Why no Tebow spy in the 2nd half?

[Toronto Sooner]

It was painful to watch Tebow take off and run play, after play, after play, after play, after play......

Then, when it wasn't Tebow, it was hand off/pitch to Harvin, play, after play, after play, after play.......

I know florida was running the option, but why didn't Venables put Travis Lewis to follow Tebow around (spy and follow him as a dedicated job), and then have Balogun or Clayton or Harris follow behind and tackle which ever man gets the pitch (if pitched).

It was difficult to watch, especially on 3rd downs. As a viewer, and OU fan, you knew exactly what Florida was about to do (especially after the first couple of times). I just kinda wished Venables would have made some adjustments. Our D was great for most of the first 3 quarters, but Tebow and Harvin gashing us with their runs really killed us. That should have been our focus. Franks and Jackson were playing well down field.

Just curious, would someone happen to have an answer to my question? I'm still somewhat confused. I had to turn away from my tv set on 3rd downs, as it had gotten too preditable and frustrating to watch.

[pappy]

because bv is such a great defensive coordinator is why...I thought everyone knew that.

[ashley]

You can if you want to go man, no free, against their speed receivers.

[East Coast Bias]

I wondered the same thing. Why was the middle so open late in the game when it was so shut down early? JMK posted that the defensive line was gassed in the second half, due to a lack of substitution. He may be right, they did't seem to be a part of any stops at that point. It seemed to me they were taking advantage of our guys leaving lanes and flying to the ball.

[MarylandSooner]

The shovel pass to the tight end just killed us at least three times. I hardly ever see this play ran successfully any more but it worked big time against us.

[OU-HSV]

I agree. There were quite a few times in the 4th qtr that it seemed somewhat obvious what Florida was going to run. And I've mentioned before that we couldn't stop that option shovel play even after seeing it previously ran, and was disturbing and costly. I couldn't believe BV and/ or the players couldn't stop some of those critical plays in the 4th qtr, especially considering how well OUr guys seemed to play D in the first 3 qtrs. Maybe JKM is right, maybe the D simply wore themselves out.

[TUSooner]

It wouldn't have mattered because Tebow has the power of invisibility.

[Circle City Gator]

The shovel pass is hard to defend for a pretty simple reason- Tebow. Most quarterbacks throw the shovel pass as a kind of screen pass, taking themselves out of the play. Tebow throws it as part of the option package. It is one of four of his reads- keep, pitch, throw, shovel. If the defense defends it like a pure wishbone option, the throw to a crossing receiver is open over the safety. If it covers the run, the only way to stop the shovel is to put only ONE man on Tebow, and he picks run. If there is only one guy on the pitch man, particularly if it's Harvin, it's a pitch.

The middle was open for two reasons. First, Oklahoma did an excellent job in the first half of shutting down the outside run and the option, but did it by giving up a little in the middle, though Florida failed to exploit it. Oklahoma also snuck Nic Harris up to be the 8th man in the box, and that gave the added help to shut down the middle. Watch the first half of the third quarter. In one series Tebow threw long to Harvin and Murphy. Both passes missed, but Harris stopped cheating up. After that, help disappeared from the middle.

I said it here for two weeks before the game. What Tebow does is make you choose between defending the run or defending the pass, and whichever you choose will leave you outnumbered in the other. Bradford wins with precision, beating a team with accuracy, even if the defense knows where he's going with it. Tebow wins with versatility, forcing the team to choose their poison, then making them drink it.

I think you fail to acknowledge that Florida was successful against a good Oklahoma defense when instead you assume the defense screwed up. Put Harris back in the box and Tebow will start throwing the ball again. And I think, by now, most of you have figured out that he is far more than a glorified fullback. Anybody who thought that during the game had at least one moment when they said to themselves "damn, that was a good throw."

[Jason White's Third Knee]

I said it here for two weeks before the game. What Tebow does is make you choose between defending the run or defending the pass, and whichever you choose will leave you outnumbered in the other. Bradford wins with precision, beating a team with accuracy, even if the defense knows where he's going with it. Tebow wins with versatility, forcing the team to choose their poison, then making them drink it.

