Well, here we are 5 weeks into the season and we are 4-1. The Debby Downers will say "we should be 3-2 or maybe even 2-3 and the sky is falling. We still suck. Our oline sucks. Our pup wrs sucks. And they will say 2 is amazing šš¤¦š¾āāļø..but you get the drift. Then we have the Happy Harvey's (idk..I made it upš¤·š½āāļø) and they'll say "if Hawk had come in Sooner vs Tennessee we could be 5-0. The defense is really good. Our special teams are solid and 19 and Everett could save the oline and wr core.
Mackey is in the middle. And I have to address some of you guys who love to complain unless we win by 40. Here's a few questions to consider: who had the better oline group? OU or Auburn? RB core? WR core (available to play)? QB situation going into the game...š¬ that one could be a toss up, but you'd still not want your true freshman pup going into that atmosphere as their first true start.
Lets let's all accept some truth serum. Don't complain about what you didnt see: complex pass schemes, layered run schemes, tons of mis-direction and tendency breakers. Without showing love for what you did see: zero turnovers, zero brain fart mental busts, big plays when we NEEDED them (especially if you include the 3 our bone headed TEs ruin if they can just be varsity football good).
With all due respect, this game WAS in a vacuum. It was a "one off". It is a unique game or window of opportunity for the team to truly transition away from what we've done for 2seasons and 4 games to something that was yesterday...totally different. I say totally because I didn't see 1 true RPO. If anyone did..it was one.
Sooooo...with that said, I remember a lot of those people who said "Hype took his foot off the gas, gave OU chances, we only got plays because the defense let up...blah blah blah." And then yesterday say, "The offense is too vanilla, the oline and wrs are terrible, Seth needs to get fired" when in fact, for the first time this season i was probably 85% of the way with the scheme...for YESTERDAY. With that said let's get into.
I fully expect a community of you to call me crazy or bias to Seth or a hater of #2 and that's okay. Everyone won't agree with you in life. And if I have any true haters š you know what they say about you if you have none.
QBs: Kid is nails. I won't call him special yet, but what he did yesterday is almost unprecedented for a true frosh. Go into a hostile environment on your 1st start and basically play mistake free and do what their qb didny...make ZERO game losing mistakes by turning over the ball. Hate to be an ASS...but why would you with a defense who travels (cbs were sus) and special teams units that have consistently shown they can flip field position. That said 9 had to play while the bullets were flying the entire 60mins and his timely plays and pure grit got it done. An amazing run and an awesome throw is what it took. Sans the TEs shooting us in the foot. GRADE: 91
RBs: i won't make any friends saying this, but I truly feel 2 is the worst "starter" on offense. I know..I know..but the oline, but the TEs, but the 3rd team starting wrs. My response is simple and whole heartedly true for THIS offense. Who touches the ball the second most on this offense? And how many times has he made one man miss or broken a fitted tackle? Idk if it's zero but percentage wise it's less than 5%. Then I watch 27 carry the ball 1 true time in a similar style play with like blocking (i hated THAT hold based upon other plays in the game) but 27 shuffles to the crease, explodes, gets skiny on a would be tackler and gets 14 or so yards. 4 or 5 times yesterday there is properly blocked plays where there is opportunity there and we get nuthin. 4 or 5 is being nice. If YouTube will allow us to show film I'll put a lot of plays up for folk to see where 2 simply doesn't offer anything other than putting his head down and running hard. Many may say I'm bias to seth...and I'd get it (i wanna win WAYYYYYYY more than I want my bud from a quarter century ago to be a coach). But i have no bias for our oline. I hammered them and said I didn't believe they'd be good all summer. Pass blocking is adequate and I believe we're a talented rb away from having an adequate run game...especially with a truly dual threat qb. Lastly...have we played a better defense than our own this season? Maybe Tennessee...especially with Jackson at the helm? How many rbs have you seen make our defenders miss dead to right into the hole, on the edge, with a juke, spin? EXACTLY..and our defense is probably the best we've seen this year. GRADE: 40 You can't have 1 semi solid run per game, go out on third downs and be considered a plus or even average.
