Pacheco is this week's dangerman [Raj Mehta - USA Today Sports]

Fee Fi Fo Film: Rutgers Offense 2021 Comment Count

Alex.Drain September 22nd, 2021 at 5:51 PM

This weekend Michigan plays host to America's team, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, at Michigan Stadium. Rutgers rides into Ann Arbor with a sterling 3-0 record and playing more confident under Greg Schiano than their deadbeat years with Chris Ash at the helm. That said, this is still mostly the same Rutgers you know and remember so well and that will become evident as you read further on today's FFFF, looking at the offense. 

 

The Film: Rutgers has played one FCS team (Delaware) as well as Temple and Syracuse (so, three FCS teams *ba dum tss*). Syracuse is nominally a Power Five team (they went 1-10 last season) and were also Rutgers' only road game thus far, so they are the easy selection, the opponent that will tell us the most about who Rutgers really is out of a group of three teams that will collectively tell us little about who Rutgers really is. Scarlet Knights ain't played nobody, but Syracuse is closer to somebody than the other options, so we're going with the Orange here. Worth remembering that this is a bad, bad team. Syracuse, in addition to their horrendous record, finished in the bottom quartile of college football teams last season in offense, both in terms of points per game and yards per game. So there are many reasons to expect Michigan will fare better than the Orange did here. You can probably tell that by reading this piece. 

Personnel: Click for big

Rutgers is running Noah Vedral out there at QB, a returning starter who we will discuss extensively here. He comes off the field on 3rd/4th & short situations for Johnny Langan, a wildcat QB who is basically just out either to run it himself or give it off, usually with a read involved. At RB there's a three player rotation, the bigger and veteran Isaih Pacheco, the speedier and versatile Aaron Young, and then fresh-faced ingénue Kyle Monangai, who hadn't seen the field prior to this year but is starting to get more of a role. If Pacheco is out there, he's going to be in the backfield and carrying the football, as will Monangai. Young is used in more variable ways, sometimes lined up at WR, sometimes in the backfield, the recipient of screens and also involved in plenty of pre-snap motion. 

At WR, both of the top two options are smaller, slot-ish types because Rutgers runs a screen-based offense (the Training Wheels Offense). Those two players are Bo Melton and Aron Cruickshank, both of which are the recipient of frequent bubble screens and Cruickshank in particular features heavily as a jet sweep option, the one with more speed, speed which once landed him on a real P5 roster (Wisconsin). Shameen Jones is the most outside WR shaped object of note in the receiving corps, standing 6'2" and he has 7 catches on the year. Beyond those three, the drop-off in options is pretty steep. TE Jovani Haskins is the most credible receiver from the tight end position, while Brandon Sanders and Isaiah Washington constitute the 4th and 5th most relevant WR's. Those three names have 9 combined catches in three games. Rutgers hasn't thrown a ton of passes. 

The offensive line consists of LT Raiqwon O'Neal, LG Cedrice Paillant, C Nick Crimin, RG Reggie Sutton, and RT saw some of both Brendan Bordner and Hollin Pierce in this game. G/C Bryan Felter showed up in my notes as a reserve OL as well. Blocking TE Matt Alaimo also played quite a bit (was not targeted with a pass), and let's just say, he did not appear in my game notes for good reasons (more on that later). 

[AFTER THE JUMP: you get to see snippets of a painful game... click for PAIN]

-----

One of the base looks for Rutgers

Spread, pro-style, or hybrid: Rutgers runs a spread offense of sorts, but it's far from a Mike Leach Air Raid or a vintage Rich Rod WVU team. They lined up in the shotgun every single snap that I tracked (the YouTube copy of this game was missing the first Rutgers drive) and the kinds of plays they run are far from pro-style, screens that test the perimeter with short passes up the field to accent its run game that has some QB reads built in. I should note that they do go to two tight end sets a decent bit, which isn't terribly spread-like, but that seems to have more to do with needing to protect the QB than anything else. They're not an electric spread offense, but a spread one all the same. 

Basketball on Grass or MANBALL? This is where the multiple tight ends come into play, because this is a spread offense that doesn't play Basketball on Grass. They're not really making any effort to push the ball down the field, and playing with multiple tight ends on a chunk of the snaps can often be a sign of Manball. Not the case here though, because about as often as they use multiple TE's, they'll also come out with four receivers wide (one of those receivers will often be a RB who may or may not motion back into the backfield pre-snap). They do have a short yardage package that they go to quite a bit (the one with Langan at QB) that is very Manball-esque: 

But the fact they're installing a read and lining Langan up in the gun is a sign that they're still not really approaching key Manball territory. So the best way to describe it is that Rutgers is playing lawn bowling, a slower moving sport than basketball still played on grass, and one that can be played by beefier players. 

