I have to admit, I’m actually not a huge proponent of the “Brian VanGorder’s scheme is too complicated” theory to explain the struggles of the Notre Dame defense. In fact, my plan for this post was to look at fundamentals and pay very little attention to scheme. However, as I re-watched the game, by the end of the 1st quarter I could no longer ignore the elephant in the room. The scheme was a problem. In particular, I was mystified by the almost obsessive reliance on dropping linemen into coverage. While I think this technique can be effective in limited use, there is very little evidence to suggest it has been effective at Notre Dame. Too often, the result of lineman dropping into coverage is little to no pressure on the quarterback and linemen who really don’t know what they are doing in pass coverage. Let’s take a look at the film and I’ll show you what I mean.
Late in the 1st quarter, 2nd and 8. Michigan State is going to run an empty set with 4 receivers to the wide side of the field and one receiver to the short side. For the most part the patterns are designed to get first down yardage with a check down to the tight end if necessary (green lines).
Notre Dame will respond… with uh… this. Let’s start in backfield, this looks to be some sort of combination of man coverage underneath, with 3 deep zone coverage over the top (blue lines). However as you’ll see later, Cole Luke (# 36, blue star) on the bottom of the screen shot uses man cover technique and for some reason Drue Tranquill (# 23) will roll his coverage away from the 4 receiver side. I’m not exactly sure what this coverage is supposed to be, but we won’t get bogged down on the details right now.
In terms of pressure, this is going to be a BVG special. It’s a 4 man rush, but it’s designed to confuse the quarterback. Instead of linebackers dropping and defensive linemen rushing, linebackers will rush (red lines) and defensive linemen (in this case a defensive tackle and a defensive end) will drop (pink lines). I know your mind is blown right? Up is down, night is day, cats and dogs are living together.
A fraction of a second after the snap. This screen shot illustrates one of the problems with the vaunted Brian VanGorder pressure package. The ball is on its way to the quarterback (yellow circle) and the players who are bringing the pressure are still a great distance away (red lines). Unless the quarterback holds the ball for a long time, this pressure concept isn’t going to work. The linebackers simply start too far from the quarterback. Unfortunately, this “blitz from a distance” concept is fairly common in BVG’s scheme and it rarely works.
Let’s check in and see how the coverage is doing. On the bottom of the screen shot you can see that Cole Luke appears to be using man cover technique and focusing on a single receiver (blue line). Drue Tranquill has turned his back on the 4 receiver side and is running towards the single receiver side (blue circle). That leaves one of the slot receivers wide open (green star).
Fortunately we have the tight end (who is running a three yard check down pattern) triple covered (pink circle). I guess you could argue it’s not really triple coverage because two of the guys involved are defensive linemen (pink stars) and really don’t know what they are doing as pass defenders.
I’m at a loss for words here. This just seems bizarre. As an aside, I’m not sure why I put that pink arrow in the circle, but I’ve left it there for your enjoyment. You’re welcome.
The coverage is an issue; however a little pressure can hide coverage mistakes pretty quick. Let’s see how we’re doing with the linebacker pressure.
The scheme actually did cause confusion. Te’von Coney (# 4 red star) is going to be unblocked (red line) because the guard (yellow arrow) didn’t see him coming. On the other side of the formation, for some reason, James Onwualu (#17, red arrow) has run right into the back of Isaac Rochelle (# 90) allowing one player to block both of them. Even if he wasn’t running in to his own teammate, Onwualu is too far away from the quarterback to make much of a difference. The quarterback (yellow circle) is planting his back foot which means he’s ready to throw. For the pressure to be effective, it needs to be in his face now.
The quarterback is about to throw to the receiver in the yellow circle. Although Te’von Coney is unblocked (red star), he won’t make it in time. If Jay Hayes (# 93) was closer to the pink star, we would be in pretty good position. The circled receiver would be bracketed underneath and over the top (pink star, blue star) and the quarterback would have to go to a second read. This might just give the blitz enough time to create pressure. Or maybe even get a sack. Of course that isn’t a guarantee. If the quarterback goes to his second read there is an uncovered receiver on the other side of the formation (yellow star).
