HurricaneVision
Staff Writer
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- Nov 16, 2012
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Mark Richt is an excellent offensive coach, and the news of him wanting to get back to a tempo-based spread makes my heart happy. Like a lot of you though, I'm much more interested in his defense and how will it function here with Miami. I decided to take up a fellow poster when he posted a video of Georgia vs. Alabama from a few years ago and gain a little more insight into what we could be seeing here with Miami next year.
The first thing that jumps out in this clip is the fact that the defense does not allow the offense to dictate the outcome before the ball has even been snapped the way that D and Golden did here. The situation is on the screen, so I won't go too far into it, but here are the basics:
As you can see, Georgia does run a 3-4, but rather than having your S's defending the end-line, they are all up at the line to at least give yourself a chance. If you don't cover the C, it's a simple sneak into the end zone for a TD. If you don't free up your inside backer, it's a waltz into the end-zone through the A gap with a lead, or through the B gap off-tackle. Your choice.
Here is Miami in a somewhat similar situation (not exactly, but you can get the gist):
To the strongside of the field, the offense has the defense outflanked with four blockers, and at best three defenders, and honestly more likely two and a half. This is an easy five yards off tackle before the ball is even snapped, and if you make a guy miss, it's a walk-in TD (which is exactly what happened by the way).
Here is what happened with the play above for Georgia against Eddie Lacy, so a very good player:
Sure, there's a hold there, and if the LB doesn't explode and make this hit, it's still a TD- players have to play the game of course- but this putting your team in a position to have a chance. Of course, he did make that hit and here is the result:
Alabama recovers and here is the alignment for the next play pre-snap:
Press man with a S shaded up top to take away the fade, so a back shoulder throw is the call. But, here is what they were disguising:
The S actually moves over to the far side of the field at the snap and takes the slot man while the nickel corner comes off the edge on a blitz. The QB didn't even see it- which is what makes a good blitz. The corner actually knew he had no help but also knew a blitz was coming and anticipated the back-shoulder throw and intercepted the ball.
Alabama has the ball here and I see this alignment and I thought, this is the same defensive alignment Miami has run only the slot WR isn't being covered by a rush LB. Alabama has the advantage to the strong side right, and I thought they should go there with the run. It's three years ago, so I don't remember anything other than the end. Sure enough, they go right and pick up seven. That's what the 3-4 can do to you at times- it can leave you vulnerable to a numbers game. Of course, it also allows you to disguise blitzes and spread the field more.
They ran the same play against the same alignment on the next play and picked up the first down easily. I'm hoping there are adjustments with that in the second half. It's too easy when they have an extra blocker that you aren't accounting for.
I'd love to pick coach's brain here. Why are you allowing them to overload one side and not walking up a S? It's an easy four yards on most downs, and could be a TD on others. Well, you can even see there's only 10 defenders in the screen. There's a FS up top playing deep middle in case they play-action deep. What good is your FS being 15 yards off the LOS if he's just going to be late getting over in deep support anyway?
I feel like this is where coaches outsmart themselves and hope to avoid giving up big plays, only to give them easy plays and then give up a big play when an athlete makes a play anyway. Stop the run first, coaches. You can't be great defensively until you stop the run first and foremost.
This play is designed better than what Coley runs. There is an option to hand the sweep to the top side, or throw the bubble screen to the slot. This is where the bubble screen gets its name- it looks like a bubble off the LOS and is really just in how it is blocked (goes for 14):
What a terrible throw. This play was setup perfectly, where they had a formation that looked like it could be another screen or square-in, that they were killing Alabama with. This was such a game changing play. If Murray throws that ball outside and away from the FS it's an easy TD and Georgia probably wins the national title. I say again- you can coach these kids to be in the position to succeed, recruit elite talent, but if they go out and pull a Testaverde against Penn State, there's only so much you can do.
For reference, this is how you keep the edge to an unbalanced line in the 3-4. Alabama is aligned quite well on this play. See the difference in how they are not outflanked and the boundary corner is shaded to the LOS until/if a receiver comes into his zone?
It was playaction though and they went deep and had a huge play. The CB was right there, but just didn't look for ball. Something that pops to mind while watching this is Georgia likes to run power from RG towards LT and open up a cutback lane. Gurley was phenomenal at seeing the cutback and making a cut in the hole to pick up extra yardage. We need a back with the size to hit the hole and the quickness to make a cutback.
First sign of getting outcoached a bit here. Alabama changed to tempo and Georgia got confused. You can see the boundary corner and the nickel corner up top are both unsure what to do. Alabama didn't wait for them to figure it out and threw it quick to Amari Cooper who easily scampered for 20 yards. The corner looking away gets smashed on a block.
Of course Georgia blocked a FG and returned it for a TD on this drive, so maybe that was part of the master plan?
