Thursday, September 27, 2012

Was Gallon open? Yes, very

There was some question about yesterday's post on Michigan's naked bootlegs about whether or not Jeremy Gallon was open. My argument was that the OLB and MLB both bit on the play action allowing Gallon to get open in a zone 12 yards downfield. Others...
Te'o barely bites on the play action: maybe a step and a half and he's back trailing Funchess heading into the flat. By the time the ball is released, Spond has taken the flat, and Te'o has headed back towards Gallon, allowing him to make the interception. Look at the relative position of Gallon and Te'o as the camera pans with the pass: Te'o is a couple yards away and closing fast. Good chance he breaks up an accurate pass and takes Gallon's head off with it.
I disagree a bit. I don't think this was an effective play action at all. While the strong-side OLB does bite significantly, Teo does not, and he's the important one to breaking the coverage. He takes two steps forward. By the time he breaks down to change direction, the fake hand-off hasn't even been completed. When he starts his drop into coverage, Gallon is still a half yard behind him. Gallon is only open on the backside, but the time he gets to the frontside of the play, Teo will be in front of him. When I think of effective play action, I think of Wisconsin when opposing defenses bug out so much their LBs are almost getting blocked by the OL. Teo taking two steps forward is not effective play action in my opinion.

I would think the counter would be have Gallon settle in the zone instead of draging the entire away across the field, but I honestly don't know how fesible that would be, as it would require Denard to snap his head back across the field and make a quick pop pass.
Later in the game, NBC was nice enough to break down all of Denard's massive mistakes, including this interception. Here's a different view (video below).

Just before the pass

As Denard lets go


The Takeaway
Wide fucking open.

Stand in the pocket. Take the hit. Make the throw.


FMH said...

Wow, well that angle tells a slightly different story. I hadn't realized that Gallon settled into the zone so well and that Denard missed so badly. Hell, it was such a bad throw that the safety couldn't make a play. Less fault on play-call and more on Denard.

However, I still believe the play action is not effective. Te'o is still almost as deep as Gallon, and more importantly, the backside DE is still not paying attention to the fake, an immediatey coming upfield instead (also apparent from this angle). We've seen time and time again that with a guy in his face, Denard tosses the ball irresponsibly and way off target. Yet we still call bootlegs and waggles that get a contain guy in his face because the play-action is ineffective and does not freeze anybody often. At somepoint I would think the coaches would stop asking him to do something he does not do well; continuing to do so when there are ways to use his skills very successfully just doesn't seem like good coaching to me. Either way, it's very frustrating.

Potts00 said...

Yeah. I was wrong. Te'o hadn't headed back near as quickly as I had thought.

Doesn't really matter if Denard sucks or Borges sucks, in the end. They aren't working well together at all.

Chris Gaerig said...

Yeah, I mean, I would rather Borges not call this play either, but I don't think it's a terrible playcall. He's getting a receiver wide open 12 yards downfield. So long as Denard steps into--and in the processes sacrifices his body--this is an easy completion.

N_kugler said...

I would really like to see Denard step into the throw an just take the hit likeso many QB's do. Not making excuses but he is only 6 feet does that impede him at all? Just thinking the guy is straight in his face and not hitting Denards waist or legs, maybe on this play he just can't step into it

Asgardian said...

Yes. He can't throw it through the defender in right in front of him.

As I said last time, here you can see Funchess rubs Schofield off his block without which there might be only the DE in Denard's face and not the DT also. Although Schofield may be to blame just as much for giving so much ground immediately.

However the free DE is still something is wrong with this play. Denard is supposed to roll here and you can see he has to stop short, shuffle back, and reset his feet because the end is in his face.

This is oddly a double fake (Funchess and Toussaint). In theory, we should keep the end honest by handing it off to Funchess once in a while (that's a call not a read w/ Denard's back turned), but it also looks like Funchess' whole fake was horrible too. The DE knew he didn't have the ball immediately. I'm not sure if that fake would ever fool the DE enough to spring Denard though, even if it was good.

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