How Dave Aranda's Baylor Defense stifled Oklahoma's Offense-Part 1

 Part 1-run defense 

This article focuses on how Baylor defended Oklahoma on early downs and effectively defended the run. Part 2 will look at passing downs and how they handled 3rd down. 

In 2021 Baylor played Oklahoma and defeated them 27-14. Dave Aranda and Ron Roberts put together a great game plan to stifle Oklahoma and really slow down it's high octane offense. They really mixed up their defenses nicely, played more 4-2 fronts and made some nice adjustments with their tite front. 
Baylor held Oklahoma to 14 points, with 7 of those coming late in the game with the game considerably out of reach. 

A couple key points in the game:

Scoring Offense: Oklahoma averaged 36 points per game on the year. Holding them to 14 was quite a feat. A credit to the coaching staff for taking away what Oklahoma does best. 

Rushing Defense: Baylor held Oklahoma to 82 yards rushing on 29 carries. That's less than 3 yards per carry. They held top back Kennedy Brooks to 14 carries for 55 yards, less than 4 yards per carry! That from a player that averaged 6.9 yards per carry and close to 100 yards per game. 

Pass Defense: Oklahoma was 13/22 on offense for a very low 178 yards. They also allowed no passes for TD's and had 2 interceptions. 

3rd down: Oklahoma was 2/9 on 3rd down. That's 22%. Oklahoma averaged 41% on the year. 

Total Yards: Baylor's Defense held Oklahoma to 260 total yards. That is impressive.

FRONTS

Let's look at some of the schemes Baylor used vs. Oklahoma. Baylor and Aranda are well know for their tite front but they used it very sparingly in this game.

On 1st and 2nd down, they ran the following fronts:

4-2 front 37 times. That's 37/47 times for 78%. That isn't including goal line. 

They were in an odd look for 10 snaps. 

They ran their traditional tite front 3 times and a tite front with a 5 technique opposite the back, 7 times.  They put the 5 technique opposite the back to help them with Oklahoma's run game.  They also moved at time with this front.

4-2 front vs 11 personnel (te flexed)

4-2 vs 11 TE to the boundary. They set the 3 technique to the field

They emphasized spilling everything which you can see below in the videos.

Tite front adjustment (5 technique opposite the running back). They would often move or slant away fro the back. This disrupted the Oklahoma run game(counter, wrap). In the situation below, they move the defensive tackle Nose Guard, defensive left tackle and left defensive end. 

Run game:

One thing they did was take on pullers and really bring the De down and spill everything. This was very successful in disrupting the counter  run scheme Oklahoma loves to run. In the next 2 examples, Oklahoma comes out in 12 personnel and you can see the spill technique.

Example #1 

Oklahoma tight wing and runs counter to the wing side.

Example #2

Oklahoma in 12 with the other TE split to the field with the on the line TE to the boundary. 

They bring the field TE in motion and try to run counter to the boundary. Baylor spills it and does a great job keeping it to a 2 yard gain. 

Here a few clips of Baylor doing a great job spilling the ball and playing it well on the outside and the secondary.

Here they play the same concept under the tite front. They still get it bounced and hold the Sooners to no gain.  Nice job by #52 spilling it.

The other thing that was effective was their run blitzing on 1st down. They brought the sam linebacker and played man coverage behind it. This helped take away some easy access, rpo, quick game type throws.

They start the game with a run blitz with the sam. 

Next time, Oklahoma goes play action but the sam pressure gets the qb to pull it down.  

After the first 2, they bring the corner to the boundary the next time. Oklahoma tries to take a shot but the safety recovers and makes a great play.

On the next first down, Oklahoma goes flea flicker and Baylor doesn't bring pressure. Nice coaching by Aranda taking off the pressure and mixing it up on 1st down. He guesses right and Oklahoma has no place to go with the ball.

On early downs later they bring pressure again. On the play below they bring the sam and get the pressure home as the RB misses the block off play action. 

The early down perimeter blitzes of either the Sam or the CB was a very effective part of the game and highly effective.

Here are the concepts discussed above on film.

Coverages vs 12 

Short motion Adjustments

When they got short motion or jet they would pass it off and the LB away from the jet motion would filter back into the box. It gave them a +1 advantage. You can see it in the example below. 

