Previously: Indiana Offense

oh c'mon it's already hard enough to take this seriously

So.

Indiana is last in the B1G in scoring defense, 13th in yards per play allowed, 13th in yards per pass allowed, 13th in yards per carry allowed, 13th in defensive S&P+, last in opponent first downs per game, last in opponent 3rd down conversion rate, and last in opponent scrimmage plays of >20 yards, >30 yards, >40 yards, >50 yards, >60 yards, >70 yards, and >80 yards.

Let's get this over with.

Personnel: Seth's diagram [click to embiggen]:

The Hoosiers rotate quite a bit up front; you'll see plenty of Ralph Green and Robert McCray on the interior. Tyler Green, a true freshman corner listed third on the depth chart, also got a lot of run against Iowa.

Base Set? Multiple. They're something of a 3-4 team, but in the way Michigan is—there are usually four nominal down linemen, and IU actually played a lot of over fronts in this game.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the breakdown.]

Man or zone coverage? Mostly zone. Much like Rutgers, Indiana plays a lot of two- and three-deep coverage and allows a ton of easy throws in front of both their underneath guys and their deep safeties. And sometimes over the top, too. Indiana: not good at defense.

Pressure: GERG or Greg? Indiana didn't dial up much in the way of blitzes. They'll show a double A-gap blitz look frequently on passing downs but backed at least one linebacker out of it all but once in this game. Their D-line can't generate any pressure on its own, so I'm surprised they don't bring more heat—the secondary can't stop teams with seven in coverage anyway, especially when opponents have all day to throw, so it's worth a shot.

Dangerman: MIKE TJ Simmons got booted late in the first half for a (shockingly correct) targeting call, but before that he showed why he's Indiana's best defender. Playing behind a D-line that often gets knocked clear out of running lanes, he repeatedly diagnosed plays and knifed in for tackles before a blocker could reach him:

When he existed there was a noticable dropoff to sophomore Tegray Scales, who filled at at WILL while starter Marcus Oliver slid to the middle. Indiana's defense wasn't playing well to begin with but they had no hope of stopping the run without Simmons in the middle. The announcers noted he's been dealing with an ankle injury but he's played through it fine for a couple weeks.

Five-tech Darius Latham, a former top-250 recruit, is the one defensive lineman who consistently beats blocks, but his impact is limited by the lack of help around him; CJ Beathard repeatedly broke the pocket when one rusher got through and there was rarely a second rusher arriving to stop him.

OVERVIEW

Let's start with the second play from scrimmage:

There's zero recognition of the draw, the D-line allows a huge gap, Oliver (#44) starts into his pass drop and can't recover, and safety Chase Dutra (#30) is way too aggressive, ending up on the wrong side of the last blocker and ten yards too far upfield. Other than that, though, the play went great.

The defensive line is the source of a lot of Indiana's defensive woes. To make up for being a little undersized and mostly unable to beat blocks straight up, they slant often, and Iowa used this against them over and over:

That's the entire defensive line and both inside linebackers stuck on the wrong side of the field a mere moment after the handoff. Akrum Wadley—yet another opposing running back I now covet—had ten free yards, then got an extra bunch with a slick juke on a safety just outside the screen.

Nose tackle Adarius Rayner didn't have a good performance; he got buried multiple times trying to hold up against doubles and sometimes took himself out of the play by trying to shoot a gap—an issue pervasive along the entire line. That's still better than when they try to play straight-up; this is about how that usually went:

A hat on a hat everywhere and an easy chunk gain. As for their pass rush, ESPN took care of that for me:

This wasn't even as "good" of a rush as it seems, as #44 is just getting off the ground after being pancaked. Beathard had a clean pocket for most of the day.

Edge runs were quite successful as well; BANDIT Zack Shaw lost the edge a few times, as did SLB Clyde Newton. The defensive backs aren't good tacklers in space, either.

As noted above, the linebacker play outside of Simmons wasn't strong. Oliver racks up a lot of tackles but also misses his fair share and isn't great in coverage. Even though Indiana played a lot of soft zone, underneath throws in front of the linebackers were often good for first downs—Iowa picked up on third-and-nine on a pass caught underneath a very soft Cover 2 that may have made sense on a third-and-15.

There was also plenty of room between the linebackers and safeties, especially on deep in routes and throws up the seam to the tight end. Michigan's stable of blocky-catchy types should be excited for this one; IU also didn't do so well on throws to the flat:

Newton (#41) completely bit on the run fake and couldn't recover. Because the linebackers have to be so aggressive filling holes up front in the run game, they're prone to getting caught out of position against play-action.

Cornerback Rashad Fant appears to be decent, because I believe Iowa targeted him once, an incomplete deep ball he had blanketed. That may also be because the other starting corner, true freshman Andre Brown, had a disastrous game. He had a hard time holding his zones and an equally hard time tackling after the catch; Green had similar issues when he entered the game. Here's what happened when Brown tried to play press man:

Only a Beathard overthrow prevented a very long touchdown.

The safeties, as you'd expect from Indiana's number of big plays allowed, were awful. Dutra is aggressive and takes terrible angles to the ball, which is not a good combination. Crawford is slightly more reliable from what I can tell but that may just be because Dutra plays more in the box.

This is a defense Michigan should dominate. Indiana will have a hard time holding up physically against the run game, and with Harbaugh dialing up misdirection and screens and the like, the offense might not have much of a need for a traditional downfield passing attack—though that should work, too, as long as Iowa Rudock is present.