Sunday, November 24, 2013

Oklahoma State vs Baylor Offensive Analysis

Well, well, well. What a pleasant surprise from the Oklahoma State Cowboys. An emphatic 49-17 win over the #4 team in the nation on national television, with Baylor's first three points made possible by an OSU player tripping and the last two TD's in garbage time, mind you. Still, on the orange (or in this case, black) offensive side of the ball, there was a lot of new stuff put in by this Cowboy coaching staff. Let's take a look. 

A large part of this week's offensive performance includes the use of fullback Kye Staley. Staley was put into the game plan with new variations of formations already put in place. 

Flashback to a couple weeks ago when I made a note about the offset backs to the left and right of Chelf. A comment was made saying that this indicates that the up-back farthest from the line of scrimmage has the potential for an inside zone threat. Well now they officially added that threat to the .offense

Take a look at the picture below. Notice how Staley is slightly behind Chelf, with Roland behind him. 

The play that they used out of this formation was a crossbuck, where the "buck", or alternate fullback (I believe it's Veach on this play), blocks across the line of scrimmage to the backside, while the ball carrier runs to the opposite direction of that back. 



Here's the basis of a crossbuck (left), with its origins coming from old single wing football (right).

This play set up for a deep play action pass downfield


You can't exactly see what's going on receiver-wise, so here's a quick diagram of the play:


Any play action out of the full house usually has a two or three man route scheme. Here, the X is running a cross and the Z (Marcell Ateman) is running a corner route (route to the closest corner of the end zone). 

The second thing that we will take a look at is the revived jet sweep package. When closely examining this wrinkle, you can notice that the Cowboys run multiple variations of the jet sweep. They can run a zone read with the jet-man, where the quarterback actually initiates a mesh (he puts the ball into the belly of the back), they can run an inside zone play to the halfback off of the jet motion, or they can run a jet shovel play, where the quarterback receives the snap and quick tosses it to the man motioning in front of him. It's interesting to note that they have play action passes off of all three. On their second touchdown, they ran a play action pass of of the jet inside zone for a Charlie Moore touchdown. 

This play was eerily similar to the game-clinching pass in the 2011 Fiesta Bowl
(see 5:59. Or don't.)

And before we go, it wouldn't be right to ignore the two beautiful trick plays the Cowboys used. 


The first one that we'll talk about is their reverse pass from Moore to Moore. Charlie Moore has passed a couple of times this season, and I put emphasis on the word "pass" because he never looks to take off after given the opportunity to chunk it downfield. I believe they have ran this play, or some variation of it, earlier in the season.

here, it's an off tackle to Jeremy Smith, who pitches it to Charlie Moore coming the other way, who then looks for Tracy Moore on the right sideline off of the wheel route. Well covered by the Baylor Bears, but still, a well executed play by the Cowboys.

And the final play, in which I've saved the best for last. The quarterback throwback, which was done last year against OU and more notably, according to Dave Hunziker, was ran 25 years ago when Barry Sanders threw it back to Mike Gundy on a trick play, was beautifully executed by the Cowboys. 

A successful trick play requires practice and proper execution, with an attention to detail in every aspect of the play. 

I want you to notice not only how well Stewart throws the ball back to Chelf, but how the lineman carry out their blocks. On most OSU screen plays, with the exception of the slip screen and the tunnel screen, the offensive lineman carry out a variation of the crab block, where they all drop to the ground and prevent the defensive lineman from getting to the play. Here, the lineman all drop to the ground faking the crab block, and then quickly get to the outside in anticipation for the throwback. This is not easy to do, folks. It takes a lot of energy, especially for a lineman, to drop, get back up, and get upfield to block.

Well, although this is an offensive blog, it's also important to appreciate the defensive efforts of the OSU defense. Holding an explosive Baylor offense to 17 points, with most of those being after the game was decided, is to be acknowledged. Hopefully, there will be similar results for Bedlam in two weeks. Until then, keep lovin' football.




Sunday, November 17, 2013

College Football Madness - Around the Country

There were plenty of eye-opening plays this weekend throughout college football. Let's take a look at a few, just for fun.

Georgia vs. Auburn: The Hail Mary

By now, every real college football fan and their mother have (has?) seen this play. Still, it doesn't make it any less miraculous. The Bulldogs did everything they could but correctly bat the ball down, and on a 4th and 18 no less.