OLINE: Low ceiling but wayyyyyyy more effort and some semi positive things covered up by bad eyes or an inability to make people miss. Hawk covers some things up for sure. Simple pass concepts (and limited concepts) doesnt help a ton. I dont know if I'm watching the same game as many others but I'll ask...who had the better oline unit Saturday? š¤ Especially when OU FINALLY decided to blitz? I don't think it's a question..we did. And we got blitzed a lot. They showed multiple fronts. A lot of identical stuff that we run actually. Again, you guys MAKE me defend an average oline, because everything else ain't pretty. They don't run routes for wrs, or press holes for rbs. But pretty consistently they've put a hat on a hat and as a unit showed some identity yesterday. 1. We can pass pro (up to our ability) 2. We don't move people but we cover up people and that's about what i thgt we'd eventually get to. Disagree all you want, but as a unit..they played winning football. Not playoff good, but good enough to win a road game in the SEC. Two very good reasons why: 1. No post snap thinking. 2. Simplified gameplan so not a ton to remember...guys that's good coaching. Especially if your defense and special teams travel. š¬
GRADE: 71 Still low ceiling but passing. And I proly dropped it a little to appease the "kill the oline community" ohh and this does NOT absolve BB for leaving us with this crew.
WRs/TEs: I almost want to separate the group today because the wrs played well when needed and the TEs played TERRIBLE when needed. Literally, the bigger the moment the better the WRs played and the worse the TEs were. Very happy for 13. Two huge opportunities and he made two huge catches and showed a lil wiggle after the catch. The second and long deep sit route was a catalyst for our fg I believe and his 60 yard catch definitely gave our qb confidence to throw it up to him in future games..if they call the play more. 15 showed off some darts and did about what he could. The other wrs were limited and I believe it was by design (not to limit THEM) with us running an abbreviated playbook. Auburn knew "off man" would take away a lot of what we were doing with simple second level rub routes. Stay in behind the rub (after 87 kills us the first time around) and match up with the man who crosses your way. 10/87 in theory should be security blankets for 9 but they aren't. 10s illegal motion...for No. Good. Reason. blew my mind. The play is CLEARLY a flood concept away where you sneak the rb across the formation and 10 runs upfield as if he was in the play. Just BAD if you're an upper classmen. I hope they get better but I'm more hopeful for some wrs getting healthy. We'll see what happens. GRADE: 81/55. Young pups are growing up and learning. Once we get out of survival phase on offense, hopefully they'll get more chances. TEs gotta do better.
SCHEME: Sigh...i wanna advocate for what it's saw and from a macro lens...I getit. Minimize opportunity for error or thinking or fear...whatever. but man there are opportunities to add a little imagination. We ran a real "boot" one time...guess what happened? Hawk stresses the contain defender and tosses a nerf to 10 down the sideline. One of our biggest plays of the day. They feared his feet. We run go routes 2 times. We miss one (it was open) and hit one in stride. We gotta test teams more just to back up defenders. I'd like to see more back side posts...like they did us. Easier to lead wrs. I also think the biggest issue is the same since last year. In an offense like ours, we need as many play makers touching the ball as possible. 2 doesn't make plays. I think he and 27 should switch roles. I think we are 2 or 3 yards per carry better with 27 and especially 8 if healthy. Thats 3 to 5 more first downs per game. All that said...in a vacuum. The plan was good. A lot will be labor what DID go wrong but all along they were concerned about what didn't go wrong. A clean TO sheet was probably our biggest chance to win THIS game. Now two weeks of prep and health should (BETTER) open up the playbook. Now we see this plan down the road...and I'll lead the way with my pitchfork. But for yesterday...GRADE: 74 how can u grade it any less in the context of that game under those conditions. Don't kill the team and give your defense and special teams a chance to win. Mission accomplished.
