What Did We Learn? - Michigan State

[Toe]

Something that hasn't been mentioned about Washington: he did that with a brace on his knee.

[krc1995]

Hindsight’s 20/20 but Oz looked pretty open. Is that called a diamond formation? I think Riley used it often 

[Toe]

@krc1995 That's usually called a 'bunched' receiver formation. It can make a tangled mess for defenders to try and cover. Four receivers to one side is also called quads.

 

Good article on how Frost uses this stuff: http://insidethepylon.com/pylon-u/teams-ncaa/division-ia-fbs/big-ten/nebraska-cornhuskers/2018/08/22/scott-frost-and-quads-how-nebraska-will-win-with-overloaded-formations/

[Big Red 40]

1. I learned there's no quit in this team. They battled awful weather, bad reffing, and turnovers to win the game. Unfortunately i've become used to the Huskers losing games , or getting blown out in situations like that ,and  im confident that will not be the case going forward. Proud of the total team effort, and a hard fought win.

2. Great to see on the field leaders this year  like Tre Bryant. Mo Barry, Mick, Adrian, Stanley, Zig etc. Their play making abilities, knowledge, and presence on the field make everyone else better.

3. Great to see guys like Jack Stoll  and Kade Warner, making some plays too. They will be solid contributors going forward.  With Allen and Rafdal at T.E. and Speilman, Mcquitty, Woodyard, Williams plus  new recruits i think A.M will have plenty of targets next year.

4. Cool to see Pickering getting some love after a shaky start. He stepped up when we needed him big shout out . 

[krc1995]

43 minutes ago, Toe said:

@krc1995 That's usually called a 'bunched' receiver formation. It can make a tangled mess for defenders to try and cover. Four receivers to one side is also called quads.

 

Good article on how Frost uses this stuff: http://insidethepylon.com/pylon-u/teams-ncaa/division-ia-fbs/big-ten/nebraska-cornhuskers/2018/08/22/scott-frost-and-quads-how-nebraska-will-win-with-overloaded-formations/

Thanks and very insightful. Due to where I live, I can only get to one game a year and watching live is so much different then watching on tv as I can see the different formations and the routes ran during the play. On tv, they focus on the qb and whomever gets the ball, the viewer can’t really see blocking unless it’s on the screen. 

 

But I remember a similar formation when we went to the 2016 Wisconsin game. They lined up in it several times in this quad formation but I don’t remember if it worked or if they had an rb in there. The running back could be a nice decoy

 

 

[Mavric]

On 11/17/2018 at 4:13 PM, Mavric said:

Here's hoping - and so far it's looking like - Pickering is Drew Brown 2.0

 

Many fans wanted to throw both of them off the team mid-way through their Freshman year.  Brown bounced back and had a nice career.  Pickering is headed the right direction.

 

 

[The Dude]

12 hours ago, BlitzFirst said:

 

 

Rush defense.  I should have been more specific.

 

Yeah you're like the 5th person to say that.  My point still stands.  Iowa is better on both sides of the ball than Michigan State.  

 

Also it's worth noting Iowa is the favorite to win the game.  Maybe my nervousness about this game wasn't as absurd as many people initially thought.

[lo country]

6 hours ago, The Dude said:

 

Yeah you're like the 5th person to say that.  My point still stands.  Iowa is better on both sides of the ball than Michigan State.  

 

Also it's worth noting Iowa is the favorite to win the game.  Maybe my nervousness about this game wasn't as absurd as many people initially thought.

They're going to be very tough.  NO doubt about it.  Much more well wounded team than Mich St.  They held AJ to 18 yrds rushing.....And Illinois to 0 points....I'm hoping that it's just cold and no wind.  After Frost's presser, IMHO, he will design some plays/schemes to still be effective against the wind and a STRONG run defense.  Again, IMHO, we are not there yet.  

[Nebfanatic]

7 hours ago, The Dude said:

 

Yeah you're like the 5th person to say that.  My point still stands.  Iowa is better on both sides of the ball than Michigan State.  

 

Also it's worth noting Iowa is the favorite to win the game.  Maybe my nervousness about this game wasn't as absurd as many people initially thought.

