*programming note, got busy during the holidays, sorry if anyone was looking for scouting reports.  Things have slowed down now, so expect a Nebraska game wrap next week, or the week after, depending on if I feel like writing anything about the SEC non-championship exhibition game.

Winners find a way to win.

It started as a joke, but now no one can deny the awesome power that is Brady Hoke's magical golden poop.  Everything he touches turns into roses.  When he walks through a forest, flowers bloom in his wake.  Youtube is sadly lacking in good golden poop videos, so a unicorn farting rainbows of destruction was the best I could find.  I hope it's not too disturbing.

Our ND friends gave us the wonderfully self-fulfilling cliche' "Winners find a way to win, losers find a way to lose."  But we'll just focus on the first half of that, and they can focus on the 2nd half, thank you very much. 

Was Brady Hoke lucky that Tressel was caught lying?  Maybe. Maybe he pulled a Peter Wiggin and dropped a few well placed emails.  Was it luck when we fumbled on the 1 yard line against ND and Denard scooped and scored a walk in?  Maybe.  Maybe Hoke used his secret telekinesis.

I don't know, I don't care. At this point I'm just happy to be along for the ride.  

But how else can you explain what happened? 

How does a sure INT on a fake FG where no receivers went into pass patterns end up in the arms of the long snapper for a first down? How does what looks like a TD to 80% of the twitterverse get reversed in OT?  How have all the great things that have happened this year happen to one team, in one year?  It boggles the mind. 

They say you make your own luck.  They say that "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."  But whether it's luck, or karmic retribution, or a secret plot by an undercover invisible agency from the future, it can't be sustained at this high of a level.  So let's just enjoy it while we can.  

On to the pics.

Al. Al? ALLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!

This week's love-hate relationship status with Al Borges is .... .... Love? That's odd, because during the game there were times when the needle was strongly tilted towards hate.  But after a second look at the game film, the final analysis, just like the outcome of the game, is slightly positive.  

Much like the Iowa game, the lack of production on offense wasn't really his fault so much as it was a combination of a lack of execution, personnel limitations, and a darn good defense.  

Oh sure, there's plenty of things he could have done better and a few stinkers that make you want to pull out your hair... hmmm....nevermind.  And I'll get to those in a moment, but overall, we did what we've done all year. And many of the plays should have worked. 

I mean, Molk getting injured and having this

happen on two consecutive plays to kill the first drive can't really be blamed on Al.  Maybe it would have been better to go under center with the backup playing, but after we've been crying all year for more shotgun, you can understand why he didn't.  Luckily Molk came back in, but wasn't at 100% which probably put a dent in our selection of play calls. 

And give VT credit.  They played a lot of Man-Free forcing Denard to make tough passes to the outside, which frankly, we all know is not his comfort zone. 

Yes, the manball mentality is frustrating especially when VT is putting 9 men in the box. 

 (It's 8 because Denard going backwards is not a threat to run.) But it's there to setup big plays.  

With both safeties up like this, the thing you have to do is make them pay for it. 

But with two defenders beating their blockers, Denard has pressure right up in his face resulting in this jump pass. 

It's not Al's fault that Denard threw to the wrong guy.  Roundtree had a step on his man and Jr. was getting interfered with.  Despite the interception, you can't argue that it wasn't the right play call. 

[ED: More after the jump.]

Finally! No,... FINALLY!!!!!

So that game was closer than it should have been.  Raise your hand if you think the replay official had taken Ohio against the spread.  A touchdown would have made it a 10 point game with Michigan covering the 9 point spread. But let's bitch about that later.

WOOOOOO!!!!!!

10-2 with wins against ND and OSU! It's beyond all expectations. If we hadn't laid an egg at Iowa and gotten screwed by the refs that game, we'd be sitting with just one loss, 3 close wins, and 8 curb stompings.  You could say that I'm sold on this coaching staff.  I had no idea the coordinators and position coaches would be this good.  We still have a lot of issues with our WLB and our secondary, but we're light years ahead of where we were last season. 

On to the pics!