DLINE: Them boys good. Solid in the run...LBs were the issue when stuff popped. And fantastic in RPO..did anyone see 30 and his impact backside on rpo. Really good. Ofc they came through clutch when it mattered on passing downs. I think it's safe to say 32 is reaching 'difference maker' and if he continues..a star. When he wants to turn up...he's bad ass. The DTs didn't blatantly win many 1 on 1s but they held their own and did some nice games to get backers thru gaps. Solid game. Winning football. GRADE: 82 That includes 30 and 32s contributions. They were both really good. Barry's been singing 32s praises since he was a recruit. Salute to B š«”
BACKERS: First game this season where Kip was Batman to his peers (Robin). Kip was all over the field. From q1 to the Pick 6..he was locked in. Proud of him. Most know that I've been a huge fan for yrs. He's what you need in this conference and his athleticism was on full display yesterday. Solid solid day. Did u guys notice 28 at Will and TON with 11 at Mike. I'd say half of 28s snaps were at will. Not Stuts best game but he played well. His impact is bigtime and his instincts are really good. I think I know why he misses tackles high sometimes. In my generation we were taught to bring our face mask and cross face on ball carriers. Meaning..bow your neck and back (like squat position) and your target, you aimed face mask "across the ball carriers face". It forced you to tackle across a ball carriers body. They've taken that technique out the game. Now they want tacklers to tackle "same side" of ball carriers and it promotes a lot more reaching. He's right there on the play but at the point of contact he stops and reaches. It happens, but man rbs sure know how to make our AA backer miss when things aren't blocked perfectly but on our side....nevermind. ima get called a hater again. A few other things. 5 played cheetah early, got picked on early, and I didn't much see him afterwards. 24 made some good backside plays as big Cheetah. I wish they'd let him settle in. But the first 2 levels of the defense are really solid. I watched UGA vs Bama last night and didn't see a guy (like they've had in years past) who was head n shoulders ahead of our 1st two levels of defense. I think that's promising. GRADE: 87 Pick 6s win you ball games...especially when u wear 10 š
DBs: Billy played well. I'm gonna nitpick and ask him to stop subbing defenders. They gain 3 or 4 yards per tackle but he was much cleaner today. It looked like they played him closer to the LOS and I think that's smart. 22 and 3 gave up a few things but overall safeties were fine. Now cbs š¬
Worst game of the year. 4 is in the wrs pocket but doesn't look back and 26 needs to give up the off man technique and play bump. He's getting COOKED on deep in cuts. Otherwise 23 is going to take his reps because that young lad is a player. I don't love the depth their asked to play at. If they're gonna play off they should be at 7 or so yards and the blitz should overload a side or flood the middle so they expect a quick throw. In the first half especially..they were only bringing 4 or 5 and expecting the dbs to cover at 4 to 5 yards..and that's hard. GRADE: 74 i think teams will try to pick on us. But our change up is to bring heat...and it works..WELL.
SPECIALS: Short and sweet...special teams have dramatically improved. Even when they don't win you a game, it's a plus when they don't lose you games. From our kicker, to punter and even kickoff specialist...they were good. Thank God those guys played well. They all helped us win. GRADE: 90 your backup kicker is 2 for 2 and our punter may be up for some awards at years end. Kid is nails.
SCHEME: Lots of hate for an offensive scheme that was pedestrian. But we know the limitations and injuries. There's ZERO excuse for our 1st half defense to have been so vanilla. That kid was DYING to throw the ball to us and we sat back, gave clean pictures presnap and allowed him to gain confidence. I firmly believe we win by 2 scores if we simply put him under pressure early..
You know why they didn't? They didn't wanna be too aggressive early and give away something cheap and make the offense play catch up. Well, that kind of backfired and in the second half they went back to what works and made the plays they needed to. Good adjustment..it was needed. GRADE: 78 We've gotta stay multiple and disguise our intentions. Offenses are too good if they know what you're doing presnap.
Final Thgt...Damn this is the longest 10 Thgts I've ever done. But I do believe this game was manditory if we were gonna make any noise this season. Our schedule is difficult as hell, but there isn't a game I feel we certainly lose if we bring our A game. (Bama at home š¬). Texas is a rivalry...we'll be ready. Ole Miss and Mizzou are who we thgt they were. LSU is gonna be hell but at the end of the season (has anyone seen Durham š¤¦š¾āāļø)
Anyway...I truly have to look at this game as a 1 off. A unique opportunity to play a beatable opponent without having to do something crazy. They could bring the pup along without throwing too much at him...and it worked. If we plan on deploying this offense the rest of the season we'll beat Maine. Thats it. I fully expect us to expand it. But zero brain farts. Zero mental busts. Zero "ifs". It was old school...we rolling with these 6 to 8 run concepts and 6 to 8 pass concepts..lets play ball hard and fast. That's literally what we did. Even by formation we were simplified. By motion we were simplified. Go watch it again. They ran 15 to 18 total plays. For Saturday, I think it was smart. Take the off week and get healthy and build around what we have.