I've mentioned before one of the dangers in one-gapping out of a 3-4 is if you shoot the wrong gap where they want you to and trap your NT, the cutback is like the red sea if your LB doesn't scrape and fill quickly enough. That's what happens here as the NT shoots the gap, G traps him, C gets to LB, Yeldon hits the cutback and rips off a huge gain.
This is simply a reminder that the referees can have a huge impact on the game as well. They called this pass interference. You can see the ball is passed the WR already and the defender isn't even touching him. It's a gamechanger. Instead of 3rd and 8 from the 26, it's first and goal and a TD a few plays later.
I love what Alabama did alignment wise on this 3rd and 1. That LB came late and blitzed the A-gap out of a 5-2 front. They stopped Todd Gurley on this play and chalk this up as another play that could've changed the outcome.
Coaches can put you in a position to make plays and win games, but you've gotta do it. This is a 3rd and 5 and clock winding down. Georgia has their guy right there for a one yard run. Make the tackle son. Nope! First down and we know they score. His technique is terrible- you can tell he panicked- and it's easy to see why he didn't make this tackle.
This is a stack formation that Georgia loves to run apparently. They like to threaten all three levels of the defense and stretch both horizontally and vertically. You can run pretty much every route in your tree from this formation and it frees up your WR's from press if you need to get them off the line. This is a nice design and puts the defense in a bind. I bet Georgia ran this formation no less than ten times in this game.
This play gave them a chance to come back at the end. You can see the alignment changes from earlier in the game.
They had them. I get it. I really do. Alabama is reeling, the hurry-up spread is working so well and they didn't want them to substitute. I think you have to clock it or go to the end zone, but I think he's got this if it isn't tipped.
The WR should've dropped it after the blitzer tipped it, but he was trying to make a play. Clock runs out. They should've clocked the ball with the benefit of hindsight.
After going through this exercise I couldn't be more excited. Alabama was a juggernaut, and if anything this exercise has reminded me how good Nick Saban is as a coach. He really made adjustments to what Georgia was doing defensively and gashed them for a while. He opened up that deep shot perfectly and they got some calls. Despite all of that going right for Alabama (though the blocked FG TD was huge for Georgia), Georgia played toe-to-toe with them and would have destroyed Notre Dame for the national title. Richt wouldn't be here right now if they had, so maybe I should be happy for that.
Richt is a really good coach, and going through the game just reinforces that they didn't lose that game- Alabama won it. They came back in the 4th quarter- twice- only to come up that short of winning the game. Richt coached his behind off in this game, and I think we have reason to be optimistic for the first time in a long time.
The first thing that jumps out in this clip is the fact that the defense does not allow the offense to dictate the outcome before the ball has even been snapped the way that D and Golden did here. The situation is on the screen, so I won't go too far into it, but here are the basics:
As you can see, Georgia does run a 3-4, but rather than having your S's defending the end-line, they are all up at the line to at least give yourself a chance. If you don't cover the C, it's a simple sneak into the end zone for a TD. If you don't free up your inside backer, it's a waltz into the end-zone through the A gap with a lead, or through the B gap off-tackle. Your choice.
Here is Miami in a somewhat similar situation (not exactly, but you can get the gist):
To the strongside of the field, the offense has the defense outflanked with four blockers, and at best three defenders, and honestly more likely two and a half. This is an easy five yards off tackle before the ball is even snapped, and if you make a guy miss, it's a walk-in TD (which is exactly what happened by the way).
Here is what happened with the play above for Georgia against Eddie Lacy, so a very good player:
Sure, there's a hold there, and if the LB doesn't explode and make this hit, it's still a TD- players have to play the game of course- but this putting your team in a position to have a chance. Of course, he did make that hit and here is the result:
Alabama recovers and here is the alignment for the next play pre-snap:
Press man with a S shaded up top to take away the fade, so a back shoulder throw is the call. But, here is what they were disguising:
The S actually moves over to the far side of the field at the snap and takes the slot man while the nickel corner comes off the edge on a blitz. The QB didn't even see it- which is what makes a good blitz. The corner actually knew he had no help but also knew a blitz was coming and anticipated the back-shoulder throw and intercepted the ball.
Alabama has the ball here and I see this alignment and I thought, this is the same defensive alignment Miami has run only the slot WR isn't being covered by a rush LB. Alabama has the advantage to the strong side right, and I thought they should go there with the run. It's three years ago, so I don't remember anything other than the end. Sure enough, they go right and pick up seven. That's what the 3-4 can do to you at times- it can leave you vulnerable to a numbers game. Of course, it also allows you to disguise blitzes and spread the field more.
They ran the same play against the same alignment on the next play and picked up the first down easily. I'm hoping there are adjustments with that in the second half. It's too easy when they have an extra blocker that you aren't accounting for.
