Wrap Up: MSU vs. Northern Colorado

It was business as usual on Saturday as MSU easily dispatched Northern Colorado 45-7.  The Bears of the FCS were thoroughly dominated on both sides of the ball, as expected.  Here's a few quick hits/observations from the game:

1. He finally got one....TWO, actually!
Greg Jones, the Spartans MVP, who has routinely topped the stat sheet for the last 3.5 years, recorded his first (and second) career interceptions on Saturday.  No idea how it hasn't happened until now, but Jones now has 33 tackles, 2 interceptions, and 3 forced fumbles on the year.  He is now 5th on the All-Time MSU tackles records, and will most likely end up #2 on that list at the end of the season.  Just wow.

2. Interceptions??? What are those???
The Spartan pass defense, the biggest ?????? coming into this season, now has 6 interceptions on the year.  They intercepted 6 ALL of last season.  Safe to say they've improved slightly.  The Cornerbacks, Chris L Rucker and Johnny Adams, have more than pulled their weight.

3. Captain Kirk in Rhythm
Cousins was nearly flawless on Saturday: 16/20, 290 yards, 2 TDs.  He is now #17 in the country for passing efficiency.  One of those incompletions hit Mark Dell in the hands, I believe, so he's looking good going into Big Ten play.  Freshman Andrew Maxwell also got some playing time - did decent throwing 3/5 for 41 yards.

4. So...what was the downside???
Pass rush.  The one thing holding this defense back is its inability to get to the opposing QB.  The Spartans did not tally one sack during the game - a bad stat considering Northern Colorado has a smaller and slower line.  Individual play has been better, but it seems the team shouldn't expect pressure without blitzing.


Sorry I've been bad about updating the blog this past week.  I'll be punctual this week :)  Football 101 will be on MSU's offensive play-calling (in honor of Offensive Coordinator Don Treadwell running the show while Dantonio's gone), Thursday I'll do a Big Ten preview since Big Ten games start Saturday, and Friday I'll break down the Wisconsin Badgers, who come to town on the 2nd.  Go Green!

Wrap Up: MSU @ Florida Atlantic

Well, it wasn't too pretty, but it definitely got the job done.  MSU improved to 2-0 on the year with a 30-17 victory against the Owls of Florida Atlantic University.  Some quick hits:

Positives:

- The impressive rushing onslaught continued.  Larry Caper was still out, but Edwin Baker racked up 183 yards on the ground.  Le'Veon Bell tacked on another 50.  The rushing game is head and shoulders better than it was last year at this point

- Dan Conroy has won the kicking job over Kevin Muma.  Kicked field goals of 41, 44, and 50 yards.  That's quite an accomplishment for your 2nd game as a starter.  Don't hold him to the same standards as Swenson, but I'm officially not worried about special teams anymore.

- Great game for Defensive Linemen Colin Neely.  He was in the FAU backfield all game.  If you read the Football 101 post last Tuesday, you know how important it is to get pressure on the QB.  If Neely can keep up the production, it will help the defense a ton.

Negatives:

- Kirk Cousins hasn't been able to find his groove yet.  He's been relatively quiet, throwing 9/17 for 142 yards yesterday.  The interception was bizarre - didn't seem like he was rushed into a throw.  However, Cousins was at his best last year when he needed to be.  The play calling hasn't been conducive to him developing a rhythm, but expect him to wake up a bit against Notre Dame this week.

- Pass defense is improved, but is still a bit of an issue.  The defense could not get off the field on Saturday - FAU converted almost 50% of their third downs.  Individually, there was some shining spots in the secondary - a few textbook pass break-ups which were absent last year and quick tackling and wrapping up.  However, the unit needs to improve consistently until the end of the season to have success.

What to take away from the game?

MSU looks sloppy, but all teams do this early in the season.  The defense was stingy against the run, as they were in Week 1, and had 2 sacks and 8 tackles for loss.  Again, most stats must be taken with a grain of salt, as we aren't in the meat of the schedule yet.  However, the team looks to be on track for another bowl game. Which one seems to depend on how much the pass defense improves.  Finally, one thing to keep in mind is that Dantonio and his staff have usually kept the playbook relatively simple for the first couple games of the season.  That includes offense and defense.  Reason for this is later opponents don't know what is up your sleeve, or what to expect.  Against ND and Big Ten opponents, expect a more exciting offense and some interesting blitzing packages.

Notre Dame comes to town on Saturday for an 8 o clock game under the lights.  Kirk Cousins said last year that he wants to make amends for the crucial interception that effectively ended the Notre Dame game last year, so expect to see guns a'blazin.  If anyone was in the stadium for the 2006 ND game, bring it as strong as you did for that game, and MSU will pull out a W. Go Green!

Football 101 - MSU Pass Defense

Welcome to Football 101 – lessons in college football that, at the very least, will help you understand football Saturdays a bit better.  Screw syllabus day, lets get right to it.

The biggest concern heading into this season was the MSU pass defense.  Last year, many may remember the MSU defense making every quarterback look like a Heisman candidate as they put the ball in their receivers' hands over and over again.  Well, here's an explanation on what we do and why it should work, but didn't work last season.

