Rose Bowl

[FearlessF]

yup, much better than how Clemson finished

[CWSooner]

If anyone had told Lincoln Riley beforehand that his defense would force a punt and get the ball back with 5 minutes to play and a 7-point lead, he would have jumped for joy.

But when that happened, it was as if he had run out of ideas.

I think that it's situations like the second half of the Rose Bowl when a head coach who is also his own play-caller can get over-saturated with information and responsibilities and just respond with what he knows.  And what he knows has led to big leads blown repeatedly this season.

He's a very creative play-caller, but I don't think he can be an incredibly creative play-caller and an incredibly effective head coach at the same time when it's crunch time in the biggest game of his life.

Head coach Lincoln Riley needed to tell the kicker to put it deep and out of bounds on the kickoff with 6 seconds left in the 1st half.

Head coach Lincoln Riley, facing 3rd and 2 and Georgia having settled for a FG in the 1st OT, needed to tell play-caller Lincoln Riley that he was in four-down territory, that he wanted to win it right here rather than playing tit-for-tat with Georgia in OT.  Georgia is built for OT.  You get a shot to put them away, you've got to give it everything you have rather than settling for a tie, where they will have all the advantages in the next OT.  So you give Rodney Anderson two chances to make two yards, or you put it in Mayfield's hands.  You don't give it on a trick play to the 4th-string WR who just came into the game for the first time.  Who is not a running back and who quickly demonstrated why he is not a running back.

OU's defense was bad.  It's been bad all season against all kinds of offenses, and there was no reason to think that it would change much for the Rose Bowl.  Therefore, it was foolish of Riley to place the burden of victory or defeat in OT on the defense.  He had the advantage in the 1st OT, and the defense, incredibly, even held Georgia to a FG.  That was the critical point.  He had to go for the kill right there.  Instead he settled for another OT.

Great game, and Georgia is a great team.  But OU's offense--which needed to be almost perfect--failed in the crunch.  It was a moral failure as much as a physical one, and Riley's play-calling was a big part of that.

[CousinFreddie]

Well said Cdub

The only thing I would add (besides a critique of the kicking game, where I don’t understand why we don’t have a dedicated place kicker and a dedicated punter - clearly Seibert wore diwn and lost focus as the game went on), is that we came out of the locker room in the 3rd quarter unbelievably flat.  All the creativity of the first half got shoved aside for a conservative play not to lose approach.  We were no longer putting their defense back on their heels, and the game nearly slipped away and out of reach of even OT by early in the 4th.  That was a big squander of a huge lead.  

But yeah then everything you said about the OT failures I totally agree with.  If we didn’t go for it on 4th and 2 in the first OT, we had to go for on 4th down in the second OT, since we went first in that OT.  Even if the FG hadn’t been blocked, it didn’t matter as they scored a TD and the handwriting was in the wall since our D couldn’t stop them when they needed to, up 7 with 3:30 left to go in the 4th.  There’s no reason to think that our defense would have stopped them in two straight OT, and so the bigger gamble was NOT to go for it on 4th down in the second OT.

Well he’s a young guy for a HC and after performing so well all year, I can forgive him these errors.  He’ll learn.  A game like this is a good lesson for the future.  Hard to take now but down the road it might pay off if he learns to avoid such mistakes.

[BrownCounty]

If I'm allowed, I also appreciated Cdub's take on what happened.  As I mentioned before, OU's play calling blew me away in the 1st quarter - just a creative, solid mix of plays all met with success.  It's almost like Riley had it scripted.

Cdub suggests that Riley went into overload as Georgia started coming back.  Makes sense.  Also could be that his script played out.

You have to hang some of the loss on coaching for sure.  I doubt the squib kick was Siebert's idea, although the execution was his.  The punts were all Siebert.

As a 1st year coach, couldn't ask more out of Riley so he's hard to critique.

[MikeDeTiger]

Most entertaining game I've seen in a good while.  

[CWSooner]

Here's another thing to consider.

A common thought going in was that if the OU defense could get 3-4 holds, and hold UGa to FGs rather than TDs a couple of times, we'd probably win.

By that standard, low as it is, the defense more than did its job.

FIRST HALF

Got a stop on UGa's 1st possession.

Held UGa to a missed FG attempt on its 3rd possession.

Got a stop on UGa's 5th possession.

Got a stop on UGa's 6th possession.

"Held" UGa to a 55-yard FG at the end of the 1st half.

2ND HALF

Got a stop on UGa's 2nd possession.

Got a stop on UGa's 5th possession.

Returned a fumble for TD on UGa's 6th possession.

Got a stop on UGa's 7th possession.

1ST OT

Held UGa to a FG.

2ND OT

Gave up a TD.


Here's the real problem.

