Breakdown Sports

This will be some rambling points about tonight's game. Had to pull this together quickly. OSU Offense vs Oregon Defense VS Helfrich

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT BUCKY'S 5 QUARTER ON 12/5/14 The Ohio State offense is very good, as is the Wisconsin defense. In many ways, this could be the talk of Saturday's Big Ten Championship Game, similar to how the OSU offense against the Michigan State defense was the talk heading into last year's title game. In my opinion, though, when two teams have very good opposing sides of the ball, they tend to cancel out in many ways, and where the game swings is on the other end. In this way, it is up to the Badger offense to step up and make the difference. In this post, we'll look at what the Ohio State defense brings to the table, areas in which it's struggled this year and how you can expect Wisconsin to attack.

Throughout the first quarter, the primary coverage for Wisconsin was a Cover 4. This, in theory, is a very good run defense, as it puts quasi-9 in the box. However, it also forces safeties to be aggressive downhill players and tackle while firing down. Against a RB like Abdullah, and the way Nebraska was running the ball, this isn’t necessarily an easy proposition for a DB. In this article, we’re going to look at how Nebraska started off attacking with read option with an arch block and attacking with the zone stretch scheme. Then, we’ll look at how Wisconsin adjusted, both their coverage and how they played their front, and eventually stopped the Cornhuskers potent run offense. Zone Stretch vs Cover 4 This may be Cover 3 or even Cover 1 (seeing the CB leverage makes me not believe it’s Cover 1) that Wisconsin is inverting late, but I believe this is a Cover 4 with the front side safety crashing down. Here we are immediately after the snap, where it is immediately clear ...

Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images Wisconsin O: 12 and 11 personnel; a little bit more 21 personnel in this game than usual Nebraska D: 4-3 Under mostly Wisconsin D: One-Gap 3-4, mostly Cover 1 with Cover 4 mixed in Nebraska O: 11 and 12 personnel

Nebraska Douglas Jones - USA Today Sports Offense Schemed to defeat Cover 4 Inverted Veer and the FB Adjustment Inside Vertical Switch Concept Power Football Links Veer and Belly Plays Defense Nebraska Cover 1 Adjustment to Heavy Offenses Cover 1 Cover 1 Adjustments Nebraska's Base Cover 4 Defense Cover 4 Safety Play Coaching Points Nebraska vs Northwestern Nebraska vs MSU Illinois vs Nebraska Miami vs Nebraska Wisconsin Offense Base Run Offense Two RB Offense (Jet Sweep) Power O Football Links Play Action from Heavy Personnel Adjusting Routes to Coverage Utilization of an H-back Utilizing H-back to pass Defense Wisconsin's One-Gap 3-4 Defense Wisconsin's 3-4 D vs 12 Personnel Wisconsin Blitz Package Wisconsin's Base Cover 1 Defense Cover 1 Adjustments Cover 4 Defense Coaching Points Wisconsin vs Rutgers Wisconsin D vs Northwestern and Illinois

In this post I just want to diagram every sack up to the Illinois game (post-Illinois will be covered in Part II). Unfortunately, I don't have Western Illinois film, so two sacks will be missing, so you'll have to live with 11 diagrams. I'm going to keep the descriptions of how these work mostly non-existent for the sake of brevity, outside of a brief primer. I embed video where I can and link to a clip where I can't.

In this post, I will go through the various position units and place the teams I believe are the top 5 in the conference. This will be based on the actual players that have played, so sorry Indiana, the QB position won't just be Sudfeld. I went back-and-forth on how I wanted to do this. For some position groups (RB/DL) there are more than five groups that deserve recognition. At other position units, there kind of seems to be less than five. Nevertheless, I plan on doing another one of these post-season, as well as look specific players as I break down All-B1G teams after the season. Note that this is purely an eye test and not based on stats, but instead on games that I've watched these guys play. Offense version here . Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images North America

In this post, I will go through the various position units and place the teams I believe are the top 5 in the conference. This will be based on the actual players that have played, so sorry Indiana, the QB position won't just be Sudfeld. I went back-and-forth on how I wanted to do this. For some position groups (RB/DL) there are more than five groups that deserve recognition. At other position units, there kind of seems to be less than five. Nevertheless, I plan on doing another one of these post-season, as well as look specific players as I break down All-B1G teams after the season. Note that this is purely an eye test and not based on stats, but instead on games that I've watched these guys play. Michael Hickey/Getty Images North Americ

Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images OSU O: Mostly 11 personnel; zone and man run schemes MSU D: 4-3 Over Cover 4 OSU D: 4-3 Over Cover 4 on normal downs and distance MSU O: Mostly 11 personnel; about 50-50 split of gun and under center

