Brent Venables has talked publicly about short yardage situations being one of the areas the Sooners need to improve upon going into 2023, and OU fans no doubt remember those struggles as a contributing factor to coming up on the short end of several close losses.
In this session we'll get into the weeds with our resident film junkie Daniel on four separate examples and talk about where things broke down in a few specific instances.
Kansas State
4th & 3 @ KSU 39
1:18 3rd
11 personnel, 2x2 formation, short to gain the sticks.
The key thing to look at here to understand is all about what you see in DG before the snap, before the motion. Notice the way he’s looking at the top of field? He’s getting a pre snap read on coverage.
Ideally he’s looking for a zone coverage here, knowing that as he motion his back out against a zone with likely one underneath defender playing the flat, he has two receivers to block and cover one guy in the immediate area with not much to gain.
Seeing that he has a cover 1 (man with a high safety) he opts to “kill” that side of the field and look to the bottom, where he has Drake 1 on 1 on a quick out. Everything that happens after that is just a failure to execute, there's really not much to say about it. The pre snap read and idea behind what is happening here are correct, but as they say, there are certain throws and plays you just have to make in critical situations.
West Virginia
4th & 3 @ KSU 39
1:18 3rd quarter Back in 11 personnel, left hash, short to gain, trips left wing formation
Once again starting the festivities with a motion, we bring in the outside receiver to create a bunch or “cluster” look at the end of the line of scrimmage. Dillon slides the line pass protection right to match the linebackers showing on the right side, except for Willis, who receives a “reach” call to account for the defender who should have outside contain on the play, as we are running a naked boot here (Dillon rolling out with no additional blocker with him).
The route concept is a flood look (3 different routes at 3 different levels towards the sideline, effectively “flooding” it) with a mid level dig from farooq on the backside, bringing him into the equation. The problem? While he takes a good first few steps, Brayden misreads the edge defender who cuts flat across his face, leading to him provide immediate pressure on DG who has no other blocker at this point to pick him up.
We’ve got true man coverage which is typically not what you want against flood - you’re looking for a zone coverage that will put a defender into conflict by forcing him to choose between the route in front or route behind him. The frustrating part is farooq coming across the middle clean, but due to the pressure Dillon can’t make the read and forces a ball into a nearly triple covered Drake Stoops on the sideline. Watch Farooq at the end to see the frustration in action.
Oklahoma State
4th & 5 @ OKST 35
2:42 2nd
11 personnel, 2x2 nub left (bunch left) Z Jet (Drake motion), medium to gain.
This is mesh pick swing against 2 man coverage. You have Drake on jet motion, forcing the secondary to “roll” the coverage (the bottom safety moves back and the top safety moves over) only to run action back to the space where the original safety vacated. At the top you see brayden Willis run a “pick”, clearing room for 1/2 of the mesh to come underneath him. This pick allows the mesh to win here because it forces the man defender to run underneath brayden, giving Mims inside leverage.
The initial read here is running back on a swing but due to man the LB has it covered. This opens up the mesh, everyone’s favorite man beater, but the mesh and puck don’t connect quite as well as you would have hoped and Mims loses track of the sticks and we come up short by a yard. In these key 4th down situations you always have to take a second and collect your bearings, realize where you are on the field as well as where you’re going/need to be.
It’s decent execution, but it’s not clean enough to get Mims wide open, and a small misjudgment of spatial recognition turns what would generally be a 4 yard gain into a turnover on downs.
Baylor
4th and 1 @ Baylor 35
11:02 2nd
12 personnel, quad left bunch stack SHIFT into wing right wildcat.
The Sooners are down 3, in Baylor territory. I do not mind 16 power out of the wildcat here at all. We’re attacking the C gap with a pulling congel and a lead block from Willis, but unfortunately Willis takes the wrong guy and leaves Congel in a spot to where he can’t get to the outside defender who breaks down and makes the tackle - generally when you run 16 power from the wild cat your lead blocker has to seal the outside edge to allow your pulling guard to wrap into the whole and fulfill the role as the new lead blocker.
When Willis shoots up into the gap he makes an impossible angle to block as congel can’t get there without crossing his own running back's face, and allows the edge defender to sink down and kill the scheme. It’s a small mental miscue but it kills the play where it stands. The rest of the OL cleanly seals off the baylor defense but a single mistake bruises the Achilles heel and is the difference in what can be a scoring drive and handing over the keys to great field position.
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