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Freaky Friday




It seems like OU and ND's offenses performed their own version of the Freaky Friday swap on Saturday. Last year Notre Dame gave OU fits in the second half by using Everett Golson's mobility to freeze the defense and turn pedestrian play calls into big gains. OU's offense had a prolific passer in Landry Jones who sometimes seemed shaky under pressure. In an ironic twist it was OU's mobility and speed neutralized the Irish defense this time around while ND was saddled with a solid passer who got rattled under the pressure put on by OU's defense. Notre Dame even attempted to trot out their own version of last year's Belldozer with backup qb Andrew Hendrix. So what happened here? How did OU become the physical power team and Notre Dame become more finesse? The simple answer would be to look at the quarterbacks but I think it is more than that. The Irish were able to have some success running the ball but OU's running success is a dramatic turnaround from last year. It looks as if Bill Bedenbaugh has brought some blocking schemes that have helped turn the O-line from OK to pretty darn good. We are still in the old spread blocking formation but have added schemes that allow for more help situationally. The running backs have also realized that their role is changing I think and their focus has helped this cause as well. Even though the tight end play has not really increased from what I can tell, using Millard and Ripkowski like H-backs has allowed these formations to be effective anyway. Finally this team has just limited mistakes offensively. Last year's team had a tendency to shoot themselves in the foot but so far this year's squad has avoided that. We will see of course how it all turns out but I just thought it was interesting our the Sooner and Irish offenses have changed in a year's span.

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