2021 big ten championship game

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The live broadcast was canceled because we had so many kid interruptions happening.

[After THE JUMP: The player and what was said]

Event notice: Nevermind it's canceled. 

Formation Notes: Iowa lined up their FB/2nd TE in a lot of different ways. I mostly treated him as a TE, so this is “Offset 12 SB” meaning offset shotgun with 1 RB and 2TEs, one of them as a “superback.”

Michigan matched this personnel group with 5-2 personnel then had Jaylen Harrell act as a true LB if they flexed the TE. Sometimes Michigan would substitute Harrell for Michael Barrett depending on the down/distance.

Substitution Notes: A lot more five-man fronts in this one, though Michigan learned to use a 4-3 (with Barrett) when Iowa went two-TE on passing downs. First three-man DT unit was Hinton-Smith-Jenkins, and second unit was Jeter-Speight-Welschof. Morris came in as a passing downs DT or Hutchinson’s backup.

[After THE JUMP: Three! Three plays and out again, ah ah ah!]

The defensive UFR was getting a little long so I thought I might pop out a chunk about Iowa’s heavy formation package, why Michigan was getting beat by it earlier in the game, how they adjusted, and how they caught Iowa trying to take advantage.

So Iowa finally has the ball moving after a stretch of 20/22 unsuccessful offensive plays, and gets to the Michigan 8 yard line, with 4th down and 3. Michigan broke through last drive to make it 21-3, and this drive has consumed almost 8 minutes of the 3rd quarter, so Iowa has to score to avoid going into the 4th quarter down three scores without the ball.

This was the result:

Let’s talk about how they did that.

[After THE JUMP]