Upon Further Review 2015: Defense vs UNLV

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FORMATION NOTES: By this point the defense is pretty well established. We got a few glimpses at what Michigan intends to do against pro-style formations; this is a 4-4 with the line shifted over (to the strength of the formation), Ross at SAM, and Hill threatening off the weakside:

Wilson, the free safety, is about 20 yards downfield.

I'm calling the thing where they drop the buck off the line like so…

…"30 nickel buck" to distinguish it from an actual 3-3-5.

This is what I mean by "triple stack" on UNLV's part;  Michigan is in their standard nickel even:

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Line was close to the first two games with Henry/Glasgow/Wormley backed by Charlton/Hurst/Godin except that you could replace Henry in the starting lineup with Godin based on snaps played. Henry got cut a bunch on the backside of zones and didn't see much time in the middle of the game.

WDE/buck was the usual 70/30 split between Ojemudia and RJS.

Lawrence Marshall got in on the last drive, as did Brady Pallante.

Linebacker was the same; a little more James Ross at SAM in this game; Gedeon and Ross also got a couple drives as ILBs in the nickel.

Secondary saw the same rotation as per usual (Lewis/Peppers/Wilson/Hill with Stribling or Clark in the nickel) except that Wayne Lyons was the dime back. Brandon Watson got in on the last drive as well.

[After THE JUMP: defense crush]

I am not going to get excited about this.

A wise course of action. UNLV is not good and many tougher opponents await. But, you know…

I know what?

I'm just sayin…

WHAT ARE YOU JUST SAYIN'

UNLV is a much more functional team with Blake Decker available, and he played the bulk of this game. Decker finally showed his quality on the quick, late touchdown drive on which he was blasted as he threw two lovely touch passes for big chunks of yardage.

This was less the offense that got clubbed by UCLA and more the one that put up almost 500 yards against Northern Illinois. There might be a little bit of something to take away here. NIU just held OSU to under 300 yards, albeit with a lot of help from OSU's QBs.

I mean, don't go nuts, but even for a defense expected to be good this was an encouraging outing.

What was so encouraging?

For one, the cornerback play. Devonte Boyd is a real player and Michigan erased him until the two plays mentioned above, both of which came in telegraphed one-on-one matchups against Hill and Wilson, not Michigan's corners. Lewis, Stribling, and Clark were all tested repeatedly and came through with flying colors.

Lewis was literally unbeatable. Short: no. Medium: no. Long: no. Short again: NOPE.

I actually had him for 5 PBUs, not the 4 he was credited with. (I think the technical definition requires a hand on the ball; I am willing to offer one up when the DB makes it impossible to catch the ball even without a bat at it.) That was every time he was targeted.

!!!

Clark not only had a textbook interception once he found himself level with the WR…

…but a textbook SHORYUKEN trail technique on the final snap of the game. I didn't even mind the pass interference call he took before the interception too much. UNLV had a triple WR stack on which they showed screen, with the front WR blocking off the snap. Clark's guy released for a block and then went into a one-man route; Clark decided 15 yards was the better part of valor. That's the smart play, and the issue was less his ability to cover than a clever playcall that forced a response.

Stribling's interception saw him open up his hips as if he's going into a three deep coverage and then redirect underneath; the ball is behind, which allows for the interception; Stribling was still in good position to contest the catch on a well thrown ball. His play on this drag route is probably even better:

There is no window for a completion there. Stribling got a couple of subtle tugs in on that WR that helped him out there, the kind of thing that drives you crazy as an opponent but almost never gets flagged. I wonder if that kind of wily play is something we would see with last year's secondary coaches instead of a couple dudes who collectively spent two decades in the NFL.

Speaking of the secondary coaching, I enjoyed this edition of Peppers covering a circle route. Against Utah he got jerked around by their freshman slot receiver for an important conversion. Peppers played it looser against UNLV and was in position to tackle immediately if the throw was in fact completed:

Even Jarrod Wilson, usually the most boringly reliable guy on the team, got into the act a little bit with a near-INT on a flat route.

This was awesome all around. The technique from Stribling and Clark was very good, and that's opponent-independent. Their ability to stick with higher-caliber wideouts remains in question; this was a real step forward.

So this

THUNK

hey

/makes universal "no" arm motion

i was holding that

WOOOOOOO

this chart that was much less broken than it was before you got involved is bonkers in certain departments.

I am almost sure a +24 in the secondary has never happened before and that DL number might be a record too. This was a colossal ass-kicking. UNLV left approximately zero yards on the field. They dropped no passes. They overthrew no significantly open receivers. They missed no cuts (until the last drive). Michigan gave them no quarter.

