Film Review: Michigan at Wisconsin, 2021

By -

I breakdown interesting plays - schematically, technically, and from an execution standpoint - from the 2021 Michigan at Wisconsin football game.


Michigan Positives:

  • The OL proved that they could maintain a run threat against one of the best run defenses and maintain their run-based offense (the run-pass ratio adjusted to more pass heavy, but Michigan didn't have to abandon who they are)
  • QB showed ability to hit deep touch throws, along with WRs adjusting to the ball in the air. Helps maintain vertical threat
  • Michigan had several schematic wins against a top flight DC
  • Michigan DL again stepped up, showing more consistency than they have all year, and getting great pass rush off the edge
  • Michigan diagnosed and attacked protection tendencies in their pressure package 

Michigan Negatives:

  • The pass game still struggles to show much from a quick/intermediate game. Struggled adjusting on underneath throws to many of the Wisconsin zone looks, and timing wasn't good enough to provide many catch and run opportunities. Wisconsin multiplicity resulted in some offensive confusion with respect to reads
  •  Coverage on the 7-12 yard out/flat remains a concern. Lots of MOD and soft coverage on the edge is too easy, even for the coverages called. Michigan playing mostly safe defense, but feels will need to mix up calls more to take that away.
  • Screens are coming, Michigan hasn't defended them well and Wisconsin left plenty of screen yards on the field
  • Short yardage and short red zone (inside the 5) remain a challenge

Wisconsin Strengths:
  • Mertz had nearly a handful of throws that reminded you of the prospect that was recruited. If he can make those vertical throws, it will open up a lot of the offense
  • I thought the playcalling was mostly solid. This is a limited offensive line, and I believe some of the calculus needs to change, but schematically had some very well timed/designed plays to take advantage of some things Michigan did defensively.
  • The front 7 for Wisconsin is probably the best I've seen so far (Iowa and PSU are close behind). Extremely disciplined, physical, shed blocks, leak very few yards. Can play base fits or be multiple to get key stops. Show offense a lot and make read games challenging as an offense. Safeties are great in run support.
Wisconsin Negatives:
  • The offensive struggles have forced it to be simplified. This has minimized run diversity and protection schemes, and made life a bit easier for defensive fronts to attack. I don't believe this is a team that can lean heavily on run game. Pass game still isn't where it needs to be to lean pass. But a balanced approach hitting the various levels of the defense is needed to find any sort of efficiency.
  • The OL does not dominate anymore. This is hinted at above, but even in the base schemes they allow defenders to get off blocks and don't consistently get dominating movement up front. 
  • I'm not sure this is really a negative, but I do think the defense is vulnerable on the outside on vertical routes. Wisconsin's CBs in general are very aggressive, and safeties aggressive in run support. It leaves CBs on islands quite often, and they tend to bite and then grab on double moves. Strong, well timed double moves can get over the top of this defense.

 


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: 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

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