UCF vs. Temple: The One Hander


This play has catch of the year written all over it. Think about it - not only was the catch amazing, it gave the Knights the win and kept them inside the top 15. This is certainly a play that all 48 fans in the stadium will never forget.


Now we get to some lesser clips, although they are still very noteworthy. These are plays that you probably didn't see on SportsCenter, but still interesting.

Oklahoma State vs Texas: Tip Drill

Check out this catch by Oklahoma State receiver Tracy Moore. Chelf had Moore in double coverage, but somehow it ended up in a touchdown.


If you were able to see it, #17 for the Longhorns actually has the ball go through his hands. The ball then continues to bounce off of his hands, right into the hands of Moore. This should have been Texas ball, but what a great effort by Tracy.

It's also fair to say that after the game, Mike Gundy sealed his title as the best dancing coach in the Big12.
(see video at http://www.pistolsfiringblog.com/mike-gundy-dances-after-osu-win-over-texas)


Alabama vs. MSU: The Hit

This one is pretty self explanatory. 



I don't know about you, but my head hurt from just watching that hit. If I were him, I would have to check my pants after that absolute decimation by #22 Jones.

Northwestern vs Michigan: The Shank/The Kick

Okay, first of all, I have been calling middle and high school games for quite a while now, and I have seen some BAD football. I mean the bad where most of the kids on the field don't know what side of the ball they should be on. And with these types of teams, the poorest phase of all three has to be the special teams. There is nothing "special" about it; I've seen some kids have negative net yard punts. That's where the kid punts the ball behind his head and the pigskin rolls away from the line of scrimmage. But seeing this stuff in college? Is it even possible to see that bad of special teams in college? Well, the Wildcats remind us that anything is possible.


This was a booming seven yard punt that put Michigan in a first down and goal on the Wildcat 10 yard line. 

Needless to say, Coach Fitzy wasn't pleased.

Especially after this spectacular effort by the Wolverines' special teams when they ran onto the field just in time to tie the game.



Another little tidbit about the game - apparently Jack Link's Beef Jerky company is trying to increase publicity by having a guy dressed up as Sasquatch go to games and sit in the stands. 

While this is a very bizarre publicity tactic, they get a solid 10 for creativity. 

OU vs Iowa State: The Hit pt. 2

In all of my years of watching college football, I have seen a couple of strange instances involving stupid college students running across the field to gain personal attention. My favorite of these instances would have to be when Arizona and UCLA were playing a couple of years ago, when a streaking instance ended in a field-wide brawl between the two teams.


While the actual streaking is a great spectacle, my favorite part is watching him/her getting thrown to the ground by police. This one certainly didn't disappoint.


Well, that will wrap this one up, folks. With all of these great (and not so great) plays all around the country, it was just yet another wonderful week of college football. 

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Oklahoma State vs Texas Offensive Analysis

This game had a decent amount of new looks for the Cowboys in their 38-13 win against the Texas Longhorns. Let's take a look:


The cowboys have really figured out the ground game.  The two back inside zone read has become their bread and butter. In fact, their second score was with that very play.

The touchdown was with the FB aligned in front of the RB, but they have multiple backfield formations for the two back set.

It also seems that with Yurcich, QB draw is here to stay. Here are the two plays ran by the Cowboys on their first scoring drive; if you take a close look, this is practically the same play, just out of the one or two back formation. Similar to Chelf's draw for a touchdown against TTU, there are routes being run by some of the receivers. Whether these are pre-snap reads or just dummy routes is unclear.




The Cowboys also dusted off an play from the earlier half of the season. The invert option was seen in the very early games by OSU, and although it didn't result in any big QB gains today, it was a nice wrinkle to add.

This is just a variation on a quarterback choice play, but instead of reading the backside defensive end, he reads the play-side end. Anyone with a good memory can recall how Baylor abused OSU with this exact play last year. 

When you can run the ball consistently, the play action game becomes a viable asset. This play was ran after setting it up by running the ball using the same formation and motion. Although it ended up on an interception, it was because Chelf didn't look off the high safety, not because the defense wasn't fooled. One thing I have noticed is that Yurcich loves to use that skinny post. Great concept here, just poor execution by Chelf on that play.

The Cowboys were also able to have success in the play-action passing game from the full house formation. From what it seems, OSU occasionally staggers the backs adjacent with the quarterback. 

