Picture Pages: Open All Day
So, yeah, the 3-3-5 stack was sort of a spectacular failure. Not so much against the run, as Michigan did a decent job against Korey Sheets, but against the pass. Michigan allowed 266 yards—7.8 YPA—to a third string quarterback on a 2-6 team. That is epic failure.
Why did this happen? Well, IMO, the stack had a a major part in it. Here's a typical presnap alignment:
The thing to note is the one deep safety. This is Donovan Warren. With one deep safety the corners are basically on an island; they won't get much deep help from Warren on a sideline route. Fades and fly routes are going to be left up to the corner to defend.
Michigan, then, often sees itself play a cover-three susceptible to little hitches and out-cuts. Here's a closeup of Morgan Trent on one of many, many ten-yard outs that Purdue will find wide open all day:
We've just started the route. Greg Orton is going to run directly at Trent.
Trent is turning his hips inside and looking at the quarterback.
Here we see Orton reaching Trent, with Trent turned completely away from him, not even looking at him.
Orton begins his break with Trent facing 180 degrees the wrong way.
Orton now has two yards of separation and Trent is still facing the wrong way.
The perspective on this makes it difficult to tell, but this is wide open for ten yards.
Here's the video:
Michigan's corners have been coached to do this. Trent would do it all day, and Boubacar Cissoko did it on the long Orton completion down the sideline. This coverage style covers that extremely well and the only thing that made that a completion was a perfectly thrown ball, some bad luck on Cissoko's part not to knock it down, and a great catch by Orton.
However, every wide open hitch or out was because of it, too. It's completely impossible to flip your hips around 180 degrees that quickly, impossible to do anything but tackle after a first down. So Michigan provided this n00b quarterback with the easiest reads in the history of reads most of the day, and ended up paying for it.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:17 AM ^
November 7th, 2008 at 11:29 AM ^
Right on, Brian. We gave the converted RB the most wide open, easiest to throw, short routes ALL DAY LONG. I mean, really, what the fuck. And that one well-covered, crazy-ass deep completion to Orton shouldn't have had any bearing on what coverage we chose to use. That play was an anomaly.
At the very least, if our CBs our going to use this coverage technique at least make sure they know where the 1st down marker is and protect the fucking sticks!
God, that was frustrating to watch.
You know what scares me? Jim Herrmann was considereing a young, brilliant defensive mind, too. How did that one end up working out?
I'm not sayin'... I'm just sayin'.
November 7th, 2008 at 2:05 PM ^
A national championship was won.
I'm not saying... I'm just saying
November 7th, 2008 at 11:29 AM ^
November 7th, 2008 at 11:50 AM ^
November 7th, 2008 at 12:56 PM ^
November 7th, 2008 at 11:35 AM ^
man coverage right off the line, blitzed some lb's (which I love, because even if you don't get to the qb, it forces him to make quick decisions), and watched the n00b qb throw one long td after another.*
If "man to man" with our db's is like the Guillotine, then this "10 yard cushion defense" is like Crocodile Shears.**
*See Golden Tate
**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocodile_shears
November 7th, 2008 at 11:37 AM ^
November 7th, 2008 at 11:52 AM ^
November 7th, 2008 at 11:46 AM ^
Comparing converted-RB-guy to Clausen is shaky until Siller were to, you know, actually PROVE us wrong. Once Siller had proven that he can make those quick throws ALL DAY, you then need to see if the kid can also throw accurate deep balls over the top.
Plus, like drakeep said, using inside coverage technique while being INSIDE the receiver makes ZERO sense! And even if that was just stupidity from our 5th year SR, Gibson needed to STOP that shit from happening. C'mon, coach 'em up!
November 7th, 2008 at 12:01 PM ^
I wasn't comparing Clausen with Siller. I was comparing the expected results of two different coverages.
I actually would PREFER we played aggressive man to man with a heavy dose of blitzing. My point was that the results would have probably been the same, so I'm not going to get all worked up about it. We have shown we can't play either very well.
So I call Bullshit on your Bullshit call. Ha!
November 7th, 2008 at 11:59 AM ^
So, what you're saying Brian is that, in your opinion, COACHING might've just been a problem with the terrible performance by our defense last Saturday?
