Film study: Taking a second look at Oklahoma’s 69-13 win over Florida A&M
I watched the whole game and tried to narrow it down to some interesting moments and things that happened during the game that I missed watching it live.
* The pay-per-view broadcast showed OU’s new intro video. Again, I say two thumbs up. Maybe the best intro video OU has had, and that’s saying something.
* Second offensive play for FAMU, quarterback Damien Fleming hands it off to James Owens on a zone read. David King briefly committed to staying with Fleming, and that gave Owens room to run outside. Nice blocking there by FAMU, really, .but it also looks like Tom Wort and Corey Nelson each crashed too far downfield and couldn’t get back outside to stop him from picking up 14 yards. Wort and Nelson both had bad angles trying to come back and stop him.
* 2nd-and-9, on FAMU’s fourth offensive play, Javon Harris makes a very nice open-field tackle. He really played well Saturday.
* R.J. Washington brought the heat on the very next play, putting good pressure on Fleming, who slips around him but then slips and falls to the ground, where Jamarkus McFarland is there to get credit for a sack.
* OU comes out in a hurry-up on its first drive; on the first play from scrimmage, Landry Jones finds Justin Brown on a quick comeback route, which Brown took for a 9-yard gain. Brown almost escaped the FAMU defender who made initial contact, but was gang tackled. The skills he uses to break tackles in punt returns will definitely come in handy on offense, too.
* On 2nd-and-1, it seems like Taylor McNamara, who started at tight end, was supposed to pick up the blitzing safety and missed him, which forced Dominique Whaley back inside, where there really was nowhere to go.
* 3rd-and-1, Tyrus Thompson didn’t get in fast enough for the Belldozer and OU had to use its first timeout. Bob Stoops didn’t look happy about that. After the timeout, Bronson Irwin got tripped up while trying to pull, and that seemed to blow Blake Bell’s run attempt up.
* On FAMU’s first play of its second drive, just a great catch by Travis Harvey for a 26-yard gain. Aaron Colvin’s coverage was good; sometimes the other guy just makes a great play.
* Not sure why Jones makes the throw he makes at 8:20. Seemed like he was intent on throwing it to Trey Metoyer the whole time, even though he was covered pretty well, and the pass should’ve been picked off. There were four FAMU players in Metoyer’s vicinity on that play.
* Two plays later, Jones finds Kenny Stills across the middle, and Stills makes a terrific one-handed grab while being hit pretty hard by the FAMU defender. Just a really nice play all around by Stills, who seems to really be getting more comfortable going across the middle and being open to taking those kinds of big hits.
* The next play is just nice all-around; good blocking from the line, Trey Millard out of the backfield and Brown on the perimeter, and good vision by Whaley to find the holes for a 13-yard gain. The next play, Damien Williams takes it right up the gut for his first of four touchdowns. Credit to Bronson Irwin, who does a nice job pulling and blocking his man to give Williams the room he needed to find the endzone.
* At 5:28 left in the first quarter, Brown shows again why coaches were so excited about his punt-return skills. It’s tough to do his return justice in writing; he breaks away from one tackle to get to the sideline and sprints down the field, where he very nearly stayed in-bounds. Just excellent vision and toughness to break tackles. He hasn’t returned one for a touchdown yet, but I bet he brings at least one back before the season’s over.
* Inside the 5-yard line, the Sooners aren’t going to need the Belldozer as much with Williams in the backfield. He shows why on his second touchdown run, when he makes contact with four different FAMU players, pushes through and spins past them before reaching into the endzone. Just an impressive runner who adds so much to the OU offense.
* R.J. Washington does a nice job getting away from a double-team, and gets nice run support from Tony Jefferson, who shows again why, to me, he’s the best player on the team. Unfortunately, though, this is also the play where Jefferson hurt his ankle, an injury that eventually forced him out of the game.
* Javon Harris comes through with two straight big plays; on the first, he comes up to make a nice hit and break up a pass. Then, he’s there to intercept Fleming’s next throw and is mindful of staying inbounds at the 50.
* On 2nd-and-17, Tyrus Thompson gets beat by his man, leaving Jones under some pressure, but he still makes a perfect throw to Stills, who is open in the endzone but drops the sure touchdown pass. One of the few mistakes Stills has made through these first two games.
* During the sideline interview with Lon Kruger and Blake Griffin, Eddie Rocker bounces outside of OU’s defense for a 16-yard run. David King beat his man and almost caught Rocker from behind, and Wort looks like he took a bad angle once the FAMU back did get outside. You know, OU did only give up an average of 2.2 yards per carry, but this run defense still looks a little suspect sometimes.
* At 1:41, Harris with another monster hit.
* Second play of the second quarter, Landry Jones is intercepted. Really tough to see what he was looking at here; Kenny Stills had three defenders around him, but it looks like Jones decided early in the play that he was going to Stills. Protection was good from the offensive line.
* At 13:56, really nice read by Jesse Paulsen to come up and make the tackle in run support.
* At 12:24, Dominique Whaley fumbles as he’s being brought down; OU turned the ball over on back-to-back drives. This one led to FAMU’s first 3 points. We don’t see Whaley again for a while after this one.
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