passing concepts

I didn't blame you, Makari. [David Wilcomes]

One of the few defensive breakdowns against BGSU was a 3rd & 15 conversion. On the podcast I said it was a good example of a young player in a complicated defense. Explaining what happened was a bit in the weeds for the podcast, but it's a good opportunity to talk about how Michigan's switch zones work, why they tend to break down at the linebacker level most often, and my thought process as I grade them. Also everybody else is going to be covering the interceptions, and there was very little else to talk about from this game. Switch coverages it is!

Here's the play.

Let's discuss.

[After THE JUMP]

The On Noticement [Bryan Fuller]

TAILGATE NOTE: We've been putting out conflicting information on the tailgate with the Sklars this Saturday at Venue. Here's where I finally get it right:

  • It starts at 12:30 PM (not 11AM).
  • Venue will have food and drinks and parking for purchase. They have parking for $50 until it fills up.
  • The Sklars are performing live at the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase that night and Friday. You should go.
  • Anyone can come to the tailgate, but if you aren't seeing the Sklars live this weekend you have to give us a hot take in the hot take voice.

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This game wasn't terribly interesting from an X's and O's standpoint. ECU was going to run blitz every play while Michigan was content to defeat it with play-action every other play. Without their HC and OC, Michigan kept mostly to their power run game, sprinkling in some zone late to deal with the opponent's decision to focus everything on stopping interior runs. What stood out the most—to you and me and everyone who watched this game—was JJ McCarthy's performance.

To a degree, you could argue his job was relatively simple this week. With the pirate linebackers and most of their safeties committed to the run, the few guys left in coverage were mostly hung out to dry.

There's no subtlety to this. We've been playing for almost a quarter, and when McCarthy turns around ECU has nine guys playing the run and JJ has two dudes heading into all the space.

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[After THE JUMP: Advantage: McCarthy.]

This series is a work-in-progress glossary of football concepts we tend to talk about in these pages. Previously:

Offensive concepts: RPOs, high-low, snag, mesh, covered/ineligible receivers, Duo, zone vs gap blocking, zone stretch, split zone, pin and pull, inverted veer, reach block, kickout block, wham block, Y banana play, TRAIN, the run & shoot

Defensive concepts: The 3-3-5, Contain & lane integrity, force player, hybrid space player, no YOU’RE a 3-4!, scrape exchange, Tampa 2, Saban-style pattern-matching, match quarters, Dantonio’s quarters, Don Brown’s 4-DL packages and 3-DL packages, Bear

Special Teams: Spread punt vs NFL-style

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Michigan’s gameplan last week was to build around one of the most consistently effective offensive plays in college football: the Mesh. Now listen, everybody meshes. It’s the favorite play of schools with questionable quarterbacks, and the base play that the air raid offense is built from. Unless you’re really good at fades mesh is probably your go-to goal-line passing offense. I know it probably wasn’t the plan, but a mesh-based game was also perfect for O’Korn.

THE CONCEPT:

image

Also James Light found Mike Leach’s 1999 Oklahoma Sooners playbook:

LeachMesh

At its core, Mesh is a short, easy, and rather cheap passing play designed to cross a pair of drag routes in hopes of creating a ton of traffic for the coverage. Imagine the above with the strong safety ($) trying to trail the blue tight end: what hope does the red cornerback have of staying with the red tight end with all of those bodies around?

That of course is if they catch man defense. If it’s zone, well, crossing routes are zone-beaters: just run the receivers into open ground and have them sit down for easy yardage.

[Hit THE JUMP to see how it worked]