What's the Best Way to Defend Milroe's Running Ability?

Honestly, if there’s a defense in the country equipped to stopping Milroe, it’s this Michigan defense… 

I wish we still had a Peppers back there as that ‘athletic LB’/SS hybrid that you could play a zone-Defense with (just him)…

… but with that said, the rotating DL and tighter coverages should at least confuse Milroe and force him to take some hits early on and not be as keen on run first and forcing him to throw ducks. 
 

we’ll see come Jan 1. 

Our DTs are accustomed to light boxes.  And while Alabama's receivers are good, they're not MHJ good.  Also, we have a super-athletic linebacker who's not great at complicated linebacker things.

So this is the game where we should give Colson the proverbial You Have One Job and have him just chase Milroe all day.

A combo of zone defense on the back end, with a Don Brown style front that aggressively blitzes and doesn't stunt. Stunts, loopers, and spies just give him more time and space to run. Speed him up, make the timer go off, and he will make mistakes. Blitzing will be higher risk and you probably will get got from time to time, but you will force them to single the DTs and produce negative plays. Plus with the zone defense behind them, even on the occasions he does break the pocket for a good gain, you can hold it down for 15 as opposed to 50.

edit: as an aside to Seth/Brian....anyway to get Ian Boyd to write an article about matching up with Alabama? Given Texas played them earlier this year, he might have something already written.

Keep him in the pocket, extend the edges, if he goes, force him up into the pocket..if he kills us with his arm, so be it....and when you get him PUT HIM ON THE GROUND

Plenty of zone blitzes. Back when Mike Vick was torching teams when he was with the Falcons, one team (I believe KC) punished him with blitz after blitz. We're not a big blitzing team, but I think that's your best way to limit his running ability, especially if we're throwing at him stuff he didn't see on film.

We've been prepping for OSU by playing two deep safeties most of the year.

I'd like to see us play more single high and walk the "other" safety (since we really don't do FS and SS) down into the box.

Also, if you play more zone, then you have 11 guys looking back at the QB...it's man when everyone's back is turned.

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Michigan plays my favorite defense in NCAA Football, Cover 2 Man.  All corners and linebackers are manned up and you have two high safeties over the top.  I would manually control one of the two safeties and walk him down into the box to take away crossing routes, stop the run, and spy the QB.

On "3rd and long" situations, I walk him down to the LOS and show blitz, but I never rush with him...it's really more to control where the QB thinks he can escape (typically into a blitz or an unbalanced pressure coming from the other side).  I'd always back out, but if the QB ran, now I'm 7 yards down field, not 20 yard down field.  If he stays in the pocket, I'm dropping at the same rate as the WRs to my side.  So unless it's a go route with Tyreek Hill and he completely burns my CB, I'll still be able to play the deep ball.  No reason to bite on a run fake when it's "and long" so that's not going to hold the safety from getting back.

This is a good question and it's the great unknown about the matchup. I'm confident Michigan's defense can slow down Alabama's offense enough, *except* that Milroe's running ability is a great unknown that we haven't really seen Michigan face at this scale since Don Brown was defenestrated.

And I'm not sure how well-equipped Minter is to answer these questions, *except* that the Macdonald-Minter silo has heavy affiliation with the Baltimore Ravens, who happen to have the most dangerous running QB in football at the center of the franchise. So perhaps they already have some good ideas.

Someone more enterprising than me might find if Minter faced dangerous running QBs before he got to Michigan and analyze what he did with them; I'm just a rando with a keyboard on the internet.

I did see someone suggest using Colson as a spy, since that plays to his strengths and diverts him from the pass coverage that appears to be his weakness, and that might be a good idea. I guess we'll see.

Dude is going to convert some 3rd downs - they're good!  The question is can they do it enough to stress the offense into a different game plan?  We can expect Bama to score 24-30 points, because that's what really good teams do.  What we have to hope is that our offense can move the ball easier against their defense than they can move it against ours.

If we score in the 20's, this game will be a toss-up.  In the 30's, we're looking pretty good.  I believe that Minter's base defense is good enough to limit them to under 30, while containing Milroe well enough.  Personally, I hope Moore is ready to call a helluva of a good offensive game, because that's my big worry.

From what Alex posted the other day, their TEs are just guys, so if they go with 2 TEs that should allow us to use 3 DTs which would play to our strengths. Our cover 2 zone coverage could be a good move here, as you want to force Milroe to string together multiple fresh sets of downs to get into the red zone. 

I would be hesitant to give Milroe too much time by using spies rather than using those guys as pass rushers, Georgia chose this path and it didn't work out well for them. If we can get a lead that may make Milroe more one dimensional and become a pure passer which is not his strength at this time. 

Hopefully he meets Barrett headon on his first attempted run and then Mikey on his second with a couple of shoulder pad to the ribs, wraped up and taken to the turf tackles.......  that should find him a little less eager to pull the ball down and take off up field.   

