The problem with assignment football

You may have remembered yesterday when I said,

Much like the first play, Purdue played a lot of man/assignment football that, if the coach is good enough and has enough of the playbook open, will eventually crush. Again, Michigan just isn't there yet in their development.

Well, I was right and wrong. I went back and looked at the different touchdown plays that Michigan ran on the day and saw something that was extremely encouraging, and a sign of what Rodriguez can bring to the table as a play caller.

(First though, on the Roundtree touchdown, Purdue called nearly the same corner blitz that they had against the triple option that caused the fumble. Only this time, they didn't get nearly as lucky with the offensive play call, and Roundtree ran free through the secondary before stiff arming a safety into oblivion. It's pretty obvious that Purdue came into the game with a high-risk/high-reward gameplan. Unfortunately, Michigan couldn't covert on enough of these plays to pull out the victory. That or the defense is so bad that regardless of how many times Michigan converted, the defense couldn't get a stand. But, like the beginning of the season, you saw the return of Michigan's long run game. You can expect to see this disappear again against Wisconsin and Ohio State who have superior talent and won't be playing roulette with their defense.)

Brandon Minor scored two long touchdowns on the day, both on nearly the exact same play call. One worked because of a great play by Minor and Purdue's willingness to allow Michigan backs get into space for six or seven yards. The second was in direct response to the way Purdue was playing and worked to perfection. Let's take a look at the first:

Michigan is in the 3-wide, 2-RB set that they played out of for most of the day. You may remember this same defensive and offensive looks form the triple option plays I talked about yesterday. Purdue here is in the 4-3 cover-2 formation they put on the field nearly every time Michigan pulled out this formation. Michael Shaw is to Forcier's left and Minor is to Forcier's right in the backfield.

On the snap, the offensive line blocks all of the down linemen. Shaw's responsibility is to the hit B-gap between the left guard and left tackle and block the closest linebacker. This will put Minor--if he hits the hole correctly--one-vs.-one with the safety, much like we saw in the triple option, because Purdue was playing strictly assignment football. As the safeties are playing man coverage on the separate RBs, the playside safety (bottom of the screen) is charged with hitting the hole Minor is in and bringing him down. Frankly, this is exactly how Rodriguez wants defenses to play against him: Get your playmakers in space against one defender and watch them go to work.

Shaw is running through the hole and about to engage with the playside linebacker. Minor gets a good block and gap to run through and is following Shaw. The playside WR (I believe that's Hemingway on the bottom of the screen) is charged with getting to his corner and sealing him to the outside.

Shaw is engaged with his linebacker, and Minor is breaking through the gap, and is one-vs.-one with a safety who he makes look a little silly.

Minor doesn't have the top end speed nor the shiftiness to just shake the safety. If he did, you can see that there's plenty of room to the sideline, and if Minor breaks to the edge with more speed, he probably gets there and doesn't need the acrobatics he shows here.

Laying prone on the ground is the safety that was just at eye level with Minor. He didn't truck him, but had enough moves and strength to get by him. From here, Minor actually cuts back across the field and dodges through the defenders who are scrambling to tackle Minor, but who never get there.

Long story short, assignment football is exactly what Rodriguez wants defenses to play. If Michigan's power back is able to dance around the one defender who's spying him and get to the endzone, putting Vincent Smith or Carlos Brown into similar space will be even more effective.

Even though this worked--and in large part because Purdue had been conceding that dive play the entire day; it turned into a touchdown or seven yards every time--Rodriguez saw how Purdue was playing and decided to change his blocking schemes to get an easier touchdown (after the jump).

The speed option: What went wrong again?

