How Ohio State beat Oregon: The Wham/Trap Play

[FishDuck]

Let’s look at the first of the two major running plays that hurt the Ducks in the NC game, and what brought the Buckeye success about. This analysis is going to teach us a ton about linebacker play, and while I hated the play—I loved learning more about this important area of the team. As always—read over there and discuss here. Thanks to all who help me—

http://fishduck.com/2015/02/how-ohio-st ... trap-play/

[chapelhillduck]

That hurts to watch and read

[karlhungis]

Shutting down our offense didn't help us either.

[ncduck]

Shutting down our offense didn't help us either.

Yeah, we sort of dropped the ball on offense.

[karlhungis]

Shutting down our offense didn't help us either.

Yeah, we sort of dropped the ball on offense.

Too soon.

[GrandpaDuck]

I absolutely appreciate your website and its contributors and articles, but I think there is a chance that the analysis is off on one or both of the examples. I say "possibility" not "certainty" because like your author I don't know the play-call and assignments on the given plays. (I'm going to play Mattingly's attorney.)

The second play is the one I have my most doubts as to whether Mattingly screwed up his assignment though at first glance I asked myself, what the heck was he thinking.

After watching a little more carefully, my guess is that on that play Mattingly was assigned to spy/follow the H-Back to the ball, to counter the blocking mismatches OhSU was creating at the point of attack. Like a Blitz it was a calculated gamble.

Notice how at the snap Armstead jumps inside onto the guard. The defensive play design knows that the Linebacker on that side might be pulled out of his support position in following the H-Back so the linemen are re-positioned. The 'A' gap is covered by the 2 gaping NT and the DE who has slid over and is now playing the OG's outside shoulder. The 'B' gap responsibility is now Armstead's with no backup. The OLB has outside contain. There is no "C" gap on the play as there is no Tightend on that side.

What happens:
A) OhSU runs away from the H-Back pulling the spying LB out of the play.
B) Runner goes to the 'B' gap which is wide open because Armstead mistakingly jumps into the "A" gap.

When OhSU against the percentages ran away from the H-Backs lead block, Armstead was on an island by design. Unfortunately, by jumping into the "A" gap which Balducci had good position on already he left the "B" wide open where there was no one to help.

Go right to the last gif with the end-zone view and you'll see what I mean. The reason I think Mattingly moved out by assignment rather than a complete brain fart is his immediate movement off the snap and seemingly mirroring the H-Backs steps and Armstead immediately moving from the tackle to the guard on the snap. Even if Mattingly mistakenly took himself out of the play, there is no way Armstead starting from the 5 Technique should have ended up slamming into Balducci in the "A" gap as the running back brushes by the OT's inside shoulder in "B".

-------

On the First play, DeFO slips and so I can't tell if he is crashing to the running back and they are doing a scrape exchange or if he has responsibility for the QB in the Zone-Read. If they were doing a scrape exchange, Mattingly was ok in what he did. Just look at the endzone view, if he had moved inside as suggested, with Defo stumbling forward inside, and the QB kept he would have had a much straighter path to the endzone than 15 did. If it wasn't a scrape exchange, then yes he shouldn't have ran around the block to the outside.

Regardless, I question whether Walker intended to fully commit to the 'B' gap, I think he had "A" gap support responsibilities too but got blocked into the "B" gap. (The article repeatedly says 'C' and 'B' where it should have been 'B' and 'A') I also think Balducci, when the center passed him by, moved too far up field into the trap block. I think the H-Back wouldn't have been able to take him out so easily if he had turn into him instead of sealing him from the side and getting in a good shot to the side of his helmet. Also look at French lined up outside over the slot. He lets the Slot receiver get inside him on a run play and seal him from perusing the play when 15 gets to the second level. That shouldn't happen.

I would love to talk to an Oregon Coach to see what the assignments actually were on these plays. In lieu of that I am presenting alternate possibilities for 46's defense.

