Previously:BYU Offense
You don't want to see Bronson Kaufusi in your rear-view mirror.
While BYU's defense has been mediocre by most measures thus far in 2015, their ability to create havoc has helped them get enough turnover luck to make up for many of their shortcomings. Their best outing of the season came against Boise State; BYU held the Broncos to 5.2 yards per play, shut down their running game, and picked off three passes to do their part in the comeback victory.
Personnel: BYU is a pure 3-4 team. Seth denotes them as an 8-3 because this is the defense du jour for stopping spread teams—it's just a 3-4 but the eight guys standing up will move all over the place [click to embiggen]:
BYU tends to stick to their base personnel on standard downs but they have a couple special looks with different personnel—Takitaki is a nickel linebacker—for obvious passing situations.
Base Set? 3-4. As for those different nickel looks, BYU will go to a nebulous front with as few as one actual defensive lineman. On this play, DE Bronson Kaufusi is the only DL on the field; the three others near the line of scrimmage are all linebackers:
BYU shows this type of look quite a bit, at least against three- and four-wide. They can run a huge variety of blitz packages out of it and were successful generating regular pressure against Boise.
[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the breakdown.]
Man or zone coverage? BYU runs a ton of zone, mostly three-deep looks, with the occasional man coverage thrown in as a change-up, usually when bringing heavy pressure.
Pressure: GERG or Greg? BYU will throw the kitchen sink at you blitz-wise. While they didn't bring a ton of pressure from the secondary, any member of the front seven is liable to blitz on any given play.
Dangerman: There are three denoted on the diagram and all are worth discussing. First and foremost is Bronson Kaufusi, a prototype 3-4 DE who's disruptive against both the pass and the run. Kaufusi is shockingly quick for a 280-pounder and he identifies plays quickly. Here he is spinning off a double team to chase down a reverse from behind that otherwise probably would've gone for a TD:
He was too quick to be left unblocked on a read option—he tackled the give after holding up the QB and Boise didn't try it again—and consistently broke through the line to pressure on passes. He's going to be a handful. On this play he combines with the next dangerman, ILB Harvey Langi, to stone an outside run:
Kaufusi knocked his blocker back into the pulling lineman and Langi took away any chance of a cutback before flowing to the ball and tackling. In addition to being strong against the run, Langi is also an excellent blitzer; he times his rushes so he either shoots a gap or impacts a lineman hard at the snap—he came away with two well-deserved sacks in this game.
The third dangerman is free safety Kai Nacua, whom you may remember as the central figure in the BYU/Memphis brawl last year. Back from suspension, Nacua played stellar from the back, coming away with three interceptions. The first featured great man coverage from CB Michael Davis that allowed Nacua to read the quarterback's eyes and roam over for an easy pick:
He'd undercut an underthrown deep throw in the second half, again doing a great job following the QB's eyes, and finished the game off with a pick six on an overthrown ball into traffic on Boise's last-gasp drive. I didn't clip arguably his most impressive play: BSU tried a flea flicker and Nacua instantly recognized that he needed to spring from his deep middle zone to an open receiver on the sideline; he got there in time to break up the pass. Nacua was also BYU's best open-field tackler in the secondary. The Cougars have a high-quality player at all three levels on the defense.
OVERVIEW
Boise State's offense looks quite different from Michigan's—they're a spread team—and the Wolverines may be better built to take on the Cougars. Boise struggled mightily getting any inside run game going even though BYU's NFL-caliber nose tackle was injured (and won't play against Michigan, either). They had some success getting to the edge in the second half; they seemed to learn a little late that it's better to run at Kaufusi and double him than to try and run away from him—Kaufusi's at his best when he can pursue a play from behind.
The rest of the starting defensive line was solid but not spectacular. Fill-in NT Logan Taele does an admirable job holding up considering he's undersized for the position but he can be moved off the ball. BYU looked susceptible when their backup linemen rotated in—there's definitely a dropoff in quality—but their starters can handle a big workload. I think Michigan can have success running to the edge; they may have a harder time trying to go right up the gut, even with the undersized NT. Langi helps cover for that deficiency and the outside linebackers aren't as instinctual or effective.
Michigan should have success with their quick screens. BYU's secondary, especially field corner Micah Hannemann, had issues tackling in space, occasionally turning short gains into big chunks; Hannemann also showed poor technique against a bubble screen and ran himself out of the play. The Cougars often play their defensive backs well off the line when they get aggressive with their front seven; if they do that again, M could get some solid gains off simple throws.
The defensive backs were solid in downfield coverage. Boise State couldn't get much going deep except when Hannemann fell down trying to jam a receiver:
That may not be something to gameplan around, unfortunately. What Michigan should be able to exploit is BYU's intermediate coverage. Boise State averaged 7.8 YPA mostly by hitting quick routes to the perimeter on blitzes and then finding holes in zone coverage in the intermediate middle area using the type of routes that Jake Butt and Amara Darboh should be quite comfortable running.
BYU's safeties kept big plays to a minimum, though the defense's aggressive nature will occasionally get them RPS'd in a big way; Boise State got an easy 29-yard touchdown when they called a slip screen against a heavy blitz—the running back ran untouched until he had to juke a DB in the open field inside the ten.
While BYU won't be an easy team to move the ball on, I don't think they're quite as strong up front as Utah was and they look more susceptible to 10-20 yard passes and runs to the edge. That could play right into Michigan's hands. The key is for the offensive line to identify where pressure is coming from—no easy task against this defense—and for Rudock to make safe plays when blitzes start to hit home.