Fuel on the fire: Another worst play addendum

MGoBlog's tragic two-part Worst Plays of the Decade list has produced at least one addendum courtesy of The Wolverine Blog, and I thought it appropriate to add my own worst play: Zoltan's legendarily bad fake punt against Michigan State last year. Case in point:

At the time, I broke down the play and compared it to a similar fake punt that he executed perfectly against Minnesota the year before. But let's set the scene:

Michigan is 4-0 and coming off one of the hottest starts in the nation in a pivotal season for the program. A win in this game and Michigan is basically guaranteed bowl eligibility, with Delaware State being the following week's opponent. Michigan is down 10-6 in a slog of a game that saw them only have four (!!!) possessions in the first half for a total of 67 yards of offense. They managed six points because of a Kirk Cousins interception that set them up with a short field. Michigan State wasn't doing much better despite holding a commanding lead in time of possession.

After Zoltan spectacularly muffs the play, Michigan holds MSU to a field goal and would go on to lose the game in overtime thanks in large part to a Tate Forcier interception. Whether or not actually punting here would've allowed Michigan to win the game--speculative guesses say probably: in MSU's final 5 possessions, they mounted 138 yards (70 of which came on one drive), which accounted for a TD, two punts, a fumble, and a turnover on downs--it stands to reason that without those three points that Michigan essentially gave away, they win the game in regulation and have a chance at going bowling.

In the aftermath, Rodriguez took most of the heat for the play, claiming that he gives Zoltan the read on every play, but I'm not entirely convinced. It was nice that he threw himself under the bus for a senior leader, but this one falls squarely on the shoulders of The Inconceivable.

Zoltan, rugby punting, and the read that wasn't

There's been a whole heck of a lot made of the Zoltan fake punt/read punt that happened last Saturday against MSU. Was it a called play? Was it a missed read? Why wouldn't Rich Rod take that read away from Zoltan that close to the endzone? With visions of high-stepping first downs and an ecstatic student section flashing Zs to the cosmos, Zoltan tried to make something happen. Unfortunately, the play was never designed for him to have a read here. This was supposed to be a punt, all the way. My guess is that somewhere in the play calling, Zoltan thought he was told he had a read. He didn't.

The tale of the tape bears this out. But first let's look at last year's (at the :50 mark) successful puntrunning madness.

As you can see, the team is lined up in the spread punt formation. Zoltan (being left-footed) is to roll to his left and either punt or tuck and run. The key to this play, which you will see later, is the way the team is lined up: The two gunners are covered up by two blockers to Zoltan's left.

The gunners release on their way down to attack the punt returner, bringing the defenders with them. Now, Zoltan essentially has a wall of three blockers in front of him. If the attacker closest to him plays contain, Zoltan is forced to punt the ball away. This is the same read that our quarterback has against the weakside DE in the zone read play that Michigan often runs. Except here, if the defender crashes down on Zoltan, he's supposed to pull the ball and run to the edge. If the defender keeps contain, Zoltan is supposed to punt the ball. (This, by the way, is likely a gross oversimplification, but is the way it works in my mind.) The defender decides to crash.

You can see the mistake the defender made by crashing, and Zoltan has nothing but green pastures ahead of him, with the closest unblocked defender 20+ yards away.

The "read" defender gets free and chases Zoltan but is already too far away. Zoltan has more than enough room to run and easily pick up the first down before being forced out of bounds. Zoltan was given this read and he made it correctly.

This was not the case against Michigan State (1:20 mark). More after the break.