In 2020, Northwestern was a very good defense and finished the year #1 in DFEI rankings link and were tough all year. They were also 4th in the country in points allowed only allowing 15.9 a game. Mike Hankwitz did an outstanding job that year and after the year retired. Great coach.
Northwestern played Ohio State in 2020. Northwestern held Ohio State to 22 points in a hard fought 22-10 loss. The game was close and Northwestern's defense gave Justin Fields trouble all day. They held him to 12/27 passing for 114 yards and 2 interceptions. It was Ohio State's lowest point total of the season, way below their point average of 41 points per game.
In the last 3 years Ohio State's tremendous offense has averaged:
2019 47 points per game
2020. 41 points per game
2021 45 points per game
Although they hade 513 yards of offense, the Northwestern Defense played good football and kept them out of the end zone. Their pass defense was excellent and they only allowed 2 passes of 20+ yards on the day. Well, how did they keep Ohio State off the board. Let's look at the game plan, see how they played certain situations and where they saw success.
1st, they are primarily a 4-2-5 front and do a great job playing defense with primarily this front. They don't deviated from their 4 hands too much and were very solid in 2020 playing this defense.
1st off they played zone the majority of the game. Every 1st and 2nd down they were in zone coverage.This was very effective in the passing game and helped on the mesh and shallow concepts that Ohio State likes to throw to the intermediate middle of the field. The only time they went man was a few 3rd downs and in the red zone where they played all man to man.
Early downs Coverages
vs 11 personnel (1 TE, 3 WR,1 RB) they got 20 snaps of 11, they played cover 3 15/20 snaps. The other 5 were mostly cover 4
vs 12 personnel (1RB, 2TE , 2 WR) 2x2. 6/9 snaps were cover 3 with 2 of those being a sam blitz pressure. The other 3 snaps were cover 4.
vs 12 personnel 3x1 formations, 7/10 snaps were cover 3 weak or strong with 3/10 cover 4 defenses.
vs trips 11 personnel 8/11 snaps were cover 3 strong and 3/11 snaps they played cover 8(roll the cb down to the 3x1 side and play 1/3 with everyone else). Every coverage check was to the trips side of the formation.
3rd down
3rd and 1-2 cover 4 , 3 weak
3rd and 3. man free 2/2
3rd and 4-6 man free 1x1
3rd and 7+. 2 hole with a 3 man rush, 2 read. with a 4 man rush , roll (cover8) to the 3x1 ,cover 4 and man free rat with a 5 man rush
Here is a look at some of the coverage on early downs that we discussed above.
1. Cover 3 weak vs 11 personnel
vs 11 cover 3 strong.
Ohio State comes out with twins to the field with the ball on the left hash. Northwestern goes cover 3 strong. Nice adjustment and coverage.
vs 12 personnel 3x1 formations, they went either 3 weak or 3 strong and had success playing it.
One coverage they played 3 strong and cover 8. They did a nice job with it and it gave Ohio State trouble.
Here they roll to the 3x1 side which helps neutralize the te who Ohio State loves to hit down the middle of the field. The safety is there and the TE has to adjust his route and sits it down. They play man on the 1wr side as they roll to the trips side.
3x1 cb sits and plays flat. SS plays deep 1/3. FS plays middle 1/3
Heres another example of rolling to the 3x1 side.
The RCB squats and the LCB plays deep 1/3, fs middle 1/3 and SS deep 1/3
3rd down
Ohio State was 4/1l, 36% on 3rd down, which by their standards isn't very good. Northwestern confused them with different looks and did a nice job on 3rd overall. Below are 2 examples
3rd and 3
man to man 5 man pressure/ Blitz to the side of the back. They play man free and get good pressure, Fields just makes a play
film analysis
Red zone
They played 2 defenses in the red zone.
They played all man to man in the red zone 8/8 snaps. 6/8 was cover 0 with three rat underneath defenders. The other 2/8 were cover 0 pressures with the LB's blitzing
cover 0 Rat(3 LBs play zone underneath)
Both examples discussed above
