Table of contents:

I.  Basics of scraping/link to Brian’s thoughts
II. Mouton
III. Demens’ Pass D.
IV.  Demens scraping
V. Final thoughts

I. BASICS

[this is for people who might not know what scraping is or want another opinion.  If you understand scraping/contain feel free to move on]
On How UM has lost contain:
On how this can be fixed:

    For the second one notice how Kovaks tells Floyd to get up to the LOS and Floyd says “Yeah, I’m gonna F*#K this play up.”  He does, because he takes the outside shoulder of the lead blocker.  However, that is not enough; Demens also scrapes to the play.  In the first play Mouton doesn’t contain (even though Demens scrapes) and it gets a…TD.  [For a more full discussion see the links above.  Many much smarter people than I have well thought out ideas there.]

II. MOUTON

My belief is that a large amount of us here think Mouton might have issues playing with Demens because he had to play to tackle instead of play his assignment when Obi was in.  Well, playing to tackle instead of your assignment sure sounds like someone who will lose contain.   Also, see this. So, here's that nice little chart:

• This is only one half, but it should become clear that Mouton has had trouble holding contain.  I’m sure someone could do a much better analysis on this, and I would applaud any such investigation.  However, with the data at hand, we’ve shown that Mouton is not that good at holding contain.  The small # of bad contain plays wouldn’t be an issue, except that Iowa got 35 yards on them! [after looking back, that’s not outstanding, but it is a first down each time.
   
• This failure to contain is not a “who is around me” problem.  It is a fundamentals problem.  It doesn’t matter who is around you, you still need to know your fundamentals.  If Ray Lewis were playing Mouton would still need to tackle.  This is no different.  Contain is just something you need to do, regardless of who is around you.
   
• There might be other issues about him playing with Demens instead of Obi, but I just can’t see any.  What most people have been saying is that Mouton plays to make the tackle instead of doing his job.  That sounds a lot like missing your contain assignment to me.

III. Demens Pass D:

Because this seemed to be the issue for Demens, I figured I’d make the anaylsis on his coverage.  This will be a combination of 2 things: Brian’s UFR on Iowa, and my Iowa  “Demens UFR”.

BRIAN'S UFR:

+1 for pass break-up. (4th play)
+.5 (12th play)
(no +/- but on this picture paged play Brian gives Demens credit)
+.5 (18th play)
+.5 (25th play)
-1 (38th play)
-1 (35th play)
+1 (37th play)
Total: +1.5  Not terrible.  Was this the thing that was holding him back?

My Iowa UFR:

+1 (4th play.  Blasts the receiver after the catch to break up the pass.)
+1 (The touchdown play at 3:05.  Knocks the TE down as Avery derps up.)
+1 (starts at 3:20.  Demens comes up on the bootleg.  Notices the RB blocking and gets on his horse.  Brian gave a +.5 but I believe that because Demens came in so fast, he knew exactly what his assignment was and played it fully.)
-1 (at 4:10).  Demens leaves his TE open, even tho the pass goes over his head.
-1 (at 6:39) Missed the RB/drop-down read coming out of the backfield late.
-1 (9:00) Bit on the PA.  He did this again on the next play, which was the same play-call.  I’m not sure if he’s just biting a lot or if it’s his job to do that?  Is this some new Defensive thing?
+1 (on that play where Avery missed the 3&8 tackle, which effectively ended the game) Demens was all over his guy when the pass happened.
Noticed that they put in Roh on a few downs at MLB.  I’m assuming this is to get more speed on the field against the pass.

+1 total.  Well, I'm more negative than Brian.  Told you.

Overall: nothing really bad here.  I don't believe this was what held him back.  He should be at least acceptable in pass D.  Dispell all rumors.

IV. DEMENS SCRAPING:

Based again, off of the multiple UFR from Iowa and previous games.
Iowa: +3 on scraping, although I’m a negative guy.
Penn State: +2 on scraping.

When I find a better way  to format, I’ll add in the plays too.  Still, this is at least decent, which is better than Obi was playing.  More analysis at bottom.

V. SCRAPE/CONTAIN FINAL THOUGHTS:
 

Demens is a good scraper.  Obi obviously wasn’t.  An upgrade in playing ability and potential for next year, when we will return a decent starter, instead of a player who would have had no experience.

Contain is a huge issue.  When Mouton lost contain he gave up a first down every time.  This is a momentum killer for a few, rather obvious reasons. 

• 1.) It allows a first down on a third and ten draw.
• 2.) it destroys team fatigue.
• 3.) It just sucks.  Nuff said.

Can we fix this?  How long will GERG coach this and how long until it’s fixed?  I don’t know, but I’m sure the debate will continue.  Mouton and Obi were in the system for 3 years and they didn’t scrape/contain this year.  However, Demens is a RS Soph (3 years) and learned how to do it.  Contrary evidence=I don’t know.

What does this mean for next year? I don’t know.  Really.  It depends on the aforementioned “Can we fix this.”  I think we’ll be better because we’ll have Demens instead of Obi, but if Mouton outplayed the other guys, doesn’t that mean we regress in that department.  I’ll assume that Cam Gordon (who might take Mouton’s old spot?) is faster than Mouton which might help, but I really just don’t know.  Debate away.

The other thing that I’d notice about Demens is that he bites a lot.  Those PA are going to kill him.  Just wait, OSU and Wiscy are going to have fun with this.  Let’s hope he gets better by that time.