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Posted by ChrisApplewhite on December 7th, 2009 under Football
Because lord knows we could use the help. Newer defenses give Greg Davis trouble they way TIVO gives old people trouble. If you’d like a refresher, I have covered pattern matching before.
(Note just if anyone cares, I upgraded to Snow Leopard and brutally wiped my bloated hard drive, taking moving dot software with it. I winged it today, as I haven’t replaced it yet. If you feel unsatisfied, you are entitled to a subscription refund. Please send all complaints and queries, in triplicate, to sailorripley AT barkingcarnival.com)
1. Mix up the release
Pattern matching is utterly dependent on defenders responsible for shaded leverage keeping that leverage. For instance, it is up to the inside defender to stay inside of any receiver that breaks inside, or else the entire structure of the coverage is broken.
You can line up a fast receiver on the inside and hope you get a good speed matchup (see: Tannehill v. Acho), but no matter how quick you are, the defender will have a step or two inside. When you have a bear like Suh coming at you, you may not want to wait that long for a crossing route to come open.
If you’ve seen our LBs at all then you can understand the theory behind this move. The inside defender will almost always turn his hips inside and focus on the inside receiver. If the outside receiver can hang a bit on his release and then sprint underneath the slot, the defender, in this case a LB, may not see him in time to turn his hips and run with the route. What you end up with is an athletic mismatch with the faster guy already in a dead sprint.
Schemes will vary on what they do with the middle LBs. NU kept theirs close to the line, presumably to contain Colt and any RB patterns. If they go that way, you can slip that route behind them for a good shot at a first down. If they sink the LBs deep into that hold in the middle, you can try and get it under them for a catch and run:
2. Cross routes
Along the same lines as above, crossing routes can make it difficult stay with your responsibility. Not only do you have to react to a change in a short time, but you may also have to change direction entirely while the receiver is already gaining speed. Unlike man, where the defender is “locked on” to a receiver, the inside/outside dynamic of matchup zone will often dictate that the defender cover a directional release rather than a firm coverage responsibility. Get him moving one way then make him adjust to a sprinter going the opposite way.
But the crosses have other uses as well. For one, you can “split” underneath coverage in a way you can’t against traditional zone:
Against zone, those players won’t chase those short routes, they let them go for the most part and keep the focus on the deeper stuff. Matchup zones often end up resembling man coverage after the first couple seconds, so moving defenders around is a bit easier.
The cross, if done deliberately, can also use their leverage to your advantage, if later in the game you go against the grain and use one crosses as a horizontal clearing route of sorts:
One consequence of these new coverages is that traditional vertical thinking has been replaced. The same concepts work, but now you have to practice them sideways, since the guy you have to clear out is now next to you, rather than above you.
3. Break late
Again this falls from the previous concept. It’s possible to make the defense commit itself and then break based on where they end up. The trade off is that your QB has to hold the ball for a bit longer, the upside is that big plays can present themselves because you can often dictate the matchup in a wide open space. Have a WR run into the LB’s “sandbox” and linger like he’s running one of our wonderful lazy hooking routes, then have him takeoff outside after all the other coverage is committed:
If you are in long yardage or don’t feel comfortable protecting, you still have options. Since the cutoff for the “cover him/let him go” rules for underneath coverage is around 12 yards, have you receivers break later, around 14-16:
The safeties are used to staying high on seams and posts, but this route is actually designed the same way a 5 yard out would be, it’s just happening way downfield against a coverage guy who, theoretically, is less adept at single coverage. You could even make that outside route a skinny post to take advantage of the outside leverage the corner plays with, if he does. This is a simple two man route, leaving everybody else in to protect, if need be.
This mechanism is also responsible for our first successful shovel passes in years. It takes numbers and focus to cover receivers, and much of the time they’ll completely ignore the pocket once they read pass, much like a man defense. Ndamukong Suh makes this a tricky proposition, but it is worlds better than simply running it at him.
