Neck Sharpies: Flinging Fullbacks at Frontside Gaps
or
That Time Wheatley Donkey’d Peppers
I’ve been so enamored with Brown’s defense lately that we haven’t discussed Harbaugh’s run games, which is a shame because they’re brilliant. He kept the fancy stuff in the barn of course but the Spring Game did show a neat thing and got a big chunk out of it.
For completion’s sake here’s who’s on the field. Those likely to see extensive action in 2016 are in bold, and non-Kovacsian walk-ons have hashtags:
Offense | Defense | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pos | # | Player | Pos | # | Player |
QB | 3 | Speight | FS | 18 | Pearson# |
RB | 32 | Isaac | Rover | 29 | J.Glasgow# |
FB | 80 | K.Hill | MLB | 46 | Wroblewski# |
TE-H | 88 | Butt | WLB | 10 | Bush |
TE-Y | 8 | Wheatley | SAM | 5 | Peppers |
RT | 70 | Ulizio | Anchor | 43 | Wormley |
RG | 63 | Pliska# | DT | 99 | Godin |
C | 52 | Cole | NT | 90 | Mone |
LG | 76 | Bushell-Beatty | End | 33 | Charlton |
LT | 77 | Newsome | CB | 6 | Washington |
WR | 2 | Mitchell | CB | 28 | Watson |
Only a few of those matchups can be at all enlightening, but I’d count the highlighted one among them.
1. THE PLAY: POWER WITHOUT THE PULLING
The defense is in a 71 (base over with the NT covering the center) front with the SAM (Peppers) up on the line to counteract that extra TE. The offense starts by motioning that TE.
The defense shows it’s in man, with the boundary CB (Washington) rolling with the motioning H-back (Butt). When Butt stops between the LT and LG, the WLB (Bush) comes up like he’s going to blitz that gap. That’s a good thing too because the called run goes right over his ass:
Absent Harbaugh’s playbook I don’t know how to name it, but we saw a fancier version last year against BYU, and Space Coyote drew it up as “Power Lead.” That time it was run to the C gap, with the receiver coming in to crack a linebacker. This is the more vanilla version.
If you can picture it, the same blocks are happening as if it’s Power, but the fullback is doing the kickout block, and the H-back is the “puller” leading through the intended hole. The running back then picks a hole through the carnage, typically to whichever side of the H-back’s block that a defender isn’t in.
[After the jump: The defense solves this the Don Brown way, then breaks down]
2. DEFENSE SOLVES THAT WITH AGGRESSION
That intended gap is about to get blown up by said Bush, who attacked that B gap with authority, blowing back Butt, the lead blocker.
The above is at the handoff and you know what they say about running when your Butt’s in the backfield. With Butt back there and Bush controlling both sides of him not only is there no running room in the intended gap, but Hill’s got a rough go to make his kickout block. The running back has to put on the breaks. Problem solved.
So: the RB’s at a dead stop, and the intended gap has a linebacker a yard behind the line of scrimmage occupying both blocky-catchy guys. By now the free safety has had time to come down. Meanwhile JBB, the left guard, got hung up on Mone for a split second and doesn’t have control of the MLB, who took a step playside and…
…over-pursued. Yeah okay this is a walk-on who’s listed as a DE on the roster, not Gedeon, so we’ll cut the guy a break, even though he then compounded his situation by losing the ball and fighting to the wrong side. Plus this is a pretty hard offense to stop when the offense knows how to run it. And we’re about to see a 5-star running back show how to run it.
3. ISAAC FINDS THE BACK DOOR OPEN
Rather than force it into the hole like some 5-star 2013 running backs not naming any names that are an ugly color, this RB sees the middle linebacker getting too far from the hole he was supposed to be guarding, and cuts back. Let’s watch these frames because this is special:
That’s 60 FPS so five frames is .08 seconds to go from a stop to speeding through the lane. We can talk about how clever Harbaugh is to create extra gaps and all but here’s pure athletic ability and body control turning a cutback lane into death for a defense.
