Good morning everyone.

I want to share a concept with you that is both bad news and good news.  Let me explain the bad news first.  I believe the players are confused about the concepts they are being taught.  This isn’t a direct criticism of the coaches in my view because offenses are way ahead of defenses at this point (in my opinion). Let me explain.  Back in Ancient Times, when pharaohs weren’t mummies yet (that is when us old geezers were playing football), Cornerbacks and Safeties had simple rules for coverages.  Cornerbacks would cover guys until they passed off coverage to Safeties.  Or both would double team receivers.

When a Safety helped in middle of the field, he would look for Post Patterns, Deep Seam Patterns and Dig routes (the old school version of a Down and In). When he helped cover the sidelines, he looked for Fade Patterns, Corner Routes, or Post Corner Routes. Most Coverage Packages were simple: Cover 2- two deep Safeties and 2 Cornerbacks that would cover short routes outside.  

Linebackers would cover the short middle.  In Cover 2, the Safeties must look for both deep middle and deep sideline routes. Or Cover 4-in which all four of those positions covered 4 zones deep.  Three defenders would cover the short middle and outside.  Zone coverages emphasizes taking the short routes away so the Quarterback must look further downfield to complete a pass. 

Of course, Man Coverage existed, which was every defender was responsible for a Receiver.

Safeties always prioritize preventing anyone from running past them as a general rule of thumb.  It appears the Safeties are horrible at man-to-man coverage.  That explains why Lanning has them 18,000 yards from the line of scrimmage. Which leads me to believe I have figured out why OBD present every team a Grand Canyon to pillage at will. I am going to show you one play.  It is a key play in the Boise State game on their very first drive.  OBD failed on this play.  But here is the good news.  The coverage they tried to execute works very well for the personnel on our team.

First, I want to show you my amateur version of Sports Center.  It describes what Oregon’s strategy is on the play.  It is showing Cover 3-three deep safeties and the Linebackers and Cornerbacks blanketing the short middle and outside routes.

 

Now that we witnessed the high school version of  “ I want to be in media”, let me explain why this can be good news for Our Beloved Ducks.

 

Brandon Finney and Iffy Obidebwu are lockdown Corners that are flat out hard to beat.  Finney is so good, they were putting him at Nickel to cover the fast slot receivers. When run properly, Cover 3 solves most of OBD’s cover issues.  It shuts down the middle routes (the dig routes in particular-where wide receivers run horizontally to the middle of the field).   

If the Linebackers find and cover guys they are supposed to instead of looking at the QB, the short middle of the field is no longer an issue. But the coverage can be converted easily to Cover 4 post snap-which is even better. Just about every type of deep route is covered because Cover 4 Zone can be designed as a Matchup Zone-which is essentially Man coverage.  That fits perfectly with Iffy and Finney’s excellent coverage skills. 

 

The challenge is the Safeties aren’t taught proper coverage skills.  In this case, rules.  They are positioned too far off the line of scrimmage pre snap, and they don’t seem to know which guys they should be covering.  Hence, in the play I showed, Finney runs to the middle of the field instead of covering the deep third (the sideline) like he was supposed to.  This is so common, I believe Offensive Coordinators are simply sending receivers to areas they know the Safeties won’t cover.  

 

I showed a pretty amateur description of Cover 3.  I apologize for that as I am trying learn how to properly diagram plays and concepts in video format.  I want to be able to show what the coverage is, and the types of coverages that would suit OBD. So please bear with me.  Once I get up to speed, I can show you some awesome stuff.

 

In any event, Lanning’s doctor visits will require a reboot.  Which, as David Marsh has pointed out, may require a new set of coaches.  We will have to wait and see about that.  The good news in my opinion is this is a fairly simple challenge to solve if going back to basics becomes a priority.

 

As usual, I look forward to your comments.

Fantastic stuff Mike, great information and comments!

Great stuff, Mike....thank you!

I was rewatching the BSU, OSU and USC games, again, throughout the night. Being old has its privilrges!

Within the DL version of the Mint Defense, it sure looks like the safeties are 15 yards deep. If the safeties cannot execute man to man covererage then everything has to be kept in front of them. It presents a prevent defense for the opponent to attack. They are taking what the OBD's defense gives them.

OSU beat that defense to a pulp. Yikes.....

I will be looking even more closely today.

Go Ducks........

Thanks for the analysis, Mr. West. Very informative and presented well.

I apologize for changing the subject. I am in the east and up earlier than most of you.

My thinking is that run defense will be a bigger issue against UCLA. They run it much better than they pass it. Aaron Flowers is out, which is unfortunate for OBD, as this should be very much an Aaron Flowers sort of game.

ATQ had an analysis yesterday of UCLA. I know their track record on prediction is not spotless, but they provide some interesting information. Two things stood out. First, UCLA has benefited from short fields resulting from turnovers. They are not as good at sustaining drives as one might expect. Second, their linemen are heavy and possibly not that mobile. They do have depth, however.

I wonder if it would make sense for OBD to pull on DB off the field to add another defensive lineman. I think our DL is probably more athletic but lighter on the outside with Matayo and Teitum. If we can put them in second and long consistently, I like our chances. This is assuming that Hampton can work out the coverages with a 5-2-4. He has had two weeks to install something.

Just a thought.

Thanks, Mike. I really appreciate you guys have a much better understanding of the details of this game than I do, and who are willing to share it. I think you did a great job here and I certainly learned a lot from it.

Great post Mike and highly informative. In general, it feels like the Ducks over complicate their defensive schemes that lead to eventual breakdown. It's like a high school basketball coach running plays that would work great if he had NBA all stars running them. I prefer more intuitive strategies that allow players to rely and react with instincts and letting 4/5 star players do 4/5 star things.

It feels like the complexity of the defense deducts a star from players skill level as they have to stop and think what to do instead of just doing it. When it comes to football Xs and Os, I'm no expert. But with basketball I'm closer and in that sport I can tell you that it's better to have a few basic principles that the team is on the same page with than an encyclopedia thick playbook that players get lost in in real time.

It seems like the Ducks should have the DBs to stick with receivers and line backers to always be around the ball and that alone should put them in the top twenty in most defensive statistics. We'll see how this year plays out but at some point, I hope Lanning goes back to the drawing board and dials up a simpler defensive scheme that just lets the talent do what they can do especially in this new one and done portal era.

With Oregon’s excellent cover corners and defensive lineman, it seems like our defense should play man-to-man with one high safety, the overwhelming majority of snaps. Put more players in the box and zone blitz and/or run stunts and twists up front to get to the QB quicker on passing downs.

Of course, you have to mix coverages up once in awhile. Most of the passing yards USC gained seemed to be against zone coverage, which Oregon is not executing very well, or well designed plays (e.g., the long passing TD that matched Oregon’s linebacker against one of USC’s best receivers).

There are few teams in college football, IMHO, who can consistently beat our CBs. Ohio State being the obvious choice on our remaining schedule.

Edited 53 minutes ago53 min by OregonDucks

Thank you Mike for the analysis. That begs probably the most important question about the defense: is Chris Hampton really any good at being a DC or even the safeties coach?

Stay with it Mike. You did good. Looking forward to more and watching you grow over the next few months.