Scouting Indiana (in brief)

Submitted by SFBayAreaBlue on

Forget ND.  Here comes the first REAL test of Michigan's defense?  Why do I say that?  Because Indiana is 11th in the nation in passing and 10th in points scored and has a senior QB with 30 career TD passes. Last year they scored 33 points on us while rushing for nearly 200 yards.



Are you scared yet?



No?



Okay, maybe that's because you looked at their scedule and realized that while they were scoring close to 40 points a game, they were doing so against what amounts to the equivalent of Bowling Green's JV team.



No, seriously.  They've played three games, against something called "Towson", Western Kentucky, and Akron.  I'm not exactly sure, but I think some of those might be division 1 opponents.  Let's compare:



Michigan is pretty good from year to year, Michigan State is usually hovering around .500.  Western Michigan is a middling MAC team. Kentucky SUCKS, Kentucky State exists? (maybe) So what does that say about Western Kentucky?



Yeah, Michigan played FCS UMass, but at least that SOUNDS like it could be a FBS school.  "Towson"??  Is not exactly a two time defending nation champion of the lower level.



How bad are these teams?  They're a combined 1-11 with the lone win coming in OT against *drumroll please*  COASTAL CAROLINA!  Although Akron did almost beat GARDNER WEBB in OT.  In the other ten games, Indiana's opponents were outscored by an average of about 40 points (no I didn't actually do the math, but I'm not really that far off).



So while I did manage to dig up some film on them, there's not much we can learn other than formations and base plays (and the fact that IND is wearing some uglyass 1970's uniforms).



Grannie grab your gun.



Hey, remember when ND played Nevada? And Nevada had Gumar from 'Harold and Gumar goto whitecastle' playing QB.  They ran this funky type of offense with the RB 5 yards behind the QB who was already in the shotgun.  That's called the pistol.  It's also what UCLA just used to depants Texas and will probably be the next fad spreading across the college football world, if it isn't already.



The point of this alignment is to get a little bit more downhill momentum for your running back so that he can hit the holes with speed.



Pistolalignment



You still get the ability to do playaction, but you lose the lateral fakes.  To regain the lateral motion, the RB will line up next to the QB in the shotgun like this:



sgalign



On Running downs, they might put a fullback into the formation.  If the QB was under center it would just be an offset I formation.  But with the group of them back an extra 5 yards, we have to call it something different.  I'm gonna call it the .38 caliber.

colt45



Here we have both the FB and the TE to the right, so this is likely to be a run to the right 60-70% of the time.  In this case, they ran a zone dive to the left.

When they go spread, they like to use three receivers in a bunch so they can run pick plays. 

trips5w

Here's a running play with the bunch formation. 

tripsdive

The middlebackers and the safety are confused and out of position.

tripsdive2

The middle backer blitzes to the wrong side, opening up a huge running lane.

tripsdive3

So the hoosiers get an easy 50 yard TD with 4 blockers on 2 defenders at the point of attack.

QB Ben Chappell is the same guy that put 30 some points on us last year.  5th year senior? Not a super strong arm, throws with his body.  Good size.  Not fast.  Decent pocket presence.  Likes to do 3 step drops for quick routes or playaction boots.  Has good timing with his receivers, can hit them on a fly in stride. Doesn't throw well on the run. His strength is in reading the defense and picking the right receiver to go to. I suggest we run more pressure and man coverage with a single high safety this week. 



#88 Belcher is their deep threat. Tall kid, not blazing speed, but chews up a lot of yardage with long strides.



TB Darius Willis is their main running threat.  He's 6 foot, 220 ish and can run through arm tackles.  Has a good head fake. He also had an 85 yard TD against us last year.



TE #83.  Tall, soft hands.  Less athletic version of rudolph.

O-Line. They look small and meh.  This is probably what separates Indiana from most big ten teams.  There's just not a lot of talent there.



On Defense

They run a base 3-4 on 1st and 2nd down, will not substitute against a spread, instead they flex out their OLB to cover the slots.  On 3rd down they like to switch to either a nickle, or a cover 1 to put extra DB's on the slot receivers.



Not a lot of speed.  Towson's QB had a 40 yard scramble against them on a broken play. So like WOOOOO DENARD! They've given up oodles of yardage against teams that really don't run the ball very well.



