Hindsight 2020: PSU Defense vs. Michigan
From Pushee to Pusher in 7 Days, Penn State’s Defense Flipped the Physicality Script and Dictated Terms vs. the Khaki Crusader’s Wounded Group of Wolverines
Thank GAWD for those three bonehead offside penalties by the PSU defensive ends, or else we wouldn’t have much to whine about this week.
Here’s a wild idea: Hold a Bake Sale and buy a football on a stick, guys. Problem solved.
(Googles picture of a football on a stick).
(Finds one. Clicks link…eyes bulge out of head at price of football stick. 70 DOLLARS!?!?!)
(Quits writing about 1-win football teams forever…wholesale orders broomsticks and rubber VOIT P.E.-class footballs…buys a ‘BUILDING AN EMPIRE’ mug on Etsy.)
FORMATIONS
Southern-Speaking Northerner Brent Pry sure did make youngin’ Cade McNamara sweat more than Boss Hog in Bikram, bygolly. Though the Nittany Lions registered ZERO SACKS (should have been ONE SACK but…Big Ten refs) Penn State’s Defensive Coordinator essentially put Michigan’s Speed in Space offense on front-yard cinderblocks – especially through the air – thanks to packages and play calls not seen on film.
For example, as best we can remember, we don’t recall seeing BOTH Penn State DEs playing upright before Saturday:
We also don’t remember Pry stealing a page out of Indiana head coach Tom Allen’s playbook, lining up in DIRTY THIRTY (3 down linemen, NT in a 0 Tech) with the SDE, 18-Shaka Toney roaming the middle – allowing him to A) Shoot a random gap or B) drop in coverage. All previous DIRTY THIRTY formations were either 3-2-6’s or put Toney outside the WDE, two yards off the line.
Toney chooses B and drops. Four Penn State players (on-screen…there might be a 5th off-screen) are defending the Line-to-Gain. 28-Jayson Oweh’s pass rush “win” (+1) forces McNamara to throw a contested ball to the boundary side, short of the sticks. 9-Joey Porter Jr. times his break BEAUTIFULLY and make an +2 play on the ball to force a punt. Put a feather in Pry’s cap.
Here’s more trickery to fool the freshman:
Exotic package on 3rd and 4. Almost looks like a Wide 9 (hard to tell on TV) with 20-Adisa Isaac and 28-Oweh upright again, while Dixon and Luketa bluff double A-Gap blitzes. Michigan flexes running back Chris Evans out of the backfield before the snap. Note the temporary confusion but GREAT communication by Penn State’s defense – specifically 38-Lamont Wade and 40-Jesse Luketa barking at 0-Jonathan Sutherland to cover the back since the Nits are in MAN.
At the snap, Penn State rushes 2.5 guys (should be 3, but Luketa is late to the party because he had to orchestrate coverage assignments). Oweh and Isaac both drop. 8 White Jerseys in coverage.
McNamara doesn’t know what the hell is going on and throws a hot route even through there’s no pass rush threat. Oweh bats the ball and ends a play that’s got no shot at success, even if it’s caught. Well done.
SUBSTITUTIONS
Thin secondary so much less rotation. Down two corners – 5-TCF and 2-Keaton Ellis – Joey Porter Jr. played the entire game, as did 8-Marquis Wilson (minus a snap here and there). 25-Daequan Hardy entered in Nickel situations. At safety, 38-Wade and 1-Jaquan Brisker saw 90-ish percent of all snaps. 16-Ji’Ayir Brown returned but didn’t see much run.
On the defensive line, 77-Judge Culpepper took snaps normally reserved for 53-Fred Hansard. Unsure if Hansard was hurt. Michigan only ran 55 plays the entire game, which limited Isaac’s action and 34-Shane Simmons’ action. Blog favorite 51-Hakeem Beamon lined up for nearly half the plays, and replaced both 55-Antonio Shelton AND 97-PJ Mustipher for the first time in 2020.
At linebacker, 10-Lance Dixon – a Michigan native – saw more time on Saturday, even though he struggled finding and plugging his assigned gaps (more on Dixon later). 23-Curtis Jacobs, after showing promise vs. Iowa, barely saw the field vs. Michigan, which surprised us. 45-Charlie Katshir is out for the season, which sucks because A) we thought he showed promise and B) pretty sure his Mom is a Friend of the Blog.
DEFENSIVE LINE
Several pundits (including us) challenged/questioned this group’s toughness after Iowa’s O-Line Older Brothered the Nittany Lions in the trenches.
Well, challenge accepted and questions answered, I guess.
Penn State outmanned and outmuscled Michigan, repeatedly, especially in high leverage, 3rd-and-Short/4th-and-Short situations. And it wasn’t just one dude…it was collective bullying.
