Film Review: Iowa vs MSU (and applicability to MSU vs UM)

By -
AP Photo/Al Goldis


I got to rewatch the MSU-Iowa game in some detail. Here's my takeaways with some brevity (most of this comes from twitter with some edits, so sorry for it being poorly written.

MSU D

  • MSU DL did great job most of the game dealing with the Iowa stretch game. Did a great job getting helmet playside and limiting playside gaps 
  • A bit of Iowa's success on ground game off gap schemes where DL overcommitted to what they thought was stretch; not really replicable for UM 
  • Does mean something to UM tho: MSU is great at identifying/defending tendency. Need to strategically break tendency to get them out of pos (this is a common thing for all of Dantonio's good defenses, well schooled) 
  • LBs/Safeties still flow very hard. Pursuit mostly disciplined but you can catch them out of gaps and can catch open grass away from action 
  • And you can still play formation games to get matchups you want in secondary. Tight splits/TEs = knob adj = Safety on receiver; etc. 
  • I think Morrisey matched up well with TEs. Michigan is going to be much better served attacking with a WR as he's the weakness of the backfield. I think both safeties are relative weak spots in coverage and can be exploited. Morrisey more so, but I think other safeties also left some good openings; need to be smart on how WRs/TEs are deployed in formations
  • New aspect, MSU plays a lot of C1 especially on obvious pass down. QBs need to be smart about reading safeties before going into progression 
  • Can still get favorable matchups, throw away from help, but need to understand cov to get into progression. Need protection to give time. MSU DBs not quite a good in technique in C1; obviously not base, but allow receivers to get leverage at times when they aren't really getting the help they expect
  • I think UM OL will be already against MSU DL on standard downs for most part. Limited games when on pace. Once behind chains, lots of games 
  • MSU will likely break tendency a bit based on UM film. UM needs to be prepared to have hots in place to get receivers free in 2nd level 
  • UM needed to clean up communication issues on OL during bye week or &long will result in heavy, quick pressure, especially from edge


MSU O

  • W/ MSU on offense, OL lost leverage a lot. Was biggest problem for O all day. Lose leverage and quit moving feet. 
  • Mostly on interior but not limited to it. Iowa DTs able to get into body and control OL at LOS and that clogged up inside runs 
  • The interior looks strong enough, not consistently pushed back, but lost leverage and lose ability to drive. Need to drive w/ gap scheme 
  • Still don't like the hand placement of some MSU interior OL. They love to hug, not punch. Results in little first pop to get D off balance 
  • One player in particular I'm consistently surprised doesn't get more holding calls. Consistently outside frame of body, hugging not driving. Allen had a pretty rough day as well as he got deposited into the backfield a few times and made pulls difficult; Jarvis had some issues with how/where to pull too, which is expected for a FR
  • As far as Lewerke, need to get him to reset his feet. If feet are set and he's releasing w technique, he is very accurate. 
  • When you get into his feet or force him to reset, technique breaks down, accuracy gets v inconsistent, arm strength suffers a lot 
  • If you can get interior pressure and not let him escape immediately up field, it will be very tough for him 
  • Interior OL pretty stout at preventing great push. OTs give some ground but mirror well. Should be an interesting match up

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Football Fundamentals: Twins Passing Concepts

By -
Image
In this post we will look at some of the standard route concepts run from a twins alignment. Obviously, these can be paired with other routes (some I'll show including a RB), but this is to get the fundamental understanding of the routes. I'll try to explain the concept briefly, as well as provide names for what you'll hear the concept called elsewhere at times (these things get lots of names, some people use the same names but have different meanings too, so it can get confusing). If a number is visible near the end of a route, that is the nominal yardage the route will be run to. For more information on specific routes, we took a look at the  route tree earlier . In this article I will not discuss routes that utilize rub concepts close to the LOS (such as a switch concept). I will have a later article dedicated to rub routes from a Twins set. Many of these are similar to the TE-Flanker Concepts discussed earlier.
Read more

Football Fundamentals: The Tite Front Defense

By -
Image
The defense du jour against modern spread attacks is what is commonly known as the “Tite” front. Over the past couple years, you’ve seen Big 12 teams run it increasingly often, and SEC and other teams start to incorporate variants of the look more often as well as they begin to deal with an increasing number of spread formations. But what exactly is the “Tite” front? Like any front, say, a 4-3 Under, it isn’t necessarily any one thing. You can have single-high, two-high, or even three-high safeties. You can attach your overhangs differently. And with Tite, it may even mean different box numbers. And of course, there are multiple techniques that can be employed along the way. This post is a primer to the Tite front. At the end, I’ll link some of the better articles that get into greater depth for those interested, but for now, we need to understand the basics, so that we can understand how to attack it.
Read more

Football Fundamentals: 2x2 and Mirrored Passing Concepts

By -
Image
We are going to continue our look at various passing concepts, this time with 2x2 and mirrored passing concepts. In this post we are going to trim out the concepts that are designed to attack the middle of the field and put those into a separate post. 2x2 concepts allow an offense to attack a defense based on post-snap looks and coverages via a simple read of the safety. Completely mirrored concepts, when the same concept is run on the both sides of the formation (such as all-hitches), is something of which I'm not a huge fan, but there are advantages to it. You look at something like all-hitches, which overloads underneath zones, and you see a viable option in the short passing game against zone heavy teams; similarly, completely mirrored concepts can allow you to pick on certain defenders or to a certain side of the field based on defensive look. We'll also look at "base" concepts, which see the outside receivers run the same route, and a third receiver work the mid
Read more