Game analysis Nc State Defense vs Liberty Offense-How NC State stifled Liberty's offense

 How NC State shut down the potent Liberty rushing attack

Liberty was 10-1 last year with 1 loss on the season. It came against NC State who did an excellent job containing future NFl Star Malik Willis. They did it playing their 3-3 stack defense with nose guard Alim McNeill and company shutting down the run.

The NC State defense  held him to 13/32 for 172 yards with 2 td and 3 interceptions. They also sacked him 3 times. They also held him to 15 carries for 44 yards. It was a great game plan by Defensive Coordinator Tony Gipson, controlling a high powered offense which consistently put up 30 points per game.

They also held a great rushing attack to 38 carries for 107 yards. That is 2.8 yards per carry as the defense was highly effective. This from a team that averaged 252 yards per game on the ground with a potent rushing attack. They also average 5. 7 yards per attempt and didn't come close to that in this game.

The game plan was very simple but effective:

1. Rush only 3/4 and try to spy him as much as possible. They often sent 3 spied him with a lb and took away zones underneath while only sending 3 rushers.

2. Play a tremendous amount of zone coverage and get an extra hat in the box. This was very effective in shutting down the run.

3. Disguise coverage and give him different looks. Show cover 2 and at times roll to a cover 3 look. 

4. Scrape exchange the zone read and play a more athletic strong safety or olb on the qb in the zone read game. Keep the OLB to the side of the back wider to give him better leverage in the zone read game. 

Game Notes:

One of the few times they decided to send 5, they go man free which doesn't have anyone on the back. Willis shows how dangerous he is as he scrambles for 25 yards. The scheme was sound but it's hard to defend him when you don't spy him as he can take off and is so dangerous with his legs.

Liberty free releases the back which opens up the middle of the field.

They also showed great discipline and eyes on Willis in key situations, here on a key 4th and 1, they don't get fooled as Liberty tries to run a bootleg off a fake reverse. The De stays home makes a great read and forces the incompletion. This was a key stop early and kept the score at 0-0.

Later on with the score tied o-o in the 2nd quarter, Liberty tries to go unbalanced with an end over formation. NC State goes man free with an edge pressure but does a great job as the linebackers keep their eyes on Willis. They give him no running lanes and get the sack. 

Here is the clip as they do a great job containing Willis.

AGAIN, HERE WERE SOME OF THE MAIN COMPONENTS OF THE GAME PLAN.

1. PLAY SOFT ZONE COVERAGE

Later on you see one of the many times they go cover 3 against the Liberty offense. They play soft zone coverage and Willis tries to force it into a tight window when they run 2 slant routes. Great job by the NC State defense and they get the interception 

2. SPY WILLIS

As discussed earlier, the did a great job really spying Willis regardless of the coverage. Here they run man free while spying Willis again. 

They keep the LB's shallow to take away running lanes and when Liberty and Freeze keep the rb in it gives the defense an extra defender to spy him. Here they go man free spy. The Flames go 6 man protection and it gives NC State the extra defender to keep eyes on the QB.

3. CONTAIN WILLIS IN ZONE READ GAME WITH SS/LB ON HIM

In the run game they played the outside LB on him , giving them a more athletic player on the qb vs the zone read. They also scraped the LB over the top as the 4i took the dive. Here the Flames run duo with a read component. 

THE MIKE SCRAPES RIGHT AWAY. THEY GET A 2 FOR 1 ON WILLIS AS A RESULT

Later on they play it the same way. The De to side of the back slants to the b gap, auto scrape exchange with the OLB responsible for Willis playing it well with great leverage. 

The way they played it really was exceptional and they had great results all game vs the Liberty run game. 

with 9 minutes to go in the game, and a crucial 3rd and 10,  the Liberty flames are up 14-9. Again they rush 4 play 2 man spy with a nice pass rush game. The De ends up spying and the mike loop stunt gets home. to the boundary.

 The game gets pressure and the CB does a great job breaking under the route for the interception. 

As you can see the NC State game plan was tremendous and the results were a 15-14 win over a very tough Liberty team. 

Browns Offense Vs The Steelers defense Route Concepts out of Empty

The Steelers and Browns met in week 17 then in the Playoffs. One of the reasons the Browns won was their effective use of empty formations agains the Steelers. The Browns took advantage of favorable matchups and threw the ball all over the field in empty. 18 snaps of it over 2 games and they were 15/18 or 161 yards. They also did it out of 12 personnel which made it difficult with Lb trying to play zone agains a top wr Jarvis Landry in the middle of the field. 

In the divisional playoffs, the Browns were vs 6/7 for 67 yards vs the Steelers. They took advantage of the mismatch at linebacker over the middle and gave their #3 wide receiver an option route in those matchups. In all truthfulness they would have been 7/7 if Hopper ran a normal route vs the lb instead of the out and up route he ran. But here are some examples in the game. 

Example #1

It's 3rd and 2 and the Browns are in 12 personnel. The Steelers go base coverage which puts Watt out on #2 and #3 is covered by the Mike. Whether it's zone or man its a mismatch. The WR can still work the middle of the field. The Browns run an option route by the #3 WR Landry and he runs the out cut against the LB who tries to wall him off. 

