Prediction-Option Worthy
After watching Brian's Duck video link and thinking about the game on Saturday, I think I have the wrinkle Gorgeous Al is going to drop on the Spartans. I think we are going to midline Worthy. Worthy wants to jump the snap and cause pain well let's just let him. I think we use his aggressiveness and lack of football smarts against him and have Denard read him.
This allows the Oline to get out on the talented but inexperienced LB's and block them(our strength) and solves the problem of our guards trying to handle the monster Worthy(our weakness). This will tire Worthy and make him more hesitant to bust thru the line slowing his pass rush.
Once the Spartans adjust it will allow the other plays to work better.
There you go. I'm still nervous we wasted our best wrinkles against Minnesota like we have in years past, but I have seen nothing so far from Borges that I am not optimistic he has something great planned. Look for the Midline option on Saturday as my guess at one of our tweaks.
As the great Bart Scott said once.....CAN'T WAIT!!
October 14th, 2011 at 11:05 AM ^
I called this in one of the other threads yesterday. I completely agree. Maybe the option will also involve Denard and Devin both in the backfield at the same time.
October 14th, 2011 at 11:07 AM ^
I'm not too worried about Gorgeous having some things State hasn't seen before. I think this game is going to come down to third downs. The weather might limit big plays so I hope we're able to grind them with runs around the edges and short passes just like Rich Rod did last year.
October 14th, 2011 at 11:07 AM ^
I don't know if it will be a midline, but I have to imagine the plays they showed against Minny weren't the best in the bag of reserves. They showed yet another new package against NW with Denard split out. I'm guessing this is all to set up the good stuff they're still sitting on.
October 14th, 2011 at 11:09 AM ^
Against an aggressive defense like we will see that has been coached to stuff Robinson, any outside zone reads should do the trick, in addition to draws and quick screens. The counter to blitz pressure or high pass rush pressure is the screen and the draw, and the counter against a spy placed on a star QB or RB is the zone read.
Who knows, maybe we'll see a set of plays designed to combine zone reads/draws/and screens. I don't think we've been doing that many zone reads this year, so MSU would probably not be very prepared for it.
October 14th, 2011 at 11:11 AM ^
I agree about the screens. I definitely think we'll see at least one of those throwback screens plus maybe some more stuff to gallon.
October 14th, 2011 at 11:16 AM ^
I am a huge fan of putting Devin and Denard back in the shotgun and running the zone read with Denard as the RB. For Denard this really won't be much different than a QB designed run. Heck maybe the first time they do it make it a called give. After handing off to Denard a few times imagine all the stuff Devin can do off of the fake. I have been wanting this for a while and think this would be a good game to pull it out.
October 14th, 2011 at 11:45 AM ^
plus talk about freezing the LB's if they decide to PA off it and let Devin throw the ball.
October 14th, 2011 at 11:17 AM ^
Since the only read option play we run is inside zone ( and don't use the bubble as a constraint), I could see spacing being an issue. If the other dl guys squeeze the play i could see worthy doing an admirable job of 'stringing it out' and making diving tackles in limited space. If we ran more outside zone, I could see it's effectiveness increasing. These richrod staples could see a return, but i doubt it since they are a base play which the staff has shunned.
October 14th, 2011 at 11:19 AM ^
When did the staff shun it?
October 14th, 2011 at 11:25 AM ^
We don't run outside zone blocking or the bubble. I think these have hurt the run game spacing this year. LB's aren't being stretched as much as last year
October 14th, 2011 at 11:31 AM ^
That doesn't necessarily mean they've shunned it, just that they haven't added it to the playbook yet. To say that we won't see it because we haven't seen it is kind of silly.
October 14th, 2011 at 11:38 AM ^
He ran it hundreds of times per season. We haven't ran it yet. U don't 'save' base plays like that. The coaches don't want to run it. Could they? Sure I think that they could break it out. I don't see it as likely. My whole point is that I thought the midline is a better complement with outside zone which we've yet to establish. So I doubt we'd run a wrinkle to an unestablished play. And I doubt we'd midline an izr.
October 14th, 2011 at 11:18 AM ^
I am not football formation savy, so I wont attempt to give formation names.
But you know the one with Gardner under center and Denard lined up out wide, then comes in motion...
Would anyone like to see Gardner go play-action and Denard run a simple fly pattern or skinny post? With his speed, surely this would work if Gardner can hit him. I know this might expose Denard to a big hit if he goes across the middle, but it might work if the coverage is favorable to us.
Just a thought..
October 14th, 2011 at 11:23 AM ^
Denard is our big threat. You use him as the decoy because they will ALWAYS have a man on him. If there is ever a time when Denard runs a route and doesn't get hit right after a catch, then their defense has failed.
October 14th, 2011 at 11:28 AM ^
I seem to remember Tate trying to throw a deep pass to Denard (I want to say two years ago?). Didn't work and I don't know how effective it would be now (teams are always going to overreact to Denard and I'm not sure how good a route runner or pass catcher he is) but showing something like that might open something else up.
October 14th, 2011 at 11:38 AM ^
You are correct. That was against OSU Tate and Denard's freshmen years. RichRod tried to use Tate and Denard together with little success. If I am not mistaken, on the play you are talking about Denard actually had his man beat, Tate under threw it and it got picked off.
October 14th, 2011 at 11:29 AM ^
This actually seems interesting and might be a good idea. Didn't TCU do this to Wisconsin last year against JJ Watt in the Rose Bowl in that they at times didn't bother blocking him and made him choose on options plays?
October 14th, 2011 at 12:15 PM ^
Oregon tried this on Fairly in the bcs championship, but Fairly was too fast.
October 14th, 2011 at 11:33 AM ^
Neither does Devin (and neither did Tate). One of the many oddities/bad l
October 14th, 2011 at 11:35 AM ^
oddities/bad luck with RR's highly rated QBs.
We'll have some tricks but I think the big surprise will be Denard throwing much more than we're used to
October 14th, 2011 at 11:33 AM ^
will pull a John L. face slap after thinking about all the possible plays Gorgeous Al has planned for him. Two weeks is a long time to get ready, but extra time could cause him to question his plans.
October 14th, 2011 at 12:18 PM ^
They've been getting ready for this game for a long longer than two weeks.
October 14th, 2011 at 11:40 AM ^
As much as id like to see some new plays like this.. i doubt any of it will be very effective
ive yet to see Denard be effective against any decent defense.. We will see the same stuff we saw against NW, with a bunch of designed runs for denard running into our tackles for no gain or 1 to 2 yard gains again.. Right now i don't have a lot of faith in our team running against teams that are stacking the box.
I hope i am proved wrong this wkend, but am preparing for the worst. Hopefully borges has something up his sleeve and doesn't just plan to run denard 25-30 times like he did last wk for minimal gain most the the time.
October 14th, 2011 at 12:12 PM ^
October 14th, 2011 at 12:18 PM ^
Iowa 2010 he was 13/18 (72%) 96 1TD 1INT as well as 18/105 (5.8YPC). That was in, what, less than three quarters?
I'd be shocked if anyone else approached 5.8YPC on the 2010 Iowa defense.
October 14th, 2011 at 11:42 AM ^
...to force them to ease the pressure. Basically the same thing Northwestern tried against us. except that we have an inside run game to switch to that NW doesn't.
October 14th, 2011 at 11:48 AM ^
Gorgeous Al has spent the last month showing Pat Narduzzi various parts of his scheme with Denard. It will show on Saturday that just as Narduzzi thought he had the answers...Gorgeous Al changes all the questions.
October 14th, 2011 at 12:16 PM ^
I love that they got two weeks to prepare for all kinds of things that won't be coming at them.
October 14th, 2011 at 1:01 PM ^
This would be awesome to see. I must admit I am very nervous about this game. Michigan has also started pretty slow in a number of the games, it might be nice to see them start a little faster and not give MSU the chance to get comfortable.
October 14th, 2011 at 1:11 PM ^
he's doing pretty good at zone reads, but he's not real great on when to pitch or keep.
October 14th, 2011 at 4:09 PM ^