Upon Further Review 2015: Defense vs BYU

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FORMATION NOTES: Hello dime package. Michigan spent most of the day in it. This was probably the most common setup:

30 dime slide

Michigan has three guys in a three-point stance along the line with Ojemudia flanking them as a standup end; behind are Desmond Morgan and Jabrill Peppers. Most of the time Peppers went into coverage and left the front five to win one on one matchups, which they almost universally did.

The other very common formation was one that's pretty similar but again has the "buck" lined up just off the nose tackle.

dime buck

Michigan would insert Ojemudia or RJS at various places along the line.

I called formations on which Michigan was clearly going into man coverage with another player while Peppers was added to the box "nickel 3-4."

Yes, those are two actual LBs. When BYU added their fullback Bolden would come in.

This with nobody backing the line on the snap was "5-0 dime":

I think that about covers it. Oh: I didn't get a shot but that first snap I dubbed "3-1-7" because Ojemudia is over the slot and there are legit 4 people in the box. About which more later.

PERSONNEL NOTES: Michigan spent almost the whole game in a dime package featuring all three corners plus Peppers, Hill, and Wilson. Morgan played the entire game except for the final drive; the DL rotation was the usual eight guys in the usual doses. If you ask me the starting lineup now includes Matt Godin instead of Willie Henry but that's a fine distinction.

Bolden got the few bonus LB snaps. These all came when BYU added an H-back to the equation. Ross was healthy after all: he got in at the end of the game.

[After THE JUMP: hhhyarrrrr it had eleven mouths and no bottom]

/runs through wall

Hello.

YEEEAAAAAARGGGGGHHHHHHHH /bites head off bat

So the thing Michigan could do in this game was this:

That is BYU running four verts against man coverage with two deep safeties. That is 6 on 4. The rest of the defense is 5 on 7, and this is fine. Not in the "this is fine" sense. It is actually fine. Any run that does not bounce outside the tackles is doomed, and there are maybe three that do escape. Michigan's pass rush rattled Mangum to the point where he was doing Spike Albrecht Lane Donuts™ in the pocket.

Michigan banked on their line winning a handicap matchup against the BYU line and it did. Desmond Morgan, the only linebacker Michigan bothered playing, finished with two assisted tackles. Game over.

BYU all be like

/bites head off glass bottle

That is a bottle, which means it doesn't have a head. Also you are dripping blood from your mouth now.

While you pick glass out of your mouth I will take this opportunity to point out how hilarious Michigan's defensive stats are in this game. Michigan had 6 TFLs to 2 times-Michigan-kind-of-needed-a-linebacker-to-do-anything-at-all*. They had 11 TFL/QB hurries combined in 50 snaps. They could have played this 10 on 11 and it would have gone okay.

*[Gedeon's tackles were either on special teams or on the last uncharted drive.]

YEHERGEGAAAGRG

The primary reason they won this battle was the nose tackle, whether it was Hurst or Glasgow. If left singled, those guys wrecked plays. If doubled they often split or ripped through those doubles, and then wrecked plays. The first snap for BYU was actually one of their better gains of the day—five yards—but in it was the seed of their demise.

That's Ryan Glasgow taking a play-long double and even a momentary triple team without going anywhere. It is also Michigan seeing what happens with a four-man box. They decided to go with five most of the rest of the day, because four was not enough. But they thought they'd try.

That is some confidence, and it was repaid in spades.

Glasgow gets a little lucky since the playside G elects not to chip him, but the drive through the C to the back for a six-yard TFL is elite. A lot of guys can impact that play given a single block. To make it by yourself that deep in the backfield… well, I did compare him to Mike Martin last week and that kind of thing is why.

In this game Glasgow brought that same kind of consistent playmaking. By the middle of the second quarter it was clear that BYU's center had zero chance to deal with Glasgow by himself.

There was little or no dropoff to Hurst. He had a slashing sack that happened instantly on a three man rush.

That's a great play even if he does nothing but flush Mangum up into an unproductive scramble. To actually get the five-yard swing of a sack there is terrific. Hurst followed that up with a run play on which he darted between the C and G. He was to the backside and couldn't make it to the back, but he blew up the blocking scheme and let Morgan flow free to the play; because of the way this game went down Morgan got to watch RJS make a tackle.

When not using his quickness he was flinging the center into Mangum as he threw.

If Bryan Mone was outplaying these guys he is Vince Wilfork.