Although you can't see it in the diagram, when you watch the replay, you can clearly see that one up-back is closer to the line of scrimmage than the other. This staggered set usually implies a triple option threat, which is an interesting possibility, considering that OSU (the first to use the pistol full house) has never used the triple option in this formation.
Take the Redskins, for example. See how one of the two backs next to RGIII is slightly behind him? 
The full house can be so dynamic in the run game if ran correctly. 


Another standout passing play by the Cowboys earned them a crucial 3rd down conversion in the late 2nd quarter. 
Jhajuan Seales, who is represented by the "S" receiver here (for Seales), ran an out and up on the left sideline. Luckily, Texas was bit on the double move, and Seales was left in a huge soft spot between the corners and the safety.

The final play that we will look at got Tracy Moore a bizarre touchdown catch in the right corner of the end zone. 



From what it seems like, this play was trying to get Moore one-on-one on a poco route. A poco, standing for post-corner, is a double move where the receiver cuts to the inside, faking in inside route, and then running toward the corner. The Longhorns were in zone, leaving two secondary defenders on Moore. Since Moore was the only man on a route, and Chelf received late pressure, he took a chance and threw into double coverage. He seriously lucked out on this, because that pass should have been Texas ball. Still, I'm not complaining.

There was certainly a lot of new stuff in this game today. Some things that weren't mentioned were the return of the jet sweep, the stick draw, and a new misdirection screen out of the split. Looking ahead to next week, I would not be surprised if OSU has some new tricks up their sleeves. It's no easy task to keep up with Baylor, and you will take all the help you can get. Heck, half of the Cowboy's offense last year was gadget plays. Either way, next week should be a big one.

Hope you enjoyed this analysis. Be sure to stay informed, support your Cowboys, and as always, keep lovin' football.


Wednesday, November 13, 2013

The Anatomy of Trick Plays pt1

As a football fan, I think I speak for all when I say that there is a soft spot in my heart for a good trick play. A trick play, depending on when it's called, can be a serious game-changer. The entire concept is to trick (hence the name) the opposing team into thinking you're doing one thing when you're really doing another. This is the first of multiple posts about trick plays, with each post focusing on one trick play and its variations. It's possible that this could be moved to another day and become a separate segment of its own, but we'll see.


pt. 1: the Flea Flicker


The flea flicker, along with being Joe Theismann's least favorite play, is popular all around college football. It can be described as this:

"1.an offensive play in which a pass is thrown to a receiver who then laterals the ball to a teammate.
2. An offensive play in which the ball is handed off or lateraled, often more than once, behind the line of scrimmage, and then thrown as a long pass down field."
Though technically by this definition:

"a trick play in football in which a forward pass is followed or preceded by a lateral or hand-off."
(Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, 2010)

a flea flicker can also be considered as a hook and ladder (as former Bulldogs explain here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbHbq9cZN2w), but we'll save that form for another day. 

Let's take a look at the most basic form of flea flicker:

This flea flicker ran by the Orange got them an early touchdown a couple of years ago in the Pinstripe Bowl
























this diagram above ^ shows that this specific play only has two receivers, and the success of the play relies on both fooling the defense and having both receivers win in one-on-one coverage.

Flea flickers can also work with a pitch:

a double pass:



but my favorite kind is known as the "reverse flea flicker"


This play is usually ran in the wildcat, and it's meant to show the defense reverse and also get the ball into the guy who can throw downfield.

Take a notice that on all of these plays, like I mentioned on the first one, that there are for the most part one or two main routes that the quarterback is looking for. The majority of the routes in these clips include a receiver or tight end shuffling his feet and faking a block before releasing on his route. It's also noteworthy on how the lineman block on a flea flicker. They can't get too far ahead of the line of scrimmage, or else they will receive an ineligible man downfield penalty. Still, they also can't show pass block the entire time, or else they might reveal the true intentions of the play. These are the nuances of a successful trick play, and it takes a lot of practice and attention to detail for the play to work.


This article isn't really an analysis, but I'm trying to show how different teams use the same concept and make it their own. Also, it's pretty entertaining to watch how they look when they're properly exocuted. Also, an important thing to remember is that trick plays only work if everything works like it should. There's plenty of footage out there of trick plays that didn't work, either because they weren't set up properly, they weren't run correctly, or they just didn't make much sense (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-tqLG__Al4). These clips are the result of properly executed plays called at the right time. Not every gadget play works. It takes work, timing, and attention to detail to have success in any concept, let alone a gadget play. I hope you enjoyed this short report, and we'll get down to actual analysis next week.