Their safety #10 looks like a weaklink. (He may even have been replaced already.) Takes a lot of bad angles.  Towson managed several plays over 40 yards against them.

They've given up huge amounts of yards to teams that don't sport very good offensive lines.  Here's an example of what might be the reason why.

shortyardage

This is Indiana's short yardage defense.  If you're saying, 'but wait a minute that looks just like their base 3-4!" then you've been paying attention.  Do the hoosier's have a defensive coordinator?  Because this personell package, in this situation is almost criminally stupid.

It's 3rd and 1 and they're in a base 3-4.

It's 3rd and 1 in THE REDZONE and they're still in a base 3-4!

It's 3rd and 1 in the redzone against a DOUBLE TIGHT formation and they're in a 3-4?!

It's 3rd and 1 in the redzone against a double tight formation WITH A FULLBACK MEANING  THERE ISN'T A SINGLE WR IN THE GAME, and they're still in a base 3-4 with 4 DBs!!!?! (well hey, at least they walked up one of the safeties...)

It's 3rd and 1 in the redzone against a double tight formation with a fullback and there are EIGHT OFFENSIVE LINEMEN AGAINST YOUR 3 DOWN LINEMEN!!!!!!!!! THEY ONLY NEED TO GAIN 1 FREAKING YARD!!!!!!!

It's 3rd and 1 in the redzone against a double tight formation with a fullback AND IT'S AN UNBALANCED LINE TO THE RIGHT!!!!!!OMG HOW CAN YOU NOT SEE THAT?!!?!

It's 3rd and 1 in the redzone against a double tight formation with extra o-linemen, no WR, in an unbalanced formation to the right WITH THE H BACK IN A WING TO THE RIGHT!!!! THE UNBALANCED SIDE!!!! THERE ARE 9 OFFENSIVE PLAYERS FROM THE BALL TO THE RIGH!!!!! AND INDIANA HAS 4 (FOUR!) PLAYERS COVERING 2 (TWO!) ON THE OTHER SIDE!!!?!  WTF ARE YOU DOING??!

So you won't be surprised that WKU ran to the right and scored a TD on this play.

Jebus, ಠ_ಠ

Special Teams:



They use a spread punt formation. 

Had an okay return against Towson and got a 70+ yard return against WKU, so they must at least know their blocking assignments on kickoff returns.

Tandon Doss, who some of you might remeber is a pretty nifty runner, even if he doesn't have a world class top gear. 

Conclusions:

Should be a high scoring game.  And most likely a preview of things to come. If the offense doesn't score more than 45 points, they should hang their heads in shame.  The key will be in stopping Chappell.  If we can hold them to 30 points, I'll be happy.  (not really, but I'll take it.) Their running back is talented enough, but that O-line just doesn't run block very well, and we should have a sizeable advantage there. 

I'm gonna say 48-28 good guys. 

Comments

M_Born M_Believer

October 1st, 2010 at 1:37 AM ^

That is all that needs to be said.....

Freakin 92nd in Rush Defense.....

And that is the output against one of the weakest schedule....

I can not help to think that Schilling, Molk, Omameh, and Lewan all wind up with positive double digit UFR scores next week....

MichiganStudent

October 1st, 2010 at 11:00 AM ^

That is very true. And to put it another way. I would bet a lot of money that Jibreel Black would have been a starter for them this year, or at least get a lot of snaps. No offense to him, I think he will develop into a very good player, but don't you think our offensive line would dominate him as a freshman?

Thats how I'm looking at it. We have their best defensive recruit that probably would have been playing if he didn't decommit. Looks good to me.

dmcb32

October 1st, 2010 at 2:07 AM ^

Great Post but I have digress on a couple of your points.  IU on paper seemd to have a dynamic offense.  Stats say that so why are we to argue?  This is why;  Akron, and WKU are aroud 104&105 in total defense in FBS.  Towsen, I have not actually counted the number of teams in the FCS but they are at the bottom!  I am a WKU graduate and 38-21 is not impressive against a team that has lost 24 straight football games and I think Akron is worse than WKU.  Offense aside during this rant;  What team do you honestly is going to make more plays?  It is not those boys in red!  They have no chance in slowing us down no matter who is under center!  On the other hand we can handle thier O!  Indiana is getting more credit for being good than what they really are, hell UM could be too!  However, at the end of the day, top to bottom UM has better athletes, and is better coached!  I took the 10 point spread with a big ass grin on my face!  42-21 is a minimum victory!  Brain had it right, this is funny to me!  I will be there in Bloomington and thier is no way this game is even close to lasts games score!   The End!  OMG!  Send!