Hmmm......
November 7th, 2008 at 12:05 PM ^
November 7th, 2008 at 12:06 PM ^
so you're the one who needs to chill out. My point was that your theory is flawed if and until Siller PROVED he could actually make that deep throw.
Was Siller ever forced to prove he could make that deep throw? NO. For you to ASSUME that Siller could hit those deep throws accurately is a big assumption. That is all I was saying.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:29 PM ^
Again, in your attempt to question the coaching, you missed the whole point of the post.....
My original post was an attempt at HUMOR. As in: "Our db's are so shitty, it doesn't matter what coverage we play. Do you prefer a slow death, or a quick one."
November 7th, 2008 at 12:31 PM ^
November 7th, 2008 at 12:58 PM ^
And Don, let's not get carried away. I still think RR is a great football coach.
Yes, I'm asking some questions and voicing some concern, but I am definitely NOT advocating that anyone be fired.
November 7th, 2008 at 1:04 PM ^
Everyone has there own opinions, but for the most part, we all want the same thing on here I think.
It's just hard to pick up sarcasm and tone on the web.
Damn internet!!
November 7th, 2008 at 12:58 PM ^
November 7th, 2008 at 1:07 PM ^
November 7th, 2008 at 1:12 PM ^
Can we stop calling Justin Siller a converted running back? Please?!?!
Siller was the #14 dual-threat QB in the class of 2007. He was a backup RB because Purdue had an incumbent starter, Curtis Painter, as the quarterback. It's not like he was Brandon Minor, who never played QB even in high school, and then all of a sudden was a starting QB in Division I football.
I'm not saying Michigan shouldn't have done better. But some of you (caup especially) are pretending Joe Tiller had to teach him how to throw a football.
November 7th, 2008 at 1:15 PM ^
November 7th, 2008 at 1:22 PM ^
November 7th, 2008 at 1:20 PM ^
November 7th, 2008 at 6:37 PM ^
I called that play out in real time on one of the other blogs...as it happened.
Trent's "technique" was complete and total bullshit on that play, and it is indicative of this entire season, from Trent and the secondary.
If the receiver is more than 7 yds or so from the sideline, Trent needs to line out 'outside' of the WR, (not inside as he did here)...and square his shoulders diagionally so he can have the WR on his inside shoulder and can look in at the QB... this gives him the advantage of:
a) positioning
b) vision
c) the ability to jam the receiver forcing him inside and/or off his route.
d) the flexibility to either cover the out route, or still have the receiver covered quite well on just about any route he choose, including the post, curl, streak. Even a slant, you would have good positioning on, and you would also be able to force the play inside to our speedy LBs and excellent safetys... (ok in theory anyway).
For a veteran guy to take that piss poor technique is an indictment of him and the coaching that he must be receiving...its pure BS. If he is being coached that way for the "sake of the scheme", well it is poor technique in ANY scheme...and wasnt Shafer the guy that said "scheme is overrated"? OK then... teach them fundamental techniques and dont have them flopping around based on the piss poor scheme.
November 7th, 2008 at 8:25 PM ^
This technique is played to try to get the advantages of man-pressure on the receivers while still getting zone advantage to contain a running quarterback, avoiding getting the DBs turning away from the quarterback on mid-routes. This was calculated based on the rook qb not being able to deliver strong out throws to the field. The compromise turned out poorly because of the cushion required without safety help, and that Siller was mostly contained on the run. He outperformed on his supposed weakness and underperformed on his supposed strength. M showed no adjustment on this.
They've been trying to solve too many problems at once: poor safety play other than Harrison, getting more quicks on the field to prevent bad big-on-quick matchups, inexperience at one corner, and injury to Williams (a tweener big/quick). Previously the attempt to mitigate the big/quick matchup problem has been done with Mouton and Williams working hybrid out of the 4-3. Betting M's 5-6 bigs could beat the run worked out pretty well. What they considered the lesser gamble -- to force Siller to throw -- didn't. What I didn't understand was the lack of adjustment -- after a few drives worth of field-eating outs, moving back to a man under cover 2 in a nckel or at least doing so to the short side of the field seemed to make some sense. Whatever.
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