Linebackers in coverage

[SWC75]

Mike Lindsley was just complaining about using Dyshawn Davis to cover Demetris Fields on NW's last score. He felt you were asking for them to score when you do that. I recall that, after the tipped pass interception return, NW scored on a pass, not to a wideout but to Venric Mark, who is surely as fast as one and he was covered by Dan Vaughn. I'm not going to complain too much about a defense
that held a team like Northwestern to 337 yards and perhaps to two score without the punt returns, the pic and the lateral pass debacle. But I wonder if touchdown passes to guys covered by linebackers will be a problem this- and next week. USC surely saw that.

 

[Orangello]

If I'm not mistaken both of those TD's came on wheel routes where the LB is supposed to pick up the RB coming out of the backfield. Our LB's seem to have trouble with this. I don't believe that USC throws to their RB's as much as NW does.

 

[GoSU96]

If I'm not mistaken both of those TD's came on wheel routes where the LB is supposed to pick up the RB coming out of the backfield. Our LB's seem to have trouble with this. I don't believe that USC throws to their RB's as much as NW does.

Second one was not a wheel route.

Well designed pattern and got the matchup they wanted.

 

[bevosu]

Question..Isn't that partly the safety's responsibility to get over if he sees a deep pattern with a LB covering a fast receiver?

 

[PhatOrange]

and the second one was a pick play with two receivers going right and the receiver who caught the ball going left. Davis wasn't 'picked' per say but nonetheless.

Frankly it was good coverage. It took a perfectly - perfectly - thrown ball to make that a TD. The only thing I questioned was why Davis didn't jump. I'm not sure - it's almost like he thought the pass was going out of bounds.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Good offense beats good defense everytime. I think the problem is we didn't have the right personnel on the field throughout that drive. Some guys were standing around with their hands on their hips, almost looking winded and confused. Of you watch the last NW play, the receiver ran a great route and quite frankly no one was going to stop a perfect throw like the one we saw.

 

[OrangeinBoston]

Good offense beats good defense everytime. I think the problem is we didn't have the right personnel on the field throughout that drive. Some guys were standing around with their hands on their hips, almost looking winded and confused. Of you watch the last NW play, the receiver ran a great route and quite frankly no one was going to stop a perfect throw like the one we saw.

Just one question: What genius chose to rush 3 lineman on that play? Just askin'...

 

[NineOneSeven]

Just one question: What genius chose to rush 3 lineman on that play? Just askin'...

I'll take the defensive coordinator for 500 Alex. Agreed though, that was brutal. Prevent defenses never work except in madden.

 

[reedny]

Just one question: What genius chose to rush 3 lineman on that play? Just askin'...

That defensive set (3 in front) was right in front of our seats ... and I was like, 'oh no', the 'prevent'. I knew something was going to happen. As it was, we got no pressure, Fields ran a perfect route and the (backup) QB delivered a perfect strike for a fingertip catch -- ridiculously lucky if you ask me. But they nailed it.

Regardless, this is what you get when you rush 3 guys.

 

[nzm136]

I'll take the defensive coordinator for 500 Alex. Agreed though, that was brutal. Prevent defenses never work except in madden.

The prevent defense prevents your team from winning. I HATE them. Schaffer called a great game and is a fantastic coordinator, and we are lucky to have him, but I am a firm believer in the "if the defense worked all game long, don't change it at the very end" philosophy.
I dont mess with success.

 

[NineOneSeven]

The prevent defense prevents your team from winning. I HATE them. Schaffer called a great game and is a fantastic coordinator, and we are lucky to have him, but I am a firm believer in the "if the defense worked all game long, don't change it at the very end" philosophy.
I dont mess with success.

In prevent defenses everyone basically just has a "zone". Most division one qbs can find an opening for their receiver, especially since if a defense is in prevent d, they will have 4-5 wideouts on the field.

 

[nzm136]

In prevent defenses everyone basically just has a "zone". Most division one qbs can find an opening for their receiver, especially since if a defense is in prevent d, they will have 4-5 wideouts on the field.

*I don't think prevents put enough pressure on the other team's QB.

 

[OrangePA]

I'll take the defensive coordinator for 500 Alex. Agreed though, that was brutal. Prevent defenses never work except in madden.

Agreed.

Wanted the NW QB blitzed that entire series.

 

[rrlbees]

Agreed.

Wanted the NW QB blitzed that entire series.

Especially since they went with the passing QB over the more dangerous running, and starting, QB.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[NineOneSeven]

*I don't think prevents put enough pressure on the other team's QB.

Yup. Simple math: rushing 3 against 5 offensive linemen leaves far too much time for a decent QB.

 

[SWC75]

The prevent should be used for one play: the last one in the game.

 

[Scooch]

And yet, N'Western rushing 3 and dropping 8 for our last series completely stymied us.

I tend to agree about prevent D's. In this case they had to go 75 yards, so I can understand the thought that if we drop 8 we can at least hold them to 74 yards as time runs out.

