Upon Further Review 2017: Special Teams vs Wisconsin Comment Count

Adam Schnepp

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[Fuller]

Formation/substitution notes: Uche made an impact, charting for the first time after (per the official site) playing on ST the previous two weeks and against Air Force. Had to look that up because I thought this was the first week they were using him on kickoff.

Otherwise, things remained the same. Michigan brought pressure on their punts when they had Wisconsin pinned deep, otherwise dropping at least one man post-snap. They doubled a gunner on punt return coverage once again this week; Wisconsin was deep in their own territory, and it worked fairly well.

[After THE JUMP: what could be more BIG TENNNN than the mere existence of a ST UFR? EXTENSIVE DISCUSSION OF THE PUNNNTTTTEEERRRR]

Kickoff
Play Qtr Time Score Kicker From To CvrTeam Rtn Rlt Tackle
Left 2 2:20 7-7 Foug 35-L O3 O25 12 O15 Glasgow
Kickoff nirvanna: achieved. Uche (whom I don't remember seeing on KO team before) thunders in and occupies both of the guys forming the two-man wedge, which opens up the right side for a free runner. Hewlett crushes his man and gets a little bit of the returner as he falls forward, at which point Glasgow jumps up, wraps up, and takes down Tindal. (+4yds for those named)
Middle 3 15:00 7-7 Foug 35-L O4 ? 16 O20 St. Juste
Kickoff nirvana: still a thing! Kinnel comes barreling in and flattens two blockers; this opens up a lane for Glasgow to cut off his back and get a shot at the returner with a full head of steam. Glagow's hit is a bit high but it stops the returner in his tracks. Ross is there to clean up.
Left 3 6:36 10-7 Foug 35-L O6 O30 17 O23 Woods
Ball drops in at the 6 while the return team has only gotten to the 30; the bar has been raised because this seems disappointing and yet the returner doesn't even get as far as a touchback would get him. Wangler (-4yds) is the beneficiary of one of the wedge guys bugging out and trying to block the man further outside, but his diving tackle attempt misses. Ol' J'Marick Woods then lays the...hit. Next batch of cover guys is near the 30, so this saves at least 7 yards.
Kickoff Return
Play Qtr Time Score From To Player Rtn Rlt
Left 1 15:00 0-0 35-L EZ Thomas TB M25
Hits just in bounds in the front left corner. Definitely not returnable.
Left 1 1:10 7-0 35-L M2 Thomas 28 M30
This is so well blocked that Thomas has two guys between himself and the end zone. Of course, those two converge and another comes off his block to drag Thomas down, but the coverage team still delivered him to the 30-yard line.
Left 3 3:29 14-10 35-L EZ Thomas TB M25
Hits in the middle of the end zone and bounces out.
Left 3 :24 21-10 35-L EZ Thomas TB M25
Same as the last one.
Left 4 2:17 24-10 35-L O9 Thomas 39 M40
Hawkins gets called for holding but I'm not applying negative yardage because it looks like he just gets laid out by a block. I guess maybe he pulled the guy down but I've watched the clip five times and I'm pretty sure he just got lit up.
Field Goal
Qtr Time Ln Dn Ds FGDis Hash
3 6:55 O21 4 14 39 Middle
MA.
Punt Return
Play Qtr Time In-Air Yd From To Player Rtn Rlt
Middle 1 10:07 63 O19 M18 DPJ 9 M27
DPJ has to back up to field this because it's a freaking 63-yard punt, of course he's going to back up to field it. Would not judge him for calling a fair catch here, but he avoids taking an unnecessary hit by making the first gunner miss (+11yds). He then hops over a diving Wisconsin player and has an opportunity to cut it back inside but opts to run into the mass of red jerseys near the sideline. Even so, giving credit for making anything out of this return.
Left 1 2:58 37 O35 M28 DPJ Dwnd M14
Dang, ball, look at you go (-14yds). Just not in the right direction. Wisconsin gets a gunner in quickly, and this prevents Thomas from coming up to field the ball. Best he can do is call a clear out and watch it roll.
Left 2 10:43 43 O1 O44 DPJ OOB O40
Lotti sells his dive well, but if there's anything that causes this to punt to be short it's the pressure coming his way, not the fallout from said pressure. He doesn't get hit but does get run into after throwing his leg out; the refs actually appropriately no-called this. The ball is headed for the sideline, hits, and goes out of bounds four yards behind its intial spot.
Left 2 6:06 43 O39 M18 DPJ 0 M16
Glasgow does a nice job knifing through a gap, and he almost comes away with a block because the shield guy in front of him needlessly doubles another rusher. DPJ catches this and I'm guessing he thinks he can step back a yard and outrun the two gunners to the sideline; he can not. You'd hope he would call the fair catch with two gunners bearing down, but he doesn't and subsequently loses two yards.
