How 4-3 defenses are evolving to stop the smashmouth spread
Interesting article from Football Study Hall that made me think of our collective horror at Durkin's refusal to adjust during the Ohio State game last year. It also focuses pretty significantly on how MSU has gotten shredded by spread teams. And surprise, part of the solution involves having a lockdown corner on one side, which we just happen to have.
team? It's ok to admit that.......it took me a while, but it evens out this year quite a bit!
Maybe. But Seth showed pretty definitively that we didn't even make it a game because we let them play 11-on-10 most of the day. I know they won't do a UFR because it's masochism to do so but it would be nice to see exactly what went wrong.
Should at least do an offensive UFR. By then good rudock had shown up, its the same team that steamrolled florida in the running game. I think it would be worth seeing why the offense got shut down.
That game was more of a "perfect storm" in my opinion. Yes, unfortunately OSU was the better team. What turned it into a blowout was a combo of injuries depleting the depth on the D-line, the lack of speed at LB, and Durkin having a poor game plan/ not adjusting. I still believe that he had already checked out before that game. Put all of those factors together, then add in the fact that sparty embarrassed them at home the week before, and it was not pretty. I expect a much more prepared and hungry Michigan team this year in Columbus.
Which of those things explains the offense only getting 13 points?
They should still have won vs a better defensive scheme and we should still have employed one.
woung tighter than a 12 hour clock after Urb gave the game to the Sparties the week before. I think OSU had to ttravel less than 15 yds for their two scoring drives in that game.
And we didn't have the players to matchf up. I was hoping they would have rolled Sparty by 50 and expecting the same result against us. But they played like they did in the playoffs last season and when we lost our one D1 qb - Speight is legit this season, but didn't have the reps and Harbaugh really didn't have the time for on-one-one time with him. Jake needed it all. When he went down game over, and that is the reason for 13 imo,. You saw Bosa that game. He as actually Joey Bosa again.
I blame personnel.
Losing Glasgow really impacted the defense's ability to stop the run (the Indiana horror show, and OSU). With Mone out the entire season, required folks to shift out of position, and they got ground down.
Going up against NFL caliber offensive lineman, RBs in both of those games, as well as our ILB problems..
^This. We couldn't stop Indiana from moving the ball at will without Glasgow. Ohio State had a significantly better running back as well as a defense that could actually -- you know -- defend.
I don't know how to explain not adjusting during that game. Maybe it was beyond my ability to recognize it. We had to anticipate OSU would try the same attack. As far as I could tell, we met it in the same way that largely failed vs IU. i understand that the missing players affected our defense's effectiveness. I still find it hard to believe our personnel was so limited that we couldn't make adjustments.
If you will recall that impressive sting of shutouts was ended and teams began to have lots of success when first Glasgow went down and then later Mario, who imo get's overlooked a lot. I thought he was having one hell of a year. And as much as I respect the two backers - they were bright and they were fighters - they were also very, very limited. Our DL kept lead blockers off them until they started falling. Yes we were thin as hell.
If you look back at the IU game, I think far too people realize Peppers won that game for us on third down. Instincts and reaction cannot be overrated. Many - and they are envious - I see no other reason for it, say he is living off high school press clippings. Yeah, ok. But he saw the play, didn't hesitate and actually left his feet to meet the big runner about a yd in the backfield.
And instead of 4th and less than one they were hoping for, they had to pass and the defender could not have done a better job. But it was Peppers who changed their last play call. f
While the Glasgow loss was certainly significant, the fact is our previously elite defense couldn't even slow down either Indiana or OSU. At any point. To me that's a coaching failure, it's not like we lost EVERYONE on defense to injury.
Fire the bum
if you don't know that this statement is a /s then please remove yourself from the internets
Edit: You as in anyone that doesn't understand.. not the post I replied to
It's a combination of both. There were schematic reasons, there were personnel reasons, there were preperation reasons, there were implementation reasons, etc.
But I do think it's important to remember couple things:
1) People throw out "Indiana" like it's the Indiana of yore. While their offense wasn't the best ever, it was still Top 25 by almost all measures, and one of the best in the B1G. They gashed a lot of good defenses. They only scored less than 26 once all season, and put up 34 on Michigan in regulation. Yes, they seemingly ran the ball again and again and again, but Michigan's defense wasn't really an anomoly against a good Indiana offense.
