MGoScout - msu offense vs. wisconsin every snap

About tight ends in the middle of the field this week.  And 10+ successful easy screens tossed towards the sidelines.

But that's still not as scary as Denard so I think I'm sleeping better than the other guy

Thanks for the post. I don't think I could handle watching the whole thing. I'm going to try to put it out of my mind as much as possible before Saturday. So nervous. So excited.

Wisconsin's Defense versus opponents this year..

Yards per play against Wisconsin:

Arizona State 6.2

San Jose State 6.1

Michigan State 6.0

MSU played well, but their offense wasn't spectacular compared to other opponents of Wisconsin.  MSU also benefitted from Special Teams, which got some nice returns including one for a TD.

Wisc had their most success when they got pressure.  When they didn't get in Cousin's face, he went off.  We can't rush 3, absolutely cannot.  I hope the coaches learn from this game and see that they have to get after him and if they do, he is much more eratic.

Michigan State is the most balanced team we have played so far and it's going to show on the field. We need this one for national perception, bowl birth, and the fans that have watched in horror since 2008.

I just keep telling myself that they beat ND in OT on a trick play in EL and Michigan beat them in South Bend in regulation by a nice drive and the game is in AA.  It makes myself feel better.

we reduce the CB cushion to 5-7 yards instead of 10-12.  They ran a shitload of bubble screens on us last year that were good for 7+ yards each and every time.  That was really infuriating, particularly on their first 125 yard TD drive where they must have had 3-4 of these.  I'd much rather they try and beat us deep (where we might have a chance to make a play on the ball) than have uncontested screens going for good yardage all day.

I'm not much in the way of a football expert, but the one consistent theme I saw is that MSU can handle the blitz and almost always has a safety valve receiver scooting behind the blitzing backers.  I know people have the 3-man line, but Martin and co. have been able to generate some pressure without blitzing, and Cousins seems to have a penchant for Favreing the ball when rattled.  So if the line or line+1 can generate some pressure, there will be some balls in the air that can fall to UM defenders.

Realistically, MSU has a very good offense but a suspect defense, and have not played a real road game all year.  Last week we saw Wiscy and OSU struggle mightily with their first real road tests (I know Wiscy went to UNLV, but still), and in a big rivalry game I wouldn't be surprised to see MSU come out a little hyped-up.  Coupled with their knowledge that UM's offense can match them by points, I think you'll see some cracks in the MSU front late in the game.  This is definitely going to be a high scoring game, but that is UM in 2010 - score 30+ and hold on.

could be as trivial as how one of their lineman holds their hand for a certain play.

Tells / keys like that can be very important.

Years ago I was at a UM game and eventually could predict if it was  a pass or run because one of UM's OL held a more upright stance if it was going to be a pass.  Don't recall who, was back in 2000 or 2001.

Hopefully Greg Robinson and the defensive players see and hear this gem from MSU LB Greg Jones...its probably not a shot at our defense but I hope they take it as one so we have some kind of an edge on defense...our D coordinator has nicer, healthier, shinier hair? If it's sunny out we can reflect sunlight in kirk cousins eyes off Greg Robinsons head?

http://www.youtube.com/user/wxyztvdetroit#p/u/7/DAeIY_2Ag_4

"You know they got a great offense and you know i dont know about their defense but i know they got a great offense and we gotta be able to stop that"

but to me it doesn't look like regular blitzing (beyond sending more than one for a four man rush) is advisable.  They seemed pretty good at picking it up and Cousins is mobile enough to slip out of a number of would be sacks.  Cousins looks pretty good, although at times his mechanics seem to go to shit, unlike Chappel, who I thought did a good job of not shitting the bed the few times he was under pressure.  Our secondary always makes me nervous, but honestly, I'm more concerned about our tackling vs. their running game.    Our linebackers need to turn down the suck and turn up the good for this one.

which is not surprising, as I work at MSU and live about a 10 minute walk from the stadium. There's some clever ironic joke in there somewhere, but this is not the morning to uncover it.

