Eye Crimes, Trick Plays and Being Greedy: Why Oklahoma Needs to Be Better at Kansas
NORMAN — Believe it or not, football starts with the eyes.
On defense, if a player knows his keys, understands how to read his keys and has the discipline to trust his keys, things usually fall into place.
If that process breaks down, well, at Oklahoma that’s called an eye crime.
“That's all it is,” said OU defensive end Ethan Downs. “That's what we're talking about, the eye discipline, we call them 'eye crimes.' It's when I'm supposed to get my eyes on my key, and my key tells me what the play is. But when I get my eyes on the wrong thing, I get my eyes on someone else's key, it's an eye crime.”
“I’ve definitely heard Coach (Brent) Venables say it before,” said linebacker Jaren Kanak. “You definitely don't want to commit an eye crime. I've committed plenty in my day, so I can definitely work on not committing any eye crimes this week and having our discipline to know where we're supposed to be and how to adjust to what they throw at us.”
Last week’s 31-29 win over Central Florida consisted of too many eye crimes by the OU defense.
“Just being greedy,” said linebacker Dasan McCullough. “Just trying to make plays that maybe we thought were there. Try to make game changing plays, which is great when you actually can do it but when it’s not, it’s looks really bad.”
One started out looking like a routine handoff, but was a play-action fake that became a quarterback rollout and eventually resulted in a wide-open receiver and an 86-yard touchdown.
Another was a defensive end reading the wrong key and rushing upfield too soon, creating a cutback lane that produced a 54-yard run.
“I mean, we just got to be more disciplined with our eyes and be more locked in with our details and trust what the coaches are telling us,” said cornerback Woodi Washington.
It was Washington who had man coverage on Javon Baker’s 86-yard TD pass. He’s OU’s most experienced defensive back, and yet he made a rookie mistake because he wasn’t reading what he was supposed to be reading.
“I mean, just reading your keys and keeping your eyes on the right things,” Washington said, “whether it’s your man or having your eyes on a tackle or a guard or whatever the key may be. Just keeping an eye on your key.”
That’s a high priority again this week as Kansas runs a high percentage of what Venables’ analytics call “deceptive” plays. That includes a ton of play-action passes or run-pass options, a constant stream of pre-snap motion and shifts, plus all the usual “trick” plays like reverses, flea-flickers and double-passes, as well as screens, draws, QB draws — and just about anything else KU coach Lance Leipold can conceive.
Very much like the arsenal that UCF and trickster coach Gus Malzahn brought last week.
“More tricks and more big plays, that's what I see,” Downs said. “They're very explosive. They're fast. The quarterback is very speedy. Their backs are good. They're very similar to UCF but their scheme is one of the best in college football right now.”
“They do a lot of offense and show a lot of looks and do a lot of movements and things,” said Kanak.
“They're very fast,” Downs added, “so being disciplined and like we've been saying, staying disciplined with your eyes and your keys, that's all it is.”
But it all comes back to the eyes.
“Really, the main issue was the discipline with the eyes,” said linebacker Dasan McCullough. “Guys getting greedy, trying to make plays. You have to stay the course and do your job.”
Downs said defensive line coach Todd Bates equated it to trying to drive on a bridge while looking out at the water. If you don’t keep your eyes right and focus on the road, you’ll soon be in that water.
“So trying to see too much and trying to make too many plays,” Downs said. “I’m guilty of that too, getting outside my gap, or maybe overpursuing or underpursuing, getting greedy with my eyes and a ball slipping beside me or missing a tackle or a sack or something like that.”
“It’s a habit you have to create with your eyes,” McCullough said. “Having the right reads. It’s stuff we do every day in practice. Last week, we didn’t do a bad job at it. But come Saturday, guys got a little greedy during the game, me included.”
Kansas will run a lot of the same plays and same concepts that UCF did. McCullough was asked if the Sooners can draw confidence from two simple eye crimes produced 140 yards and turned into 14 points.
“To be honest it just pisses us off,” he said. Like really, to know that they had two plays for all that. I didn’t even know it was (140). Honestly that just makes us mad, knowing that we just left that on the table and our opponents seeing that are definitely going to think that’s a way that they can use and play against us.”
Count on Leipold and his staff trying to expose OU’s two big mistakes last week when the Jayhawks host the Sooners at 11 a.m. Saturday at David Booth KU Memorial Stadium.
“Again, you got to do a great job,” said Venables. “There’s a lot going on from an eye-candy standpoint. You got to fit gaps. You got to whoop people and get off of blocks. You got to tackle well. You got to play with great discipline, physicality and aggressiveness — all the things you would think every single week.”
“Awesome that we were able to finish (against UCF),” Downs said, “because we made a lot of busts. Lot of mistakes. They exposed us as a team and as a defense.”
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