Oklahoma Film Review

[Ryan Bridges]

DEFENSE

Make a Play at the Goal Line

It's impossible to get stops inside the 5 if you lose every one-on-one battle. Twice Oklahoma scored off the exact same play (power), from the exact same formation, to the exact same side.



The offense's first challenge here is that the left tackle has to cut off the 3-technique, Charles Omenihu, to prevent him from following the pulling guard to the ball. Omenihu doesn't use his hands and ends up on the ground. Second, they need to kick out the end, Malcolm Roach, on the playside. I feel like Roach should look to spill this (undercut the blocker and take the block on with his outside shoulder, forcing the ballcarrier to bounce outside), but he doesn't, and he gets cut down. Finally, the offense needs movement with the double team on the playside 3-technique, Chris Nelson. Nelson actually does a great job holding his ground and splitting the double team, but the right tackle just manages to wash him down near the end.



Texas is in a different front from the previous example. Now the left tackle has an easier assignment: cutting off a 4-technique, Jordan Elliott. Again, the Texas player doesn't get hands on the blocker and he's dropped. The frontside kickout is now targeting Breckyn Hager. He recognizes and avoids the cut block but is knocked just off balance enough that he can't make the play. Finally, there's the two defensive tackles. True freshman D'Andre Christmas is the one taking on the double team, and he not only mostly holds his ground, but he also manages to throw the right guard to the turf, keeping him from reaching the second level. That's not bad. What is bad, however, is the center pancaking the nose, senior Paul Boyette.

Westbrook vs. Anyone

First it was Davante Davis.



Westbrook beats Davis with a post route. He gets him to turn his hips, cuts back inside and leaves Davis behind. Davis could have used a "baseball turn" (turning toward the sideline so that he maintains more speed in the transition) and had a chance, but he didn't. I brought this same point up in the Cal breakdown, meaning this is the second time this season Davis' hips and/or technique have given up a touchdown. (Watch the corner at the bottom of the screen to see the technique I'm talking about.)



Man coverage again, this time with a player better equipped for the job than Davis: Holton Hill. Westbrook runs a slant-and-go, and Hill is all too willing to bite, despite the lack of safety help. I want to see more Hill, but not like this.

Do Your Job

This was the most predictable playcall in the whole game, and Texas should have stopped it.



They're so focused on Mayfield running that Jason Hall and Anthony Wheeler let Perine jog out into the flat uncovered. It doesn't matter because Mayfield has already made up his mind. Boyette gets out of his rush lane, making the run a lot easier for Mayfield, then he beats Wheeler to the edge.

Not Just Youthful Mistakes

We've seen a lot of young guys doing dumb stuff, but here's a fourth-year player and a fifth-year player screwing up.



It's a well-designed play by Oklahoma, aided by the fact that Naashon Hughes gets no depth in his zone drop. He actually moves up about a yard and a half from where he is at the snap. Just look where he is in relation to the other underneath zone defenders. Mayfield finds Westbrook in the space behind him, and Andrews blocks Hill. (Again, it's drawn-up nicely.) The deep safety, Dylan Haines, is the defense's last line of defense, but somehow he's outside of Westbrook. So instead of (a) having Westbrook's momentum carry him right into the tackle, (b ) being able to force Westbrook outside and into Ed Freeman, or (c ) being able to force Westbrook toward and into the sideline, Haines is scrambling in the open field.

OFFENSE

D'Onta Touchdowns

To the surprise of no one, D'Onta Foreman had a great game. Here's his first touchdown.



Texas runs split zone. LG Patrick Vahe uses some judo-looking moves to toss the defensive end aside, and C Zach Shackelford does a nice job ripping past the nose and locking up with the linebacker who's screaming toward the line of scrimmage. RT Brandon Hodges had a tough assignment against what looks to be a 3- or 4i-technique, but Foreman is strong enough to throw the 265-pound defensive lineman aside.



Pay attention to the formation. Texas comes out with three receivers and the back to the boundary. We'll get another look at this formation and Oklahoma's response to it in the next play. Needless to say, they overreacted. I strongly suspect the linebacker to the field should have at least been in a 50 alignment over the tackle. Because he's inside, RT Tristan Nickelson had a chance to slow him down and spring Foreman to the outside. 

