Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Oklahoma's Offense vs. Florida's Defense

Thursday's BCS National Championship will feature 2 great offenses and 2 suspect defenses that will decide the game.

What Oklahoma wants to do: Oklahoma's trademark thorughout the year has been their offense, but particulary their hurry-up offense. Every snap is quick. Every formation is quick. And every substitution is quick. In addition to wearing down the Gator defense, they plan to establish the run with 1,000-yard rusher Chris Brown. Without DeMarco Murray, Brown and Mossis Madu will have to carry the load against the fast Florida defense. Heisman winner Sam Bradford will get his stats, get his points and get his touchdowns. That is a given. Bradford, Jermaine Gresham, Joaquin Iglesias and Manny Johnson will contribute to the high-octane offense of OU. The Sooners also must protect Bradford in the pocket.

What Florida wants to do: Florida only has to do one this on defense: pressure Sam Bradford. When Bradford has been pressured (as he was against Texas), the Sooners have not been as successful. Brian Orakpo had a few sacks that games and they held OU to 35 points, only 14 in the second half.

How Florida stops Oklahoma: Florida should start out by placing 8 men in the box to stop the run that Oklahoma will try to establish early. Later in the game, when the Sooners go back to their bread-and-butter, the pass, the Gators should try t bring 6 or 7 guys to pressure Bradford into bad throws and sacks. And with Florida's speed, zone blitzes may work well, dropping defensive linemen into converage and blitzing with linebackers.

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