Upon Further Review 2013: Defense vs CMU

FORMATION NOTES: Michigan played this one vanilla, opting for either their traditional 4-3 under…

…or a 4-2-5 nickel package…

Furman is offscreen on the right hash.

…with the occasional insertion of a 3-3-5 on passing downs. There was no okie stuff with seven guys at the line of scrimmage, and it was very rare to see a safety walk down. With the line ripping through Central's pass protection there was little need to do anything else. If Michigan could manage that against a tough opponent that would be nice.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: ALL OF THE SUBSTITUTIONS

Right. Seth has already covered this in exacting detail. In brief: the secondary was consistent, with Furman and Wilson at safety and Taylor and Countess the starting corners. When Michigan went to the nickel, Stribling and Hollowell were about even, with Stribling getting the first at-bats.

Inside linebacker was split almost evenly between Morgan, Ross, and Bolden, with Gedeon getting some reps later and RJS right at the end. SAM was about 50/50 Beyer/Gordon, except that a lot of that was at DE in nickel packages.

Okay. The line. Okay. Your nominal starters were Heitzman, Washington, Black, and Clark, except there was so much nickel that the nose was lifted half the time. Wormley, Pipkins, Glasgow, and Ojemudia got a large amount of time backing up the starters. Godin, Ash, Henry, and Charlton got in later. Godin actually split snaps almost equally with the other two SDEs; at the other three spots the third guy was definitively third.

[After THE JUMP: rotation, rotation, rotation. Pass rush! Safety assessments!]

I'm not really that impressed but then I look at the box score and I'm like whoah.

Yeah. 5.1 yards an attempt.

Alex Nisnak could start for Michigan State.

Oh man I hope they don't get better this week, because I've been riding that harrrrd.

Anyway: also 2.3 yards a rush and barely over 200 yards on the game, two turnovers acquired, and really about three points given up: two Central field goal drives started on the Michigan 6 and 29 yard line thanks to turnovers. Central had 12 opportunities, which is rather a lot, and went three and out five times. Dominant.

Caveat: this was a mediocre MAC team that lost its starting QB and RB early.

I marveled at this thing they did.

Oh yes?

So sometimes they had guys between Michigan's guys and the ball, and then at some point they were no longer between Michigan's guys and the ball. I felt this was a good thing, in general.

Ah yes, the ol' don't get blocked by a guy. Classic move. Michigan tried it with frequency. Why don't you look at this—

CHORT

Are we still on with the whole chort thing? Really?

yes

Fine. Chort.

Before we start: take any individual numbers in the front seven lightly. The chart tracks 51 snaps and the rotation was so heavy that hardly anyone got more than half of those. The nose tackles were only on the field for half of those 51 snaps, so if Washington didn't seem to do a whole lot that's because I've got maybe a dozen snaps for an interior DL playing a team that mostly tries short passes.

So… that's pretty awesome. CMU was overmatched and only got more so when their top QB and RB went out early; conclusions drawn here should be slathered with layers of disclaimers. But if you asked Michigan fans what they were worried about on defense, they would have said pass rush and safety.

The pass rush was dominant, sacking CMU five times and hurrying them another half-dozen. Most of those were not blitz-generated; a couple were Black roaring up the middle nearly uncontested on passing downs.

If that happens your best possible result in a flailing incompletion. Beyer, Clark, and Ojemudia all beat blockers to make plays. It was a good day.

The safeties… well, I did end up giving the big minus on CMU's long pass to Wilson. More on that later.

Finally: linebacker. I've got at total of 2.5 minuses, which is nuts. Playing linebacker is hard. Gameplan had a lot to do with that—freshman backup QB is not going over the middle, where linebackers often get minused—and Zurlon Tipton got hurt. Even so, I be like dang.

Are we still as excited about Not Jake Ryan as we were over the weekend?