I'm not including the shotgun vs under center chart this week because it's not useful given that the Scarlet Knights lined up in the gun on every snap. As for the playcalls, let's take a look: 

Down Run Pass
1st 11 11
2nd 8 12
3rd 6 7
4th 3 -

This chart omits the final drive for Rutgers, which saw them up 17-7 and trying to park the bus, an 8-play drive consisting of 8 runs and 0 passing plays. The reason I cut it out is because when Rutgers was trying to move the football and not just bleed the clock, their playcalling was remarkably balanced. Each Rutgers series has a formula: either a hitch/slant/screen followed by a running play, or a running play followed by a hitch/slant/screen. If they get to 3rd & medium or greater, it's going to be a pass, and if it's 3rd & short, it's going to be a run. If they get to 4th & short, they're going for it, it's going to be the Langan package on the field, and the play will be a run (likely a QB keeper). 

Hurry it up or grind it out: Rutgers plays with pace, but I didn't see any lightning-fast tempo moments like last week with NIU, where the Huskies were hiking the football with 33 on the playclock. Somewhere between 15 and 20 seconds on the playclock is the happy spot for Rutgers, if they're not making any substitutions, so not a slow as molasses team but also not one that's trying to surprise you the way NIU was with their tempo sets. It helps to be running a pretty generic offense with simplistic plays that allow the team to know what the plan is and get up to the line and be ready to run a play with a healthy chunk on the playclock. And if needed, they can shift things around, as a number of Rutgers' plays come with a healthy amount of pre-snap motion. 

Quarterback Dilithium Level (Scale: 1 [Navarre] to 10 [Denard]): Noah Vedral is the QB on most downs and he's involved in the running game at a similar level as Rocky Lombardi, but perhaps a tad more. Vedral is not going to scare you with his athleticism, but he does have to move around a good bit for this offense to work. Part of that moving is running for his life because another OL breakdown happened, but the other part of that moving is designed runs and plays where he can read a defender and keep it. In the season opener against Temple, Vedral rushed 8 times for 58 yards (sacks included), and he ran 4 times in the game I saw (along with 4 sacks). Similar to NIU, it's not a primary feature of the offense, but it is something you must be cognizant of. We'll give Vedral a similar-to-Rocky 5. 

When Johnny Langan comes on the field, that ratchets up to an 8, because his whole purpose is to run the football, though he doesn't register higher because he's not actually all that fast. Schiano uses him in that role for a similar reason that the VilariCat is a thing, hoping that the bigger frame will turn him into JT Barrett where he manages to fall forward every single time he's hit and because he's tall, falling forward will snare an extra yard or so. Which, on short yardage, is all ya need. Here's an example of the Langan package in action: 

I clipped this play because it didn't work, which was something of a theme with the Langan package, a package that frankly didn't impress me. The OL being unable to get any push is a central issue, but Syracuse is able to stack the box because it's so predictable and one-dimensional. The broadcasters referred to Langan as a "jack of all trades" just before this clip which I found rather humorous because Langan is the opposite of a jack of all trades: he's a one-trick pony. Over the past two seasons he has attempted 64 rushes and attempted 15 passes. That Rutgers thinks they can put out a beef package with a 6'2", 235 QB and run it down the throats of the opposition without any real deception involved is so naive it's almost cute. 

Dangerman: We have to go with Isaih Pacheco, who is almost as old as Brad Hawkins is, and long-time readers know that their memories have been forever linked since Pacheco outraced Hawkins on the lone TD Rutgers scored against Michigan.... back in 2018. Pacheco played against such names as Devin Bush and Tyree Kinnel in that game, yet is still the starting RB in Piscataway. Pacheco's stats, uh, do not speak "dangerman", given that his 3.6 YPC and 3 TD's aren't exactly lighting the world on fire, but the yards per carry numbers are rough across the Rutgers backfield and you will see why when we dive into the OL clips. Pacheco is the bellcow back and on a team with a QB duct-taped to a chair and receivers who are not allowed to go five yards past the line of scrimmage until after they've caught the football, he's the most logical choice for this "honor". 

