Upon Further Review 2017: Special Teams vs Air Force

gone [Upchurch]

Substitution/formation notes: As far as I could tell, coverage and return units featured the same personnel as they did against Cincinnati. The most noteworthy non-change was Donovan Peoples-Jones as punt returner—more on that after the jump.

Michigan’s formations were the same as they’ve been, but they brought pressure on punts and field goals infrequently. Earlier this week Chris Partridge said that they try to limit instances where they bring everything to keep the defense guessing. When Michigan doesn’t bring pressure on punt return, sometimes just one guy will release toward the shield, and even then he will sometimes stop and peel back before hitting the shield. On field goal defense, Michigan only brought pressure from one side and had Lavert Hill step to the line and hold on the other side. As close as the game was, Michigan decided not to gamble. Thanks to Donovan Peoples-Jones, that worked out.

[After THE JUMP: don’t have to bring the house when you take it to it]

Going to try to have a WildThingchart ready next week. For now, charting is taking place in the notes section. DO=dead on, MA=marginal, IN=inaccurate.

Well, that was a day of really big positives and relatively large negatives.

They let you do this again?

No one told me not to, which seems as good as a yes. Anyway, let’s get to the reason we’re all here.

Bashing unbolded alter-ego.

…

Talking about special teams.

Donovan Peoples-Jones went from hmmm to hero pretty quickly.

He did. He’s a supremely talented player and wasn’t likely to sit for long, but his performance is even more impressive given that it’s impossible to tell how a freshman is going to respond to what was a clear benching against Cincinnati.

Taking one back should erase any concern there. Kid knows how to MAKE PLAYS.

That was certainly impressive and was one of the best returns we’ve seen in a while from the standpoint of pure speed and athleticism, but it wasn’t the return that stood out to me.

Ha, you couldn’t sound more pretentious if you tried.

The thing about Peoples-Jones is we’ve seen him play in high school often enough to know that a return like that is exactly the reason he’s out there early in his freshman year. Things like communication on a short punt proved to be an issue in week two, so this punt from the third quarter was the biggest bright spot to me.

Think back to how the punt that hit St-Juste’s foot against Cincinnati and then watch the clip above again. Nary a Wolverine in sight this time. Partridge talked about how important it is for DPJ to communicate since he’s the only player on punt return who can actually see the ball, and he does an excellent job here clearing everyone out. The difference between calling it and clearing everyone away and waiting too long can be possession, so this is huge.

You make a good case but it still seems very hipster-y.

Fine, let’s talk about the return he took back.

That sort of looks like he just outran everybody.

I agree, it does. Let’s check out the reverse angle thanks to Ace’s OFAAT post.

Look at the way he widens to the left to pull everyone that direction all the while knowing that’s going to spread guys out enough to create a lateral seam that will take him to the opposite sideline. If Peoples-Jones just cuts that up the middle of the field he’s absolutely getting tackled; those guys are coming downhill at best and moving laterally at worst. Widening causes the Air Force defenders to stop and change directions, at which point at least three guys are too deep to have a reasonable shot at closing the gap. This return doesn’t even have a single big block to focus on; that’s not to say the return team didn’t do their job, but Peoples-Jones set this up expertly.

So you’re saying you’re a terrible evaluator and shouldn’t have been so negative last week.

Not at all. There were communication issues and tracking issues and I ended up tagging People-Jones with 12 net yards lost. Quite a different story this week.

I’d be remiss to move on without talking about Peoples-Jones’ fair catches. Prior to the Air Force game he was waiting until the last second to signal; whether this was due to difficulty tracking the ball off the punter’s foot, supreme confidence in his ability to juke his way out of a phonebooth or both is unknown. What we do know is that there’s a pattern emerging. Peoples-Jones is starting to signal for a fair catch with the gunners/defenders three yards away, which gives him time to make the catch and his gunners time to pull away.

Welp, at least one return game got fixed.

Look, I… yeah, that’s actually fair. “Fixed” might be premature, but it’s trending upward. The kickoff return game is not.

It’s only been three weeks—and I only have numbers from two—but the video evidence and table paint an ugly picture.

NEGATIVE SEVENTEEN!? BURN IT DOWN.

There is a caveat, and that’s small sample size. Fifteen of those yards of lost field position came on two returns, one of which was a bad decision to carry it out of the end zone.

There are undoubtedly some issues with the blocking on kickoff returns, but that’s not the case here. Poggi sees the guy who eventually gets Crawford has gotten through and does a nice job wheeling around and sealing him away. Crawford, though, doesn’t see this guy until he’s a yard away, at which point cutting it back doesn’t have a chance. To make matters worse, Crawford’s running to the side with two unblocked dudes and still doesn’t think to cut it the other direction until he’s a yard away from getting wrapped up. Ten extra yards of field position are available if he just kneels upon catching.

This one was tougher to judge, so I’m interested to hear what you guys think. I gave Crawford negative five yards here because he could have followed Mason and Hawkins and tried to turn is up the sideline, and even if the man Hawkins is blocking gets Crawford he’s going to have to get off a block and that won’t happen until about the 22-yard line. I could see applying the negative yardage to Poggi for blocking the guy Watson’s coming off of and not noticing the unblocked man behind him, but Crawford cuts up and away from his blockers instead of following them out.

All you do is talk about returners but kickers (and punters) are people too, you know.

I do know. Thing is, there’s not much to talk about with Nordin. He was again excellent. People are starting to take note; the profiles started to roll out this week. His haircut is a source of great joy for the fanbase and increasing trepidation for Ace.

Foug has been incredible and is actually a weapon. He’s starting to drop it short of the goal line and let his coverage team work to cut down the returner short of the 25 and it has worked every single time. It deserves its own—

As for Will Hart, I’m fine with what he’s done. I get why some people are in the Brad Robbins camp, but the punt that went out of bounds this week was intended to go that direction. Harbaugh said they’re asking him to directional kick, so there must be a pretty high level of trust established between Hart and the staff. There was one against Cincinnati that he did pin in the corner along the sideline, so we’ve seen what can happen when it goes well. This is an inexperienced player gaining experience on the fly, and I don’t think replacing him with a true freshman changes that. Maybe if the issue was Hart being unable to kick it deep and with adequate hangtime, but that’s not the source of the shanks.

What does it mean for Purdue and beyond?

Donovan Peoples-Jones: quick fixer? Another week of signaling fair catches with room to breath and clearing out landing spots should be enough to declare week two miscues a blip on the radar.

U PIN IT TO THE SIDELINE. Hart seems fine to me, but keep an eye on whether any directional kicks are called this week.

Foug drops it short, allows the parademons to maintain order. The combination of Foug and the coverage team is turning into a bigger field-position weapon than the kickoff return game.

Crawford’s job is up for grabs. That’s no surprise on a Harbaugh-led team, but how short is the leash? We certainly haven’t seen enough of what he can do in a game; there’s mounting evidence, though, that it’s a net negative in terms of yardage. Has he performed well enough in practice to maintain his status?