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.
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