Left 2 :25 52 O11 M37 DPJ -6 M31
Not a fan of this for so many reasons. You're asking for a block in the back, and the offense has had a few seconds to get a couple of plays off.
Left 3 12:51 O10 M42 Ball -4 (ball) M38
Michigan shows pressure and actually brings pressure; they usually drop at least two men off the line at the snap. Metellus gets a free run off the edge and almost blocks it. Ball hits at the Michigan 42 and goes out at the 38 (Ball -4yds).
Left 3 9:45 46 O1 O47 DPJ 6 O41
This is entirely DPJ's return. Hard step left gets one guy to fly by, some horizontal running gets past another diving tackler, then he turns it upfield and gets thumped by the nearest unblocked Badger (+6yds).
Middle 4 9:50 36 50 M14 DPJ FC M24
Fair caught, but tack on a 10-yard holding penalty.
Punt
Play Qtr Time Kicker In-Air Yd From To Rtn Rlt Tackle
Middle 1 12:23 Robbins 53 M48 EZ TB O20 n/a
Coverage team is in position to down this at the one- or two-yard line but they aren't given the opportunity to do so. Straight up kicked too far.
Right 1 6:25 Robbins 42 M25 O33 Dwnd O20 n/a
Dang, ball, look at you go (+13yds). Brutally short punt is the beneficiary of a clear-out. Actually could have been fielded by the returner off a hop, but he decides to jump out of the way and let it roll past him. Foreshadowing!
Left 1 1:15 Robbins 46 M4 50 TD EZ n/a
This is a stupid play so many times over. The punt itself is too short (again). Then there’s the missed penalty for a block in the back; I’m sure it’s purely coincidence that the footage they’ve posted from The Journey starts right after Thomas falls. There are bad angles taken on the return and then a bunch of Michigan players that run into each other and go down like bowling pins. Maybe I’ll end up going back and changing this but I’ve watched it seven times in a row and that penalty nullifies the play; it’s egregious enough that the return is on the referees as far as I’m concerned.
Left 2 12:47 Robbins 41 M34 O25 Dwnd O3 n/a
Another ridiculously short punt that works out in Michigan's favor. The returner loops around to his right and calls for a clear out on a ball that bounces well in front of to his left. It skitters to toward the end zone and Michigan has six guys deep with only three Wisconsin players between them and the ball, and that's counting the returner. None of them throw a block, and Michigan's six are able to chase down the ball (+22yds) and down it just before it goes into the end zone.
Right 3 11:02 Robbins 46 M41 O12 FC O12 n/a
Can't knock Robbins for putting it a little short considering he had to save this from going over his head (+20yds for saving the snap). Not giving him the full 41 yards because Hudson and Poggi are back and Wisconsin wasn't bringing anyone, so it's a bit of an arbitrary leap of faith but I assume Hudson would be able to catch up to the play/ball.
Sideline-R 3 8:48 Robbins 42 M47 O11 OOB O10 n/a
Don't think it's hyperbole to say this is the best punt of Robbins' career. He puts spin on it such that the thing almost dies when it hits, and that's on top of tucking just inside the sideline. It bounces safely out of bounds a yard behind where it landed (ball +1yd).
Sideline-R 3 2:06 Robbins 42 M19 O39 OOB O39 n/a
So some jerk Wisconsin player must read MGoBlog and thought he could try the Metellus Eurostep. Well guess what, buddy. I'm not gonna call it a Eurostep. That's a frontwards Dream Shake, and you didn't even block the punt. This looked bad initially but Robbins steps into this to the right to avoid the free rusher. He executes well just getting the punt off, and though short it's understandably so.
Middle 4 13:29 Robbins 54 M41 O5 Dwnd O5 n/a
Fair to say we're witnessing an in-game turnaround from Robbins. The biggest thing he's been able to do in the second half is to control the spin on punts that have a chance to get deep into Wisconsin territory. The returner completely gives up on the ball, assuming it's going to hit and skip into the end zone. Instead it hits and dies, giving Michigan's cover men a chance to down it.
Left 4 7:54 Robbins 57 M13 O30 18 O48 Glasgow
Nelson drops this, and I'm trying to figure out why the coverage team is so far to the left. He's able to pick this up and take off to his left without anyone coming remotely close to impeding his progress until the 42. Thomas tries to work back in after getting shoved toward the sideline and Hudson takes a really bad angle to the point that I'm thinking the drop threw him off. Takes Glasgow five yards to pull down the ballcarrier but I don't want to neg him those yards since he pulls him down unassisted.

