USC Offense vs Morgan Scalley Utah Defense-Pac 12 Championship Game Part 1

Utah played USC twice in 2022. One was a 43-42 shootout in which Utah won. The other game was a 42-24 victory over USC in the Pac 12 championship. Both games were interesting but the way Utah defeated USC was impressive. I thought it was mostly because of the adjustments Coach Scalley made on the defensive end. Let's look at 2nd game  and you will see the adjustments in closer detail.

In the first game they played, Scalley ran some various coverage concepts and fronts. Surprisingly he stayed away from the odd front and primarily went 4-2 and bear. They played zero snaps of the odd look that was very successful game 2.

Also, in game 2, they brought continuous pressure. This hurt USC run game as well as their great play action game. The game plan of bringing pressure and playing more zone defense was very effective. Game 1 rushing , USC was 27-175 yards  with their tailback getting a big chunk at 15 for 92. The rest came from Williams and Addison on a few jets.

 In game 2, USC was 27 for 56 yards with their half back accounting for 15 carries for 35 yards. The ineffective run game definitely was a major factor as they also got away from their play action game. The constant 5 man pressures gave Williams fits all game.  

The other part that was key was the 2nd half adjustments made by Coach Scalley. They decided to go primarily zone in coverage and it was highly effective. They ran 21 snaps only ran 2 snaps of man concepts and 19 of zone when in odd. They held USC to 7 points in the 2nd half.

Fronts used by Utah in game 1 

Total snaps 65 

Bear 7 snaps   11%          

4-2.  58 snaps 89%.           1i mug looks from the 4-2(zero double mug looks game 2) 

odd. zero snaps!!

IN GAME 2 

Utah  played primarily 3 fronts without subbing and shown below:

Out of the 68 plays on defense they ran the following fronts in game 2

4-2. base      31 snaps.        46%

bear front      8 snaps         11%

odd front      29 snaps.       43%.       

Notes

Of those od fronts  they brought 5 or more 60% of the time! 18/29 was the amount of times they brought 5 players or more.  That is a very high percentage of blitzes.

When they went bear they brought 5 or more 8/8 times which is 100% from the bear front. 

Lets take a look at the fronts implemented.

4-2 front

4-2 was the other front they played a ton of. 21 and 20 are the inside linebackers and #8 is the strong safety. 

#8 is the strong safety.

Odd Front

This was the biggest change that Scalley made in the pac 12 championship game. 

What they did is they lined #91 in that spot for a number of snaps, but always brought him in pressure. It was brilliant and highly effective in their 4, 5 and 6 man pressures throughout the game. They brought him every time and didn't use him in coverage for 1 snap. 

Bear Front

The 2nd odd front was the Bear front. They would kick the DE down away from the strength call and walk the OLB up to the line of scrimmage.

Here are some interesting stats excluding (goal line 10 and in)

Coverage Breakdown by Odd and Bear 

Odd        30 snaps

               Rush                                Coverage          Snaps

               5 man rush.                       cover 2            11 snaps 

              5 man rush.                      cover 3              3. snaps

              6 man rush                        cover 0              4 snaps

             4 man rush.                    cover 4                 3 snaps (late game over)

             4 man rush.                       cover 0               4 snaps

             4 man rush                         cover 2               5 snaps 

Bear    8 snaps

            5 man rush                      cover 3                  4 snaps 

            6 man rush                       cover 0                 4 snaps

This is some of the alignments fronts and coverages they played in the Pac 12 Championship. Part 2 will look more closely at some of the schemes that were utilized. His game plan was very effective as well as some of the adjustments he made in the second half. 

We will look more closely at that in part 2!

Lincoln Riley Offense Part 4-red zone and goal line playbook

This is part 4 of my Lincoln Riley Offensive Series.

This section looks at some of his red zone & short yardage concepts. He does a nice job with his red zone package and has some staple concepts on the goal line.

#1 is a run pass option.

