Four Plays – Michigan @ Rutgers 2015

This series examines the probable individual matchups Michigan expects to face against particular opponents on one of Michigan’s key running plays and one of its key passing plays, as well as defensively against a couple of the opponent’s key plays (assuming first-sting personnel in a base defensive alignment).

I did four of these in 2013, and was planning on doing more but was too demoralized by around week seven to keep going.  I only made it about half that far last season.  Now we have Harbaugh though, so I’m pretty confident I can make it through the whole season. 

The first game, of course, is on the road against Utah—a team that has always seemed to get the most out of its talent and has played Michigan tough over the years.  Those past games were all played in the friendly confines of Michigan Stadium, but this year the Wolverines go on the road to experience Rice-Eccles Stadium and its 4.657-foot elevation.  Evidently the Ute fans, butthurt over Harbaugh’s decision to swap out Alex Smith for Colin Kaepernick in 49er days, plan on welcoming the Michigan head coach with a bunch of Alex Smith heads-on-sticks.  There probably aren’t many things less intimidating than Alex Smith’s head on a stick, so that’s all I’m going to say about that.  Let’s look at some matchups.

When Michigan has the ball…

1.     Counter F

Power O is certainly a well-known part of Jim Harbaugh’s offense, as the White Team famously made clear by coming out on the first play of the spring game and running Power O for 34 yards.  Indeed, this off-season you couldn’t click on a “Harbaugh Offense” search window without somebody diagramming Power O and linking clips of old Stanford teams kicking ass with it.  So, it might behoove me to choose Power O for the first play here.  Yet in an effort to not be redundant, I am instead going wit Counter F, a similar play to Power O that utilizes newly-minted Michigan captain Joe Kerridge as the lead blocker in place of the usual backside guard.

Power O, in case you are new to the schematics, is a classic running play on which the playside tackle and tight end double-team the opposing defensive end, a fullback or h-back “kicks out”  (drives to the outside) the “EMLOS” (End Man on Line of Scrimmage), and a pulling guard leads the running back through the “6 hole” (i.e., the gap outside the tackle).

26 Power O:

Counter F works much like Power O; the offense still gets a double-team at the point-of-attack, and the tailback’s initial counter-step hopefully gets linebackers flowing away from the playside.  But now, the responsibilities of the fullback and backside guard are exchanged: the guard executes a trap block on the EMLOS, while fullback leads the ballcarrier through the six hole.

26 Counter F:

Assignments:

LT Mason Cole: Down block WDE Jason Fanaika

LG Ben Braden: Execute long trap block to kick-out “Stud” LB Uaea Masina

C Graham Glasgow: Down block DT Filipo Mokofisi

RG Kyle Kalis: Down block NT Lowell Lotulelei

RT Erik Magnuson: Block SDE Hunter Dimmck (away from 6-hole)

TE Jake Butt: With RT Erick Magnuson, double-team SDE Hunter Dimick; move to second level and block WLB Jared Norris

FB Joe Kerridge: Lead tailback through 6-hole, block first red jersey (presumably MLB Jason Whittingham)

RB – Deveon Smith: Take counter-step toward backside (to influence linebackers), then take handoff on playside; run through 6-hole, read and cut off of FB Joe Kerridge’s block

Advantage: Utah

We’re all excited to see what Tim Drevno can do with Michigan’s offensive line.  He has a lot of experienced talent to work with, and most of Michigan’s projected OL starters are upper-classmen with several years of college S&C in the books.  But as promising as that looks, Michigan’s OL is still potential while Utah’s defensive line has produced.  Strongside end Hunter Dimick had 10 sacks and 14.5 TFLs last season, while NT Lowell Latoulelei is an early-entry candidate for the NFL draft.  Add to that Utah’s deep collection of junior and senior LBs, and M has a lot to prove here.

                  2. Y-Cross

Another main theme of the off-season has been that big things are expected of junior tight end Jake Butt.  I’m a big believer in this myself, as Butt has both proven himself a gritty, tough player in the Bo/Harbaugh tradition and demonstrated superior receiving skills from day one.  One way to get Butt the ball is the Y-Cross concept, an old Lavell Edwards play that has become a staple of Air Raid and passing spread offenses. 

Though there are countless variations on the Y-Cross, the main concept is to have an outside receiver occupy the cornerback deep, while the crossing tight end or slot receiver heads for the vacated space. While crossing routes are naturally good against man coverage, Y-Cross is also a good call against 3-deep zones because the crosser and the Z-receiver end up flooding the same deep third.  Other variations combine Y-Cross with option routes, or with play-action fakes designed to freeze the linebackers and shake the crosser wide open.   

Most versions of Y-Cross also have a third playside receiver—usually a back or TE releasing into the flat, and the quarterback reads deep-to-short (fade, to cross, to flat).  But in the Michigan spring game, the White Team ran a version of Y-Cross from a 2 TE shotgun look with only two playside receivers.  On that play, White kept back in for protection and got TE Chase Winovich isolated against a safety.  Winovich unfortunately dropped a strike from Malzone, but the play would have gone for big yardage if caught.

Assignments:

XWR Amara Darboh: Run fade route vs. BCB Reggie Porter

RB Ty Isaac: Pass protection

LT Mason Cole: Pass block SDE Hunter Dimick

LG Ben Braden: Pass block DT Filipo Mokofisi

C Graham Glasgow: Pass block NT Lowell Lotolelei

RG Kyle Kalis: Pass block NT Lowell Lotolelei

RT Erik Magnuson: Pass block WDE Jason Fanaika

Slot WR Grant Perry: Run dig route vs. NCB Justin Thomas

YTE Jake Butt: Run crossing route (inside release, aim for sideline at 20 yards) vs. MLB Jason Whittingham

ZWR Jehu Chesson: Run fade route vs. FCB Dominique Hatfield

QB Jake Rudock: 5-step drop; “alert” read is Z Receiver (read during drop and throw in case of coverage bust) #1 read is Y-cross; if covered, #2 read is slot receiver on dig route.

