No position groups today. We not even doing 10 total thoughts. We are gonna discuss the good, the bad and the ugly. Don't worry...the former will be much shorter than the latter.
THE GOOD:
Here's a bold take - X Robinson is the biggest playmaker on THIS team. We can't seem to throw the ball down the field. And even if our OC loves to feature the TE (we'll discuss later), our true freshman RB ran with a level of physicality and the savvy necessary to get in and out of traffic in the SEC. Why it took so long for him to get his shot (we'll discuss later) is surprising, but he showed well. In fact, in one game, he exhibited the exact skills you want in lead back. Idc about stars and faves or NiL. That kid looked the part and offered the 1st offensive weapon that could be a mis match in the SEC.
I also think it's important to speak on the pup Eli for another really strong performance. He got picked on a few times and was $$$ aside from the late TD..Where he's in PERFECT position. Other players who i actually thgt were good were: RMT, Kip. Our two AAs had some very good plays, but they also both killed us on TDs. Our DTs (whilst being held A LOT) also played well.
THE BAD: Lets start with an offensive scheme that looked to be working very well in the first half yet a rb only ran the ball 5 times. That's a terrible stat and makes zero sense in a game where we want to control the ball and help our qb. However, I am equally unimpressed with our defensive scheme. We were very multiple in our defensive fronts and seemed to confuse Pyne at the LOS, but our dbs stayed off and soft. It didn't hurt us much the 1st 3qrts but when it mattered we LITERALLY gave Pyne clean pictures pre snap allowing him to have good timing on passing downs. What makes it (ALMOST UGLY) worse is on the other side of the ball, they're man across. They're bumping every play. In the 4th qrt when it really matter...and all game for that matter jfa saw ghosts and was consistently flustered bcuz he NEVER got a clean picture. Bcuz no one was "open" presnap he didn't have any confidence deciding where to throw the ball..and so he held it and..well we know how that turned out.
Featuring your TE with packages - BAD
Never running a WR screen vs man - BAD
5 playing so many snaps - BAD (Im talking from coaching lens..we'll discuss his "play" later)
Our LB rotation is bad. They arbitrarily rotate everyone in and out and in key moments I want 10 on the field. As luck would have it, it looks like Sammy O is the backer in on our scoop and score but I prefer Kip in the game but is was 24 and 11s "turn" - BAD
Our physicality is - BAD
Mental toughness - BAD
Football IQ - BAD
Our pass scheme is also BAD. We can name half the oline as "not SEC good" but I still feel like the way we expect them to play knowing what we have is - BAD
While we're at it..lets talk about getting 2 of our "best wrs" back and not having plays designed to get them involved (some of those TE packages 😅). Granted...Burks fumbles on an angle route out of the back field, but we need MUCH more play design for our wrs or wrs won't wanna come here..I wouldnt.
Theres probably 10 other bads I could consider. Please share if you feel compelled. I'm headed over to the UGLY
THE UGLY:
jfa is bad. Tools are really good. Mental aspect and execution are bad. Maybe as bad as ANY at OU since 98. He's had 1 game ALL SEASON with 200 passing yards and it was our SEC end of season FCS opponent. But specifically in this game...his whole mentality is ugly. I said it on the Pod and I'll say it here. He's not good enough to hot dog. JJF dials up a zone read and they blitz back side safety. He's literally got NO ONE on the entire side of the field aside from the dbs covering our wrs. jfa pulls it (good read) and is out the gate. Instead of squaring up and attacking the field...he casually heads for the sideline like we're OU circa '17 or '18 and scoring is an after thought. Idc what anyone says...I caught it wk 2 of the season when he did it. He did it again last night. This offense has to scrap and claw for any momentum, let alone TDs. He's too good a "athlete" to hot dog out of bounce. For the record..we kick a fg, but he also misses Hester on a scramble that could have been a TD...or maybe it's the drive he misses Burks on the over route. Either way...takes points off the board. AND you gotta ask yourself..given the same play would Hawk have hot dogged or potentially SCORED 🤷🏽♂️. Let's get these out the way:
Ball security - UGLY
Pocket awareness - UGLY
Accuracy - UGLY
Game awareness - UGLY - Aside from several zero yard routes to 10 🤦🏾♂️ on the last play of the game he scrambles and with 2 seconds can slide and potentially set us up for a hail Mary by falling down...he doesn't. Again, not trying to rail the young man, but i love my team and he is rumored to have secured $1milly and i love that for his family, but I expect more at that price point.
