Film at 11: Northwestern Defense
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Pat Fitzgerald grew up in Orland Park, a suburb just south of Chicago. He was an All-American middle linebacker at Northwestern in the high-shoulder pad era of the mid-1990s, a tackle-to-tackle prowler who put a pair of Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year trophies in the Wildcats sparsely filled case. After his eligibility expired, he spent more than two decades coaching at his Alma Mater, 17 as the head coach. Jack Fitzgerald, Pat’s son, was about to start his freshman year playing TE for his proud papa.
All of this sounds like the first act of a movie, including the fact that Pat looks like Tony Soprano doing pretty well on his diet. Unfortunately, the fairytale story ended prematurely and without a happy ending.
Rumors of systemic hazing bubbled over into full-blown allegations over the summer. Lawsuits from multiple parties are still pending but the school couldn’t afford to wait; Fitzgerald was fired in July, less than a month before the start of preseason practice, following the university’s investigation into the matter. It wasn’t quite losing a JoePa, but Fitzgerald was undisputedly the face of the Northwestern program.
David Braun had never coached in the FBS when Fitzgerald hired him as Northwestern’s defensive coordinator in January. Hardly a tenderfoot, Braun won championships in two of the last four seasons at FCS-powerhouse North Dakota State. In 2021, he called a defense that led the subdivision in points allowed/game (11.1); the only better mark in the NCAA belonged to the Georgia Bulldogs (10.2).
A resume like that enters the room long before you do. The student-athletes who chose to stick with the program once Braun was named interim head coach quickly bought in, but winning them over was the easy part. Players know good ball when they hear it; fans are always a tougher sell. Attendance numbers at quaint Ryan Field have dipped in 2023…even when compared to Northwestern’s usual modest standards. With all that has happened, it’s understandable.
Still, Braun has piloted the ship through rough waters and done an admirable job thus far. Less than a month into the temporary gig that might soon turn permanent, he’s already doubled the Wildcats win total from last season. Five days ago, in front of friends, family, and a smattering of underclassmen too young to get into the bars, Braun’s Wildcats refused to quit and erased a 3 TD deficit in less than 15 minutes to upset Minnesota in overtime.
Although he’s from Wisconsin himself, Braun never misses the opportunity to point out when one of his players is a “Southside Chicago kid.” He learned from his predecessor how much that means to the locals. Not only is Braun walking the walk, he’s talking the talk.
Starters
Philosophy
According to WildcatReport.com publisher Louie Vaccher, Braun’s calling a defense that is “50% of what he ran the last four years at North Dakota State, 30% of what Northwestern ran under legendary DC Mike Hankwitz and about 20% of what (departed DC Jim O’Neil) ran the last two years.” Sounds like he’s blending what he knows, what his players know and what the fans are nostalgic for from the Wildcat defenses of yore.
Addressing the 50%, Braun made his bones at ND State running a Tampa-2 defensive system, designed to counter two key weaknesses of a traditional zone defense:
*The “deep hole” — many passing concepts designed to attack zone coverage target the no man’s land between the second and third layers of your defense. Tampa-2 borrows the two-deep, five-underneath zone alignment of the Cover-2, except one of the underneath defenders – usually the MLB – will sag back deeper than the other four. You remain vulnerable in the seams on the perimeter (the “honey holes” Tony Romo likes to growl about) but you close the middle of the field to deep posts and streaking TE’s. Here’s a basic example of Tampa-2 from Northwestern’s game against Duke:
- Run defense: much like an outfielder playing a fly ball, a zone defender’s first step will be backwards since his primary responsibility is coverage. Tampa-2 flips all that – asking defenders to put the run in the fore of their minds and adjust to the pass, if necessary.
- The obvious drawback to this thought process is it leaves defenses incredibly susceptible to play-action passes. UTEP, for example, did a good job using misdirection to march down the field on their first drive of the afternoon in Week 2 vs. Northwestern – the only points the Miners scored all day. On the TD pass you’ll see (below) four Wildcat defenders overcommit to the run fake and are left chasing a wide-open behemoth of a tight end who obviously didn’t get that much separation with his foot speed alone:
That’s how the coverage works but much like ‘Spaceballs: The Movie’ is a distinct entity from ‘Spaceballs: The Lunchbox,’ ‘Tampa-2: The Coverage’ should not be confused with ‘Tampa-2: The Defense.’ Calling a defense (or offense, for that matter) is about establishing a baseline and then breaking those rules to catch your opponent leaning the wrong way. Regardless of the particular coverage you’re in the key tenets remain constant:
- Stop the run
- Pressure QBs (without a ton of blitzing) to make decisions quickly
- Tackle the catch/limit YAC-ability
Here’s an instance of the Tampa-2 behind a three-man rush, with one of the DE’s dropping out to spy the QB:
Formation
The Wildcats’ base defense is a familiar 4-3 but most modern defenses are in base about a third of their snaps. They’re spending most of their time in a 4-2-5 nickel:
Defensive line: two DT’s (usually aligned as a 0-1 tech “nose” tackle and a 3-tech, but they’ll sometimes both go head-up with the guards as 2-techniques) and two DE’s always lined up as 5/6i
Linebackers: both are old-school neck rolls who line up shoulder-to-shoulder like the Mack and Buck of a 3-4 front, although the proper terms are Will and Mike, respectively
Defensive backs: two safeties, two outside CB’s and a nickel back
Northwestern makes it easy to chart their personnel because they all align exactly where you’d expect them to. There’s not a lot of blitzing in a Tampa-2 system; what you see is usually what you’re going to get. The linebackers line up like linebackers, the safeties line up like safeties, the snozzberries line up like snozzberries.