The Spartans, for the most part, run a 4-3 defense, referring to 4 defensive linemen and 3 linebackers.  This is an extremely popular scheme across the country that you'll see many of MSU opponents use, as well.  Below is a diagram of the defense, lined up against a spread offense variation – which a majority of Big Ten teams use now.

Notations: DE – Defensive End, DT – Defensive Tackle, LB – Linebackers, FS – Free Safety, SS – Strong Safety, CB – Cornerbacks, OL – Offensive Line, WR – Wide Receiver, QB – Quarterback, 
RB – Running Back

Here's the general idea: 4 defensive linemen go against 5 offensive linemen.  The remaining 3 LB's, CB's, and Safeties then watch and defend the remaining 6 offensive players – the secondary (CB's and Safeties) protect against the pass normally, while the 3 LB's primarily protect against running plays.  There are exceptions to the rule, but we'll keep it simple.  In the above picture, you'll notice 4 Wide Receivers, but only 2 CB's, one on each side, to cover them.  This is where the Safeties come in.  Diagram 2 – Hypothetical situation!

In a basic play, the Cornerback will stay to the outside, and cover the receiver closest to the sideline.  On the right side of the picture, this is simple – WR runs, CB follows him.  However, on the left side, the WR's cross, and the CB has to switch who he covers to the WR heading left.  What about the other receiver heading right? It is either the responsibility of the FS or the leftmost LB to pick him up.

Specifically, what MSU's CB's do is line up about 4 yards in front of the line of scrimmage, giving a 5 yard “cushion” to the WR's (usually they're about a yard behind the line of scrimmage...that's hard math, I know).  Reason for this? The CB's usually lose a step on the WR's every play – the WR knows exactly where he's going, but the CB has to react to his actions. The only way they don't lose that step is if they're extremely good at what they do...not many Spartans are close to this category (right now).  Assuming no one screws up, this will protect the receivers from getting a deep pass for a big gain.  However, there are a few holes in this scheme:

Position 1: At the point where the WR's cross, there is an exchange – the CB picks up the WR going left, the other defenders pick up the WR going right.  At that switch point, it is necessary to have a smooth transition.  If the FS/LB doesn't notice this switch happening right away, 9/10 times it leaves a man open for a catch.

Position 2: Hey, don't know if you remember, but you know when I said it's the FS or LB's job to pick up the other receiver? Well who picks him up is dependent on where he is on the field.  If he stays closer to the line of scrimmage, the LB is on him.  If he goes further downfield, the FS keeps an eye out.  However, if a WR manages to find a seam between the FS and LB, he's got a hole to make a catch.  Ball goes over the LB's head and FS is still too far away to make a play on the ball.

Position 3: Last but not least is where MSU got burned the most last season.  Since the CB's are 4 yards downfield, it leaves the possibility for a WR or RB to catch the ball behind the line of scrimmage and proceed to run for a gain.  At that point, the only 3 players who can make that tackle quickly are the right CB, the right LB, and the SS (if he's close enough to the LB).  As you see in the above picture, there will be two WR's in front of the RB if he makes a catch.  They can then block 2 out of 3 potential tacklers.  If the SS doesn't know this is coming, then two good WR blocks lead to a big gain for the RB catching the pass.  Solution to this is the CB's and LB's must know how to get around blockers quickly and be able to react quickly.

However, what if no one screws up?  Or the QB doesn't recognize one of the three options that would work?  Why did MSU get burned?  The problem lies at the line of scrimmage.  Next picture!

Remember that there are 4 Defensive Linemen trying to get by 5 offensive linemen to get to the QB.  Just like I said between the WR's and CB's, the OL's have to guess where the DL's are going to prevent losing a step and their man getting by them.  Usually, someone on the Dline can beat their man and get to the QB...MSU couldn't do that last year.  Gave the QB enough time to find an open receiver and get a gain.  Solution for the Spartans? They had to blitz, ie send a LB or two towards the QB to generate some pressure.  This leaves the position 2 very vulnerable to the pass.  Any non-blitzing defender who tries to defend that area loses their assignment so an obvious hole opens up elsewhere.

Here’s a real world example that is somewhat relevant: 2009, MSU vs. Iowa.  Here is the setup for the last down:

In this case, you can see pretty much everyone blitzing in to try to pressure the QB.  Positives? Probably going to scare the crap out of him into making a mistake, or sack him within 2 seconds, if it’s a passing play.  If it’s a running play, no chance the back gains a yard.  Negatives? No one can help pick up a receiver if a CB loses a step.  At the top of the screen, without a LB left to help the CB, QB Ricky Stanzi is able to get it to his WR immediately.  Ball game, MSU fans enjoy drinking their sorrows away.

There you have it.  Although the MSU scheme prevents a deep pass in most every situation (unless someone screws up), it allows an opponent to make short passes continuously all the way down the field.  The idea is that at some point, the QB will screw up, or close to the end zone there is so little room for the WR's to work that they'll be unable to find a seam.  The key is getting more penetration along the lines.  If they can do that, then the pass defense will be significantly better and more success will come.

Next week, I'll cover the recruiting aspect for MSU and how that translates into performance on the field.  Thursday will be some national and Big Ten news, while Friday will be the preview for the MSU – Florida Atlantic game at Ford Field this Saturday.  Thanks for reading!