Breakdown Sports

PREVIEW  [I'm going to start putting this on top of posts that are simply previews and links to posts I've put elsewhere, just to make that clear from the jump] So it comes to this: one of the best defenses in the land against one of the top offenses in college football. Michigan State is well known for their cover 4 defense. This is a defense that allows the Spartans to match up on the edges and play with a quasi-9-man-box against any offense. Meanwhile, Meyer has brought his version of the spread offense to Columbus, and the Buckeyes are clicking on all cylinders. In my opinion, we know OSU's run game and what it pretty much consists of, and we understand MSU's run defense and how it plays. So the interesting matchup is what happens on the back end. It is these plays - set-up by the run threat - that can allow the Buckeye offense to get working up to their standard. We will look at some of the pass concepts within this offense that will force Michigan State's de...

One of the questions stemming from last Saturday's Ohio State victory over Wisconsin  – especially after the first half – was why wasn't OSU consistently getting pressure on Wisconsin's quarterback, Joel Stave. With a team so loaded in the front four with pure pass rushers, it was expected that they would force Stave's hand a bit. Indeed, they did, even when they didn't necessarily get pressure. We'll look at a few ways that Wisconsin attempted to mitigate pressure, and how, eventually, the Buckeyes still overcame it to hurry the opposing QB for much of the game. Max Protect After Wisconsin got over the initial terror of the first few drives, they went back to the drawing board in a way. Rather than attacking Ohio State horizontally, they started going more straight ahead. Combined with that, they were able to start incorporating some of their max protection package, where they only send two or three receivers out in routes. What this means is that OSU's...

Wisconsin has found a creative way to get both running backs – Melvin Gordon III and James White – on the field at the same time. Being two of the better RBs in the country, having only one of them on the field fails to maximize a lot of what the offense can bring to the table. Against Purdue, Wisconsin ran jet sweep motion with an inside zone look from the RB several times to threaten the outside and the interior with their two RBs. They also did a few other things. In this article we are going to look at what this play concept brings to the table, along with two important plays that Wisconsin has run off of it already, and one play you can expect them to run against OSU if they start getting behind the chains and the Buckeyes start pinning their ears back. Inside Zone I'm drawing up this in a ace double wing, but these plays were also run out of your standard ace formation and a balanced solo formation. We'll get to those later. But the inside zone and the end around can b...

This is all going to get quite confusing here. But in this piece and another future piece, I will preview Wisconsin for the blog Land-Grant Holy Land , an Ohio State Website. Yup, that's happening. Introduction Over the past, oh, I dunno, let's just leave it at over the past, Wisconsin has been known for their potent run game. While Alan Ameche, that old Iron Horse, isn't walking through to run his offense any time soon, the Badgers seem to be doing pretty well dating back to the Alverez era, er, the Alverez coaching era, er, that first time Alverez was coaching Wisconsin on the sideline and, well, this introduction is all over the place. And I have a great Alan Ameche story for those willing to hear, for those who like old timey stories that may or may not be true about really old Wisconsin Heisman Trophy winners. Bread and Butter I don't want to get too in depth about how these plays work, and instead spend time how they work off each other. In several places, I...

Originally I had thought Buffalo played this with Cover 6, which is essentially Cover 4 to the top of the screen (twins side) and Cover 2 on the bottom. But it's difficult to say. This could be Cover 3, it could Cover 0 with two drops underneath. Regardless, this is a play that was designed to attack both 2-high safeties and single high defenses, and at this point it seemed that Buffalo had begun running more 2-high looks to prevent the big plays. But a play shouldn't just work against a single kind of defense, and I'll try to explain why it worked so simply here as against this defense as well. What's interesting about this play is that it isn't originally a spread concept. I actually stems from many other offenses. In the West Coast Offense it's a scissor concept. You'll see it in run and shoot and other offenses as well. So both of these pass concepts are borrowed, but with the run threat provided by the spread, it becomes easier to read and predict the d...

Over at Land-Grant Holy Land, I've written a piece detailing how OSU's offense will attack single high coverage. Many teams feel forced to play single high defenses because of OSU's run game, if opposing defenses can't get pressure, the post-fly-drag concept floods a deep area of the field, making it nearly impossible to stop regardless of coverage. It also affords easier reads for Braxton Miller. This play will also be run by many other teams and relates to more than just Ohio State. So even if you aren't a Buckeyes fan, it is worth checking out. LINK