Screens That Shouldn't Work

Here's the play from earlier in the quarter that I guess Oklahoma was reacting to.



Oklahoma wasn't set at the snap so I can see why Shane Buechele tried attacking out there, but you can see that Jacorey Warrick is in no position to block the safety. Texas was fortunate that the true sophomore took a bad angle or got lost or something. Good blocking by Jake Oliver, though.

The Deep Ball Is Back

Did you know Devin Duvernay was fast? It seems like Steriln Gilbert didn't until Saturday. Jordan Thomas definitely didn't.



Oklahoma likes to run these trap coverages where the corner jumps any outside-breaking route by the slot receiver, and Texas had encouraged that response by running this look with the slot receiver stopping after breaking outside. So when Duvernay releases to the outside, Thomas is thinking about jumping the route and housing it. That hesitation is all Duvernay needed to separate. Gilbert needs to challenge more secondaries to run with Devin.



The previous one tempted Thomas, but this one is a true double move — and he doesn't even really bite on it. Because it's a double move, the offense has to protect longer, and they get the job done. Connor Williams and Caleb Bluiett pick up the blitzers from the edges, then Kyle Porter... let's say he gets in the way... of the delayed blitzer. Outside of the throw, none of this is very pretty, but it got six points, and that's what matters.

Process vs. Results

Finally, I hesitate to bring this one up, but I've seen some stupid things said about this playcall. You know the one.



Foreman was having a great game and had just picked up eight yards to get it to 3rd & 2. Run the ball, right? That would make sense. Instead, they run a play-action sprintout pass. EVERYONE PANIC. Except... it's open. And not only is it open, but if Buechele throws it on time or even just a little late, there's a very good chance that it's a touchdown or 1st & Goal inside the 5.

It is hard to call a play that catches a defense totally off guard. Sterlin did it. That should be celebrated, in my opinion. Why did he put it on his freshman quarterback to convert a crucial 3rd down with a chance to tie? First, if you've watched this team at all, you've seen Buechele convert bigger plays than this. It wasn't an unreasonable expectation. Second, this is about as easy as you can make it — the receivers are right in front of you, there's only two of them, and if they aren't open you can run.

Buechele made a true freshman play at a critical moment and people melted down because they assume Foreman would have picked up the first down. We don't know that. We do know that if Buechele had thrown this (easy) ball at a reasonable time, it would have been a first down by a lot — very possibly a touchdown. Fans would be cheering the brilliant playcall had that happened.

 

[Danny Hale]

the play that best summed up this game was when Texas had 2 receivers covered by 1 db on the goalline Beuchele throws short quickly instead of using pump fake so that the db has to choose

 

[Huskie1]

Thanks for the great work Ryan! As usual, you are spot on.

 

[Earl Nobis Jefferson]

I just don't understand the play of our CB's.  They are so bad technique wise defending the pass.  It didn't seem to matter who was put out there.  I seem to recall in 3rd Qtr another long pass where the ou WR was way behind the DB because once the WR made contact and the DB had to come out of his back peddle, our DB (either Hill or Boyd) just seemed to stop and woosh, there went the WR behind him.  Is it a poor assessment of talent when recruiting, is it poor coaching now at UT.  I don't know. 

Also in your film review did you see Jefferson get out of position and then blocked on run plays, most time hooked by a tackle.  From my vantage point from the end zone (yes, right side of face still sunburned), he seemed to get taken out of run plays a lot Saturday. 

 

[Ryan Bridges]

Also in your film review did you see Jefferson get out of position and then blocked on run plays, most time hooked by a tackle.  From my vantage point from the end zone (yes, right side of face still sunburned), he seemed to get taken out of run plays a lot Saturday. 

His run fits were often bad. He misreads his keys and frequently tries to go underneath blocks. Part of what you were probably seeing was the playside tackle getting to him on their counter play, which they ran what feels like 25 times.

 

[Earl Nobis Jefferson]

His run fits were often bad. He misreads his keys and frequently tries to go underneath blocks. Part of what you were probably seeing was the playside tackle getting to him on their counter play, which they ran what feels like 25 times.

Thanks for the feedback Ryan.  This is concerning; he just doesn't seen like the player from a year ago.  