Make sure to watch plenty of games this weekend, and as always, keep lovin' football.

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Oklahoma State vs. Kansas: Offensive Analysis


With a new offensive coordinator at the helm, every week seems to be an unveiling of what this offense is as a whole. Is it a zone running team? Is it an air-raid team? Is it both? Well, from what it seems to me, the OSU offense does not have an offensive identity that is set in stone; instead, they alter their offensive plan each week to put themselves in the best chance to win. Now not only is this obvious by now, but you'd have to imagine that OSU would have a very conservative approach coming into this game. Still, this game was very important was because it showed that O.C. Mike Yurcich can change the game-plan during the game. Today, we'll take a look at OSU's simple-yet-effective run game and enhanced passing attack.

The first play from scrimmage for OSU, they came out in a new formation.

This is a Pistol Strong Twins Over formation. Since the left tight end (Y) is the first of two men on the line of scrimmage and there is no eligible receiver on the right side, he is ineligible. This limits you in the passing game, but helps in the running game. Immediately after this play (above), the Cowboys came up in a slightly different look.
Same formation, different backfield. This will be a recurring theme in the OSU offense, with OSU using the same formations but altered backfields. This outside zone read, which is now the Pokes' bread and butter, got Chelf a first down on the second play. This later set up for a play-action pass in the first half (below).
This same outside zone read was featured in all kinds of formations by the Cowboys. In a gun offset (above), in a gun split (left), and in the pistol slot (right).


OSU's first offensive score used this concept, here's the formation - 
here's the play-

Another addition to this offense features a screen with most running plays. 
As far as the passing game is concerned, OSU had great success with three main concepts/plays: the shallow cross/verts, the double inside route, and the fade.

First the shallow cross and verts.
The Shallow cross, below, is a zone-beating concept where the quarterback reads the middle linebacker and throws it to the man that he is not covering. For example, if he jumps on the shallow cross by the "S" receiver, the QB throws behind him on the dig by the "H" receiver. This also works the other way around. Chelf didn't really throw to either of them; each time this play was called, he threw to the "Z" receiver (Seales) on a 10-yard out or on a hot-route fade. 

This shallow concept also appears in the verts, or verticals concept.
Now here, the shallow cross is being run by the "Z" receiver, and the dig is converted to a crossing route by the right slot receiver. The two times that this play was run successfully, Chelf targeted the "H" receiver (Glidden, I believe). The first time, Glidden saw a hole in the coverage and stopped in the "soft spot" of the zone. The second time, with about 20 seconds left in the first half, he kept running behind the crossing route, and he caught the ball inside the 10 yard line. 


The second concept, the double inside, is something that you can watch them practice before every game in their route warmups. 
The double inside route combination features two receivers both running routes to the inside (the middle) of the field. In the play above, it's just with two quick slants.
Here, it's in a trips formation with the inside routes by the inside slot and the outside receiver. Still, when they ran this play, Chelf targeted the isolated receiver on the left side and drew a penalty on the Jayhawks. 


The third time this concept was used, it was a huge gain by Tracy Moore off of a play action pass. This time, the short inside route is by the outside receiver, and the deep inside route is by the inside receiver.

The fade was used twice by the Cowboys, with the first time from this interesting formation-
It looked like it was an inside zone called with Tracy Moore running a fade off the right side. If you also noticed, this is the same play (and the only running play) that they ran out of the Pistol Diamond today, bringing the amount of different plays out of the diamond to two when you include a play-action pass called in the third quarter.


The final play that I'm going to talk about resulted in a big touchdown for the orange and black. That play just happens to be one that we are all too familiar with - the stick.

The stick has been used extensively throughout the OSU air-raid era, usually combined with a draw play. Since Holgorsen is gone and Yurcich is here, he calls the play with his own personal twist, which coincidentally features my favorite passing concept. 

Instead of the stick being paired with the draw, he uses a "snag" concept on the backside. 
You're probably asking yourself, "how in God's green earth did he get that wide open?"
Why don't you pay attention to Charlie Moore on the left side and what he does to the defender on Roland.
This is the beauty of the rub route. It's not technically illegal, but you still have to be sneaky about it. If the gif didn't load, or you just have terrible vision, the gif clearly shows Moore as he purposefully stands in the way of Roland's defender. This prevented the defender from staying on Roland, giving Chelf a throw that Betty White could make. 

