Rethinking The Slot: Norfleet & The Jet Sweep Comment Count

Ace



Not Just A Gimmick™, we hope. [Adam Glanzman/Special to MGoBlog]

For a player with a meager 113 yards from scrimmage in two years, Dennis Norfleet is the topic of discussion around these parts a whole lot, and that topic is usually "can we please get this guy the ball more?" This seems like an odd request to endlessly put forth regarding a player with 12 career offensive touches and zero touchdowns, but there's Norfleet atop the depth chart at slot receiver, and beyond that there's good reason to think he'll be a much bigger part of the offense this season.

Norfleet came to Michigan as the in-state recruit too talented not to offer late, even though he didn't fit the coaching staff's idea of... anything, really. He certainly didn't fit the MANBALL running back mold, nor the desire to head in the direction of fielding a receiving corps in which being 6'2" makes one a slot receiver. It felt like he was offered as an afterthought, and his usage in the years since reflected that; Norfleet would occasionally come into the game at the slot, get a totally surprising jet sweep, and head back to the bench to await his next special teams opportunity.

The problem with this wasn't so much the plays Norfleet was asked to run—getting a player that shifty in space is a good idea, and jet sweeps should accomplish that—but the obviousness of what he was going to do, and the fact that these plays often didn't fit into the larger scheme of the offense. This blog has extensively covered the constraint theory of offense—in essence, that an offense has a core set of plays, then "constraint" plays that take advantage of defenses overplaying those core plays—and that Al Borges went for more of a grab-bag approach.

Norfleet's longest career carry works as a great example of both the constraint theory and how he was misused, oddly enough. He broke a 38-yard run in last season's opener against Central Michigan when Michigan ran an end-around to him off a counter trap run; the counter action—especially the pulling right guard—drew the CMU defense to their right, and by the time the ball was pitched U-M's blockers had a very easy time sealing their men off from the real direction of the play:

This worked because Central hadn't yet learned that Michigan didn't ever really run the counter trap and that Norfleet's presence on the field almost certainly indicated he'd get the ball; it also helped that they were a 6-6 MAC team. Norfleet's runs after the opener weren't remotely as successful due to a couple factors: Michigan couldn't establish a base running game, and when Norfleet was on the field it was incredibly obvious what he'd do.

[Hit THE JUMP for the whole point of this post: how Doug Nussmeier can use Norfleet to boost Michigan's running game.]

Anyway, the point: I fully expect Michigan to utilize Norfleet a lot more this season, and there's reason to get excited about that prospect in Doug Nussmeier's offense. As we've also covered extensively, Nussmeier is a dedicated inside zone guy when it comes to the running game. As it so happens, one of the best constraints for zone runs is the jet sweep to a slot or wide receiver, and Norfleet's place on the depth chart—and Freddy Canteen's placement on the outside—suggests Nussmeier will take advantage of this.

Jim Light Football has a very informative post on various zone run constraint concepts run by Seattle at the NFL level and Wisconsin at the college level. These plays are predicated on having the majority of the players up front block for a zone concept, perhaps with one or two blockers sealing off the backside for a sweep, and forcing key defenders to choose between flowing to the potential zone run or staying home against the sweep; as you'll see, sometimes there's no right answer for the defender. While Michigan would most likely run this with a slot receiver instead of an outside receiver, with the slot replacing one of the two tight ends, this Wisconsin concept is something we could very well see this fall [emphasis mine]:

Wisconsin runs similar concepts with the jet sweep off of their inside zone running game. In this example the Badgers run the jet sweep out of a double wing set. From tackle to tackle the offensive line is blocking inside zone. The Badgers use the tight ends to block for the jet sweep. Once again it’s a split-flow read for the defense, running backs going in opposite directions along with two different blocking schemes.

Arizona State’s front four, along with four defenders from their back seven all work downhill to take away the inside zone run. That leaves only three defenders left for the Badgers to account for on the jet sweep. The tight ends work a double team on the end man on the line of scrimmage up to the safety who is the force defender. The receiver blocks the corner and Melvin Gordon is off to the races for an untouched 80 yard touchdown run.