Because we’re Hakeem Beamon fanboys, let’s start there. PLAY. HIM. MORE! Though he’s listed at 6-foot-3 (remember, Media Guide Measurements = Tinder measurements) Beamon plays like a squatty DT – think Anthony Adams, or for our less-dusty readers, Kevin Givens – and consistently gets under blockers’ pads and rocks them on their heels. See:
Beamon’s push on the right guard does two things. First, it halts Michigan RB 25-Hassan Haskins’ downfield momentum, causing him to stop and shuffle because there’s a man with yellow pants in his running lane. Second, Beamon’s penetration obstructs the TE’s path to make the kick out block on 28-Oweh – the guy who reaps the statistical rewards of Beamon’s stellar play.
Oh, and Beamon can wreck double teams, too. Beamon is a complete tackle – run game, pass game, all game.
Not to be outdone, starters 55-Antonio Shelton and 97-PJ Mustipher flexed back-to-back on short yardage plays in the third quarter:
2nd and 1 – PJ:
3rd and 1 – Shelton:
Wanna know what’s wacky? On 4th and 1, both PJ and Shelton crashed the backfield yet somehow let Haskins slip through that push and inexplicably nets a first down on a play we BEGGED James Franklin to challenge – of course, he didn’t listen to us. He never listens to us.
The fact that Jayson Oweh doesn’t have a sack in 2020 is the most 2020 thing ever (we promise to never use that tired phrase again. Sorry, It’s late. Cut us a break.) Like Santa Claus and indigestion, it’s coming, though. It’s got to. HAS TO. Because he’s soooooo darn close…
LINEBACKERS
Stellar day from this group, overall. 12-Brandon Smith is maturing exponentially and seems more at home in space, especially on passing plays.
Here Smith pounces on a poorly thrown pass – a ball that causes the receiver to pivot and turn – and closes the gap like a mall security guard at 10 p.m. Simple rule: you can’t Run After Catch if the defender doesn’t let you take the first step.
On McNamara’s final pass of the game – Michigan’s Joe Milton took the next three snaps, for some reason – Smith (+1 coverage) calmly sits on a hitch route, doesn’t panic, doesn’t interfere, doesn’t wrap the receiver’s waist, and matter-of-factly knocks the ball away. Doesn’t look like much, but these type of PBU’s –linebacker on WR, aka mismatches in the offense’s favor — demoralize opponents.
Three plays later, middle linebacker 13-Ellis Brooks made a spectacular “get skinny” play on 4th and 1 to force Michigan off the field for good. Incredible timing. Incredible instincts. Like sliding a credit card through the crack to unlock a door, Brooks slithers between the center and guard and turns Milton’s shoulders. With Michigan’s Cam Newton clone (as in can’t-throw-anymore-Cam, not 2015 Cam) now facing the Penn State sideline, 18-Shaka Toney wisely tackles the BALL, not the MAN…a heads-up play that prevents Milton from re-squaring his shoulders. In fact, when the play ends, Milton is staring at the OTHER goal line.
10-Lance Dixon remains a work in progress, as his understanding of X’s and O’s lags way behind his raw talent. More than once, Dixon fit the wrong gap – missteps that triggered 10+ yard runs.
But, like we said, the stuff you can’t coach (raw talent) is there and occasionally flashes on film – like here, during this TFL (1 of 3 Penn State had on Saturday). Third down run blitz. Dixon shoots the gap, closes the gate, and brings on the Michigan punt team.
SECONDARY
By the 4th Quarter, Pry finally picked up on the fact that Michigan’s rub-some-dirt-on-it remedy didn’t fix McNamara’s bum shoulder. So, he started creeping his safeties closer and closer to the line of scrimmage. Here, the deepest Penn State defender is a mere 10 yards from the ball.
A few plays later, Michigan hit that luck burger/Glitch in the Matrix slot fade against Hardy. That’s really the only chunk play Penn State’s secondary surrendered.
OH, did you notice Michigan ran the same play Ohio State popped for 50+ yards a month ago – a quick hitter to a WR running jet motion to the strong side (two TE) of an unbalanced line – but this time 38-Lamont Wade sniffed this sucker out and triggered forward before the snap. 12-Smith gets up the field and forces the receiver back inside. Problem is, Wade and Brooks are there…so he bounces wide around Smith and gets a few yards because the ref didn’t feel like throwing a flag despite the obvious hold(s) occurring right in his face.
Finally, Penn State sophomore cornerback 8-Marquis Wilson finally looks like his old self. Man coverage here on 4th down. Great job sifting through the traffic and closing on this ball without interfering.
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