Pass coverages

Early downs:

They played a ton of man free and 2 man this game. These were two of their mostly used coverages. They matched up well and the man scheme was very effective throughout the game. 

But overall the key came down to 3 things:

1. spilling the ball in the run game.

2. Playing a ton of man coverages

3. Early blitz and pressures that disrupted their offense.

 

3rd down

Oklahoma was 2/9 on the day vs Baylor.

As discussed, saw a ton of man coverages:cover 2 man and man free.

Here they play 2 man on a key 3rd and 8 in the 1st half.

They get double coverage on the 1 wr and do a nice job downfield. They get off the field on a key 3rd down.

A nice job overall and a great job by Aranda and staff. 

Ohio State Unbalanced formations and run game vs Nebraska and Penn State

Ryan Day is an excellent play caller. He is very disciplined in his approach and is a systematic play caller. He likes to set up his plays with one play usually feeding off an earlier play. As a defense you need to try to  stay one step ahead of him.
This is evident in his unbalanced package. He has a solid package he goes into each game with and usually runs 3-4 plays out of that unbalanced/endover package.

His unbalanced  sets usually involves his skill position players as he usually doesn't run any tackle over or end over.

Let's look at the plays he ran vs Nebraska and Penn State in 2020.

The first game is vs Nebraska in 2020. He ran 7 plays out of unbalanced. 

11 personnel 

The safety comes down to play the tight end which leaves the drag wide open. Nice design as Fields misses the drag and runs it for the TD. 

11 with H back motion

They bring the h back in motion. I think they do it to run wide zone at the 2i with slice blocking back. Just my gut that they had the flexibility to motion the h back to get the wide zone attacking the 2i with the slice block away from it. See the 2 clips below on the wide zone.

Here are the 2 wide zone clips from unbalanced 11 personnel.

12 personnel

Shifts from 12

They will put the unbalanced to the boundary and then shift out of it and become wing strong to the field and then motion the slot wr to the field.

They do this on 2 occasions. They run zone read off the shift. They get great numbers and would have been a big hitter if he kept it.

A nice design and 6 yard gain that could have been possibly more off the wide zone read play.

So this is what I will say about Day, he is a smart man. The First time, (photo above) they didn't line up to it. So they run the same play. He probably was on his qb about not giving the ball last time so Fields gives it. But the problem is, the 2nd time Nebraska lines up better to it. (In fairness if Wilson makes his block it's probably a 10 yard gain but you can see the play calling approach by Day. 

Here is some film of the 2 clips above.

Vs Penn State

He ran 8 plays out of unbalanced. 

Some of the plays he ran in this game included jet,  tight zone off the jet motion and jet motion play action pass. He faked the jet then the tight zone and threw the ball off it. Great sequential play calling.

But lets look at the sequencing of the 3 plays mentioned above:

#1 jet sweep

12 personnel

They go formation into the boundary but this game they put the Flanker off. They run Jet to the unbalanced side for a huge gain on the first play of the game. 

You see they have 2 tight ends on the  right side

The 2 tight ends are now on the left after trading. They flanker is off to the boundary.

The flanker comes in motion and gets the ball on the jet sweep.  Penn State stays 2 high and they find block it with the WR. He blocks the safety who becomes the run support in the alley. WR beats CB 1x1 for a big gain.

#2 Fake Jet Tight Zone  on the 2nd play of the game!

The next  play  in the same game, they come out in it and run the flanker in motion. They fake jet and run tight zone. Nice design and a 11 yard gain. 

Both clips are below:

Excellent design by Day to start the game off with a bang!

#3 Jet Pass

The 3rd play in the sequence is fake jet, fake tight zone and hit the wr on a wheel route. This is very hard defend as the Lions try to go cover 3 and that's a mismatch for the LB in zone coverage. This is a great play in college out of 12 because you often get some type of cover 3 vs 12 personnel. Even if you check to unbalanced it's usually some type of 3 look.  They slide the front to the unbalanced but go cover 3 weak with the secondary. This allows for the matchup and nice completion.

These are just some of Coach Day's unbalanced run game sets. He goes into each game with a set package and seems to execute the scheme well vs his opponents.