I'm not saying this is an elite defense, but this performance is what an elite defense does to a UNLV.

What is even going on with those DL numbers?

They are nuts. I know. But they are warranted when you have 9 TFLs and a bunch of other tackles for 0 or 1 yards plus some woulda-coulda-shoulda TFLs. The mere fact that the LB numbers are so low in amplitude is testament enough to how good the DL was.

After a couple games in which Chris Wormley was the star of the defense, another two guys on the line came to stake their claims. Ryan Glasgow was great. This explosive rip through of a double is one of the best plays of his career to date:

That does not feel like something many OL can deal with. That is outright explosive.

This was far from an isolated incident:

Glasgow is ripping past guys and extending to tackle with great range for a nose tackle. He is kind of reminding me of Mike Martin. I know that is a big ol' leap to make right now. But he is providing that unique pairing of disruption, endurance, and… uh sideline-to-sideline NT play(?) that was Martin's trademark.

Godin, meanwhile, knocked Willie Henry to the bench for large stretches of this game. Part of that was on Henry; part of it was Godin performing. The sack-that-wasn't on the first play featured another Godin stunt to QB pressure.

At this point that is something of a trademark for him. He is really good at sticking close to the hip of the guy he's exchanging with and then exploding past whatever out of position OL attempts to close him down.

He's also getting just plain ol' pass rush:

(I enjoyed the post sack leg-hold by Godin just to make sure this guy didn't escape. The flourish at the end is a bonus.) Godin's ability in this department is going a long way towards mitigating the pass rush issues we were all worried about before the season. Ojemudia seems improved; Wormley is doing great; Glasgow's added some pass rush himself—they probably aren't going to have a single standout star but nobody has been able to block these guys consistently. When they don't get there they tend to crush the pocket closed and force throws, which is a push in the "pressure" metric.

I also really liked Godin play on this zone read belly:

You see DTs get washed down the line with their own momentum constantly on this little quick-hitting backside play. To fight back and not only constrict space but get in a tackle is very good—and something that is somewhat opponent independent.

Godin also displayed surprising amounts of raw power.

Of all the things he did in this game that is probably the least reproducible. He has performed to the level where you can maybe hope or even expect he is also a very good player against Big Ten teams. He has been as much of a revelation as Wormley.

What was the part of Godin's playing time that was on Henry?

UNLV kept running zone away from him and cutting him.

This happened three or four times and then Henry was absent for a long stretch of time. At least he came back on the last drive and showed he'd spent that time getting coached up: when UNLV ran a stretch away from him he ceded ground vertically to run around the cut block and would have been helpful if the RB had cut into the massive gap he had.

Henry was fine otherwise. He had a couple impressive plays. He anchored against a full-on double team and then disconnected to tackle; that's nice to see for a guy who go blown up from time to time last year.

But everyone else was good? 

Yes. Wormley wasn't as impactful as he'd been in previous games but was still good; both Hurst and Charlton demonstrated that against an OL like UNLV they are just as dominant as the starters. Hurst blew guys into the backfield repeatedly:

(Charlton demonstrates his athleticism on that play as well, running the back down from behind on a potentially dangerous play.) I like Hurst's ability to drive guys back and then rip to where he's supposed to be. He ended a QB draw by himself towards the end of the first half, and took advantage of a blitz fake to get a sack towards the end of the game.

Charlton also showed well. He got drive consistently and on the last drive he had a sweet spin move for a shoulda-been sack.

He could be an asset against better teams if Henry isn't getting much rush.

FWIW, Brady Pallante got in on the last drive. He got reached and pancaked twice. He's still an undersized redshirt freshman, so I wouldn't write him off. I can confirm he's a long way away.

Okay so like nine positions were awesome, and then linebacker. What gives?

The linebackers were not heavily involved in this game. Michigan's coverage schemes largely insulate them from tests when the opponent is avoiding the middle of the field, and the DL was so dominant it rarely gave them the opportunity to do anything except hop on a pile.

When they did get tested I didn't go well. Bolden had a couple of plays in this one that were alarming. Here he reverts back to freshman form when he tries to take on a tight end block:

I think he's in trouble no matter what on this play since Michigan is not well aligned to stop this, but you can hardly do worse than he did. The contrast between this and James Ross's decidedly more Viking approach to hitting guys in the open field is striking.

Later, Bolden would get stiffarmed on a long conversion by the UNLV tight end:

On second and thirteen with an absolutely rampant defensive line it seems like Bolden should be in position to tackle on the catch, which erases the possibility you will get tossed to the ground.

