KSU X&O's thread

[d4nim4l]

This is excellent. Keep it up. I'll be rewatching the game tonight with this thread pulled up.

[CycloneCJ]

I just want to go on record and say that I want more threads like this on Fanatic. This is great analysis and insight, and it really puts things in perspective for the average fan. Nothing is as simple as it appears.

Keep it coming, wartknight!

+1

[driegner]

Once the ball is in the air, technically there is not supposed to be any contact.

2x2 is number of WR's on each side. 3x1 equals 3 WR's 1 way, 1 the other.
The "box" moves a little depending on who you talk to. I consider it any DL or LB's that are lined up on "attached" linemen (that includes a TE or even a wing if they are lined up in the traditional TE spot)

Thanks for the clarifications! Your analysis makes more sense now that I know what you were saying.

[JAFO]

+1

+ another 1

Great thread promoting understanding of strategy and playcalling against defense. Along with explaining alignments on offense and showing execution is critical. Great playcalling with poor execution gains an offense very little.

[BigLame]

At first glance - looks like a lot to read
But, taking a chance, was happy to have read it.
Did not think Lenz initiated the contact. To me, it looked like the DB jumped the slant route (scouted the route, beings Lenz ran it the week before for a TD vs the H'frogs).
Will look forward to the remainder of your analysis. Watching it unfold, I had the belief Barnett should have kept the ball more on the zone-read we did run. Will be interesting to get your take on the rest of the game.

[Cyclophile1]

They don't just call a game conservatively. KSU sat in a 2 high shell the entire game. Unlike TTU which was daring us to throw on them vs man coverage, KSU sat back in coverage and was going to allow the short stuff, and risky throws to the corner, betting on the fact that we would get stuck on 3rd and long because of their physical front 7. They were right. We didn't excecute the easy stuff which would have made the hard stuff more open as the game went on.

They were playing press on the corners when we had second and third and medium and short, but yes they had two sitting back protecting the middle and deep zones. Not a lot of blitzing, just mostly straight up D, challenging us to pass. Playing the LBs cheating up and out to help cover the outside reads really stifled us. We had a little more success with the 2-back gun/ful inverted veer when we could get the extra man lead blocking. JB probably had a couple of keeps that could have made bigger yards if he would have given, but they were just really sound and the scrape plays were facilitated by the outside edge play of their talented LBs.

The LB positioning made them vulnerable to that read pass to the TE floating into the middle zones and we capitalized on it fairly well, perhaps not enough. They were allowing a safety to cheat up pre-snap a number of times to provide extra run support and take that play away, and I thought it disrupted it. That's when we needed ther longer crossing stuff or multi-level out routes. That's not JB's game though, so it's not a strong suit. It was there a few times as was Shontrelle on the wheel plays where he had the LBs beat. We made a TD of that and the infamous last series missed opportunity.

I thought things were setup well for a little more play action passing out of the pistol and the Inv. veer given how things were developing, but we seemed determined to make the run game work, and KSU had a nice plan for it.

[wartknight]

I thought things were setup well for a little more play action passing out of the pistol and the Inv. veer given how things were developing, but we seemed determined to make the run game work, and KSU had a nice plan for it.

I'm with you for the most part. I don't think we took advantage of the overly aggressive play of their LBs. We do need a Play action out of inverted veer. Some sort of Y stick or a scissors route by outside 2 would be a good look with the RB continuing to the sideline as an outlet. Floods the zone and they can't cover it all. I disagree on KSU having a nice plan for stopping run. They had a plan to stop traditional zone read, but not the wrinkles. The wrinkles were a lot of times halted by lack of execution. Given the amount of defenders they were committing to the run, they were daring us to do it. We couldn't make them pay with that, or short bubble/now screens and so they never had to tighten up and it didn't give us anything over the top.

[wartknight]

