H4: Finding Ed Reed Comment Count

Seth

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Five on five. [Upchurch]

When news broke recently that Jabrill Peppers was moving to safety, Brian threw up a quick explanatory post, Why Peppers Might Be A Safety, talking about how modern spread offenses dictate modern quarters defenses, which in turn dictate that the safety over the slot is the glamour position du jour.

An offensive innovation like the zone read will open up the entire book again as coaches figure out ways of running all the things they already like out of new looks, new play-action, etc. But defensive innovation, with a few notable exceptions, is much more reactive.

Often what we call a "new defense" is just rediscovering an old, unsound thing that takes away the thing offenses are doing these days. The 46 defense was bringing a safety down. The zone blitz was having a defensive end playing coverage. The Tampa 2 had a middle linebacker responsible for deep middle coverage. The 3-4 made three linemen responsible for six gaps. And the hybrid man/zones of today put your deep coverage into the middle of the run-stopping game.

The way a defensive innovation becomes a sustainably great defense is great players. Dantonio's quarters dominated college football with a string of NFL-bound defensive backs. The 3-4's proliferation through the NFL was accompanied by a rush on anything that looked like Vince Wilfork. The Steel Curtain (the first Tampa 2) was built around Jack Lambert. Miami (NFL Miami)'s "No Name" zone blitz defense had a 6'5/248 lb. track star named Bill Stanfill at WDE. And the '80s Bears could pull off this crap:46 defense

…because that "46" was the jersey number of one Doug Plank.

You don't need to be a football guru to see what made the 46 defense tough: there are eight dudes in the box, six of whom are just a few steps from the quarterback. Running into a stacked box is futile (DO YOU HEAR ME? DO YOU HEAR ME, AL?!?). You can try to identify who's blitzing and throw to holes in the coverage before they arrive, but you'd better have Dan Marino.

[After the jump: how to 46 a modern offense]

The Impact of a Dynamic Safety

One of my most visited bookmarked Chris Brown articles is How Troy Polamalu and Ed Reed Changed NFL Defenses.

Peppers-Like CB Recruits (Detail—>LINK)
Player School Size Career Summary
Justin King PSU 6'0/183 Size and speed were overrated, but immediately an effective nickel and early NFL corner with a vagabond NFL career
Demetrice Morley Tenn 6'0/176 Nickel then moved to safety, was effective until career derailed by off-field issues
Eric Berry Tenn 6'0/194 Nickel then star safety probably deserved Heisman, NFL All Pro
Patrick Peterson LSU 6'1/197 Nickel then boundary corner, fringe Heisman candidate, NFL All Pro at CB
Dre Kirkpatrick Bama 6'2/180 Reserve on deep roster then bestial boundary CB. Backup NFL CB.
LaMarcus Joyner FSU 5'8/192 Safety/nickel, led resurgence of that defense. Rising NFL safety
Charles Woodson Mich 6'1/195 Blue know it.

In it he describes an entirely different philosophical approach that Buddy Ryan used when deploying the 46 defense as an answer to the West Coast:

The theory behind the 46 was that offenses seized the advantage because defenses let them dictate terms. For 30 years, defenses more or less tried to match and mirror offenses based on personnel and alignment, but they couldn’t keep up. Ryan planned to negate this advantage by force — the 46’s simple guiding principle was to kick ass.

Kicking ass is usually a luxury of teams that have a decided advantage in player recruitment or retention; otherwise you're just playing rock-paper-scissors with the other coordinator.

The 46 itself was an aggressive formation that worked because it could line up so many players so close to the quarterback but still defend the deep pass because Plank could; once offenses began to spread out, quarterbacks again had the time and space to work through their choreographed progressions, and defenses were forced to get bendy again to cover all of that open space.

Football guys hate bendy. Walk into any defensive guy's presser in America on any given day and you're more likely than not going to hear him talk about wanting to "get more aggressive."

The Sliding Scale of Aggressive Quarters

As soon as the spread offense took hold, defensive coordinators began dreaming up ways of kicking its ass. The Greatest Show on Turf exploded onto the scene in the 1999 season; just one year later the offensively anemic Baltimore Ravens won the Super Bowl, giving up just 20 points in four playoff games.

The reason the Ravens could play super-aggressive against the run while remaining sound against spread passing was Rod Woodson, who could set up in a linebacker-ish spot and still get back to play deep. But that Woodson was at the tail end of his career; the Ravens sustained their dominance after Rod by drafting Ed Reed.