I'd love to pick coach's brain here. Why are you allowing them to overload one side and not walking up a S? It's an easy four yards on most downs, and could be a TD on others. Well, you can even see there's only 10 defenders in the screen. There's a FS up top playing deep middle in case they play-action deep. What good is your FS being 15 yards off the LOS if he's just going to be late getting over in deep support anyway?
I feel like this is where coaches outsmart themselves and hope to avoid giving up big plays, only to give them easy plays and then give up a big play when an athlete makes a play anyway. Stop the run first, coaches. You can't be great defensively until you stop the run first and foremost.
This play is designed better than what Coley runs. There is an option to hand the sweep to the top side, or throw the bubble screen to the slot. This is where the bubble screen gets its name- it looks like a bubble off the LOS and is really just in how it is blocked (goes for 14):
What a terrible throw. This play was setup perfectly, where they had a formation that looked like it could be another screen or square-in, that they were killing Alabama with. This was such a game changing play. If Murray throws that ball outside and away from the FS it's an easy TD and Georgia probably wins the national title. I say again- you can coach these kids to be in the position to succeed, recruit elite talent, but if they go out and pull a Testaverde against Penn State, there's only so much you can do.
For reference, this is how you keep the edge to an unbalanced line in the 3-4. Alabama is aligned quite well on this play. See the difference in how they are not outflanked and the boundary corner is shaded to the LOS until/if a receiver comes into his zone?
It was playaction though and they went deep and had a huge play. The CB was right there, but just didn't look for ball. Something that pops to mind while watching this is Georgia likes to run power from RG towards LT and open up a cutback lane. Gurley was phenomenal at seeing the cutback and making a cut in the hole to pick up extra yardage. We need a back with the size to hit the hole and the quickness to make a cutback.
First sign of getting outcoached a bit here. Alabama changed to tempo and Georgia got confused. You can see the boundary corner and the nickel corner up top are both unsure what to do. Alabama didn't wait for them to figure it out and threw it quick to Amari Cooper who easily scampered for 20 yards. The corner looking away gets smashed on a block.
Of course Georgia blocked a FG and returned it for a TD on this drive, so maybe that was part of the master plan?
I've mentioned before one of the dangers in one-gapping out of a 3-4 is if you shoot the wrong gap where they want you to and trap your NT, the cutback is like the red sea if your LB doesn't scrape and fill quickly enough. That's what happens here as the NT shoots the gap, G traps him, C gets to LB, Yeldon hits the cutback and rips off a huge gain.
This is simply a reminder that the referees can have a huge impact on the game as well. They called this pass interference. You can see the ball is passed the WR already and the defender isn't even touching him. It's a gamechanger. Instead of 3rd and 8 from the 26, it's first and goal and a TD a few plays later.
I love what Alabama did alignment wise on this 3rd and 1. That LB came late and blitzed the A-gap out of a 5-2 front. They stopped Todd Gurley on this play and chalk this up as another play that could've changed the outcome.
Coaches can put you in a position to make plays and win games, but you've gotta do it. This is a 3rd and 5 and clock winding down. Georgia has their guy right there for a one yard run. Make the tackle son. Nope! First down and we know they score. His technique is terrible- you can tell he panicked- and it's easy to see why he didn't make this tackle.
This is a stack formation that Georgia loves to run apparently. They like to threaten all three levels of the defense and stretch both horizontally and vertically. You can run pretty much every route in your tree from this formation and it frees up your WR's from press if you need to get them off the line. This is a nice design and puts the defense in a bind. I bet Georgia ran this formation no less than ten times in this game.
This play gave them a chance to come back at the end. You can see the alignment changes from earlier in the game.
They had them. I get it. I really do. Alabama is reeling, the hurry-up spread is working so well and they didn't want them to substitute. I think you have to clock it or go to the end zone, but I think he's got this if it isn't tipped.
The WR should've dropped it after the blitzer tipped it, but he was trying to make a play. Clock runs out. They should've clocked the ball with the benefit of hindsight.
After going through this exercise I couldn't be more excited. Alabama was a juggernaut, and if anything this exercise has reminded me how good Nick Saban is as a coach. He really made adjustments to what Georgia was doing defensively and gashed them for a while. He opened up that deep shot perfectly and they got some calls. Despite all of that going right for Alabama (though the blocked FG TD was huge for Georgia), Georgia played toe-to-toe with them and would have destroyed Notre Dame for the national title. Richt wouldn't be here right now if they had, so maybe I should be happy for that.
Richt is a really good coach, and going through the game just reinforces that they didn't lose that game- Alabama won it. They came back in the 4th quarter- twice- only to come up that short of winning the game. Richt coached his behind off in this game, and I think we have reason to be optimistic for the first time in a long time.
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