Upon Further Review 2012: Defense Vs Iowa

Formation notes: There are a lot of subtleties to alignment that I'm glossing over for reasons of time and simplicity. For instance, both of these are 4-3 over—line shifted to the strength of the formation—in my book despite looking significantly different on the field:

check the DTs and ILBs

Those are likely different defenses but we're trying to keep things simple enough to categorize in bins large enough to draw conclusions from and get this done before next week.

These DL splits were big enough for me to denote this as "nickel spread" FWIW:

I think this occurred to me this week because though every Iowa run play (every one!) is classified inside zone the subtleties in both offense and defense were apparent. There's a chess game so far beyond what I can access and it was on full display in this one.

This is 5-1 nickel again; Michigan tightened its DL when Vandenberg checked:

Substitution notes: Ross obviously drew in for Morgan. Bolden got a few drives, one at WLB in place of Ross, further suggesting that those positions are close to interchangeable. The back seven was otherwise as you would expect. Furman came in for Kovacs on the last charted drive.

The line was also the usual at this point: an eight-man rotation with the starters getting a majority but not a huge majority of the snaps.

[AFTER THE JUMP: a relatively brief UFR.]

Go! Go!

Do you ever think to yourself that "QWash" is the greatest ARod-style nickname in the history of ARod style nickname.

All the time. Fear Qwash!

He's like a wrestler.

Yes. He is tag-team buddies with Surpress and managed by Jewel DeNial. His finishing move is the Sqwash, where he jumps off the top rope, does a flip, and lands on your face.

Do you feel bad talking about this when there is football to be discussed?

I think Brian Griese started talking about Oregon in the first half so not really. It was not a competitive contest, you know.

What about that drive, you know, that one, the bad one?

Well that'll happen. Those tight end five yard outs are hard to cover—usually when teams complete them and there is a tackle I just give the defense a push; sometimes a plus depending on down and distance. But yeah I shrug at all five yard passes because if you're defending a five yard pass really well you're probably doing it wrong. "It" being defense. Consistently stringing together dink completion after dink completion is hard, so let 'em do it and see if they can march down the field with that stuff.

Iowa did, once.

But the second drive?

Two chunk plays to start that seemed to be a freshman linebacker not reacting well to play action and probably a busted assignment that left a gap totally unfilled, then two straight GTFOs with a terrible call on Kovacs extending the drive, which is a huge disappointment because I wanted to see Ferentz punt from the 32.

And the third?

Substitutions started in earnest on that one and Josh Furman seemed to drag way out of position on the long Iowa catch and run. The two freshman LBs got lost on a passing down; Ross, rushing, let Vandenberg out of the pocket and Bolden tripped on Garmon's legs as he turned it upfield.

So you're saying?

I don't think there's anything to worry about because Iowa managed to move the ball a tiny bit. I mean, four of their first six drives were three and out, with a bonus three-and-out in there when Iowa had their FG drive extended by the PF, and then the game was over and substitutions started, whereupon Iowa moved the ball a bit.

Here is a—

…

--a chart.

Oh sorry I was thinking about Qwash's tights.

This game was not very interesting. Also this is just 44 charted plays since I stopped when senior walk-on time started, so multiply by 1.5 to normalize.

Low numbers all around due a lack of plays and avalanche of short passes on which UFR tends to offer a half-point for an immediate tackle and move on to the next play. You'll note that Ross came down from a big game last week; we have discussed this somewhat already in the Picture Pages. Here's another example of Weisman plowing the guy:

Minus half point for not being huge enough to deal with Weisman while being shoved by a blocker, but again that is the very best problem for a freshman linebacker to have. In two years Ross is still going to be darting past this offensive lineman to hit the tailback:

The tailback will get one yard after contact instead of three. Meanwhile, the Iowa touchdown was at least partially on Ross but when you see that endzone angle it's clear he's just a step away from making a play. Ross needs one step.

Historically, inside linebackers have it tough in UFRs. They can get lost or suck up on play action or miss a tackle and are relevant to more plays than anyone else; ILB is hard. In the past a player who edges above zero has gotten a thumbs up—in the recent past few have. Michigan's linebacker play this year has been higher quality than at any time in the recent past; if we go back to David Harris the UFR scale and thought process has changed so drastically that I'm not sure it's useful to make a comparison. So yeah kind of an off day from the MLBs but let's keep it in perspective. They did some good stuff.

As for the rest of the defense, here is the best way to describe Greg Davis: Michigan's starting field corner did not register.

Have any canonical examples of the slight but real differences between the two inside linebacker spots?

Why yes I do, funny you should ask. In the under there is one "bubble"—an OL not covered by a DL. It is the strongside guard, who will generally release into the middle linebacker. The weakside LB is usually protected by the NT and three-tech and can flow to the ball freely.

In practice this is far from always the case (see the play above on which Ross is taking on a blocker while trying to tackle Weisman), but the setup of the defense is such that to test that WLB you are sledding uphill somewhat. The defense has to deal with that bubble, though, and this means having that MLB take on the guard's block and getting that WLB to the hole, like in this inside zone from Iowa:

frontside G: free release into Demens.
C and backside G: blurberated by DL
Ross: free to flow

This is why I keep saying I think Morgan moves to MLB next year. Ross is really good at getting to the spot if he's free and Morgan is a thumper who can take on those OL.

Speaking of thumping…

That's nice to see after some earlier games in which you wanted Bolden to wind up and hit somebody.

Secondary?

Irrelevant except for some open-field tackles from the safety. An Iowa receiver didn't touch the ball before it was 42-10. So, I guess good job secondary.

Defensive line?

Close to irrelevant. On the inside zones they were supposed to pop up hard in single gaps and by doing so get Ross free; they largely did this, thus Ross's 12 tackles. In the passing game it was all the short routes.

I remain concerned about a lack of natural pass rush; at this point it is what it is.

Heroes?

Greg Davis. Jake Ryan. Greg Davis. QWASH a little but mostly just because I want to say Qwash. Kovacs.

Goats?

I think we should probably rename this bit.

Players not quite as advanced in Mattison-fu?

Well, Ross did end up responsible for a couple of big chunk plays for Iowa and got dragged by Weisman. Massive caveats about this only applying to this one game, as above. Freshman with upside in spades.

What does it mean for Ohio State?

Well, nothing. The two offenses couldn't be more different, and Ohio State is not a tire fire.

One thing: I think we do want Desmond Morgan back pretty badly, as Ohio State's tailbacks are thumper types, not Venric Mark, and he seems like the better matchup. (When Miller breaks outside it will be up to the safeties to be the primary contain.) There just isn't much else to take from the game. If you're worried about tight ends, OSU TEs have combined for 17 catches on the year. Worry about Miller.