First game in conference play. Let's get into it.
Growing pains continue - facing a pistol formation out of 11 personnel, OU greets it with an even front with the cheetah removed over the trips and the corner back playing the edge of the box to the weak side of the play. Venables and Co must of picked up on a tendency here as they send up a blitz up the middle but ultimately it’s just a stretch to the weak side of the play, that was almost completely picked up defensively, except for Jaren Kanak. There's a couple different ways to read the running backs here, the most commonly taught is a “cross key”, meaning the linebacker’s key running back is the opposite side of him, but in this particular instance I’m assuming since Stutsman was vacating the middle the drilled Kanak to take those steps to the middle to fill the void.
However the second he registers the play going back the other way he absolutely has to get back downfield in a hurry, across that guard's face flat. Doing so would have plugged the only remaining hole here and not led to quite a gap that popped for 10. Things like this come with repetition, as he sees more plays he’ll pick up on it, much like we saw with Stutsman throughout his career.
Unpopular opinion - Jeff Lebby called a completely fine game Saturday and if it hadn’t been for offensive miscue’s and some shoddy work by the refs this very easily was teetering on a 41 - 6 type score. This read was well designed against Cincinnati’s odd front and left the edge completely open, but a missed block by Marcus Major leads Dillon Gabriel to cut it back for the fumble, but the underlying philosophy was completely sound - we had a blocked Defensive End with an extra blocker for the defender playing outside contain and poor execution led us to a turnover. It was the story of the offense Saturday and if we had been more polished as a unit this game would have gotten out of hand.
Honestly this is just a good play call by Cincinnati. Out of 11 personnel, Slot Left they run a switch concept against cover 2. The post by the outside receiver baits the boundary safety into the middle of the field allowing the wheel route from the slot to find space behind the corner who is working his zone low-to-high, and is coached to jump anything low. The defense executed the scheme as called, this is just the type of play that really separates the really good athletes from the freaks, and also the guys who drill tape every single day. Ideally once that post breaks and the wheel releases you’d want your corner to turn his hips and run with the receiver up the boundary and allow his safety to take the inside leverage creating a “wall” for him, but you really can’t be too mad here as it was just the right route combinations to beat the coverage.
Excellent job by the staff here of picking up the Cincinnati tendency to send the weak side corner on a blitz and attack the space outside of him, also very well executed by the offense to get the ball out cleanly and the down field blocking to get the play broken open. Setting up the trips into the boundary to hopefully get the blitz out of the corner and then shifting the trips to the field to mess with the alignment is a great wrinkle as you have the player who should be containing this sticking his nose down while the linebacker has to fight across all sorts of traffic to try to make the play and they’ll most likely never get there. This is just a really good display of studying the tape and a smart set up to catch the Bearcats slacking.
Cincinnati did a good job of taking advantage of Dasan in man coverage when they were able to. The pre snap motion to confirm the coverage into a tough route for him to defend was something that we can currently only mitigate by playing a zone, but theirs still reason to believe McCullough has the physical tools to be able to cover this. We realistically can’t sit in a zone all game every game so adapting to Dasan’s strengths or developing him to open his capability is going to have to be a point of emphasis over the off season. More of a player personnel take than scheme take but in this case they go hand in hand.
Cincinnati ran a decent amount of cover 1 against us to combat the splits we use, and to keep things simple for their guys in the back end. Overall I think we generally did and a pretty good job of taking advantage of it although I would of like to of us seen more aggressive down field looks against it. Here Gibson does a great job of selling the vertical look before breaking off the deep curl and working back to the ball, I personally would of liked to of seen more of this aggressive route running away from the safety. Also glad to say the early reports last year of Gibsons stone hands were premature and he has come along well this season so far.
Good to see double twist finally get home. Sooners front 7 have done a decent job this year of creating pressure but haven’t been able to get home too often clearly, but they do a good job here of bending off the edge of the pocket to force Emory up into the waiting arms of Marcus Stripling. Moving forward the emphasis on the pass rush needs to be all facets, all at once - schematically we give up a lot of time by running so many twists in the middle that if we don’t get the pocket closed off on the edges forcing the quarterback up or collapse in the middle it’s not going to work, we don’t run a true 1 on 1 pass rush set across the board half the time, when we don’t all parts have to work or we won’t get the sack, but it is a reliable way for us to create consistent pressure, as opposed to the 1 on 1 sets where you may get home slightly more often but also may not get the pressure very consistently.
A lot of Lebby’s offense is about wrinkles, stressing a defense in as many ways as possible, overloading one side, using motions, creative blocking schemes, etc., however the simple, underlying philosophy is just to get the ball to an athlete in space, and that’s why I am not even going to break this down. I just want you to look at this clip before the snap, look at who is on the field, where defenders are lined up, and what the play should be. Just get it to the athlete in space. See grass? Run fast.
Andrel Anthony, you are a bad man.
Out of a bunch look Cincy runs a deep mesh concept with a stick and whip route underneath as the check downs, OU uses this formation as an opportunity to send the cornerback blitz with a zone coverage behind it. Just watching this play feels like we are seeing the Venables defensive scheme really start to set in, and it’ll only get better with time, as the rush hits home, the coverage is there to disrupt the pass and we walk away with a pick (even on a 4th down). Little by little this squad takes a step forward every week in the execution of a complicated scheme.
Next week will be another big litmus test for the secondary as Iowa State will be primed to use an air raid attack in the absence of any sort of run game. Expect to see lighter personnel in nickel and dime sets and the accompanying stunt packages (fire zones, DT twist with LB delays). Later this week I am going to cut up 3 or 4 Iowa state clips to give a read on the concepts of what you can expect and some thoughts on how we’ll attack it.
Til next time.
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