He runs a simple play where it is very similar to triple option. He reads the DE for the dive and will throw the ball to the h back or #3 wr off the fake if the OLB is leveraged. It seems to be  a staple for him. 

He loves to leak a wr or h back away from the action often in the red zone! 

This is shown below!

2 back bootleg

Now, this may be an Rpo and has some zone read elements, with the Qb reading the DE, the nice part about this it is a designed pass to the HB and the wr are blocking downfield, which makes me thing it's an RPO. If the DE Takes QB I assume he gives it.

Nice job on the boot

Here's the same play at USC in the red zone when they played Utah. The difference is really just the formation.

Another short yardage play when they go tempo on 1st and goal on the 2 yard line. The only difference is they do it with the wr on the los in the h back spot but is essentially the same play.

Nice Run pass option.

hits the h coming across the formation

Another great play on the goal line is displayed below:

12 personnel

Play action-fake to the back throw to the back

Excellent design vs man coverage.

The back gets a nice pick route by the wr.

He's wide open off of the fake.

Easy catch and throw.

Trips bunch right, back weak with TE 

Fake the Jet left , fake tight zone rt  and hit the TE on the TE dump.

Nice concept vs Man coverage

Tons of window dressing on this play.

nice fake on the jet, nice fake wide zone the other way and the TE is wide open on the dump on the left hand side.

see the DB chasing the jet man

LB loses the tight end.

Jet man draws the defense TE wide open.

3x1 bunch.

They ran this play 2 times vs Tulane.

Nice route concept

Hit it both times 1st time was the wr on the line.

The 2nd time was the wr trailing the endline.

Nice design

WR is wide open

Easy completion in the bunch route.

What Makes Lincoln Riley's Offense So Good? Part 3 Play Action Passing and RPO Game

Part 3: Lincoln Riley Study,  Play action and RPO Game

Play Action Passing Game

There play action game is very good. Here they run an out with #1 and a vertical with #2 as Baylor looks like they are playing trap coverage.

1145 Baylor 2018

The Oklahoma play action game is very good as they run it on early downs off their various run actions.

Protection:

Out of 2 back you will see different variations and plays.

#1 Boot

#2 Play action vertical game with full slide 7 man protection

2 back bootleg

Now, this may be an Rpo and has some zone read elements, with the Qb reading the DE, the nice part about this it is a designed pass to the HB and the wr are blocking downfield, which makes me thing it's an RPO. If the DE Takes QB I assume he gives it.

T

#2 Play action with full slide protection

Here's some examples of some full slide with both backs picking up off the egde from 2 different sets, both pistol and split back.

Vs Iowa State in 2020

Here they go full slide off the run action vs Iowa State. They get some nice double teams on every Def Lineman, even  the left DE with the 2 RB. They run a go route and comeback vs cover 3.

RPO Game

RPo vs UCLA

Split zone with QB

motion #27 who often lines up as a tight end into the backfield. They have two arrow routes with the slots vs man coverage.

Crack Screen Game

3rd and 1 vs Oklahoma State

They Jet motion and throw it to the jet man off play action. Still trying to determine if this is an rpo and because it is man coverage they throw it to him or a predesigned throw. Nice design, could be an rpo as it looks like the QB was reading the OLB. That's my guess, If man they give the ball. The ball is thrown behind the LOS so they can block downfield.

2nd and 10 vs Oklahoma State

Another crack screen against Oklahoma State.  The #1 wr runs off and they crack with the #2 on the LB and the Tackle blocks the Alley defender. Again the ball is thrown behind the LOS so it's legal to block downfield. 

Nice 45 yard gain.

at USC vs Arizona

They run a great play action with the fake crack and go with the h back running a wheel off ISO action. Great design off the fake to the RB

Safety bites on the play action and the wr fakes the crack/find block and beats him vertically.

THE H back on the wheel after faking iso hold the corner back.

These are just some of the play action and rpo game you will see from Lincoln Riley. More to come!