Sorry, but I give Hawk another shot and if benching jfa again means he leaves...maybe it's for the best and we find someone who can throw for more than 74yards in a game...which btw is UGLY in its own right.
Jfa - it aint personal man. But you haven't played well. You know it. I know it. The fan base knows it. But it's not all your fault. Your OCs gameplan was UGLY. There's no good reason why we didn't lean on the run or throw it up to our wrs 1 v 1 in man coverage.
Also 5 😬 short and sweet - UGLY
19 🫣 He didn't play well. In fact him falling down on Luther's big catch is probably an INT if he simply keeps his feet. The play alone is UGLY and I think he'd admit his overall play was not good enough. We still believe in him though.
Last UGLY is the entirety of our culture and attitude this season and that falls squarely on the shoulders of our HBC and CEO (CFB is absolutely like running a Fortune 500 company at a school like OU and if they arent looking at it that way...they're doing it wrong). I don't want BV fired this season and I still feel that way (let me have my own personal feelings 😊) but I'm smart enough to know that ugly losses at home to Bama and at LSU ABSOLUTELY could cost BV his job. A good away win a Mizzou. Playing pups who are improving. Some Sooner Magic in the 4th quarter. An OC search to distract everyone for the remainder of the season. BV was gonna be okay. Sooner Magic even showed up and we got a scoop in score. But we literally found a way to lose...and in such dramatic fashion. It hurts his chances...100%
Sorry so long fellas. All good if it was TL;DR
Long story short...we stink
😩
THE GOOD:
Here's a bold take - X Robinson is the biggest playmaker on THIS team. We can't seem to throw the ball down the field. And even if our OC loves to feature the TE (we'll discuss later), our true freshman RB ran with a level of physicality and the savvy necessary to get in and out of traffic in the SEC. Why it took so long for him to get his shot (we'll discuss later) is surprising, but he showed well. In fact, in one game, he exhibited the exact skills you want in lead back. Idc about stars and faves or NiL. That kid looked the part and offered the 1st offensive weapon that could be a mis match in the SEC.
I also think it's important to speak on the pup Eli for another really strong performance. He got picked on a few times and was $$$ aside from the late TD..Where he's in PERFECT position. Other players who i actually thgt were good were: RMT, Kip. Our two AAs had some very good plays, but they also both killed us on TDs. Our DTs (whilst being held A LOT) also played well.
THE BAD: Lets start with an offensive scheme that looked to be working very well in the first half yet a rb only ran the ball 5 times. That's a terrible stat and makes zero sense in a game where we want to control the ball and help our qb. However, I am equally unimpressed with our defensive scheme. We were very multiple in our defensive fronts and seemed to confuse Pyne at the LOS, but our dbs stayed off and soft. It didn't hurt us much the 1st 3qrts but when it mattered we LITERALLY gave Pyne clean pictures pre snap allowing him to have good timing on passing downs. What makes it (ALMOST UGLY) worse is on the other side of the ball, they're man across. They're bumping every play. In the 4th qrt when it really matter...and all game for that matter jfa saw ghosts and was consistently flustered bcuz he NEVER got a clean picture. Bcuz no one was "open" presnap he didn't have any confidence deciding where to throw the ball..and so he held it and..well we know how that turned out.
