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Know Thy Enemy: Analyzing the Sooners' High Scoring Offense

Last week I looked at Oklahoma's key offensive personnel, today let's look at how Lincoln Riley uses all that talent to light up the scoreboard. Riley's offense is a ton of fun to watch. Because of guys like Joe Mixon, Mark Andrews and Dimitri Flowers the Sooners can line up in all sorts of different formations without substituting allowing them to move fast when they want to and isolate their top playmakers in winnable 1v1 matchups. This is a very balanced attack that will try to establish the run early in order to hit the HR ball later off of play action. Riley can go 5 wide and throw it around like any good Leach apprentice but Oklahoma is operating at it's best when they can keep a defense guessing with a consistent rushing attack matched with their outstanding vertical game.

Counter Trey

Oklahoma's run game is comprised mainly of 4 plays: inside zone, outside zone, split zone and counter trey. Sure there's the occasional power, veer or draw but 90% (a number I made up) of the time they are running one of those 4 plays. All of them can have a read option element added or even an RPO look as well. I wanted to focus though on their home run hitter: the counter trey.

When this offense breaks off a long run it's usually off the counter trey. It makes sense considering it works very well off all the outside zone looks they give defenses and the fact they are constantly threatening a team deep. Defenses start flowing too far out of position, a lane is created and one of the Sooners' talented backs is off to the races. So what is the counter trey? It's a play made popular by Joe Gibbs back when he was winning Super Bowls for the Washington Redskins. It features 2 backside pullers with the leading blocker kicking out to seal the edge and the 2nd man leading through the hole. The playside blockers all block down giving the playside defenders the look this is going to be a zone play to the other side before the 2 pullers come around and wipe out the defensive front. Let's take a look at it in action for the Sooners along with my terrible graphic skills...

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Oklahoma's first TD of the season came off this play. The Sooners come out in 10 personnel meaning they have 1 RB and 4 WRs. They are in a 2x2 look against Houston's base 3-4 defense. Houston has only 6 men in the box and 2 of them (the backside linebackers) based off alignment are not going to be a factor on this play and are left unblocked. That leaves Oklahoma with 5 men to block 4 (they are numbered in the terrible graphic above). The LT and LG double team the NT (#3) while the C takes the backside DE (#4). The pulling RG kicks out on the playside DE (#1) who goes too far up field and runs himself out of the play. The playside ILB (#2) also scrapes too far outside making it easy for the pulling RT to just get a piece of him and open a lane for Joe Mixon. The talented RB does the rest of the work from there.

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Houston also helps Oklahoma in this play as someone busts in the slot. The playside safety comes screaming down to cover the slot WR. I am guessing the OLB that is over top the slot WR was supposed to blitz but instead he stays on the CB so now the middle of the field is WIDE open. The gif below gives a better view of how that bust helps turn this play from a long gainer to a TD.

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They will run this play from a variety of looks. One of their favorite looks is in 20 personnel where their FB lines up as an H-Back. They will bring WR Dede Westbrook in motion which paired with right side of the OL blocking down gives the look of a speed sweep to the playside defenders. That freezes the MLB long enough for the pulling LT to get in position to seal him in the hole. The SAM backer over adjusts to the motion allowing the pulling LG to drive him out of the play and Perine follows his blockers through the hole for a big gain. I could be mistaken but I wouldn't be surprised if Mayfield is reading that backside defender and if the CB had stayed put or the SAM backer hadn't moved so much with the motion he could have given it to Westbrook and he would have had Flowers leading the way on the outside. You will see many times there are a plethora of options off any one look in this offense

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Split Back Shotgun

When Riley took over as OC in 2015 it was very clear he had 2 talented RBs that needed to get the ball. So in order to get his best players on the field as much as possible you will often see Oklahoma line up both Mixon and Perine in the backfield. Usually in this double back look they will run one of their favorite run plays in one direction while the other RB will come across the formation and be available for either a drop off pass to the flat or even run some triple option off it. Let's take a look at a clever triple option play they ran off the above counter trey against TCU using their double back personnel. Once again a terrible graphic will somewhat illustrate what's happening...

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In this play Mayfield is reading the strong side DE that is standing up. If he crashes inside (which he does) Mayfield will pull it and pitch it to Perine. If he had held his position then Mayfield would have given it to Mixon on the counter trey that is being run towards the boundary. I want you to play close attention to TCU's linebackers. They are so frozen by all the moving bodies up front that they take themselves out of the play. By the time the strongside backer recognizes there's a pitch man it's way too late to stop Perine from picking up a solid gain on 2nd and long.

