[EDITOR'S NOTE: I went back to YouTube embeds because gfycat suddenly went haywire this afternoon]

Look, if we're going to talk about this game, we're going to either have to agree on a few things: Ohio State is operating on a higher talent level, under vastly different rules and vastly different expectations as dictated by their administration and fans. The X's and O's didn't decide this game; if anything they kept it closer than it should have been based on the Jimmies and Joes.

That's the other thing you're either going to have to trust me on, or give up now and walk away: it was Michigan, not Ohio State, that was doing most of the interesting stuff. You can spin this both ways: I highly recommend Kyle Jones's Film Study on Eleven Warriors this week that described how Ohio State leaned heavily on their skills (really, JK Dobbins') with their base offense. Or you could say Jim Harbaugh was more focused on this game, had more prepared specifically for this game, and outcoached Ryan Day in this game, and it wasn't remotely close.

Start with the first drive.

Show the Formation

After a zone run with a backside cut to start the game Michigan goes to this bunch formation. Bunching has advantages and drawbacks. The upside is you create a lot of space for your athletes to bloom into, and a lot of crowding for the defense as they try to expand with the offensive pieces. Teams that run a lot of mesh and other pick routes (e.g. MSU) will go with these formations a lot.

The downside is by bunching all the defenders into close range of your formation, you're giving the defense a lot of options they can blitz with, and a lot more fronts they can expose your guys to. Either you need a solid and smart protection group who can handle a lot of different looks, or a very simple (e.g. MSU) offense that relies on quick shots and picks.

That's all this first play is: a mirrored simple read of the flat defender. The quarterback checks the backside for a blitz, then puts his eyes on "B2" (for the second "Bullet" which is OSU's copy of the Viper), whose linebacker zone is stretched between DPJ and McKeon. As soon as he's chosen, he's wrong. It's a nice quick rhythm throw to get your quarterback feeling it early.

Let's use this introductory play to also get a feel for Ohio State's defense. They're a Cover 1 base that operates on an extremely man to man principle. Cornerbacks relate to receivers, middle linebackers relate to running backs, and they'll match personnel at the OLB spots, their demi-linebackers (Bullets) against tight ends, their slot cornerbacks against slot receivers, or another pure linebacker for a fullback. Everybody arrays outside his man, and forces things back inside. The line of thinking goes they're going to have better athletes at every position, and that's almost always true. It doesn't take that much coordinating either.

So what happens with all that talent on this play? Well it's 2nd and 2, a down when Ohio State ALWAYS takes a shot downfield. The coverage is expecting to drop back, with the corners keeping high leverage and leaving the second level coverage to the four LBs across the formation. The MLB sees a tight end releasing vertically on a four verts-y down, and backpedals. Space: conversion.

[After THE JUMP: this was always the plan].

Show the Motion

The next play was something they'd clearly saved all year, and was meant to crack big. It's a very #SpeedInSpace take on Counter Trey, which I've been talking about all season in this space.

They're running it from a covered formation: Ronnie Bell is not an eligible receiver, and Giles Jackson, at the bottom of your screen, is in the backfield and thus allowed to motion. The downside of a covered formation is you lose one eligible receiver: Ronnie Bell is technically the left tackle on this play, and Jalen Mayfield is the right side's tight end, but can't get a pass because he's wearing an ineligible number. The upside is you move everyone's normal run fits around, and can sometimes catch a less aware player trying to cover your technical left tackle. Just watch #3 Damon Arnette, the slot receiver, in the clip above.

But that's not the cool bit. The cool bit is the quarterback is actually removing two defenders on this play. The first is the safety, coming down with Jackson's motion. If he's late, Patterson can throw a bubble screen to his jet receiver. If he's not, he's completely removed from where the rest of the action's going down.

This is a great use of the time it takes for Counter Trey blocking to set up. By this point in the season I hope you know the drill: PIN the inside of the gap by having your two most playside players, pin the first two defenders inside of them—in this setup the pins are now both offensive linemen (usually it takes a tight end). This should leave two players unblocked for two pullers you're bringing from the backside. The first to arrive will usually kick whoever's defending the edge to the outside, while the second puller smacks into the second unblocked defender who's no doubt by now living in the middle of this great big gap.

