Breakdown Sports - A Look Around the League
I've been pretty active on my blog lately, and thought I'd give folks a heads up to some new posts for those interested in what some old and upcoming opponents are doing, along with Michigan.
Michigan
LINK - How Don Brown adjusted Michigan's Defense to defend Slants vs Northwestern
LINK - Michigan's Down G Play (similar to a previous Neck Sharpies post from Seth). It looks at how Down G is a tweak to Michigan's Lead G play.
Around the League
LINK - The rationale behind PSU's "crappy" 4th down and 5 Inside Zone RPO, and why that's probably still wrong
LINK - How Ohio State dialed up a TEX Stunt to defend PSU's Inside Zone RPO on 4th and 5, and why the Buckeyes coaching staff likely believed in the justification for the Nittany Lions running this play
LINK - Wisconsin's Heavy Personnel Fake Power O Wheel Route; something Michigan should really look into running in short yardage situations
LINK - Iowa's TE-Wing Dig-Wheel Combo. Michigan effectively ran something similar against Northwestern twice, although the started with Higdon split wide (and I believe ran the seam instead of a dig, but that can be an option depending on coverage). Resulted in one big gain to Higdon and what should have been a big gain to Eubanks
LINK - Nebraska's Insert Iso Bubble-Slant RPO. Michigan effectively ran what amounts to Insert Iso a few times against Northwestern, and it was quite effective (they used a more traditional FB rather than an H-back, but same scheme).
October 2nd, 2018 at 8:33 AM ^
Thanks for posting these. Do you happen to have any thoughts on why from a tactical aspect we were getting burned early? I.e., did Brown not anticipate what NW came out running, did he think we could get away with a base defense and it didn't get it done, etc.?
While the adjustments he's made have been great, it is concerning that we have to make them after getting burned out of the gate, particularly when our offense isn't having the same early success as ND and NW and also has to make adjustments to get something going (i.e. ND and NW didn't have the same early problems our defense had).
October 2nd, 2018 at 8:40 AM ^
Against Northwestern, I anticipate that the thought was the coverage was going to be more effective and the early Northwestern execution wasn't going to be quite so good. Slants, of course, weren't the only things Northwestern had success with early, but tackling, some penalties, and some poor run defense also contributed, probably just as much as scheme.
Against ND, I think Wimbush was oddly hot by his standards, the DBs lost some battles (either lack of communication or just not executed as anticipated), and I think the DTs probably performed below expectations, and it snowballed a bit.
So I think the Northwestern issue was a bit different than the Notre Dame issue. I do wonder how much the outlook is different if Michigan gets off the field on one of their early 3rd downs. ND seemed to pick up a couple unlikely third and longs early, and then gained some confidence. Can't let an opponent get that confidence early.
October 2nd, 2018 at 10:32 AM ^
Thorson was also on fire, to be fair. Every defense can be beaten by an offense executing a scheme perfectly at whatever hole or weakness exists in a defense....even the 85 Bears were shredded in one game, against throw god Marino.
Not saying we are the legendary 85 bears defense, or Thorson is Marino reincarnate, but the hole in man to man coverage against a dominant front 7 is generally quick slants or over the top fades and post routes. Thorson was completing those slants into some tight windows early - sometimes you need to tip the cap to perfect execution.
Of greater concern to my novice eye would be our presumed "elite" corners getting beat off the line of scrimmage. It makes sense for this to happen a couple times a game, and you hope the qb just doesn't hit the low percentage pass, or even attempt it. But it seems like Long and Hill are getting beat on the deep fade more often this year...not sure if this is a technique issue at the line of scrimmage, but good qb's (Mcsorley and Haskins) will make us pay if this is not fixed.
If we believe we have lock down corners and leave them on an island, they sure as hell better be as good as advertised. IMO, I'd like to see a bit more zone on downs like 2nd and 17 or 3rd and 12, so we can avoid as many PIs and potential long plays.
October 2nd, 2018 at 10:35 AM ^
Wimbush had the half of his life against us, unfortunately. The corners also played poorly at the line of scrimmage, but in fairness, those were still not high percentage throws (the prayer to the endzone mistimed by Hawkins was most brutal).
October 2nd, 2018 at 11:27 AM ^
Two weeks of prep time set him up for that.
October 2nd, 2018 at 8:36 AM ^
This is really fascinating and insightful.
The PSU/OSU articles especially, which make sense of what seemed to be very bizarre and poor playcalling.
October 2nd, 2018 at 8:44 AM ^
These are great, space coyote. Thanks for all the hard work you put in to these breakdowns. It really helps in understanding play calling much better.
On a side note, I was asked to help out and coach for a pee wee team this past spring, but I declined because I thought I would have more questions than answers and probably hold the team up during practice. I'd be really interested in doing it next year with using the winter to learn more online. Do you have any recommendations of sites that could help in the elementary phase of coaching 10-12 year olds?
October 2nd, 2018 at 8:53 AM ^
Depending on what you may be coaching or where, google is probably your best friend. There are a lot of articles and videos that go about explaining basics in technique but they are pretty scattered. Most dedicated sites are going to get into details that are probably unnecessary for that age, both schematically and technically.
Look up things like "(position) stance", "base blocking", "snapping", "how give/take a handoff", "how to run slant/hitch/go route", "tackling" (probably the most important think if it is tackle, we want to make sure at a youth level we are teaching safe tackling and stressing it at low levels in controlled environments so by the time they get older they are doing it well). At that age, you probably don't need to get much deeper than that.
Then I'm sure there are some good youth coaching books that can tell you a few other things you would benefit from. Don't let "not knowing" hold you back at that age. It's an age to have fun, you'll have other coaches there to help, and it's a good level to learn as well.
October 2nd, 2018 at 9:10 AM ^
Field position and penalties also led to Northwestern early success. In their first couple drives they were working on half a field
October 2nd, 2018 at 9:15 AM ^
Great stuff Comrade! Thank you for posting here.
October 2nd, 2018 at 10:06 AM ^
First, James Franklin is a demonstrated and proven fool.
But if you treat the play as an Option, then the problem looks less like a bad playcall and more like a bad blocking call.
Remember, PSU had their #1 receiver out of the game, this was always going to be a run, so...bad center? Not sure if PSUs center is allowed to make line calls, but I'm guessing yes. OSU had everyone up near the LOS, and I'm guessing the center thought more of them would drop into coverage.
October 2nd, 2018 at 10:49 AM ^
Space Coyote has written about criticizing individual play calls. And I agree with a lot of those thoughts.
The biggest fail from my perspective in that sequence for PSU was not being decisive. The playcalling failure, I think, is that they ended up wasting two timeouts, which made the play the game ender. I know you want to get it right, but sometimes you just need to decide and go and PSU wasn't ready for the moment.
October 2nd, 2018 at 10:08 AM ^
Thanks again, Coyote!
October 2nd, 2018 at 10:44 AM ^
Great stuff. I kept going further down the rabbit hole.
Especially great info on trap plays and the Down-G which helped me understand even more. Just excellent content.