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Probably their favorite thing to do out of this look is to run outside zone one way and then slip the backside RB out in the flat the other way. Mayfield will read the backside defender to determine whether or not to give it or pull it and dump it short. In the gif below against Baylor you can see this in action. Oklahoma runs outside zone to the boundary and Mayfield is reading #42. When he steps inside that makes it easy for Andrews (#81) to seal him off so Mayfield pulls it and dumps it off to Mixon for a big gain. Expect to see this play a few times next Monday as I saw it at least once in every game I reviewed

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Trips to the Boundary

Quite a few times I saw Oklahoma do something interesting in their 3x1 formations. They would line up their trips to the boundary instead of the field. Now that seems counterintuitive as you would want to put all those bodies out where there is more space for them to work but crowding them to the short side of the field has some benefits as well. If the opponent over corrects by walking down their SS and the FS shades a bit too far inside, then the offense could have numbers to break a long run by running to the outside on the field side. Also it could isolate your split WR in a 1v1 matchup for a home run. However, if the defense doesn't adjust enough you could have more blockers than defenders to the boundary side and can run a quick screen for a big play or it could setup 1v1 opportunities for your trip WRs like it did against Baylor. Oklahoma couldn't convert but the play below shows how this look can be effective.

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Oklahoma actually motions out of their split back look into this by sending Mixon to the outside on the boundary side of the field. Baylor doesn't really adjust leaving 3 Bears man to man on 3 Sooner WRs. Andrews is in the slot and will occupy the safety with an in route. Mixon will run a half hearted curl route on the outside to keep the far CB occupied. That leaves the middle DB all by his lonesome on Dede Westbrook which is something Oklahoma loves to see. Mayfield play fakes to Perine then takes the shot to Westbrook who can't haul in what should have been a TD pass. It's not a successful play but it shows how Oklahoma can isolate their playmakers in favorable situations with a variety of different looks and personnel.

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The Deep Ball

Probably what this offense does better than anything is beat you vertically. Westbrook is 13th in yards per reception this season and it seems like when he scores TDs they are always for 20+ yards. This offense is operating at it's best when they have established a run game which allows their play action looks to open up deep ball opportunities for Westbrook.

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Oklahoma comes out in what should now be a very familiar split back look. Kansas State is in Cover 3 which means they have 3 guys splitting a 3rd of the field. This play should look like what we saw earlier against Baylor. They fake the outside zone to the field side and slip 3rd string back Abdul Adams out in the flat. The Wildcats are all over it as the FS picks him up out of the backfield. The problem is the SS gets caught flat footed following the outside zone motion and doesn't get back in time to help his poor boundary CB who is left in the dust by Westbrook. Mayfield hits the Biletnikoff winner in stride and it's 6 points for the crimson and cream.

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Outside zone is one of their favorite play fakes because it gets defenders moving in the opposite direction of where Mayfield wants to go. Here against Texas Tech (if you haven't watched this game, it's a must because I have never seen such collectively awful defense paired with outstanding offense between 2 teams) Oklahoma comes out in their 20 personnel with trips to the boundary. The Raiders walk up their SS who follows the run action the other way. The FS is frozen by the play action and the field side CB is left all alone against Westbrook who once again blows by him for the easy TD.

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Final Thoughts

Lincoln Riley's offense is always looking to exploit 1v1 matchups for their star players. So much of their offense looks the same play to play that they are able to keep safeties and linebackers off guard opening up running lanes and deep strikes. The only team that really slowed this attack was Ohio State and they did that by dominating up front and winning their 1v1 matchups on the outside. If Auburn can rely on their front 7 to slow this rushing attack that should allow our safeties to help whichever CB is matched up on Westbrook. However, if we have to bring safeties to stop this rush attack that's when things will get dicey and this Sooner offense will hit us deep.

This is by far the best offense we have faced this season. They have playmakers at every position and a QB that understands what they are trying to accomplish in the scheme. The key for Auburn will be to disrupt this attack at the line of scrimmage where we should have an advantage and force them into obvious passing situations. Even with that I expect this offense will score some points. If AU can keep this game under 30 by forcing FGs and not allowing those big strikes I like our chances. If this turns into a shootout, I am not sure we have the horses to keep up. It should be a fun matchup seeing one of the best defenses in the country against the best offense.

War Eagle!

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