I think you fail to acknowledge that Florida was successful against a good Oklahoma defense when instead you assume the defense screwed up. Put Harris back in the box and Tebow will start throwing the ball again. And I think, by now, most of you have figured out that he is far more than a glorified fullback. Anybody who thought that during the game had at least one moment when they said to themselves "damn, that was a good throw."


I said "damn, that was a good throw" a lot. I was referring to Bradford. He was throwing lasers. There is no comparison between the two as far as their arms go.

Before you go quoting stats, I watched the game. The shovels count in the passing game. There were some crossing routes and seam passes that were decent throws but not covered well at all. The long balls were nothing special.

As far as tt making teams pick their poison... Come on. Every team does that.

Every team makes you choose.


Every one.


Every.


One.

Tebow was the most productive in the third quarter with his feet and the OU D line was gassed. I just watched it. We could have used Demarcus Granger. Big loss for that game.

It was a good performance by both teams. Fla got it done at key times. Amazing plays by them.

[P3 Gator]

From an SI article:


The Sooners brought much more pressure than they'd shown all season. They lined up in fronts they had not shown, on downs they had not shown them. "It was messing up our blocking schemes," Florida offensive coordinator Steve Addazio explained, "and our play checks were bad."

The Gators adjusted wisely at halftime. As Harvin put it, "They were blitzing the outside backers, taking away the option and our outside runs." In the third quarter, "we started running counters, cutting it up between the tackles, and there was nobody home."

Link (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/austin_murphy/01/10/tebow.jump.pass/index.html?eref=sircrc)

[MALE918]

I was screaming the most about the inside shovel pass in the 2nd half. they ran it a couple times in the first but really wasn't as successful. I'm not sure how many times they ran it in the 2nd half but when they did we had shut the corner down perfectly. My anger came when we had two players playing the qb from the inside out. both of these players would run by the t.e. the first time i saw it i thought damn. after that i couldn't figure out why they couldn't put their heads together and say, "if we see that again, i continue with tebow and you play the shovel." or if not between each other a coach mention it. it's not that they ran it but how they kept doing it and we never picked up such a simple adjustment. even one of those shovels could have easily been intercepted and returned.

[TXBOOMER]

Check out their blocking both at the line and down field. Gators athletic D won the game. They kept us out of the endzone plain and simple and all excuses aside. We had our chances and didn't capitalize and that freaking sucks. Most media and Gator fans can keep giving TT all of the credit. I don't blame them for that. He is a good college QB. I think the Gators will be very good next year based on their supporting cast even if TT decides to come out.

[ashley]

Jason white,s

That was a very good post that shows real understanding of the game of football from a broad view.

[Sooner Eclipse]

You can if you want to go man, no free, against their speed receivers.

I say take that chance. tt's arm is nothing special, not that accurate over 25-30 yds. It became painfully obvious that we weren't going to stop the inside stuff w/o some adjustments. We didn't follow our game plan in the 3-4 quarters which was to make tt beat us w his arm. If that means changing the defensive plan in the 2nd half, then so be it. We didn't and that alone got us beat. tt isn't going to beat a good team w that arm alone. I consider that shovel pass crap a run as part of the option. I'd rather get beat over the top. Odds of tt completing a lot of those are not good.

[SoonerInFla]

The shovel pass is hard to defend for a pretty simple reason- Tebow. Most quarterbacks throw the shovel pass as a kind of screen pass, taking themselves out of the play. Tebow throws it as part of the option package. It is one of four of his reads- keep, pitch, throw, shovel. If the defense defends it like a pure wishbone option, the throw to a crossing receiver is open over the safety. If it covers the run, the only way to stop the shovel is to put only ONE man on Tebow, and he picks run. If there is only one guy on the pitch man, particularly if it's Harvin, it's a pitch.

The middle was open for two reasons. First, Oklahoma did an excellent job in the first half of shutting down the outside run and the option, but did it by giving up a little in the middle, though Florida failed to exploit it. Oklahoma also snuck Nic Harris up to be the 8th man in the box, and that gave the added help to shut down the middle. Watch the first half of the third quarter. In one series Tebow threw long to Harvin and Murphy. Both passes missed, but Harris stopped cheating up. After that, help disappeared from the middle.