Here's the second and more harmful of the two triple/speed option plays. Let's take a look at the presnap alignment:

Presnap, Michigan is in a 3-wide, two-RB set. In the backfield with Tate is Brandon Minor (to his left) and Michael Shaw (to his right). Purdue is playing a 4-3 under that Robinson bases his defense out of. You can tell from the stand-up defender on the line of scrimmage, and, as you'll see, the linebacker over the slot man on the top of the screen shades toward the line of scrimmage as well. The offense is currently looking to the sideline to get the play call from Rodriguez. Purdue does a great job of disguising their play:

Tate has now gotten the call from the sideline and is getting into the snap count. The player to look at here is the playside (bottom of screen) cornerback who is now showing blitz. The linebacker that was lined up over the slot man has now shaded over to the line of scrimmage and is also showing blitz. This ability to hide their play before Tate got the call from the sideline will be key to the play.

Here's the snap. Moosman, as was his tendency all day, makes a bad snap that Tate has to work for. Michael Shaw is coming across the formation for the option dive. As mentioned, this is probably not a read yet, but Forcier is still in charge of reading the backside defensive end, who is crashing down on Shaw and coming in unblocked (as designed). This doesn't tell us any more about whether or not Forcier was given the option to hand the ball of to Shaw here because, as you can see, with the DE crashing down on Shaw, the correct read is to pull the ball. However, you can also see the playside cornerback who showed blitz is now also crashing down on the play. I assume that in the future, when this play is more of a factor in the playbook, Matthews (whose corner is crashing on a blitz) will be instructed to turn and look for a quick pass. This is not in the playbook yet.

Forcier is still reading the backside DE who is still crashing on Shaw. The playside cornerback is still coming on a blitz but is mostly in charge of keeping contain on the play. Another thing you can see here is that playside middle linebacker has been charged with spying Forcier. Much like the first play, Purdue played a lot of man/assignment football that, if the coach is good enough and has enough of the playbook open, will eventually crush. Again, Michigan just isn't there yet in their development.

Forcier has pulled the ball as he was supposed to do, but the backside DE has made a really good play and already started to turn and attack Forcier. This makes a numbers problem for Michigan. Rather than having 2-vs.-2, which Rodriguez will take any time, Michigan is now going up against 3 defenders with only two players--the DE, corner, and linebacker against Forcier and Minor. Matthews has released past his cornerback and is looking to block on the second level. Matthews may have missed a read here; there's a chance that the play is designed so that if the cornerback blitzes, he's supposed to stay with him and block. This is all speculation and unlikely.

Forcier is now being hounded by the backside DE who made a good read on Forcier. Tate is starting to pitch the ball here and the cornerback who blitzed sees it and starts to make a break on the ball. I think this is probably the right play for Forcier. It just ends poorly, probably because of a bad pitch by Forcier. I think he leads Minor just a little too much on the pitch, which allows the corner to get a hand on it:

The Purdue cornerback makes a really nice play here and reaches out to swat the ball down. This is the epitome of high-risk/high-reward for Purdue. We know how this play ended, but if the cornerback misses that ball, or Forcier makes a better pitch, this play probably goes to the endzone. If you remember, Purdue was playing a 4-3 under with two deep safeties. They blitzed their cornerback allowing Matthews to release to the secondary uncovered and looking to block someone (one of the two deep safeties). So if the cornerback misses the swat here, the linebacker isn't fast enough to catch up to Minor, who's about 7 yards away and will likely get the edge of the field.

This corner blitz was a really good call by Purdue, but Michigan's alignment on the first triple option play didn't give it away. This is just kind of bad luck and probably a bad play on Forcier's behalf. Bummer.

The speed option: What went wrong?

So Michigan broke out a few new looks against Purdue: Denard saw one snap at RB and, more memorably, Michigan finally debuted the triple/speed option that has become synonymous with the spread option game. Unfortunately, it's memorable for the massive flub that gave Purdue the ball back on the 20 yard line after a Tate fumble. At first, I thought, "So this is why we haven't used this before." But after rewatching the game, it turned out to be a few really smart play calls by Purdue and the perfect storm of problems--from play calling to great defensive plays--that caused the Michigan fumble. Let's take a look at the first time Michigan tried this play. Alignment:

Michigan is in a 3-wide set with two RBs in the backfield. Purdue is playing  in a traditional 4-3 with two deep safeties. However, everyone on the field for Purdue is actually playing man-to-man coverage, with the two deep safeties charged with spying one of the two RBs in the backfield.

