[Hello; still Seth. Ace is working on scouting his Hoopsdraftageddon team (and writing this year's basketball preview)]

Previously: Minnesota Offense

Zone? Sonny if you want zone I suggest you try Iowa City. In here, we play man defense. And pour whiskey.

Jerry Kill brought Minnesota back from the Big Ten frontier by giving his defense a cowboy identity, then finding some bow-legged cornerback fellers who can handle it. These guys arrived three or four years ago and were immediately sent out to wander the vast open plains of Minnesota's secondary alone. Were you to wind up over a buffalo tight end, racing a jackrabbit slot receiver, or fighting a vicious coyote for the only oblong meal in days, the nearest safety'd be a good nine miles away, if he's even patrolling at all.

Those who survived became hard men. Dangerous men. Men like ol' half-safety Eric Murray, the fastest closer in the West. Or BB Calhoun, whom they call the interceptor, though never to his face. Or Myrick the Kid, who once beat a bullet to an out route. With such men roaming the open expanse, the hardy regular folk can crowd together near the neutral zone, maintaining law and order through close proximity to the snap exchanges. If you want to take the West from these men, you have two options: jostle the good folk for a few parcels close to town, or take your chances in a gunfight with the wild men out on the prairie.

Personnel: Click makes it big.

Like I done said, they like to sidle up on in close. That there number 4 is the strong safety. If yer a bettin' man, better'd put that money on at least one o' them safeties russlin on up in that there box on the regular.

Base Set? 4-3 over spread.

By "spread" I mean their front is a lot like Michigan State's, with the DEs spread out to the edges; the more TEs, the further they'll spread. Except whereas MSU keeps a responsible guy on the backside and a hound on the front, these DEs are so interchangeable that they're just "left" and "right." The Gophers then crowd the linebackers inside, adding safeties to the box for every eligible receiver who's not wide. They'll have a lot of safeties in the box because they play a ton of…

[Hit the JUMP for how Minnesota made a legit D out of spare Midwesterners]

Man or zone coverage? In Minnesota, they pour whiskey, and play man defense.

The majority of snaps saw one guy high and it was common to have no safety help at all. They'll regularly pack the box and trust their defensive backs to cover anybody not in it. But it's not exactly man all day; this is a Cover 3 Fire blitz:

All the DBs are playing cover 3 and the LB covers a zone to the passing strength; the other middle zone is unoccupied. Pressure gets through, ball goes to the outlet, and the seam-flat player (Johnson) breaks it up. Of course cover 3 and cover 1 (man with one high safety) are as like as Cov 2 and Man 2, that is, hard to tell apart unless you see something obvious like a corner letting a guy go and pointing. That did happen a few times, usually as part of a blitz.

Pressure: GERG or Greg? I never saw them rush fewer than four or more than five. However they did do a lot of man-zero where they'd bring seven then two or three would back out like so:

Yellow is zone, black is rush, red is man coverage

Northwestern handled this in stride and converted a few third downs vs. cornerbacks left out there in a lot of space and time. Here's that play I screencapped a minute ago to show man:

Dangermen: Well he just got beat there but it's still Eric Murray and friends in the secondary. This is the same guy who quartered the yardage of a quorum of NFL-bound receivers as a sophomore. In this game he wasn't invincible; there's the above, and he was earlier beat on a similar 3rd down when he lost the out in a flood route. So life goes when the sideline is your only help defender.

Murray made up for that by flashing Peppers-like ability as the hybrid nickel. We'll get to this later but the aggressive DEs created a lot of running space that Murray closed down adroitly. He killed this triple option by setting up so quick the WR barely waved a hand to block him, then closed like a boss.

I know, Peppers would jump around that guy, not set up where he can't be blocked. Excellent senior or hyperathletic freshman it amounts to the same thing. Murray also caused a fumble by getting to Justin Jackson way before he was expected (the lone Wildcat among five Gophers recovered it because football gods use fumbles to taunt us).