 

[Ryan Bridges]

I know everyone's probably moved on from this game except me, but here are a few parting shots.

1. I thought there was less confusion on defense, especially in the secondary, which can only be a good thing. The obvious examples of confusion in the defensive backfield I noticed occurred right at the beginning of the game, and Oklahoma wasn't able to capitalize.



In the first example, everyone seems to be playing man coverage except for nickelback PJ Locke (standing on the near hash). 

Here's another coverage bust on the same side of the field. 



There seems to just be confusion as to whether they're playing straight man or a combo man coverage. It's basically the same issue from the previous play. I didn't see this happen again.

There also weren't many issues getting lined up. There was one play where a linebacker was still jogging into position at the snap, and there was this play, where Texas had only one big man (Paul Boyette) on the field and the 11th defender (Davante Davis) was running off the field at the snap.



This is where this defense is: We applaud when they only blow a couple of coverages and almost always have 11 players on the field. That said, tackling was better, and confusion wasn't a serious issue. These are signs of progress, even though they're things that should have been worked out already.

2. No, I still don't understand why we chose to go after OU's best corner all game.



On this play, Oklahoma makes no effort to disguise that it's in man coverage with one deep safety. It's 2nd & 5 so Texas can run whatever it wants. Shane surveys the field and sees press coverage on his "#1" receiver (Dorian Leonard, who usually would be John Burt but catching footballs is hard). That's where he goes with the ball, and I can't totally fault him for it. But look at the top, where you've got Collin Johnson running a hitch-and-go against off coverage and blowing past his man. If we're playing matchups — and against this coverage, we are — I'm taking Johnson vs. whoever OU's #2 corner was on this play (they've had to play multiple guys there because none of them have been good) instead of anyone else vs. Jordan Thomas.



Same song. Pre-snap, it looks like man coverage with a deep safety. Thomas is playing off this time and for some reason we're still going to challenge him on the fade. To the bottom you have what you would assume pre-snap is man. That means some poor fool is stuck trying to run with Devin Duvernay. That poor guy in this case is Will Sunderland, who ran a respectable 4.58 as a recruit two years ago. Duvernay's 4.38 thinks that time sucks. Now, Oklahoma's not actually playing straight man on the bottom, and the corner is going to bail at the snap, but that just means Johnson is open at right about the first-down marker.

Still, Texas could have had a touchdown on this play except that before Thomas even had a chance to break up the pass, the ball had already bounced off Burt's hands.

3. Buechele left a lot of yards and a lot of points on the field. Yes, he's a freshman. That doesn't mean we can't criticize him for his mistakes; it just needs to inform our responses to those mistakes (i.e., he mostly played like crap, but it's safe to assume he will only get better).

Here are some short throws where inaccuracy cost the offense yardage. I didn't even include the would-be touchdown pass to Johnson midway through the first quarter.



In the red zone, Sterlin Gilbert called back the fake-bubble-screen-to-fade-route concept that netted Texas two touchdowns against UTEP.



OU was ready for it and was all too eager to jump the fade. That leaves the slant open. I don't fault Buechele for not seeing it the first time (true freshman, remember?). I do, however, fault him, or the coaches, or both, for not capitalizing on it the second time.

Finally, I think Buechele's arm strength has come up in here before. Basically, we've seen the extent of his range, and it's adequate in my opinion provided that he gets the ball out at a reasonable time. He's not going to be able to wait while his receivers test their 40s and then throw the ball and expect it to get there.



He knew what coverage he was getting. He knew where he wanted to go with the ball. And although we can't see the full route, based on how badly Jerrod Heard has the defender beat even when he's slowing down for the ball, Shane had a wide-freaking-open receiver for at least a couple of seconds. This is a touchdown pass that became a long incompletion because the quarterback held onto the ball for entirely too long.

 

[Bear19]

His run fits were often bad. He misreads his keys and frequently tries to go underneath blocks. Part of what you were probably seeing was the playside tackle getting to him on their counter play, which they ran what feels like 25 times.

To me that points towards bad coaching

 

[utb040713]

In the first example, everyone seems to be playing man coverage except for nickelback PJ Locke (standing on the near hash). 

The thing that really worries me here is Dylan Haines's angle. If the RB is running a wheel route, he's off to the races with several yards of separation.