All it took was one loss for folk to start mixing it up in here. I like a lil spice. It never hurt anyone.
Let's jump right into it.
QB: There's a rumor going around that I don't like jfa, or am a hater. That's so far from the truth considering I was a "hater" of DG last season. In reality I don't like mediocre qb play (DG) but i loathe bad qb play and on Saturday we objectively saw our qb hand gift the game to Hype and crew. It was bad and I can almost bet watching it on film with your peers was worse. I have zero issue with jfa. I truly want(ed) him to be the "next in line" as being the man at OU. But if he aint...he's NOT. And he's not. That said, I watched the game again. Hawkins impressed. He showed poise, he threw strikes, he beat coverage, he beat the blitz. He did all this with no practice snaps with the ones and cold off the bench. Now, before we anoint him the next heisman candidate, we need to see if he can simply consistently line us up correctly and run our offense in rhythm. Yes, I've been told by several people (after Fall Camp and before the HTown game) that Hawk was the better player but not by enough and was just inconsistent enough to keep jfa in that spot...so for what it's worth i don't think it merits us going crazy over woulda, shoulda,coulda. You do not switch to an 18yr old qb mid season while youre still undefeated. We as fans bitch and moan (and rightfully so) but I agree with that decision. Hawk played hard and well. Because of his efforts and potential I grade the qb position out high. I hope he can keep it up and put us in some positions to win some games. GRADE: 80 it'd literally be a 11 (all pun intended) if he doesn't play.
RBs: Short and sweet...very average. I think Temple may be the only team we were far and away the more talented group. Barnes has earned my respect in that he plays and runs hard. I believe he's earned the right to in the rotation, but he can't be your lead dawg. With the pup getting injured and 27 stuck in neutral we've got to incorporate a more versatile run game. I think we attack the edges and hit ppl with mis direction. GRADE: 70. As average as average can be, but they played hard and with heart.
WRs/TEs: 4 comes out, drops a ball and jogs back into the tunnel. I dont know the details of his injury or the situation, but it's not good for optics to casually jog into the tunnel after one possession. 6 played well then got hurt. 15 and 81 gave good effort, but they both look to be 5'9 165 soaking wet and when you see Tenn roll out dudes who are 6'3 215 you see a distinct disadvantage for us. 17 showed up when Hawk did...and he looked GOOD. Aside from that I dont have much more to say. TEs 😬 Alot of the grief oline has received should be shared with the TEs. We aren't moving blame, but more so sharing blame. We are brutal blocking on the edge. Brutal when in motion. And average as pass catchers. I saw 1 or 2 solid inline blocks from 10 and 87 but far too often they look to be playing slow...thinking about what to do. GRADE: 70/60
OLINE: it was bad. Qb did not favors, RPOs did no favors, but man there are at least 10 plays where one of our guys gets ragged dolled by Tenn defenders. Instead of being harsh (again) I'm going to just say...there are going to be games our crew is over matched. I dont have a lot of good to say. I can't pick a number within the unit who "got the better" of their counterpart consistently. I am NOT a oline guru (I'll go heads with ANYONE on wrs and pass combos/schemes) but everyone saw the game be played in our qbs lap all night. Im not a BB hater, but at OU, injuries or not, you can't expect to roll that out there on Saturdays and hope to play winning football. Especially when u had 3 yrs to prep for SEC ball. I imagine he knows that and is pissed. For me...its on him to figure it out. He absolutely has to. This defense and the qb deserve it. I'll be watching closely 👀
GRADE: 45
OFFENSIVE SCHEME: This would be a 10 grade for me...naww 11 if young Hawk 🐶 (the pup) doesnt go out there and perform AND if I didn't know first hand why the majority of the calls were rpo based to provide continuity for the qb. It's still a failing grade for me, but I did notice some clear changes in play design and cohesion (aside from running up the middle 😬) once 9 came in. I also have to state. A total of 3 drives either at mid field or in their red zone ended in 1 play and idc if u think me speaking truth is hating, but on all three occasions it's solely on the qb. We sucked enough in play: call, design and execution already. The qb liferally killing drives and momentum is very hard to overcome. That said 9 made some throws on the run, throws in the pocket...Quick game and true drop back (in gun i guess you can't call it that but the protection is still the same).
