guys, I'm from Enid, I've lived in Tulsa, and Stillwater. I know both of these teams like the back of my hand.
If you notice, even teams like USC, LSU, etc, had some trouble tackling, etc. in the first game.
I watched the osu/ucla tape over and over again. They had a couple of big plays for these reasons, other than poor tackling...bear with me here:
On the 1st quarter first down pass to Lewis, OSU blitzed a LB, but Thompson tried to tackle Lewis up high. He broke the tackle and struggled forward for the first down.
On the underneath play to Bragg that broke for big yardage, OSU blitzed a linebacker (Duren). OSU got pressure on the quarterback. OSU was in zone coverage. Pinson flowed too far to the outside, leaving Bragg open. Olsen hit him. Thompson missed a tackle, springing him for a first down and much more. OSU could have stopped the drive with a sure tackle.
On the big 60 yard run by White, Grant blitzed. The Bruins ran away from his side. Thompson had just left the game with cramps and was replaced by Nethon. Nethon pursued too far and got out of position. When White cut back, he was not in position to make the tackle.
On all three of those big plays, OSU blitzed and should have been in the perfect position to stop the play; however, they overpursued just a little. The real problem was that they were slightly too aggressive. Those things are correctable errors.
OSU had the problem of guys being out of position and overpursuit throughout the game. I'm chalking that up to first game issues.
UCLA has a pretty decent OLINE this year and they did a great job of picking up OSU's blitzes. They also have a dang good TB and a couple of dang good wr's. You'll see those guys on Sundays.
Second half adjustments were made and UCLA only scored 3 points and were held to like 100 some yards.
Now, this week, you will see OSU opening up some more of their offense. Woods will run the ball more on scripted draws, bootlegs, and rollouts, and he'll throw the ball a bit more. He was 2-8 but that is not an accurate reflection of his passing ability.
Another thing to note is the lack of push by OSU's defensive line...except for when 77 Walter Thomas was in the game. He made a HUGE difference...about 6'6 and 350 pounds difference in the middle. He's only a freshman so they are taking it slowly with him but he already is showing tremendous potential. He'll likely start this game and get a TON of snaps.
Tulsa is a decent WAC football team. But let's face it, they scored 3 points on freaking Kansas, and Kansas scored 21 points on Tulsas defense.
Ah hell, what's the point! Sorry for trying to sway, it's in my nature.
OSU wins 48-10.
Remember, I'm a homer. I hope I'm right, because I put a VERY sizeable chunk of my bankroll on it...