Of course, as we've seen in the past, sometimes you run into a defense playing to spill: the guy you thought was the edge will dive inside and another defender behind him is supposed to read that and become the new edge man. You adjust to this on the fly by pinning that guy inside and using the second blocker as the kickout.

Michigan's trying to gain another advantage here by having Cesar Ruiz pull instead of Bredeson. The shorter the pull, the sooner your blocker arrives and can react to the defense, but it also runs the risk of at DT slanting right into your backfield behind him. Fortunately Michigan knows Ohio State's tendency is to stay in a 4-3 over front and use their 3-tech, Jashon Cornell, a former defensive end, as a B gap defender, rarely having him dive inside for double teams. They're confident Bredeson can cut him off this whole play.

That leaves two guys in the backfield yet: Haskins and Patterson. The last wrinkle here is Patterson's meant to be the ballcarrier, while Haskins is a decoy who becomes the lead blocker. Once they have the gap set up Haskins is there as an escort, either popping the Bullet (guy set up in the thick part of the Block 'M') if that backside LB makes it to the play in time, or the safety, who thanks to the weird formation is being played by Jeffrey Okudah, a cornerback.

But Shea screws it up by running outside where #39 is kicked.

Doh. Also I'm not 100% sure Haskins is supposed to block through the gap. He may just be a decoy to mess with the LB who's keying him. Note that this guy is still standing around on the foot of the Block 'M' looking at Haskins and wondering how to be useful. Haskins has a stance more like a pass protector than a fullbackian escort. Anyway it's working.

Show the Base

After an okay 2nd down it's now 3rd and 5 and Michigan is ready to bring out the base, the play they planned to use all day. It's the same plan Ohio State had last year when Michigan was the Cover 1 defense: picked crossing routes. Except the Wolverines are planning to run them at intermediate range.

This is a changeup: they haven't run routes over the middle all year. We had a practice report that broke through Michael Spath earlier this season that backed it up by saying Shea's not comfortable with them. It was a weakness. And the plan is to turn that into a strength, because it's hard to defend from Ohio State's base, and why would they expect it?

The route from Tarik Black is there in case there's a blitz and to get in the way. He's like those tight ends Michigan State sends to commit OPI when they run this play, except his coaches expect him to be a threatening first read not some lug whose coaches are like "look man, you're useless out there so just go cheat."

If they're not sending someone off that edge Shea reads the crossers, who should get some freedom when their routes cross the traffic created by those of McKeon and Black. If Ohio State has dropped a linebacker into the low route there should be another one over him. If they have both LBs dropped nobody's on the swing from the running back, and the outlet ought to be free. And failing that? Run away from the Chase Young side, where Bell should be crossing and McKeon stopping and DPJ working back.

The bonus here is Bell's route starts with movement to the sideline before cutting, viciously, under Black's route. This again is scouting: Ohio State greatly simplified their linebackers' duties this season, and sure enough #39 isn't really paying attention to routes crossing his zone

As it happened Ronnie Bell was open but Shea came off that read too quickly, got frightened by the collapsing pocket when Haskins was covered on the outlet, and started running towards the sideline. Fortunately the cornerback (Damon Arnette again—I told you he was the weakness of that team) tagging Bell bit out the outside movement so hard that Bell was still open, and Patterson made a brilliant throw to keep the drive going.

Show Them You Can Do This All Day Long

Same concept, next play. Also we're back to the bunch now.

The funny thing this time is they're using Eubanks as a wideout, a common spread offense tool for pulling linebackers out of the formation or generating mismatches between a burly 260-pound guy and a coverage player. Ohio State again is matching hybrid to TE but that guy's coverage has always been a bit suspect, so there's a hot read here: if he's playing off and in man to man, throw it to Eubanks. Patterson stays on this read despite the low crosser again getting open.

Note too that the line has its protection set to the right, and they've got Haskins out there to double Chase Young if need be. All year long Ohio State has benefited from teams doing this to adjust to Chase: set up in an over front with Chase Young split out a yard from the tackle. It's daring you to run in that B gap, but it's a fool's bet when Young can angle to that gap when need arises. Then they blitz the MLB to the other side, figuring there's going to be just two linemen for protection.