We will run it on them better than we did MSU and that will open up the offense. MSU opened as the favorite. Obviously Iowa isn't a cakewalk but it is a game we can win. They are "better" on defense but realistically I think their defense is more exploitable than MSU's was on Saturday. We will run it better and we will have 1 or 2 plays Frost draws up a deep pass or something that busts the defense. We should have had a TD to Stan Saturday if Martinez doesn't overshoot him(he usually doesn't do that) The one thing I'm worried about is N. Stanley is a way better QB than MSU could field. We will need to play lights out defensively.

[brophog]

When Iowa wants to, they have a much better offense than MSU. They still don't run the ball well, but present major matchup problems, again, when they want to.

 

I disagree that they have a better defense, however, based both on stats and watching tape. Michigan State's defense at this point in time is better than their season to date stats because their pass coverage is much improved over the first half of the season. They have a better pass rush, imo, than Iowa. They're also better on the ground, 2.6 ypc vs 3.1 ypc. 

 

Also put into light that this is against a far weaker schedule. When Iowa has gotten gouged, they've really done so. Wisconsin had 77% passing, Purdue 72% passing and Indiana completed 74%. Compare that to Nebraska's defense, for reference, 66%, 66%, 64% as the top 3 outliers. 

 

If the weather isn't dreadful again, and in particular if Spielman can play, I absolutely think we can move the ball on Iowa, whereas Michigan St gave me far more pause. 

[Thanks_Tom RR]

17 hours ago, suh_fan93 said:

This missed call did get me riled.  Would have set us up nicely with a first down and goal instead of a fg attempt.  Oh well.  Things worked out for us.  Still bs!

 

 

 

15 hours ago, krc1995 said:

Hindsight’s 20/20 but Oz looked pretty open. Is that called a diamond formation? I think Riley used it often 

First, Oz was open. However, with that play, the read would have been before the snap. Martinez sees 1-on-1 coverage against Stanley. He is probably coached to make that throw every time. Imagine if the read was after the snap, with how short the field is, no way he would ever have time to read both left and right, and the passing windows would be closed.

[StPaulHusker]

21 hours ago, BlitzFirst said:

 

 

Rush defense.  I should have been more specific.

 

10 hours ago, The Dude said:

Yeah you're like the 5th person to say that.  My point still stands.  Iowa is better on both sides of the ball than Michigan State.  

 

Also it's worth noting Iowa is the favorite to win the game.  Maybe my nervousness about this game wasn't as absurd as many people initially thought.

 

The difference in rush defense between Michigan St and Iowa is 21 yards per game.  No one should be assuming we are going to just run it all over the Hawkeyes because they "don't have as good of a rush defense" as MSU.

[brophog]

 

We couldn't block Michigan State's defensive ends. Obviously that gave us problems having time to throw the ball, but it also took away the zone read. The wind, and Michigan State's great pursuit, took away the lateral passing game. That combination of events made most of our ball fakes useless. With so much of our offense being based on misdirection, that made things difficult.

 

Iowa's strength is when teams go right at them. They're slow on the outside, struggle in play action, and don't move laterally that well. Their run fits are very good, and they play great team defense, but they don't have the troublemakers the Michigan teams did. I believe if you stay on schedule, avoid 3rd and long where Iowa can put up a decent pass rush to protect their CBs, then you can move the ball between the 20s. Red zone offense will be key, though.

 

 

[StPaulHusker]

2 minutes ago, BlitzFirst said:

 

 

Something to keep in mind (I've highlighted the top two total offense each team has faced below):

 

MSU Opponents

Total Offense National Rank
Utah State - 11
Arizona State - 48
Indiana - 65
CMU - 129
Northwestern - 111
Penn State - 59
Michigan - 47
Purdue - 23
Maryland - 86
Ohio State - 2
Nebraska - 20

Iowa Opponents

Total Offense National Rank
NIU - 123
Iowa state - 109
UNI - 123
Wisconsin - 34
Minnesota - 82
Indiana - 65
Maryland - 86
Penn State - 59
Purdue - 23
Northwestern - 111
Illinois - 67

 

 

 

So let's not pretend that Iowa has faced 4 top 25 total offenses like Michigan State has...they've faced 1.

 

Since you are basing your opinions off of Rush defense, maybe you should have posted the rush offenses they have faced instead of total offense.

[cheekygeek]

Statistics are like bikinis. What they show you is revealing, but what they hide is VITAL.

 

I think that Iowa is going to be in for a big dose of Martinez as a running threat, as part of the game plan, given that it is the last game of the season and we will probably still be without J.D.