Fickell

I have to give him credit for coming out with an aggressive gameplan that put a lot of pressure on Braxton Miller's arm and Posey's ability to get separation.  It almost worked.  But the punt from the 36 yard line was a pure Zookian moment.

It's 4th and 4, the game is a high scoring affair, you've been moving the ball pretty well with your mobile QB and there's a strong possibility that you'd only be gaining 16 yards with a punt anyway.  There's no debate.  This was a HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE decision.  Their punter did a good job executing the coffin corner kick, but that still doesn't justify the thought process.  

Add that to Fickell's continued clock mismanagement, and I doubt you'll find a single bucknut fan who is sad to see him go (or demoted, or whatever).  Not forcing a punt at the end of the first half was not that bad with a one point lead, but wasting 16 seconds for a 3rd down spike on the last drive was just awful.  You could even hear Spielman rolling his eyes at that. 

F* That guy

Miller is going to be a problem going forward.  He fits "Urban Meyer's offense" as Spielman called it during the game (so much for the two weeks of pretense) almost perfectly.  He doesn't throw a very accurate ball but *cough*tebow*cough* that doesn't mean he can't be successful in that offense. 

It is interesting to note that Miller had 9 TD's and only 3 picks.  Yeah, he didn't have many yards or attempts and was under 50% passing, but that's still pretty remarkable for a true freshman.  He's been missing his receivers in safe ways and pulling it to run if the coverage doesn't look right.  That's pretty good ball security for someone you'd expect to misread coverages due to inexperience. 

He started out the game doing what we expected, we just weren't ready for his speed on the first couple of plays.  On this 2nd and long, Ryan is blitzing from a walked off OLB spot.  

But his path is a little too much to the outside.  I know he's thinking about contain, but he's got to aim more directly at Boren and then use his arms to stay off the block. 

Instead, he gets pushed outside and the tackle is free to release onto Demens. 

Morgan has to do a better job of reading that lineman crossing the LOS and react quicker to Miller.  Ryan would adjust later, but this gave them an important early 1st down. 

Mattison really sold out on stopping the run and stopping Miller's scrambling.  On Kovacs' delayed blitz, you can see we did a much better job of filling the running lanes on the rush.  Morgan is playing spy (which was kind of useless...) and the D-line is free to shoot the gaps away from the blitzer. 

But Miller is very elusive and showed great leg strength in getting away not only from Kovacs, but also RVB.  Fortunately Demens and Martin have followed the play allowing Kovacs a second shot at the sack. Meanwhile, Morgan is .... well I think Ohio watched a lot of film on Morgan and decided to go after him all game. 

Martin and RVB were great all day (of course), and they were twisting on most passing downs.  This is a pretty good idea when the O-line you're facing is known to have communication problems. On this play RVB is supposed to go around Martin, but Brewster gives Martin a pretty good pop. 

That's no problem for the two seniors, RVB just decides to go first and Martin swings around.  

The center and guard are so concerned with Mike, they let VanBergen go free for the easy TFL.

Miller picked up 1st downs with his legs all day.  The early bombs really messed with our gameplan and gave him more room to run.  On this 3rd and long, we've got Kovacs in the box in our crazy lineup with all the guys on the line and different people dropping out. Because of the earlier passing success, three people are dropping into coverage, even though Ohio LOVES to call the QB draw in this situation.  

The result is that Morgan got caught with his weight going the wrong direction and Miller galloped over Kovacs for a big gainer. 

But I think Mattison just decided he wasn't going to let Boom Herron beat us.  I think Herron ended up with less than 40 yards because of plays like this.  Here we've got Kovacs coming off the receiver to run blitz. 

And again you can see the linemen shooting gaps away from him.

Kovacs gets in there so fast that both Boren and Posey are blocking air.  Jordan gets the TFL and the Ohio is stuck in another 3rd and long. 

Miller ran the speed option a lot the last few games and that continued against us.  On this touchdown, he cuts against the grain and makes Roh miss in space.  Spielman was babbling about how great a play call this was and how it was a counter speed option. 

I call bullshit.  They definitely do have a counter speed option, but this play wasn't it.  You can tell because Roh is unblocked. On the designed counter, the tackle engages the end and tries to seal him inside or kick him outside. 