I think Michigan's looking for this too, and that's part of why they have the hot route over there. If you get a blitz, #20 is all alone with Eubanks and the ball is out before the blitzer arrives. If it's Cover 1 the Bullet will get squeezed to the sideline by Eubanks and draw help from #32. If you get Cover 3, well, as it is, #20 is still all alone because the MLB just drops straight into his zone. Drops so far in fact that he can't help with Eubanks or fire down on time for DPJ. Meanwhile the WLB has to drop on the Collins route behind that. Ohio State is clearly not prepared for these middle attacks. They're probably thinking that too, and in the meantime it's an eight-yard pitch and catch on 3rd down.

Can't touch this. [Patrick Barron]

Show Them the Speed

So let's review the little bit of education these Buckeyes have been exposed to on their trip to Ann Arbor so far.

1. Michigan's using bunch formations to create pick routes and easy second-level reads.
2. Michigan's doing the Gattis stuff: showing a run threat in one direction then running to a gap the other way, and schemed up some ways to get extra blockers there to do some real damage.
3. Michigan wants to use those picks to create space for crossing routes.
4. Michigan is doing that and seeking matchups they can exploit outside.

And what we hit 'em with is, well, the same play Patterson and Haskins screwed up earlier? Wait, where'd that guy come from?

The formation is that bunch, which again is going to stress the defensive backs to get through traffic to get to any routes that break outside-in. In response they're now setting up at different levels—just like Woodson suggested.

The benefit of this alignment is everybody now has a lane to get across the formation instead of banging into each other. The downside is the lower levels have to react more quickly to blockers while the higher levels are giving up some space for the offense to operate. All of those linebackers inside makes for a hell of a box to try to run into on the inside, but what if the play goes outside?

It's also a 2nd and 2, a bomb down, so CB#1, Jeffrey Okudah, is giving Nico Collins an extra cushion. Damon Arnette isn't doing the same with Giles Jackson because of how they play Cover 1, letting Okudah deal with providing safety help to the other side (just like we used to do with Woodson). With no help, and with Michigan's tendency to throw to Collins on RPO reads when the guy he's apparently blocking decides to run by instead of engage, Okudah is going to focus on erasing Collins, which erases Okudah.

After the snap it looks exactly like the Counter Trey thing. But then it becomes not an inside run with the backs but an end-around outside.

This play could not have worked without knowing how Ohio State planned to play Counter Trey. When Chase Young dove inside of Ruiz's block on the Lead Read Trey play above it screwed with Shea and Haskins, but it also let Michigan know the OSU plan for that play involves spilling. The spilling is the reason Gattis believes he can get away with having all of these blocks that start from the backside end up on the frontside. Young indeed dives inside the first puller, Ruiz, with #39 Malik Harrison replacing.

Also note what's happening on the backside in this frame. Giles Jackson is already turned and following his lead blocker, but the backside pursuit is frozen there with Shea looking right at them and coming to a mesh point with Haskins. That read might even be hot: if both of those guys take off for the end-around the ball can go to Hassan. If they get a blitz from that side Haskins is in position to lay him out. Anyway the read holds that pursuit, which is really going to matter once we're in a speed race with them to the other edge of the field, and ultimately with the high safety for the pylon.

Not quite fast enough there, defensive backs Michigan also recruited. [Fuller]

Anyway, it's all about the spilling. Young goes inside Ruiz, and Harrison replaces. Harrison goes inside Eubanks, and is replaced by the Bullet, #20 Pete Werner. Werner goes inside and…

It works. This was how Michigan established their ability to threaten all over the field, keep Ohio State's vaunted defense from cheating to the base offensive strategy. You can't key the running back for run/pass. You can't drop your linebackers into all the passing lanes because they have to respect the run action. And they can't just watch one gap because they have to make their spillers correct.

One by one all of the various tools at Ohio State's disposal to prevent Michigan from matching some of their best offensive players—the receivers—against the Buckeyes relative weak points—Werner and Arnette—were stripped away, all on the first drive. It would remain that way until missed opportunities, missed catches, missed pass interference calls, and most of all a missing Michigan defense put the Buckeye defense in a position where they no longer had to defend the run. At that Ohio State went to a dime, used the extra safety this afforded to drop an extra middle defender between the intermediate crossing routes, and shut most of those off as well. I know it's anathema to take anything good from this game (Ohio State will just take it), but given where we were at the beginning of the season, it's nice to see the Gattis offense able to stress the most talented defense in the country and use Michigan's own superb talent. We'll have to see if this is a culmination of this year's talent in a near-perfect game plan they spent all year setting up, or the start of great things to come.