Normal day for PSU defense. Maryland had 17 real drives, 12 went four plays or fewer, three went more than 5 plays. Only three drives longer than 17 yards. 11 Punts, three fumbles A normal day for the PSU Offense. 16 real drives (really 17, because they tried to gain yards before getting sacked before halftime). 11 drives went five plays or fewer, six went more than five plays. Went longer than 50 yards once. 8 punts, three turnovers. Moderate success early, leading to consistent lack of success late. After first six drives, 7/8 went three plays or less, 9/11 went four plays or less. Maryland O: Mostly 11 personnel from Gun PSU D: 4-3 Over or Nickel Over; mix of coverage, lots of Cover 6 PSU O: Mostly gun, 12 personnel. Lots of man blocking schemes in 1st half, zone in 2nd Maryland D: 3-4 Under

Photo by Alex Goodlett/Getty Images Wisconsin O: 11, 12, 21 personnel. IZ base run, heavy sell PA for most pass yards. Rutgers D: One Gap 3-4 (mostly Under) Rutgers O: 11 personnel Wisconsin D: One Gap 3-4 (mostly Under), lots of Cover 1 Robber

Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images Indiana O: Shotgun, 11 and 10 personnel. Michigan D: Stayed almost always in 4-3 Over Base, Check Eagle vs Wildcat Michigan O: Mostly 11 or 12 personnel, mostly shotgun until later Indiana D: I think mostly 2-high zone schemes, not quite sure.

Northwestern threw a lot of cover 4 at Nebraska in an effort to get bodies down into the run game. One thing that Cover 4 allows is for the LBs to flow a bit more freely and quickly to the initial look, because the safety takes care of backside cutbacks . What we saw in the Nebraska vs Northwestern game was Northwestern initially having success bottling up Nebraska because of this. The safety crashing down from depth allows him to defend either the QB keep or the RB cutting back across the grain. Later on, however, we saw Nebraska adjust some of their play calls to take advantage of this scheme. In this post, we’ll look at just that.

Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images Northwestern D: 4-2 Nickel Over Cover 4 Nebraska O: 11 and 10 personnel. Nebraska D: Mostly Cover 4 and Cover 1, 4-2 Nickel Northwestern O: 11 and 10 personnel, mostly outside zone

Photo by David Banks/Getty Images Wisconsin D: 3-4 One gap or 2-4 Nickel; Mostly Cover 1 or Cover 4 Also, check out the PODCAST on the same topic.

Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images PSU O: Mostly 12 and 11 personnel. Split TEs out a lot. Zone based run scheme. Michigan D: 4-3 Over with some Under mixed in. UM O: Mostly 11 personnel. PSU D: 4-3 Over or Nickel with an Over Front

Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images Minn O: Mostly 12/21 personnel, zone run, PA pass attack. NU D: Losts of 4-3 Under NU O: 11 personnel mostly zone run scheme with some gap/man counters. Minn D: Mostly Cover 4 with some Cover 1 mixed in.

(Photo by Eric Francis/Getty Images Illinois Offense: Lots of 5 wide and 10 personnel. Some 11 personnel as well. Illinois Defense: Multiple coverage, quite a bit of man, mostly 4-2-5 nickel Nebraska Offense: Mostly 11 personnel, mixed more 12 personnel near GL. Nebraska Defense: 4-2-5 nickel and "Dollar" personnel (4 DL and 7 DBs). More Cover 4 than Cover 1.

Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images Michigan Offense: Mostly 12 personnel, mixed with 11 personnel. Mostly zone blocking scheme with Power O mixed in. Simple route concepts in pass game. Michigan Defense: Mix of Cover 1 and Cover 4 mostly Minnesota Offense: Mostly 12 and 22 personnel. Zone based team. More under center than normal. PA heavy in pass game. Minnesota Defense: Mix of Cover 1 and Cover 4 Author's note Other "Coaching Points" posts will be later this week and more detailed. I'm also sorry for Minnesota fans in advance that they won't get the focus they normally would. I came down with the flu Friday night, forgot to set my DVR, fought my way to the game despite me feeling like it was 40 degrees outside on a beautiful 80 degree day, and did not manage to get as much detail as I had hoped. What's below is some of what I was able to take away based on one live viewing during a game I was generally dehydrated and feeling like crap. My apologies....

Had my first radio appearance today over at 1620 The Zone for "Unsportsmanlike Contact" out of Lincoln, Nebraska. You can check it out here. LINK