4. Spread them out even further
There are alignment rules, generally. You can’t expect to follow your assignment if you are ten yards away from him:
It’s a big of a gimmick but can be good situationally. Our biggest problem against teams like this is that we don’t find single coverage and then go at them, and this is probably the easiest way to identify who is doing what pre-snap. If both safeties and slot coverage guys walk out, you know what’s going to happen and you know you’ve got numbers inside. If they don’t, you can go from there based on whatever else they do on film, but you know that in order to get 6 in the box they have to give up something:
Defenses like that rely on ganging up on your play. You cannot let them under any circumstance. Our biggest problem is that we let them under almost every circumstance. If you run a spread offense and don’t force the defense to compromise, then you are an abject failure. I direct this comment at nobody in particular.
The General said:
December 7th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
If you think that Sailor Ripley will answer your e-mails without mostly nude and well oiled pictures of Robert Pattinson included with the complaints, then you are sadly mistaken.
Scipio Tex said:
December 7th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Your dots do not move and this angers me.
I’m a simpleton in that I like to count defenders in the box and assess personnel groupings. If numbers are shy, run ball. If personnel backing the DL are two DBs, run ball.
If numbers even, do Chris Applewhite post.
If numbers heavy, throw screens, fades, three step timing routes to large 6-3 man who runs 4.4 in single coverage.
The General said:
December 7th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
You are not a coach.
poutytitties said:
December 7th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Perhaps some credit should be given to the Nebraska coaches and players as well.
And there should be a big, capital “T” wrapped around the QB dot indicating Mr. Suh’s presense.
uthookem said:
December 7th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
And you do not know what happens in practice.
RolloTamasi said:
December 7th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Obviously good coaches who teach pattern-reading zone can lock up our offense with any amount of prep time. Pellini gets some credit but not as much as Suh for simply blowing us up. We tried to run away from Suh and double Crick but Suh has lateral movement like a crab and blew that up. I don’t know what else we could have done against Suh other than not sucking in the interior OL.
Obviously mixing up our routes like CA details would have been better and created more opportunities but we still would be looking at a pedestrian offensive effort because there is no schematic answer for Suh with Chris Hall, hobbled Huey, Tanner and Snow.
P said:
December 7th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
It doesn’t matter what you do schematically, it all comes back to protection protection protection.
Nebraska knows they can play defense in a 10-15 yard box, because we can’t protect for anything longer than that. One of the reasons James T. Kirk was wide the hell open. This is what everyone tries to do, unfortunately, only a few times are gifted enough up front to pull it off.
1) Sit on all the route combos you can pull off in 3.2 seconds.
2) Maintain leverage on the slot receivers, effectively not allowing them into the middle of your defense. You squeeze them into small windows, so you are literally defending 12 yards deep, and from the tackles to the sideline. If you can do that, then you are gonna whip our asses every time!
3) Keep your safeties no deeper than 12 yards. You don’t have to worry about getting beat, because Suh will have his hands on Colt shortly.
Nebraska is able to pull this off, because they can whip you up front with 3 to 4 rushers, contain any run threats, and allow their back 7 to simply worry about coverage schemes.
RolloTamasi said:
December 7th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
I have a question, why does Chris Hall play Center and not tackle? He moves his feet well, and all his blocking skills seem to indicate tackle.
-he blocks fairly well in space on screens
-he is much better at misdirecting momentum than stopping a bull in the quarterback’s face
-in generall he is better at sealing off defenders or letting them carry themselves out of the play than drive blocking or standing up defenders.
-he has quick feet
What about this says that he should be handling tackles instead of taking on smaller players who won’t overpower him on the edge?
ransomstoddard said:
December 7th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
We sucked because our coaching staff is incompetent, with the exception of Boom. End of story
NY Horn said:
December 7th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
I thought we’ve moved Hall around a lot, but the only other person to play center has been Snow, and he was even worse than Hall.
I recommend the Mad Dog diet for the entire bunch, get them all to put on 30 pounds in the next month. Who knows?
The General said:
December 7th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Good call. Our misdirection will be extreme lethargy as opposed to mild snooziness.
java said:
December 7th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Let me know how you like Snow Leopard. I have the Tiger O/S. I am told that SLeopard is much faster.
Fried Rice said:
December 7th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
If personnel backing the DL are two DBs, run ball.
Scip, how are you going to do this? Nebraska had six in the box the whole game, 4 DL with 2 DBs. We get no push from the front, our OL can’t create any gaps, Nebraska constantly penetrating the LOS.