[FishDuck]

Well Granpa...we are really going to disagree then. No sweat. Coaches email me all the time and tell me I'm brilliant and an idiot...about the same play. Coaches disagree too.

[GrantDuck]

We had gap issues with our Lbers all year.

Hopefully with the possible move to the 4-3 our defensive coaches can teach this better going forward.

You also have to credit Meyer with his play calling/gameplanning on this aspect Had a play he knew would give Oregon fits and stuck with it.

[Duck07]

Here's the thing about these plays: This wasn't the first time OSU ran them. Our coaches do a terrible job of creating defensive schemes for our opponents and this was evident all year long. Sure, the D started to improve as the season went on, but that doesn't ignore the fact that the players were not prepared to handle basic run concepts for any number of factors. What we do know is what we saw on the field and that was a defense that was usually out of position.

First play: For starters, we have 6 in the box to their 8. If we were on offense, we would be running the ball but instead, we're lined up in a pass defense against a run formation and no checks are made apparently (Like French walking inside from the Slot. Its real easy to count the numbers in the box and know what the offense will do. Some problems I have with the analysis: Wrong usage of Gaps. There is no such thing as a 0/O gap and this leads to a faulty examination in my opinion.

Note the H-back in motion (above) and how he is going to block on the first one past the “O” gap, which is head-up on the center.

The H-Back blocks the playside A gap. Kamp is playing 1i, which shades him on the C, not the LG. If Kamp is responsible for the A-Gap, he can't let the Center go because of what we see happen next - the HBack gets a seal on the Playside A along with the RG getting a seal on Talia. Center and LG go next level to block Walker and Mattingly who are supposed to be kept clean in a 2-gap scheme. Once that HBack went inside, Talia needed to shift from 5tech to 3tech.

Note how Joe Walker (No. 35) is going to be coming around to take the “C” gap on the left side of the Duck defense (curved yellow arrow above)....The Buckeye running back can see that Oregon’s “C” gap on the Duck left side will be filled by No. 35, Joe Walker (above) while No. 55, Tui Talia, is in an excellent position to discard his blocker and make the tackle at the line of scrimmage.

That's the B Gap. The C gap is on Prevot's left shoulder, off the RT. If the arrows are just in the wrong place then there is no mention that we now have 2 LBs covering the same outside gap. Talia was already going to have trouble holding the RG because he's lined up in 5-tech and I think that is where the problems really start. Also, if Tali was in excellent position, then he would have discarded the blocker and made the tackle, because that is precisely where the run went, right through the Playside A. If Kamp takes the Center rather than letting him go next level, the HBack has to take Buckner and the LG probably doubles Kamp for a second before going to Mattingly. The LT basically is kept out of the play because French is lined up in the slot (and also loses the blocking battle to a WR) and he's the weakside Tackle. Critiquing Mattingly for avoiding a blocker is a little silly because the role of the ILB in a 34 is to be kept clean by your 3 DL but he still should have come up straight on the LG. They are all out of place on the play though, so of course there are 3 OL at LB depth. In this first analysis, Coach Morris comes to the conclusion that the play is wrong because Mattingly didn't cover the Playside A-Gap from the weakside.

Everyone on the Oregon defense did his job, with the exception of the backside flow linebacker

My analysis: Talia is lined up in the wrong spot with Prevot off his shoulder and as a result, Talia can't control his blocker the way he should have because he has to cross him. Once the HBack went in motion, Talia should have shifted inside as Prevot can easily control contain and does so. It also puts too much focus outside when we're short #'s in the box. Kamp should not have let either the Center or at least the LG get 2nd level without being touched because they are supposed to be 2-gapping. (If this was a 1-gap play, then there are a whole bunch of other problems in that case.) Buckner might have actually been responsible for the LG on this too, which would mean nobody on the DL did anything right, making it hard to fault the LBs for their play.

This is a great example of going against a play that you know is coming, that your opponent has run all year and you are still completely out of place when you see it happen. The LBs didn't do a good job of communicating assignments because they are all in place as if the HBack is playing as a regular TE.