Colorado State Defensive Scouting Report
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The Colorado State defense has been about as consistent as a defense could be, especially in limiting offense’s big play. They use well-schemed pressures and athletes in different positions in order to create mismatches. Sometimes their scheming works and sometimes it hurts them. Early this season the defense had to play a lot of snaps and learned quickly that if they don’t give up the big plays their team will have late opportunities to win the game. They are also a “bend, not break” type of defense.
Scheme:
CSU runs a 4-3 and their best players are their safeties and outside linebackers. The defensive coordinator uses a variety of blitzes and pressures in order to confuse and disrupt the offenses blocking schemes. He also blitzes the safeties a lot, which, if timed right, can leave a safety with an unblocked path to the quarterback. Their defensive line stunts include a lot of twists. The twists are used in hopes that the center and guards aren’t communicating and switching off defenders.
CSU uses some very basic zones, mostly cover 4 and a Tampa Two. Cover 4 is where the field is divided into quarters and a Tampa two is a two deep zone with the middle linebacker dropping deeper to help with any middle post or deep drag routes. CSU also plays a lot of man and man free coverage’s along with zone blitzes.
One thing that hurts their coverage’s is that their defensive linemen aren’t great. They often can’t win their one-on-one match ups, which put stress on the secondary to stay in coverage longer.
CSU also uses a nickel package quit a bit, when they feel that they aren’t matching up well in long yardage situations.
Defensive Line:
This would be CSU weak link on their defense. They aren’t particularly fast or big, but they do play their gaps and make the play when it comes their direction. Their best lineman is the right defensive end, #91 Tommie Hill. He has a decent pass rush and a couple of moves that allow him to get pressure on the quarterback. I also noticed how long his arms are and that is a sign that he has the right body for the defensive end position. With long arm he can swat the O-tackles hands away and keep space between their bodies. He can also swat down short passes.
We match up extremely well as long as our linemen communicate well when they bring pressure.
Linebackers:
In past years CSU has had great linebacker play which has enabled them to stay in games. This year they aren’t the strongest at linebacker. Their starters are #10 Jeff Horinek, who is the voice of the defense, #56 Ricky Brewer who isn’t the biggest but moves well from sideline to sideline. The last player is #6 Mychal Sisson a freshman from Indianapolis who impressed me with his nose for being around the ball. He has the size of a strong safety, but plays physical enough to be an outside linebacker. Sisson is also a good pass rusher who makes plays all game.
This line backing core is decent in coverage, but struggles when the offense runs directly at them. They give up a lot of size to our offensive line, and I think we will find a lot of success between the tackles.
One thing that I noticed is that their inside linebackers run around a lot of blocks. They don’t stand in their and deliver a blow, to make the play. They try and position themselves to avoid the block and come in late to grab a leg. If CSU is going to have any hopes of stopping the run I believe they are going to have to stack the box with eight and hope their corners hold up in coverage.
Safeties:
CSU uses a few different safeties but their play makers are #13 Mike Pagnotta and #20 Klint Kubiak. These two play well in the running game and in coverage. The Ram defense revolves around these guys coming up and making sure tackles in open running lanes, blitzing to get pressure on the quarterback and being able to match-up against slot receivers in coverage.
I would expect the Ram safeties to be very sore by the end of the game. Where we need to be careful is when our running backs are fighting for extra yards and these guys are around. They are very good at getting a helmet on the ball and causing fumbles.
One area where they struggle is in their basic zones. When CSU drops into base coverage’s there are a lot of holes and throwing lanes. I would expect their coordinator to come after Max with a vengeance.
Corners:
Their corners are young and give up a lot of space underneath. #30 Thomas Gerard is the weak link. He is a freshman and vulnerable. Like our corners, they give up the underneath routes, hoping that we won’t be able to move the ball consistently both on the ground or with underneath throws. Their corners also bail out a lot. This is when the corner lines up tight to the receiver and than turns and runs out fast when the ball is snapped. If Max is able to read the safeties and use the corners momentum he will be able to hit a 10-12 yard pass on almost every snap.
I wouldn’t expect too many deep balls, but if we are able to run the ball forcing their safeties to be involved in the run game there will be deep ball potential. Just don’t do I-formation play action, with Austin running a streak. PLEASE!!!
This isn’t the best defense we have faced, but CSU has always played us tough at home. I would expect a similar performance to last week. We should be able to move the ball consistently and if we can get some big plays early I don’t think they will be able to hold us to under 30 points.
My prediction is a very good game from Max. Dennis will once again play a big role in our offense’s production. CSU will devote more defensive attention to Collie, which means Mike and Co. are going to need to step up.
I am hoping that we can get an 18 carries 100+ yard day from Harvey, but with the success we will have through the air I don’t think he makes it.
Go Cougars
Good thoughts,
I would think that Harvey can pull it off. In fact I think it is essential that we let him run a lot to keep that defense off kilter. If they bring their safeties in to blitz, than they will leave big pockets open with our receivers and that means that we definitely need Reed to make all of his catches. If the medium pass is our best friend, then we need plays that will spread the ball around, taking advantage of Pitta, George, and sometimes Unga, and Fui. That would keep em on their toes.