4. AND IT’S OPEN BECAUSE BLOCKS
Lineman footwork is getting pretty technical but when you’re watching the gif above see the first steps of the RG (Pliska) and RT (Ulizio). This is a Drevno coaching point, where the backside blockers take their first step away from the play’s direction, then sidestep downfield to seal.
It’s not the hardest thing to do when your defenders are trying to get into the gap you’re opening for them, but it’s a point in favor of Power/man-on-man blocking as opposed to zone blocks, where you face the guy you’re blocking and try to let him pick where to go. So long as they don’t go in weird gaps, committing to these backside seals lets you get away with blocking two excellent DL in Godin and Wormley with blockers who should not be in their class.
Also Mason Cole got under Mone and drove him a critical yard downfield to open up the lane. Cole’s All-American candidacy begins now.
5. SPEAKING OF ALL AMERICANS DIDN’T ONE GET DONKEY’D ON THIS PLAY?
It wasn’t relevant until the cutback was successful, but Tyrone Wheatley took Peppers for a RIDE, then shed so far downfield Wheats was able to get a block on the Rover/Strong safety/Next Glasgow too.
This turned a seven-yarder into a huge gain, made even huger by Isaac then juking Peppers too. It may mean that Peppers as a nearly-DE linebacker is a bit undersized to take on 290-pound dudes with freak athleticism. It could just mean said freak plays for us.
6. WATCH IN SLO MO TO OBLIVION MUSIC
Music: “Petal” by Oblivion, Ann Arbor, MI
April 26th, 2016 at 11:27 AM ^
not sure about this Peppers at SAM........I know small sample size and all. Anxious to see a write up on ole Pepp if one hasn't already been done. Thanks for the good stuff guy.
April 26th, 2016 at 11:48 AM ^
It's a ploy by Brown to make Peppers come back in 2017. If he feels he still needs to conquer his position among the 7 others he has already conquered, he'll come back---right?
April 26th, 2016 at 11:35 AM ^
"getting pretty technical"
C'mon Seth you know we love it. Talk about something even more technical and obscure with perfect-length and -angle gifs to study. Mmm yeah.
April 26th, 2016 at 11:39 AM ^
This is one of my favorite things that Harbaugh does when he utilizes three backs in his offense. Makes it extremely hard on the defense's keys. And I always enjoy getting technical about OL footwork.
April 26th, 2016 at 11:45 AM ^
It's great to see Wheatley block Peppers 8 yards downfield without holding him. It's tough for bigger guys to keep a block on a smaller guy for that long without a penalty.
Speaking of penalties, Michigan was flagged for 87 (T90th in FBS) of them last year, good for 3rd most in the B1G.
It'd be really nice to see that number get slashed to Wisconsin/Iowa territory in the low 70's. Nebraska led the B1G with 94 (T109th in FBS), while Northwestern had the fewest with only 58 penalties (13th in FBS).
April 26th, 2016 at 11:51 AM ^
It wasn't that there was a lot of holds or PIs or flags where you're trying to make a play. It was just way, way too many pre-snap penalties. False start, snap infraction, into the neutral zone. Lack of focus flags that shouldn't happen. It's not an issue of talent, that is to say. So they should be able to improve quite a bit even in one year.
April 26th, 2016 at 12:20 PM ^
April 26th, 2016 at 12:29 PM ^
I agree. From memory, most of our penalties were pre-snap.
The numbers still show that we were bad in regards to penalty yards per game as well.
T-2 in the B1G in total penalty yards with IU, and T-90th in FBS in penalty ypg (59.85 ypg).
Our average yards/penalty was 8.94. For reference, Nebraska was 8.81, NW was 8.89, Iowa was 9.35, Ohio St was 8.63, MSU was 8.00, and Wisconsin was 9.18.
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The tightend outlook looks quite dominate as demonstrated on this play. Add incoming TE Devin Asiasi who at 270lbs primarily blocked each play and is a dynamic athlete at 270 and the sky is the limit....Here's a sample of Asiasi....
http://www.hudl.com/athlete/1689872/highlights/308601452.
Start watching around the 2:50 mark and then dream about him, Wheatley and you fill in the name and it will look pretty sensational.
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