Upon Further Review 2014: Defense vs Miami

FORMATION NOTES: Michigan actually played their SAM linebacker extensively for the first time this year. Behold:

That is Jenkins-Stone over the slot. This mostly indicated zone coverage; almost everything indicated zone coverage, with the exception of that rolled-up boundary corner, who was often nose to nose with his man. More discussion of this in a bit.

On short yardage Michigan had this press man okie-ish look with one LB back: I called this "Okie one robber," FWIW.

Nickel packages were saved for passing downs for the most part.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Rotation has whittled down to an obvious starting front seven-ish with mostly obvious backups. The line is Clark/Henry/Glasgow/Beyer with Bolden/Ryan behind them and Jenkins-Stone as the SAM when they have a SAM. The primary backups are Ojemudia/Wormley/Mone/Charlton with Godin and Pipkins also fighting at the two DT spots.

The backup ILBs don't play and probably won't until Morgan gets back; Ross does spot RJS regularly.

They are still working through injury and uncertainty in the secondary, and this is a spot that will develop over time. Once Wilson is back it seems like Jeremy Clark is going to be his partner; he's gotten the most playing time of anyone so far and he seemed to be out there while Hill and Thomas rotated. Corner is still in flux but a dollar says Peppers is a boundary corner the rest of the year with Lewis your top field corner option and Countess preferred at nickel; Taylor is likely to spot Lewis and Peppers, or Lewis will spot Taylor and Peppers, to the point where calling two guys starters and one a backup is semantics. 

EDITORIAL POLICY: I'm calling Frank Clark just "Clark" and Jeremy Clark "JClark." Jeremy can be just Clark next year.

[After THE JUMP: derp and darts from Miami, mostly derp.]

So this went well.

It did. Under 200 yards collected, scoring drives of 21 and 26 yards after turnovers, and a turnover acquired with skill. And even when Miami was gaining yards for the most part I was mostly like WELL DONE SIR. Here's Hendrix taking a hit from his own OL and putting the ball about an inch over Mario Ojemudia:

Later Hendrix stared down Frank Clark's maw and fired a post bullet to a guy Peppers was grabbing and Dymonte Thomas immediately blasted:

I mean… nothing stops that. Maybe the linebacker's zone is not quite the right place; other than that that is an NFL window hit under extreme duress.

Then Miami got a big chunk on a beauty back-shoulder throw that Jeremy Clark was step for step on but was looking for the pick instead of playing trail; he wasn't actually trailing but since the WR had room to the sideline they had an opportunity they took.

If I'm picking what kind of plays I'd like to give up in a sub-200-yard domination, those are them: tough ones. Taken together those plays are almost half of Miami's yards, leaving the rest of their offensive output one relatively easy 20-yard chunk and not much else.

But where is the pass rush?

Okay first let's

CHART

make a chart happen, for numbers.

Pretty much what you'd expect after a facepunching like Miami received except for the pressure number, which is off the charts with only one sack to Michigan's name.

Well… being Frank Clark is a frustrating thing right now. He continues to run at the quarterback as fast as reasonably possible without getting a payoff. This was the quintessential example:

He also featured on the tip of the hat play above, and various other plays on which he went right around the tackle only to see the ball get out after three beats.

I am getting worried about how the rest of the line is approaching pass rush and how that's going to hurt Clark. The embed above just needs something okay from a DT to result in a sack, but they both end up flowing to the left and there's a big gap.

It might be time to have a cleanup guy designated. Michigan used to leave a NT basically stationary on pass plays; he'd occupy a blocker but not do much other than try to clean up if the QB got flushed and bother screens. With not much interior rush going on right now and a lot of wasted Clark pressures I might be inclined to tell the DTs to push straight up the pocket in their lane and not to deviate from that at all.

And while I'm talking about Clark, here he is getting way upfield on a run play that goes right to the enormous hole he creates.

And then he comes around to tackle anyway. I be like dang don't do that again. There's your early frontrunner for "most impressive play that got a minus" for the year.

You appear to be coming around on Bolden.