There's been a lot of complaining about the linebackers' athleticism on message boards and even occasionally from analyst types. I don't think the problems they're having have much to do with that. To me, problems arise from a lack of precision. Gedeon has issues trusting that the rest of the D will do his job and overruns things. When he's put in a situation where he can just run at something he demonstrates he is fast as hell:

That is Jake Ryan-esque.

But when Gedeon has to track someone down in space it doesn't go well too often. The final UNLV drive saw this 20-yard swing as Gedeon got stiffarmed by a QB:

That is more a product of positioning and angles than a lack of mean toughness, because physics. A version of Gedeon hitting the QB square knocks him into next week.

Bolden doesn't know what he's looking at too often. Gedeon doesn't always play his responsibility. As a result they put themselves in positions where they appear to lack "physicality" but are really more about the fact that they're a step or two slow. Bolden is in fact more than capable of laying out a blocker. He barely does it because he doesn't react fast enough to do so.

Meanwhile James Ross, a much smaller dude, is compiling a highlight reel of the crumpled in his wake:

I kind of wish he'd widen out a little bit since a couple times in this game he was busy wrecking a guy while the ball got outside of him. I think maybe that's okay because h was providing a clear flight path for the other linebacker and there was no sense that he was doing something wrong like we got from Henry's playing time. The plays that got outside of him went for three and four yards, with the first one barely getting there thanks in part to Ross hammering the ballcarrier from behind.

Also: wreckage. If you ask me which error I'm picking, I pick Ross's every day of the week. (Ross did have one costly error when he failed to contain the QB once he broke the pocket.)

Morgan also demonstrates how anticipation is 90% of linebacker play. Here he thunks a free releasing LT back to constrict space:

His instinct is that block is coming; he creeps to the line before the play. Then he hops outside that block in case the RB wants to bounce; he knows what he wants to do and how to go about it; RB ends up running into unblocked guys he can't dodge.

We'll see if Ross starts getting some time next to Morgan in the near future. I will no longer predict that since I've been wanting to see it forever. I will say that with this DL performing the way it is the linebackers get to flow free a lot and that is a situation in which Ross is very good.

So how is the hybrid space playerization going?

UNLV is a spread offense with an anemic run game whose best player on offense is a wide receiver. They did not attempt an edge screen until deep in the fourth quarter. On that screen they won on RPS by motioning out the back without a corresponding response from the Michigan D—they in fact sent both LBs up the middle—and had a 3 on 2 advantage for a big chunk of yards.

Peppers did not make the tackle, but he made the play.

That's a punt instead of a big gain, and again it is Peppers just deciding when he's going to blow past the guy trying to block him. This ability changes your defense. It erases a ton of easy yards for the opposition and allows you to play whatever coverage games you want—not something you can do when Jake Ryan is your screen obliterator of choice.

We didn't see much else from Peppers on the day. That was more fear than coincidence, I think.

Heroes?

Glasgow, Godin, Ojemudia, Hurst. All cornerbacks, so hard.

Maybe not so heroic?

Henry, Bolden, Gedeon. All of these guys were fine or slightly below fine; it's only in context that they're not so heroic. Michigan has had much weaker weak points for most of the last 20 years.

What does it mean for BYU and beyond?

They are ready to take on BYU's crew of monster WRs. Lewis shut down Villamin on a fade last week and everyone tested in this game did a great job against them this week. They may hit a couple due to sheer size but Michigan has corners who are either legit All Big Ten guys (Lewis) or promising guys with size (Stribling and Clark) who just showed excellent ability to make plays on the ball.

Ojemudia's your guy at buck. Michigan stopped putting him in space after that went poorly in game one and he's responded by being the best version of Ojemudia: smart, more active than you might give him credit for, durable. I don't think he'll be a super impact guy against better OLs but he won't be a non-entity, either.

Lawrence Marshall's return answers the last question about how the depth chart is going to fall out: Ojemudia is at the top, and it's not as much of a platoon as you might have expected.

That two-deep at pure DL is still lights out. BONUS: zero seniors. /self high five!

(Seriously, if someone hires Brady Hoke as their DL coach I will praise that hire up and down.)

Peppers is improving. We have just that circle route as evidence but roll with it.

James Ross is hitting people very hard consistently. I would like to see more of him, whether it's as a SAM against manballers or the WLB against spreads. Bolden and Gedeon are more prone to large errors right now.

They might have enough pass rush. No star but no dead weight either.

Henry has to learn to avoid cut blocks. You know people will try it now that it's on film, and these RBs will be looking for it.