FIRE EVERYONE! NOT THE STAFF THAT GOES AGAINST MY TWO ANSWER BUT JUST FIRE PEOPLE WHAT IS HAPPENING

The punt return TD really—

SHOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED NO EXCUSE MAKE PLAYS

There was a block in the back. Thomas went airborne. That shouldn’t have happened. I’m in a place where it didn’t.

Well jeez how many units are available in ref-free land

We have to note that the punt return touchdown happened but it also needs to be put in context. The game opened with a solid boot… that went straight into the end zone. The sequence then went too short/TD/too short, and that’s the entirety of the first half against a team where punting was likely to be of the utmost importance.

That’s so short that the returner doesn’t know what to do with it. He lets it hit and go past him because he doesn’t think he can charge and field something so far in front of himself. I think he’s right, too.

Then there was this little gem. Bunting’s clearly looking at the ball and thinking he’s about to down it when it’s picked up and carried away, so his dive misses. Glasgow’s on the wrong side and from there it’s gone. The thing to do in this situation is get the dang call right, man.

A bit of foreshadowing as the snap is a bit high. It’s not over the head but it’s about facemask level; a difficult grab, but not so hard that Robbins has no time to kick. It doesn’t seem to disrupt his motion much at all, as the play is well blocked and Wisconsin wasn’t bringing pressure to start. He drops it short once again, though. This one’s incredibly dangerous because it hits and bounces with speed, and there’s a good chance this is a touchback if not for an incredible effort from the coverage team and even then Wisconsin of course wanted nothing to do with it and gave said team a free run at the thing.

Then the teams went into the locker rooms at halftime and from the depths of Camp Randall emerged a new golden god. Move over, Ron Coluzzi.

ARE YOU TELLING ME HE COULD HAVE DONE THIS THE WHOLE TIME also that one’s kind of fun because it looks horrible at first and then you realize he meant to pin it to the sideline and freaking did it

That’s exactly what I was going to say but that sort of makes sense since you are my alter ego. Anyways, that’s an excellent and—most importantly—controlled punt. He tries to do the same thing later in the quarter and what looks like a horrible punt is made much better once you look at Poggi and see that his man pulled a front-facing Dream Shake (I’m recycling my jokes from the table, whatever).

This has to just be a coincidence because NCAA rule 3-a.14Jb states that stupid and bad and stupidly bad things must affect the University of Michigan

I thought that was the rule that said satellite camps were bad for the kids.

That’s what I said

[/shakes head at self]

Anyway, watch these punts die. This seems like a guy who’s figured out how to control the spin he applies.

Robbins last punt of the day went 57 yards in the air, which is right up there with his longest punt of the season; I’ve charted him at 60 yards once, 59 a couple times, and 57 a half dozen times. That one I linked above and didn’t put here because the coverage team was pushed to one side and the returner took it 18 yards.