After KSU’s first TD, Lenz returned the KO past midfield, but the hold on Richardson was so freaking far away from the play that it wasn’ even close to necessary, but he definitely did it. Lost 30 yards in field position because of it. I don’t understand the interpretation of the Delay of game/sideline infraction on KSU during the kickoff. Not something I had seen before.
Back to the run/pass read on 1^st down, but out of the 3x1 instead of the 2x2 that I liked. Right read by Barnett, but KSU was rolling into man coverage on the snap and the safety was able to tackle Brun right away for a 3 yard gain.
2^nd down, Bundrage open for a 4 yard gain and pass was a little behind him, but appeared he could have caught it. KSU bailing so underneath routes are wide open. He was covered, but the right read was made that it should have been a completion. Had he been covered better and JB could have checked down, SJ was wide open in middle of field for a first down.
3^rd down and 7, KSU brought strong side blitz. SJ got across and picked it up just enough to allow JB time to get out of pocket. 5 KSU defenders straight across screen at the sticks. Secondary contain from Brown got right in JBs face as he threw it. Would have had to have been a helluva throw and catch to complete. Not sure if a WR is responsible for a hot route there or not. If he is, he didn’t pick it up.
After the KSU fumble, their closest DB is sitting 8 yards away from our WR’s. They were absolutely expecting a homerun ball. If there was a time to run our bubble or now screen, this was it, instead they are sitting with 5 DB’s deep and 2 LBs dropping on the snap. No play action or anything. I try not to editorialize too much with in this thread, but I’m assuming it was called with the thought KSU would be in man in the red zone. When they weren’t, a timeout should have been called, or there needed to be some sort of check available to JB (whether there was or not I don’t know) No chance of a completion. Bad playcall+Bad decision=Bad result. INT for KSU
We got the ball back in good field position. First down and we are back in 2x2 and the zone read. Appears to be reading BSLB who is out of the box. Numbers are there in box for a good run. Unfortunately Farniok decides that it is more important to drive the NG to the sideline on the double team than it is to block the best player on the field for KSU as he runs right through his gap and forces a cutback in the backfield which you never want. No gain on play.
2^nd and 10 and we are back to QB power. Once again, numbers are there for a nice run. Problem is our right tackle completely whiffs on the MLB, who forces the play outside to the guy that Tuftee kicked out which made it look like it was Tuftee’s fault. WR got a nice block on OLB so SJ was able to get up to safety. 1 block away…seems to be a common theme.
3^rd and 8. 2x2 set. KSU rushes 4 but the ends get up field very fast. Good job by interior linemen of keeping throwing lanes open. However when JB steps up in pocket, he realizes there is nothing but green grass in front of him and makes a nice move on Brown about 2 yards before sticks to get the first down.
And the next play is the TD to Brun but I'm going to turn the TV over to my wife for a little while tonight. I'll try to get to more later.
Other than a momentum shift, the INT that JB threw really didn't come back to haunt us as the D made a great stand and we ended up punching it in shortly thereafter.

[wartknight]

The LB positioning made them vulnerable to that read pass to the TE floating into the middle zones and we capitalized on it fairly well, perhaps not enough. They were allowing a safety to cheat up pre-snap a number of times to provide extra run support and take that play away, and I thought it disrupted it. That's when we needed ther longer crossing stuff or multi-level out routes. That's not JB's game though, so it's not a strong suit. It was there a few times as was Shontrelle on the wheel plays where he had the LBs beat. We made a TD of that and the infamous last series missed opportunity.

.

Would have like to see a play/action post or post/corner from #1 the way they cheated down to take away the run/pass option. Suck that safety down and hit them over the top.

[Cyclophile1]

I'm with you for the most part. I don't think we took advantage of the overly aggressive play of their LBs. We do need a Play action out of inverted veer. Some sort of Y stick or a scissors route by outside 2 would be a good look with the RB continuing to the sideline as an outlet. Floods the zone and they can't cover it all. I disagree on KSU having a nice plan for stopping run. They had a plan to stop traditional zone read, but not the wrinkles. The wrinkles were a lot of times halted by lack of execution. Given the amount of defenders they were committing to the run, they were daring us to do it. We couldn't make them pay with that, or short bubble/now screens and so they never had to tighten up and it didn't give us anything over the top.

Yes, that's what I meant. They had clearly prepared for our zone read and we didn't near enough out of pistol or stacked veer to help that. We seemed determined to run traditional veer option inside and outside despite some of the wrinkles proving effective.

They were primed for scissors reads on the outside to setup Y-corner and Y-cross stuff, mostly setup by playaction either strong side or with backs crossing. We had great success hitting Shrontrelle on that when the WILL floats deep and got the TD off that. Not sure whey we didn't run more with that and then setup those deeper pass options with it. We went pretty traditional there and KSU was ready for it.

[Cyclophile1]

Would have like to see a play/action post or post/corner from #1 the way they cheated down to take away the run/pass option. Suck that safety down and hit them over the top.

Yes, the post/corner was there on a number of occasions, particularly when the safety was getting ballsy and cheating forward as we weren't able to show we had any kind of deep threat middle or out.