What Makes Lincoln Riley's Offense So Good? Part 1 counter run game

 What makes Lincoln Riley's offense so good?

Lincoln Riley is one of the best minds in college football. He has had great success and put up an unbelievable amount of points in his run as the head coach at Oklahoma. In 2018 they almost averaged 50 points a game, which is unheard of in college football.

One thing you can't discount is the quarterback play.

When you have Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts it's a good start. With those 3, the worst year they had was 7th in college scoring. 

Over the last 7 years they were:

2015   43.5 points per game    #4 in college football              QB-Baker Mayfield

2016   43.9 points per game   #2 in college football               QB-Baker Mayfield

2017   45.1 points per game   #3 in college football               QB-Baker Mayfield

2018  48 points per game       #1 in college football                QB-Kyler Murray

2019 40 points per game       #7 in college football                QB-Jalen Hurts

2020 42.5 points per game    #6 in college football                QB-Spencer Rattler

2021 36 points per game       #12 in college football              QB- Spencer Rattler

That's 42 points per game over a 7 year window. That is quite impressive.

Riley arrived in 2015, Baker Mayfield became eligible and the Sooner offense found its gear. They were dominant from 2015-2017.  That Kyler Murray season of 2018 is beyond description and one of the best in the history of college football. That has to rank among the best offenses in college football history. He did an outstanding job and as you know, is now the head coach at USC.

Well, lets look at some of the pieces that makes his offense so efficient. Let's start with the run game. 

Run Game 

Let's start with the Counter game and variations. They run counter with the RB and the QB and both are effective.  

The G-T Counter  and QB Counter game

This was another staple of the offense especially when they got some odd man fronts. They can run it out of 10 personnel, 20 and 21. They would often run it out of 2o or 21 to give them a lead blocker to the play side on the alley defender. Here are a few ways they ran it.

2018

Offense in 10 personnel, they get a light box and run it to the weak side. Thy do a nice job and Murray breaks it for 40 as they run the QB counter. 

2018 vs Oklahoma State

In the next example they run it out of 20 personnel, again attacking a 3 man def line. 

They run it out of 20 personnel.

Being in 20 personnel allows them to block the overhang defender.

12/21 P

Oklahoma st

1st and 10

Defense 3-3 stack look

Similar concept out of 21 personnel. The overhang defender aligns in a 3-3 stack so the CB becomes the overhang. They motion the WR across and run the Counter back at the tight end as the alley defender is really the CB.

Two things that make this play, the front side does a great job controlling the line of scrimmage. The Guard kicks out and the T does a nice job cleaning up.

run the wr in motion.

Rb leads on the CB. Takes care of the support player.

Guard kicks out the DE.

The CB becomes the run support

Nice kickoff by the guard.

They also have the ability to run it out of pistol opposite the lead back which can cause some confusion defensively. In the next picture it looks like OK State is going to bring pressure to the FB side and they just run counter the other way.

Here's a nice 60 yard run in the Oklahoma State game.

1st and 10 

own 25
They recognize the 3-2 front and decide to run it weak. Great call by Riley.  They get a 2 for 1 on the outside with the find block, the guard logs the looping LB and they are off to the races.

Here are a few bonus clips of the Counter scheme.

Out of 11 pistol,

The Sooners run counter with a read component on the stand up DE as they get an over front.

They run the counter to the shade away from the tight end. Nice design and execution.

12 personnel 

Into  the boundary. base to the field.

The OLB who they want to kick out with the guard bails, so the Guard wraps and takes the LB, RB just makes a great play. could have bent that back inside.

nice job executing as UCLA drops the OLB

Good double teams

Nice job tackle cleaning up and rb turns the corner

2018 with Kyler Murray you saw him attack the odd tite front to the side of the back with QB Lead Counter. Nice design.

Center Guard and Tackle block the 3 down lineman. 

Guard wraps for 1st bad color

Tackle cleans up 

RB leads in the alley

Nice Design

Oklahoma runs qb lead counter with an rpo attachment. They get a 3-2 3 safety look from Iowa State with Iowa State sending the cb. The rb ends up leading and getting to the 3rd level and springs the qb for a touchdown block. Again Oklahoma runs there bread and butter counter vs an odd front. 