This is PUT UP season for Seth. THIS qb was recruited on his watch and frankly..at ou you gotta win now and our fans are spoiled on offense...is what it is. GRADE: 50 woulda been much worse without the qb change.
DLINE: Them boys came to play. Best game of the year by the ends. Ford was a menace in the 2pt stance. RMT was winning in his match up and Downs proly wishes he tried to scoop and score or at least pushed the ball into the endzone for a safety or defensive TD had he known he'd be on the field again in two plays 😩. The tackles were equally effective. The strength of Tenn's line was the gcg and I still felt our 4 guys out played them. The one area i saw concern is when they ran lead into the A gap on short yardage. They wedged a hole 2 or 3 nice runs on the group. Otherwise they showed up BIGTIME and forced bigtime turnovers. GRADE: 86
BACKERS: These guys were put in compromising situations all night. Idk if people understand how difficult it is to react and read keys where you have three sometimes four keys that say..if this, you do that on the flyyyy. However, this group has high end talent and experience so we expect greatness. 10, 11 and 28 all played hard, fast and were physical. I saw 10 miss a few tackles on the inside Zone, but man was he bigtime on other plays. I hate 28 missed the goalline tackle but otherwise he played hard. 11 was blowing some things up and was also playing winning football. Even 20 stuck his nose in there and made some good plays. Interestingly enough we still rotated 4 backers most of the game and 7 even got in i believe 1 possession a half. Thats the definition of quality depth. I also have to add 15 and 24. 15 was balling before his injury. I saw 24 maintain the edge well a few times. Again...two levels of the defense playing winning football. And that's really good. I will say...there's just something about the way a few of our backers tackle (especially 28) that makes me wonder about tackling drills. Backers and safeties are usually the most sure tacklers on the team and a few of our entrenched starters struggle at times on plays you would think they'd have the advantage (Danny just happens to do enough other things really well to get away with it. 2 😬 not so much). GRADE: 82
DBs: sheesh... A lot of good and bad here. As anticipated 5 is a liability and teams see what we see and go after him. 3 is probably the best db on the team. Kid is EVERYWHERE and playing on the 1st two levels of the defense...hes REALLY good. 22 in my humble needs to be playing 2s position and probably will be the guy there next year. 26 played well..I know everyone wants to kill him on the bang 8 slant, but he needs inside help there. If 2 is where he's supposed to be, the qb never even makes the throw bcuz it's an easy pick. Even lil Bowen came in and was locking down wrs 4 inches taller than him...lol I love it. You could see the dawg in him. 2 and 5 are your most veteran guys and in my opinion the biggest liabilities. I don't want to sound like a hater, but 2 is a captain/leader or whatever, but he's also not playing well. I hope he can fix it bcuz it's hard to just bench or entrenched AA but man it's been bad. I'm talking assignment and tackling. He literally doesn't touch Nico on our last gasp effort stop at the end of the game. They meet in the hole and hes juked out of his jock strap by a 6'6 frosh qb. As an AA that's not good. However, as a group..they're solid. They really are. I was surprised to see as many subs as I did, but they're building that quality depth and it's been working. As it relates to 19...if he can help on offense and that garners him more playing time...im with it. Kid was a talented wr in high school...and if we go away from the rpo stuff that's all over the place (assuming we simplify some things for the pup) it's a natural time to get him some tick. GRADE: 80
SCHEME: A+ man. Everything I thought we might do..we did. From the 30 to the stand up Ends, to multiple presnaps fronts and pressure. They were prepared. I loved the 3 high safety look. It takes pressure off fhe dbs on islands and allows them to come downhill postsnap to clean up in the run game. They was a fun game to watch defensively. They gave effort, were consistently put in bad situations and continued to play hard. The young lad DC is earning his pay check..I guess he can split it with BV because his imprints were all over that.
FINAL THOUGHT: I don't believe in giving up on seasons, but our oline is going to be tough to overcome. For the first time in a very long time we don't have a bonafide NFL 1st rounder and it shows. Nor do we have a skill guys who's a sure fire NFL dude. That means we have to work with chemistry, discipline and playing CLEAN football bcuz the SEC is littered with studs and we lack them offensively. It's hard mid season to speak of NiL and finally playing the game like the big boys, but it looks like we're finally prepared to do so. The data is astounding and look no further than Tennessee and Ol Miss for examples. But Saturday is Auburn and ut looms. I'm excited to see what the 🐶 has as I've heard he's got the juice. I just worry about depending on an 18yr old frosh who's a dual threat. Navigating the sec with a pup is a recipe for hiccups. But i love cheering for players who leave it all on the field and if saturday was any indication...hes all in on that.
I think Seth, Murray and BB should approach the remainder of the season with a chip on their shoulder. I know they take pride in being excellent in their roles and it's time to prove it. No I don't want to fire any of them (as if my opinion matters) but I do want to see a FIRE (full pun intended) in them and their units the remainder of the year. BV said it best...we can't keep seeing the same damn mistakes week in and out. Something tells me Seth will modify some of the stuff so we literally don't see it again. Then our biggest concern will be our oline blocking 1v1 vs really good players and we'll still complain.
Overall, we played winning football on defense and even with a few heavy mismatch position groups well enough (😬 maybe maybe not) on offense to potentially be in the game if we simply value the ball. I'm 👀 at you 11. Coach had to make a switch, and now that he has, 9 has to seize the opportunity. Sooner Nation will be watching with full attention. Ready to cheer him and his teammates on OR curse everyone (proly me included 🫡) if things don't pick up.
#Boomer
Made my Monday deadline by 90mins 🥵
Let's jump right into it.
QB: There's a rumor going around that I don't like jfa, or am a hater. That's so far from the truth considering I was a "hater" of DG last season. In reality I don't like mediocre qb play (DG) but i loathe bad qb play and on Saturday we objectively saw our qb hand gift the game to Hype and crew. It was bad and I can almost bet watching it on film with your peers was worse. I have zero issue with jfa. I truly want(ed) him to be the "next in line" as being the man at OU. But if he aint...he's NOT. And he's not. That said, I watched the game again. Hawkins impressed. He showed poise, he threw strikes, he beat coverage, he beat the blitz. He did all this with no practice snaps with the ones and cold off the bench. Now, before we anoint him the next heisman candidate, we need to see if he can simply consistently line us up correctly and run our offense in rhythm. Yes, I've been told by several people (after Fall Camp and before the HTown game) that Hawk was the better player but not by enough and was just inconsistent enough to keep jfa in that spot...so for what it's worth i don't think it merits us going crazy over woulda, shoulda,coulda. You do not switch to an 18yr old qb mid season while youre still undefeated. We as fans bitch and moan (and rightfully so) but I agree with that decision. Hawk played hard and well. Because of his efforts and potential I grade the qb position out high. I hope he can keep it up and put us in some positions to win some games. GRADE: 80 it'd literally be a 11 (all pun intended) if he doesn't play.
RBs: Short and sweet...very average. I think Temple may be the only team we were far and away the more talented group. Barnes has earned my respect in that he plays and runs hard. I believe he's earned the right to in the rotation, but he can't be your lead dawg. With the pup getting injured and 27 stuck in neutral we've got to incorporate a more versatile run game. I think we attack the edges and hit ppl with mis direction. GRADE: 70. As average as average can be, but they played hard and with heart.
WRs/TEs: 4 comes out, drops a ball and jogs back into the tunnel. I dont know the details of his injury or the situation, but it's not good for optics to casually jog into the tunnel after one possession. 6 played well then got hurt. 15 and 81 gave good effort, but they both look to be 5'9 165 soaking wet and when you see Tenn roll out dudes who are 6'3 215 you see a distinct disadvantage for us. 17 showed up when Hawk did...and he looked GOOD. Aside from that I dont have much more to say. TEs 😬 Alot of the grief oline has received should be shared with the TEs. We aren't moving blame, but more so sharing blame. We are brutal blocking on the edge. Brutal when in motion. And average as pass catchers. I saw 1 or 2 solid inline blocks from 10 and 87 but far too often they look to be playing slow...thinking about what to do. GRADE: 70/60
OLINE: it was bad. Qb did not favors, RPOs did no favors, but man there are at least 10 plays where one of our guys gets ragged dolled by Tenn defenders. Instead of being harsh (again) I'm going to just say...there are going to be games our crew is over matched. I dont have a lot of good to say. I can't pick a number within the unit who "got the better" of their counterpart consistently. I am NOT a oline guru (I'll go heads with ANYONE on wrs and pass combos/schemes) but everyone saw the game be played in our qbs lap all night. Im not a BB hater, but at OU, injuries or not, you can't expect to roll that out there on Saturdays and hope to play winning football. Especially when u had 3 yrs to prep for SEC ball. I imagine he knows that and is pissed. For me...its on him to figure it out. He absolutely has to. This defense and the qb deserve it. I'll be watching closely 👀
GRADE: 45
OFFENSIVE SCHEME: This would be a 10 grade for me...naww 11 if young Hawk 🐶 (the pup) doesnt go out there and perform AND if I didn't know first hand why the majority of the calls were rpo based to provide continuity for the qb. It's still a failing grade for me, but I did notice some clear changes in play design and cohesion (aside from running up the middle 😬) once 9 came in. I also have to state. A total of 3 drives either at mid field or in their red zone ended in 1 play and idc if u think me speaking truth is hating, but on all three occasions it's solely on the qb. We sucked enough in play: call, design and execution already. The qb liferally killing drives and momentum is very hard to overcome. That said 9 made some throws on the run, throws in the pocket...Quick game and true drop back (in gun i guess you can't call it that but the protection is still the same).
This is PUT UP season for Seth. THIS qb was recruited on his watch and frankly..at ou you gotta win now and our fans are spoiled on offense...is what it is. GRADE: 50 woulda been much worse without the qb change.
DLINE: Them boys came to play. Best game of the year by the ends. Ford was a menace in the 2pt stance. RMT was winning in his match up and Downs proly wishes he tried to scoop and score or at least pushed the ball into the endzone for a safety or defensive TD had he known he'd be on the field again in two plays 😩. The tackles were equally effective. The strength of Tenn's line was the gcg and I still felt our 4 guys out played them. The one area i saw concern is when they ran lead into the A gap on short yardage. They wedged a hole 2 or 3 nice runs on the group. Otherwise they showed up BIGTIME and forced bigtime turnovers. GRADE: 86
BACKERS: These guys were put in compromising situations all night. Idk if people understand how difficult it is to react and read keys where you have three sometimes four keys that say..if this, you do that on the flyyyy. However, this group has high end talent and experience so we expect greatness. 10, 11 and 28 all played hard, fast and were physical. I saw 10 miss a few tackles on the inside Zone, but man was he bigtime on other plays. I hate 28 missed the goalline tackle but otherwise he played hard. 11 was blowing some things up and was also playing winning football. Even 20 stuck his nose in there and made some good plays. Interestingly enough we still rotated 4 backers most of the game and 7 even got in i believe 1 possession a half. Thats the definition of quality depth. I also have to add 15 and 24. 15 was balling before his injury. I saw 24 maintain the edge well a few times. Again...two levels of the defense playing winning football. And that's really good. I will say...there's just something about the way a few of our backers tackle (especially 28) that makes me wonder about tackling drills. Backers and safeties are usually the most sure tacklers on the team and a few of our entrenched starters struggle at times on plays you would think they'd have the advantage (Danny just happens to do enough other things really well to get away with it. 2 😬 not so much). GRADE: 82
DBs: sheesh... A lot of good and bad here. As anticipated 5 is a liability and teams see what we see and go after him. 3 is probably the best db on the team. Kid is EVERYWHERE and playing on the 1st two levels of the defense...hes REALLY good. 22 in my humble needs to be playing 2s position and probably will be the guy there next year. 26 played well..I know everyone wants to kill him on the bang 8 slant, but he needs inside help there. If 2 is where he's supposed to be, the qb never even makes the throw bcuz it's an easy pick. Even lil Bowen came in and was locking down wrs 4 inches taller than him...lol I love it. You could see the dawg in him. 2 and 5 are your most veteran guys and in my opinion the biggest liabilities. I don't want to sound like a hater, but 2 is a captain/leader or whatever, but he's also not playing well. I hope he can fix it bcuz it's hard to just bench or entrenched AA but man it's been bad. I'm talking assignment and tackling. He literally doesn't touch Nico on our last gasp effort stop at the end of the game. They meet in the hole and hes juked out of his jock strap by a 6'6 frosh qb. As an AA that's not good. However, as a group..they're solid. They really are. I was surprised to see as many subs as I did, but they're building that quality depth and it's been working. As it relates to 19...if he can help on offense and that garners him more playing time...im with it. Kid was a talented wr in high school...and if we go away from the rpo stuff that's all over the place (assuming we simplify some things for the pup) it's a natural time to get him some tick. GRADE: 80
SCHEME: A+ man. Everything I thought we might do..we did. From the 30 to the stand up Ends, to multiple presnaps fronts and pressure. They were prepared. I loved the 3 high safety look. It takes pressure off fhe dbs on islands and allows them to come downhill postsnap to clean up in the run game. They was a fun game to watch defensively. They gave effort, were consistently put in bad situations and continued to play hard. The young lad DC is earning his pay check..I guess he can split it with BV because his imprints were all over that.
FINAL THOUGHT: I don't believe in giving up on seasons, but our oline is going to be tough to overcome. For the first time in a very long time we don't have a bonafide NFL 1st rounder and it shows. Nor do we have a skill guys who's a sure fire NFL dude. That means we have to work with chemistry, discipline and playing CLEAN football bcuz the SEC is littered with studs and we lack them offensively. It's hard mid season to speak of NiL and finally playing the game like the big boys, but it looks like we're finally prepared to do so. The data is astounding and look no further than Tennessee and Ol Miss for examples. But Saturday is Auburn and ut looms. I'm excited to see what the 🐶 has as I've heard he's got the juice. I just worry about depending on an 18yr old frosh who's a dual threat. Navigating the sec with a pup is a recipe for hiccups. But i love cheering for players who leave it all on the field and if saturday was any indication...hes all in on that.
I think Seth, Murray and BB should approach the remainder of the season with a chip on their shoulder. I know they take pride in being excellent in their roles and it's time to prove it. No I don't want to fire any of them (as if my opinion matters) but I do want to see a FIRE (full pun intended) in them and their units the remainder of the year. BV said it best...we can't keep seeing the same damn mistakes week in and out. Something tells me Seth will modify some of the stuff so we literally don't see it again. Then our biggest concern will be our oline blocking 1v1 vs really good players and we'll still complain.
Overall, we played winning football on defense and even with a few heavy mismatch position groups well enough (😬 maybe maybe not) on offense to potentially be in the game if we simply value the ball. I'm 👀 at you 11. Coach had to make a switch, and now that he has, 9 has to seize the opportunity. Sooner Nation will be watching with full attention. Ready to cheer him and his teammates on OR curse everyone (proly me included 🫡) if things don't pick up.
#Boomer
Made my Monday deadline by 90mins 🥵