On the snap, the offensive line blocks left, leaving the weakside defensive end unblocked. This is where the problems start for Michigan. The weakside defensive end decides to keep contain on Forcier. Brian at MGoBlog mention that the hand off for the dive play--in this instance, the original handoff that, if it was available, Tate should have made to Michael Shaw because the DE is playing contain--is probably not an option for Forcier yet. In any case, Purdue is conceding the dive play because the backside corner (bottom left of the screen) actually has man coverage on the dive play.

Forcier pulls the ball even though the weakside defensive end is keeping contain. In any other instance, Forcier should have handed the ball off. He probably doesn't have this option yet. What's most interesting is the playside safety (top of the screen) is starting to crash down on Minor, who is his man-to-man assignment.

It's a little hard to see here, but if Forcier had handed the ball of for the dive play (or been allowed to), Michael Shaw has a seam that would net five yards or so and put him one-on-one against the safety. Instead, Tate is forced to pitch the ball to Minor on the option because the playside DE is keeping contain. The safety on the top of the screen can see this happening and is now starting to go directly at Minor, who he will eventually hit four yards in the backfield.

Minor is in the act of catching the ball and is 7 yards behind the line of scrimmage. The safety spying Minor is 4 yards from the line of scrimmage. The math doesn't work out for Michigan and this happens:

As you can see, If Forcier had kept the ball, he would've been in trouble, and yet Minor is surrounded by three players and about to be brought down in the backfield. This is because Purdue's DE kept contain and Forcier still pulled the ball. This is what happens when someone misses a read--or isn't given that read, whatever the case may be.

I have no idea how Purdue planned for this play, but they were undeniably ready for it, even though Michigan hadn't run it all year. It is my guess, however, that this kind of assignment football is how Roundtree got open on his TD pass and Minor broke so many big runs. I'll have to go back and see, but if Shaw gets the handoff here and breaks one tackle against the safety spying him, he's got nothing but the endzone in front of him. I'll let you know what I find later in the week, but this is purely assignment football and what every coach talks about when they play the spread. If Forcier wasn't a true freshmen, Rodriguez would likely have a devastating counter to this play. Michigan isn't there yet.

In a while, I'll post what happened the second time Michigan tried this play--the one that ended with a crushing fumble to the Michigan 20 yard line. Long story short, Purdue got pretty lucky with their play call and their cornerback made a phenomenal play. What's both encouraging and bothersome is that Michigan wasn't giving the play away with the presnap alignment, as they ran it a number of times throughout the game; I specifically checked for this. This means that Rodriguez's play calling has become stagnant enough that teams are getting the upper hand--for example, it looks like on most 2nd and long plays, Purdue blitzed a linebacker or corner in order to stop a Tate roll out.

Monday morning presser (2)

Tate Forcier

- Feels pretty healthy. Took a few shots but feels fine and will see how practice goes. Will wear a sleeve on knee. Just twisted his knee. Shoulder has been good. Haven’t taken bad hits on the shoulder. Was a little bit protective of his shoulder but at this point of the season, need to play hurt.
- Close losses just show how close the team is. A few plays away from having three more wins.
- Team comes out fired up in the first half and a little slower in the second half. As team leader, needs to fire up the team more.
- “We’re going to be fine. Just need to get these seniors to a bowl game.”
- Every game is a tough game. Wisconsin and OSU are going to be tough but just need to come out hungry.
- Knows a lot of the seniors because many of them come from Jason Forcier’s class. Can’t send the seniors out empty handed.
- Thinks defense plays very well. Biggest problem is big plays. Throughout the season, Tate has noticed that offense puts defense in difficult position.
- Waiting to see Roundtree on the field. Now that Odoms is out, Roundtree went out and played well.
- Expected to be banged up; coming in as a freshman against the Big Ten, he was going to get beat up.
- Injuries to the offense don’t make it more difficult on Tate because everyone gets reps during the week.
- On turnovers: Little mistakes that you can prevent. Making freshman mistakes he doesn’t want to make. Have to put turnovers behind you.
- Never let success of the first few games get to his head. Team came out strong but the last few weeks, haven’t been playing their best.
- Do you feel like you’re playing like a freshman? Since Illinois the game has slowed down for Tate. As a team, everyone is making their share of mistakes and he’s made freshmen ones. It’s his job not to make those.
- Tried to back off from doing everything himself. Been trying to get the athletes the ball instead of doing it all yourself. When things aren’t going well, you want to be the answer.