This year's MSU offense does two interrelated things: they run the ball, a lot, typically to their strength, and they utilize play action. MSU has three running backs. Caper and Baker both played last year and are decent B10 backs - fast, reasonably shifty, but bigger guys. Bell is the freshman who is making a lot of noise. He's also a big guy, tall for a running back, but extremely quick. All are capable of following blockers or bouncing outside or taking the ball to the backside of the play and gashing a defense. The Spartans like to motion an extra blocker to the point of attack just before the snap to get another helmet in there. However, they will counter away from that motion occasionally to keep the defense from simply jumping it. They like to run screens to their backs; MSU broke a couple of big plays against Wisconsin doing that. Their offensive line is not that great, but the extra blocker clearly can make a difference. Wisconsin was unable to control the LOS against them, though, so they are playing pretty well right now.

Cousins ran for a lot of yards against us last year. This year he hasn't scrambled too much, and has played effectively as a pro-style QB. He can make big plays - when he has time, he is accurate and has a strong arm. His ball fakes are very good, which works well for play action and some of the trickiness that MSU likes to do occasionally. He has a reputation for making horrible decisions when pressured. I wonder if GERG will go after him a little bit more than he did after Chappell last week. That could backfire against the screens and short stuff that MSU likes to throw, though. The receivers are pretty good (Martin is the standout), but not IU-level good (as an Indiana alum, it makes me tingle a little to write that). Both tight ends (Gant & Linthicum) are good receivers, but MSU fans tend to think they don't get enough passes. 

The defense... I don't understand defense that well, so I'll keep this short. But... they have two really good senior linebackers in Greg Jones and Eric Gordon. Their line is all right. You might remember the freshman Gholston - he often plays on passing downs. Their DBs are the poorest aspect of their D, but they play better than ours do.

Keyshaun Martin returned a punt for a TD against Wisconsin, and the FG kicker is 8-8. MSU always seems to have good kickers and punters. We could very well lose because of the kicking game on Saturday.

They've committed a bunch of dumb penalties this year, but they didn't get so many against Wisconsin. That might change in an emotional game like Michigan, and on the road. Overall, MSU fields a more complete team than Michigan, but sheer brilliance (Shoelace) can overcome that. It'll be a really interesting game, and an obvious critical, red-circle contest for both teams.

Their Left Guard seems to be a bit of a libility in pass protection when isolated.  Generally, he's part of a double team, but I'd put Mike Martin nosed up on that guy because Cousins looks pretty crappy when under pressure with a pocket beginning to collapse.

That is to say, he lacks Ben Chapell's poise.  He's ok at avoiding rushes but doesn't keep his eyes downfield.  If we can power-collapse the pocket at all, that would be very valuable for pass defense. 

Delay blitzes might also go nice against MSU if we do some 3-man rushes, they tend to push D-linemen towards the right side, a delay blitz coming in the opened hole could open up some opportunities. 

Also, wisconsin's D looked pretty slow.  They made some good plays here and there but having a little more speed on the field against sparty could let us do a lot if schematically we can make it all work.

1. Stopping the run is more important than stopping the pass.  If they can move the chains running they will stick to it.  Then they will kill you with play action.  By the way, they ran the bootleg at least 6-7 times.  Someone is going to have to keep contain on Cousins so he doesn't scramble for yards on these.
2. As always, they love the misdirection run plays.  They like slanting the line hard one way then cutting it back the other way.  I also saw the fake up the middle - edge pitch.  As always, they will get 15 yards if they run a counter draw so just resign yourself to that fact.
3. All the misdirection seems to create a lot of one on one matchups with the LBs.  They will need to tackle in space.  Ezeh needs to not be passive and Mouton needs to keep tackling like he has been.  Please wrap up when you fill, Cam.
4. If we blitz a lot we will lose.  Cousins knows the offense and throws right into the blitz to great success.  They converted just about every blitz into positive yards (when the receivers weren't dropping balls).
5. OTOH, the 4 man rush was pretty effective at getting to Cousins.  I wasn't particularly impressed with their line play.
6. Nothing earth shattering, but I think our LBs are the key to this game.  They need to maintain their gaps and not be thrown off by misdirection runs and play action.

Do you have "UM Offense vs. MSU 2009 Every Snap?"

Also, it's going to be very hard to scout any offense well b/c we run a different defense than anyone else in the league and, therefore, the opponents' offensive game plans will be different schematically.