Michigan vs Mississippi State Part Five: Michigan's Defense vs Illinois' Offense

This is the fifth post in an extensive series covering the matchup of Michigan and Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl on New Year's Day.  Previous posts can be found below:

Michigan's Offense vs Mississippi State's Defense
Analyzing Auburn's Offense vs Mississippi State's Defense
Michigan's Defense vs Mississippi State's Offense
Analyzing Mississippi State's Offense vs Kentucky

We'll look at two triple option plays Illinois ran against Michigan in this game to show how Michigan should and shouldn't defend it against Mississippi State.

Illinois opens in a Shotgun - 2 WR Right formation with 2 RBs in the backfield and is running a triple option.  In a triple option there are three ways the ball can go.  The QB can hand it off to one RB, or run an option to one side of the field with the other RB.  At that point the QB can keep the ball, or lateral the ball to the RB following him. Michigan is running with a 4 man line (smart!) and has 8 men in the box to defend the run against Illinois who doesn't have the best passer at quarterback (sounds like Mississippi State!).  Michigan is going to slant its line to run right (away from Kovacs), but Illinois' triple option is running the opposite way (towards Kovacs).

Cameron Gordon at the bottom of the screen and Jordan Kovacs at the top both have the job of containing the run to the inside.  Both are blitzing, but must do so to the outside of Illinois' offensive formation, in order to eliminate the possibility of a run getting outside the 8 defenders at the line of scrimmage.  If the run does get to the outside, Michigan will be in big trouble. 

The RB didn't receive the handoff and Nathan Scheelhaas (the QB) still has the ball.  Uh-oh.  All eight Michigan defenders at the line of scrimmage bit on the fake to the first RB.  Kovacs is circled in blue, as he blitzed to the inside, which as we'll see in the next frame screws up Michigan's defense.  Had he stayed outside of at least the quarterback, he would have forced Scheelhaas to pitch the ball to the RB. Illinois would have had a decent gain, but would have been stopped, as Ray Vinopal will come up from the deep safety spot to attack the option play, and likely would have stopped the RB.  The two linebackers, Jonas Mouton and Kenny Demens, are both looking inwards at the initial run fake, and will be too late to react to the option play going outside.  They expected Kovacs to contain the run or at least the quarterback.  As you can see, Michigan needs to keep its assignments as I emphasized in the last post, or things will go haywire on defense.

Ray Vinopal is circled and came up from his deep safety position.  Downfield, an Illinois WR has put a block on Courtney Avery, the CB to that side of the field.  Normally on this play, Kovacs would have been watching Scheelhaas the QB, while Vinopal would have watched the RB, going farther outside the play.  Instead, Vinopal is left to defend both, chooses Scheelhaas, and Michigan's hope of stopping the play ends here.  Had Vinopal maintained his assignment outside, Mouton might have gotten the tackle on Scheelhaas after a decent-sized gain, making Illinois continue the drive.  Instead, Mouton has to scramble to try to catch the RB running straight ahead at full speed.





Mouton misses the tackle above, and Jason Ford is left with only paydirt ahead.  Michigan (specifically Kovacs, and Vinopal to a lesser extent) didn't follow their assignments, lost contain on the run play, and because of that, Illinois' more athletic players bounced the play outside, dooming Michigan who stacked the box with 8 defenders.  The approach they had here was fine, the execution was simply poor.

How to defend the option correctly:

Illinois again opens in a Shotgun - 2 WR Right - 2 RB formation.  They'll be running the triple option again here.  Michigan opens in the same formation as in the first example, with a 4-man line, 2 LBs, Cameron Gordon (hybrid LB/S), and Jordan Kovacs in the box.  This time, the play is run at Gordon (to the bottom of the 8 men in the box), so he needs to keep contain on the QB.

Scheelhaas keeps the ball rather than handing it to the first RB, so the option will be going outside.  The two linebackers (again Mouton and Demens) are watching the play, Mouton watching up the middle, Demens watching to see if the run goes outside towards one of the tackles or if the option goes outside. Demens and Gordon are both unblocked, so Michigan has one defender to account for each offensive player.



Gordon keeps contain on the quarterback, forcing the pitch outside, and is inches away from actually batting down the lateral.  Demens is left to account for the RB.  What we can't see though that Demens knows, is that he has help below the screen in CB J.T. Floyd, so Michigan has a 2 on 1 opportunity here.  Demens' job is just to make Ford hesitate and decide to either run directly at him, or let him choose to run at J.T. Floyd, and allow Floyd to corral Demens.

Ford hesitates enough that even Cam Gordon has been able to get back in the play and Vinopal comes up from his deep safety spot to fill the last remaining gap.  There are now 4 Michigan defenders accounting for Ford, and this play will go for a loss.  Michigan executed perfectly here, and Demens did a great job not trying to be a hero and get the tackle himself, instead playing his assignment and pushing Ford outside to where he has help.  Had Gordon not kept contain on the quarterback, this approach wouldn't have worked as well, but if there's only one player running, it's better to make him run laterally than upfield.

Michigan is capable of stopping the triple option which MSU runs, but they have to execute perfectly to do so.  Illinois did score 67 in this game, so it's pretty obvious that for the most part they didn't execute.  However, they had the right approach on both plays, stacking 8 men in the box to help stop the run.  They'll need at least 7 men in the box on almost every play to stop the MSU defense, and I'd look for them to do that, and show this 4-man defensive line more, as they did in this Illinois game against a predominantly running team.