On a totally unrelated note, it almost looks like Jay Hayes is a little uncomfortable dropping into coverage. It’s as if he is a defensive lineman coming off an injury who is being asked to drop into coverage (something he doesn’t do very often) and defend players in the open field who are much faster and more agile. Now if I could just figure out how to do sarcasm font…
The ball is caught. Not ideal, but also not the end of the world. All you have to do is make the tackle and this play doesn’t hurt too much. Unfortunately, Nick Coleman (# 24) comes flying up, out of control and is about to miss the tackle. To make matters worse he takes the wrong angle and misses to the inside (blue arrow). If he attacks from the outside (orange arrow) at least he turns the ball carrier back to the inside where he has help (pink arrows).
Another screen shot, another poor angle. This time Drue Tranquill (# 23, blue circle) is the culprit. You can see that he has taken the wrong angle and left the receiver plenty of space to cut back to the inside (yellow line). A more direct route to the ball carrier would help eliminate this (blue line).
And there are our two pass coverage linemen (pink stars). The big fellas are trying, but they’re getting tired. That’s a long way for linemen to run.
As predicted the receiver cut to the inside and Tranquill missed the tackle (blue arrow). Fortunately, Jarron Jones (# 94, pink arrow) is going to make the tackle. Guess dropping the defensive tackle did pay off…
Final Thoughts
The scheme did Notre Dame no favours here. The blitzing linebackers started too deep, the dropping linemen struggled in coverage and the secondary seemed confused about their responsibilities. The cherry on top was two missed tackles in the open field.
Not a good look for the Notre Dame defense. Poor play design and poor fundamentals are a toxic combination.
@Don’t linemen get gassed by the 2nd quarter?@
Yeah all that dropping into coverage 🙂
Great write up Larz. Is this just getting too cute to run it so often? Do even NFL teams run this many blitzs with lineman dropping? If they do is there a big difference because of the athleticism of NFL DL or are NFL teams just a lot better at executing it – perhaps with having their LB’s much closer to the action when the play starts?
Thanks IC23
I’m not sure how common it is in the NFL. I definitely think ND uses it too much. That was probably the third or fourth time in the quarter a lineman dropped. I think part of it is they are scared to play a bunch of man, so they are trying to get creative with the pressure package instead of straight out blitzing. Although BVG has been doing this sort of thing for a while and hasn’t had much success.
Maybe this is why BVG should be fired, but if it isn’t working why do we keep doing it? I mean this seriously, but what could the mindset or reasoning behind it? Is it thinking that it is bad execution and so that can be fixed? If Tranquil goes the other way, Hayes is out a bit and the LBers start up a little closer then this works amazingly!
Yeah conceptually it can work. But the execution is poor. I don’t know why he keeps going back to this particular well. It doesn’t seem to be working
Perfect example and explanation of WHY we complain about BVG’s scheme and his “dropping linemen into coverage.” It’s not that he does it, it’s that he does it with a very poor design, dropping players who are ill-prepared to execute the coverage, and blitzes that take poor routes from far away that don’t get to the QB. I’d like to see what a successful, well-designed zone blitz with a lineman dropping back looks like. Perhaps there are some posts on Smart Football or something demonstrating. The bottom line is that THIS isn’t it. Thanks, Larz. Great stuff, as usual.
Thanks KG
i did a post on OFD in 2013 where ND used it successfully. ASU ran a really shallow crosser and It was tough to stop. So they would drop Louis Nix into coverage every now and then. It was really effective. I also think it works well when you drop a lineman to replace a blitzing LB. the QB is looking to throw the hot read and all of a sudden a lineman is there
Here’s an example of effective use of dropping linemen into coverage
http://www.onefootdown.com/2013/10/15/4834832/ofd-films-iso-cam-irish-defensive-line
BVG’s insistence on dropping linemen into coverage might be my biggest problem with his defense.