Mustachioed Ge…

October 1st, 2010 at 4:40 AM ^

I thought that the point of lining up the RB 5 yards behind the QB instead of the normal 7 was to "hide" the running back so as to create confusion about which way he is breaking (or something along those lines)?

SFBayAreaBlue

October 1st, 2010 at 6:56 AM ^

the only person he might be hidden from is a MLB in a 4-3.  anyone else can see him clearly.  It's more of if he's lined up behind the qb, it make s it harder to see what the strength of the formation is and it creates the possibility of balanced formations. But you could do the same thing with two halfbacks on either side of the QB to get a balanced formation.

Wolverine0056

October 1st, 2010 at 8:29 AM ^

Nice job. Here is my favorite part:

It's 3rd and 1 in the redzone against a double tight formation with extra o-linemen, no WR, in an unbalanced formation to the right WITH THE H BACK IN A WING TO THE RIGHT!!!! THE UNBALANCED SIDE!!!! THERE ARE 9 OFFENSIVE PLAYERS FROM THE BALL TO THE RIGH!!!!! AND INDIANA HAS 4 (FOUR!) PLAYERS COVERING 2 (TWO!) ON THE OTHER SIDE!!!?!  WTF ARE YOU DOING??!

I enjoy how you say 4 and then in parentheses put FOUR!. Classic.

I do agree with you that it will be more of a blowout than what people are predicting. Indiana is a good team, don't get me wrong, but I don't see them hanging around with our offense.

ImSoBlue

October 1st, 2010 at 8:39 AM ^

had to go very deep into their playbook to wamp these teams.  I'm sure that they will bring out a lot of things we have not yet seen both on offense and defense. 

ND Sux

October 1st, 2010 at 9:02 AM ^

Jerry (Gerry?) Dinardo!!!!  This guy is a total tool.  He's on BTN right now flapping on about IU's offense and how their passing attack will give IU a chance to win.

Based on what, exactly?  Here are the monsters in the corner that dumbass Dinardo ignores:

  • IU's competition to date is not good enough to be called pathetic
  • The ND officiating crew recorded as many stops on our offense as the four opponents combined.
  • Our O-line is a strength, their D-line is a weakness
  • Our pass rush needs to improve, but it will be better than Towson and the other patsies IU has played
  • IU defense is sllllloooooowwwwww.  Denard is lightening.

Denard, Smith, Cox, & company are going for about 300 yards on the ground.  When they stack the box to stop it, they STILL may not be able to.  IU will score, but not nearly enough to hang.  Dinardo completely ignored the IU defense / UM offense side of the equation.  What a fool.

steelymax

October 1st, 2010 at 11:32 AM ^

... but I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that IU's passing attack would give them a "chance" to win. It's their offense's strength and the Michigan defense's weakness. But as you point out in 3 of your 5 bullets, Michigan's offense may be too much.

Now, it's a different thing if Dinardo said IU's passing attack will win them the game...

bronxblue

October 1st, 2010 at 11:30 AM ^

Nice breakdown.  I actually think the defense will acquit itself reasonably well tomorrow - probably give up close to 30 points, but Chappell will be hammered all day by the line and I fully expect some of those points to be on broken plays later in the game as IU is trying to erase double-digit leads.  Indiana's offense is good, but last year they looked dynamite in the OOC and still struggled during the B10 season (and of the 33 points UM gave up last year, 14 were on basically two long plays).  So while IU will be a challenge, I'm much more worried about offenses like MSU and even Iowa that look capable of moving the ball consistently.  

JayZ1817

October 1st, 2010 at 11:44 AM ^

Very nice breakdown. I like what I see on the offensive side of the ball for us. If defense tackles and doesn't have any mental breakdowns, we'll be able to handle them in Bloomington.