well, poop

This week in depressing MGoBlog GChat exchanges:

Ace: that reminds me that I need to pick an MSU game to break down while trying not to curl into the fetal position.
nebraska, I guess?

Brian: purdue might be more our level
oh god i just said that and meant it

Ace: that hit right in the soul dong
and yet, now downloading purdue-msu.

Purdue it is! I hate everything that isn't basketball.

MSU beat the Boilermakers 45-31 in a game that wasn't that close until State tried an ill-advised fourth-quarter fake punt in their own territory, allowing Purdue a short field to pull within a score. Purdue lost after a late pick-six because Purdue. Let's get this over with...

Personnel. MSU trots out a wide variety of personnel due to their depth and versatility on offense. Seth's got the base personnel covered—I'll note here that MSU was quite shotgun-heavy against Purdue [click to embiggen]:

Several receivers will rotate into the game for MSU; while RJ Shelton has taken the starting slot gig from MacGarrett Kings Jr., Kings still sees plenty of action, while Aaron Burbridge is a co-starter with Keith Mumphery at the Z receiver spot.

Meanwhile, two players who get ample playing time didn't even fit into the "key backups" section: fullback Trevon Pendleton, a returning starter, and tight end Jamal Lyles both see the field quite a bit, mostly in blocking roles. State is also able to throw out a lot of different looks with the same personnel group; they went into empty sets for several snaps in this game with RB Jeremy Langford and TE Josiah Price split out wide—Langford even came up with a nice third-down conversion from such a look.

Spread, Pro-Style, or Hybrid? The concepts and formations are largely pro-style, but there are enough spread elements in this offense—the occasional read option and a lot of fly sweep action, most notably—that I'd call this a hybrid offense.

Basketball on Grass or MANBALL? A pretty solid mix of both. MSU had success running power/counter action against Purdue; they also busted a big gain on a simple inside zone and ran some play-action off a zone stretch look. The variety resembles Michigan last year; the difference... well, you know the difference.

Hurry it up or grind it out? MSU tends to take it at a leisurely pace, but like every other team in the country save Michigan, they're capable of increasing tempo and catching the defense off-guard on something other than a QB sneak situation. YES BREAKING DOWN OPPONENT FILM IS STARTING TO GET TO ME HOW DID YOU EVER KNOW JUST HIT THE JUMP ALREADY.

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

Quarterback Dilithium Level (Scale: 1 [Navarre] to 10 [Denard]): While Cook is by no means a burner, he's marginally effective with his legs, enough so that MSU will bust out the occasional zone read to keep defenses honest. He's not tearing it up on the stats page—with sacks removed, he's at 3.3 YPC—but defenses have to be aware of him; State got an easy first down on a ten-yard QB draw after faking the fly sweep they'd run several times to that point, opening up a gaping hole in the middle.

Cook gets a 5 here, as he won't get much of anything the defense doesn't give him, with the caveat that State is pretty good at picking their spots to run him.

Dangerman: Tony Lippett has gone from MSU's reliable possession receiver across from Bennie Fowler last year to one of the most dangerous deep threats in the country this year; he's already registered 39 catches for 786 yards (20.2 YPC) and eight TDs, one of which is embedded atop this post.

Lippett isn't outrageously big or eye-poppingly athletic, but his ability to run good routes and make plays on the ball separates him from your average receiver. Here's a nice example of the latter:

Zero separation, but Lippett and Cook are on the same page, and Lippett makes easy work of this jump ball before picking up ample yards after the catch, another thing he does quite well.

Lippett does his best work deep down the sideline; Michigan's corners have been very good at making the throwing windows tough to hit in that area—against Lippett, it'll come down to how well they make plays on the ball. We might see a pass interference call or two on those types of throws; they may not even be bad plays from M's perspective.

Zook Factor: Faking a punt from your 29-yard line while up two touchdowns in the fourth quarter against a bad team qualifies, yes?

HenneChart: Cook had an up-and-down performance against Purdue. He had a few spectacular throws, including the TD to Lippett. He also had some inexplicably poor throws, including two INs on screen passes—he turfed a couple that should be automatic completions. Charting ceased after MSU went up 38-17; that doesn't include Cook's interception, so you can mentally add a BRX to the chart below if you desire.

While he mostly looked like a very good quarterback, he made a couple very questionable decisions. On a play that didn't exactly set him up for success—a waggle to the left for a right-handed QB—he still tried to throw across his body deep to Lippett, and the ball came up well short and went right through the defensive back's hands. Then came the pick, which occurred on a pure misread of the underneath coverage:

While Cook's been very efficient, he's thrown interceptions in all four of MSU's non-bodybag games, and that includes matchups against both Purdue and Indiana.

OVERVIEW

MSU mostly operated out of the shotgun in this game, going under center mostly to establish the run:

They also called plays with a very old-school bent, running until throwing was necessary:

Starting up front, the offensive line was outstanding in this game, paving the way for 6.8 YPC on the ground while keeping Cook clean in the pocket. There is a major injury concern for MSU here, however, after all-conference center Jack Allen left the Purdue game with an ankle injury that ultimately kept him out of last week's Indiana game. While State has plenty of experience on the line after a parade of injuries over the last couple seasons got a ton of guys on the field, losing Allen would take away their best lineman.

That said, this group is still pretty good with or without their starting center. They've given up just four sacks all year; their 79 yards lost on TFLs is the fifth-fewest in the country. These guys don't blow assignments and don't get overpowered at the point of attack.

With plenty of time to survey the defense, Cook has a lot of options available; Lippett can work underneath or over the top, Burbridge and Mumphery are dangerous after the catch on short passes, and Shelton and Kings are slot darter types who can get decent chunks on screens or fly sweeps. As I'll break down later, MSU is able to move the ball quite well off that fly sweep action and a tricky wrinkle they've added as a constraint.

The running game is getting it done with three productive backs. Langford is the workhorse; he's a powerful runner who gets upfield in a hurry. Nick Hill is experienced and quick, which makes him dangerous on those zone runs. Delton Williams boasts the most pure athleticism. This is a very solid group.

MSU didn't need to do much strategically to outwit Purdue; for the most part, they could line up and run the ball without much frippery. The exception came with this constraint off of the jet sweep, which they'll run out of any formation...

PLAY BREAKDOWN

The camera cut to this play a little late, but you can see that Burbridge is motioning across the formation after lining up as the slot to the top of the screen:

Burbridge motions past Cook, drifts back to the fullback's depth, and pauses at the snap...

...before reversing field as MSU begins to block what looks like a standard power run, with right guard Connor Kruse pulling to the field side:

As the fullback takes care of the point of attack, Kruse pulls into a big opening—the power run to the RB looks like it would've worked quite well here—and the other linemen start sealing off Purdue's defenders to the boundary as Cook executes the run fake:

Pendleton buries the blitzing defensive back, leaving Kruse and Langford to lead Burbridge through a huge hole while Purdue has nobody in position to hold the edge save an outside linebacker who doesn't get over the top of Kruse: 

Kruse latches on while Josiah Price (#82, a couple yards downfield between the hashes) gets out on the remaining inside linebacker. Langford doesn't even have anyone to block at this point...

...so he helps Price out on the linebacker while Kruse impressively turns and seals off his mark to the inside, giving Burbridge a big lane to the outside:

With Lippett doing great work on the field corner, Burbridge is able to turn upfield and get a first down out of this; he may have had much more if Langford had done a better job getting a chip on the pursuing linebacker:

Video:

That's pretty play design and great execution up front, especially from Kruse. Michigan's back seven can't overplay the jet sweep or they'll see a misdirection play going for big yardage before too long.