PFF Grades of Wisconsin - MSU: A look forward to next week.

Submitted by Indonacious on

Some quotes from the article: http://tinyurl.com/j2v8moy

"The area where Horninbrook was most effective was against the blitz. On 10 dropbacks facing extra rushers, Hornibrook completed 7-10 passes for 77 yards and a touchdown."

"The Badgers gained 96 yards on 21 carries to the left of center compared to 30 yards on 16 carries to the right of center."

Top defensive grades: 

OLB Vince Biegel 82.6
LB Jake Cichy 82.6
CB Sojourn Shelton 80.9
LB T.J. Edwards 80.0
OLB T.J. Watt 78.5

"O’Connor was constantly under duress in the game as he dealt with pressure on 51.1 percent of his dropbacks."

"Spartan offensive line struggled as a whole against the Badger’s stunts and defensive movement."

MGoBoard

JFW

September 26th, 2016 at 9:30 AM ^

If they can nail Speight a couple of times, we'll have some issues. And despite the O line performance against PSU I'm not sure how well it will hold up against Wisci. I'm guessing we'll start seeing some Harbaugh trickery here to scheme around it. 

Joined: 10/20/2010

MGoPoints: 15285

Space Coyote

September 26th, 2016 at 11:08 AM ^

OL vs DL isn't as much of a concern. It really is the OLBs, that are fantastic for Wisconsin, along with some inside twist/stunts from the ILBs.

The concern as far as OL/DL is that Wisconsin runs a 3-4, similar to Colorado. I don't think Wisconsin's DL is quite as good as Colorado's, but they aren't far off and they have more depth. Additionally, Wisconsin's LBs are significantly better than Colorado's (let alone whatever PSU had left). The concern here is that if Michigan can't figure out how to block the 3 down guys up front to allow for interior runs, it won't be as easy to pick on the edges and TE routes because that is Wisconsin's strength in the run game. It's a very interesting matchup.

On the plus side for Michigan, MSU is not a multiple team in terms of coverage, and their blitz package is starting to become predictable because they won't change the coverage. They run 3 high and 2 low nearly every time (why they don't install a 3 high, 3 low is of great confusion to me, as it seems like an easy addition that will make life much harder for offenses). Wisconsin's QB was able to see blitz and know immediately the weaknesses in coverage without even having to see the coverage. Michigan's defense is very different, so I don't think he'll have the same success when pressured against UM. The major concern is one of their RBs getting a crease because of Michigan's schemes, as their big plays really only come from the RBs (they have a very good group).

Joined: 06/18/2009

MGoPoints: 38962

gustave ferbert

September 26th, 2016 at 11:46 AM ^

I envision us going max protect and seeing if we Chesson/Darboh can exploit their secondary.  If the secondary is good that might be a problem. 

But in all of our games.  Amazing special teams play has forgiven a lot of sins especially on offense. 

 

And if really necessary, Jabrill takes more snaps on offense. 

Joined: 06/21/2011

MGoPoints: 46359

DrMantisToboggan

September 26th, 2016 at 9:37 AM ^

State's OL is markedly worse than ours. Jim will have the gameplan and Speight will step up. If they want to take away the middle we will go back  to the jet sweeps. Jabrill will get his most offensive snaps yet, I would guess. 

Edit: WRT the quote about Wisconsin's stunts, I know it was only Penn State, but Kalis and Magnuson picked up a stunt like fuckin pros on Speight's ony TD pass. It was borderline erotic.

Joined: 11/26/2014

MGoPoints: 74183

umfan323

September 26th, 2016 at 9:41 AM ^

I saw at least 3 or 4 passes that should have been picked off by State no way he gets away with that against us. I'm less worried about this game than I was for Colorado... This should be another 20+ point victory

Joined: 01/19/2011

MGoPoints: -99997697

Tbone67

September 26th, 2016 at 9:49 AM ^

I totally agree. Our defense excells against pro style offenses. It's the spread teams that we have been the most vulnerable too. Our defense will be stout against wiscy.