The result:

You can see that the near-side defensive end (#93, I think?) shoots into the backfield, but the threat of the inside zone stops him in his tracks just long enough for Melvin Gordon to fly past him with the football. A couple of solid blocks on the outside, where every defender is accounted for because the rest were held up by the inside zone fake, are all it takes for a huge touchdown run.

This type of constraint doesn't just pose the threat of an occasional big play; when the threat of the constraint is on the field—and as the starting slot, Norfleet should be out there quite a bit—it forces defenders to keep that constraint in mind even on standard inside zones; defenses can't be as aggressive flowing to the football, and individual players can become more hesitant as they have to keep the threat of the sweep in the backs of their minds. Running this kind of stuff wouldn't just benefit Norfleet; it would make it easier for Michigan to successfully run their base offense. Consider the jet sweep/inside zone combo to be the new zone read/bubble screen.

Norfleet may not be the receiving threat that Michigan fans are used to seeing line up in the slot—though he's got a lot of potential working those underneath routes—but he's a different type of player who most likely will be used in a different way. He could, in fact, be one of the keys to Michigan making strides in the running game.

Comments

JeepinBen

August 26th, 2014 at 1:38 PM ^

And I agree that a constraint is a big help to any running game. I actually like this better than the idea of using Power as a constraint because we haven't had much if any success pulling guards.

There's actually a great example of Michigan's running game working with constraints last year - Northwestern. Michigan threw a bubble, and then would fake the bubble to an inside draw and it worked like gangbusters. Until it was clear that they didn't want to throw the bubble.

Davymac97.

August 26th, 2014 at 1:41 PM ^

Not to be captain obvious but we're going to have to establish the inside zone first so defenses actually have to respect it.  Just have to be succesful enough at it that defenses don't totally disregard it and key in on the sweep.

I'm cautiously optimistic that we will be able to do so.

 

GoWings2008

August 26th, 2014 at 2:07 PM ^

Maybe you mean drool???  I hope...

But yeah, great write up and I saw the conclusions you were aiming for early on, knowing opposing defenses should be honoring this big play threat all the time if Norfleet is on the field.  Hopefully there's other ways Nuss has in mind to get the ball into his hands. 

Mr. Yost

August 26th, 2014 at 2:04 PM ^

...can point out some of these very obvious things about playcalling and usage and a D1 offensive coordinator making 850k/year can't or won't use these principles...is infuriating.

Bloggers can certainly point out things that the common person doesn't understand. Bloggers can certainly question things and provide opinions. But at no point should I feel like bloggers are smarter than our offensive coordinator in ANY part of football.

Gosh this is so brillant, so obvious, and so frustrating.

JeepinBen

August 26th, 2014 at 2:12 PM ^

It's another to actually have players do it. I'm not trying to defend Borges or bash players, but even if this play is called it's up to the players to execute it. If either TE blows their block, this play is dead in the backfield. Of course it is the coaches' responsibility to make sure the players can execute their assignments, and call plays that put them in a position to succeed - but now I'm in a circular argument.

I guess all I'm saying is yes, these concepts are great. Making them happen in reality is tougher.

Mr. Yost

August 26th, 2014 at 2:27 PM ^

But I'm not talking about that...I was referring to this:

The problem with this wasn't so much the plays Norfleet was asked to run—getting a player that shifty in space is a good idea, and jet sweeps should accomplish that—but the obviousness of what he was going to do, and the fact that these plays often didn't fit into the larger scheme of the offense. This blog has extensively coveredthe constraint theory of offense—in essence, that an offense has a core set of plays, then "constraint" plays that take advantage of defenses overplaying those core plays—and that Al Borges went for more of a grab-bag approach.

That's infuriating, because it's true. It has nothing to do with the players. The coach didn't set up the play properly. Instead he consistently made it blantantly obvious that when 23 was in the game...he was getting the ball or going to be decoyed to get the ball.