King Lear said:
December 8th, 2009 at 1:19 am
Oh, for a TE. My kindgom for a TE!
DougNTexas said:
December 8th, 2009 at 1:32 am
Hell at times Our O-Line looked like matadors holding a red cape. Our receivers are so used to going out 5 yards and turning around for the catch. Only problem was Suh got to Colt before the receivers got five yards. We ran some great five yard lookins when we needed 6. We run the tunnel screen on the very first play.for a five yard loss. Was anyone in the stadium surprised on that play call from Greg Davis? We were flat totally and completely unprepared for Nebraska. If I had been Colt I would have belted Greg Davis after that abortion of a gameplan. Colt looked like he was shell shocked in the last two minutes.
Huckleberry said:
December 8th, 2009 at 6:32 am
Our OL was overmatched, no doubt.
But their DBs were just as overmatched in one-on-one situations, particularly by Malcolm Williams. Why is it that their ridiculous advantage is unable to be overcome by our staff but our ridiculous advantage was able to be overcome by theirs? Any ideas?
WB_Heaven said:
December 8th, 2009 at 7:42 am
“It doesn’t matter what you do schematically, it all comes back to protection protection protection.”
Well, there are things you can do as an offensive coordinator to alleviate for a bad offensive line. It is challenging, requires you to think creatively and take chances. It’s a trial and error process that has the potential to look real ugly, but it involves motivating your players and squeezing in new things on top of the old things your team must internalize and apply at gamespeed in the weekly allotted practice time.
At one point this season post-RRS, the Oklahoma offensive line consisted of an all big-12 LT, a TE at LG, a freshman at C, Stephen Good/Tarvaris Jeffries at RG and about 3 people at RT. Then, 4 starters got injured. OU moved a different 260-pound tight end to RT, their RT to LT and started a walk-on at center against a #12 ranked Oklahoma State team looking to get a BCS berth.
They also played with a freshman quarterback who struggled all season to get rapport with his receivers. What did they do? More quick screens to the slot, running out of the pistol to get a more downfield attack, bring more guys in the pocket to protect the QB and selectively choose when to go hurry-up.
OU ranked 24th nationally in sacks allowed and 33rd in TFL allowed. You would think those numbers would be dramatically lower. I’m not saying it was pretty, but given the turnover from last season and the injuries this season, OU has shown that you can (at least) make a shitty salad out of shit and salad. Er…yeah.
spider said:
December 8th, 2009 at 8:24 am
Scipio is talking like Rorschach again. Must be the beans.
EZE said:
December 8th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
How did The Pirate with pretty much all 1* players or below score 31 points in Lincoln on this Nebraska defense??? Maybe an IQ of 2X Mack Davis?
vegashorn said:
December 8th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
exactly what i was thinking and how did the control suh. nebraska’s d played great but i think our offensive plan made them like the ravens d( not this year) plzzzz explain
ChrisApplewhite said:
December 8th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Tech had like 40 more yards against NU than we did. They scored 31 because they got 4 turnovers, at least one of which was returned directly for a TD. Their offense didn’t fare much better.
vegashorn said:
December 8th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
ok
P said:
December 8th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
WB_Heaven-
And did you watch OU’s offensive line vs Nebraska? 5 interceptions, two fumbles, and three points.
I am fully convinced that Nebraska has the best defense in the big12. Considering they have to shoulder that offense every game, I expect them to allow a few more yards then other great defenses. Can you imagine how good they would be defensively, if the offense was top 20?
Brophy said:
December 9th, 2009 at 10:35 am
nice article – but I don’t really think any of what you suggested would create a different result. If it were just pattern-matching concepts that limited Texas, the ’solutions’ presented here wouldn’t help.
Pattern matching is just a principle, and nothing really is going to ‘break’ it because it simply adapts to the route distribution. It is relating to ALL receiving threats after their stem (not individually as you have illustrated).
ChrisApplewhite said:
December 9th, 2009 at 10:58 am
Theoretically, yes. But this article assumes a week (or now, month) or preparation into our normal offense. Additional breaks, or a change in route distribution should give our guys the step they need for Colt. You’re taking the defense’s preparation and working it against them, or, at times, simply getting one on one matchups in dangerous places.