That defense took its name from the most bendy defensive look: cover 4:

cover4

Nobody's sending four verts against that, but you can run against it all day. What made it "Quarters" was this look was hybridized with Tampa 2 into a read scheme: if the inside receiver went vertical the safety would be there to catch him (left side of the gif below), and if he didn't the safety was free to cover the outside receiver over the top (right side of the gif below).

Rolex - Copy

Aside from the "pattern matching" (Saban's term for it) of coverages, the additional benefit of Quarters was the safeties didn't have an immediate threat to cover, and therefore could peek in on the run game.

Nine Guys Versus the Run

Because of this, Quarters defenses like to claim they put "Nine in the Box," but what they really mean is they ultimately have nine defenders involved in their run fits. When you run this scheme, you quickly find the cornerbacks are basically playing man defense, especially since they're responsible for whatever those outside receivers do in the first few steps of the play. They can't really do that and play a run gap, but those safeties can.

Well the first rule of stopping the run game: how fast does the tackler get to his hole? If you're starting out loose, it's going to take some time before those defenders get to where the run's going, by which time the blocking is set up and the ballcarrier is picking his way to the hole.

loose

The tighter you get, the more "aggressive" you can be against the run, the more effectively you can blitz, and the more you're in a position to dictate terms to the offense, i.e. kick some ass.

tight

Starring Peppers as Ed Reed

We've come back around to something very much like 46 defense, and like 46 defense, that safety is sitting in a lot of space. This is why Quarters can only be as aggressive as its safeties' ability to cover the slot seam.

That "FS" in the diagram above is matched against the slot receiver, who through the history of the spread evolved into the havoc-wreaking star of the offense. Rodriguez found athletic little bugs who were death in space and blocked like mountain goats. Urban Meyer had them be that and super-smart, well-trained route-stemmers who could get to open space no matter how the defense played them. Holgo and the latest offenses had them be that and that and the other thing, and a supreme deep threat. All of that was toward the same goal: get that m'er f'ing defender away from my run game!

So you see why having Ed Reed lets you get away with ass-kicking, because that guy can reliably track down a slot bug in space, can't be blocked by anyone in the bell of normal human size distribution, is too agile to lose with clever route running, and will win any footrace against any receiver you try to send over the top of him.

This is what Michigan is going to try to do with a redshirt freshman who by every possible indication is going to be the best damn football player Michigan has fielded since Charles. How much it will kick ass will largely depend on how much Peppers can.

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Comments

MICHandCHIPS

January 27th, 2015 at 11:43 AM ^

I always thought this was his natural position anyways. To me, peppers playing at CB would be a waste of his talents, he can be much more involved in the entire defense in this role.

tolmichfan

January 27th, 2015 at 1:08 PM ^

I'm not arguing against the move. It's basically the same position they wanted him to play last year at nickle. Get him in the middle of the D where he can help in the run game along with the pass game. I think this move says more about the faith these coaches have in Lewis.

tolmichfan

January 27th, 2015 at 5:21 PM ^

I thnk this move will allow a guy like James Ross to be on the field during "nickle" situations. We can play more of a 3-3-5 look on passing situations. ( I know the horror). Dline could run Wormley and maybe hurst as a "strong" side DE, rotate our three nose guards (mone, pipkins, and Henry) and then run taco and Mario as the "rush" side D ends. Line backers Gedeon Morgan and JRIII. Maybe add Bolden for Gedeon. Then on the back end you can have Lewis, Blake, on the outside. Then have hill as more of then run support safty and peppers as a guy who can match up in the slot, and Wilson as the "deep" safety.

The FannMan

January 27th, 2015 at 2:02 PM ^

The idea is that the FS position (as described above) can take away your slot and disrupt your running game.  This causes more problems than taking away your best reciever.

It is also a different philosophy of defense.  The idea isn't to take a player away from the offense and then play rock-paper-scissors with the other 10 guys.  That is reactive.  The idea is to be pro-active as a defense.  The idea is to say that we, as a defense, don't give a shit what you do.  We are going to pack the box, kill your running back and blitz your QB into next week.  It is having a guy who can play like Ed Reed that lets you do all of that without leaving a slow MLB to chase after a slot-bug in miles of space.

Also, a team running the spread may have its best (or most targeted) receiver in the slot anyway.

WFNY_DP

January 27th, 2015 at 11:49 AM ^

...as my browser broke the first sentence of the story with a line break after:

"When news broke recently that Jabrill Peppers was moving to safety, Brian threw up "

...and I wondered why this upset Brian so much.