They didn't have their other NFL-bound man-to-man star Brien Boddy-Calhoun, who's making his return this week, but Jalen Myrick, normally a true nickel, had almost zero dropoff and two Lewis-ian PBUs on the two targets in his direction. He's a pure cover guy, but if you're questioning whether the third guy on this depth chart really needs a star, Pro Football Focus currently grades him 2nd overall in the country:

Jalen Myrick, Minnesota +14.4

Myrick repeats as the No. 2 corner on the team, as his +12.1 coverage grade comes in right behind Lewis. He’s allowed 17 catches on 35 targets for 183 yards, while intercepting three and defending four others.

Zero guesses who the Lewis is they're referring to. Myrick was actually ahead of Jourdan before the Burbridge matchup, FWIW; I think that's a volume thing.

The last star is the punter with the old fashioned American Leg. Ray Guy candidate Peter Mortell gets his face on buses and played a bit role in the birth of the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy. Then there was the time he tried to be Blake O'Neill. Sorry Peter, no 80 yard punts that land at the 1 for you. You'll have to settle for 77 yards.

OVERVIEW

Minnesota's defense is more than the sum of its parts, but other than the secondary it has iffy parts, and does some unsound things to put them in a position to succeed. That starts with rushing their DEs upfield. Northwestern found a couple of ways to exploit that:

That should have been a 5 yard gain, and turned into the big play that sealed the blowout because the backup LB got out of his lane. This one was pure RPS:

Myrick got stiff-armed for big YAC but that's what happens when Vitale is isolated on a corner.

I admit I watched a lot of SDE Thieren Cockran since he's known to this site for things like Brian's bad draft pick, and the late hit that Dave Brandon and co. turned into an international incident. Cockran was a mixed bag. The now-5th year senior was a handful for a not very good Northwestern RT, but Cockran's out-of-control style contrasted sharply with what I saw of Northwestern's highly responsible Lowry.

Here's a one-sequence summary:

• 2nd & 10 unblocked man on a zone read; crashes to force the keep, explodes upfield to threaten the QB but arrives out of control, is casually stiff-armed.
• 3rd and 5 Shoots 10 yards upfield, opening up a massive lane for a first down run or at least to step into the pocket. QB doesn't see it, ankle sack.
• 4th and 7 Another speed rush, RT just gets run by, Thorson gets the ball away (complete) just as Cockran's about to sack; he gives a shot anyway but escapes a late hit flag.
• 1st and 10 Gets stood up by a tight end; Cockran and the ball both end up 8 yards downfield. Yaps at a ref, then at a guy who's not looking at him.

Accounting for somewhat wiser NFL scouts, the Will Gholston reincarnate label is exact.

I liked one linebacker, and not either of the returning starters. The MLB, #12 Cody Poock, was able to stop Justin Jackson's momentum on contact, and had a few nice little "Whoop!" dodges of would-be blockers. Tellingly, the defense kept the Gophers in this game despite the Hokeian offensive performance, until Poock was sidelined in the middle of the 3rd quarter and his replacement turned a 5-yard RPS+1 play into game over. The other two LBs are just guys; the WLB is thick and smart but slowish, and the other is quick and rote, but too small to fight blockers. Poock is just right.

Of the safeties, Minnesota keeps Ayinde over the strongside and Johnson free, but either could be deep guy. Ayinde is below average; Johnson is a senior with about two years of starting experience spread out over four seasons, and he just missed getting a star. The DTs are just there to get in the way (and get grabby when an OL is about to release to the next level). The purpose of the line in this defense is keep those LBs and safeties clean, and let them do their work:

All told this is a pretty good defense, as borne out by the stats: they're 19th in FEI, sandwiched by Penn State and Iowa. The Gophers do it by having very good defensive backs who can play without help, and rechanneling the erstwhile help to packing as many in the box as the offense.

This should be a good test for Harbaugh's uncanny ability to run into those stacked fronts. Michigan State bottled the run game up pretty well with similar tactics (and way better interior DL). Michigan can't pass its way out of this one, and Mortell won't give many short fields unless Peppers gets some back. Giddyup.