A ho hum demolition of yet another sub-par program has us all feeling pretty confident, but I'm finding something in the charting that's of real concern. It's not a huge surprise, given this was the main issue with the team going into the season. But it was the source of most of Nebraska's yards, and relates to issues that Michigan's had all year in pass rushing and containing the quarterback. So I thought I should show you what I've been seeing.

On this play alone, we can see not one major pass-rushing issue but, but three:

1. Guys who have other skills but are Not Good at edge rushing
2. The hammer has no anvil
3. They're losing lane integrity

We'll tackle them one at a time.

[After THE JUMP: Leave it to a Michigan fan (this one) to find something to fret about after Nebraska]

1. Not Good Edge Rushers

This one is the simplest part of the explanation: Michigan's defensive end rotation has one decent edge rusher (Morris), one who shows flashes (Okie), one who's pretty bad at it (Upshaw) and one who's atrocious at it (Harrell), plus two young players in Derrick Moore and Braiden McGregor who are so-so at this and have other holes in their games.

We talked about this in the podcast and Brian brought it up again in yesterday's game column, but the lack of a Dude who's going to win pass rushes with consistency creates a situation where everybody's trying to be that. In our example at the top, Jaylen Harrell gets to start in a wide-9 against a bad offensive tackle and still thoroughly loses his pass rushing battle.

Harrell here couldn't be more set up for success. He was in a wide-9 stance well outside the TE to provide a more direct angle to the QB. The LG is focused inside for the moment so the T has to worry about both his inside and outside. And the guy's already flat-footed. It's just, Harrell's not built for this. His technique is fine, but his arms aren't very long, so as Harrell tries to swim by the OT is able to use his superior reach to latch onto Harrell's upfield shoulder. He's not big either so that's enough to arrest momentum.

Harrell then tries a secondary move inside, but that takes a good 1.5 seconds, and when he's done he's at a dead standstill way outside the box and has aggroed the left guard.

What else is there to say? Man doesn't have the innate build or ability. Harrell's in there because he can drop into linebacker zones that no other Edge on the roster is able to yet, and not screw up his assignments at both jobs. That means when Harrell's on the field there's another way to get good pass rush: have him cover a linebacker zone while one of the linebackers—both of whom are good at this—pass rush instead.

So let's look at that. Here's an Amoeba blitz that gets their best pass rusher, Michael Barrett, in free, AND wins a 1-on-1 rush one guy over.

Getting the QB to retreat 15 yards and chuck it at diving comeback for maybe 6 yards is most of a win, but feels like a waste. Why can't they get a sack out of this? Because they don't have anyone else who can get around behind or in front of the quarterback. Here's our moment of truth, with Barrett slowing up to make sure he doesn't allow Purdy outside. One gap below him Upshaw has defeated the left tackle. On the bottom Kris Jenkins is pushing the RT upfield.

But yeah, it's Kris Jenkins. He's a star tackle, but a TACKLE. Even when he's not shadowed by an OT, Jenkins can only get upfield so fast. Michigan has a tactical victory: they dropped Harrell and his shitty pass-rushing into coverage and got Barrett in free. They also have a field victory: Upshaw beat a block. But your DT is only so fast, and can't flash upfield quickly enough to cut off the backside of the pocket. Neither can Upshaw accelerate upfield quickly enough to deter a throw. It's mere portions of a second, but that's all Purdy needs to find space and get rid of the ball. And he has the room to do that because he can run away from Barrett without running into someone else.

Here's another example where they simply weren't fast enough. Here they have the ends, Morris (top) and Okie (bottom) coming inside with the DTs looping.

Okie seems to have it about here, despite getting held (which is just a reality of pass rushing in the Big Ten). But Upshaw isn't fast, so his loop takes awhile, and when Okie needs someone else to be arriving, Upshaw is just now finally getting to where the LT set up.

When Upshaw arrives, the window is almost closed. Okie's being pushed past the QB. It'll take a huge individual effort to bring the QB down at this point. Half a step earlier and this is dead. Instead Purdy is just able to escape, and with both DTs outside

That leads us into our second problem.

2. The Hammer Has No Anvil

The hammer and anvil metaphor is an old concept that comes from military strategy. The idea is to have one part of your forces walling up the enemy so they can't escape or spread out (anvil) while a faster attacking force smashes in at speed (hammer). Pass rushing uses the same concept: one rusher wins his block and goes hell for leather at the quarterback while the next-closest guy does all he can to make sure the QB can't run away. Hutchinson and Ojabo were awesome at this. Watch Ojabo (top) come inside the RT and how Hutchinson plays it.

Hutch (bottom) was the outside rusher, but he sees Ojabo getting there and makes sure he doesn't get too high. As Ojabo lines up the QB there's nowhere to go. One of them could get pushed past the QB because the other was always winning his block and able to clean up.

