Film Analysis Ep 3.1 - Wisconsin - Defensive Struggles
That was ugly. I got progressively sadder as I went through these 15 defensive plays. It wasn't a singular thing. On a fair number of plays, Michigan had the correct schematic approach, just missed execution. On the other hand, some plays involve leaving an open A-gap on the goalline with Glasgow on the DL for the easiest QB sneak TD I've seen.
As always, let me know if there are any comments or criticisms.
Previous episodes:
- Army
- Episode 2.1 (1/2) - Offensive Reads (First half)
- Episode 2.1 (2/2) - Offensive Reads (Second half & OT)
- Episode 2.2 - Defense
Enjoy!
3.1.1 - Q1 12:13 - W42 - 1st 10 - Power - Taylor run for 20 yards
- The pulling G & T for Wisconsin both block Ross, leaving Paye in the hole. He moves too laterally, allowing Taylor to bounce. Metellus, Hill, and Glasgow all lose Taylor, the latter 2 losing edge contain in the process. Big gain.
3.1.2 - Q1 10:16 - M17 - 3rd & 3 - Counter(?) IZ - Taylor run for 15 yards
- TE motion moves Thomas away from play. Paye & Kemp get walled off for a huge hole. All 3 safeties in middle of field get fooled by FB (#34) to the right. Hawkins critically over-pursues, and the rest is Taylor.
3.1.3 - Q1 7:50 - W4 - 1st 10 - Rollout Flood - 11 yard pass to Ferguson
- Designed roll-out pass with mass-protect & 3 route-runners. UM rushes 4, no chance at pressure. Drops 7 into coverage and TE is wiiiide open. Either Hill or Hudson at fault. Seems like Hudson should be in the flat, there.
3.1.4 - Q1 5:24 - W34 - 2nd & 3 - Draw - 10 yard run by Taylor
- Michigan brings 5 on pressure, biting on the OL selling pass. Glasgow vacates to outside on his pass rush. Easy pickup for FB on Ross. Stunt from DL helps Wisconsin, as well.
3.1.5 - Q1 2:53 - W28 - 1st & 10 - Counter - TD run by Taylor
- Paye loses outside contain, leaving tons of room outside. Ross gets doubled, no shot there. Motion from WR shifts Hill to safety responsibilities. Ref obstructs view of Taylor's bounce. Then, speeeeed.
3.1.6 - Q2 13:08 - W31 - 2nd & 10 - FB Flare - 20 yard pickup by Groshek
- Well-designed flare action to FB. Gray is late to react to crack block by WR, who picks up Woods flowing from middle of field. From there, Wisconsin has more OL than players on outside for Michigan. Easy 20 yards.
3.1.7 - Q2 10:20 - M43 - 4th & 3 - PA Wheel - 27 yard catch
- UM brings 6 with pressure. Glasgow hits QB as ball is released. Additional pressure late from Hudson / Kemp. Ball is thrown perfectly to wheel route. Rub action forces a slight re-route from Thomas in coverage.
3.1.8 - Q2 9:05 - M14 - 2nd & 7 - Jet Sweep - 13 yard run AJ Taylor
- Gray does well to force jet sweep to outside and keeps outside arm free. Hudson over-pursues badly into gap Metellus is filling, forcing both players to over-run the play, allowing a cut-back inside. Woof.
3.1.9 - Q2 6:43 - M1 - 4th & G - QB Sneak - TD by Coan
- Man…this is rough. UM tries to get away with not only having Glasgow as a grubber on backside DL, but leaves backside A-gap completely open. Wisconsin recognizes the giant gap, audibles into easy QB sneak TD.
3.1.10 - Q2 1:11 - M43 - 1st & 10 - FB Out - 18 yard pass
- Michigan sends 4 on pass rush with a long developing stunt. Pass is quick to FB out of backfield in 1-on-1 coverage. Anthony takes a poor angle on the FB, missing a tackle. Makes it a gain of 18 yards instead of 4.
3.1.11 - Q2 1:05 - M25 - 1st & 10 - QB Scramble - Coan TD
- Coverage downfield is excellent. Stunt by UM DL confuses RG & RT, leaving Hutchinson with free path to QB. Coan jukes, bursts through a hold left by Paye, who lost balance badly and left a huge gap on the interior.
3.1.12 - Q3 13:15 - W16 - 1st & 10 - Counter - 10 yard gain by Taylor
- Kemp gets a great jump, which frees up Paye backside. McGrone, Hutchinson both beat their blocks, as well. Hudson & Gray both lose outside leverage. Frustrating, given the rest of the D blew this play up.