This looks more like improvisation by Miller. I think they just tell Posey to block on the backside like he means it on every play. They got a TD here simply on Miller's talent, not on any blocking scheme.  You can see he takes a hard jabstep upfield that fools Roh just enough so that he can get outside.  

After that he makes an amazing jumpcut and his momentum carries him into the endzone. 

THIS is the counter speed option, except it's a playaction pass.  The tip off that it's a pass is that Miller turns away from the LOS instead of going nose towards it. 

It's a well designed play that turns into a rollout to the right.  They've got three layers with a deep corner, the intermediate cross, and Stonebrunner is going to release into the flat. If the Defense over pursues the rollout, there's even a throwback available to Herron. 

But Stonebrunner doesn't hold his block long enough or Miller doesn't get enough depth and Roh is right up in his face. 

A more experienced QB might have tried to hit #11 who is open, but like I said before, Miller has been very safe with the ball.  Morgan does a good job of knowing who he's playing against and comes up expecting the run instead of uselessly trailing the TE.  

He was wide open though.  And Denard made a similar play that turned a sack into a short gain. Maybe Miller will be making those plays in the years ahead.  Guh. 

I'm just glad we'll have Mattison.  Because when push came to shove and we needed a stop on the goal-line in the 4th quarter, Mattison basically declared that Miller wasn't going to run the ball in.  And credit Kovacs for picking up the TE on playaction so that Miller didn't have an easy throw.  

F* this guy too

With only one game of film to watch, our DB's were not prepared for Posey's talent.  

But after a couple of short passes to him, they were very concerned about his presence.  A little too concerned. 

If Gordon hadn't screwed the pooch on this, the ball was not well thrown and he could have given Brown a harder time catching it since Miller threw it to the wrong shoulder and brown had to turn around to find it. 

I'm going to give our DB's a tiny little bit of slack in saying they haven't faced anyone with Posey's skill except for Michael Floyd.  And they had a lot of safety help against Floyd that they didnt' get for this game.  Posey is as close to Mario Mannigham that I've seen on an oposing team.  He does a great job of getting on the DB's toes and making them turn their hips. But still...

Even though this is a triple move, (headfake outside, cut inside, cut outside)...

You can't let a guy get that wide open.  Lucky for us this duck was overthrown.  

If you're going to put 8 men in the box and play man up against the WR, then freaking play man up.  Troy has Posey one on one, but because he's lined up so far back, there's no chance for him to make a play on anything but a fly.  

This deep cross was not a fly.

And it didn't help that Posey turned Troy around with an outside fake.  Amazingly, Miller hit him in stride (no it wasn't a tight spiral). 

Posey did it to all three of our DB's (Kovacs was essentially a LB this game).  On the last drive he turns around Floyd.  J.T. was thinking about getting an interception, and we almost paid dearly for it. 

We were about a yard and a half from being down by a point.  There would have still been 1:30+ left on the clock, but I was pretty happy to see this ball hit the ground.  Our offense was pretty good, and Denard was pretty accurate, but no offense to Gibbons, I'm glad we didn't have to drive for a winning field goal.  

[hit the jump for the remainder]

Ed-Seth: Bump.

Talented BUT . . .

So I've watched about 7 of Ohio's games, (Brady Hoke has only watched 4, he clearly doesn't "Get It".  I mean what's the point of the countdown clock if you're not doing something every day to beat Ohio?  Doesn't that include watching ALL of their games? /sarcasm) and the team has lots of talent, as you would expect.  BUT...

Most of it is inexperienced, and the experienced parts of it are having trouble getting on the same page.  It's one thing for your QB to be young and dumb, it's another for your senior laden O-line to not be getting to their blocking assignments or your two upperclassmen running backs doing their impression of the keystone cops when you put them in the wildcat.  Those things are on the coaches, and it's been pretty clear for awhile that these coaches are on their way out.  (Regardless of what lies Urban is spinning)

The video above is pretty typical.  Shazier is stepping in for team captain Sweat.  He's got loads of talent, but if you look carefully, you'll see that a lot of the plays he's making are downfield (when they're not running right at him) because he's slow to react and diagnose.  Once he get's going, he's got a lot of speed to get there, and he likes to hit, but not very much form on the tackle because it seems like he's more interested in making a big hit. 

