Break Down the Tape:
1st Run - 00:05
Decisive and strong through the hole; good pad level; nice forward lean; does a good job at 00:09 leaning forward and right to absorb the hit and fall forward for several more yards
2nd Run - 00:14 - TD
Tough camera angle here; looks like a nice plant and go through the hole; nice job lowering his pads and protecting the ball as he takes a hit getting in the endzone
3rd Run - 00:19
Quick through a big hole; needs to make a better stiff arm at 00:21, looks indecisive there, slowed for stiff arm, but then tried to run left and got tripped up by the ankle
4th Run - 00:23 - TD
Sweep left; pursuit is there first, not sure if he's slow to the corner or if they read the play; nice gear down and cutback move at 00:26 when he realizes he can't outrun them; good balance getting his hand down; good vision and wiggle in tight space to get through crowd and to the sideline; excellent juke at 00:29 without gearing down very much; nice job to keep legs churning and spin into the endzone; good run
5th Run - 00:32 - At Kansas State
Nice hesitation in the backfield to let the hole open, does it without wasting motion; great tight space vision, moving to the right to avoid the LB and then turning it back to the left to avoid the crowd; good vision and avoidance of the official at 00:38; stumbles for some reason at the 45 yard line, must be that Kansas State turf monster; defender has a bit of an angle but a faster RB would have run away from him and eliminated the angle; nice stiff arm/shoulder put on the defender as he goes out of bounds, doesn't go out without a fight
6th Run - 00:44
Nice quick move in the backfield at 00:47 to allude a defender breaking through the line; nice speed turning the corner and runs away from pursuers without an angle; decent gear down when he sees the defender has the angle and nice move to the inside, but a defender is right there
7th Run - 00:54 - At Kansas State
Very nice cutback at the LOS to find a hole; nice quickness in a tight space to get by the group of defenders; good avoidance of a diving defender at 00:58; ball not quite as tight to the body as it should be when he gets hit from behind, but he has a nice forward lean there and keeps driving through the tackle
8th Run/Catch - 01:02
Nice catch, although he seems to fight it a bit; bad camera angle and the clip cuts off
9th Run - 01:08 - At Oklahoma State
Very fast through a big hole; seems to make the wrong move at 1:11, looks like the left side is more open with a blocker as well, not a good open field move there
10th Run - 01:13
Very nice slip move in the backfield to get by an upfield defender; plants and gets through the hole quickly; runs pretty well in tight space, but runs up the back of his blocker, but does a good job of keeping his legs churning; this clip shows pretty well that he's really more of a downhill runner and isn't going to making many multi-cut runs
11th Run - 01:18
Nice plant with the left foot as he gets through the hole; nice pad level; just as I say he doesn't make good open field moves, he puts a very nice move at 1:20; loses his balance after the cut though
12th Run - 01:22 - TD
Pretty quickly through the hole, but a little bit too upright; looks like a real nice juke at 01:24, hard to tell with the video quality; sees the opening to the outside and gets to the endzone quite easily
13th Run - 01:32
Outside pitch, turns it upfield well without needing to gear down; hard to tell because of the video, but it looks like he does a great job lowering his shoulder and hitting a defender(#33) with power at 01:33; slides off the defender well and heads upfield; a freeze frame at 01:34 shows him in great form after getting by the defender: crouched at a great pad level, ball in a safe position and right arm extended, hips upfield; uses that extended arm to stiff arm a defender and get several more yards; very impressive run
Shows fantastic pad level and power at 01:39 when he takes on the defender
14th Run - 01:44
Nice job running through a small hole and breaking into the second level; nice job getting into the third level, but gets tackled by a DB; might be better suited just running away from the player and trying a stiff arm instead of trying to make a open field move there; does do a very nice job fighting for extra yards by keeping his legs moving
15th Run - 01:52
Very nice breakdown move in the open field at 01:53; uses off arm well to finish off the move; nice job continuing upfield, this time doesn't make too much of a move, but tries to get away from the defender using a stiff arm; runs with a lot of energy, if not explosiveness
16th Run - 02:02 - TD
Bad camera angle; cuts back across the field on a misdirection play; does a nice job with subtle change of speed moves here, slowing down a little and then just speeding up and stretching his body away from the tackle, it might not be as effective in the NFL, but it's still a nice move for him; although he does have the ball close to his body, he should have switched it to his outside arm, this is correctable however; freeze frame at 02:13 shows the great forward lean he has as he gets by the last defender and starts a sprint; film cuts off, but I assume he scored here
17th Run - 02:21
Nice vision and lateral quickness here to cut the run back; at 02:24 you see a problem with the stretch away from the defender move, it leaves him off balance and he gets pulled down by the helmet, leading with his helmet and shoulder there would probably have prevented that; notice the ball in the left arm again
18th Run/Catch - 02:27
Good catch in stride, very nice juke at 02:29 without gearing down; runs through an arm tackle well; does a good job protecting the ball with both hands when being tackled
