Monday 20 October 2014

October part 2

 October 28th, 2014

In the inaugural College Football Playoff Committee rankings, Baylor has been ranked 13th in the nation.

The top four for the first week of the poll are #1 Mississippi State, #2 Florida State, #3 Auburn, #4 Ole Miss. Teh top four teams at the end of the regular season will go to the college playoffs. 1 v 4 and 2 v 3.

The Baylor media guide published the OL grading for the West Virginia game. Obviously a big drop across the board for the OL. Blake again graded out each best and continues as the highest graded OL through 7 games.


 


October 27th, 2014

This week is 'Homecoming' week at Baylor, a tradition quite foreign to most Australians because they don't usually go away for college like the tradition in the US.

Basically, the tradition holds that past students will 'come home' to the university to join in on various festivities and keep their connection with the university alive. It usually coincides with the scheduling a weaker opponent for the football team; Kansas fits that bill.

Probably by their own admission, there are not a strong team right now and haven't been since about 2007. This week off has been very useful to the Baylor team. Blake and Sean like most players have used it to get a leg up on school work, both having plenty to hand in this week. The offensive line has those injuries to usual starters Troy Baker and Desmine Hilliard to address for this week's game so we'll see what will hopefully be the starting line up for the rest of the season this week vs the Jayhawks.

The game will be 7am sunday morning Australian time.


October 21st, 2014

It just goes to show how hard it is to go 12-0 in college football.

Baylor traveled to West Virginia and went down to the Mountaineers 41-27. It has ruined the perfect season and stunted Baylor's chances at making the 4 team playoff. It would take numerous losses by numerous other teams for Baylor to be back in with a shot, such is the cut throat edge of competition. The players, coaches and fans are of course devastated. There was more bad news.





Last week after the TCU game the OL unit learned that Desmine Hilliard would have season ended wrist surgery. During the loss to WVU, right tackle Troy Baker suffered a season ending knee injury. That means that from here on for the rest of the season Baylor will be without its starting right guard and right tackle.

Blake twisted his ankle on on goal line play where he got truck and trailered by a defensive lineman with linebacker pushing him forward then a running back hitting him from behind. He finished the game but this week's bye week will be welcome for the few extra days rest.

Next game is in two weeks against Kansas and will also be Baylor's homecoming game. Additionally, Blake will make his 20th career start that game and a previously unknown tidbit we discovered from the broadcast; Blake is the only starter not from Texas!



http://i.giflike.com/wMNyk2r.gif


http://i.giflike.com/Pgj3Ajp.gif





http://i.giflike.com/2qAQhLr.gif



This is what happens to you when #35 the linebacker pushes the defensive lineman into you from the front, the defensive lineman gets his hands in your facemask, then you get hit in the back by your own running back and another defender. Basically 4 guys hitting you.

Flexibility and mobility have been huge components in Blake's training since he started in Australia at Shire Speed and Strength gym. Here is one way it protects against injury. What was a mild ankle twist for Blake would have been ruptured knee and ankle ligaments for most. This is the main way offensive linemen get injured.

http://i.giflike.com/pASx6gd.gif




http://i.giflike.com/uy61Ukr.gif




Friday 3 October 2014

October 2014

October 17th, 2014

Blake must be doing something right, he was the highest rated OL for Baylor vs TCU and highest so far combined for the year.

Another nice gif from the TCU game here


http://i.giflike.com/wx6mSdi.gif



October 16th, 2014

Here are some of Blake's better plays from the TCU game.


Blake TCU #1



Blake TCU #2



 Blake TCU #3


 Blake TCU #4



 Blake TCU #5


http://i.giflike.com/g8WUIan.gif
 Blake TCU #6 




http://i.giflike.com/FYgkpzt.gif


 http://i.giflike.com/aABzxce.gif




 http://i.giflike.com/PrKtG7G.gif

 http://i.giflike.com/XCqesv6.gif



October 14th, 2014

judging by reports, Baylor's football team will depart for West Virginia on Friday at noon. Morgantown, West Virginia is home of the West Virginia Mountaineers.



According to the Baylor Athletics page media release, Blake is currently tied as the equal highest graded OL with 89.0 for the season and tied for 2nd in knockdowns with 16.




October 12th, 2014

Down 21 points in the 4th quarter, Baylor staged the greatest comeback in its history to beat TCU 61-58 with a field goal as time expired. The Bears would score on each of its final 4 possessions to win the game.

The Bears could be ranked as high as #4 in the nation after an incredible performance where all sides of the ball sputtered during the game before 4 scoring possessions late to come back and win.

Fans stormed the field after the field goal sailed over for the win. 

Recap and highlights found here.



October 9th, 2014

TCU is ranked #9 coming into this game with #6 Baylor. Its a massive game for both teams obviously, TCU playing top ranked teams in consecutive week's, Baylor playing its biggest home game of the year. Kick off of the game will be 6.30am sunday morning.

Here are some nice cut ups of Blake from last week's game vs Texas.







This clip on the split zone play, you can see him at left guard come off the double team on the nose tackle then pancake #3 at the linebacker level.

 



Next play, he comes off the double team earlier again for the linebacker.


 



This play is important as he picks up the blitzing linebacker at the point of attack, forces his momentum up and the RB makes 8 yards.



 



This play he has to control the Nose and stay on him as the Center slides off.


 


Finally, vs the 33 stack, the Nose slants backside and Blake goes 1 on 1 with the LB on the power play for 17 yards.


October 5th, 2014

The Baylor Bears notched up a difficult 28-7 victory of the Texas Longhorns in Austin, Texas. The Bears are now 5-0 for the 2014 season on a weekend when 11 of the top 25 teams were defeated.

The Baylor passing game was off but the run game notched up 278 yards on a massive 60 carries. Blake had arguably the best game of his career, consistently engaging the formidable Texas defensive linemen and with his team mates taking over the game in the second half while the passing game struggled.

Baylor will now play Texas Christian University next week at home, a team coming off a big win over Oklahoma.

Highlights here.



October 4th, 2014


Tomorrow #7 ranked Baylor play Texas. Some very kind words from ncaa.com on how the Baylor OL is yet to give up a sack so far in 2014; one of only 2 teams.

Article can be found here.

Texas has a very good Defensive Tackle in Malcolm Brown who will likely finish the season as All Big-12. Its probably going to be the most difficult opponent that Blake has had to face in his career.

Below is a good review of the last game vs the Cyclones. Speaking of bad weather in general. Waco suffered through a very severe lightning storm yesterday, the forecast for the game in Austin tomorrow is for fine weather.