In yesterday's defensive UFR I noted the hesitant LBs were a disappointing development. I wanted to get into why I put it on them, and how I thought they changed things up later on to put the onus on the DTs.

We're starting with two plays in a row on Maryland's first drive that could have been emphatic stuffs (or more) versus Inside Zone. We're on the snap after Michigan was going to get off the field but for Jaylen Harrell getting a piece of Tagovailoa's facemask. It's tremendous bad luck, that (a difference of 3.41 expected points), and the defense could really use an emphatic win on the next down. Instead we get this:

It's just five yards on a first down RPO, but might have been so much more.

[After THE JUMP: GO!]

 

Off the snap Maryland is double-teaming the backside DT, Mason Graham, while reading the frontside LB, Mike Barrett, for an RPO slant behind him or a TE in the flat outside of him. Barrett stays back, and for the moment Maryland has a hat for every defender engaging with the run. Two of those guys, however, are on Graham, who's giving up a yard to keep the center attached to him. That leaves Junior Colson free to fly down as soon the ball's in the RB's hands.

The issue here was Colson didn't take it. One beat later the RB is gaining momentum, Graham is starting to lose the engagement of the center, and Colson still hasn't moved.

Go!

GO!!!!!!!

Too late. Graham's been "scooped" and the center can release to the linebacker. Note Colson's only moved up one yard from where he started. In a game of inches, setting up your line of defense here is surrendering at least everything in front of you. In the clip above you can see #99 Cam Goode has actually fought his way across the blocker to initiate the tackle. Graham, now freed of the double, is also fighting to close the window. Colson, the guy this was run at, is getting pinched out of the play.

Now watch it again, just looking at the Graham and Colson, and imagine what happens if Colson had fired down faster.

Graham is top DT just above the hash. Colson is the LB behind him.

It's a doubly missed opportunity because the Maryland RB, Roman Hemby, bobbled the handoff. If Hemby met an aggressive linebacker a yard in the backfield, that ball could have popped anywhere, most likely into the hands of a defender facing it. Instead Colson just…watched it.

Contrast his behavior with that of Rod Moore, #19, who's playing nickel on the top hash. Moore hangs out where he needs to be to take away a slant just as long as he has to then scoots forward to take away a much larger gap than the one Colson's responsible for. (Why do I keep clipping safeties doing linebacker things better than the linebackers?)

While this behavior was new from Colson, it's been a persistent thing from Barrett. He did it on the very next play:

#23 the bottom linebacker

This time Michigan's defensive playcall won single blocks across the play, wasting a pair of OL on the backside. Maryland really wanted to hit this flare screen to the F but didn't expect to get Sainristil leaving the backside edge to pursue it, giving Michigan numbers to the field. The backup plan was to get McGregor crashing on the dive and either hit the Y curl or have Tagovailoa run it out himself with the left side of the line in front of him, but McGregor sensed he was the edge defender and formed up to force a handoff.

This is a Rock, Paper, Scissors victory for Jesse Minter. Maryland planned a bunch of options for the defense to bite on and they had them all covered by an alignment that it initially looked pretty good against if you're planning for Sainristil to be blitzing off this edge.

All that's left now is to pay it off. Graham has the center single-blocking him and is controlling both sides of the center at the line of scrimmage. He's done his job. Upshaw and Goode are in their gaps as well. The running back has only one lane and still has to shift his momentum downfield to get to it as soon as his quarterback gets his arm out of the basket. This Barrett's moment to take the free lane.

 

Take it!

Go!

Too late.

Upshaw and Goode managed to fight across their blockers to end this, but they're both engaged with OL so this falls forward for 2 yards. Barrett ends up falling down outside of the pile.

Here's Kalel Mullings taking a shot at it. He's the LB on the top, behind Mazi Smith. At first I was going to put this on Smith for getting scooped but as I tried to break down what the line was doing I saw it differently. The defensive line is slanting to the frontside (top) which should get the linebackers hopping backside. Mullings hops with Smith, so when the C comes off the double he's got the linebacker lined up.

This is not exactly responsible behavior from the defense, since Smith would have to take both sides of that block for this to work. But the gamble pays off—the center is following Smith instead of popping off. An aggressive linebacker could take advantage of that. Mullings instead remains behind his DT.

He does take on the center, but head on. You're the smaller and faster player, not some thick neck-roller on Bullough juice. The way to make that work is to scamper into the gap.

The linebackers got –1s for these events, not big –2s or angry –3s. But this stuff adds up. More importantly, it's wasting good playcalls, gambles, and plays by the other guys that could have paid off.

Last year I kept talking about how Michigan was putting Ross through "Linebacker Hell" by giving him tough reads while the DTs concentrated on single blocks. One of the reasons I tried to be easy on him was he took these opportunities when they were presented. This year Michigan is able to put more on the defensive tackles, which should be paying off in more aggressive play from the linebackers. Somebody just forgot to tell the linebackers.