amoeba defense

The one takeaway from the Nebraska game that isn't crushing dominance was Michigan's zone defense on in-breaking routes (slants/digs) needed a lot of cleanup. What went wrong wasn't hard to figure out, but there's some understandable confusion I think about how, or in some cases whether, it was supposed to go right.

ZONE REFRESHER

Cover 3 at its core has three deep zones, two Curl/Flat zones, and then you can vary how many players you want to drop into Hole zones.

Drawing circles is a bad way to represent zones, however, because it makes it seem like defenders are tasked with sitting in the middle of their circles and projecting strength over their fiefdoms. We call that "covering grass." You do that, you end up like Stephen of Blois with rebellions springing up everywhere around you. You have to play zone defense with the constant movement of a Henry Plantagenet: anticipating trouble, heading it off, harrying it out of your kingdom, then snapping quickly to stop the next threat before it gets out of hand.

The route you take to your zone is important too, because you can't give receivers the run of the roads. Note how the paths of the SS and Nickel will have them above the Y and the H respectively, while the CBs would be escorting the outside receivers to deep 1/3 zones. Those defenders are heading elsewhere, but for the duration of a quick seam they're right in the way.

That takes care of the seams and fly routes, but there are a few known vulnerabilities where offenses know you can squeeze a ball between the zones.

[After THE JUMP: Feeling attacked]

Since I'm freed of Offensive UFRs, Matt Demorest of HomeSure Lending and I decided to bring back the YouTube show where we look at a play or two and try to show you something you can spot next Saturday. He also has his son making picks and then we do a version of good & welfare called "talk me up/talk me down" at the end. We did a trial run last week and people seemed to like it so here ya go. If you're looking to buy or refi, he's the guy.

The two plays we discuss are here (the Harrell pressure) and here (the Morris sack).

There is no content after the jump. The video is the content.

(P.S. I prescheduled this post yesterday in case you were planning on reporting to a certain biblical deity that Seth's working today.)
(P.P.S. I call it the Seth & Matt Show. Oldest name goes first, right?)

Ever since Mike Macdonald arrived, and continuing into Jesse Minter, I've been throwing around the term "Amoeba Defense" in reference to Michigan's disguised fronts and coverages. I probably should get into what that means, and how they're using it. The concept is actually a suite of ideas that are old and ubiquitous at all levels of football:

1. Hybrid defenders.
2. Zone blitzes.
3. Pre-snap motion.

This is not original. It's the thing Jerry Sandusky was most known for before the other thing. It's what Dick LeBeau made his Hall of Fame career on. It's what Michigan ran as its base defense the last time we imported a Ravens defensive assistant in 2011-'12. Bob Davie is credited with coming up with it when trying to counter the Run 'n Shoot. Even without the talent disparity, the Amoeba's origins made it particularly well-suited to combat an Air Raid run by Hal Mumme's son in Game 1, let alone a Run 'n Shoot coached by a June Jones quarterback (who until last year was coaching under Hal Mumme's son) in Game 2.

It has been my assertion that Michigan dipped its toes in Amoeba world last year, then shelved it for two reasons:

1. David Ojabo emerged as an elite old-school pass-rusher, which is still the best way to get pressure if you can find it.
2. Vincent Gray and Brad Hawkins were savvy zone defenders with speed limitations.

It's too early in 2022 to say Minter's going to run this stuff all year, but it's at least being deployed more often that Macdonald used it last year pre-Ojabo breakout. Why now? What do they need to keep using it when the talent curve turns? Let's investigate.