The Film Room: West Virginia Mountaineers - Oklahoma Sooners

When teams complete passes against your favorite squad, the immediate cry for more blitzing is heard from a percentage of the fan base. The logic there often boils down to "if they are going to complete passes anyway, you might as well try to get a sack with more rushers".

That's not always incorrect, but it is totally wrong to assume that more rushers are going to result in sacks. It also ignores the fact that more rushers equal fewer defenders downfield, opening up more space for catches and runs after receptions. We take a look at this in our first two clips.

On this play, WVU blitzes with six total rushers, and the pressure seems to contribute an off-target throw from OU's quarterback. According to defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley, WVU brought more extra rushers in this game than in any other this season, and this early snap brought a little encouragement for the Mountaineers. Unfortunately, those positive results don't last long.

Just a couple of players later, the Mountaineers add rushers again, but after avoiding the initial pressure, the quarterback has an easy throw to a wide open tight end, who has been loitering as an outlet on the sideline. He heads upfield when the QB releases toward him, and WVU loses track of him, allowing a big gain.

Unfortunately, this latter scenario played out against the talented Sooners time and again, who had receivers with no defender closer than downtown Oklahoma City to them in various extra-rusher scenarios. This doesn't mean you can't blitz at all, but such tactics aren't panaceas.

After WVU's impressive first drive, the Mountaineer offense sputtered due to a variety of reasons. Here, for example, Garrett Greene throws the ball to no one after both receivers on the left side of the formation break off their routes, but there are other errors that contribute to the incompletion. The pass protection is shaky, with two linemen making no contact with any of the four rushers and another getting beaten early. That keeps Kole Taylor and CJ Donaldson from getting into their routes and becoming viable options on the third down and 12 situation. While throwing short of the sticks can be frustrating in these situations, there was some room for that duo to operate had they had a beat longer to attack open space.

It's third and five in the green zone, and West Virginia reverts to one of its staple plays in the QB draw. OU is totally ready for it, and doesn't aggressively pass rush. Three defenders hover within a couple of yards of the line of scrimmage, covering gaps that Garrett Greene hopes to find, and he's buried for a loss. WVU doesn't react well to a simple stunt from two of the three down linemen, and they create havoc in the inside running lanes, forcing Greene outside, where he's quickly dumped. Head coach Neal Brown noted that WVU's line struggled early with its technique after its opening TD drive, allowing linemen to cross their faces and muck up the interior running game, and this is one of several examples.

And now, a quick break for more on the passing game. Oklahoma's receivers not only got open, but they made some good catches on off-target throws, grabbing balls outside their frames. They had one drop through the first three quarters.

WVU, on the other hand, did little to produce those sort of additive plays. Over the same period, the Mountaineers had four outright drops, saw two receivers fall down while running their routes, and failed to come up with four of the sorts of tough catches that OU made. There were also a total of 10 passes that were either off-target throws or misreads by either the receiver or the quarterback. Put all those items together, and the Mountaineer passing attack had no chance of competing.

West Virginia's offensive line does a lot of things pretty well, but its short-yardage power blocking isn't great. Here, the Mountaineer front, in its whale package with six offensive linemen, is beaten and stuffed across the board on a third and one run by CJ Donaldson. Almost every front line OU defender either holds his ground or gets penetration, and there's nowhere for Donaldson to go. Watch the end zone replay, and you can see three Sooner linemen get into gaps, with WVU linemen not getting good contact or whiffing entirely.

We also see this action playing out on several Garrett Greene keepers and the tush push in the red zone and in other short yardage situations.  Putting Greene on the perimeter with the ball would be one corrective option, but with WVU's accuracy and catching woes, that's not a sure solution either, as the threat of a pass might be lessened in the eyes of the defense.

There's no question, though, that defenses are loading up against WVU's interior runs. WVU was 0-7 on power run conversions against OU (rushing attempts with two or fewer yards to go), and saw a hideous 27% of their rushing plays stopped for no gain or a loss.

So, on the very next play, a fourth and two, West Virginia decides to throw the ball, which isn't a terrible decision, but its passing routes appear to be a mess. There's a shallow cross, which is fine, but just a couple of yards behind it Devin Carter is running an in route. That puts three receivers in a small area, presenting a muddled picture for Greene who has to get rid of the ball quickly as a fifth OU rusher again comes unblocked. Getting Greene a clear route of vision to see downfield is a tougher chore than for most QBs, given his height, so it's questionable as to whether or not he could pick up Carter, who was open but was obscured by bodies in front of him. 

OU switches defenders on the cross, and nearly picks off the pass, but this seemed doomed from the start, as the timing of the cross and the proximity of three Mountaineers receivers just feels off.

The short yardage struggles were clearly in WVU's mind on a fourth and goal play later in the quarter. WVU put some window dressing on that play with motion, followed by a shovel pass to Donaldson. That might be a pretty good call in the open field, but this close to the goal line the defense is going to crash ahead, and was moving vertically while Donaldson had to check his momentum to catch the toss. That made it far tougher for him to unleash his power, and OU stuffed a play that both Brown and offensive line coach Matt Moore admitted was a bad call.

WVU's defense had execution issues on many snaps in the game, and here's one that defines some of those problems. The Mountaineers are in good shape to stop this keeper by OU's QB, but two defenders both chase the run fake to the running back to the opposite side of the field. It's not clear which defender had a backside contain assignment, but both allowed the QB to sprint around them and pick up one of OU's six running plays of ten yards or more.

Remember the first item? Here's a refresher. West Virginia pass rushes with six, and has a rusher come free toward the QB. The passer gets the ball away, though, and has no problem doing so because his receiver is uncovered behind the safety blitz. The secondary clearly didn't execute correctly behind the blitz, both receivers on that side of the field are open, and the result was another huge gain as the ball went to the deeper open target.