Zone Read & Deep Coverage

[epocSoN]

Can somebody tally up how many zone reads we called after it clearly was not effective? It was obvious about 6 plays in that our offensive line was largely outmatched. Yet Beck just keeps pushing it and pushing it, forcing something that is obviously not working. How about a screen to the HB, quick toss to Turner, bubble screen, give it to a WR in motion, ANYTHING to mix it up. Our offense is so predictable it's makes my stomach turn.

 

Secondly, Bo and Papuchis didn't have a deep safety all night and we still couldn't contain Miller. Honestly, I think if they would have started throwing deep balls they could have beaten us much much worse than they did. How many times though did we see Braxton miller break past the D-line and the first person he was greeted by was a SAFETY. Now I'm no football expert, but why the f#*k bump corners, over pursue your linebackers, and not have a deep safety back for broken coverage support. It happened time after time with no change from our defensive staff.

 

I think the top two reasons we lost this game is because our coaches, not our players. Although I do think the players were outplayed for the most part, I think what lost us the game is the stubborn coaching from Beck, Papuchis and Pelini. And for me this is unacceptable. I can give leeway to 18-22 year old kids for making mistakes in the heat of a game, but mediocre coaches should have backup plans for backup plans when specific things are not working well, and I honestly don't think we did that tonight. I don't know where we go from here, but I will tell you this. Michigan will most likely do the exact same thing to us again in a few weeks unless these coaches can remove their pride and ego from their gameplan.

 

TLDR: We lost because repeatedly called the Zone Read, and had no deep safety help for long passes and Miller breakout runs.

[Zaimejs]

I really don't know where our safeties are during games. Every time I see a deep pass or big run, I have to rewind to see where the hell they are.

 

This is the image I see when I slow it down...

 

[zoogs]

Would be interested in this. Anecdotally I don't think we ran too many ZR plays. A lot of shotgun handoffs that weren't necessarily ZRs with the unblocked DL and the read. I could be wrong.

[True2tRA]

Hard to run the ball when you can't block the defensive front four. Hard to abandon the run and throw the ball when your QB can't stop throwing it to the other team. Not a lot went right or worked well for us last night. It's not rocket science, it's called poor coaching, poor game planning, and poor execution. Seems like I've seen last night, almost like deja vu, about 15 times before.

[3rd and long]

I think we have to run a fair amount of zone reads each game because that is the play that can spring TM. He's not going to elude people in backfield or make people miss in space ala Braxton Miller, he needs that running lane to use his straight ahead speed, and I think the zone read gives him the best oportunity for that to happen. The QB draw also sometimes opens up a similar lane for him and we're starting to see a little more of that play.