Pacheco is big and burly and his value to the Scarlet Knights is his ability to find hidden yards through strength because you're not going to get anywhere as a Rutgers RB if you can't generate yards after contact, since the contact comes early. Though Kyle Monangai got an extended trial in this game at running back, when it was time for Schiano to try and grind the clock down, they gave the ball to Pacheco every time. This is why: 

Watch the way he just keeps the legs moving and churns out four extra yards after contact. That's the reason that Rutgers runs him out there as a featured piece. Being a Rutgers running back in the year 2021 is not an easy task and having a clear hole to run through is as unusual as the ice cream machine working at McDonald's, but every so often it's you're lucky day and it's in those instances that Pacheco gets to flash his speed. Speed, I should note, that is buried inside his otherwise beefy frame: 

Old highlight, but the speed is still there and there wasn't a clip in this game that showcased it as well. Michigan did a good job bottling up a dangerman RB last week in Harrison Waylee (injuries helped with that, too), and so I don't think there's a ton of risk in Pacheco lighting up the Wolverines this week, but on a team that is quite weaponless on offense, Pacheco is the closest thing to a weapon (he's a butter knife in this analogy, I guess). 

 

HenneChart: 

Rutgers vs. 'Cuse

Good   Neutral   Bad   Ovr
Quarterback DO CA SCR   PR MA   BA TA IN BR   DSR PFF
Noah Vedral 1 16 -   2 2   - - 4 -   81% -

DO NOT OVERREACT TO THAT 81%. I actually went back and added up the passes that landed in the "good" category and in totality, only *one* of them went more than 8 yards past the line of scrimmage before reaching its destination. Meanwhile, the "inaccurate" bucket was almost exclusively all the throws that had a degree of difficulty higher than "high school freshman QB" pass. Asking a power five (I use that term very loosely) QB to play the way Rutgers wants him to is almost insulting to the QB you're asking, because Vedral is tasked with simply being a conduit by which to move the football from between the center's legs to the perimeter of the line of scrimmage. That's it.

Within the "good" bucket, I counted 9 screens to either RB's or WR's, 7 slants/hitches/out routes, none of which went for more than 8 yards, and then a lone pass that was completed down the field. It went for a TD and here it is, in all its glory, the only pass Noah Vedral needed to be conscious for to complete: 

Everything else that he completed in this game you could go back to sedating the QB for. Here's an example of the base Rutgers passing play, which is, humiliatingly, a screen: 

And here's an example of what they want Vedral to do on non-screens: 

So, why exactly is Rutgers affixing training wheels to Vedral's feet? Part of it is because Rutgers' OL can't pass protect to save their lives. As you will see, they struggled considerably to keep the pocket clean against noted defensive powerhouse *checks notes* Syracuse. The other part of it is that Vedral's deep balls were grim, to put it kindly: 

There might've been some contact there between the defender and Melton, but that ball isn't close, landing five yards too deep and potentially out of bounds (I can't tell very well from that angle). Just before The One Good Vedral Pass, he missed an open Melton for an easy six: 

Three of the four balls I marked as "inaccurate" were deep shots. The Scarlet Knights don't throw down the field because they can't give the QB enough time to consistently try it, and even when they do, the QB isn't close to completing those passes with any degree of consistency. Rutgers has a better QB situation than when "4 TD, 18 INT" Artur Sitkowski was their starter back in 2018, but not considerably better because Rutgers is trying the "can't throw interceptions if you don't throw it more than five yards past the LoS" offense. 

 

Overall

So what can we say about the Rutgers offense overall? It is not good. They are 74th in SP+ through three weeks and there's nothing here that really worries me, because Syracuse was able to hold Rutgers to under 200 yards of total offense and the 'Cuse, again, are bad. Rutgers has averaged 3.3 yards per carry as a team through three games that were against the three easiest teams they'll face this season, and remember, their passing game is intentionally incapable of gaining chunks through the air. If you can whip Rutgers at the line of scrimmage, their running attack dries up, you put them behind the sticks and force them to attempt passes they really don't want to attempt, and then take time away from Vedral to attempt said passes. 