Joined: 01/29/2016

MGoPoints: 3841

Pepto Bismol

September 26th, 2016 at 9:57 AM ^

Actually haven't seen Brown's defense against a pro-style offense yet, though.  I'm curious what happens to Peppers.  Will Brown use him as a traditional 4-3 LB?  If that's the case, he's going to have to eat a lot of blocks from very big dudes.  Or does Furbush come in and Peppers moves to an aggressive safety role? 

Regardless, all of the other pieces seem well-equipped to shut down Wisconsin.  I'm just interested to see if a 200-pound LB is the right way to go against heavy, power running between the tackles. 

Joined: 02/03/2015

MGoPoints: 7857

hunterjoe

September 26th, 2016 at 10:02 AM ^

Do you honestly think a "very big dude" can move fast enough to actually lock onto him?  That's been the thing that surprises me the most (although it shouldn't) is how bad he makes attempted blockers look.  They just can't target him, he's too strong and fast.  He has a way to get around them and to the position where he needs to be to make a play. 

Joined: 07/17/2015

MGoPoints: 9720

Pepto Bismol

September 26th, 2016 at 10:14 AM ^

Not in space.  Against the spread teams we've seen, he's been that hybrid-space guy and no, he's agile and fast enough to get around blocks.

But for the first time we're going to be seeing heavy offensive sets with multiple TEs and fullbacks.  That means the LBs are going to be responsible for filling run lanes, and that usually means sticking your nose between linemen and taking on FBs and pulling Guards and those types of things.

In those tight quarters, no, I don't think Peppers will be able to go around blocks, and frankly, I'm not sure you want your LB to do that.

As I said, I'm interested to see how Brown plays it.  I don't think you can keep him out of the fray every down... not unless you're having him come down as a safety to attack edge runs.

Joined: 02/03/2015

MGoPoints: 7857

Stringer Bell

September 26th, 2016 at 11:03 AM ^

Brown will use some disguises I'm sure. Make it look like Peppers is dropping back, then have him explode through the line to the QB. We've seen him already do this.

Joined: 11/06/2014

MGoPoints: 52750

Pepto Bismol

September 26th, 2016 at 11:17 AM ^

I'm talking about run defense.  Wisconsin is going to line up heavy and run the football.  This is when (I assume) Michigan will revert to a more traditional 4-3 defense.  That requires 3 LBs capable of defending power running between the tackles.

There's a reason your LBs aren't all 6'1" and 205 pounds.  That's because they traditionally have to thump FBs and tackle big backs in the hole.  If you could just run around blocks, then every LB would be Peppers-sized. 

Perhaps Brown can figure out how to always keep one specific LB out of the mix.  It seems to me that eventually, if he's going to be a LB against Wisconsin, he's going to have to get his nose dirty and I actually don't want to see that.

Joined: 02/03/2015

MGoPoints: 7857

Rasmus

September 26th, 2016 at 12:24 PM ^

I was watching on TV, but from what I could see it looked like they had Furbush participating like he was part of the rotation, even though he didn't get into the game until late. I took that to mean they were preparing him for more playing time in the future -- he was getting experience with knowing where he needs to be on the sideline and during timeouts and breaks between plays, hearing what he needs to hear and basically being ready to go in.

Not sure when I first noticed him. Maybe at the start iof the seond half? He's easy to spot with the hair. Maybe they told him at the half that he would play and to participate accordingly.

Joined: 07/02/2009

MGoPoints: 2412

Jeff09

September 26th, 2016 at 12:00 PM ^

Not sure how much it matters who your LBs are when you have a DL like this. I'd be pretty surprised to see Wisconsin's OL getting to our LBs clean as they haven't looked like a great rushing team so far this year. We'll see.

Joined: 06/25/2011

MGoPoints: 8460