As we noted, the lack of a Dude is a problem because guys don't know their roles (exception: Taylor Upshaw, which is probably why he's playing). On the 3rd and 15 we just watched, Okie made a crucial mistake. Remember, the DTs are looping here, so the DEs have to have the interior gaps.

The Ohio State sack above was a similar deal, except Hutchinson was able to close down the interior.

If you're going to let the DTs go outside the DEs cannot lose outside as well. That's easier said than done, but not too hard so long as you're willing to sacrifice a shot at getting to the QB in the process. And therein lies the rub. Okie thinks he has to be the hero pass rusher on this team, understandably, and is selling out the rest to get the sack. Upshaw, however, thinks that *he's* the guy supposed to get to the QB this time, because he's the looper and that's the design of the play. Upshaw is correct. If Okie could have held up and burrowed through the RT to Purdy's knees Upshaw has a sack lined up.

I noticed way too many guys in this game going for the stat instead of setting up a teammate. This one was the most frustrating:

That's a five-man pressure, the RB is way too late to pick up Barrett, and Morris has dominated the RT's block on an outside edge rush. Two big wins up front should be a sack. Instead Morris and Barrett crash into each other and Purdy can escape. Why? Because they're both hammering.

The culprit is clearly Morris, since he's the one who gets edged. All he had to do was set up and be an anvil so Purdy couldn't escape Barrett's blow.

That's pretty bad from Morris. But then he's also the guy who's been Michigan's most consistent pass rusher, and his teammates aren't anvil'ing for him either. Morris (bottom) won this next pass rush, but this time Okie (top) was coming too far inside with dreams of big sacks.

If Okie can just keep Purdy inside, Morris's guy isn't even in contact with him anymore, and the QB has no escape. Spending that capital on his his own sack attempt means if Okie doesn't pay it off there's a quarterback on the loose and Morris's win goes for nothing.

Letting the quarterback on the loose was an issue.

3. Maintaining Lane Integrity

How do defenses prevent quarterbacks from escaping? If you think about it this should happen a lot, since a pass rush is typically four against five, and that's before dudes get washed past. The trick is it's kind of like on kick coverage, where you have a lane, and everybody's lane is to a called side of the blocking.

BUT this setup rarely lasts beyond first contact. What coaches really do is preach trying to win blocks first and foremost, then reacting to each other. Usually what this means is watching the other guys and filling in where they expose. This isn't a run game where you are worried about a downhill attack through each gap with blockers. On a pass rush the things to worry about are the edges and inside lanes. An edge rusher can't get so far upfield that he gives up the edge unless there are enough rushers to cover him after. A DT can't just pick a gap and stay there because he needs to be reacting to the guys in front of him, and keeping contain.

You also can vary how many guys are going for the QB versus keeping contain. The usual for a standard four-man rush on a standard down is two edge rushers who can't go beyond even with the QB, and two DTs hanging back to make them right. Against a running QB we've seen Michigan limit themselves to one guy, and some teams will even put everyone on contain. Passing downs you usually just have one guy hanging back, and maybe one trying to push the pocket from the inside. Then there are infinite variations to keep the protection guessing. But the trick to figuring out who's responsible when a quarterback escapes is to see who wasn't on the same side of his blocker as the others.

The lanes can change mid pass-rush, but if you're going to do that you need the guy behind you adjusting. Let's take this example of a five-man rush:

The plan for this five-man pressure is to get there with the edges. Morris draws a double and both Harrell and Jenkins—two bad pass-rushers—get wiped out high and Purdy is able to step up past them. Harrell in particular is an issue because he gets shoved all the way back to the 40-yard line. Jenkins would ideally come back inside his guard but with Harrell's surrender, Jenkins has to cover the left edge. Smith is watching this and moves to the left side of his blocker to make Jenkins right.

Graham however is reacting to Morris, who looks about to get wiped out as well. Purdy is going to step up into the pocket, and somebody needs to be there when he does, so I don't fault Graham for trying to rip his way through there. The problem is now Smith is left to take BOTH gaps. He can't be right.

Smith tries to hop to the other side at the last second to make his freshman right but it's too late and he falls at Purdy's feet. So who's at fault? Harrell, if you need to assign one guy. Graham and Jenkins, for responding by selling out instead of controlling their blockers. And Smith for picking the wrong one. "TEAM" really.

Let's try another one. This is a four-man rush after play-action so it's less planned than usual. This time Mazi Smith decides he's going to go quarterback hunting. Like Graham in the example above, Smith (top DT) is one-on-one and further upfield, so he can reasonably expect there to be help behind him.