Well hopefully you've learned something from this blog, and your eyes aren't too damaged from the constant gifs. The entire point of these analyses are to educate the average joe on what he's watching, and have some fun in the process. Who said X and O's can't be fun too? 

Let's all hope the Cowboys can keep up this offensive success for the rest of the season, with games against the Horns, Bears, and the Sooners. I hope you liked this post, and as always, keep lovin' football.
-TF

Monday, November 4, 2013

Evolution of Offense Pt.1
a. Running Game


The game: Football. The objective: to get the ball into your opponent's end zone. How to do it? Well that my friends, that is where it becomes interesting. 

Here on cfboffense, we will take a look at what different teams do to put points on the board. In this first segment, we will take a look at a simple play used by every collegiate and professional football team today - the inside zone.


The concept of an inside zone is very simple in appearance, but intricate in proper execution.
If an offensive lineman does not have a man directly on him, his job is to block ahead and to at least seal the "shade" of the defender on the play-side. If unblocked, the lineman takes a lateral step to the play-side  and it is then his responsibility to "chip and climb"- a term for chipping the defensive lineman on the man adjacent to him and then "climbing up" to track the closest second level man (usually a linebacker) to stop him from making the tackle. All of this mess for just one simple play. 





Let's take a look at an inside zone the way it would look like in the 80's to the early 2000's. This is an ace slot left formation, with the term "ace" meaning it's a single back formation, the "slot" an indication for a slot receiver  and "left" meaning that the strong side, which in a balanced formation is always to the tight end side, is to the left.

As you can see, it's a simple inside zone to the strong side with a double team at the point of attack. Now that we've got all of the explainin' out of the way, let's take a look at it.




As you can see, there is only one option as to where this ball is going. Everyone is blocking the man ahead of him, except the quarterback of course. Very simple concept, but clearly limited.









Now transition to modern times, where teams are trying to go as fast as possible while still trying to keep a high chance of success. People ask when and why the spread offense was invented; it wasn't really "invented" per se, but after a while, people started to realize that not everyone is born with size and strength. Some players put on this earth aren't very big or strong, but have speed. Imagine where a coach in the 80's would place a De'anthony Thomas; he's too small to play receiver, and at running back he wouldn't fit in the popular ground and pound style at that time. When people found out how to use these "little pissants" as Mouse Davis used to call them, that's when early spread concepts started to enter football. As the old saying says, necessity is the mother of invention. In football, this couldn't be more true. One great example of this is one of the key spread mottos - "if you can't block them, make them cover you". So let's take a look at this concept.

First of all, with this new wave of spread offenses, teams are not only spreading out by design of formation, but spreading out in spacing. Take a look at how the spacing of the offense for Alabama compares to the spacing of the offense of Baylor.



As you can notice, spacing helps with this spread concept, forcing the defense to cover more grass.

Back to the play

This picture on the right is the same play by direction and run concept, but there are new additions on what the receivers are doing. As you can see, the slot receiver on the right side is now running a "bubble" screen, where the receiver shuffle steps in a semi-circle towards the sideline. The play-side receiver on the left side is running a quick hitch. It is the quarterback's job to decide where the ball should go. If the corner on the "X" receiver is playing with a 10+ yard cushion, the quarterback can take the snap, take a quick play-step, and throw to the receiver. If there is no man on the slot receiver, the quarterback can take a quick play-step and throw to the bubble. If both of these options are covered, considering that the safeties are showing a simple cover two (like in the picture), the quarterback has the numbers advantage to hand the ball off to the RB. 

Take a look at a version of an inside zone with a quick screen

As you can see here, the inside receiver on the left side is covered so the quarterback hands it off. If the quarterback had the numbers advantage on the outside, he would throw to the bubble. If you haven't noticed already, modern spread football is all about numbers. 








The entire point of adding these new pieces to a simple run call is to make the defense cover more space. By forcing the defense to cover grass horizontally, the offense automatically gives them the chance to have the advantage in numbers somewhere on the field. The key is to be able to identify that mismatch in numbers and take advantage. Spacing from sideline to sideline is an important component of the spread offense. Now spreading the defense vertically? That's a subject for another day.

Hopefully this wasn't a waste of your time and you now know a little bit more about the X and O's of this sport. Stay tuned for more analysis, and as always, keep lovin' football.

-Thomas Fleming
twitter username thomasflem97
email thomasflem97@yahoo.com