Advantage:  Even

According to the position-group previews on Utah blog Block U, it just about every player on Utah is an unstoppable ANFO-breathing football ninja, so perhaps I really should be giving the edge to the Utes here.  I think M can hold its own though; not only does the Utah pass rush look significantly less scary with Nate Orchard now a Cleveland Brown, but Jake Butt is an accomplished receiving TE and this type of play appears to be in Jake Rudock’s wheelhouse. 

When Utah has the ball…

1.     Pistol Inside Zone

Inside Zone, as you probably know by now, is the ubiquitous downhill running play on which covered linemen block the defenders lined up across from them, uncovered linemen head to the second level, and the running back then reads the blocking and cuts north into daylight.

Last season I diagrammed Utah’s Inside Zone Read, a version of the same play but involving an option read at the mesh point.  Inside Zone Read gives the offense an extra blocker by enabling the QB run threat to effectively “block” the backside defensive end.  But the Utah backfield pairs 1,500-yard, bowling-ball style rusher Devantae Booker with 6’7” Travis Wilson; though Wilson himself has over 300 yards rushing in each of the past two seasons, letting him keep the ball on option reads takes the ball out of the hands of Booker—a fierce back currently projected to be taken in the second or third round of the 2016 NFL Draft.  That’s probably why, as Oregon blog FishDuck noticed  while previewing the Utes last season, Utah started just using an H-back to actually block the backside pursuer, rather than option him off with Wilson.

Assignments:

WDE Mario Ojemudia: set edge two yards deep and two yards outside, defend C-gap vs. RT Hiva Lutui, constrict B-gap

NT Ryan Glasgow: hold up to double-team vs. LG Isaac Asiata and LT JJ Dielman, defend backside A-gap

DT Willie Henry: hold up to double-team vs. C Siaosi Aiono and RG Salesi Uhatafe, defend playside B-gap

SDE Chris Wormley: Defeat block of H-Back Siale Fakailoatonga, backside pursuit

WLB Desmond Morgan: Defeat block of C Siaosi Aiono, defend playside A-gap

MLB Joe Bolden: Defeat block of LT JJ Dielman, defend backside B-gap

Advantage: Michigan

Booker is an outstanding running back.  But their offensive line is young and does not appear to have a replacement for graduated star tackle Jeremiah Poutasi.  While pass rush remains a question mark for Michigan, the Wolverines remain a stout run defense unit and that should continue in 2015.

2.     All Curls

I took an educated guess last year that all-curls might be Utah’s base passing play, mainly because Utah had hired passing spread guru Dave Christiansen as their offensive coordinator and he had shown a proclivity for the play.  Though I prefer to make jokes about all the things I get wrong, in this case I actually got it right; here you can see Utah run all-curls repeatedly on a game winning drive against USC. 

All-curls is a particularly effective against Cover 3, which leaves only four underneath defenders to cover five possible receivers.  But even against other coverages, the play is a reliable chain-mover that provides two distinct advantages as a base play.  For one, all-curls gives the quarterback four slow-moving or stationary targets, each facing the QB, and spread horizontally across the field, as well as a releasing back for a safety valve option.  Second, numerous other route combinations can be built off the same route stem as all-curls (e.g., slant-wheel, smash-corner, four verticals, etc.)—thus giving the offense plenty of constraint alternatives against a defense that overplays the curls.

Assignments:

BCB Wayne Lyons: Press coverage vs. WR Kenneth Scott

NCB Jabrill Peppers: Press coverage vs. Slot WR Delshawn McClellan

WDE Mario Ojemudia: Pass rushg vs. LT JJ Dielman

3T Willie Henry: Pass Rush vs. LG Isaac Asiata

NT Ryan Glasgow: Pass rush vs. C Siaosi Aiono, RG Salesi Uhatafe

SDE Chris Wormley: Pass rush vs. RT Hiva Lutui

WLB Joe Bolden: Man coverage vs. RB Devontae Booker

MLB Desmond Morgan: Drop into middle zone; read and follow QB’s eyes to ball

FS Jerrod Wilson: Cover deep middle

SS Delano Hill: Press coverage vs. WR Kenric Young

FCB Jourdan Lewis: Press coverage vs. WR Tim Patrick

Advantage:

One piece of extremely good news for Michigan is that Utah’s outstanding 2014 wide receivers, Dres Anderson and Kaelin Clay, have graduated, and there doesn’t appear to have been much behind them.  Senior Kenneth Scott caught 48 balls for 506 yards and 4 TDs last season, but nobody else has much in the way of statistics—or even hype on the ridiculously effusive Block U.  As for Michigan, the secondary is one of the team’s strongest units, with Jourdan Lewis arguably the team’s best returning defensive player and Jabrill Peppers looking a possible DPOY candidate in the Big Ten.  M’s pass rush remains a point of concern, however, and Utah does have a mobile senior QB, so no advantage overall.  Hopefully Jourdan and Jabrill prove me wrong about that a few times.

Go Blue!

Bonus: EGD’s 2015 Michigan Preview

Almost every year since probably the late 1990s I’ve written a Michigan football preview targeted at my friends and acquaintances—most of whom aren’t exactly mgousers.  I posted it here the last two or three seasons and it was reasonably well-received, but on the whole I’d say if you haven’t read HTTV yet, read that; if you haven’t read the front-page UM preview material yet, read that.  If you’ve plowed through all that and still have a UM Football jones, click on the link below. 

http://jmp.sh/T4f6jY5