random observations

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

Offense

the right side of our OL is pretty bad. that #90 wore down in the second quarter, but in the 1st quarter he was living in our backfield. some of our best runs were when we let kasitati's guy overpenetrate and run behind him.
mayfield is going to send someone to the hospital this season during a TD celebration and it might be himself
where did we find this baxter kid? he is kind of a mini josh norman - someone who makes everyone around him seem better than they are
wide receivers are 100% better than last year (even with the drops). massive kudos for that move...
mayfield didn't really start playing well until that guy on the akron sideline headbutted him to slow him down
mayfield resembles manziel in a lot of ways - bad mechanics, bad arm position, a cannon, logic defying great accuracy. he is only missing one thing - elusiveness - and that sends him from super exciting to "he's not going to finish the season" status. dude needs to stop running the ball.
he hit a receiver in the chest north of 80% of his throws. so many drops
his best throw is still the back shoulder. unfortunately, only one receiver (neal) knows how to catch one of them.
both running backs are really good, but with this OL they'll be lucky to have many yards. In the first half, there were 2-3 DL in the backfield on every play
shepherd needs to start getting on the ground. he takes way too much awkward punishment for 1 extra yard. getting upended on that punt return, legs cut out of bounds, body slammed on that long reception...
tight ends got their quota of receptions for the year in one game


Defense

it is amazing how players don't really change over their career. sanchez has never been able to handle defensive success. we go 5 series without allowing a 1st down and then he falls asleep and bites on a double move.
i'm upgrading our linebackers from bottom 2 to bottom 5 in the conference. they still can't finish plays on the opponent side of the line of scrimmage, but they made a couple of plays that would have previously gone for big yards. their tackling still annoys me (why do you always give them 3 more yards?). their getting off blocks still annoys me. but they are improved over last year. barely.
when akron started running the ball, they went to the typical blueprint for success against us. leave 2 DL free and putting OL on the linebackers. one of the DL is blocked by scheme, the other is left 1 on 1 in space with a running back and no support. works. every. time.
saddest play I saw was one akron OL blocking all 3 of our linebackers
best play was devonte bond running on late and the QB running right into him
our pass defense is really bad. we were busting coverages left and right. had Bowden ran that Pohl guy all game they might have had 21+ points.
Dimon did pretty well for being undersized, the question is whether he can keep it up against better teams
stryker may be getting the nickname "drive by" soon. he needs to hit the qb not run past them
DL overall was pretty good. we had some pretty good explosion into the backfield
secondary run support was pretty bad in the few opportunities they had to come up. hitting guys 15 yards downfield is not a recipe for success.


little bit of good, little bit of bad

[BermudaSooner]

Seemed like more bad than good, hopefully we will look better this weekend.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

I am right with you on the right side of the line.. I still think Nila gets moved to left at some point.

Right on with Mayfield.. That accuracy with all of those bad mechanics will haunt you against a solid team.

My other knock on the WRs is cleaning up routes and running through contact..

[cherokeebrewer]

Baxter came from Trinity CC. Riley had recruited him to ECU, so was familiar.

[KantoSooner]

So, STEP, were you surprised by what you saw? Were you expecting better or worse?

[Salt City Sooner]

Baxter was committed to South Florida, but didn't qualify there due to having too many summer hours (he had 12, USF only allows 9 ).

[aurorasooner]

Offense

the right side of our OL is pretty bad. that #90 wore down in the second quarter, but in the 1st quarter he was living in our backfield. some of our best runs were when we let kasitati's guy overpenetrate and run behind him.
mayfield is going to send someone to the hospital this season during a TD celebration and it might be himself
where did we find this baxter kid? he is kind of a mini josh norman - someone who makes everyone around him seem better than they are
wide receivers are 100% better than last year (even with the drops). massive kudos for that move...
mayfield didn't really start playing well until that guy on the akron sideline headbutted him to slow him down
mayfield resembles manziel in a lot of ways - bad mechanics, bad arm position, a cannon, logic defying great accuracy. he is only missing one thing - elusiveness - and that sends him from super exciting to "he's not going to finish the season" status. dude needs to stop running the ball.
he hit a receiver in the chest north of 80% of his throws. so many drops
his best throw is still the back shoulder. unfortunately, only one receiver (neal) knows how to catch one of them.
both running backs are really good, but with this OL they'll be lucky to have many yards. In the first half, there were 2-3 DL in the backfield on every play
shepherd needs to start getting on the ground. he takes way too much awkward punishment for 1 extra yard. getting upended on that punt return, legs cut out of bounds, body slammed on that long reception...
tight ends got their quota of receptions for the year in one game