When I watch this edition of OSU, I see lots of playmakers, but I don't see a cohesive team. 

OSU on O

The Speed Option

The two plays I worry about from Braxton Miller are the QB lead draw and the speed option.  He's also dangerous when he scrambles, but I feel like our DL can be disciplined enough to keep him in the pocket.  I've already focused on his scrambling and the lead draws in the previous scouting reports, so this time I'm focusing on the speed option, which they ran much better this game, and ran more often. 

They like to run out of the pistol, and they'll run it to either the weak side or the strong side depending on what the defense does.  But they do prefer running to their right, which is behind Shugarts.  PSU shows a cover 2, so there's a numbers advantage to the left side. 

I kinda think PSU is a little bit miss aligned for this formation, but it seems like they had a CB blitz called on the weakside.  The option motion just goes away from it and those two guys are not going to be a factor in the play.

It's just zone blocking and this is one of the plays where the O-line does a good job of scraping to the 2nd level. 

Miller looked much better this game at taking the hole that is in front of him.  But from a scouting standpoint, he almost never pitches.  So it kind of seems like a waste of a player.  They had one play where they did the power lead, which I would be even more concerned with.  

So now that they've hurt PSU with the base play, it's time for the companion playaction. PSU had 8 men in the box for a lot of the 1st quarter, but backed off a bit after Miller hit a couple of passes. Here they've only got 7 in the box. 

The option motion starts to the right, but then Miller jabs his foot in the ground and gets depth to throw.  The key to reading this play is that the O-Line is clearly in pass blocking mode. The backpeddaling uncovered guard is a dead giveaway. 

PSU does a great job of rushing with discipline, no one is over-running Miller, and they get a free rusher coming up the middle. 

Miller will usually make the first man miss, but because of the spread out pocket and controlled rush by the D-line, he's got no place to go. 

[Ed-Seth: take the jump for the much more.]

[ed: bump]

Know your enemy

Not much time this week, but I wanted to put up some plays from the OSU games, Neb game wrap will come out during the down time before the bowl game.  Win or lose vs TSIO, revisiting the beatdown will be something fun to do in a week or so. 

Unbalanced I-Form

OSU used a lot of unbalanced sets against Purdue, so our CB's have to be ready for it and talk to the LB's so that we can get properly aligned. 

On this play, the boilers are in man coverage so when the TE flops, the OLB goes with him. This means the the DE no longer has contain so both he and the DT on that side shift down a gap. The OLB needs to be aware that his man is now ineligible to go downfield, so he doesn't have any coverage responsibilities, or he's got backs coming out of the backfield. 

Purdue is betting against Miller's passing game and has 8 in the box, 9 if you count that CB who is kind of playing center field on the backside. The two receivers are man'd up by the CB and FS

OSU continues to have problems identifying who to block with their zone scheme.  Both the split end and the LG completely whiff leaving the two frontside LB's unblocked. 

There is a danger of a playaction rollout on this play.  If that safety is so far off of the split end, there's a lot of room for him to do a post deep cross, so it's important for the backside DE to keep contain and respect Miller on a rollout. 

With the missed block, this is an easy TFL for purdue, but their frontside defenders have also beaten their blockers since they maintained outside leverage and the LB forced the RB to bounce. 

On this play we've got the same formation, but it's flipped.  Again, Purdue is selling out against the run.  They're showing 9 in the box as that CB is faking a blitz, but he steps back and is in man coverage with the split end.  Again, the TE is inelligible, so guy #5 up there has contain on the strong side and guy #1 has contain on the weakside. 

Again, there's a real danger for playaction on that post or crossing route.  The SAM backer has to get into a pass drop if he reads pass blocking from the linemen.  This play turns into a lead draw, so he's okay, but he's in a tough position because he has to help in coverage and watch for the cutback once he sees that the action is going weakside. Fortunately for Purude, the DE beats his block and the FB fails to pick him up. 