If that doesn't work wait until big Kenny runs him down from behind and puts the full force of 340# on him, or 339# if he had a light lunch that day.

... in order to have a chance to win. 

We are #1.  We are the ones who knock.  Alabama has been a dynasty, but that is why we are going to enjoy this victory so much.

Outscore them.

One more fun fact, TaTa had his season low against Michigan (-43 yards) and PSU (-47 yards).  Again, sacks are factored in. 

He rushed for 21 yards against OSU (Milroe rushed for 29 against UGA).

Gavin Wimsatt (Rutgers) was the most productive against Michigan, 6 rushes for 28 yards.

Pray

I'm not going to put this game on our defense; it's really going to be on our offense. Michigan can't play to "not lose" as it has the last several games. It has to go out like Texas did and play to win. Like Michigan did against Urban Meyer's Florida squad in Lloyd Carr's last game.

Milroe will make mistakes if Alabama is constantly trying to catch up to Michigan. This is a winnable game if Michigan goes away from some of its core tendencies.

Rush 2 and have a spy on 4th and goal from the 31 with the game on the line to make sure we don’t have to play FSU. 

Watch how the Lions defended Fields and then don’t do that. 

Have Saban ask where Lou Holtz is and talk about how tough his team is.

Hold the ball for 52 minutes

long, time consuming scoring drives by the offense and forcing turnovers by the defense.... 

that's the best way to defend against Milroe.

Lean on the Ravens experience with Lamar Jackson...

I’m no expert but want to see the first guy to get hands on the QB to make the tackle. It’s demoralizing on 3rd & long to have their QB escape a sack and then run for the first. 

having fast linebackers, which we don't.  Devin Bush would've been perfect to spy 

Disguise coverages and use a few zone blitzes on 3rd down.  Assign a zone coverage/spy in long yardage situations.  Continue to use all the stunts and games the DL has used all year - but with an emphasis on gap integrity.  Try to make him think before and after the snap so he's not sure what the D is doing - even if we stick with our main man-2 defense, disguise it occasionally.

Milroe is going to make some plays - just have to keep them to a minimum and limit their impact.  E.g. 3rd downs, no 20+ yard runs, etc.  

What we can't do is assign a spy who's not quick or agile enough to contain him.  So frustrating to watch teams waste a defender and not even stop the 1 thing they scheme is designed to stop.  I expect Minter will know better.  

Block destruction  and tackling.

What does Milroe do well?  1. He can obviously run.  2. He can hit the deep ball.  3. He beats you off script. 

What does he not do well? 1. Not great or experienced at reading defenses. 2. Not a terribly accurate passer.  3. Reliant on big plays.

If I'm Michigan:

- Play two deep with complex coverages 

- Set hard edges on the wide side of the field

- Blitz from the wide side of the field when the ball is on the left hash to push him into the boundary and use the sideline as a 12th defender while speeding up his decision making.

- Use Colson and/or a secondary player as a spy to cheat angles

- Make him beat you by dinking and dunking his way up and down the field.  Eliminate big passing plays and make him execute play after play after play. Compress the field and make him make tighter window throws than he's used to.

If he goes crazy superman mode breaking tackles right and left or goes nuts making tight window throws then so be it.  But I'm not letting him break contain and have easy deep shots to their athletes on the outside and I'm not running coverages that allow for him to get big chunks with deep ins and outs.  Make him beat you by playing boring and efficient football at a high level of execution.

In watching the Auburn-Alabama game, I was struck by Peyton Thorne's repeated qb runs, especially in the second half which turned out to be game-changing plays for the Tigers until their late game punt muff and inept failure on 4th and 31. 

Milroe wasn't the running threat in that game as much as Thorne became on designed draws, which Milroe almost never ran.

Most of Milroes runs come off scrambles from the pocket. To that extent, Alabama seemed content to allow the defense to occupy their linebackers off the LOS rather than have them commit giving Milroe more. time to scan downfield on pass plays or eventually dodge would-be pass rushers. 

It seems to me that the best way to go after Milroe is never give him a steady diet of anything. Force him to adjust to varying defensive alignments, pressure and spying efforts. It's never a good idea to let a scrambling qb more time to make plays. Once you find something that works, keep doing it until the other side adjusts. 

Nuke him from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Late in the game, the Gerogia rush seemed a bit too passive. Milroe was back there a long time, but they did a pretty good job of contain. It's good that Michigan has some fast LB's. He'll be annoying to play against, but he's also not a pinpoint passer, so I'm hoping M gets a pick or two. 

On the defensive line, imperative to stay in your lane. Meaning, if you get pressure backfield, staying in your lane means retracing your path back. My two cents: keep him in the pocket by setting edge. 

Tackle him 

Hit him early and often.