Coach V’s Grades - Oklahoma State

We played well enough to win despite some minor miscues along the way. Sam bounced back with a solid performance and even better leadership. The Oline broke down in a few situations but overall played winning football. The receiving group wasn’t their usual dependable playmakers but managed to support the offense with a few key catches. The RB’s made the most out of their opportunities plus they blocked extremely well.

We scored 35 points and would have had more if not for costly penalties. On the rewatch it was obvious the effort was strong. Guys were throwing their bodies with reckless abandon. Stillwater is just a tough place to play. I think if we knew we could score 35 with zero turnovers we would have bet the ranch on a victory. We are not world-beaters but we dang sure ain’t shabby either.

Here are the grades:

11—Sam—A-

26—Ingram—A-

32—Young—B+

5—Watson—B

6—DuVernay—B+

9—Johnson—B+

13—Heard—B

84—Humphrey—B

47—Beck—B

52—Cosmi—B+

56—Shack—B

66—Anderson—B

72—Rodriguez—B

77—Vahe—B

A few notables:

Rodriguez (72) had a great pancake block on a blitzing backer about four plays into it.

Young (32) had a couple of terrific climb blocks.

DuVernay (6) had a good catch, shaky move, and run for a guy that only has straight line speed.

Cosmi (52) continues to impress with smooth technique and great feet.

Shack (56) has big problems on blocks in space (pulls, screens).

Jamison (17) needs a refresher course on return protocol.

Vahe (77) drew a holding call when he was denied the opportunity to pick up a blitzing backer.

Anderson (66) had a tough day at the office on pass protection.

Ingram (26) and Beck (47) had terrific over the shoulder catches in traffic.

Maybe it’s just me but I have a hard time finding the separation needed with our guys at times but our opponents somehow find a way to evade our coverages too damn often. It must be noted that we make more catches in traffic so I guess it all evens out in the long run. It sure would be nice to see us get a few more gimme’s though.

Buckle up—another challenge next week.

We didn’t play well. Our tackling lacked conviction—not to mention contact. Getting off blocks was Mission: Impossible. Getting lost was a sure bet. I sometimes think we depend on too much help (thinking) from the sideline and not near enough on our ability to figure crap out for ourselves. Our ability to understand down/distance and declaration (strong—weak) seems Lost In Space too often. Watching players racing from one side to the other (late) and/or huge cushions on short/medium downs continues to dazzle me.

We allowed the zone keep to basically win the game for them. It goes much deeper than that. We slant a ton with our T-N-T. We make a ton of plays with those three guys wrecking furniture. It’s the second aspect that kills us. If you slant a 4i inside (3-2) you must maintain leverage outside with the backside LB. He can’t follow the zone fake inside (he’s not needed there) and yet both of our LB’s (we only play two) were guilty of false-stepping inside every time on the ZR. They blocked themselves. No adjustment—no coaching point.

Sometimes we have the added pleasure of having our nickel/SS outside in the alley for the zone keep. Sometimes they play contain (correct assignment) but sometimes they suck inside (wrong decision). It’s the getting off of the block that appears to be our biggest problem in the alley and not having an inside-out scraping LB opens the gate.

I was disappointed that we abandoned the age-old technique of going thru the receiver for the interception. Watching our DB’s play the ball behind the WR (tip, overthrow,???) didn’t cut the mustard. We had several mis-timed blitzes from deep in the secondary that seldom got to the LOS before the ball was thrown. We still have problems identifying receiver assignments—the td pass to the TE on the GL was uncontested. The 8th game of the year. This is just Waylon Jennings Wrong.

Here are the grades:

90—Omenihu—B

44—Hager—B

49—Graham—B-

42—Bimage—C+

97—Nelson—B

94—Wilbon—B-

33—Johnson—C+

45—Wheeler—C-

2—Boyd—C

4—Cook—B-

7—Sterns—C

11—Locke—C

18—Davis—C

19—Jones—C

25—Foster—B+

29—Thompson—B

38—Boyce—B-

We gave up over 525 yards. 38 points and could have been more (two missed FG’s). We missed so many tackles—the effort was there but production wasn’t. We played 52 snaps in the first half (33, 45, 7, and 19 played every single one of them). Foster (25) was our best defensive player.

I sincerely hope the coaches grade this game with accountability. We have glaring errors that need attention to detail. It’s not effort (although it’s obvious some are playing too many snaps)—it’s all execution and a lack of assignment knowledge. Maybe a simpler game plan would benefit and reduce the mistakes. We definitely need to clean up—that was awful.

Home game this week—we need to put on a show.