I can already see the plays I would use on NCAA 2007 for PlayStation2. I’m not the Armchair QB Champ for nothing! A few cut backs for the wideouts, some quick slants, and some HB routes. Yeah this is looking good.
By the way, I had to join the darkside and abandon the MWC. Yes we joined the PAC-10 replacing AZ. After 4 seasons of being undefeated without being allowed to play in the National Championship, I decided it was time to move. We just beat USC and the polls will only let BYU move to the #2 position. That’s fine if they let us play the NC. We have won the heisman the last 5 years in a row. I won it twice while I was the QB. As head coach I have a perfect record.
Quinn,
Assuming the do blitz a lot, we will run something to counter that like a screen play or a draw. I can’t ever recall seeing us running a screen to the HB or FB. A screen play seems perfect for Fui – let him get in open space plus it slows down the rush. I know the run slows the rush as well but we never seem to run screens, is there any reason why? Seems it might have worked on TCU to slow the rush but I never saw it.
A screen play would be a good change up. We haven’t run a good screen play in a couple of years. The thing with screen is they are hit or miss and they work better when you have a quick guy catching the ball. Cal ran some screens in their game against CSU and they worked because their running back was a little water bug and could skip in and out of linemen and gaps.
How do offensive lineman communicate during a play? Yell out something they see? What are some examples of what they’d say?
And this is meant as a respectful question: Is there anything you notice and put in your blog that coaches wouldn’t necessarily have seen and coached the players on?
Thanks!
The screen play. Gosh, I have long wanted to see this in the Cougar reportoire. But this play does not exploit the strengths of our offensive. Instead, it puts our offensive line in the open field, trying to block quicker linebackers. It also leaves our running backs exposed without clear holes to run through and those huge linemen would, uh, well, just be in the way! In other words, the screen leaves our offensive strengths on the doorstep and highlights our weaknesses.
I think the last time a screen play worked was with Reno Mahe.
Our screen play is the running back in the flat. Fui or Harvey against a linebacker in the open field? We all would take that matchup any day of the week (except Sunday).
Ki
Re: screen plays. If I recall correctly, the shovel pass to Fui worked quite well last week on the final drive. I realize that’s a bit closer to a draw play than a screen, but it does show some new opportunities.
I’m not sure our linemen are fast enough to run a true wide-out screen, but I wonder about a ‘tight’ screen — Max shifting or rolling to one side to draw rushers and then passing it back to just behind the tight end on the other side. Is there anything like that in the BYU playbook? ..bruce..
Ki hit it right on the head. Teams use a screen, draw, or) swing to beat the pressure rush. We use Harvey on an option route. The one where he cuts back across the middle a lot. That is our blitz beater. As Quinn said, we do not have a screen back. Maybe Wayne Latu but I,m not sure how good his hands are.
I think we see Dennis and Andrew George get a lot of catches this week, and maybe Harvey out of the backfield, but after the success of the run and last weeks defensive performance I think more run than pass to keep the CSU offense on the sidelines. Short game.
I recall running two RB screens this year, both early in the year. Neither were very successful.
I also recall either Anae or Bronco responding to a question on why BYU doesn’t run the play with something like the following: “We do have screens in the playbook. The problem is, the defense already keys on the RB so much that they just aren’t all that effective.”
One other note – during the Bronco Mendenhall show on 10/29, Bronco was asked by the fan how the O counters pressure. He responded with the following (paraphrased):
“There’s three ways to beat pressure. First, there’s the draw. This isn’t our first choice. Second, there’s slip screens, with the RB leaking out with blockers. This also isn’t a priority even though it is a nice counter measure. Third, and this is our preferred method, is we try to get 5 receivers out in as many routes as possible. We like to use the RB to chip-block a primary rusher to delay him & give the QB time to find an open receiver. That is our first choice, the other two are backups, but we’re not as effective because there’s only so much practice time & we spend the majority on our preferred method.”
He went on to say that they didn’t execute this well in the TCU game, and that the distribution of the ball wasn’t good enough to combat the pressure.
Mark,
I can not tell you on here what the BYU linemen say, but I will tell you what linemen in general communicate before the play.
On a pass play, they will communicate the TYPE of blocking scheme; Zone, man to man, slide. The running back will tell them where he is and where he is going to block so they can let 1 man come free. They will also communicate potential rushers/blitzers and any warnings they read from studying. For example, watch the twist, watch the LB Blits here/there.
In the run game they may also use a call sign for zone blocking. They also have code words for who is going to combo where on the run. For example if the Tackle and Guard are going to combo block the DE and OLB the tackle would make a call to the guard telling him who to pick up.
The center makes almost all calls and is the director of the O Line. I hope this makes sense. It is a little hard to say without giving examples, but that is top secret stuff.
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