He may be worthy of the hype and the first game was just jitters; he played well against Notre Dame and followed it up with a second consecutive quality outing. I don't think we've seen Bolden hit an offensive lineman like this instead of get hit:

He sheds that guy to get to a tackle in a lot of space; last year's Bolden probably waves an arm at that as the tailback goes by. The coverage issues of a year ago have not yet recurred.

Ryan was fine, though I am still a bit concerned about what happens when he has more lead blockers to hit. Michigan's DL was either tying up Miami OL so they didn't get to the LB level or making the play themselves when singled. With some limited exceptions this was a smooth ride for the LBs. I did think that Ryan got beat on a zone drop on Miami's easiest chunk play of the day, dragging too far to the center of the field:

The WR came from the other direction on Bolden's PBU but the target was almost exactly the same spot on the field. Bolden not only made it hard but got his hand on the ball.

That is badass play from a spot on the LOS presnap and I'm not expecting that; I just want that window to be smaller on Ryan's coverage above.

It's just one play and all the run fits were right and zone drops are hard so this is a mild criticism; I think the jury is still out there.

The DBs seemed to be around the ball this time.

Yes. Not so much with the downfield separation. Miami's eyes got big when they saw a freshman singled up in press against their top receiver and helpfully went after that matchup a half dozen times. That freshman was Jabrill Peppers, so this was their best result was that play linked above where Peppers was draped over the WR when he caught the ball.

This was the usual:

They tried a back shoulder on him that had a slight chance but they couldn't connect; it's a tough play for both QB and WR. He did get caught in between trail SHORYUKEN technique and going for the ball on that one, allowing the opportunity. He probably should have kept his eyes on the WR and went for the punch that time.

Other than that, an encouraging start as a boundary corner. Peppers didn't give up inside leverage easily, if at all, and stayed just about stride for stride against Miami's guys. He obviously has the athleticism to do it against anyone; hopefully his technique won't get exposed against… uh… the Big Ten.

Meanwhile, Lewis came up with a terrific interception after blanketing a fade route as well:

On the replay you can see him knowing he's even, finding the ball, maintaining contact with the WR, and boxing out.

What was this coverage?

Well, there were lots of them; man was mostly reserved for third and medium stuff where Michigan expected a bunch of slants, it seemed. This was fairly typical on other downs:

One deep centerfielder, the field corner playing what looks like standard cover-three corner technique by running vertically downfield with his eyes on the QB, four guys in underneath zones, Peppers (and occasionally Lewis) in the grill of the opposition. When Michigan went with two safeties they often sent the boundary corner and ended up in cover three again.

Miami's WRs responded to the tight man alignment by running a bunch of vertical routes at it, so I don't know what happens if an opponent tries a smash route or something. If the outside WR stops on a five yard hitch, who goes for the corner route? Does Peppers drop to it or does the safety have to get over?

There were conventional cover-3 plays and some items that looked like pattern-matchy cover 4 (check out Hill's reaction when the #2 WR breaks his route off), as well.

Can we get an Order of St. Kovacs update?

Glasgow played the large bulk of the competitive section of the game. On Miami's first snap he ended an inside zone himself by two-gapping a lineman:

And he's got a slant on here on which he ends up all the way around the man trying to block him, gets a holding call, and still makes the tackle:

Opponent stuff yes; Glasgow turned in an performance on par with his clear win against Notre Dame. Buffing the medals over here.

Heroes?

Everybody!

Maybe not so heroic?

Nobody!

What does it mean for Utah and the future?

Someone get Frank Clark some help. Just a little bit will do. Hesitance from the QB, pocket constriction from the rest of the DL, and box score production will flow.

Peppers and Lewis will ride until Taylor is healthy or proven otherwise. They got significantly more work than Countess in this game and late it looked like they were re-adapting Countess to nickel.

Glasgow continues to approach for real. Give me two more weeks and we'll have the St. Kovacs ceremony.

Bolden and Ryan look more comfortable. They're getting every snap right now, which means that the coaches are comfortable with them and that they're not biffing anything that would be cause for a sideline explanation. They haven't been challenged much with the DL performance the past couple games; they are doing a good job when they are.

We're back to a lot of zone. This may change once Taylor's back, but I kind of doubt it. Michigan is switching between cover 3, man, and pattern-matching stuff.