Hubert Anyiam, Step Up

Photo Attribution: KT King

Lost amidst the launch party for Brandon Weeden’s sorta-Heisman campaign, Justin Blackmon’s roller coaster of a second half, and the poignant, appropriate celebration surrounding coach Glenn Spencer and his family was the fact that Anyiam had the best game of his career.

Yes, I know he’s had better games statistically. Well, one better game, Mizzou in ’09 when he snagged Dez’s superman cape and went 10 for 119 and a score against Missouri to keep OSU’s Big 12 title hopes alive for the time being. But this one was better, if not more understated, and definitely more important.

Time after time when Weeden needed six yards he whipped passes to the sideline where Anyiam was waiting for them, poised to beat his man up the white stripe for demoralizing one-yard-past-the-marker first downs.

Case in point:

Seeming every one of his 10 catches and all 92 yards were via this quick out/bubble screen. Give credit to the rest of the WRs too for the way they blocked downfield.

Somebody on Twitter the other day tried to give me credit for saying OSU had the best blocking WRs in the country. I didn’t say it, though I wish I would have because it might be true.

Weeden gets a ton of love (mostly from me) for how electrifying he is as the signal caller, but the truth is he gets a ton of yards by hitting quick slants and short routes that turn into big gains (we’ll call them BradyWelkers) because of how well his guys block downfield. Blackmon even averaged 8.3 YPA last year on passes thrown between 1-10 yards last year, which is pretty crazy when you think about how that has to happen.

So yes, the system is good (it’s very VERY good), but you still have to have the guys to execute it. And this week we welcome Hubert Anyiam to the “we have no idea who the 3rd best receiver on this team is but whoever it is is probably also the best #3 WR in the country” race.

Have fun, 84.