Spotlight #1: Oklahoma QB Landry Jones
Spotlight #2: Oklahoma OLB Travis Lewis
1st quarter
14:42: On the first play of the game from scrimmage, Jones goes deep and completes it to Broyles for 40 yards. Great run after the catch by Broyles too.
13:51: Jones completes it for 10.
13:28: Jones completes it for another 14. He’s really moving the ball well early, but he hasn’t made an amazing throws yet.
12:28: Jones on a 4 yard slant to Kenny Stills on 2nd and 13.
12:17: Jones throws an inaccurate fade to a well covered man. Not the best decision.
10:45: Lewis drops in coverage with a tight end and covers him well.
10:21: Lewis takes a bad angle on an outside run and doesn’t show a lot of effort after getting blocked.
9:26: Jones under pressure, takes a hit, and just throws the ball away. Good strength getting that one off.
9:20: Jones to Stills for a short gain, Stills is able to get a few more on a nice spin off. 3rd and 2 now.
8:46: Jones audibles, moves a man over the left and then hits him wide open on 3rd and 2 for the first.
8:22: Jones short to Stills, complete.
7:13: Jones flushed from the pocket under pressure and he has to throw it away, incomplete out of the back of the end zone. Oklahoma will settle for a field goal again.
7:02: Lewis covers a short man.
6:35: Lewis takes a good angle on an outside run and gets in on the tackle.
5:02: Lewis tackles a receiver on the outside after a big gain on a pass to the flat.
4:32: Lewis has a tackle broken. It wasn’t really poor tackling, but the running back is so strong.
1:59: Jones throws deep to a double teamed Ryan Broyles, who Texas is using bracket coverage on. Jones overthrew it anyway.
1:52: Jones goes short this time to an open man, who is able to get the first after the catch.
1:20: Jones fakes the handoff to the running back and then hits the running back open in space for a nice pickup and a first down.
0:11: Jones throws a touchdown, but it’s called back on an illegal formation.
2nd quarter
14:56: Jones pump fakes to a screen, defensive back bites just enough for a man to get wide open in the end zone and Jones hits him, touchdown.
13:52: Tony Jefferson with his 4th interception in just over a game. The sophomore is a future top safety prospect and playing like it.
12:41: Jones on 1st and 25 with a miscommunication with his receiver and an ugly incompletion.
12:37: Jones incomplete out of bounds.
12:33: Wow. Jones on 3rd and 25 throws a perfect spiral and he gets the first deep. This wasn’t a great play after catch by his receiver or anything, this was all throw by Jones on an NFL type play, 4 deep routes against man coverage.
11:48: Jones throws the fade to Kenny Stills, who catches it at its apex, but he’s not able to hang onto it. Tough catch, tough throw.
11:43: Jones redeems himself this time with a throw to Ryan Broyles in the front corner of the end zone. Broyles, another potential high pick, had great position and does a great job and going low for the ball and keeping it in the end zone.
9:24: Jones has a pass dropped by Stills and batted up in the air and almost intercepted. This should have been a catch.
9:17: Jones throws it short on first down.
8:59: Jones checks down to the back, who takes it for a fresh set of downs.
8:49: Jones under pressure, throws against his body off his back foot for a screen that goes for 20 yards.
8:32: Jones throws into tight coverage, hits the receiver in the hands, but the hit after catch knocks the ball out. Jones’ mechanics and accuracy are awesome.
8:28: Jones under pressure throws a very inaccurate ball out of bounds. It looked like he was trying to set up a check down, but panicked and completely overthrew him.
8:01: Jones under pressure, sacked, goes down very easily on this one.
6:13: Jones underthrows a guy on a medium to deep route.
4:53: Lewis with great closing speed on a tackle, but he isn’t able to bring him down himself. He does enough to slow him up for someone else to tackle him for a short gain on a play that could have been a lot more without Lewis’ speed.
2:29: Jones with a completion on a short slant. He throws a lot of short stuff, but he’s been impressive on intermediate and deep routes as well and he’s shown great accuracy and footwork.
1:08: Jones dumps off under pressure and the receiver is able to take the ball, make some moves, and get some big yards.
0:45: Jones deep to Ryan Broyles.
0:31: Jones to Stills on a fade in the corner of the end zone. Jones has 305 yards and it’s not even halftime. More importantly, he’s spreading the ball around. He’s got great receivers, but he’s making them look better and not locking onto targets.
3rd quarter
14:41: Lewis in on a tackle again.
13:35: Lewis with a quarterback pressure on a blitz on a play in which the quarterback fumbles for 6 points for Oklahoma.
11:48: Jones throws to the back in the flat, but it doesn’t go anywhere.
11:26: Jones not on the same page with Stills deep and it’s overthrown and closer to a Longhorn than anyone.
11:20: Jones on 3rd and 21, makes a nice completion, but it’s short of the sticks. Smart, safe move with a 41-10 lead.
1:39: Jones complete against the sideline to yet another new receiver. He’s completed passes to 9 different receivers tonight.
1:10: Jones complete underneath. They’re not holding back. They’re going to let him keep throwing.
0:46: Broyles with the completion short from Jones.
0:16: Jones goes deep and could have had a completion if it wasn’t for a pass interference penalty, thought it might have been a bit overthrown anyway. Jones throws a pretty spiral deep.
4th quarter
14:30: Jones puts one in a decent spot, a little high, on a deep throw, but it’s off the receivers’ hands.
14:11: Jones completes one on 3rd and 4 near the sideline for a first.
14:08: Jones has a ball batted down at the line.
13:16: Jones incomplete deep to a well covered Ryan Broyles.
12:30: Lewis takes a poor angle to the ball carrier. He heads up field, but if he had continued to the sideline, he could have gotten a tackle and made the gain a lot shorter.
9:16: Lewis in on a tackle far from the line of scrimmage.
6:39: Landry Jones has been pulled with a 55-10 lead.
0:00: I will be revisiting Matt Barkley next week, but for now, I’d say Landry Jones is better than him. Jones doesn’t have the strongest arm, but he has good arm strength and excellent accuracy and footwork. He doesn’t go deep a lot, but when he does, he looks good on deep and intermediate routes. He throws a lot of short stuff in Oklahoma’s system, but he’s not just a short stuff guy. He has great receivers around him, but he makes them look better and he spreads the ball really well. Despite not finishing this game in a huge blowout, Jones went 31 of 50 for 367 yards and 3 touchdowns and he had over 300 yards at halftime, when this game was already over basically. I’d say Jones looks better than Sam Bradford did in his junior year at Oklahoma.
As for Travis Lewis, he flashed at times with great speed and excellent closing speed, but his motor and the angles he takes towards the ball carrier aren’t great. He has great stats and showed great toughness coming back from a broken foot so fast and he looked very healthy in this game. He’s a bit undersized, but he drops into coverage extremely well. He can stay on the field on all 3 downs and do a little bit of everything, but discipline is a weakness for this first round caliber player.
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