Well...at least I've been able to enjoy the season into October. It'll be interesting to see how October goes. Dallas will tell us a lot.
We've got an extra week to say F*** Texas. I'm down with that.
#Boomer
Mackey is in the middle. And I have to address some of you guys who love to complain unless we win by 40. Here's a few questions to consider: who had the better oline group? OU or Auburn? RB core? WR core (available to play)? QB situation going into the game...š¬ that one could be a toss up, but you'd still not want your true freshman pup going into that atmosphere as their first true start.
Lets let's all accept some truth serum. Don't complain about what you didnt see: complex pass schemes, layered run schemes, tons of mis-direction and tendency breakers. Without showing love for what you did see: zero turnovers, zero brain fart mental busts, big plays when we NEEDED them (especially if you include the 3 our bone headed TEs ruin if they can just be varsity football good).
With all due respect, this game WAS in a vacuum. It was a "one off". It is a unique game or window of opportunity for the team to truly transition away from what we've done for 2seasons and 4 games to something that was yesterday...totally different. I say totally because I didn't see 1 true RPO. If anyone did..it was one.
Sooooo...with that said, I remember a lot of those people who said "Hype took his foot off the gas, gave OU chances, we only got plays because the defense let up...blah blah blah." And then yesterday say, "The offense is too vanilla, the oline and wrs are terrible, Seth needs to get fired" when in fact, for the first time this season i was probably 85% of the way with the scheme...for YESTERDAY. With that said let's get into.
I fully expect a community of you to call me crazy or bias to Seth or a hater of #2 and that's okay. Everyone won't agree with you in life. And if I have any true haters š you know what they say about you if you have none.
QBs: Kid is nails. I won't call him special yet, but what he did yesterday is almost unprecedented for a true frosh. Go into a hostile environment on your 1st start and basically play mistake free and do what their qb didny...make ZERO game losing mistakes by turning over the ball. Hate to be an ASS...but why would you with a defense who travels (cbs were sus) and special teams units that have consistently shown they can flip field position. That said 9 had to play while the bullets were flying the entire 60mins and his timely plays and pure grit got it done. An amazing run and an awesome throw is what it took. Sans the TEs shooting us in the foot. GRADE: 91
RBs: i won't make any friends saying this, but I truly feel 2 is the worst "starter" on offense. I know..I know..but the oline, but the TEs, but the 3rd team starting wrs. My response is simple and whole heartedly true for THIS offense. Who touches the ball the second most on this offense? And how many times has he made one man miss or broken a fitted tackle? Idk if it's zero but percentage wise it's less than 5%. Then I watch 27 carry the ball 1 true time in a similar style play with like blocking (i hated THAT hold based upon other plays in the game) but 27 shuffles to the crease, explodes, gets skiny on a would be tackler and gets 14 or so yards. 4 or 5 times yesterday there is properly blocked plays where there is opportunity there and we get nuthin. 4 or 5 is being nice. If YouTube will allow us to show film I'll put a lot of plays up for folk to see where 2 simply doesn't offer anything other than putting his head down and running hard. Many may say I'm bias to seth...and I'd get it (i wanna win WAYYYYYYY more than I want my bud from a quarter century ago to be a coach). But i have no bias for our oline. I hammered them and said I didn't believe they'd be good all summer. Pass blocking is adequate and I believe we're a talented rb away from having an adequate run game...especially with a truly dual threat qb. Lastly...have we played a better defense than our own this season? Maybe Tennessee...especially with Jackson at the helm? How many rbs have you seen make our defenders miss dead to right into the hole, on the edge, with a juke, spin? EXACTLY..and our defense is probably the best we've seen this year. GRADE: 40 You can't have 1 semi solid run per game, go out on third downs and be considered a plus or even average.
