Film Study: Play Calling or Execution

Written by ecdawg | 08 February 2012

The outstanding Michigan State blog A Beautiful Day For Football has an interesting film study of the Outback Bowl in its latest post. 

MSU's defense had 16 tackles for loss - 16! The question I have about the game is how Georgia managed to keep the game close while giving up 16 negative plays. Check out the two plays that follow. 

Are the play calls faulty? The execution? The training? The talent?

Put your questions or comments for the author (Jim) in comments. He will drop by sometime today (maybe around noon) to talk about the game and answer our questions from a MSU perspective. Remember, he is an invited guest who has graciously allowed me to use his material but is taking his time to discuss football with us.

I can show you this play which occurred in the middle of the second quarter which helps explain the simply gaudy TFL number from a passing perspective.

Here MSU lines up with in a 3-3-5. Denicos Allen and Chris Norman are right up on the line of scrimmage. It appears that MSU will rush five.  Right on the yellow line in the back are Bullough and Isaiah Lewis. Lewis is up short covering the slot receiver for a quick throw.

Norman takes a step back and Bullough a couple steps forward. Now Norman is no longer the imminent blitzer but it could be Bullough or Norman. From a pre-snap read perspective it's no longer obvious.

Norman backs out of the blitz and now Bullough appears to be the blitzer.

Except now Bullough takes a couple steps back and now all MSU has managed to do is really create confusion about who's coming and when. Which is a good thing for MSU fans and sad panda if you're an UGA fan.This is a zone blitz, check out Heck's excellent post on how Zone Blitzes work over at the Only Colors.

The play snaps and MSU only sends four. Rush, Drone and Gholston as the down linemen and Denicos Allen as the helping blitzer.

 

Johnny Adams plays tight on his guy. Bullough starts running to cover the flat. Although being well behind the LOS the slot receiver seems like Murray's best read for picking up the first.

 

But here's where the play goes kasplodey for Georgia. The red arrow points to Denzel Drone, who played DT only in our 3rd and long package this year. He's double teamed by the Center and Left Guard, which whenever a 260 lbs dude is taking on two 320 pounders that's bad. This leaves Gholston one-on-one with the Right Guard and Allen to take on the tackle.

 

"HAI GUYZ, I'M OPEN RIGHT NOW!" William Gholston is turning the corner on Mr. Right Guard.

Lewis hands his guy off to the deep coverage and comes up to cover the flat and now it's just a matter of time. Gholston comes around and sacks Murray for a loss of six.

So really, three things happened on this play that directly attribute to it's success. 1.) Narduzzi does a great job dialing up pre-snap confusion in the Zone Blitz.The appearance is that the blitz will come from the offensive left, then the middle, then it actually comes from the right. 2.) The UGA blocking is less than ideal, a 262 lbs DT should not occupy 2 320 lb guys so effectively. This leaves Gholston in 1:1 coverage against the right guard. 3.) Murray misses what was probably his second checkdown after the RB when that WR would have had a chance to make the move. MSU fans, this is the Cousins throw you all hate. If Murray makes that throw good chance UGA moves the sticks even still. 

Again, this time on a run play

Georgia lines up in a Shotgun /Offset I type formation. MSU is its typical 4-3. There are six people on the Georgia offensive line, this is important!

The ball is snapped the entire line rolls left while the H-Back stays home to seal off Rush from the backside. Which creates a six on three situation with the defensive linemen.

 

Number 68, Georgia's Right Guard takes Anthony Rashad White on in a single blocking situation, the Right tackle makes a beeline for the linebackers to get out into the second level. The remaining four offensive linemen are occupied with Worthy and Gholston.

 

White SMASH! White knocks his guy to the ground while Worthy fights through a double team to get into the backfield.

By the time Crowell really gets moving he's pinned on his left by Worthy and his right by White.

So the verdict here. MSU's Defensive Line kept consistently eating the UGA's Offensive Line's lunch. In both of the plays above the Offensive Line had superior numbers 5 OL - 4 DL in the pass play and 5 OL -3 DL! in the run play and still MSU's guys were getting through their blocks and blowing the plays up.

I remember reading in the run up to the Outback Bowl about how restaurants cried when they knew that UGA's O-Line was coming to eat because the guys averaged almost 330. I also remember thinking big people don't necessarily mean good people. I think the above two plays really illustrate that point.

[A Beautiful Day For Football]