They double with the rt and center and left guard block back.

The Left guard takes the cb and lt takes the front side LB

The RT gets off for the weak side LB. 

The tackle #52 does  a nice job on the backside linebacker and creates a hole. The qb follows the RB

The RB blocks the cb and makes the touchdown back.

USC VS Utah 2022

To the 2i

Lincoln runs the counter at the 2i, but Makes this adjustment. He blocks solid on the defensive end and leads the guard and tackle up on the LB. They block it this way and ran it 3x vs Utah this year. They also did this because Utah was spilling things earlier in the game.

Here's the film that goes with it.

Here's another example but they catch Utah in a game. They are stunting to that side and the OT quickly recognizes it and gets to the DT. Still getting the G and tackle on the LB's

These are just some of the concepts and adjustments in the counter game.

Robert Saleh, 5 man overload pressure, match coverage concept!

The NY Jets and 49ers 5 man pressure with match concepts in the passing game

Robert Saleh is an excellent defensive coach. One of the schemes he likes to implement is a 3x1 pressure where he sends LB's and or db's and plays a cover 1 match concept.

The reason it is a match concept is that the coverage rules are as follows:

The CB on each side will take #1 wr. 

The Safety and LB to the 3x1 side will combo the slot wr and the #3 wr. This allows them to play inside outside on the #2 and #3 wr.  At times he's even dropped a wr to take the #3 wr. 

FS- The Free safety is a deep 1/3 defender

Peel rules-Usually a defensive end or an outside LB will be responsible for the back if he releases that way. It has been very effective for Saleh when he was with the 49ers and he still uses it with the Jets today. 

Jets Vs Falcons

front odd 3-2 although Huff is a DE by trade.

In this situation the Jets anticipate a slide and put the RB in limbo with 2 rushers attacking him. One inside and one outside.  They actually send three LB's and the first one does a great job occupying the RB vs the Falcons 4 man slide. Great design and ability to take advantage of the RB. You can see the Mike and the safety playing #2 and 3 in the passing game. Safety has outside leverage and mike does a good job on the #3 wr. 

 Jets vs. Saints

The Jets run a 3-2 look vs the Saints and run their cover 1 match concept. The safety and the lb are comboing the #2 and 3 wr. The DE peels for the rb.  The jets overload rush with a game on their right side and get 2 rushers home free.

Nice Design

De takes the rb and they get good pressure with the overload blitz

Jets vs Jags

Jets run a 6 man pressure (5man with the safety blitzing engaging the running back) but do a  a nice job forcing a bad throw.

Nice design out of the load front with the match principle with the lb and safety.

They bring good pressure again with the appearance they are sending 6 and playing man free with match principle  and jumping routes.  They actually are playing a defensive lineman in coverage in this situation. 

Most teams would sit and 4, they bring the pressure.  The 49ers bring great 5/6 man pressure with blitz engage principles.

The mike bails but they bring edge pressure

Excellent pressure from the load front. 

Its a 6 man pressure with match principles. Mike playing 3 to 2. 

Vs the Seahawks

Heres a very similar blitz on 3rd and 6 vs the Seahawks. This time they drop the de and match him on #3 

Here's look at the pressure in the situation.

They get into it but they are load left as the dT is standing up. 

The De drops as they bring the overload from the right side.

Good 4 man pressure to a side with the LB both coming and 23 off the edge. 

Excellent design and pressure from Saleh

Another 3rd and 10 and the 49ers bring pressure against the Cardinals. Good design with man free coverage. The 49ers get a 3x1 set with a te backside and the back strong to the 3x1 side. They scheme it up nicely as the cb comes clean and the coverage is great downfield.

These are just some of the things that Saleh ran with the 49ers and Jets on defense. 

You also saw it in the NFC playoffs when the 49ers ran it vs the Packers two times in a row. 

Later in the game on 2nd and 8 and 3rd and 8 they play cover 1 match, send 6 and double Adams with the safety, daring Rodgers to throw the ball to someone else. He actually had the tight end open but missed the read. 2 clips are below

2nd and 8

3rd and 8 and the next play, they run the same concept and get home. Forcing the punt which was blocked for the lead. Great defense!!

Its an excellent 3x1 concept that is utilized by the Jets and 49ers.