Play(s) of the (other) Day: Power/Duo vs. Delaware

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Spoiler Alert for those of you stuck at a wedding (or worse) this past Saturday who have yet to watch the replay of the Penn State-Delaware “contest”: The fighting Blue Hens were  predictably overmatched EVERYWHERE. Line of Scrimmage. Perimeter. All points in between.

But for the sake of this blog post, let’s focus our attention upfront, where the big eaters roam.

Traditionally, the simplest way to take full advantage of a talent/size discrepancy along the line of scrimmage is through gap-scheme runs. While Mike Yurcich has primarily leaned upon a zone-based run scheme throughout his tenure as an offensive coordinator, starting last year he mixed in more gap-scheme plays so that he’d be able to counter different defensive fronts.

The easiest way to differentiate gap vs. zone run plays is that gap runs have a predetermined hole that the RB is designed to hit, while zone plays afford the RB the luxury of reading key defenders (based on the type of zone run called) and deciding where to run based off those reads – the flow of the DL and LBs.

For the most part, the lion’s share of Yurcich’s gap-scheme runs have been counters, which feature a pulling backside guard and a backside H-Back (tight end in the backfield, typically lined up as a wing back). On Saturday, though, Yurcich featured a seldom-used (for him, anyway) “1-back power” run on 3^rd and 10 – a down and distance that typically doesn’t scream “hand it off!” Heck, you might have thought Yurcich was psychotic for running this play…

…but here’s why it worked.

Petrified of Drew Allar Uncle Rico-ing deep balls over their heads, the Blue Hens defense lived in Nickel personnel on Saturday, which features a fifth DB. So they’re already at a heft disadvantage vs. the run. On this play, that disadvantage becomes magnified when Delaware only puts 5 defenders in the box…which, on the surface, makes sense since this is a traditional passing down.

In this 1-Back Power run, the center 64-Hunter Nourzad and the right guard 77-Sal Wormley double-team the nose tackle and work up to the playside linebacker (A+ job of doing this by Nourzad). While that’s happening, the backside guard, beefy 71-Vega Ioane wraps/pulls to meet the unsuspecting second-level gap fitter – in this case, Delaware LB 0-Jackson Taylor — thus clearing the track for ‘K-Train’ Allen (© Michael Robinson, 2023).

Here’s another look:

Gap-Scheme runs are downhill and physical.

The second scheme we’re putting under the microscope is a familiar one that just so happened to feature a tiny, new wrinkle: Duo. Penn State scored on this slightly new-look Duo play on its 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th touchdowns.

Duo is fairly simple: Each offensive lineman is responsible for the gap closest to the center…and if there isn’t anyone there, they’re supposed to double-team the next closest defensive lineman. The goal is to not get beat inside. The runner aims for the A-Gap, but can bounce if second-level defenders flood the interior. Penn State ran Duo a bunch last season (especially vs. Auburn) and baited West Virginia into thinking it was running Duo on those big-play Yankee passing concepts we outlined last week.

However, Saturday was the first time Penn State ran Duo with an 8-man blocking surface out of the shotgun. That’s the wrinkle…well, one of the wrinkles.

Prior, as you’ll see below, Penn State ran 8-man surface Duo with the QB under center and a WR short motioning toward the line of scrimmage (5-Mitchell Tinsley here…TV didn’t catch the short motion) in charge of digging out a box safety…adding another digit to the numbers game, basically.

The other new wrinkle out of Duo (which you might have already noticed) is the manner in which Penn State arrived at its 8-man blocking surface. On all three TD shotgun Duo plays, instead of pinching the WR toward the box, Penn State shifted their two tight ends to the boundary, where the No. 1 WR was already in a tight split. Finding different, creative ways to arrive at your desired alignment pre-snap makes it tough for opposing defensive coordinators to ID Duo and adjust personnel/scheme accordingly.