Reviewing The Spring Game

 

 

 

Ignoring the relevance of todays’ top picture, I wanted to break down some plays on defense where I think the secondary is going to have to improve.   My Opinion | I think the rest of the week will be all about the secondary, and Zac may work on the QB battle. Contrary to what every ones believes, I think the battle is very dead even. Both guys seem cool, collected, and able to bounce back from mistakes. Brewer has some edge, but that’s because of the small success last year. With a new system in place, I think it’s fair for the position to be fair game.     On to the Secondary….     Here we are with a safety being one man high (or single high safety). We have Tre Porter (red injury jersey) rolled down somewhat eyeing the inside WR. The offense is lined up in what we called in high school Texas formation (2 wr’s on both side)     Now we are at the snap of the ball and our cornerbacks are playing off-man bail technique. I am not a fan of bail technique because I want to be pressed in a wr’s face at all times to potentially jump routes. Some will argue that playing off man requires excellent footwork, and I agree, but I just like roughing up the pretty boys. Anyway! Back to the play at hand. We have our bottom screen middle linebacker eyeing the number 2 wr, our bottom screen outside linebacker ready to attack, while the top of the screen outside and inside linebackers seem to be ready to pass off any threat that goes pass them, essentially sitting under routes. Our high safety is playing middle field and reading the quarterback.   This shot is what I wanted to talk about. If you take a look at the inside wr on the top of the shot, you will see him running free essentially when the linebacker is passing him off. Though it’s just a shot, it seems like our high safety is playing way too high in order for him to explode left or right. (In this case, make a play on the inside wr).   Due to the quarterback essentially looking away from the touchdown the play (for the offense) is busted and the defense escapes one, but even in this shot you can see a potential problem with running one high safety. That safety has to be able to “cover grass”. If not, then we will have more than a few busted plays like this that will result in teams like Baylor exposing us. In any other offense with a more seasoned quarterback, that WR is going to be a hot read.