That's a gamble but Graham needs to get off his block and make Smith right.

Look where Graham is there and then look where he ends up after Smith has flushed Purdy. He's almost at the hash and going the wrong way.

In fact he ends up three yards past the line of scrimmage when Purdy passes by.

So that's on the freshman. But it's also happening because Mazi Smith is a very large person. Too often this year we've gone from a screenshot like this…

…to the quarterback escaping the pocket. The reason is simple physics: Mazi is much larger than the quarterbacks he's pursuing, and the guy he beat is adding force upfield, and the QB is just able to slip by.

It's also an issue of aiming point. They're coming at him like he's a statue, which works great against Spencer Petras and might do the trick against CJ Stroud. For Chubba Purdy you need to anticipate his forward momentum. Even if you turn early that's going to delay his release and allow your friends to rally. Going behind is gambling that you'll make the sack. This time Smith lost the gamble.

Let's contrast his approach with Taylor Upshaw's (#91 the looper to the bottom). I asserted that I think he's playing over the pile of youngsters because he's more responsible. Here's a good example of that.

#91 the DT on the top

Upshaw notices there's going to be a lane inside of him and spins back into it. The QB is indeed trying to escape but with Upshaw there Smothers redirects and Okie and Jenkins are able to complete the spiritual sack. Getting there meant recognizing early where he needed to be and selling out his own pass rush. Upshaw does this sort of thing consistently, which is more important to this team. The fact that he's doing it on a DT for the pass rush team is a hint that Graham's freshman stuff might be coming out in practice as well. When Graham does get this stuff down he's going to be amazing though.

All of the Above

Let's go back one more time to the first play and break down how it all broke down.

1. Bad rush. Jaylen Harrell gets nowhere on his pass rush despite setting up in an advantageous position. That leaves space for Purdy to dodge away from Morris's victory, since Morris has to keep an edge as well.

2. No anvil. Even though Harrell is taking a long time to get here, Morris could set up and just try to keep Purdy pinned until someone else arrives. Instead Morris is in "I have to do this myself" mode—understandably—and ends up getting shoved by the quarterback trying to get the sack.

Morris has a good inside move and power rush but he's not an Ojabo or Winovich. He'd make a great anvil if Michigan had a hammer opposite him. As The Guy his successful rushes often do more harm than good, however.

I want him to slow down, but asking him to slow down his rushes and give the QB more time while Morris's teammates make their way to the backfield sounds counterintuitive given he's their best hammer. I think that's why Michigan's been using Taylor Upshaw more often, because he's one guy who doesn't mind playing the anvil. Upshaw has his disadvantages—he's not a great rusher and he's not fast. But he's responsible, and pays attention to things like screens and the like, and is a good fit with Morris if Morris is going to be your premier pass rusher.

If they can get Okie or McGregor or Moore online, or if they can get Barrett and Colson more involved with zone blitzing while dropping linemen like Harrell, you can convert Morris into an anvil. The issue there is he often hasn't shown the inclination, and he's still winning pass rushes more than those other guys.

3. No Lane Integrity.

Once we lose Morris, note which side of their blockers everyone else is set up:

Morris can go through that tackle but he can't give up the inside like that, or if he does his teammates have to be reacting to it. I'm guessing that they're reacting to Harrell, since Morris is usually better about this sort of stuff. But Harrell adjusts, drawing the LG and taking a pop yes, but that's still a lane that's closed to the QB. Jenkins does see it and move over a gap. Smith is late to.

Yeah he's a little bit held but that's not enough to get called in the Big Ten. The fact that he's still not across his blocker 1.5 seconds after Morris got run by is on him.

This has been a bit of a weakness of his all season, and last year a bit as well, though it was covered up better because Michigan had two elite pass rushers who didn't let much slip back to the tackles. In everything else Smith is a dominant defensive tackle so it's not like you want to remove him from the field. He just has to get better at this one thing.

This was the last time the ends were cut loose in this game. In the 2nd half they mostly played contain while the tackles went to work on Nebraska's interior.

As far as natural pass rush I would prefer this approach (though this was a 5-man pressure). This late in the season we're not going to discover a new Ojabo and Hutchinson. I was hopeful at one point that Okie was coming around to passing the other ends and building a rapport with Morris, but he's still got a lot of rawness to his game and I can see why they're hesitant to go that route.

It probably won't matter for Illinois, whose blockers are built for the running game. But there were few things I wanted to see less than Michigan's four-man pass rush looking this bad this close to their date with CJ Stroud. I'm guessing they're going to have a plan that we didn't see against Nebraska, that it will involve lots of Amoeba and more discipline from Morris and Smith than lowly Nebraska warranted. If it all goes sour in Columbus, well, at least this team's fatal flaw wasn't a surprise.