OLINE: Low ceiling but wayyyyyyy more effort and some semi positive things covered up by bad eyes or an inability to make people miss. Hawk covers some things up for sure. Simple pass concepts (and limited concepts) doesnt help a ton. I dont know if I'm watching the same game as many others but I'll ask...who had the better oline unit Saturday? š¤ Especially when OU FINALLY decided to blitz? I don't think it's a question..we did. And we got blitzed a lot. They showed multiple fronts. A lot of identical stuff that we run actually. Again, you guys MAKE me defend an average oline, because everything else ain't pretty. They don't run routes for wrs, or press holes for rbs. But pretty consistently they've put a hat on a hat and as a unit showed some identity yesterday. 1. We can pass pro (up to our ability) 2. We don't move people but we cover up people and that's about what i thgt we'd eventually get to. Disagree all you want, but as a unit..they played winning football. Not playoff good, but good enough to win a road game in the SEC. Two very good reasons why: 1. No post snap thinking. 2. Simplified gameplan so not a ton to remember...guys that's good coaching. Especially if your defense and special teams travel. š¬
GRADE: 71 Still low ceiling but passing. And I proly dropped it a little to appease the "kill the oline community" ohh and this does NOT absolve BB for leaving us with this crew.
WRs/TEs: I almost want to separate the group today because the wrs played well when needed and the TEs played TERRIBLE when needed. Literally, the bigger the moment the better the WRs played and the worse the TEs were. Very happy for 13. Two huge opportunities and he made two huge catches and showed a lil wiggle after the catch. The second and long deep sit route was a catalyst for our fg I believe and his 60 yard catch definitely gave our qb confidence to throw it up to him in future games..if they call the play more. 15 showed off some darts and did about what he could. The other wrs were limited and I believe it was by design (not to limit THEM) with us running an abbreviated playbook. Auburn knew "off man" would take away a lot of what we were doing with simple second level rub routes. Stay in behind the rub (after 87 kills us the first time around) and match up with the man who crosses your way. 10/87 in theory should be security blankets for 9 but they aren't. 10s illegal motion...for No. Good. Reason. blew my mind. The play is CLEARLY a flood concept away where you sneak the rb across the formation and 10 runs upfield as if he was in the play. Just BAD if you're an upper classmen. I hope they get better but I'm more hopeful for some wrs getting healthy. We'll see what happens. GRADE: 81/55. Young pups are growing up and learning. Once we get out of survival phase on offense, hopefully they'll get more chances. TEs gotta do better.
SCHEME: Sigh...i wanna advocate for what it's saw and from a macro lens...I getit. Minimize opportunity for error or thinking or fear...whatever. but man there are opportunities to add a little imagination. We ran a real "boot" one time...guess what happened? Hawk stresses the contain defender and tosses a nerf to 10 down the sideline. One of our biggest plays of the day. They feared his feet. We run go routes 2 times. We miss one (it was open) and hit one in stride. We gotta test teams more just to back up defenders. I'd like to see more back side posts...like they did us. Easier to lead wrs. I also think the biggest issue is the same since last year. In an offense like ours, we need as many play makers touching the ball as possible. 2 doesn't make plays. I think he and 27 should switch roles. I think we are 2 or 3 yards per carry better with 27 and especially 8 if healthy. Thats 3 to 5 more first downs per game. All that said...in a vacuum. The plan was good. A lot will be labor what DID go wrong but all along they were concerned about what didn't go wrong. A clean TO sheet was probably our biggest chance to win THIS game. Now two weeks of prep and health should (BETTER) open up the playbook. Now we see this plan down the road...and I'll lead the way with my pitchfork. But for yesterday...GRADE: 74 how can u grade it any less in the context of that game under those conditions. Don't kill the team and give your defense and special teams a chance to win. Mission accomplished.
