Wide Receivers Never Open

As was mentioned in another thread, our WR have seldom appeared to be open. This game and the K-State, Sam was often throwing 50/50 balls or throwing it away. That is a TV view. For those who have attended the games, are our guy getting open? The OU receivers sure were.

 

No, from what I saw, being at the game, most of the time when Sam was scrambling, there was no one open.

On the last two drives, there were flashes of people open if he had thrown in rhythm with confidence they would be there, but I think he was a little rattled by how fast the rush was coming on and was kind of just watching for his escape from the first wave of rushers before deciding what to do.

A few times Sam extended the play, and no receiver was still running into new space; just ran their routes right out of bounds or whatever.

 

Agreed. They see him scramble and most give up on the routes and turn to block Instead of trying to find a hole and sit or work back towards the ball. Shipley was great at that, mapps does it often and so has foreman.

 

Coaching?

 

That pass to Duverney was a real missed opportunity. If Sam keeps that in play, that's an easy 6 and the entire game is different. When he does get them open deep, he needs to hit them.

 

Don't know which is more depressing, hearing that no one was getting open against OU sux, or seeing that there were open receivers during the home games and qbs not seeing and getting ball out on time.

 

It seems to me that too many confuse the word receiver with players who run fast, jump high and catch footballs, most of the time.
https://www.si.com/nfl/2008/04/22/best-gameever0428
I posted this once before and I don’t think anybody read it. I wish Herman would make his “receivers” read it. Not many on this board will remember this guy, but some of you will, and Hpslugga and some others will appreciated the X factor of a great receiver with limited physical attributes.

I am impressed with this current group but wonder about their reasons for not getting open more often. It takes a lot of work to make it happen.

 

Sometimes there are open receivers, but Sam cannot see them because of all the OU jerseys coming at him and he is looking for an escape route. Whether WRs are open or not is of little consequence when the DL comes thru like it's a jailbreak.

 

Our WRs were open at times, but either Sam didn't see them for various reasons or he held the ball too long to allow OU DBs to recover.

Our WRs have not in several years either found an opening in the zone or come back to the QB when he is running for his life.

Give credit to Ruffin for his game plan. I have seen Texas/OU 54 years, and have NEVER seen OU use some of the coverages they ran yesterday. More importantly, Ruffin disguised the coverage unlike Orlando, who might as well telegraph the coverage on the jumbotron, except for the zone blitz, which Mayfield never recognized, the few times we ran it.

 

Mike Stoops is DC, since when is he not calling the defense?

 

Since Linc hired Ruffin.

Bob Stoops agreement with Boren was that he would retire only if Riley was named HC.

Stoops deal with Linc was that he could have the job only if he kept the entire staff through the year. When Riley was no longer assistant, that left an opening for another assistant, which was filled by his former boss Ruffin McNeill. Titles mean little, it's who is calling the shots and that ain't Mike Stoops.

 

Phil,
Do you really think Mike Stoops would have ever come up with looping the safeties? McNeill got that from Mike Leach to use in practice to help Tech QBs recognize it. I have NEVER seen an OU defense use that in 50+ years.

 

I read the article and laughed at the irony. Last year I wrote on these threads that out receivers should make better use of "head fakes" and other points and I was thoroughly made fun of for several weeks by our smart posters. Now this article comes along talking about how Raymond Berry pays attention to detail including head fakes. I feel vindicated!! Thank you for sharing your post.

 

If I was one of those posters, please know that I am truly, sincerely, and profoundly sorry for my actions.

 

Don’t take it personal bud the folks on here are a lot more tame and likable compared to the flock of idiots on OB

 

Ruffin McNeil is quite an upgrade from Mike Stoops. That is not good for us.

 

Might help them get open some if we used the middle 60% of the field a bit more. Or if we had a little more of Duvernay and Foreman. Yeah I get that our OL sucks and we often don't have much time to get open, but Sam bought us eons on several occasions. And it's not like Baylor and Iowa State have world beaters at OL either.