Bryan

January 27th, 2015 at 11:53 AM ^

I need help. I have to confess that much of the above is beyond my understanding of football. I can get the basics but really have no idea on on how to understand formations, concepts, schemes, etc. 

Does anyone have any advice on blogs, sites, dare I say books, that would help me to better understand the workings of the game? I would greatly appreciate any advice. 

Seth

January 27th, 2015 at 12:01 PM ^

Well for one he was just a true sophomore and should have been a redshirt freshman last year. For two it seems he was having a hard time covering against college competition.

Either way you can't really say "what happened to him" for a guy who earned three starts at Michigan before he could buy a beer.

AZBlue

January 27th, 2015 at 12:42 PM ^

If his transition to safety from HS LB/RB is stunted by coverage skills (An educated guess) - he is probably best suited for a LB/Safety Hybrid a position that did not exist in the previous defense. That said, I have faith that the new staff will further his development and that Durkin will find a way to get him on the field if he is one of the best 11 on the defensive side of the ball. A good example is what ntOSU was able to do with our previously unused athelete/safety (sorry - blanking on name) last year.

AZBlue

January 27th, 2015 at 12:56 PM ^

Not saying Furman (thanks for the name) or the OSU defense was great last year although the ratings were probably skewed since the Big12(10) actually had offenses unlike the Big10(14). Unless he has given poor effort since at M or was an simply early physical specimen (see Robinson, M), he has the tools to be a good-to-great player if he can find a role.

Lt. Pete Mitchell

January 27th, 2015 at 1:33 PM ^

We are allowed to have nice things now right?  Get your best guys in postions to make plays.

Re: Dymonte... I think we will see some different folks get playing time this year.  Even though we had more coaching clout on the defensive side of the ball, I'm not sure we were great talent evaluators/developers anywhere.  Furman was lost at UM for years and was quoted as the key to OK States defense this year. 

funkifyfl

January 27th, 2015 at 12:25 PM ^

Those are the 2 keys to the defense and Peppers' role. With Lewis, Countess, Stribling, et al., moving Peppers to S is an OPTION. Moreover, it's a GOOD option because playing in space is pretty much the hardest aspect of defense (perhaps this is shortchanging DL, but I digress) and Peppers has unreal talent to do this. I can see valid arguments for having him be a shutdown CB, but again, I think UM probably thinks it has good CBs without Peppers, and using him to cover a ton of space is a good use of his skills.

dragonchild

January 27th, 2015 at 2:33 PM ^

Don't drop a bomb and pooh-pooh it as a digression.  Do not EVER short-change linemen.  The line is where it all starts, and ends.  If your DL can't hold their ground the opposing offense will just go "welp" and smash your mouth all day.  The DL's job is to get their mouths smashed and ask for more.  If your line can't hold, the secondary might as well go home because they're just not going to matter.  And I'm saying that as a space defender (soccer these days but still).

What a great space player allows you to do is underplay certain threats.  Woodson basically freed up the safety on his side to roam, as he could man up against any team's #1 receiver without help.  Otherwise, routes are more or less drawn up to force defenders into bad decisions when there isn't an obvious talent disparity to exploit, forcing the defense to commit multiple defenders to stop it.  The safety against spreads is under particular stress because DCs expect him to play a run gap, read the inside receiver, occasionally blitz, and cover the slot or bracket the deep threat.  As such, on any given play the safety's man could be a fullback, TE, slot, tailback, wideout or even (if things go badly) a pulling guard.  To which the safety goes, "Can you make up your %*(FJHH#R# mind??"  One play he's getting steamrolled by a TE or puller; another he's getting juked by a slot bug, then he's in a horse race against the deep threat.  Very few players can handle that, which is precisely what today's offenses expect.

Well, Peppers has the athleticism to actually do all that.  Against today's offenses it really makes sense to make him a safety, and I'd been hoping for that since he stepped on campus.  We lack playmakers back there anyway.

funkifyfl

January 27th, 2015 at 4:53 PM ^

With what you said, but that doesn't really address what I was getting at - namely that defending space is the hardest/rarest defensive skill, to which you replied 'but DL is most important'. Correct me if I'm misunderstanding your comment. In any event, I got nothin' but love for DL.