Against NU, we had nobody open, ever, unless it was a WR on CB single coverage, because we run exactly the patterns that defenses have come to expect. They all know what we do. If I could sum this post up in one sentence, it would be: break our tendencies. That’s just good advice for anybody.
Also, if you are Brophy from the Cripes! blog, I thoroughly enjoy your stuff.
dedfischer said:
December 9th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Chris, while our offense didn’t generate a ton of yards, they were effective at moving the ball and putting points on the board. 24 is a lot against that defense, and we possibly could have pressed for more in the 2nd half had we not gone into safe/lockdown mode for the 3rd quarter. We blocked those dudes good enough to win in a breather.
brophy said:
December 9th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Theoretically is one thing – but the application and reality of pattern-matching rules is another. The alignment rules you’re hoping to break are entirely based on the coverage you’re playing. It isn’t one-size-fits-all.
1. release – as noted above in the previous comments. The release doens’t much matter. It is where they end up after their break/stick in pattern-matching.
2. this principle also holds true with crossers. You’re not going to win or sustain a drive by throwing 10 shallows in a row.
3. break late? Now you’re changing the timing of the throw, how does the QB drop adjust? Defending a 3-step is different from 5-step, and pattern-matchers adjust as well (since the rules you’re playing are based the stick of the route, anyway). You’ve extended the launch time = more time for King Kong Suh to take Colt McCoy to the top of the Empire State Building.
4. Pelini is primarily a zone guy on defense. Your illustration for displacement really won’t happen. Those guys aren’t going to displace on alignment – they don’t have to.
To be honest, and this sucks from a ‘fan-perspective’, but Nebraska didn’t (almost) win on schemes. They were competitive because the defense was fundamentally flawless in technique.
good luck against Bama (but I really don’t mean that)
ChrisApplewhite said:
December 9th, 2009 at 11:34 am
“1. release – as noted above in the previous comments. The release doens’t much matter. It is where they end up after their break/stick in pattern-matching.”
That’s not really true, because of the timing of the throws. It’s so fast that all you need to generate is a split second of leverage. Getting hte DB to stop his feet because you’re running right at him before your break is all you need. Colt is the kind of QB who can take advantage of that.
“2. this principle also holds true with crossers. You’re not going to win or sustain a drive by throwing 10 shallows in a row.”
We can and have. Our defense is good enough to survive on the points we generate throwing short.
“3. break late? Now you’re changing the timing of the throw, how does the QB drop adjust? Defending a 3-step is different from 5-step, and pattern-matchers adjust as well (since the rules you’re playing are based the stick of the route, anyway). You’ve extended the launch time = more time for King Kong Suh to take Colt McCoy to the top of the Empire State Building.”
Suh backs off on three step drops if he’s stoned at the beginning of his rush. He spends almost as much time in shallow coverage as he does rushing. Hit him aggressively and you can get your time. Colt is also a good scrambler. Not good enoug hto get yards, but good enough to buy half a second. Most of our yardage comes after the play is run anyway because of him.
“4. Pelini is primarily a zone guy on defense. Your illustration for displacement really won’t happen. Those guys aren’t going to displace on alignment – they don’t have to.”
Zone/man doesn’t matter. What was happening, over and over again, was their coverage guy was clamping down on our routes and we never took advantage. They were being aggressive and we were calling plays like they were dropping back into a soft zone.
“To be honest, and this sucks from a ‘fan-perspective’, but Nebraska didn’t (almost) win on schemes. They were competitive because the defense was fundamentally flawless in technique.”
It was both. They were nearly perfect. We played them completely wrong. They didn’t do anything exotic, but we have failed completely to move to the next level of design on offense.
ChrisApplewhite said:
December 9th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Additionally, allow me to propose that NU was nearly perfect because we made it so easy.
brophy said:
December 9th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
not for nothing, but they were trying to CUT Suh on 3 step….but couldn’t! That is how much of a stud Suh was.
All I’m saying is suggesting that Texas got ‘outmatched’ simply because of play-call or scheme is rather short-sighted and disingenuous at most.
ChrisApplewhite said:
December 9th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Agreed, which is why I never made that claim.