FWIW, the guy Michigan wrecked, Tejan Koroma, is a true sophomore who started the entirety of last year and has these accolades:

Only true freshman in FBS this year to start every game at center and played the most snaps of any player on BYU offensive line

Dominated on the field grading out as BYU's top offensive lineman and most consistent game-to-game performer

Beat out a returning senior starter and preseason Rimington Trophy candidate to earn BYU starting job

Earned Phil Steele Preseason All-Independent First Team

He's light at 280; he is not some guy off the turnip truck. Also sometimes they destroyed a guard or both him and a guard.

CHEEEAARGHHHHTTT /spews blood

Chart? I think that means chart. This only 50 snaps.

The raw numbers aren't the highest seen but given the number of plays run that's not a huge surprise; BYU also started shooting itself in the foot on plays that I didn't credit the defense with much. But those ratios though. And the linebacker numbers. The one guy they played the whole game had three half-points to his name. I have never seen anything close to that.

We've talked about the nose tackles; concerns about Wormley falling off from his previous rampant performances are somewhat warranted. I think those are partially matchup-based. Moving him out to end in a three man line means he's usually going to be the force player on any particular run, and it's hard to gain or lose points there as long as you do your job. He hasn't been a Graham-esque pass rusher in the last couple games; he is part of a highly effective unit, however.

Henry's seen his playing time fluctuate and hasn't exactly broken out, but I thought he was quite good in this game. He had a trademark OL discard…

…and I think he's secretly a major positive for the pass rush.

How so?

Glasgow and Henry are both very good at driving the gap between two offensive linemen. This tends to draw attention from both dudes, and when they're getting driven back that far the guy looping around has no blockers and blood in his eyes:

When not stunting Michigan is doing a great job of collapsing the pocket without offering escape routes. This isn't a sack but neither is it a situation where Mangum can do anything but get rid of the ball to a covered WR.

This is a big improvement from last year, when DTs would often blow lanes and rob Frank Clark of sacks. (Also robbing Clark of sacks: Countess.)

In this game Michigan picked up three sacks and had a ton of other pressures. They have not let anyone sit back and survey. While they are not great individually they do have qualities that help them out as a unit. Big lanes to run up into were very rare in this game against a guy who tests all of your rush lanes. When Mangum got out of the pocket he almost always had to give a bunch of ground to do so, and when you're 13 yards away from the LOS and moving backwards even he can't uncork the massive bombs (that were double covered anyway).

Could you tell me why all the bad things happened in this game? Please note that by bad things I mean first downs.

Uh, pretty much yes? I think Ojemudia stunted into the wrong gap on a third and short scramble for a first down. The big 29 yarder was Bolden getting edged:

Godin didn't play that well either but if Bolden turns it back it's a five or six yard gain, probably, instead of a third of BYU's yards. (Although at that point five or six yards is getting pretty close to a third of BYU's yards.)

An interception went through Stribling's hands. Charlton also lost his leverage on a 13 yard run. The end.

How about that secondary though?

We didn't really get to see them in action much, as Mangum kept trying to hit small windows and missing. A lot of fly routes down the sideline saw Stribling in the hip pocket of his opponent without getting tested.

I thought Michigan would give up a big play or two as the ruthless math of 6'6" against not that won out, but Mangum was never able to even give his guys a chance. When there were downfield windows they generally required the catches of the leaping one handed Darboh variety.

Everyone stuck with their guys and got the smattering of points and half points that happen when it looks like you are going to contest anything but a perfect pass.

The one fluttery moment when Mangum escaped the pocket and found a guy downfield was ably handled by Delano Hill:

Hill ends up in man coverage after a corner blitz and gets beat by a step but has the athleticism to make up the ground he's lost. Then he makes a play on the ball. Here I'd like to go back to a picture that featured in the game column, and one that just precedes it:

Hill's right hand is grabbing jersey [Bryan Fuller]

That grab is how Hill went from in trouble and trailing to advantageous position. It's also something Michigan is very clever about this year. You often see defensive backs wrap that hand around the waist of the receiver; 99% of the time this happens it draws a flag. Michigan has absorbed the MSU-fu of getting in numerous small jersey tugs that generally do not warrant flags and often go unseen. Neither ref near this play can see Hill's hand or what it's doing, and the side judge far away would have to have some major stones to throw this flag.

I guarantee you this is something Zordich and Jackson have hammered in practice. Last year's disastrous press man attempt saw guys fly by without getting yanked like this; this year's secondary collectively plays like a 33-year-old NFL safety getting by on his wits. That's because both of the secondary coaches were literally that guy. Coaching matters. Greg Jackson's NFL numbers were not a coincidence.