So this results in another TFL, but if that SAM evacuates his area too quickly, there's going to be a huge cutback lane.  

[ed: time to jump]

Programming note: Next week will be pretty busy with thanksgiving break and all, so I'm gonna go ahead and put up all my OSU stuff this week.  The Nebraska game wrap might be a week late too, especially if we don't win.  

Old Scouting Report is Old

There are just way too many red and white teams in this league now.  

I had watched this game when it happened and had written up some notes and was planning to post it after the MSU game, but then I spent the week cursing at inanimate objects and hoping MSU's random bands of roving thugs would target Gholston.  

There's been a lot of personnel changes since then so I've thrown out the old notes and started from scratch.  

Both teams were coming off loses, Nebraska had just been blown out by Wisconsin thanks to a handful of Martinez interceptions and OSU had been blitzed to death by sparty. You can see the effect of both those games on some of the early playcalling in this one.

OSU on offense

No Dan Herron, and Shugarts hadn't gotten hurt yet.  The offense was all about Hall and Stonebrunner and Miller's legs until he got hurt. 

Miller is a scrambler

Like I said in the QB comparisons, Miller is more of a natural scrambler rather than an option runner. 

On this play, the left side of the Nebraska D-line is going to stunt  to get pressure on third down.

There's a missed holding call, but whatever.  The DT gets around and tries an outside speedrush against Shugarts

This is a mistake against Miller.  You want to keep him in front of you and don't open up big lanes like this.  As soon as he feels the end rushers go past him, his first instinct is to scramble upfield. If you rush under control, he'll scramble laterally and can be coralled for a sack.

MSU had a lot of success the previous week by  timing the snap and sending blitzers up the A gap. Nebraska tried it early, but didn't really get there because their timing wasn't as good.  After this play they didn't really blitz much until Bauserman was in the game. 

This is a 6 man blitz with one of the linebackers dropping into coverage.

There's a little bit of a twist going on with the right DE, but this was a called QB lead draw all the way. The blitzer gets blocked by the RB and Miller jabs his back foot and is off into the secondary. 

Without any LBs on that side and the secondary playing man coverage, this turned into a big run for MIller.

This play shows just how quickly Miller will bail on a play.  It's just a flare to hall at the top of the screen, but the Nebraska rusher gets a good bull rush.  

When the defender jumps, Braxton decides he's seen enough and pulls down the ball.

Instead of looking for another target, he tucks the ball and runs. 

Hyde's TD

Hyde got a lot of carries in the early part of the season when both Hall and Herron were doing their NCAA penance. That's dropped off considerably since Herron came back.  He's got good straight line speed, especially for being a larger back, but his vision isn't very good.  He's like Stephen Hopkins but with more speed. He still gets some duty on kickoffs, but mostly as the lead blocker for Hall.

You can see OSU's commitment to zone blocking on this play.  It looks like a lead play because of the FB, but Hyde's route on the handoff indicates that he's free to pick whatever hole opens up.  At the snap, all the motion is to the left.  The Nebraska D-Line responds by moving with the slanting linemen. Miller does a reverse pivot. 

But Hyde's aiming poing is not following Boren, the FB, instead he's aiming for the center of the line and bending back against the grain.  For some reason, nebraska has a DB playing backside contain, and the Will linebacker has been fooled by Boren's path. 

That DB doesn't understand "run fits" so he wasn't flowing the the D-Line and there's a huge gap between him and the DE that Hyde thanks him very much for.  The weakside LB has over run the play and can't get back to make an arm tackle.  Once Hyde gets past those two, he's pretty much untouched all the way to the endzone.

Throwback to Stonebrunner

With Corey Brown out and no one sure what Devier Posey will do, the RB's and Stonebrunner will be the focus of the passing game. This throwback screen should look familiar to Michigan fans, with the exception of the TE getting the ball instead of Vincent Smith. 

Miller is going to roll out to the right while the O-line shows pass blocking. 

Stonebrunner does an excellent job of selling the block and the OLB is completely caught flatfooted.