That was the story of the game I watched, a total domination of Rutgers up front by Syracuse. The blocking was, as a whole, a mess: 

You've got a stunt that the right side of the line totally biffs, as well as LG Cedrice Paillant (#54) being beaten badly. I think they were trying to set up a slip screen of some kind to the RB there, but the total inability of the RB's to help in pass protection was a theme in this game. Another one was the horrendous performance of Matt Alaimo as a blocker, which is rather mystifying given that he was on the field as a blocking TE (never targeted as a receiver). Here he doesn't even know who he's supposed to be blocking (nor does Paillant, who lets an unblocked rusher come up the middle):

#10 to bottom of the formation

If this were standard UFR grading, there were four -2 instances for Alaimo, a player who wasn't out there all that much. Mis-identifying assignments and being unable to pick up blitzes or stunts was another theme for the OL: 

#18 for the Cuse comes off the edge there unblocked and is able to help the gang tackle, started again by Paillant being beaten badly. These issues reared their head in pass protection plenty of times, and it forced Vedral to try and make plays like these: 

Here the culprits are LT Raiqwon O'Neal (#71) having problems and the RB who fails to chip the unblocked rusher up the middle even a little bit before going out for a route. I'll sum up Rutgers' day for the OL by going with this clip, where the RT Hollin Pierce is literally napping and doesn't realize the football's been snapped until his assignment is by him: 

Yeah, it's ugly. Michigan was able to take advantage of a bad Washington OL a couple weeks back and they should be able to do the same for Rutgers. The offense likes to run the football as a way to facilitate their short passing game, which is why winning the battle at the line of scrimmage is so crucial. Syracuse was able to mostly shut down what Rutgers was trying to do, but every so often it worked and they were able to gain yards on the ground: 

But again, those highlights were few and far between. 

Since I've already showed off the range of the passing looks that Rutgers uses, I want to highlight the last notable component of the offense: the jet sweep. Here it's being run by Aron Cruickshank: 

They also run this with Aaron Young when he's lined up in the slot, but it's a way to try and generate safe yards without having to go between the tackles, where holes are few and far between. 

 

The Part Where We Get to Laugh at Rutgers

Rutgers spent a timeout on 1st and 10 at their own 25 with nine seconds left in the first half to draw up a kneel down to end the half. Yes, this happened, and I don't really get it, because even if the offense went on the field planning to run a standard play, "just kneel it down" is not a change of plan that requires a timeout to convey. Also, assuming that's what happened, why did the offense go on the field planning to run a play? This is Rutgers... did they think they were going to run a 75 yard play when one doesn't exist in the playbook?  Just a befuddling collection of decisions. 

 

So, if Rutgers did nothing offensively against Syracuse, how did they win this game? 

Good question, and the answer is that Syracuse is a bad team too, one who made considerably more stupid mistakes than the Scarlet Knights did. Rutgers didn't fumble or throw an INT, while the 'Cuse had 3 turnovers (turnover luck has been a theme for Rutgers so far this year), and that doesn't get into the eight yard punt (you read that right) that was essentially a turnover when it comes to field position. The Cable Subscribers had three consecutive drives start inside Orange territory, beginning at the 41, 26, and 10 yard lines. It was on those three drives that Rutgers scored the 10 points that ultimately decided this game in a 17-7 win. Also, Syracuse coach Dino Babers was called for a massive unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that gave Rutgers a fresh set of downs when they were in the Red Zone. Rutgers did not win this game; they had this game given to them. 

 

DL should be able to get a win this week [MG Campredon]

What does this mean for Michigan? 

This is the third straight team that Michigan will have played who do not have a credible passing attack and who live and die by their ability to run the football and get ahead of the sticks. Win the matchup at the line of scrimmage and use the LB's to stuff the box as a way to bottle up the rushing game. Play your best tackling DB's because coverage is not a concern, but being able to shut off the screens is. Tackle well on the perimeter, stuff the run, and rush Vedral, and this should be a bloodbath. If Michigan does not hand over points on offense through turnovers, this is another opponent who should not exceed 14 points. 

Comments

lhglrkwg

September 22nd, 2021 at 6:32 PM ^

I guess I felt nervous because I just felt like Schiano was going to instantly make them Different Rutgers but this FFFF certainly makes me feel better. And 2nd stints don't always work (see: Randy Edsall). Seems like a day Dax Hill is going to FEAST if Rutgers still wants to try a pile of WR screens

The Homie J

September 23rd, 2021 at 10:45 AM ^

Yeah I wonder if Vincent Gray is better at stopping the run than pass coverage and DJ Turner is better in coverage, hence all the "Turner has passed Gray in practice reports".  Which would then make more sense why Gray has been playing more, because we haven't really faced a prolific passing attack yet so Gray has more to do (and been better at it) than Turner inevitably will against a more aerial team.