That’s cool that maybe the punting will turn around but SOMEONE MUST BE BENCHED

We’ve reached the Donovan Peoples-Jones segment of the post, I see.

YES HIM HE MUST BE BENCHED—

--is something I, sane and rational non-bolded alter ego, was also thinking. Of course, I don’t feel that way after going over the returns more diligently. Here’s one that’s bad because he’s exposing himself to injury.

Just call for the fair catch and live to see the next return (and play offense).

I can understand people being upset about this one because, frankly, it’s an unmitigated disaster. Peoples-Jones has a habit of stepping back and pushing off and being able to set up a block and get away from the first gunner. That’s fine. It’s every decision after that that’s the issue. He could have picked up a few yards just running on an angle toward that sideline, but he instead tries to evade the three unblocked Wisconsin guys in the area. The final nail in the coffin comes when he tries to dance around instead of running it up the hash. One last head fake—which, to his credit, has worked fairly well when he’s used them in the open field this season—does nothing.

Thomas might be the long-term solution here, but I’m comfortable with Peoples-Jones back there because he’s showed a consistent ability to make the first and second gunner miss. Even in this game, which was admittedly not his best, he pulled out the horizontal run to set up a missed diving tackle and the stop-start move to make a guy miss.

And this may only get him six yards but it’s six yards he earns purely off skill.

Let DPJ return punts again this week and wait and see what happens during Christmas Camp.

How have you gone an entire special teams UFR and not discussed the kickoff team?

Because I was saving up the videos to end on a good note. Better seen than described, these two.

Shouldn’t there be more charts? This feels light on the ol’ charts.

Indeed.

KO Summary
Player Returns YdsGained YdsLost TotalYds SsnYds
Team 24
Schoenle 57
Woods 7 7 -13
St. Juste -10
Wroblewski -10
Glasgow 10 10 3
Mason -13
Foug 65
Hewlett 4 4 69
Ross 6 6 6
Kinnel 6 6 6
Uche 4 4 4
PR Summary
Player Returns YdsGained YdsLost TotalYds SsnYds
Peoples-Jones 2 11 2 9 150
Hewlett 0 -10
The ball 0 22 -22 -33
Refs 0 4
St. Juste 0 -31
Kinnel 0 -21

Punt Summary
Player Returns YdsGained YdsLost TotalYds SsnYds
The ball 36 36 79
Metellus 19
Poggi 5
Thomas 18 -18 -13
Wangler 5
Robbins (SnpSv) 20 20
Hudson 18 -18 -18

What does it mean for Ohio State and beyond?

  • BRAD ROBBINS THUNDERDOME DEATH MATCH unless it’s Brad Robbins bloop single-slapper
  • Donovan Peoples-Jones should still be the returner unless he exhibits poor ball handling. I think his skill in evading the first two defenders outweighs his dancing around in hopes of a big lane opening when that doesn’t work at this level. It’s close, though
  • KICKOFF COVERAGE TEAM THUNDERDOME DEATH MATCH
  • There has been a lot of fair-catching from their punt returners but I feel like I may have crafted a curse so probably shouldn’t say much more

    Comments

    carolina blue

    November 24th, 2017 at 8:20 PM ^

    Was way worse than I remembered, and in remembered it being blatant. That was straight up bull shit right there. He was absolutely going to down it and was just shoved from behind. Holy hell we got screwed on that.

    colomon1988

    November 24th, 2017 at 10:23 PM ^

    I've watched it a bunch of times now, and I've never been convinced it's a block in the back.  There's some sort of contact, and then it looks like our guy (#1, dunno which of the two it is) stumbles.  Or is there something else in the play I'm not seeing that's what everyone is complaining about?

    (On the flip side, the tackle that knocked Peters out of the game did look to me like there was something dodgy on there -- like the dude made a great and possibly injurious tackle, but then jammed Peters' head into the ground a little bit extra at the end of it.)