Featuring your TE with packages - BAD
Never running a WR screen vs man - BAD
5 playing so many snaps - BAD (Im talking from coaching lens..we'll discuss his "play" later)
Our LB rotation is bad. They arbitrarily rotate everyone in and out and in key moments I want 10 on the field. As luck would have it, it looks like Sammy O is the backer in on our scoop and score but I prefer Kip in the game but is was 24 and 11s "turn" - BAD
Our physicality is - BAD
Mental toughness - BAD
Football IQ - BAD
Our pass scheme is also BAD. We can name half the oline as "not SEC good" but I still feel like the way we expect them to play knowing what we have is - BAD
While we're at it..lets talk about getting 2 of our "best wrs" back and not having plays designed to get them involved (some of those TE packages 😅). Granted...Burks fumbles on an angle route out of the back field, but we need MUCH more play design for our wrs or wrs won't wanna come here..I wouldnt.
Theres probably 10 other bads I could consider. Please share if you feel compelled. I'm headed over to the UGLY
THE UGLY:
jfa is bad. Tools are really good. Mental aspect and execution are bad. Maybe as bad as ANY at OU since 98. He's had 1 game ALL SEASON with 200 passing yards and it was our SEC end of season FCS opponent. But specifically in this game...his whole mentality is ugly. I said it on the Pod and I'll say it here. He's not good enough to hot dog. JJF dials up a zone read and they blitz back side safety. He's literally got NO ONE on the entire side of the field aside from the dbs covering our wrs. jfa pulls it (good read) and is out the gate. Instead of squaring up and attacking the field...he casually heads for the sideline like we're OU circa '17 or '18 and scoring is an after thought. Idc what anyone says...I caught it wk 2 of the season when he did it. He did it again last night. This offense has to scrap and claw for any momentum, let alone TDs. He's too good a "athlete" to hot dog out of bounce. For the record..we kick a fg, but he also misses Hester on a scramble that could have been a TD...or maybe it's the drive he misses Burks on the over route. Either way...takes points off the board. AND you gotta ask yourself..given the same play would Hawk have hot dogged or potentially SCORED 🤷🏽♂️. Let's get these out the way:
Ball security - UGLY
Pocket awareness - UGLY
Accuracy - UGLY
Game awareness - UGLY - Aside from several zero yard routes to 10 🤦🏾♂️ on the last play of the game he scrambles and with 2 seconds can slide and potentially set us up for a hail Mary by falling down...he doesn't. Again, not trying to rail the young man, but i love my team and he is rumored to have secured $1milly and i love that for his family, but I expect more at that price point.
Sorry, but I give Hawk another shot and if benching jfa again means he leaves...maybe it's for the best and we find someone who can throw for more than 74yards in a game...which btw is UGLY in its own right.
Jfa - it aint personal man. But you haven't played well. You know it. I know it. The fan base knows it. But it's not all your fault. Your OCs gameplan was UGLY. There's no good reason why we didn't lean on the run or throw it up to our wrs 1 v 1 in man coverage.
Also 5 😬 short and sweet - UGLY
19 🫣 He didn't play well. In fact him falling down on Luther's big catch is probably an INT if he simply keeps his feet. The play alone is UGLY and I think he'd admit his overall play was not good enough. We still believe in him though.
Last UGLY is the entirety of our culture and attitude this season and that falls squarely on the shoulders of our HBC and CEO (CFB is absolutely like running a Fortune 500 company at a school like OU and if they arent looking at it that way...they're doing it wrong). I don't want BV fired this season and I still feel that way (let me have my own personal feelings 😊) but I'm smart enough to know that ugly losses at home to Bama and at LSU ABSOLUTELY could cost BV his job. A good away win a Mizzou. Playing pups who are improving. Some Sooner Magic in the 4th quarter. An OC search to distract everyone for the remainder of the season. BV was gonna be okay. Sooner Magic even showed up and we got a scoop in score. But we literally found a way to lose...and in such dramatic fashion. It hurts his chances...100%
Sorry so long fellas. All good if it was TL;DR
Long story short...we stink
😩