Monday morning presser

Rich Rodriguez:

- Injuries: Brandon Minor has a shoulder bruise and still has ankle problem. Hemingway has back issues that limited him in the game Saturday. Odoms is day-to-day and not progressing as they’d hope. Dorrestein’s back should be better. Minor’s ankle is a nagging thing and won’t know more about his ability until tomorrow.
- Carlos Brown playing time was because of tendinitis in his knee and Minor running well.
- Offense played well in the second half but Purdue did things differently on defense in second half. A lot of execution problems.
- Omameh played hard and well for his first start.
- Offensively, team felt comfortable. A few reads would’ve been better. Tate knows when he makes a mistake immediately.
- Big plays on Saturday were mental lapses. Zone coverage when the defender takes his eyes off his man. Can’t have those misses and expect to stop anyone.
- No theme in the last three second halves. Team just needs to play better.
- Is second half conditioning? No, “Do we look out of shape?”
- Onside kick went 10 yards. Warn players about leaving early. Player didn’t leave early but didn’t react to the ball. A phenomenal kick and they made a play on the ball.
- Was Carlos out of bounds on the pitch play? Rodriguez can’t see out on the tape. “Nothing you can do about it. Time to move on.”
- Don’t know what LBs will start against Wisconsin. Depends on how they play during the week.
- Hard to bring down John Clay. The O-line and tight ends are huge. Clay is the biggest and one of the best backs they’d see this year.
- On 4th and 10: Wouldn’t do it differently. Maybe call a different play, but the defense hadn’t done a good job stopping them.
- Linebackers have been OK. Moments of disappointment. You can play a good game but make one big mistake and it change the whole perspective on the game.
- Wisconsin is a loud place and a good atmosphere. Not worried about playing on the road.
- Team has to just play better and eliminate big mistake, whether it’s on offense, defense, or special teams. Eliminate the big, big mistakes and they’re right there.
- On Robinson: Really likes the chemistry of the staff but the production has not been as good as he hoped. But there are a lot of things that go into that. A lot of smart coaches on defense, and there’s not just one reason for success on either side of the ball.
- Don’t have a reset button. Just have to learn from losses and move on.
- There will be happier times ahead, hopefully sooner rather than later. It’s just a bigger challenge than a lot of people think.
- Brandon Smith has moved around a little bit. He’s at safety right now but eventually will be a linebacker. He’s bought into that but he’s shown a few good things on special teams. Trying to find his role.
- Need to have another two and three years of recruiting classes that fit the team’s needs and the players pan out as they’d hope. There’s always mistakes made, but you want to minimize those mistakes.
- Feel good about last year’s recruiting class as the type of guys they want to go forward with.
- OK to talk about the potential to go to a bowl, but not too much. Would rather look at the first play of the game than the last.
- Denard was kept out of the game because Tate was in rhythm during the game. Coaches wanted to get Denard in more and had a great week in practice.
- Tate has progressed and regressed since ND. Had more positive moments than negative moments. Still a work in progress and has to learn a lot.
- May practice with more crowd noise this week because of Camp Randall’s environment.
- Any encouragement come from last year’s comeback? They’ll be watching cut up film from last year but won’t harp on it.
- Greg Robinson’s system and terminology is a little different from last year, but there are a lot of new players playing right now. New players are as much an explanation as the new scheme for defensive struggles.