3.1.13 - Q3 8:28 - M47 - 1st & 20 - Power - 23 yard gain
- Interior DL slant to their right, which helps Wisconsin. Jeter & McGrone fail to engage blocks powerfully, which leaves a huge hole for the RB. McGrone needs to be quicker with his read to the play-side.
3.1.14 - Q3 7:51 - M24 - 1st & 10 - Rollout Flood - 11 yard pass to Ferguson
- Same exact play as 3.1.3. Pass-rush has no shot given the mass-protect blocking. Hudson caught with eyes in the backfield, which allows Ferguson to get to flat. Nice tackle from Gray to keep it to 11 yards.
3.1.15 - Q4 11:49 - W26 - 1st & 10 - Split Zone(?) - 41 yard run by Shaw
- Kemp & Paye get driven outside wayyyy too much & Gil is faced with a tough double, leaving a huge hole for RB. Hill locks up with WR far too long & Hawkins takes eyes out of backfield as he drops into coverage.
September 25th, 2019 at 7:10 PM ^
Great job, thanks, but I couldn't finish watching it . . . too depressing. Just men against boys.
September 25th, 2019 at 8:51 PM ^
Fall camp was a failure.
Playing this 3-3-5 defense vs Wisconsin was DOA. Losing Dwumfour, Jeter, Smith in fall camp torpedoed the DL. And where is Hinton ? Must be injured as well. The big bodied DTs have been decimated and it SHOWED BIG TIME with a failed scheme / personnel at Madison.
Add the loses to the OL - Runyan and Stueber. Fall camp was a giant failure for the DL and the OL. There is a fine line and it may have been crossed. Could also explain the poor team morale. The military approach is "to break them down and then build them back up", not to break their spirit with multiple injuries. Seems like this season may have been lost in fall camp.
September 25th, 2019 at 10:37 PM ^
Thanks for doing this. Can someone who's a more knowledgable football mind than me explain how we should have defended the rub route that delayed Ambry Thomas getting to the wheel route? Are Thomas and Vincent Gray supposed to switch off on their coverage?
The point of the routes were obviously to delay Thomas from covering the wheel route. Just not sure how ideally it should be defended.
September 26th, 2019 at 12:36 AM ^
That is Brown's scheme, just play man to man, the only problem is when the FS thinks it could be a running play he cannot get back in time for coverage. If we had zone coverage there wold be some one back to make a play on the ball. It won't work this year, since we do not have a good pass rush.
September 26th, 2019 at 12:53 AM ^
I'm certainly not more knowledgeable, but I saw analysis where they broke that play down frame by frame, and it looked as though Gray's coverage in the slot was about 3-4 yds too deep. The slot ran a slant off the line and Gray slid right into Ambry as he tried to pick up the wheel route. A zone would've worked better, but tighter coverage by Gray would've worked too. Easy for me to say that in "armchair DC" mode though.
September 25th, 2019 at 11:06 PM ^
Thanks oz.
Tough to watch, again.
All those jumping ship, just remember you left
When we come back.
Beat Ohio.
September 26th, 2019 at 12:31 AM ^
Good Job! Brian should let you do the FTR this season. I bet our D Line and LB would have a bunch of negative points. Hard to believe WI 2 and 3 star OL looks quicker and faster than our 4 star DL and LB. The stunts were crazy to do when you are slow, and that just allowed the center and guards to go down field and block our LB. Many time our LB looked completely lost on plays not knowing where to fill gaps. I remember the days when Michigan LB were quick and ganged tackle RB at the LOS. I know the DT were smaller this season but I did not expect them not to have quickness. I hope we let the younger DT play like WI starting their freshman 1 and 2 star DTs who did a much better job against our big OL.
September 27th, 2019 at 12:10 AM ^
Develop our 4 and 5:stars or get run over by 3 stars turned into 5 stars over the 5 stars now 2 stars
star fucker
September 26th, 2019 at 8:28 AM ^
Thanks for going through the plays. What do you think Michigan should or could have done in the long or chunk plays? Not too worried about plays of less than 3-4 yards gain. But those big plays where everything break down, are happening more often and worrying.
September 26th, 2019 at 6:58 PM ^
When Brown was hired UW was predicted to be a challenge for his schemes so some of the struggles aren't surprising. Especially since we don't have all american level DEs and LBs anymore. But there were so many simple mistakes or missed assignments in your video.
I just hope the inexperienced guys in the secondary and LB group just need some more time to get better. The d-line may be what it is except jeter may get better since this was his first real game action.
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