There were a couple flags. Stribling picked up a silly one on the final uncharted drive by pulling at the jersey of a guy who'd beat him by a step or two on an out. He was too far away to conceal it with his body and the flag was an obvious one. Lewis's was questionable:

To me that's the WR slowing up so Lewis rear-ends him; I know that's called a lot but it always grinds my gears when a defensive back is supposed to not have momentum.

How is the Peppers effect going?

Another spread team with an anemic rushing offense was completely shut off from easy screen yards. Michigan's tendency to play press helps there as well; with Peppers you are just burning downs. That goes double if you don't even have a plan to block him.

Some RPS +2 plays are gifts from the O.

Peppers played a lot of tiny linebacker in this game and that went just fine. They're starting to use him more as a blitzer, and man he is going to put his helmet through a QB's chest at some point.

He has that thing that certain NFL freaks do where you can put him in a gray area and he can do both things that someone in a gray area shouldn't be able to do.

I did detect a little bit of that coverage weakness we've seen so far where horizontal double moves get separation on him. That will be a work in progress all year. Trying to separate without said double move, though:

And while this column doesn't really touch on special teams much, Peppers has been a huge source of hidden yardage this year. He's also ghosting out of tackles to pick up actual yards. This punt catch and return is a 20, maybe 30 yard swing:

His ability to get to punts and catch them has probably saved Michigan a hundred yards of field position already. The one he booted into the sideline was the first time he'd even bobbled one; that is a bit of a concern but the guy has seen 30 punts and had one on which I thought he did not do everything right.

I mean… this is not repeatable, right?

Probably not. A brief glimpse at the recent history of football will demonstrate that. This game was a terrific matchup for Michigan, with tall not that fast guys on the outside, a freshman QB, and a center who just couldn't cope. Teams with more speed and the ability to run from the QB spot will pose more problems.

I mean, on the one hand Michigan blew BYU's collective mind and this is terrific. On three separate occasions BYU OL lined up in the backfield because they were rattled.

both guys on the right side of the line are off the LOS

One of the fumbled snaps was a low line drive that certainly felt like Koroma responding to the fact he couldn't block Michigan's NT. Mangum kept trying to break the pocket over and over again. All of this speaks to Michigan's physical dominance.

On the other hand, these things are going to be less replicable against the stronger offenses on the schedule, particularly the QB stuff. Mangum is basically a true freshman and played like it in this game. Guys more aware of how much time they have, and how much they need, are going to be better.

I am still a little wary here, because we might find out the second and third corners aren't as good as they seem right now and we haven't tested this D against someone who wants to manball back at us. But those worries are rapidly dwindling. This BYU offense put up 400 yards on UCLA without any of the mondo big plays that salvaged their performance against Boise—Mangum 's long on the day was 19 yards. This is going to be their worst performance of the year by a million miles.

I'm ready to declare this a 2006 level defense. It is that good. 2006 hit major speedbumps at the end of the year, and that remains a threat. I won't say that other year until Urban Meyer's eating sad pizza, if we should be so fortunate.

Heroes?

Well, everyone, but Glasgow and Hurst particularly. DJ Durkin's gameplan was absolutely perfect as well.

Maybe not so heroic?

404 SAD NOT FOUND

What does it mean for Maryland and beyond?

IT'S GON RAIN. Literally and metaphorically. This defense is finally the elite ass-kicking unit we've been waiting for since Mattison rescued it from the shelter.

Ryan Glasgow is a star. Ryan Glasgow feels a lot like Mike Martin right now, and Maurice Hurst isn't far behind.

The rest of the line could also be stars. We didn't get a ton of data in this one. Previous games have seen Godin, Ojemudia, and Wormley have massive breakout games; Henry has lagged a little bit but was very good here. Every game sees someone step up huge. This is the deepest Michigan DL I can remember.

The dime package is different and very viable. I mentioned this on the podcast: with iffy play from Dymonte Thomas and Wayne Lyons I wondered if Michigan would start running out a dime that featured both Stribling and Clark; that came to pass. And lo, it was good. With Peppers capable of sliding down to play linebacker on standard downs that dime package is likely to be the default against 4-wide formations.

Linebackers? We learned nothing about them in this game. If there's a spot that's lagging in the +/- chart it is linebackers not named Desmond Morgan, something that could bite Michigan against Minnesota and MSU.