DLINE: Them boys good. Solid in the run...LBs were the issue when stuff popped. And fantastic in RPO..did anyone see 30 and his impact backside on rpo. Really good. Ofc they came through clutch when it mattered on passing downs. I think it's safe to say 32 is reaching 'difference maker' and if he continues..a star. When he wants to turn up...he's bad ass. The DTs didn't blatantly win many 1 on 1s but they held their own and did some nice games to get backers thru gaps. Solid game. Winning football. GRADE: 82 That includes 30 and 32s contributions. They were both really good. Barry's been singing 32s praises since he was a recruit. Salute to B š«”
BACKERS: First game this season where Kip was Batman to his peers (Robin). Kip was all over the field. From q1 to the Pick 6..he was locked in. Proud of him. Most know that I've been a huge fan for yrs. He's what you need in this conference and his athleticism was on full display yesterday. Solid solid day. Did u guys notice 28 at Will and TON with 11 at Mike. I'd say half of 28s snaps were at will. Not Stuts best game but he played well. His impact is bigtime and his instincts are really good. I think I know why he misses tackles high sometimes. In my generation we were taught to bring our face mask and cross face on ball carriers. Meaning..bow your neck and back (like squat position) and your target, you aimed face mask "across the ball carriers face". It forced you to tackle across a ball carriers body. They've taken that technique out the game. Now they want tacklers to tackle "same side" of ball carriers and it promotes a lot more reaching. He's right there on the play but at the point of contact he stops and reaches. It happens, but man rbs sure know how to make our AA backer miss when things aren't blocked perfectly but on our side....nevermind. ima get called a hater again. A few other things. 5 played cheetah early, got picked on early, and I didn't much see him afterwards. 24 made some good backside plays as big Cheetah. I wish they'd let him settle in. But the first 2 levels of the defense are really solid. I watched UGA vs Bama last night and didn't see a guy (like they've had in years past) who was head n shoulders ahead of our 1st two levels of defense. I think that's promising. GRADE: 87 Pick 6s win you ball games...especially when u wear 10 š
DBs: Billy played well. I'm gonna nitpick and ask him to stop subbing defenders. They gain 3 or 4 yards per tackle but he was much cleaner today. It looked like they played him closer to the LOS and I think that's smart. 22 and 3 gave up a few things but overall safeties were fine. Now cbs š¬
Worst game of the year. 4 is in the wrs pocket but doesn't look back and 26 needs to give up the off man technique and play bump. He's getting COOKED on deep in cuts. Otherwise 23 is going to take his reps because that young lad is a player. I don't love the depth their asked to play at. If they're gonna play off they should be at 7 or so yards and the blitz should overload a side or flood the middle so they expect a quick throw. In the first half especially..they were only bringing 4 or 5 and expecting the dbs to cover at 4 to 5 yards..and that's hard. GRADE: 74 i think teams will try to pick on us. But our change up is to bring heat...and it works..WELL.
SPECIALS: Short and sweet...special teams have dramatically improved. Even when they don't win you a game, it's a plus when they don't lose you games. From our kicker, to punter and even kickoff specialist...they were good. Thank God those guys played well. They all helped us win. GRADE: 90 your backup kicker is 2 for 2 and our punter may be up for some awards at years end. Kid is nails.
SCHEME: Lots of hate for an offensive scheme that was pedestrian. But we know the limitations and injuries. There's ZERO excuse for our 1st half defense to have been so vanilla. That kid was DYING to throw the ball to us and we sat back, gave clean pictures presnap and allowed him to gain confidence. I firmly believe we win by 2 scores if we simply put him under pressure early..
You know why they didn't? They didn't wanna be too aggressive early and give away something cheap and make the offense play catch up. Well, that kind of backfired and in the second half they went back to what works and made the plays they needed to. Good adjustment..it was needed. GRADE: 78 We've gotta stay multiple and disguise our intentions. Offenses are too good if they know what you're doing presnap.
Final Thgt...Damn this is the longest 10 Thgts I've ever done. But I do believe this game was manditory if we were gonna make any noise this season. Our schedule is difficult as hell, but there isn't a game I feel we certainly lose if we bring our A game. (Bama at home š¬). Texas is a rivalry...we'll be ready. Ole Miss and Mizzou are who we thgt they were. LSU is gonna be hell but at the end of the season (has anyone seen Durham š¤¦š¾āāļø)
Anyway...I truly have to look at this game as a 1 off. A unique opportunity to play a beatable opponent without having to do something crazy. They could bring the pup along without throwing too much at him...and it worked. If we plan on deploying this offense the rest of the season we'll beat Maine. Thats it. I fully expect us to expand it. But zero brain farts. Zero mental busts. Zero "ifs". It was old school...we rolling with these 6 to 8 run concepts and 6 to 8 pass concepts..lets play ball hard and fast. That's literally what we did. Even by formation we were simplified. By motion we were simplified. Go watch it again. They ran 15 to 18 total plays. For Saturday, I think it was smart. Take the off week and get healthy and build around what we have.
Well...at least I've been able to enjoy the season into October. It'll be interesting to see how October goes. Dallas will tell us a lot.
We've got an extra week to say F*** Texas. I'm down with that.
#Boomer