 

Stat,

I have come to believe that the middle is off limits because our OL can't be counted on to consistently open throwing lanes.

 

I specifically remember one play that Sam escaped and was running toward their sideline and no WR’s were trying to move to an open spot. It’s like they ran their routes and then stopped running. Sam had to chunk it out of bounds. Just come back to the QB or turn up field. Just don’t stop and watch because you ran the route. I didn’t notice if that was common or not but I did remember being pissed off because they stopped running a route one time.

 

Can someone explain this looping?

 

That's "thee Texas way", a holdover from Mack Brown, and something that has been instilled in every WR not named Shipley.

 

It's hard to notice that when you're watching the game on TV because the focus is on the QB and the commentators don't point it out but if our receivers are giving up while Sam is running looking to throw then that is a travesty. You got to help the QB. That's a golden rule. Are the coaches seeing that? You would think so.

I like those short timing routes. Dink and dunk then occasional out and ups like the route Duvernay ran. Our dump off to RB's has been successful. But I love those crossing routes when an area has been cleared out. But mainly the running game has to get going. Now I am rambling so I will stop.

 

Yeah I was at the game and saw that one time.

 

Could be, but we had a lot of success running quick slants and drags vs KSU. Also I think when Sam is dodging around looking for an open guy, instinct for receivers is to follow the direction of the qb - which is usually to the sideline. Rarely do they reverse course to the middle.

 

I was at the game and I agree that the receivers seemed to just run the route and stop, not sure what to do next. Most of the time it seemed they would try to come back to Sam, but one thing I noticed is that none of the receivers ever took off up the field. The secondary was playing in front for much of the game, and I just saw a LOT of open field had a couple receivers took off up field after their route didn't produce anything.

 

From my limited TV viewing ou DB's covered well and generally no WR's were open on the short / med. routes. Plus ou D speed & OT's whiffing / poor blocks caused Sam to often have to run for his life and he didn't have time to find anyone, much less a WR that ran up field. As someone else said there was no "Shipley" on Sat. that kept running / found a way to get open that would have helped Sam.

 

And the thing about it is if running up field would take that DB out of the play if Sam is having to run. Just run sprints with the DB and then get another WR in the next play to run more sprints. We are so deep at WR that we can rotate them on the starting OU DB's. I still think over the top would have been OU. Even Iowa St hit some long ones. I can only think of one by Duvernay the whole game. The DB's are aggressive and that one play by Duvernay was just a stop and go. The OU DB was toast. If you get a chance I just seen that play on LH Network. It was a thing of beauty.

 

I was watching the KC/Pittsburgh game yesterday. Romo made a comment about KC's OL not playing well and when that happens you have to run pass plays that don't take long to develop. Same thing applies to Texas. The OL is not good but the plays seem to take forever to develop. We make that half-hearted fake to the RB like its a run-pass-option, then Sam drops back. By that time, the OL has broken down and QB has to run for his life. McCoy/Shipley made a living off of short passes. Several short, quick routes would limit the damage from the DL and force the DB's up, then you throw the long one. This suggestion might be sacrilegious - but you could even use a TE across the middle (google TE if you don't know what that means, i.e. Thomas, Scaiffe, Fitzgerald, Irby, etc). I was encouraged by our first offensive play that gained 15 yards (kind of a middle screen). Then we reverted back to the usual offense of the QB scrambling hoping to make something happen.

I'm beginning to think Tom's binder isn't all it's cracked up to be. I'm also thinking Ohio St. doesn't miss Beck.

 

There were several times when Ruffin was playing safety games, that Sam had the post wide open, but never threw it, mostly because Johnson didn't break off his route and run it. Does Herman not allow audibles or read & react by the offense?

 

We actually threw the ball pretty well considering
1) We have absolutely no run game to run play action out of
2) The QB us running for his life in 2 seconds or less

Baker lit us up like a torch in the 1st quarter because he's a great QB but he also had all day to throw. He also had a running game.