Pretty much, yeah. On review those two guys didn't do much more than the spectacular stuff you are already aware of, but they didn't do much wrong, either. Four sacks is quite a return from one position, even if Beyer inexplicably didn't get credit for one. Beyer wins the cookie for beating guys on his sacks; Cam Gordon got help from Mattison on both of his. It was pretty shocking to see Beyer straight up pwn offensive linemen like this:

He was supposed to be the reliable, boring run defender guy. You can throw caveats at this all you want but you probably shouldn't: Michigan had one sack against UMass last year and Jake Ryan didn't play. The five sacks Michigan got from the SAM/WDE spots are only three and a half fewer than Michigan got from those positions all last year. Even if Central is a terrible team, Michigan still looks like they took a major step forward in the Right To Rush Four category.

The strongside ends are everywhere, scoring points.

Yes. There was little separation between them. Wormley made a couple plays, Heitzman made a very good one…

…and they seemed like they'd splits snaps all year. Godin even got in on the act, slanting under an OL to help tackle Tipton after Heitzman blew up the intended lane. I got the impression that CMU's tight end (the guy Heitzman blows up) was a very bad player over the course of the game and worry this is something that will evaporate in the heat of an actual opponent. Again, as first impressions go it was a necessary step towards optimism.

And what about Jarrod Wilson, you panic-inducing person, you?

His game mostly holds up. I do think he was the guy who was responsible for the long pass CMU completed, as you can (barely) perceive that he starts chasing after a deep crossing route, opening up the route behind that Furman tackles on.

I'm also a bit dubious about his actions on that cutback run that almost ended up in the endzone. He's hanging out on the backside of the play as the edge defender. The guy cannot get outside of him:

He gets bailed out by Countess and to a lesser extent Furman, who understandably steps playside but should probably not go under that linebacker once he sees the cutback. Furman makes up for it—you can see him outdistancing Wilson as they chug to the running back together—but that play should have been no gain or a TFL and it required Blake Countess bailing those guys out to stop it.

But Wilson blew up a screen, had nice coverage on a corner route that went out of bounds, and flashed that coveted free safety attribute on his pass breakup:

Ranginess. That is a high leap from a tall man that high-points a ball. I love Kovacs with every fiber of my being but he's never making that play. Nor is he vacating that zone above, yeah. If Wilson can just figure it out he showed athleticism that could make him very, very good. If.

Help me out coach types?

This one seems to be about three and a half mistakes, one from Black, one from Clark, and one from Ross, but I don't have a strong opinion here:

Black gets too far upfield. Clark gets beat up by his blocker in the end, and Ross leaves a gap to the outside… maybe. Maybe Black is supposed to be able to cut this off.

Heroes?

You can pick anyone who saw the field and have a pretty good answer. Black, Ojemudia, Beyer, and Cam Gordon stand out above a crowded field for decimating the Central Michigan pass protection.

Maybe not so heroic type persons?

Josh Furman did get lost a bit too much. His stock is actually up with me overall—he did look dang fast and laid a couple licks. Consistency is always the thing at safety, though.

I wanted Frank Clark to be more annihilating. He wasn't bad, necessarily, but he was overshadowed by not one but two other defensive end types.

What does it mean for Notre Dame and beyond?

Like the offense, a question-mark position did very well for itself, offering hope that it'll be night and day from last year. That was the OL on offense. Here it's the pass rush. We can't say anything for sure about either; both units turned in a necessary clubbing. In particular, Michigan's nickel package featuring Beyer/Clark/Black/Wormley looks very tough to block. And if they can flip out Wormley for Ryan midseason? Hoo boy.

Michigan is serious about their line depth. Everywhere except three-tech is in a co-starter situation, and in a good way.

Jarrod Wilson made a lot of progress over the offseason—or at least the last two weeks of it—and has a great package of size and speed.

Joe Bolden is basically a third starter at LB.

Strongside end is going to be a platoon. Early returns there are good. Like the pass rush, need more data before confidence comes.