2ND HALF, OKLAHOMA OFFENSE

1st possession: 3-and-out, 48-yard punt returned 21 yards.

2nd possession: 3-and-out, 57-yard punt, no return.

3rd possession: 8 plays, 22 yards, 47-yard punt, no return.

4th possession: 2 plays, 0 yards, 3rd play, interception returned to the OU 4.  2 plays later, UGa scores, so our defense "gave up" a TD.

5th possession: 3-and-out, 28-yard punt, no return.

7th possession: With a 7-point lead and 5:00 left in the game, 3-and-out, 29-yard punt to the UGa 41.

8th possession: With a tie game and 0:55 left in regulation, 4 plays, 20 yards, 30-yard punt.


OU had 8 possessions in the 2nd half, in which the offense scored a grand total of 7 points.  That is a total collapse.

Meanwhile, the defense in the second half got 3 stops and scored a TD (matching the offense's production).

So, over the course of the game, including both OTs, the OU defense got 6 stops, 3 possessions held to a FG attempt (if you count the one at the end of the 2nd quarter), and a defensive TD.

Did anyone think going in that the defense would do better than that?  I sure didn't.

Our defense--bad as it was--performed about as well as was expected.  Better in terms of getting stops, worse in terms of allowing huge plays.  But the offense and special teams performed worse than expected.

You hear, "The offense scored 38 points--that ought to be enough to win."  Well, in a game in which each team got 14 possessions, and each team has a powerful offense, 38 points is not a guarantee of a win.  You can't let up just because you have a 17-point lead in the 2nd quarter.  There's still way too much football to be played.

I said it after the 2008 OU-Texas game.  OU led by 2 scores at one point, but the game turned into a shootout, and the Sooner offense stopped scoring.  That was not all on the defense.  That 2008 offense was record-setting in terms of points per game.  The defense wasn't particularly good, especially after losing the starting MLB against Texas.  When you've got a team like that, like we did this year, the offense can't rest on its laurels just because it's built a nice lead.  It has to keep scoring, because the other team is probably not going to quit.

OU's defense stinks.  And I believe that the buck stops with Mike Stoops.  But that was no surprise going into the Rose Bowl.  The surprise was that the offense at the Rose Bowl didn't come out ready to compete with a tough, interactive opponent after halftime.

[CousinFreddie]

I agree somewhat CW, but I wouldn't go too far in blaming the offense, as a championship team shouldn't give up 45 points to ANYONE, I don't care how good their offense is.  

But you're right in that sometimes OU doesn't seem to have a game plan to score consistently in all four quarters.  In the games we lost, Iowa St and UGa, we were blanked in the 3rd quarter, and lost the 2nd half decisively each time.  In both those games we had >10 pt leads at halftime.

It's not always true - for example against OhSU, OkSU, and KSU, the Sooners won the 2nd half.  So, it's not a general case of OU getting always caught or run down in the 2nd half.

Still yet, it would be worth the coaches looking at their 3rd quarter approach and keeping some proven plays up their sleeve that they don't show until the 2nd half.

Also, I haven't reviewed game tape to make sure my perception is right on this, but it seemed to me anyway that OU gave up the N-S game (not just rushing but also passes over the middle, like slants to Andrews etc) toward the end of the 4th quarter and in the OT periods and relied too much on E-W type plays. It seemed to me that the Georgia defensive backs sniffed that out and were ready for passes out on the flat and end around running type plays, and stopped us cold on those. 

Instead OU should have kept pounding it up the middle more and wearing out the line and LBs.  I thought they were surprisingly successful at that during the first half, and I'm not sure why they gave it up, whether UGa made some good adjustments at halftime to stop those, or whether OU kind of backed off.  Either way, sometimes you have can some really productive 3 and outs (or single first down drives) if you still get some wear on the defense as you do.  The third quarter should be all about wearing the defense out.

[EastAthens]

I don't know if you guys are even remotely interested in this, but here is an article about the UGA halftime adjustments.

https://www.dawgnation.com/football/team-news/film-room-defensive-tweak-shaped-historic-rose-bowl-win

[CousinFreddie]

Very interesting EA.  Thanks for sharing that!

[CWSooner]

The Dawgs had to get after him in the second half. They did.

Part of that was a borderline-late hit that included a knee to Baker's ribcage.

I'm not complaining--it's football, and stuff like that happens whether intentional or not.  But it was part of what took Baker out of his game.

All in all, a very interesting and informative article.  I hope somebody sends it to Lincoln Riley.

[Cincydawg]

UGA ended up losing to Alabama in a game somewhat similar to this one (with lower scoring), get up early and then sort of freeze on offense (or the other side adjusts or starts playing better).

Roquan Smith is going to be a beast in the NFL.  I hate to lose him from the D obviously but best of luck for a big paycheck.