19th Run - 02:33
Runs with a purpose; seems to take a little more time with cuts than he should here; gets through a tight hole and goes; ball in correct arm here; shows that he lacks the long speed here, but that's still almost a 30 yard gain
20th Run - 02:40
goes outside and shows nice acceleration around the corner here; nice plant and go without much gearing down as he turns the corner; good job lowering his pads at 02:43 to take on the defenders and get several more yeards after initial contact
21st Run - 02:45
Quick burst after the handoff and makes a good cut in the backfield to hit the hole with speed; gets tripped up by a low arm tackle, looks like he tried to shuffle to his right instead of running through it; shows some nice balance keeping his feet and getting 4 or 5 more yards
22nd Run - 02:49 - Oklahoma State - TD
A slow motion highlight from the low defensive backfield; lead blocker (#41) makes it hard to see Jackson; does a nice job following the blocker and then avoids a diving defender to get into the endzone
23rd Run - 03:02
Short clip; makes a quick move outside to get around the corner; puts a decent juke on a defender, but clip ends before we can see the result
24th Run/Catch - 03:07 - TD
Very nice catch at the back of the endzone; looks like he ran a wheel route and beat a linebacker
25th Run - 03:12
Big hole up the middle; nice quick direction changes with minimal gear down; very nice job of running in a tight space at 03:15, sees there is no opening for a cutback, so he goes right in between masses of bodies, protects the ball and keeps his legs churning, bouncing off several; great job at 03:16 to keep moving even as he gets turned around; outstanding effort
26th Run/Catch - 03:18
Nice catch in the flat; very nice breakdown move at 03:21 to get by first defender; very strong stick by the defender at 03:23 to knock him back, he wasn't square because of eluding another tackle right before the hit, not much he can do there; shows good effort trying to get back to the first down marker, maybe should have just fallen at the initial hit to ensure the first down but that's much easier to say than to do
27th Run - 03:26 - TD
Nice balance at 03:28 to stay on feet after an ankle grabber; slides into the endzone; really moves well laterally
28th Run - 03:32
slow motion low angle clip; nice cut into the second level; slides past a defender at 03:38; shows some good determintaion and hand fighting skills at 03:43 and through the end of the run; would have liked to see him lower the shoulder a little bit more there; I think that he sometimes isn't sure when to make a move and when to drive into the defender
29th Run - 03:48
Sweep; reads hole well and cuts to it at 03:50; good quickness through the first level; nice slide to avoide diving defender at the 10 yard line; good job turning it up the sideline with minimal down gear when he sees the small gap between defenders
30th Run/Catch - 03:57
Very nice catch on a high throw and does a great job of getting in a positive position as he hits the ground; because he got into that position he has time to quickly duck down and spin out of a move; clip ends before we can see much more
31st Run - 04:03
Lots of room to run; does a good job of eating up the angles of defenders
32nd Run/Catch - 04:09
Screen pass; nice quickness through the hole; good body lean; good balance at 04:14 as he avoids an ankle tackle; camera angle switches to a better view at 04:16 as he does a very good job hand fighting and continuing to gain yards; takes two defenders to finally get him down; impressive run
33rd Run - 04:19
Outstanding example of running in a tight space here as he picks his way through groups of blockers and defenders; slides through into the second level without losing much momentum; great start/stop move at 04:20; when he sees that there isn't much more he can do laterally, he lowers his shoulders and plows ahead for as much yardage as he can; this may look like a rather blah highlight, but it is really an excellent example of what a run by him in the NFL may look like, with lots of tight spaces and fast defenders, his ability to pick his way into the second level here is an excellent indicator that he should have success in the NFL
34th Run - 04:23
Nice quickness through the hole; great job shaking off the ankle tackle at 04:25; nice job protecting the ball with both hands as he gets into a group of defenders; as we've seen before, he does a great job fighting for extra yardage in the scrum
35th Run - 04:30 At Oklahoma State
Very nice speed into the second level; Great open field breakdown move at 04:33, leaves the defender looking silly; good lean at the end as he gets tackled from behind to get more yardage
Brandon Jackson Summary:
Whew, is it over yet? Very long video with some short clips and bad camera angles. But I saw enough to be very impressed with Brandon Jackson. He runs with purpose and high effort. He has enough quickness and very good vision. He runs very well in tight spaces and yet can make a great breakdown move on a defender in open space. He catches the ball very well and looks natural and fluid translating the catch to a run. Jackson is a great example of a Non-one cut runner. Other RBs I've reviewed, like Pittman and Hunt, make one cut and are then running downhill with only small lateral movements. Jackson is always looking for cuts and lateral moves to make as he gets into the second level. He could use some more work on protecting the ball and using the correct arm to carry it, as well as on the decision making aspect of lowering his shoulder versus making a move. But those are minor things. He looks the most like the model RB, Tomlinson, of anyone I've reviewed so far.