The Wildcats showed us mostly “under” fronts last year, meaning the tackles shifted to the weak-side. The 3-tech aligned on the outside shoulder of the weak-side guard while the NT looked to draw a double-team from the center and front-side guard. To compensate the linebackers rolled to the strong-side:
Looking at this year’s tape, it seems Braun prefers to use the “over” front, aligning his DTs to the strength of the offense. In this case the 3-tech lines up on the strong-side with the nose holding it down in the back-side A-gap:
The over-front is more balanced as far as leverage and personnel goes so defensive coaches generally prefer to use the over if they’re going to be bringing additional pressure. In the picture above you see the Mike LB starting to crash; to reiterate: the traditional Tampa-2 defense doesn’t include many exotic blitzes but if Braun is going to dial it up he’s going to do it from the over.
When these teams met last year, the elements favored an old-school, grind-it-out game script, so Northwestern played almost exclusively in base. They know who We Are; they know what we’re going to want to do. I wouldn’t be shocked to see a third linebacker out there again this weekend, even though our Starters chart graphics has Northwestern in Nickel.
When they’re backed up against the ropes they’ll usually go to a “Bear” front (4/5 snaps inside their own 5 against Duke, 3/4 against Minnesota). Traditionally run out of a 46 formation (six defenders on LOS: 4 DL, Sam LB, SS), Northwestern does it with a third DT:
Lion Tamers
LINEBACKER 32-BRYCE GALLAGHER: Defensively Northwestern’s heartbeat is Bryce Gallagher. In that slop-fest at Beaver Stadium last October he had 12 tackles, forced a fumble and intercepted Sean Clifford. This year he corralled the first of three picks that sparked a rout against UTEP in Week 2.
Gallagher doesn’t necessarily light up the stat sheet with splash (I’ve already told you about the only two picks of his career and he has 0 PBUs to keep them company) but he shines in the run game. With his compatriots doing the dirty work, Bryce is free to roam, read and stalk his prey.
Returning to the Mack/Buck comparison, the Buck (34-Xander Mueller) needs a downhill mindset and devil-may-care attitude to stick his face into the fan and take on blocks. The Mack (Gallagher) is more the coverage guy; against the run he’ll sit back, read the protection and try to beat the RB to the hole he’s aiming for. Again, this is all interchangeable for the Mike/Will designations.
If it sounds like I’m saying Gallagher is the lesser of the two, I’m not. You don’t average 100 tackles/season over the past two years (which would be a lot in the NFL, playing 17 games) unless you can come downhill, scrape and fill, drop into coverage, do anything that’s asked of you. He may not be an elite athlete but he has an outstanding football IQ and all the intangibles you could ask for.
Red Tint (Problem Areas)
DEFENSIVE TACKLES: Against Rutgers, Northwestern’s defensive line failed to record a sack or even a QB hit. The Wildcats have seven total sacks through four games — and four of them came against UTEP. That’s bad news for any team let alone a 4-3 defense that should be generating the bulk of its pressure from the defensive ends.
The defensive tackles don’t get off scot-free in this. In the three real games Northwestern played this year (no offense, UTEP) they gave up 634 rushing yards. I know a couple of young men who are looking at that licking their chops; I think they call themselves the Yard Guys or something?
Since Mr. Editor says I can’t give the whole DL a red circle, DT 50-PJ Spencer is going to have to wear this one. One pressure across 115 snaps through four games goes a long way to explain his 43.5 overall PFF grade. I might be able to accept that from a nose if he’s consistently drawing double teams and keeping my other guys clean but 3-techs should be able to put up stats. More like “hold your nose” tackle, right? Guys? Bueller…?
DT 95-Najee Story was one of the guys the Wildcats were expecting to lean on in a turbulent (read: “bad”) season. He is primarily a nose tackle so you don’t exactly expect him to dull your pencils on the stat sheet but you need him to be on the ground less than he is:
Those two guys need to look deep within themselves and find a couple of better football players. Penn State has two All-American candidates at RB champing at the bit to break out. Northwestern is going to want to stop the run first and foremost. Pride and momentum will be on their side — for what that’s worth (not much).
Northwestern’s best bet is to make Drew Allar beat them over the top. Allar — who still hasn’t thrown an INT in college — appears to be exceptional at taking what the defense gives him. If the Northwestern defense is giving him that deep ball…whoo baby, look out.