Defense

it is amazing how players don't really change over their career. sanchez has never been able to handle defensive success. we go 5 series without allowing a 1st down and then he falls asleep and bites on a double move.
i'm upgrading our linebackers from bottom 2 to bottom 5 in the conference. they still can't finish plays on the opponent side of the line of scrimmage, but they made a couple of plays that would have previously gone for big yards. their tackling still annoys me (why do you always give them 3 more yards?). their getting off blocks still annoys me. but they are improved over last year. barely.
when akron started running the ball, they went to the typical blueprint for success against us. leave 2 DL free and putting OL on the linebackers. one of the DL is blocked by scheme, the other is left 1 on 1 in space with a running back and no support. works. every. time.
saddest play I saw was one akron OL blocking all 3 of our linebackers
best play was devonte bond running on late and the QB running right into him
our pass defense is really bad. we were busting coverages left and right. had Bowden ran that Pohl guy all game they might have had 21+ points.
Dimon did pretty well for being undersized, the question is whether he can keep it up against better teams
stryker may be getting the nickname "drive by" soon. he needs to hit the qb not run past them
DL overall was pretty good. we had some pretty good explosion into the backfield
secondary run support was pretty bad in the few opportunities they had to come up. hitting guys 15 yards downfield is not a recipe for success.


little bit of good, little bit of bad

geez us, JKM. I know your evaluations are, pretty much, spot on, but I could've gone all week w/o reading that about our OL and LBs. That OL evaluation made those guys sound like recruits from some 1a HS team's OL. Perhaps you should've sugar coated it a bit.
I know HCBS is all 100% optimistic about we'll get the run game moving and that some homer posters have insinuated that the Akron DL is all D-1 Big School transfer AA material, but honestly, that evaluation doesn't inspire much confidence that our offense will be successful on Saturday Night and Baker will even have time to throw.
I sure hope we can pull some Sooner Magic out of the PR game with Shep/Mixon, and Ross in our KO return game similar the RRR last year, LR will have some a lot of new wrinkles such as the return of the shovel pass to slow down their rush, and Sanchez will get a couple of early picks and take 1 or both to the house. Sounds like if we get 100 rushing and about 150 thru the air Sat night it will be a huge success.
I don't think much would pizz off our fans more after the last couple of years of offensive struggles than our offense continually going 3 and out Sat night, us burning all our 1st half TOs in the 1st qtr with HCBS and that "perplexed, I don't have a freakin' clue TV look".

[cherokeebrewer]

The Oline is certainly a work in progress but that's to be expected when you start a frosh, a redshirt frosh and a sophomore. Don't know what happened there but Coach B needs to get them up to speed really fast. It was their first game working as a unit. I cut then some slack for now...

[Mazeppa]

Maybe we should just call off the season. If someone would nit pick Tennessee I would feel better about our chances this saturday. I bet nobody has as many issues as we have. I'm really worried about this team now, not sure if I will use the rest of my tickets, can't see me supporting a team that's not perfect.

[olevetonahill]

Maybe we should just call off the season. If someone would nit pick Tennessee I would feel better about our chances this saturday. I bet nobody has as many issues as we have. I'm really worried about this team now, not sure if I will use the rest of my tickets, can't see me supporting a team that's not perfect.

Cheer up. Ive got a 100 on OU to win this weekend and 200 at 35 to 1 odds that we win it all this year LOL
Im Optimistic as hell

[oupride]

Thanks for the post.

