JT5 and wasting Timeouts

Sure.

What matters for the reads is whether the front is 'odd' or 'even.' So a 4-3 alignment has 4 down linemen, so that's an even front. A 3-4 is an odd front. A 3-4 with both OLBs walked up to the line is effectively a 5-2, also an odd front.

So your reads change between fronts, not just in terms of who the option key is, but who we block and who we let through. So not only does the QB have to get the read right, so does the entire line and the leading A back.

Most teams who play against us pick one front they're going to use, and then have different defensive calls they use out of that front. So Miami and Georgia last year used the same alignment, 4-3 even front, deep mike LB. After the first drive, our reads are pretty much the same, so we settle in to running our stuff and everybody's on the same page.

ND is the first team I've seen that legitimately switched the entire front with almost every defensive call. They'd go 4-3, 3-4, 3-5, 4-4, 5-2, 5-3, and then they had maybe 2 or 3 defenses they would pair with each alignment. Mostly this screwed up our line. They would let two people through instead of one, so then we couldn't eliminate the other with the read. That or they'd just get beat on blocks, but a lot of times we weren't getting beat physically, we were not understanding who our man was.

The closest team to this is VT, who shows a 4-3 and then blitzes (or doesn't) an OLB to make it a 5-2 presnap, which would change the read at the last second. But not even VT rolls so many different personnel groupings and formations.

It was a very sophisticated defensive system. And yet, when we made all the blocks we'd still get a 60 yard run. And yet, if we could just block in pass pro and catch, we still could have moved the ball, because they were keyed up to stop the run and our guys were in single coverage most of the game.

Has to be the best analysis I've read so far. Thanks!
 
Sure.

What matters for the reads is whether the front is 'odd' or 'even.' So a 4-3 alignment has 4 down linemen, so that's an even front. A 3-4 is an odd front. A 3-4 with both OLBs walked up to the line is effectively a 5-2, also an odd front.

So your reads change between fronts, not just in terms of who the option key is, but who we block and who we let through. So not only does the QB have to get the read right, so does the entire line and the leading A back.

Most teams who play against us pick one front they're going to use, and then have different defensive calls they use out of that front. So Miami and Georgia last year used the same alignment, 4-3 even front, deep mike LB. After the first drive, our reads are pretty much the same, so we settle in to running our stuff and everybody's on the same page.

ND is the first team I've seen that legitimately switched the entire front with almost every defensive call. They'd go 4-3, 3-4, 3-5, 4-4, 5-2, 5-3, and then they had maybe 2 or 3 defenses they would pair with each alignment. Mostly this screwed up our line. They would let two people through instead of one, so then we couldn't eliminate the other with the read. That or they'd just get beat on blocks, but a lot of times we weren't getting beat physically, we were not understanding who our man was.

The closest team to this is VT, who shows a 4-3 and then blitzes (or doesn't) an OLB to make it a 5-2 presnap, which would change the read at the last second. But not even VT rolls so many different personnel groupings and formations.

It was a very sophisticated defensive system. And yet, when we made all the blocks we'd still get a 60 yard run. And yet, if we could just block in pass pro and catch, we still could have moved the ball, because they were keyed up to stop the run and our guys were in single coverage most of the game.
Thanks for the break down.

Seems like they must have invested a lot of time into stopping us.

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as beej stated though, ND's defense was totally exploitable if we were just able to give JT some time to throw. I haven't seen our OL look that bad in a long time.
 
My question is this: If they're changing the formation up front every other play to throw our line and QB off, what can be done to get the correct reads?

I was shocked that we couldn't kill them over the air when they stacked the box every play. I guess a mixture of line not giving enough time to JT, receivers not getting open and JT having a bad day. I don't know, I have to go back and watch it again.
 
Thanks for the break down.

Seems like they must have invested a lot of time into stopping us.

After Navy nearly beat them last year, and they saw us on the schedule, they got worried. Their secondary coach was going to have to quit anyway for health reasons, because he has failing kidneys, so they gave him a desk job who's only responsibility was to spend all year coming up with a custom defense to beat us. Everyone's crediting BVG on the win, but I'm not even sure BVG made the play calls. Note they spent more time in a 3-4 than any other alignment, and BVG is a famous 4-3 guy.

Effectively they dedicated one entire coach to this game and the Navy game.
 
I have to go and watch the tape but I don't see any way we were getting 40 seconds on the play clock like we should have. Almost every time I looked it was at 25 to start.
 
They obviously spent a lot of time prepping for us. Probably why they nearly crapped the bed against Virginie.

It looked to me like the two tackles were pinching in to take away the dive on a lot of situations. Our guys couldn't get to the LBers and we made 23 and 38 look like future NFL hall of famers.

The pass to the B back out of the backfield was a good adjustment but way too late.

The inexperience of our receivers is showing in that they didn't get separation and quit on routes. JT tried to throw to Jeune over and over and it appeared he was trying to hide behind the coverage man.

I wish JT could scramble a little better. He could be an awesome weapon.
 
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