Neck Sharpies: Flinging Fullbacks at Frontside Gaps

or

That Time Wheatley Donkey’d Peppers

I’ve been so enamored with Brown’s defense lately that we haven’t discussed Harbaugh’s run games, which is a shame because they’re brilliant. He kept the fancy stuff in the barn of course but the Spring Game did show a neat thing and got a big chunk out of it.

For completion’s sake here’s who’s on the field. Those likely to see extensive action in 2016 are in bold, and non-Kovacsian walk-ons have hashtags:

Only a few of those matchups can be at all enlightening, but I’d count the highlighted one among them.

1. THE PLAY: POWER WITHOUT THE PULLING

The defense is in a 71 (base over with the NT covering the center) front with the SAM (Peppers) up on the line to counteract that extra TE. The offense starts by motioning that TE.

The defense shows it’s in man, with the boundary CB (Washington) rolling with the motioning H-back (Butt). When Butt stops between the LT and LG, the WLB (Bush) comes up like he’s going to blitz that gap. That’s a good thing too because the called run goes right over his ass:

get along little doggies

Absent Harbaugh’s playbook I don’t know how to name it, but we saw a fancier version last year against BYU, and Space Coyote drew it up as “Power Lead.” That time it was run to the C gap, with the receiver coming in to crack a linebacker. This is the more vanilla version.

If you can picture it, the same blocks are happening as if it’s Power, but the fullback is doing the kickout block, and the H-back is the “puller” leading through the intended hole. The running back then picks a hole through the carnage, typically to whichever side of the H-back’s block that a defender isn’t in.

[After the jump: The defense solves this the Don Brown way, then breaks down]

2. DEFENSE SOLVES THAT WITH AGGRESSION

That intended gap is about to get blown up by said Bush, who attacked that B gap with authority, blowing back Butt, the lead blocker.

The above is at the handoff and you know what they say about running when your Butt’s in the backfield. With Butt back there and Bush controlling both sides of him not only is there no running room in the intended gap, but Hill’s got a rough go to make his kickout block. The running back has to put on the breaks. Problem solved.

So: the RB’s at a dead stop, and the intended gap has a linebacker a yard behind the line of scrimmage occupying both blocky-catchy guys. By now the free safety has had time to come down. Meanwhile JBB, the left guard, got hung up on Mone for a split second and doesn’t have control of the MLB, who took a step playside and…

…over-pursued. Yeah okay this is a walk-on who’s listed as a DE on the roster, not Gedeon, so we’ll cut the guy a break, even though he then compounded his situation by losing the ball and fighting to the wrong side. Plus this is a pretty hard offense to stop when the offense knows how to run it. And we’re about to see a 5-star running back show how to run it.

3. ISAAC FINDS THE BACK DOOR OPEN

Rather than force it into the hole like some 5-star 2013 running backs not naming any names that are an ugly color, this RB sees the middle linebacker getting too far from the hole he was supposed to be guarding, and cuts back. Let’s watch these frames because this is special:

That’s 60 FPS so five frames is .08 seconds to go from a stop to speeding through the lane. We can talk about how clever Harbaugh is to create extra gaps and all but here’s pure athletic ability and body control turning a cutback lane into death for a defense.

4. AND IT’S OPEN BECAUSE BLOCKS

Lineman footwork is getting pretty technical but when you’re watching the gif above see the first steps of the RG (Pliska) and RT (Ulizio). This is a Drevno coaching point, where the backside blockers take their first step away from the play’s direction, then sidestep downfield to seal.

It’s not the hardest thing to do when your defenders are trying to get into the gap you’re opening for them, but it’s a point in favor of Power/man-on-man blocking as opposed to zone blocks, where you face the guy you’re blocking and try to let him pick where to go. So long as they don’t go in weird gaps, committing to these backside seals lets you get away with blocking two excellent DL in Godin and Wormley with blockers who should not be in their class.

Also Mason Cole got under Mone and drove him a critical yard downfield to open up the lane. Cole’s All-American candidacy begins now.

5. SPEAKING OF ALL AMERICANS DIDN’T ONE GET DONKEY’D ON THIS PLAY?

It wasn’t relevant until the cutback was successful, but Tyrone Wheatley took Peppers for a RIDE, then shed so far downfield Wheats was able to get a block on the Rover/Strong safety/Next Glasgow too.

This turned a seven-yarder into a huge gain, made even huger by Isaac then juking Peppers too. It may mean that Peppers as a nearly-DE linebacker is a bit undersized to take on 290-pound dudes with freak athleticism. It could just mean said freak plays for us.

6. WATCH IN SLO MO TO OBLIVION MUSIC

Music: “Petal” by Oblivion, Ann Arbor, MI