Could be wrong, but that kinda makes sense to me.

The Homie J

September 22nd, 2021 at 6:42 PM ^

Seen a lot of "this will be Michigan's first big test" from people on the interwebz.  But once you actually, you know, watch Rutgers play, uh.....yeah.  We got a shaky QB (they say he's improved because he threw decently against a *checks notes* FCS team), no good OL play and an offense that barely moved the ball versus the only P5 team they played.

If I had to guess, Washington has a better defense and an offense on par or maybe slightly worse(?) and we all saw how that went.  This seems like another game where we slowly build a 2 touchdown lead in the 1st half before the wheels fall off their defense from taking a pounding all day while trying to keep their offense on the field.

The Geek

September 22nd, 2021 at 6:51 PM ^

Predicting Hutch and Ross and Dax have huge games on Saturday and wreak havoc in the backfield. Michigan’s defense will be dominant and we will run the ball for >300 yards again. UofM in a laugher. 

Blue Middle

September 22nd, 2021 at 7:11 PM ^

You know, after years of misery, I'm enjoying the laughers.  My wife asked me if it's fun to watch Michigan score every time they have the ball.  "Uh, yeah.  I don't need stress to make me happy about winning."

All that said, Schiano knows defense and I'm not sure we'll score a jillion points.  31-10 feels like a realistic result.

Double-D

September 22nd, 2021 at 7:35 PM ^

Did you see that Syracuse dude jump on top of the shoulders of the RB after the momentum was stopped?

It had a sandlot flavor to it.  It was fucking weird. 

dragonchild

September 22nd, 2021 at 8:14 PM ^

there are many reasons to expect Michigan will fare better than the Orange did here.

97 reasons?

That Rutgers thinks they can put out a beef package with a 6'2", 235 QB and run it down the throats of the opposition without any real deception involved is so naive it's almost cute.

NO IT IS NOT.

XOXOX,

Villaricat

mp2

September 22nd, 2021 at 8:21 PM ^

Is it me, or is that tight end or y or whatever position running at an angle toward the line of scrimmage at the snap. I thought that was illegal.

philthy66

September 22nd, 2021 at 9:44 PM ^

There’s some comedian I heard awhile back talking about improving his credit score so he could quit his job at Walmart to get a job at Target. Apply Sitkowski. But let’s change the store names a little. Sitkowski quit Dollarsmart to get a job at Dollar General. 

b618

September 23rd, 2021 at 1:47 AM ^

I think that Michigan will win big because they are a much better team than last year.

But I keep in mind that, last year, Rutgers did plenty of running and plenty of passing, including on-target long throws.

I am very much looking forward to seeing how the defense does this time around.

RJWolvie

September 23rd, 2021 at 5:31 AM ^

In one of the most embarrassing moments of last year’s embarrassing season, Rutgers took us to 3OT for our second & final win—or so I have read, I couldn’t bear to watch much after the MSU debacle. So maybe a small part, very small, of “is all this improvement real?” may be revealed this Saturday after all? Should crush them if so. I’m enjoying watching big-easy wins at football again; would be very happy to watch another this weekend.

maizenbluenc

September 23rd, 2021 at 8:27 AM ^

Think the team should avoid self aggrandizing “Tour” monikers tempting the football gods, and stick with “just win” while focusing on a game plan to take Ohio State to the mat with at least a chance to win that one.

Meanwhile, here we have Ohio State rope-a-doping, not playing focused, setting us up for a huge shock.

Is this 2016, or 2018? At least it’s at the Big House this time.

tsbilly

September 23rd, 2021 at 5:51 PM ^

Even though it is against Michigan, I absolutely love Pacheco’s long run in 2018. He straight up pulled the Tecmo Bowl maneuver to get that touchdown!

I start hearing the Tecmo soundtrack after watching it. I wonder if the extra point team said “hut hut hut hut hut hut hut hut hut hut hut huthut hut hut hut hut hut hut hut” before kicking 

letsjoeblue

September 24th, 2021 at 2:20 PM ^

Does anyone remember the wide receiver from New Jersey that was part of the recruiting class several Cycles ago, I want to guess somewhere between 15 and 18 that committed to Michigan and then ended up going back to Rutgers before the first game of his freshman year. I wonder what became of him, anyone have any information?