Stonebrunner comes off of contact and opens up for the pass, it's the center that gets the OLB and the other interior linemen are heading downfield

The blocking is setup well and Stonebrunner has enough speed for an easy 30+ yard TD

Nebraska on offense

Nebraska does a lot of different things on offense.  They have the spread/zone read stuff, the power running game, and also the veer option offense.  Burkehead will even get back in the shotgun to run some wildcat, probably because he's better at READING on the zone read plays than Martinez. 

Martinez

After taking a lot heat for the interceptions against Wisconsin, you got the feeling that he started out the game a little gunshy against TSIO.

That's his passing chart with about 4 minutes to go in the first half.  Nothing deep or risky, and a double digit deficit to show for his 100% completion percentage.  So Nebraska gets the ball realizing they've got to pass deep to soften up the defense.

This is Martinez trying to throw a deep ball.  

And this is the result.  That receiver is kinda open.  I mean, yes, he's got 4 guys around him, but none within a 5 yard radius.  Nebraska fans understand our pain when it comes to armpunts.

Where Martinez is realy dangerous is when he gets to accelerate straight ahead. This is a midline option keeper even though it looks like an outside zone read.  You can tell by the pulling guard who goes off tackle.  I think the sideline tells Martinez before the play whether or not to keep the ball on most plays.  That would explain a lot of his "bad reads" and it makes sense that Bo Pelini would be a control freak (see below).

Burkehead's fake holds the contain man.  The pulling lineman takes out the LB and the rest of the O-line is getting a good push up the middle. 

This is the kind of run that Martinez loves.  He's not the kind of guy that will cut back across the entire field, but he's very good at reading the blocks in front of him and making quick cuts without losing any speed.  

Inverted T series

The way you design an offense is that you have a series of plays that work together or are out of the same formation.  Sometimes during the game you have to scrap a series if the first couple plays don't work.  But if the first play works for a big gainer, you can expect the defense to adjust and that opens up the companion plays. 

Nebraska stumbled across such an opportunity in the middle of the 3rd quarter with this Inverted T formation.  Some people call this a Diamond, but with the QB in the shotgun it looks more like a "T" to me.  But the stumpy part is away from the LOS so I call it inverted. Here's what the standard T form looks like. 

This is just a power sweep option.  The odd thing is that Burkehead has a longer ways to go to get to his block, but he's a fast guy, so it's not a problem.  The neat thing about this formation is that you can envision all kinds of counters and double option plays where the person in #2's position can pitch it to Burkehead or handoff to the the other HB coming back on the counter.  

OSU is overreacting the motion and the whole right side of the defense is flowing.  Ironically, the backside of the defense isn't reacting enough and the result is a gaping hole down the middle of the field. 

I don't the think DE ever actually saw the ball because he keeps running with #2 even after Martinez zooms past him. 

Against a normal QB, the safety and LB should have been able to stop this for a large gainer, but because they reacted slowly and because Martinez is already up to full speed, he blows by them like they're standing still. 

From the endzone shot you can see just how wide open that running lane was. 

A little later, they come back to the same formation, but this time the give is called.  It doesn't work as well because the ball is on the hash and they're running into the sideline.  But the point is to see how the defense has adjusted.  The weakside linebacker is way closer to the play this time and #7 Howard is up in bump and run to take on the blocking in case there's a counter or reverse coming.  

The DE is completely befuddled by this play.  He's nowhere near the mesh point so he can't help on a Martinez keep.  He's pointing out Burkehead to .....uh.... And he's not quick enough to get #2. 

Again the backside has been completely sealed off, and Martinez woulda had plenty of room for a big gain if not enough for a TD like before.  But I'm getting more convinced that he's not actually allowed to "read" the play. As it is, this play gets about 10 yards which coulda been a lot more if they hadn't run into the sideline. 

A little later comes the payoff.  They've got bump and run on the short side and they give them the same backfield motion. 

But if the LB's and Safeties had been reading the O-line better, they'd have seen this was a pass. 

Martinez drops a couple steps to give his receiver time to get open.