I know, I know. Zone blitzes work, lots of teams use them, etc. But he does it way too much and often with our best linemen. How many times did Sheldon Day drop into coverage on third downs last year? I don’t care because I know it was more than zero, which is ridiculous. Day was probably our best pass rusher and to take him out of any play like that is a terrible decision. If I was the opposing OC and saw Sheldon Day drop back instead of pass rushing I would throw a party. Oh, and BVG had Romeo Okwara, our one other effective pass rusher, covering tight ends thirty yards downfield. I simply cannot wrap my head around this strategy. Football doesn’t need to be hard. Have your best pass rushers rush the passer.
And now we have Jay Hayes with a bum ankle dropping into coverage and Daelin Hayes doing the same thing. I get that Daelin is athletic and he helped cause that INT, but maybe it’s best to just let our freak 5-star athlete get after the passer instead of asking him to cover drag routes by slot receivers?
Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.
@Well burgs, with the abundance of sacks we have this year, we can afford to drop lineman into coverage @
Here is another example of dropping a DL. This is a play from last night where the Pats drop Chris Long (he is standing and plays more of an OLB/Edge Defender role, but is still more of a pass rusher). Again, similar to Larz’s OFD film room, the dropping lineman is designed to make up for an otherwise weak point in the defense/to stop a specific play or route, not as a base defensive play where you are just sending them in general pass coverage because you are blitzing LBs from 10 yards away.
http://www.patspulpit.com/2016/9/23/13030528/how-patriots-succeeded-in-taking-away-texans-big-passing-plays-mccourty-harmon-collins-butler-ryan
Yup 🙂
I think this brings up another valuable point–the whole idea behind a zone blitz is that the QB is expecting a D-lineman to rush, and therefore that zone is clear. Drop the lineman and that read becomes wrong, and forces the QB to adjust. But if you over-use it, then offenses can expect and prepare for it. ASU didn’t expect Nix to drop, so it was effective in stopping their play. If I as an OC know that BVG will drop lineman a lot during a game, I can plan for plays that take advantage of the vacated lanes, especially if those lanes aren’t being covered by the blitzing linebackers or safeties.
I picture our blitzes like this, with the ND player as Billy, “just missing” the mailman/QB:
Well said, well done
Great article, Larz. Thanks for doing the work to explain to the rest of us why we’re seeing what we are on the field.
Thanks!
I love these Larz, good job and thanks. This kind of what I was alluding to in a previous post. When you ask someone to do one or two things, they can do them exceptionally, but as you add tasks, the quality of performance begins to drop off. It’s almost inevitable in my experience.
By the way, I just watched the Texans/Patriots game(I love watching Will Fuller zip past everyone still. But I digress.) Both teams had linemen dropping into coverage throughout the game. Clearly, there is a big difference between professional football players and student athletes, but the pro’s definitely utilize dropping linemen into coverage often.
So, this made me go check out the highlights from that game. Not much sign of Fuller in the 5 minutes of clips that i watched since the Texans got demolished. Searched youtube for more and noticed the “V” on the back of his jersey. Did we know he was a “the 5th”? If not, doesn’t that deserve a post-ND admission to the Finer Things Club? If yes, why wasn’t he already a member?
Thanks RK,
I would tend to agree with you, it seems like they are trying to do too much. Jack of all trades, master of none sort of thing. I think the problem is made worse by the limited amount of time players have to practice and meet because of NCAA rules.
Larz, was Rochelle supposed to take a different path (more to the inside) to free up that lane for Onwualu ? In looking at this play can you fathom a guess as to how many players didn’t carry out their assignment quite as expected ?
Great question tlndma,
I was going to write about Rochelle and Onwualu in the article, but I didn’t have the time. Here’s what I believe happened: Rochelle was supposed to go to the outside where the tackle would engage him. Onwualu was supposed to make it look like he was rushing to the outside and at the last moment, he was supposed to cut to the inside (similar to what Coney did on the other side of the play, d-linemen took the outside, linebacker cuts to the inside). The guard won’t see Onwualu because he’s coming from the outside and the tackle won’t be able to block him because he’s engaged with Rochelle. I suspect that Onwualu just made a mistake and cut too late. Regardless, your point is bang on, one of those two players needed to be to the inside.
In terms of who made mistakes on that play, I don’t know for sure, taking a guess I would say the following:
Scathing!
By the way tomorrow is BVG’s 30th game at ND. Maybe we will finally see things click? Kidding…
Him and Redfield.
Not to pile on, but… We run a “blitz” that somehow features four rushers against five blockers. I guess it’s not technically a blitz since we’re not overloading the line, but at the same time that questions why the heck we’re even doing it. I know this is one of your pet peeves, Larz, and I agree – I really, really don’t understand the frequency with which we drop defensive lineman into coverage. Two or three times a game to give them a different look or something to think about? OK. But it seems like we do it on almost every passing down, leaving lineman who can’t consistently win one-on-one battles to fight one-on-two battles. And on this play, we’re dropping Jarron Jones, who’s just back from injury, and Jay Hayes, who’s just back from injury. They’re probably the two least-mobile defensive linemen on the depth chart right now.
I don’t get. It’s mind-boggling. It doesn’t make sense from any angle.
I hear you Brendan, I don’t get it.
Great writeup, nice to see a lot of reporters tweeting about this piece, it’s certainly worthy of a lot of attention.
It’s kind of sad that Tranquil seemingly made a bad read to go to the wrong side of the field, but hey at least the ball ended up getting thrown there…And then he doesn’t make the play anyways. Sigh. That kind of seems like the safety play in a nutshell in the past couple of years, poorly aligned, bad reads and inconsistent tackling.
Thanks hooks,
And to be fair to Tranquill, he may have just been reading the QB’s eyes, but that’s a dangerous game to be playing. It really is the safety play in a nutshell
All of that true, as you mentioned and the screenshots clearly showed, they were not well prepared for a play like that to be run on alignment and the blitz of Onwalu. I’m almost surprised the QB didn’t think to move off that initial read and look to the other side of the field (easy enough to say from a keyboard days later). Might have been lucky to have a relatively inexperienced guy this time. Gotta think if that happens last year and a really capable college QB like Connor Cook is back there he would have found the uncovered WR and it’s probably a TD.
I suspect Tranquill bails toward the middle of the field at the snap because he has been told the D linemen need over the top coverage more than Cole Luke does. Another gift of the scheme.
As a result of scheme alone, we left two receivers uncovered to the field and one was an easy TD if the QB had seen him.
It’s an indictment of BVG’s scheme if the players aligned as he had wanted them at the snap. And it’s equally an indictment of BVG if the players had not understood how to set up and were in the in the wrong spot because he either isn’t teaching them what he wants well enough or he is teaching them until he’s blue in the face and even then they aren’t getting it which is something he should know by now.
Well this wasn’t very fun. Kind of like watching the defense in the MSU game.
Hello there,
First article read on the new site, and it is nothing less than I expected.
Just stopped in to say great work Larz. Really insightful article that makes me happy because it gives at least a slight bit of credence to hating BVG without knowing anything about defense (except that 50 points is not good).
Thanks DM4. Great to see you commenting here!!!
I think your last sentence in the article clearly and concisely puts it all in context Larz. Great stuff, as usual.
Bonus question, do you have any idea why we’ve been tackling so poorly?
Thanks Kiwi,
I can’t say for sure why we are tackling so poorly, but it relates to a couple of things. First of all, the more talented your players are, the better your team tackles, especially in the open field. It’s pretty easy to teach great athletes to tackle. If you have someone who isn’t as good athletically it get’s more difficult. They have to be very good in their technique. Drue Tranquill would be a good example, he unfortunately isn’t as fast as he was before two knee surgeries. That’s why he took the angle he took in the screen shot in this post, he was worried the guy would be too fast for him. The other thing ND doesn’t do well in space is break down and take away a side when tackling. Too much flying up and doing the superman lunge at people
So many compliments for Larz already, so I’ll just give him props for “favours” over “favors.” ‘Bout time we got some exotic language to go with our exotic blitzes!
You mean Mandarin Chinese wasn’t exotic enough?
Thanks Aaron