[Jacie]

If someone would nit pick Tennessee I would feel better about our chances this saturday. I bet nobody has as many issues as we have.

If you didn't see this on the other thread I will post it here and maybe make you feel a little bit better about OUr chances on Saturday.

From a Dallas Morning News article:

The Volunteers allowed a bunch of big plays in their first game of the year, allowing 426 of Bowling Green’s 527 yards on just 16 plays. Injuries and inexperience in the secondary have the Vols entering with just one trusted defensive back, and poor play up front didn’t make anyone in Knoxville feel any better.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

You guys are overreaching here. Every year units improve or get worse. Under Stoops, the only unit that is an enigma after game 1 is the secondary - you just never know if they are going to get better or worse by game 7. The thing you are missing is that the OL doesn't have to be all that great with this offense since it is a take what they give you style. If the WR play continues at this high level, we may not have many early yards rushing, but we'll sure have them late.

[JLMSOONER]

You guys are overreaching here. Every year units improve or get worse. Under Stoops, the only unit that is an enigma after game 1 is the secondary - you just never know if they are going to get better or worse by game 7. The thing you are missing is that the OL doesn't have to be all that great with this offense since it is a take what they give you style. If the WR play continues at this high level, we may not have many early yards rushing, but we'll sure have them late.

What about the defense and our issues with mobile QB's? What are your thoughts here?

[Breadburner]

What about the defense and our issues with mobile QB's? What are your thoughts here?

Everyone has issues with mobile QB's......

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

What about the defense and our issues with mobile QB's? What are your thoughts here?

That goes back to this statement about the linebackers "but they made a couple of plays that would have previously gone for big yards." We stopped like 3 QB draws that normally would have went for big yards.

[JLMSOONER]

That goes back to this statement about the linebackers "but they made a couple of plays that would have previously gone for big yards." We stopped like 3 QB draws that normally would have went for big yards.

Thanks. Hopefully we can continue with good play and limit their QB.

[hawaii 5-0]

I just love that OUr receivers care about blocking downfield.

5-0

[BoulderSooner79]

Everyone has issues with mobile QB's......

Bingo, that's why teams use them. Fortunately, they almost always come equipped with problems in the passing game. And even if they are good passers, they lose accuracy if their legs get fatigued or they take too many hits. Everything is a tradeoff.

[BoulderSooner79]

Maybe we should just call off the season. If someone would nit pick Tennessee I would feel better about our chances this saturday. I bet nobody has as many issues as we have. I'm really worried about this team now, not sure if I will use the rest of my tickets, can't see me supporting a team that's not perfect.

You have to realized that making you feel better about a game is a non-goal for jkm :)

Also, does it really matter how you feel? I guess it could matter if you bet the game.

[Mazeppa]

You have to realized that making you feel better about a game is a non-goal for jkm :)

Also, does it really matter how you feel? I guess it could matter if you bet the game.

It matters to me how I feel, but probably not to anybody else. :) I was just having a little fun and stir things a little. I'm sure we'll win Saturday no matter how I feel. ha

[Mazeppa]

Cheer up. Ive got a 100 on OU to win this weekend and 200 at 35 to 1 odds that we win it all this year LOL
Im Optimistic as hell

That just cheered me up. Hope you collect. All of it!

[BigTip]

If you didn't see this on the other thread I will post it here and maybe make you feel a little bit better about OUr chances on Saturday.

From a Dallas Morning News article:

The Volunteers allowed a bunch of big plays in their first game of the year, allowing 426 of Bowling Green’s 527 yards on just 16 plays. Injuries and inexperience in the secondary have the Vols entering with just one trusted defensive back, and poor play up front didn’t make anyone in Knoxville feel any better.

That is encouraging. Their weakness against one of our strengths.

And I agree about concerns about our O-line. I am confident they will step up, but I hope it is sooner, rather than later.

[Therealsouthsider]

...no worries, Sooners by 10


ss