Defense Struggles

I'm glad someone brought up this clip.  This exact same thing has happened a number of times in the last few games.  Like you said, Nelson last week did the same thing.  I think I Tanner do it too.  So, it's clearly not the player's fault.  It's how he is being told to play the play.  

BUT....can someone please tell me why you have an OLB on the right side of the line have responsibility to take the RB that is clearly going to attack the LEFT side of the line?  

Blake Lawrence's explanation doesn't make sense.  Where is the safety that he claims is supposed to cover the QB?

There is absolutely nobody in the left side of the defense left to do any type of contain.  This is the easiest 6 points Purdue has ever scored.  Stuff like this absolutely baffles me.  


The "safety" he's referring to here is Jackson I believe if you look at what he drew up. They're in man coverage so when his man turns and reverses he needs to be following him across the formation and he becomes the contain. Instead he just freezes on the play and never moves. I am sure Purdue ran the dive version of this early and saw that LJ didn't follow his man and knew they had a winner.

 
I'm glad someone brought up this clip.  This exact same thing has happened a number of times in the last few games.  Like you said, Nelson last week did the same thing.  I think I Tanner do it too.  So, it's clearly not the player's fault.  It's how he is being told to play the play.  


Eh, maybe, maybe not.  I'm pretty sure Nelson played it wrong last week.  He'd have to be the one with QB responsibilities against that zone read.

Domann's play wasn't against a zone read.  Maybe he was supposed to do just what he did.  Maybe he just thought he saw what was happening and took off.  Like I said, I'm not sure I agree with Lawrence about who was supposed to have backside. That's asking a lot for that safety to get all the way across and through all that traffic.

So, like you said, I'm not sure I agree with how he drew that up.  Of course, he's the one who's played LB in college.

BUT....can someone please tell me why you have an OLB on the right side of the line have responsibility to take the RB that is clearly going to attack the LEFT side of the line?  

Blake Lawrence's explanation doesn't make sense.  Where is the safety that he claims is supposed to cover the QB?

There is absolutely nobody in the left side of the defense left to do any type of contain.  This is the easiest 6 points Purdue has ever scored.  Stuff like this absolutely baffles me.  

 
Eh, maybe, maybe not.  I'm pretty sure Nelson played it wrong last week.  He'd have to be the one with QB responsibilities against that zone read.

Domann's play wasn't against a zone read.  Maybe he was supposed to do just what he did.  Maybe he just thought he saw what was happening and took off.  Like I said, I'm not sure I agree with Lawrence about who was supposed to have backside. That's asking a lot for that safety to get all the way across and through all that traffic.

So, like you said, I'm not sure I agree with how he drew that up.  Of course, he's the one who's played LB in college.
You might be right.  But, I would find it odd that at least two and possibly three players defend similar ( but not the same )plays the same way...wrong.  

I wish someone would make a clip of the Nelson play from last week.  I would but I have no clue how to do that.  It was mind boggling what happened.

In this clip, it appears that LJ signals that his guy was crossing the formation and someone else was supposed to pick him up.  Would it be possible that somehow that signal was supposed to get to Domann to stay home and cover the guy?

 
You might be right.  But, I would find it odd that at least two and possibly three players defend similar ( but not the same )plays the same way...wrong.  

I wish someone would make a clip of the Nelson play from last week.  I would but I have no clue how to do that.  It was mind boggling what happened.

In this clip, it appears that LJ signals that his guy was crossing the formation and someone else was supposed to pick him up.  Would it be possible that somehow that signal was supposed to get to Domann to stay home and cover the guy?


Yeah I don't know what the defense should have been, but I have never seen outside contain be the responsibility of the opposite side corner/safety, regardless of whether their guy goes in reverse motion or not. Not saying it's not possible, but that doesn't seem like a good defense if so. Now Jackson needed to do something instead of bouncing around in place, but if you're asking the that player to run all the way across the field to set the edge in any circumstance I can see why Purdue would run this play.

 
Don't know how long this video will be up, but this defensive play pissed me off the most. Domann has a safety here and instead just dives at air. Did he think this was play action and the QB was going to step back?




 
You might be right.  But, I would find it odd that at least two and possibly three players defend similar ( but not the same )plays the same way...wrong.  

I wish someone would make a clip of the Nelson play from last week.  I would but I have no clue how to do that.  It was mind boggling what happened.

In this clip, it appears that LJ signals that his guy was crossing the formation and someone else was supposed to pick him up.  Would it be possible that somehow that signal was supposed to get to Domann to stay home and cover the guy?
I think half the defense was thought they were playing man and the other half was playing zone.   If you watch the first guy in motion, Clark follows him clear across the field like he was in man while Jackson motions that a guy is leaving his area.  

 
You might be right.  But, I would find it odd that at least two and possibly three players defend similar ( but not the same )plays the same way...wrong.  

I wish someone would make a clip of the Nelson play from last week.  I would but I have no clue how to do that.  It was mind boggling what happened.

In this clip, it appears that LJ signals that his guy was crossing the formation and someone else was supposed to pick him up.  Would it be possible that somehow that signal was supposed to get to Domann to stay home and cover the guy?



 
Ahhh....that makes sense.  He's the linebacker on that side, right?  He dives into the pile in the middle of the field instead of being aware of the WR coming from the left.

It's possible that he should have realized the WR on that side motioned across the formation dragging the CB with him....so, he would be the only chance to contain anything on that side.

 
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Watching Clowney play tonight. Such a freak. But, it got me thinking about something. It gets so frustrating how many times we have a guy looking like has a clear sack only to have him miss and the QB completes a pass or scrambles for a first down. 
 

Here’s the thing. Clowney doesn’t get every sack. But, he gets in the backfield disrupts the QB enough for someone else to clean it up many times. 
 

What we don’t have on the rare occasion we actually get someone in the backfield, that second and third guy to help clean up the sack. 

 
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