Our Defensive line

[soonercastor]

Can someone give us an Xs and Os breakdown of our DLine; its strengths and weaknesses.

Thanks.

[8timechamps]

Not sure what kind of breakdown you want, but I'll tell you what I've observed.

For ND, we went with a combo of 3 and 4 man fronts (even 5 at times). Mike dialed up an excellent game plan for the defense, and it all started up front.

Jordan Phillips is the anchor (at NT), and playing better than any DT we've had in a few years. Geno Grissom isn't an-all world type end, but he is very, very solid and rarely is out of position. Charles Tapper may end up being one of the best to come through Norman (at DE), and that's saying a lot. He's very strong and extremely quick for his size.

Yesterday, we played a lot of disguised fronts (with Striker, Nelson, Shannon and even Wilson) spinning down at times (to the line). It was very effective at keeping Rees off balance, as he never knew where the pressure was coming. Striker probably blitzed the most, but as the game wore on ND started making some good adjustments and picking up the pressure. What was impressive was that once ND started to identify the pressure, and pick it up, the big guys (Tapper, Phillips, Grissom) seemed to step up and get more penetration on their own. That's the sign of a very good d-line.

The strengths of this line is that we have great speed and athleticism. It's going to be tough for opposing offenses to shut down just the line (not including any blitzes). Phillips is going to require double teams a lot, and either Tapper and/or Grissom are good enough on the outside to take advantage of that. This line is light years ahead of last year.

The weakness is kind of two-fold: The first is size. Phillips is fine, but we were a little out-sized on the ends yesterday (not sure that will be the case in conference play though). The biggest weakness right now is depth (especially at DT). We are pretty stocked at end, but after Phillips, there's a drop off in production. I did notice yesterday, for the first time, that when Phillips wasn't in, the line still played pretty well. So, I'm sure that's an area that will continue to improve.

This defense is dangerous. We have the back end talent and speed to cover close, with the front seven talented enough to be disruptive. The only question left is how will this brand of defense match up to air attack offenses. We'll know in about a month or so.

[rock on sooner]

Realize he isn't on the D-line but the Sanchez kid is gonna be
a star in the D backfield! Just a young un but he's learning by
leaps and bounds every game.....

[OU_Sooners75]

The biggest problem with the OU DL this year is their size. Especially when playing against power rushing teams.

Outside of one big run vs. ND, the D played really well. Take away that one 80 yard run, OU holds ND to about 140 yards rushing. That is just the final stat sheet. Who knows how it would have looked taking that 80 yard run away since it was the first play for ND on offense in the second half.

[Temujin]

I don't have a good breakdown like 8TC, but I did notice that on rushing downs, we were mostly gap sound. We had several stalemates, which is pretty good considering the size disadvantage. The problem to me was the tackling at the 2nd level. But at the same, the ND backs had good vision and hit their holes with speed and power. And it's hard for LBs to identify the tackling lane when the front is all junked up, which it frequently was yesterday.

I think what was encouraging is that whatever deficiencies our DL has didn't kill us. Under certain previous defensive coordinators, the lack of getting pressure or lack of getting into the backfield would have spelled disaster in coverage/tackling as well. While our tackling wasn't great, and while we did give up one big coverage breakdown, it didn't spell doom for the entire defense. We were able to get off the field and get the ball back into our offense's hands for most of the game.

Also, we blitzed/twisted/stunted/curled, and did just about anything we could on clear passing downs to create confusion and chaos. That CLEARLY had an effect on Rees, and caused the turnovers. And our DBs were glued to their WRs. They almost knew the routes better than the ND WRs did.

The performance wasn't perfect (watching the D get shoved around was cringe-inducing), but it was more than good enough to win.

[Temujin]

The biggest problem with the OU DL this year is their size. Especially when playing against power rushing teams.

Outside of one big run vs. ND, the D played really well. Take away that one 80 yard run, OU holds ND to about 140 yards rushing. That is just the final stat sheet. Who knows how it would have looked taking that 80 yard run away since it was the first play for ND on offense in the second half.

I think the semi-encouraging thing about the run defense is that in the power runs, I didn't see ND open up any HUGE holes. Their backs did a good job of hitting the holes on time to get those 5-6 yard runs. The only issue is that we opened up the edges that way, which led to the 80-yard run off the cutback. Our LB didn't stay at home on that run.

[soonercastor]

We sure didn't put any pressure on McCoy today