I said it here for two weeks before the game. What Tebow does is make you choose between defending the run or defending the pass, and whichever you choose will leave you outnumbered in the other. Bradford wins with precision, beating a team with accuracy, even if the defense knows where he's going with it. Tebow wins with versatility, forcing the team to choose their poison, then making them drink it.

I think you fail to acknowledge that Florida was successful against a good Oklahoma defense when instead you assume the defense screwed up. Put Harris back in the box and Tebow will start throwing the ball again. And I think, by now, most of you have figured out that he is far more than a glorified fullback. Anybody who thought that during the game had at least one moment when they said to themselves "damn, that was a good throw."

In the first half when OU forced Tebow to pass by shutting down the run, he was intercepted twice. I think his throwing improved as he passed when he wanted to, as opposed to when he had to. That coupled with his determination to win the game. I guess my point is, if it's a pick your poison situation,why wasn't he "poisonous" in the first half?

[Rock Hard Corn Frog]

Maybe we needed a Harvin spy because he did a lot more in terms of beating us in the second half than Tebow did.

...and Jason White's 3rd knee is right on in terms of the passing performances. Not that either team had success with the deep routes but that first INT by Harris wouldn't have been one if Bradford was throwing the same exact pass. That ball hung in the air forever.

[ashley]

I say take that chance. tt's arm is nothing special, not that accurate over 25-30 yds. It became painfully obvious that we weren't going to stop the inside stuff w/o some adjustments. We didn't follow our game plan in the 3-4 quarters which was to make tt beat us w his arm. If that means changing the defensive plan in the 2nd half, then so be it. We didn't and that alone got us beat. tt isn't going to beat a good team w that arm alone. I consider that shovel pass crap a run as part of the option. I'd rather get beat over the top. Odds of tt completing a lot of those are not good.

Where are you going to take your chances from? The stands or in front of the TV.

[Soonerman08]

It was painful to watch Tebow take off and run play, after play, after play, after play, after play......

Then, when it wasn't Tebow, it was hand off/pitch to Harvin, play, after play, after play, after play.......

I know florida was running the option, but why didn't Venables put Travis Lewis to follow Tebow around (spy and follow him as a dedicated job), and then have Balogun or Clayton or Harris follow behind and tackle which ever man gets the pitch (if pitched).

It was difficult to watch, especially on 3rd downs. As a viewer, and OU fan, you knew exactly what Florida was about to do (especially after the first couple of times). I just kinda wished Venables would have made some adjustments. Our D was great for most of the first 3 quarters, but Tebow and Harvin gashing us with their runs really killed us. That should have been our focus. Franks and Jackson were playing well down field.

Just curious, would someone happen to have an answer to my question? I'm still somewhat confused. I had to turn away from my tv set on 3rd downs, as it had gotten too preditable and frustrating to watch.

It wouldn't have mattered if our offense had executed in the Red Zone. We would have won the game.

[Sooner Eclipse]

Where are you going to take your chances from? The stands or in front of the TV.

Wherever you want. The fact remains tha the first half we made tebag look like a bum by forcing him to throw. They changed their sets in the 2nd half and we didn't adjust. Stopping the run is always the first fundamental of our defense. If adjusting means making tebag throws over the top then so be it. Its a much lower percentage play than the ones they ran over our *** with in the second half. That and our lack of execution in the red zone cost us the game.

[ashley]

True and good post. Check private messages.

[tulsaoilerfan]

I said "damn, that was a good throw" a lot. I was referring to Bradford. He was throwing lasers. There is no comparison between the two as far as their arms go.

Before you go quoting stats, I watched the game. The shovels count in the passing game. There were some crossing routes and seam passes that were decent throws but not covered well at all. The long balls were nothing special.

As far as tt making teams pick their poison... Come on. Every team does that.

Every team makes you choose.


Every one.


Every.


One.

Tebow was the most productive in the third quarter with his feet and the OU D line was gassed. I just watched it. We could have used Demarcus Granger. Big loss for that game.

It was a good performance by both teams. Fla got it done at key times. Amazing plays by them.

having box would have helped also; we should send out a hit squad on the OSU punk that put him out for the season:mad: