I think we were all kind of surprised that Michigan didn't have JJ's legs involved in the run game against Ohio State. We've been excusing the sloggy way they've been blocking up their runs all season by keeping that threat saved for the big games. But this was the biggest game, like, ever. So where were the keeps?

When I went over the tape I think I found my answer: Ohio State's gameplan was to take them away, using a clever trick that Michigan didn't adjust to very well. The first time we have something that looked like the threat of a McCarthy read on the backside was this play that got swallowed for a loss.

Clearly Ohio State did something very clever here. But what, why was it effective against Michigan's run game for awhile, and how did Michigan adjust to it?

[After THE JUMP: Ohio State had a great gameplan, Title Town Up North still won.]

EDGE TYPES

Over the course of the 1980s and '90s the football world learned to describe defenses in terms of "4-3" and "3-4" and associated this with philosophies. While what was true then is true now, these days virtually everybody plays multiple, and changes up their fronts, and adjusts to their personnel. The strategies that really define run defenses lately is how they choose which personnel you use to define the edges of your front. Michigan has big, long-limbed edges, and would prefer if they set up outside of the last blocker, create a wall, and squeeze everything inside. Other defenses would rather spill those edges, having the first-level defenders shoot inside and force the ballcarrier to outrun the pursuit outside until he turns a corner or runs out of room.

Ohio State has some really good edges—the #1 and #5 players in the 2021 class when they committed—who have the build and athleticism to play Michigan's way. They also have plenty of strength to dig inside a tackle, bend the line, and spill to the similarly elite athletes Ohio State recruits in the back seven. This allows them to play however they like on any given down, and adapt different philosophies successfully that many other teams Michigan faced this year had to recruit to specifically.

I thought in this game they really used their edges well to confuse Michigan's power running attack, prevent clean releases for the tight ends, and keep JJ's legs from hurting them.

THE POWER RULES

Now let's talk about Michigan's playcall. This is a backside power run with (I think) a live McCarthy read on the backside. The hope is that Ohio State's linebackers are reading the guards and won't react quickly enough to the backside TE, the backside T, and the center all pulling. Nugent's job would be to kick out the unblocked playside edge, or turn him inside if that's where he goes. They have Loveland lined up as a receiver to get some extra oomph on a crackblock for that safety. That would leave Henderson and Barner to lead block, with one picking off the free linebacker and the other probably moving out the cornerback.

This isn't going to come off how it's drawn up, though. Cleverly, Ohio State found a way to attack this without expending an extra player on McCarthy, and beat two of Michigan's blocks.

PINCHING AND THE STUNT 43

Former Ohio State defensive coordinator and signs-sharing co-conspirator Greg Schiano brought an interesting attack out of the depths of the 1970s to rebuild his Rutgers defense quickly. We first met it on these pages in 2020.

Rutgers fully bought into the Stunt 43 system—cocked nose, stunting Jack and all—but Ohio State was able to take its primary principle and apply it to their 4-2-5 front. That is, the defensive linemen are expected to crash the interior lanes while the linebackers spread to the edges. We've seen versions of Indiana and Notre Dame play this way as well, as a base or as a changeup. Can you spot the weakness?

So yeah, nobody's in one of the A gaps. The Stunt 43 as as system is pretty good at taking care of this by crushing that gap shut from the sides and having the nose tackle earhole the center, which generally creates a mess in the middle where both A gaps are plugged by the NT and C, plus the other DL squeezing inward. If you're trying to run a gap scheme, prying that gap open isn't going to be too easy. If you're trying to run off-tackle, you're meeting linebackers immediately.

And as a bonus, if you're threatening to read the backside, instead of a defensive end, the quarterback has to find a linebacker—typically a more athletic player—who's coming inside-out and reading him. There are also plenty of defenders out there, including a linebacker and safety over Roman Wilson in the slot. OSU is well covered in the case of a keeper, with the Mike able to exchange with the crashing DE even if those two guys on the bottom hash stay out there in case of a play-action pass to that side. McCarthy has to give.

The crashing DE requires attention that Barner can't really provide. Scrape exchanges like this nerf zone read games because they're covering both sides. But even if Barner were to successfully cut the backside end, the frontside DE's crash is making a hash of the frontside. Even if he has his man turned inside, the further Nugent gets pushed into the backfield, the more the run has to bend around him, and that gives the defense more time to get to the ballcarrier, meaning fewer yards gained.

Nugent gets bent back so far that Henderson crashes into him, robbing any momentum for the lead blocker as his linebacker chooses where to set up that is most inconvenient to the running play. Behind the play, our linebacker who induced a give is now getting blocked, by the frontside tackle, Barnhart, the same guy who'd be blocking him if OSU ran this normal. As fans, we see McCarthy running out the backside of the play with nobody until the linebacker that Roman Wilson was blocking and think "Why didn't he keep?"

And the cornerback Barner was going to take care of is now a free hitter. Also Barner wasn't able to cut that DE, so even if Michigan's blockers salvage this and Corum runs through the cornerback, his first priority is running away from the crashing DE, the guy the play design was supposed to leave blocking nobody on the backside. Corum tries to cut off Henderson's butt and the DE brings him down.

IS THERE AN ADJUSTMENT?

Of course. This Ohio State front bought an extra guy to the point of the attack with a scrape exchange that Michigan blocked like a regular zone read. But the pinch actually left a gap open. Can you spot it?

Sherrone Moore did, and attacked it the very next play.

We call these short pulls "Dart" which is kind of a mix of Stretch and Power where you pull around where you can, combo where you can, and cut off where you can. As before, there's a McCarthy read (or at least something that looks like it) on the backside. As before, OSU is scrape-exchanging that backside, which gets the MIKE out of the play entirely. The playside DE hops outside right before the snap and Barner goes with him with a kickout. This time OSU isn't spilling; they're playing contain with the DE setting an edge that's supposed to close off the space the offense has to run between him and the DE pinching from the backside.

Both Mullings and Zinter find defenders hopping outside to funnel back to help, but their best help defender is the MIKE and he's way back there dealing with McCarthy.

Except he's not really. The MIKE (#35) and the Nickel Safety (#7) are both turned completely towards the run as McCarthy's reading it out. There's still a cornerback back there, and that CB is Denzel Burke, but this is probably an opportunity to keep it. With all of those players backside though, it's not a huge miss. As long as they're there, they're going to be late when the lead blockers get through the gap that OSU left by overplaying the edges, and Dart should get them blocked to the safety.

Unfortunately the safety is down here playing 100% run on 2nd & 9 because Michigan seems to be under the impression that running play-action will bring Tony Petitti down on them for the unsportsmanlike subterfuge of making passes look like runs.

DID OHIO STATE HAVE A COUNTER FOR THIS THEN?

Yeah, this game was being played on expert mode when it came to run offense and run defense. While still keeping multiple guys backside to deter McCarthy keeps, Ohio State kept varying how they were defending the run, seesawing between spilling and funneling to keep the reads difficult for Michigan running backs.

Here's a spot where they got the better of Edwards.

As with the 2nd & 9 play above, Barnhart is supposed to catch the playside DE and keep him out of the space they're expecting the nose tackle to vacate. Keegan is meant to pull and find the WLB to kick him out, and then the crucial defender, the MLB, gets picked off by Barner pulling through the gap while the MIKE was wasting time backside trying to account for McCarthy. If he shoots to the playside, McCarthy can read out the DE as usual.

Again, this works in theory. But Ohio State's edges are very good—the #1 and #5 players in the 2021 class when they committed (Quinn Ewers reclassified and moved ahead of them). In this case #33 Jack Sawyer, the #5 guy, is being a dick about it.

Once the LBs widen there isn't technically anybody for the gap that they're trying to run through, but Sawyer is able to two-gap Barnhart, threatening the outside and inside so everybody else can fly to their jobs. A couple of gaps over, one of the DTs who was supposed to be blocked down has figured out the play and gotten off of Nugent. Edwards sees this and decides his best bet is to try the cornerback outside, which means cutting away from his blocking.

Sawyer can come inside because he can spill to the linebacker, who's going to be heading outside. The way Sawyer is standing up Barnhart, however makes it possible for Sawyer to make a play outside if Edwards were to put his LB in the wrong gap or something. Also watch the backside DT rip Nugent by him to soak up one of Michigan's blockers.

Even if Edwards was able to put a foot outside, get the LB and Sawyer to get out there, and turn into the gap they're trying to attack, that DT who beat Nugent is going to bring him down for not much more than he got. Needing a yard for a first, Edwards decides to get it instead of risk a TFL.

Michigan mostly went back to Duo for the bulk of the game, and Ohio State went back to defending the edges with their ends once they'd established their reaction to any setup that threatened a McCarthy run. But the thing about this game being so short is I think Michigan was still unloading new things even on their final drive. I'm calling this one Insert Power, for lack of a better term for when they pull someone from both sides of the play.

Once again, Michigan is trying to attack an inside gap that might get left open as Ohio State overplays the edges in search of McCarthy blood. But both ends are playing the way Michigan's do, setting up outside and trying to squeeze inward from there. Michigan has AJ Barner covered, which screams it's a run, but are attacking the gap inside of Sawyer by bringing Loveland in from one direction and Keegan through the same gap from the backside.

This should take care of things no matter which direction Sawyer goes, because if he ducks inside of Barner, Barner can move on to the MIKE while Loveland rides Sawyer inside from better leverage. If Sawyer stays outside, they have a quick hitter in the gap he's giving up. Once again OSU's safety is at just 8 yards and playing the run, so it only gets so far. Also the MIKE activated very quickly, which limited options in the gap. This play worked because this late in the game, OSU's DT was starting to get fatigued, and a fresh Trente Jones donkeyed him into the WILL.

There is no read, but the thread of play-action is enough that McCarthy can stare down the safety up there on the hash mark and prevent him from joining the MIKE in attacking the run. Corum takes the lane that Jones and Barnhart carved out over an elite DT's ass.

They would run this again two plays later, and the DT would do a much better job against that double, with Corum hitting a backside gap instead.

The next play Ohio State went back to pinching, but by that point the deterioration in OSU's up-front play was affect that as well. Here they're running something off of the same look as the dart read, but now they're using the frontside puller to get the first edge defender who shows outside. The effect is something more like their Down G series.

There a few interesting things here.

Let's go from (the offense's) right to left:

1. The nickel safety is still checking McCarthy all the way…
2. AND the MIKE is stepping down backside, which gets him outflanked by right tackle Trente Jones.
3. Barnhart and Nugent are scooping the nose tackle, and do manage it, though Nugent stumbles. He gathers himself in time to be of use against that safety.
4. Kalel Mullings is a good lead blocker.
5. Ohio State wasn't having a linebacker set the edge; that's a cornerback getting donkeyed to the sideline by Trevor Keegan.
6. Edwards has a shot at a 58-yard game-winner that he turns down by cutting inside Mullings. I mean:

Nugent's probably not getting out on that safety, but he might be relevant enough for Edwards to get by, and the free safety adjuster (#41 on the M) doesn't have a great angle. Replay:

SO WHERE WERE THE JJ KEEPS?

They were all over in the places Ohio State was undermanned or in a bad position to defend Michigan's interior running game, though Michigan couldn't always capitalize. They were in Jack Sawyer having to cross Karsen Barnhart's face to take away this gap so his LB could catch a spill outside.

They were in J.T. Tuimoloau having to beat AJ Barner to the ballcarrier to prevent the other side of the line from getting enveloped.

They were in the middle linebacker risking getting himself stuck behind a block by flaring outside even though a member of the secondary was already out there waiting.

They were in safety Sonny Styles (#6) having to give up all pretense of deep pass defense because Michigan had a hat for every frontside defender and two or three defenders hanging out backside.

So in answer: JJ keeps weren't in this game because Ohio State was taking that away. Doing so afforded Michigan other opportunities to run inside, and churn down the field with their favorite play until the safety OSU was committing to the extra gap finally broke.

The tweaks each side had to each others' anticipated responses were subtle and varied, more like an NFL game than two college teams. I might even go so far as to say this is probably where they both put a lot of the practice they saved from romping over a relatively weak Big Ten. But as good as OSU's defensive stars were at covering for the strategic decision to expend material taking away the J.J. McCarthy run game, they weren't good enough to do that and beat Michigan.