Problem is, Norfleet isn't Charles Woodson. Of course Woodson was going to get the ball, but who cared if the entire world knew? Norfleet can be a very solid weapon...but if you're trying to trick the defense and you haven't set them up and/or it's obvious that when he's in the game, it's going to be part of the play...it's never going to work. And the plays we ran for him were never set up by our base running or passing plays. Instead we'd run a reverse to Norfleet for 3 yards and then the next series we'd run the same play and have Norfleet flip the ball to Gallon on a double reverse. THAT was Borges' idea of setting up plays.

ca_prophet

August 26th, 2014 at 3:53 PM ^

He isn't going to get a seal on a corner, much less an LB. When he's on the field the defense has the numbers unless he's the ball carrier *or unless he can occupy someone on a fake*.

This is one reason he didn't see the field often earlier - our offense didn't use the role to which he best fits. Now, if we make that jet sweep fake part of most or even half of our inside zones, then Norfleet can stay on the field and "block" someone. Like anything else, we have to commit to it, or people will ignore the fake and key on inside zone.

TreyBurkeHeroMode

August 26th, 2014 at 4:17 PM ^

When every reasonably intelligent football fan in the stadium or watching at home knows what play you're going to run given the formation and personnel you've got on the field, then you can safely assume that the opposing $750,000 defensive coordinator who's had all week to just prepare for you has your SSN and credit card number and is exchanging flirty texts with your wife.

teldar

August 26th, 2014 at 7:03 PM ^

The players need to execute. BUT. When you have a unit which is somewhat important, the OL, who are young and inexperienced and not developing very quickly... Do you keep reaching into the grab bag and pulling out a different base offense each week? Or do you keep doing SOMETHING in the hopes that something clicks.You know, ACTUALLY SIMPLIFY THE OFFENSE SO SOMEONE GETS IT. This is what I blame Borges for.

Oh, yeah. Also for dinosaur speed offense plays. By dinosaur speed, I don't meean 40mph raptor screaming down on some proto-mammal to rip it apart, I mean the big 80ton sauropods whom paleontologists are saying walked at an amazing 4-5mph and probably never stopped because their bodies couldn't even handle stopping and starting again. Either that, or you know, current dinosaur speed, i.e. fossils. Which are inanimate. And don't move. At all.

 

 

 

Sauce Castillo

August 26th, 2014 at 2:07 PM ^

Great write up.  This is something I've always watched for and loved about Wisconsin's offense and the way this sets up the run game.  I remember them using plays like this over and over when they throttled Nebraska in the big ten championship.  Would love to see it in our offense.

Firch

August 26th, 2014 at 2:07 PM ^

still waiting for Norfleet to turn in something that calls for a "norfleeeeeeeee!" response. He's come so close so many times. Here's to hoping Nuss figures out how to use him effectively!

NYWolverine

August 26th, 2014 at 2:31 PM ^

I've been quietly hoping for a jet sweep package since the RR days; we've had personnel for it since then, and it's a great play with a crazy mesh point if you're playing zone read. Devin/De'Veon/Dennis each with a head full of steam. Would work best out of a pistol in a fast tempo offense, IMO, but would be a great vestige constraint as we become more downhill.

EDIT - actually, not so quietly...

http://mgoblog.com/diaries/speculating-jetfly-and-triple-shoot-playbook-michigan

Space Coyote

August 26th, 2014 at 4:13 PM ^

Last September, again, focused on Wisconsin and their 2-back offense (though they also used Abbrederis instead of a 2nd RB in the same role).

In that, I touched on the inside zone, end around, double play action Flag concept (Michigan did this later in the year but with Gallon on the end around), and a backside screen. All work off of each other to threaten the entire field while maintaining the same look.

LINK

Also looked at their base running game, which is similar to what Michigan will do, with IZ, OZ, Power, and utilizing TEs to increase the gaps for defenses to cover.

LINK