And the safeties are both dead.  It's interesting that they run the same route with both WR, this shows a kind of lack of sophistication in the passing game.  And it's only a 2 man route. But both WR had gotten a step on the DB's and this play get's Nebraska back within one TD.

Burkehead

He's not the fastest guy, but he's a solid football player.  Martinez is probably more dangerous, but you've got to stop Burkehead first to slow down this offense. 

This is an inside zone that should look pretty familiar to michigan fans.  the H-back is coming across to either block the DE or go out in a pass route.  There's also some bubblesceen motion with the slot receiver. 

The DE is crashing hard and the H-back completely misses him.  Martinez either missed the read, or it was a give all the way called by the sideline. .

If Martinez had kept it, there was a lot of open space once he cleared the DE. The lead blocker would have taken out the safety, 54 is taking to strong of an angle, and the other DB is too concerned with the bubble to have stopped Taylor.  Instead #94 gets the TFL on Burkehead since #93 had gotten good penetration and Burkehead had to stop his feet.

On the game tying TD, Burkehead showed a nice jumpcut. (If you're not sure what a jumpcut is, here's a nice example of Miller doing one.) He gets the ball on the flare after Martinez scrambles around a bit to avoid the pressure. 

The DB had him lined up for a big hit, except he jumps out of the way. 

And with the big blitz called, the rest of the secondary is in tight man coverage and Burkehead has no one between him and the endzone. 

Derpidy-derp-derp

So it was raining off and on during that game, which led to some amusing moments and a lot of slipping. 

Martinez's throwing motion is even uglier when he's falling down. 

Both sides were having trouble with it. 

And Miller turned his ankle as he slipped on a cut. 

Then Bauserman came in and promptly did this. 

At least on that previous picture he was under pressure.  On this one he's got no one to blame but himself. 

That ball is JUUUUUSSST a bit overthrown. 

Ok, maybe a bit more. But if you're wondering about the genesis of the the Bauserman Passing Chart, it was probably this play. 

ETC:

• Bo Pelini has anger issues. 

"Not such a great passer, but dangerous running the ball"

To the casual fan, it's easy to think that these three QB's have a lot in common, but the fact of the matter is that they are very different in their styles.  They have different strengths and weaknesses that have as much to do with their football IQ and personality as their athletic ability

Taylor Martinez

Taylor is the only one of the three to enjoy a redshirt season and the only one who hasn't had a change of head coaches. Because of that, he has slightly less playing time than Denard, but more time in the same system.  

Running Style:

Taylor likes to run.  He's got great acceleration and gets up to full speed in a hurry.  He runs with urgency.  He's not afraid of contact and will get north and south to maximize yards.  He will try to run through small creases. 

Favorite move:

Shoulder shake. He likes to keep both hands on the ball as he's running and so his shoulders are naturally moving back and forth.  He doesn't have elite change of direction but is quite shifty and has quick feet.

Most Dangerous Running Play:

Veer Option.  He has a good sense of when to hold and when to pitch.  He will hold the ball and suck in the defender before pitching late.  He is good with the fake pitch to open up running lanes for himself. 

Honarable Mention: Midline option keeper. 

Weakness:

He keeps the ball too much on zone read plays.  Against Penn State, he misread several zone read options like he had already decided to keep the ball. 

Passing Style:

He has a bit of a sidearm motion.  He likes to zip the ball in on a frozen rope.  Doesn't show much touch.  Not a great scrambler, he doesn't have the strongest arm and can't get much velocity on the ball when his feet aren't set.  He's very inaccurate on deep balls, especially deep sideline routes.

Most Dangerous Passing Play:

Intermediate in's and crossing routes.  He's not very good at hitting receivers on the fly so he likes to have a nearly stationary target to throw at.  Because of his low trajectory, he needs clear passing lanes and a direct line of sight to the receiver.  

How to defend:

Attack Martinez with a free rusher.  Assume he's going to keep the ball on 60% or more of the option plays, and force early pitches by commiting to hitting the QB.  (Like Jake Ryan did on Sheelhaassseeee last week). 