But my approach is that if we apply pressure, have a breakdown, and they score on a big play, then we'd at least have a lot of time left to engineer one last drive (more than 44 seconds anyway).

Oh well.

 

[Chip]

Good offense beats good defense everytime. I think the problem is we didn't have the right personnel on the field throughout that drive. Some guys were standing around with their hands on their hips, almost looking winded and confused. Of you watch the last NW play, the receiver ran a great route and quite frankly no one was going to stop a perfect throw like the one we saw.

I wish we had called timeout when we noticed that Fields was lined up against Davis. Might have if we had 3 timeouts instead of 2 (sigh, we're still waiting for a review of the backwards pass). Agree with Phat that the throw was perfect, and with others that the 3 man rush allowed time and comfort for such a perfect throw. But had anyone else been matched up, the QB might have looked around. There were 5 WRs, and he only looked at Fields. He knew. Davis played him to the inside, once he cut to the outside, Davis was playing catchup. It was impressive that a LB could keep that close to a #1 WR like Fields, but it's still a matchup we're losing more than we're winning, so I wish we had called TO and made sure Davis was going against one of the other scrub WRs.

 

[kcsu]

In college ball a D is much better off bringing more pressure and forcing a quick decision and throw out of the QB than trying to cover. In the pros not the same. Against USC we need to pressure Barkley and hit him all game long. Put a helmet on him every play possible try to wear him down. If we give him time he will kill us i dont care if we put 11 DB's out there between him and the WR's they have they will score 100 points. Play to win dare to be great!!

 

[kingottoiii]

I wish we had called timeout when we noticed that Fields was lined up against Davis. Might have if we had 3 timeouts instead of 2 (sigh, we're still waiting for a review of the backwards pass). Agree with Phat that the throw was perfect, and with others that the 3 man rush allowed time and comfort for such a perfect throw. But had anyone else been matched up, the QB might have looked around. There were 5 WRs, and he only looked at Fields. He knew. Davis played him to the inside, once he cut to the outside, Davis was playing catchup. It was impressive that a LB could keep that close to a #1 WR like Fields, but it's still a matchup we're losing more than we're winning, so I wish we had called TO and made sure Davis was going against one of the other scrub WRs.

The problem was our personnel. No matter what there was going to be a mismatch there and they exploited it. It really made no sense to play only 5 DBs that whole drive. IMO that should have been Esk in coverage and he likely makes a play on that ball.

BTW did anyone else notice that we had ZERO offensive coaches in the booth. That makes zero sense to me. You can see things up there that you cannot on the sideline. Either Moore or Wheatley should have been there. Those are the guys who know our O the best, know our gameplan the best, and know NW's D the best. I think it was crazy not to have any input from a coach above.

 

[GoSU96]

I wish we had called timeout when we noticed that Fields was lined up against Davis. Might have if we had 3 timeouts instead of 2 (sigh, we're still waiting for a review of the backwards pass). Agree with Phat that the throw was perfect, and with others that the 3 man rush allowed time and comfort for such a perfect throw. But had anyone else been matched up, the QB might have looked around. There were 5 WRs, and he only looked at Fields. He knew. Davis played him to the inside, once he cut to the outside, Davis was playing catchup. It was impressive that a LB could keep that close to a #1 WR like Fields, but it's still a matchup we're losing more than we're winning, so I wish we had called TO and made sure Davis was going against one of the other scrub WRs.

They didn't rush three.

They actually had the base four three in there, rushed four with a zone blitz by Spruill and Crume dropping back down the middle.

 

[anglerman]

They didn't rush three.

They actually had the base four three in there, rushed four with a zone blitz by Spruill and Crume dropping back down the middle.

Davis had pretty good coverage, it was just a very well thrown ball.

 

[Crusty]

What I do not understand it that most teams play "prevent" in those situations. It always seems to get picked apart and I just wonder why all these experts continue to do it. Baffles me.

 

[suloyalfan]

Second one was not a wheel route.

Well designed pattern and got the matchup they wanted.

And not terrible coverage... it was just a very good pass right to the boundary. It was right in front of me in the corner... the ball was perfectly lofted over Dyshawn's head into the receivers hands. He could have covered closer, but it wasn't bad.

 

[suloyalfan]

I wish we had called timeout when we noticed that Fields was lined up against Davis. Might have if we had 3 timeouts instead of 2 (sigh, we're still waiting for a review of the backwards pass). Agree with Phat that the throw was perfect, and with others that the 3 man rush allowed time and comfort for such a perfect throw. But had anyone else been matched up, the QB might have looked around. There were 5 WRs, and he only looked at Fields. He knew. Davis played him to the inside, once he cut to the outside, Davis was playing catchup. It was impressive that a LB could keep that close to a #1 WR like Fields, but it's still a matchup we're losing more than we're winning, so I wish we had called TO and made sure Davis was going against one of the other scrub WRs.

I saw the replay... it was definitely a backwards pass.