BJ Ojulari (EDGE – LSU) vs Tennessee’s Offense
Ojulari should still be a highly touted player as a designated pass rusher in the draft. But, this game showed his limitations against a more physical brand of football. At certain points LSU seemed more comfortable dropping Ojulari into coverage rather than placing him in the traffic around the trenches. Ojulari did have one pressure to force a Hendon Hooker throwaway. Ultimately, it killed a drive in the red zone and forced a field goal.
The RPO and zone run game marriage is difficult for smaller edge players. When the outside zone is working and the defense has to respect it, the play-action and RPO game becomes deadly. These longer play fakes require end and interior players to respect the run longer before recognizing whether the play is a run fake or not. Ojulari is at his weakest in these scenarios. Often he gave his contain duty while trying to avoid contact. Later in the game when Ojulari realized he had to play downhill within traffic, he was caught up in the more physical aspects of the run game. This is not his strength as a player.