Later in the game, he breaks the route inside against the same LB. Last time he ran the whip route. this times he runs the in route. 

Example #2

Ok Here's the situation

Down and Distance 2nd and 5

Steelers are showing 2 high, with the mismatch of the mike linebacker against Landry again Landry has an option route. He can run an in route or work back outside depending on what the LB does and plays it.  This time the Steelers are in Nickel but the bad matchup still applies. 

Protection call is fairly easy (4 man pressure shown, pre snap) Steelers only ever show 4/5 man pressure vs empty so they just make a right or left call for the center. They don't have to check or do anything special because the Steelers don't show 6 man pressure. Just look at the safeties in the picture. 2 high, Pre snap thinking 

In Week 17 the Steelers were 9/11 for 94 yards in empty.

In week 17 The Steelers went 12 personnel and went 11 snaps of empty. They were 9/11 in this situation for 93 yards. This set the stage for doing it in the playoffs  vs the Steelers in the wild card game where they had great success with it.  Of the 2 plays in week 17 that they weren't successful, one was a drop in the hands of Hopper, the other was a sack on a missed read by Mayfield. Pretty successful day for them throwing it out of 12 personnel. 

IN WEEK 17 , Defensively the Steelers played base personnel the 1st 2 times vs 12, then got out of it and went Nickel on 7 of the snaps and dime on the other 2 which were 3rd and 5 situations. 

Here's one of the routes they ran on 2 occasions

This is a great execution of a cover 2 beater as the LB tries to wall of the hitch route which opens the window for Hopper behind it. 

Later in the game the get a 2nd down and again are in their 3-4 defense. The Browns exploit it by running Landry on an in route with the Clear out by #3. Great route concept as they work Landry to the middle of the field. It s cover 2 pre snap and post snap stays 2 and Mayfield makes the right read for the 17 yard gain.

Here is more analysis of the week 17 game and how the Browns used Empty vs the Steelers. 

I hope you enjoyed my coverage of the Browns offense vs the Steelers and how they took advantage of the 

Dana Holgorsen West Virginia/ Houston Counter RPO Game

 Dana Holgorsen Counter Run Game With RPO Principles.

Dan Holgorsen was the head coach at West Virginia in 2018. Below are some variations of his counter run game with RPO principles.  Later in this article, I look at some of his counter options including running same side counter.  It's a great play against odd fronts out of 3x1 who like to play the 4i to the side of the back. You get an easy down block from the Tackle on the 4i and usually there is no edge defender vs these odd front defenses you see. 

West Virginia runs it's RPO game with counter blocking and has a few variations. The bottom line is if they get a light box they will run the football. If the qb likes the options in the passing game they will throw the screen or route progression.

Let's look at the options they ran vs. Kansas in 2018. Here we will look at the counter blocking 1st. They ran it 2 times for 65 yards vs Kansas.

The 1st time they run it they get a 4-3 but a 4-1 box. They run it and get good down blocks. A nice 46 yard gain and excellent execution.

The 2nd time they run it the get an odd bear type look with a 3 tech to the left side and a 4i to the right side. Nice blocking again for a good 19 yard gain. This time a 6 man box.

Below is the film that goes with the top 2 plays.

RPO Options. On both runs above they had the following rpo options. 

1) At times they will run a wr screen option from a stack set  to the side of the back.

run #2 Below again he has the screen option to the side of the rb. He feels he has an advantage in the run game and gives the football

Here is a 3rd route with the quick out by the  h back and the #1 and #2 wr blocking. 

Nice design and 25 yard gain but it's called back on a holding penalty.

After the penalty they run it again for 8 yards.

You can see both plays below:

11 personnel.

The other way they block it is with the h back pulling it's a change up but they still have the RPO option on the outside. The guard kicks out and the Tackle leads up. Here's 1 they ran vs Kansas.

In 2019 He brought his offense to Houston when he became the head coach. He ran some interesting variations with the H back. Here is some cut ups vs UCF.

In the 1st clip it's just straight counter. tite front below! disregard the 4-2 mistake!

In the 2nd clip they motion the h back out and have the screen option. If the DE widens give the ball on the counter. They read the give and it's a 12 yard gain. The other nice part of this play is they run counter to the same side of the back. The back does a nice job with his footwork and reads the play nicely. Good play with no edge defender vs odd fronts. Usually get a 4i and no edge defender. Good scheme.

Here are 2 clips that go with the pictures above.

The Same play variation they run vs Texas who plays a 3 man front often. It is an excellent play against teams that run 3-3 stack. 

Here are some additional clips of the counter play they ran throughout the year. 

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Screen off the Counter 

They fake counter left , pulling the rt guard and run the h screen back to the right. Great design by Holgorsen and staff.

They get the Center and RT out on the screen on the excellent screen design. 

Holgorsen does an excellent job with his counter game. He adds an rpo component, uses the same side counter and it is an integral part of his run game. I hope you enjoyed this article