2) OSU's offense wasn't the same offense as it was before that game. They revamped everything after the horrid gameplan against MSU, and it showed against both Michigan and ND in the bowl game. Again, Michigan's performance was not good, but they did manage to hold OSU to 14 first half points, and got caught on the bad end of half time adjustments in the 2nd half. It happens against good teams (or teams that should be great but for some reason weren't up until that point).
So yes, the issues were multifaceted. But I still think people slightly over react to those instances. Michigan's defense was never as good as the three shutouts in a row indicated, because those were great matchups for Michigan. But it wasn't nearly as bad as those two performances showed either.
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Wasted coverage defending against passes that were obviously not coming. Meanwhile, OSU just kept ramming the ball down our throats.
STACK THE GODDAMN BOX!
Mediocre LB and a depleted DL will do that. However! comma, I should not have a feelingsball impression of inevitable doom when the opponent runs 37 zone reads in a row.
Losing Glasgow was huge. Messed up the sub packages and OSU could keep the matchups they liked on the field. Could Durkin have adjusted? Maybe, one of the other, more Xs & Os posters could probably give us some alternatives, but I think they just got caught with the wrong personnel at crucial times.
I remember when Martin was down, the whole defense seemed to regress a bit. Same situation with Glasgow IMO. Molk on the other side as well.
I think losing Glasgow was a huge blow. We didn't have him for either of the power spread teams we played (Indiana, OSU), and both ran roughshod over us. It's possible that we would have struggled just as much with him, but I doubt it. I think having him and Mone both back to plug up the middle and disrupt the interior of the OL will be a huge boon for us. Of course, a lockdown corner, some athletic rush DEs and Peppers roaming will likely be just as impactful.
At halftime. OSU adjusted, Durkin did not.
Although in fairness to that crabcake eating SOB, you need to score more than 13 points to beat OSU.
I thought it was clear at halftime that our D was in trouble. It had been a low-possession game, as OSU had two extremely long drives that ate up a lot of clock.
People like to blame Durkin for that game but if you want to talk halftime adjustments our offense didn't do any better. 3 second half points at home isn't a great look. Harbuagh got just as outcoached on the offensive side of the ball as durkin did on the defensive. That team was just better than us in every way and played up to their potential. Their oline was better than our depleted dline, their qb and rb were better than our lb's and safeties were at stopping the run, their dline was better than our oline, their lb's were better than our rb's. Every level of the team got beat. Looking forward to a better showing this year.
In fairness, our QB was knocked out of the game in the second half. We had to go with Speight in the fourth quarter.
The OP is right, you need a lock-down corner and we've got one. Also, you need good pressure and athleticism from your DE's.
Hey, we got that too! I am looking forward to next season maybe more than any season in recent memory. If our QB-whisperer maniac coach can work his magic again, both sides of the ball will be in great shape.
Great article, OP. Thanks for posting.
/ breathes into brown paper bag /
...I tried reading that article. I think cure for cancer is imbedded somewhere in there.
They've averaged 39PPG in their last three trips to AA. I think talent more than adjustments were the issue.
But slightly disagree with a rather simplified (likely purposefully) proposal here.
Here's the comment I wrote on the actual article
Part of the problem, however, is that today’s defenses cannot afford to be predictable. Once you are predictable, you will get exploited. So I don’t think the answer is as simple as a schematic change, but more nuanced and involving communication changes to be able to adjust on the fly.
Here a post I wrote about Illinois running RPOs against OSU’s solo coverage and how OSU adjusted. So it can exploit any coverage really. But being able to tweak the defense on the fly is what forces the QB to think and delays his reads. That gives the defense an advantage again and puts the QB is a losing situation. In my opinion, that’s the solution more than just a schematic change.
I think improved DL play is also essential. Good, run defending DL allow the LBs and DBs to be freed up and forces the run play to develop before hitting down hill. Strong DLs that beat the OL still win the day.
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The few amount of passes they threw, we couldn't stop. The game was just a clusterfuck of not being prepared and just plain horrific coaching, tackling, effort, etc.
Trying to block that punt set the tone for the shitshow that ensued.
To top it off, we blocked a meaningless punt later in the game when the game was long over and Speight looked clueless at QB.