Your characterization of the 2 possible roles for Peppers are accurate, but I'm curious to hear your opinion on which you think Peppers is better at, which is more valuable to a defense (defensive scheme is important here and we may not know for sure until the games start), and how the roster (i.e. the fact we have other good CBs) impacts the final analysis, if at all.

dragonchild

January 27th, 2015 at 7:12 PM ^

I guess it depends on the definition of "hardest", but FWIW in addition to physical punishment D-linemen routinely outscore DBs on Wonderlic, if you're into that sort of thing.  Personally, I don't think of defending space as hard so much as unforgiving.  I think getting off blocks is much harder (D-linemen redshirt almost as often as O-linemen and not always because of the need to bulk up), but unless he gets pancaked it takes a trained eye to see a lineman's mistake and often he can recover or at least limit the damage.  Coverage is usually simpler, but bust an assignment and the whole world sees you give up a long TD.

As for which one Peppers is better at (CB or FS), I think he at least has the potential to have an NFL HoF career at either position.  He certainly has the athleticism for it, so it'd come down to the mental/"intangible" side of things -- vision, reflexes, intelligence, preparation.  So far he seems up to the challenge on that side as well.  Anyway, "better" wouldn't be the way to put it so much as I think he wasted a fair amount of potential at corner.  Yes he could be a Woodson-esque shutdown corner, but that limits his range.  CBs are specialists.  He could do either equally well, but there's more to do these days at safety.

UMaD

January 27th, 2015 at 12:55 PM ^

"The way a defensive innovation becomes a sustainably great defense is great players"

I'm not convinced it's great players that make these systems go so much as these systems that make these players great by giving their specialized skillset a place to thrive.

I've always thought it rather dubious - the idea that Joe Montana and Steve Young produced at HOF levels because they were all-time great players.  It seems unlikely these great players just happened to come consecutively to the same roster with the greatest innovator of the 70s and 80s (Bill Walsh) and a guy many argue is the greatest WR of all time (Jerry Rice).

I'm also not at all convinced that any of Dantonio's DBs are great player, anymore than I am convinced that any of Michigan's RBs of the 80s and 90s were great players.  Dantonio has put into place a great defensive system and finds guys that fit it.  Bo-Mo-Lloyd had dominating OLs and coached run games so well that almost any reasonably talent RB could produce impressive numbers.  It's really about coaching to execute, just as it was for Rich Rod QBs - none of which have done anything as NFL QBs.

Going back to the idea of sustainability -- this is really hard to acheive at the college level.  Even if you're Alabama.  Michigan did it with OL through the 2000s but that was founded on Bo's coaching, not personnel. In other words, there it was the egg (coaching) that led to the chicken (a stream of NFL OLmen who wanted to be coached by the best.)

None of this is really the point of the article or have much of anything to do with Peppers, Reed, or Berry.  I think your argument for his move to safety is definitely sound.

As for being the best player at UM since Woodson -- no pressure kid.  Also Jake Long probably wants a word with you...

 

jsquigg

January 27th, 2015 at 1:19 PM ^

It's a both/and situation.  It's having a system that can dictate terms but it's also finding players that fit the system, developing them, and putting them in the right positions to succeed.  You can't separate these things.  I think the point Ace is making is that great offenses will expose even the best systems if you don't have great personnel.

Seth

January 27th, 2015 at 1:59 PM ^

In '97 Michigan didn't play any spread teams, so the defense had to deal with a fullback often and a slot receiver on running downs rarely. So Michigan had the luxury of putting Woodson at corner, having him play up on the receiver, and still not have to worry about giving him a safety if the offense tried to go over the top. That allowed the safeties to come up and play against the run, or take robber zones in the middle. Marcus Ray got a boatload of interceptions, and Michigan was able to run a lot of cool blitzes. There would be entire games when Woodson' side of the field wouldn't see more than a handful of passes, and the safeties could roam wherever Weathers wasn't.

The more you can get pressure from different spots the more your defense can kick ass. Much of that D came back in '98 but couldn't do half of the things they did with Woodson because Whitley couldn't cover low and recover deep.

On this team I expect Woodson would be a safety eventually but start out as a nickel and boundary CB. Peppers is such a similar player (except smaller) you can almost point to him and say "that's what would happen if we had Woodson again."

ImLawBoy

January 27th, 2015 at 1:07 PM ^

For what it's worth, while the 46 was indeed named after Doug Plank, he was retired from football by the time '85 Bears made the defense legendary.

west2

January 27th, 2015 at 2:39 PM ^

it seemed they tried to set up 3rd and short and it was a qb run with a 250 lb guy against a db.  Anything beyond their own 40 yard line and they would go for it on 4th. I can see Meyer using Jones on 3rd and 4th downs like he did Tebow when Tebow was a freshman.  Basically spread em out and let their guy plow his way to 1st downs as their bread and butter play. How does putting peppers at FS address this part of containing the buckeyes?