This game was close until Alabama erupted late in the 2nd quarter for a 35-17 half-time lead on the way to a big 52-24 win over Ohio State and a National Championship. Let’s NAG It!
Two Plays Affected by Numbers
Numbers – #1
There is an age old rule in defense to only place one defender in each gap. That is typically true unless there are some really large offensive line splits and you could squeeze two guys through a gap on a special stunt. But here we are on the 1 yard line and the offensive line has 1 foot splits so two guys can never go through one gap. Does one of the defenders get wasted by sending two to a single gap on play?
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Yes, we lose the middle linebacker who attacks A gap. I understand that you have to take away the quarterback sneak, but you have two A gap 1 technique defensive lineman already doing that. If you want your middle linebacker to help then set #32 with his feet on the heels of this defensive lineman so he can defend sneak if the QB tries to jump over, but then let him re-act to the play and flow down the line. The QB immediately moves away from the center so you now need the middle linebacker to add his number to where the play is going. All the gaps are covered so the middle linebacker is always unblocked in this defensive front. If he had flowed down the line I don’t think the Alabama running back would have gotten in.
Numbers – #2
Ohio State hurried to the line out of the huddle as Kirk Herbstreit described on this touchdown for Ohio State. But who messed up on the numbers on this one?
The officials! The rule in football is that you have to have at least seven offensive players on the line of scrimmage. How many are on the line here? Only six! It is the first job of the referees who are on the sideline to determine how many players are on and off the ball to ensure that there are at least seven. You can have ten players on the line of scrimmage if you wanted, but you have to have at least seven.
That is why the announcement from the official on this type of penalty is ‘There were five men in the backfield’. Some might argue that the offensive players lined up as slots on both sides are really close to being counted as being on the line, but their helmets are not even with the belt buckle of the center from my vantage point, which is the rule. My guess is the receiver on the top right simply forgot that he was supposed to line up on the line. The rush to the line and the quick snap got one past the officials that time and gave Ohio State a touchdown!
Two Plays Affected by Angles
Angles – #1
I love how the all the receivers running through the middle of the field opened up this simple swing pass that produced favorable running Angles for a touchdown…
Ohio State is in man to man defense. Look as the corner #7 chases after the wide receiver #6 as the receiver moves on the snap to the right. But also notice that #6 stops after a few steps and turns around, but the defender #7 has lost sight of him and keeps going. So the only person left to try to make the tackle on the swing route is the safety #41 and he will never get the proper Angle to make this tackle from the position from which he had to react. I really like how Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit give kudos to Steve Sarkisian for the design of this play.
Kirk Herbstreit: “Give Steve Sarkisian credit for the different ways he moves him (#6 Devonta Smith) around and creates confusion to get him freed up.”
Chris Fowler: “Creates the right word, it is almost artistic.”
I agree wholeheartedly and the beauty goes on… If #7 does stay home to cover the Heisman winner or if there is zone coverage, there is a beautiful pick play developing behind all of this by wide receiver #17 picking for wide receiver #8. #8 was coming open as a 2nd read in the quarterback’s progression too!
Angles – #2
A quarterback has certain Angles he must leverage when buying time to throw. Watch how the Ohio State quarterback does a great job stepping up into the pocket and keeping his eyes downfield…
First kudo goes to the Ohio State running back for coming back to the right and picking up the blitzing linebacker. That was a physical and low block. As a quarterback you only want to run to the right or left out of the pocket if the edge rusher has come in too tight and you can escape with that open Angle to the outside. But most of the time those edge rushers will get pushed up-field by your offensive tackles. This is where the quarterback must step up into the pocket towards the line of scrimmage since that is the Angle he is given to buy some more time to throw. Great job by the Ohio State quarterback in stepping up and delivering this throw. My only additional coaching point would be to stop shuffling towards the line once the danger has cleared. He has space at the 35 yard line when he has already cleared the threat by the blitzing linebacker, but ends up delivering the ball past the 34, which increased the odds of getting the ball knocked down.
Two Plays Affected by Grass
Grass – #1
Cover 2 – Where is the hole to throw the ball? Another way to say this is… Where is the Grass? Look at the 45 second mark in the film. One of my favorite phrases as a coach is ‘The game is talking to you. Are you listening?’ Are the corners facing straight up at the wide receiver or turned in towards the quarterback? The corners are facing in on this 2×2 formation which means zone for the corners. Those corners have the flat and will try to route the receiver inside to give the hash safety time to cover the grass toward the sideline, which was hit on the previous play actually. So the two wide receivers run up the sideline to open up the middle of the field and…
So who has to cover the Grass in the middle of the field? I think you can tell in two ways.
1) At the 41 second mark you can see the receiver moving from right to left. This motion serves as a great cue to the quarterback because it shows the defender moving with the receiver which means man to man for the inside receivers.
2) At the 45 second mark you can see that the middle linebacker is not playing deep enough to drop into that hole in the middle of the field as he is at the same depth as the outside linebackers. If that middle linebacker was dropping to that deep middle hole then we would call it the Tampa 2 defense, but that is not what we have.
In the end the outside receivers move the safeties to the sideline and create lots of Grass in the middle of the field for the right slot receiver #88 to run the seam and create an explosive play with an amazing one-handed grab.
Grass – #2
Grass can be created by blown coverages. As Chris Fowler announced ‘They lost the Heisman winner in coverage’ on this play…
I think there must have been some type of miscommunication on this play. The corner #7 guarding the wide receiver #6 at the top of the screen looks like he is playing Cover #2 and forcing an inside release and then letting the receiver go. But at the start of the play the top safety is bailing to the center of the field and the other safety is rolling down to the hook zone to the field which makes it look like the safeties are playing Cover 3 or 1. Whenever a receiver, like #8 on the bottom of the screen lines up like that so close to the formation you have to communicate and expect some type of crossing route. If the top corner #7 would have played cover 3 and kept #6 in front of him, then #8 would have been open on the crossing route most likely since the outside linebacker on the top side had been sucked up by the great running fake. Just a beautifully designed play and a great read with the broken coverage. I would guess Alabama would even run a screen off of this in the future to that same running back who faked in. The game just never ends…. 🙂
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