Previously: Wisconsin Offense 2021 

Welcome back to this week's edition of Fee Fi Fo Film. Yesterday we took a gander at Wisconsin's beleaguered offense and tried to dissect the problems and explain what has gone wrong. The feel of this post, looking at the Badger defense, will be quite different. Great defenses have been rolling out of Madison for a long time now, and this year doesn't look to be much different. They held PSU to 16 points, EMU to 7, and Notre Dame to 20 (Irish got 21 on special teams/defense). This is a very good unit and it will be leaned on heavily to beat Michigan. So what's it like? Well, as you'll see, much of the same. 

 

The Film: We're using the Penn State game for this, as we did for the offense. Penn State is a decent comparison for Michigan offensively, with their really good running back group similar to Michigan's, but PSU plays with more WR's and in a more spread manner, formation-wise, than Michigan does, which we'll highlight below. If you read the offensive piece, Wisconsin held the ball forever on offense, which limited Penn State to ~17 minutes time of possession and just a shade over 50 plays. It's not a ton of film, but there's plenty here to get an adequate feel for the Wisconsin defense, even if this may be a shorter article than normal. 

Personnel: The chart. 

Wisconsin looks like the Wisconsin defense that we know so well. They still run their 3-4, just with some new names and faces in the front seven and the same old faces in the secondary. The defensive line (the three down linemen) has changed around a bit since last year but is still pretty solid, with NT Keeanu Benton as the headliner in the middle, bookended by veteran Matt Henningsen on one side and Isaiah Mullens on the other side. The DL's objective is to eat up offensive linemen and open holes that their murderous LB corps can come screaming through to either stuff the run or sack the QB. Backups along the DL are not used heavily, but Bryson Williams is on the two-deep at NT and Rodas Johnson is the first off the bench at either DE spot. 

Those murderous LB's are 4/4 in receiving stars, which is not surprising given Wisconsin's track record at developing LB's. Their outside LB's often line up at the line of scrimmage as seen on Seth's diagram, and then they may rush or they may drop back into coverage. Nick Herbig is a fresh face opposite Noah Burks, who has paid his dues in the Wisconsin program, as the starting OLB's. Burks plays what Seth calls the "WATT" role, which is the pass-rushing OLB job, whereas Herbig plays the "SCHOBERT" role, which requires dropping into coverage more. Both guys can do both roles, but generally Burks rushes more than Herbig and Herbig drops into coverage more than Burks. The backups at that position include Spencer Lytle and CJ Goetz, but the two starters get the bulk of the work. 

The ILB's are a pair of studs, Jack Sanborn and Leo Chenal. Unfortunately, Chenal tested positive for COVID-19 prior to week one, so he doesn't appear in any of the footage in this post, but he's a very good football player (you'll probably see that Saturday). Sanborn gets the shield as a borderline-All American and you'll hear plenty about him in this post. Both ILB's have to be able to cover and tackle, as a typical linebacker would, but they are also used heavily in rush packages, especially Sanborn. Mike Maskalunas is the third option at ILB to know about, and I saw quite a bit of him in the PSU game with Chenal out. 

The secondary is very veteran, with all four starters being at least fifth year players. Caesar Williams and Faion Hicks, the latter of whom played at Flanagan with Devin Bush and Josh Metellus, are the starting CB's. Scott Nelson and Collin Wilder are the two safeties, and both can come up into the box and run stuff, or play a deep safety role in Wisconsin's Cover 2 alignment. Dean Engram is the nickel that Wisconsin used a decent bit in this game, while John Torchio came on as a reserve safety in the PSU game too. Deonte Burton and Alexander Smith have also gotten snaps at corner. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: The LB's are gonna get ya]

Base set: Wisconsin runs a 3-4 that looks a lot like what Michigan is doing this season from a bird's eye view. Against an opponent playing the way Michigan does on offense, they're playing Cover 2 to pair with the 3-4 front seven and it lines up looking something like this: 

You've got the three DL's with a hand in the dirt and then the standup OLB's who play close to the line of scrimmage looking like edge rushers. The two ILB's are playing in a typical position, and two safeties 10+ yards past the line of scrimmage, only one of which you can see in the above image. The OLB's appear to be edge rushers, but the trick of Wisconsin is that that's not always what happens. Sometimes they'll rush, but sometimes they'll release and drop into coverage, and it's instead one of the ILB's who rushes. You don't really know where it's coming from and that's how they stop opponents. 

Against PSU in this game, they were running a base set that looked more like this: 

Two down linemen, the four LB's, and five DB's. PSU ran a lot of 10 personnel with 4 WR's and 1 RB like in the above clip, so Wisconsin countered by using more DB's and less in the front seven. Michigan, as we know, is highly, highly unlikely to run much of anything out of 10 personnel, so if you see this 2-4-5 look in the clips I show, remember it's going to be 3-4-4 against UM on Saturday, assuming the Wolverines play the way they have the whole season personnel-wise. 

Man or zone coverage: Mostly zone. Cover 2 is the base for Wisconsin but they rotate into Cover 1 and Cover 3 some. When they do go into the 2-4-5 alignment I showed in the image previously, they will occasionally disguise a DB blitz, which Seth drew up years ago and appears in the Wisconsin Defense FFFF annually: 

They'll ask the corners to play man sometimes, but it's a lot of zone and that sometimes can lead to busts (more on that later). 

Pressure: The Badgers come in at 4.23 rushers per play this season, which is in line with their historical average that we track here on FFFF. It was a bit higher last season, but in 2019 it clocked in around 4.10, so we're right in the same range that is typically the case for Wisconsin. They rush four on most downs, occasionally bumping it up to five and every so often dropping it to three, but four is your expectation when you roll into Madison. 