On passing downs, try to get underneath zone coverage in the passing lanes.  Try to make him throw over a linebacker.  And the coverage should flow to the rollout side.

Braxton Miller

Braxton played in a shotgun passing spread offense in Highschool.  He's a true freshman pressed into duty because Terrelle Pryor is stupid and never met a handout he wouldn't take, and also because Joe Bauserman just sucks.

So, he's been learning a lot this season about things that worked in H.S. but don't work as well in college. He is also without any experienced receivers until Posey gets back this week, so we'll have to see how much that affects his game.   

Running Style:

He's like a gazelle.  He runs away from danger.  He has exceptional speed. He likes to improvise and runs on his instincts.  He will not force himself to go where the play is designed to go.  Very dangerous once he breaks contain.

He runs around like he thinks other people can't catch him, but this is only sometimes true at the college level. 

Favorite move:

The reverse cut and the jump cut.  He will go backwards to make people miss and has enough acceleration and speed to make it pay off enough times that his coaches let him keep doing it.  He has elite change of direction, great balance, and will duck under tacklers who go too high.  

Most Dangerous Running Play:

QB lead draw. He does not like to run through tight spaces and traffic.  On the draw play, if the DE's rush past him, his instinct is to head upfield.  He's very dangerous in space. If it's 3rd and long, there's a high probability that the lead draw has been called. 

Honarable Mention:  Scramble

Weakness:

Inexperience.  He does not read blocking very well.  He will cut back against the grain even when there are decent holes in front of him.  Even if a guy is blocked, his instinct is to run away from traffic.  

He doesn't read the zone option or the pitch option very well. 

Passing Style:

Not as bad as advertised.  He doesn't throw a tight spiral, so the ball will flutter on him.  This causes inaccuracy, especially on deep routes.  But he has better touch and a better throwing motion than Martinez.  His low completion percentage is due more to the lack of talent at WR, and his inexperience rather than his arm.  

Most Dangerous Passing Play:

Wheel route to the RB's.  Boom Herron and Jordan Hall are the biggest threats when Miller isn't running.  All eyes will be interested to see what kind of impact Devier Posey will make this week (and then we'll wonder about how much money he made for the game). 

Honarable mention: Throwback screen and short routes to Stonebrunner

How to defend:

Corral him on the pass rush and play coverage.  (May I suggest man-free).  This is not the game for speed rushes around the outside.  I'd blitz him up the middle and have the the DE's stay home (like what MSU did).  He will cut back into free pursuing defenders if you give him the chance.  The pass rush needs to be under control so that you make him move laterally without losing contain. 

Denard Robinson

Anyone reading this blog probably already knows everything they need to about Dilithium, but just to complete the comparison. here goes...

Running Style:

Patience with great vision.  Denard is a team player and he relies on his blockers to open up running lanes for him.  He has elite speed and elite change of direction.  He has been a little more tentative in traffic this year, but is a determined runner on the goal line and is able to avoid the really big hits.  

He is better at reading the zone read than the other two guys.  

He is not a great improvisor and will not cut back all the way across the field by giving up yards.  He usually makes a few cuts and then heads to the sideline or upfield. 

Favorite move:

Being fast.  Denard doesn't do a lot of shake and bake, instead he just changes direction quicker than the defenders are able to. 

Most Dangerous Running Play:

QB power lead.  With the defense spread out, if the two running backs are good blockers he's a threat to go all the way on any play where every defender is accounted for.  

Honarable Mention:  Inverted zone read.  

Weakness:

He does not have a good feel for when to pitch and when to keep of veer or triple option plays.  He tends to get injured often over the course of the season. 

Passing Style:

He has a very strong arm but struggles with footwork.  He is very accurate when his feet are set.  But he has trouble with his deep accurace when on the rollout.  When he scrambles, he's looking to pass.  This has evolved a lot and is almost a 180 from his freshman year.  He's very good on seams and jump balls.   

Most Dangerous Passing Play:

QB dive pull-up. (a.k.a. the "QB, OH NOES!")  Has excellent touch throwing while running forward in a fluid motion.  

Honarable mention: The throwback screen

How to defend: