackers logged as many tackles as they did.  They didn’t play clean all night long.  What I mean by that is the job in part of a defensive lineman, especially in a 50 front like this is to keep blockers off your linebackers.  With this alignment vs. the offensive front Army put out there it’s really tough to do.

 

 

One step into the play and Army did this all night long, they have Oklahoma outflanked.  Because of how the Sooners were lined up, they made it easy for the tight ends and the wingbacks to block down on Jackson, Perkins, and Jones.  It was simple.  You can see the tight end working up to the linebacker here, and you still have the Wingback coming up on the safety with the dive back still unaccounted for along with the QB and the pitch man.  It’s 4 on 2 for the offense and we just snapped the ball.

 

 

Now it’s a 3 on one with Parnell Motley being the lone ranger out there.  If you look at the bottom right leg of the parentheses, that front side wingback has picked up the safety.  Hell if Army wanted to, they could have kicked Motley out with the dive back, and the QB and pitch man could have held hands and skipped into the end zone.

 

 

Here’s a better look at how many defenders get caught up in the wash.  Army didn’t have to block a whole lot of people, they just had to block the right ones.  So how do you defend an offense like this?

 

 

What I would have done as a defensive coordinator would have been to run a double A-5-9 look.  Across the front I would have had two a gaps, big defensive tackles lined up in between the guards and the center as 1 techniques.  The first objective as I pointed out in my what I’m watching for post is to stop the dive.

Since the redshirt rule has changed this year I would have put Jordan Kelley at one of the A gaps with Neville Gallimore at the other.  Next would be double 5 techniques, lined up on the outside eye of the tackles.  Dillon Faamatau would have been one of em with Amani Bledsoe as the other.  At the nines, which is on the outside eye of the Tight ends would have been Kenneth Mann and Ronnie Perkins.  Now you have six big bodies that Army has to account for with their offensive line.  The objective of those A gaps would be to double team that center and drive his ass back.  No dive plays allowed.

The 5 techniques need to get upfield in a hurry, and the same goes for Perkins and Mann.  This would have negated many possibilities at double teams, and Army couldn’t piss a drop.  Then your linebackers instead of getting blocked by guards are getting free runs at the dive backs.  My linebackers would still be Murray and Bolton, and they’d be in the b gaps.  Bookie would have been at free with Motley and Norwood.

Those 8 guys in the box would shut their ass down.  The guys showed a ton of character and guts, going 80 some odd plays against em.  You also have Troy James in spot duty, and they kicked around the idea of playing Tramonda Moore on defense some in fall camp.  You’d still be able to rotate, Jackson and Jones in at the 9’s, but they’d be on the outside eyes of players with free runs at people.  Now you have athletes with free runs knocking peoples heads off.

Anyway, that’s my two cents.  On to baylor this week.