Dangerman: For the second straight year the Dangerman is ILB Jack Sanborn, and there's a lot of reason for that, as he's an absolutely terrifying blitzing LB. The whole goal of Wisconsin's DL is to keep the holes open for players like Sanborn to come ripping through them and PSU's offensive line did not do a great job of winning its battle in the trenches in this one. On some occasions, it was Sean Clifford who paid the price of Sanborn's fury: 

LB #57 coming around the left end

Sanborn typically lines up in the normal ILB spot, as we saw in the above diagrams, but when he rushes, he's either looping around a stunt like in this clip, or finding the open hole between the tackles. And once he gets going, Sanborn's speed rushes are hard to stop until he's thumped the QB. Even if he doesn't hit the QB, he can blow up a play by forcing a throwaway, which he does here alongside Noah Burks: 

#57 coming around right end

On this play, his compatriots in red failed to bring down PSU RB Keyvone Lee, but Sanborn cleaned it up for a TFL: 

He's best as a rusher, but Sanborn can stuff the run and cover fine. This game will be a huge test for Michigan's OL in terms of recognizing tricky rushers and disguised blitzes, and one of those tricky rushers will inevitably be Jack Sanborn. Watch out for him. 

 

Overview

The Sanborn section gives you a good hint about where Wisconsin is most dangerous, which is in their front seven. The defensive ends may be a bit weaker than normal, but it's also hard to tell right now, because any deficiencies on the DL are being patched up by the LB's. I gave you lots of juicy clips of Sanborn wreaking havoc, but I'll throw some more for you from Nick Herbig and Noah Burks, both of whom were excellent in this game. Here's another one from Burks: 

#41 lined up to the bottom of the formation

PSU had lots of problems picking up these stunts and disguised blitzes. This one isn't even a disguised blitz, it's just Herbig stealing PSU RT Caeden Wallace's lunch money: 

#19 to the bottom of the formation

The ability to have four LB's (Sanborn, Chenal, Burks, and Herbig) who all can become a kamikaze rusher and get home, is what makes the Wisconsin defense so dangerous and also mysterious. Because it allows Jim Leonhard to line up the defense like it's doing one thing, and then pull back the curtain and reveal a different blitz. This is what I'm talking about: 

They have five men at the line and then one at the LB level. The ball is snapped and the two OLB's release and drop into coverage, while it's the ILB who comes blitzing. You have no idea who is coming at you on any given play and all of the options can be devastatingly effective. 

All of that said, if you can protect your QB/the OL can figure out a way to identify the rushers and pick them up, you can beat Wisconsin through the air. Despite a veteran secondary that knows the scheme well, there are still issues down the field. Penn State beat Wisconsin by throwing the ball down the field, despite the general troubles they had protecting Cilfford. Indeed, 143 of the 297 yards PSU gained in this game came on just three plays​​​​​​​, all of them deep bombs. Blowing the top off the defense, especially when they're keying in on the run, is the way to even the playing field and give you space in the box. Stuff like this: 

That looks like a bad coverage bust, and it is, but the fact is that it wasn't an anomaly. It happened several times. PSU hit three of these deep balls, and had another wide open for a TD and Clifford missed it. Here's one more such deep shot: 

Wisconsin doesn't exactly have elite athletes in its secondary and while they play zone to try and get around this, one thing we know about zone coverages is that holes do open up, and Clifford was able to exploit them enough for the Nittany Lions to leave Madison with a W. FS Scott Nelson (#9) in particular was involved in all three instances and while I liked him as a run defender and in screen coverage, it seems he can be beaten deep. Michigan should look to maximize this advantage, especially when Cade McNamara's deep balls have looked mostly great this season. 

I say that because it is the best way to take the pressure of Wisconsin's defense off of screens and the rushing game, which are Michigan's bread and butter, and also what Wisconsin is the best at stopping. Nobody has had much success running the ball against Wisconsin this year and with that front seven, you can see why. Plays like this: 

And this: 

If you allow Wisconsin to bring their safeties down into the box, and don't give the LB's anything to do but crash the line of scrimmage, the Badgers will probably muck it up enough to grind your rushing attack to a halt. 

They also were good at blowing up screens in this one: 

PSU's OL doesn't set that one up the best, but this was a recurring pattern. 

All of this said, it's logical when I mention that life got considerably easier for PSU in the second half once Clifford began taking deep shots and hitting them. The box lightened up, and they began to target the DE's more directly and pick up a few chunk gains on the ground: 

Don't play the game Wisconsin wants you to play. 

 

See this man? USE HIM [Bryan Fuller]

What does this mean for Michigan?

The problem is that Michigan is probably going to at least attempt to play Wisconsin's game to start. Because Wisconsin wants to stuff you on the ground and Michigan wants to pave you on the ground. Someone is going to win that matchup. The question will be adjustments. Maybe Michigan finds a way to open holes even against a stacked box, but I'm hesitant to believe that. Whether or not Harbaugh and Gattis will let McNamara off the leash and allow him to target Cornelius Johnson or Daylen Baldwin down the field is my biggest question. Do that and you can get in a groove and it allows you to do some of the things you want to do on the ground. I would be very much in favor of dialing up a deep shot on the first series, to put it out there. 

Obviously, the other thing to reiterate is that this is a huge test for Michigan's OL. They got through the first three weeks with flashing colors and faced a choppier test last week against Rutgers. Now comes the big one: can they do anything against this front seven? Can they pick up the tricky blitzes? We're not asking for domination, fighting to a draw may be enough. The game will be a slog, but it could be helped by throwing it down the field.