POWERSPREAD

 PREGAME

What’s Drew doing?  

 

Uncle Drew has been kidnapped by a band of runaways.

 

What’s Craig doing?

This year Craig gets the award for the most loyal of the gang as he’s made it to the OSU Bar for just about every game!

 

What about Kurt, Jimmy and Kyle?? 

What all the Buckeye Fans across the World are doing right now! Anxiously awaiting another rendition of the Greatest Rivalry in Sport!

 

WHAT WE SHOULD ALL BE DOING!

Celebrating a Run into History with OSU and the Power Spread!

 

 *Pregame Extra

-Just found out Kurt is stuck outside 121 Fulton on a waiting list. That place hasn’t been crowded all year! Kurt said “It’s Michigan. Like Easter!” Well said, good friend. 🙂

 

-Jimmy is back in the Buckeye State with his family getting ready for The Game!

 

-Game about to start. I’m ready to jump out of my skin!!

 

-Don’t expect a blowout. UM has plenty of talent. A couple of tweaks in the offensive scheme will make this a tough one for the Buckeyes.

 

–Weather in Ann Arbor – In the 30s and sunny with only a little wind! 

The Game!

1ST QUARTER 

OSU1 – 15:00, own 20

Nice KO out of endzone. 

1- Hyde up middle for 7.

2- PA Miller, misses wide open Smith! Not enough wide open O during the year for practice!

3- Keep Miller 1st Down! 

4- Hyde ZR Sweep for a few.

5- Big 19 Yd gain up the gut! Amazingly UM Front 7 not manning up yet!

6- Sack by top true frosh recruit LB Ben Gedeon! They are a tad small and inexperienced, but fast.

7- QB Draw Miller gets back the sack yards lost

8- 3rd+9 Miller Deep into double coverage INC. 7 man protection…. ??

Except for the usual Frantic Tempo on 1st Series, conservative start by the Buckeyes O.

FANTASTIC PUNT JOHNSTON DOWNED AT THE 1!! PERFECTION!

 

UM1 – 11:40, own 1!

1- Run up the gut from under center.

2- 12 formation once again (1RB, 2TE), but nice play action and quick hitch to Gallon for 1st Dn.

3- Great PA misdirection out of the 12 set. WR Screen lft to Gallon for 80+ yds! 1st and Goal!

4- Pro set run for nothing.

5- Finally a Pistol set. Speed Option TD on keep Gardner!

As I said in my Preview – watch out for the Play Action and MisDirection and don’t take the UM offense too lighly. Knew Borges would tweak it a bit. He had to!

UM7-0

OSU2 – 9:30, own 24

1- Keep Miller for short gain.

2- Hyde the same.

3- 3rd+5. Nice 2TE shovel pass to Philly Brown on jet sweep for a 1st Dn! Now that’s a little better!

4- Keep Miller. UM D is keying him and Hyde big time. We need to open up the Offense, Meyer!

5- Hyde up the gut again, but our bigger OLine and Hyde too powerful. 7 yds and another 1st dn.

6- PA to true frosh RB Elliot. Smith open again, but another bad pass Miller. Now, we try to open it up, but haven’t been doing it all yr so some difficulties for Miller!

7- Miller crunched by UM D keying on him.

8- Another 3rd+Long. Straight drop back and Devin Smith down the Seam 53 yds TOUCHDOWN OHIO STATE!!! WHAT A PASS BY MILLER!! GREAT CATCH AS WELL!

WOW. Incredible execution. This one hardly about the play design, but nice job challenging the UM safeties deep. Better on first down than 3rd+Long, but this was all Greatness by Miller and Smith!

OSU 7-7

UM2 – 8:08, own 30 (KR TD called back due to penalty!)

Here’s the cockiness and energy dip I was worried about after the Bucks first score! Terrible Kick Coverage (after a great yr), but thankfully a penalty negates the KR TD for UM…. whew! 

1- Missed inc off another PA from under center.

2- Spread set, reverse to Bunchess for a few yds. Trick plays won’t do it.

3- Great quick hitch pass to Dileo for 1st Dn. Dart by Gardner. Too quick for pressure.

4- Big pass off another PA to 2nd TE, Jake Butt! 

5- Shovel Pass out of Spread to Gallon on Jet Sweep. 1st+Goal!

6- RO to RB Smith for a couple.

7- More PS by UM. Speed Option rt, pitch Toussaint – TOUCHDOWN! 

Commentator giving an erroneous key. THE KEY is Power Spread Tweaks by Borges. Check my Preview.

UM 14-7

OSU3 – 2:11, own 25

1- Hyde for 5.

2- Hyde for 10.

3- Hyde for 7.

4- Miller for 53, a stiff arm and a TOUCHDOWN!!

Incredible. No opening up of the Offense. Just pure POWER from the Power Spread! UM is keying these 2 guys and simply can’t stop the Read Option with the talent on hand. Right now the big plays are killing UM.

OSU 14-14

UM3- 0:55, own 22

1- Power I. Tailback Green for 11yds.

2- More great PA Misdirection. TE Screen lft for 28 to the backup TE again – Butts!

 

 

 

2ND QUARTER

3- More of the same. This time the #1 TE Funchess for 22 to the right!

4 – Gallon in the right corner of the Endzone – TOUCHDOWN! Great play design – one on one vs our Safety Barnett! 

Like I said – Borges was going to tweak. The gameplan design has been impeccable!

UM 21-14

OSU4 – 14:28, own 16

Big fight after the KO! 3 players ejected! Starting G Maurice Hall and WR Dontre Wilson for the Buckeyes. Only a backup LB for UM who plays on the KR team. Hall came from off the field! Not good. NOT POWER SPREAD!

1- Hyde for 5.

2- Pistol Hyde up gut for 16 more. Really incredible. UM’s young backup LBs simply cant deal. As well as their light DTs.

3- Smart PA call, but delayed blitz by one of those young LBs, Joe Bolden, Sack. 2nd+17. These kids have the speed, not the size. So Meyer knows what he’s doing.

4- Long down the middle INC!

5- 3rd+17. Long down seam, INT by UM’s best DB, Blake Countess! Like a Punt.

Absolutely too predictable by OSU’s Offense. With the way Hyde/Miller running, why not do some PA runs or quick passes/screens?? After all the short stuff all year, now Meyer/Herman are just doing Power runs or Deep Passes?? Again – variety? There’s been more from UM’s Borges!

 

UM4 – 12:21, own 16

1- Another PS Jet Sweep Shovel Pass to Gallon for 13 and a 1st! Nice by Borges.

2- Trick Play – WR throwback to QB. Don’t like it. Scheme’s been working. No Tricks!

3-  Toussaint for 8 yds. The running set up by all the passing and misdirection. Great Gameplan.

4- 3rd+2. Nice RO sprint wide right by Gardner for 1st dn. UM Penalty. Play called back due to 5 Men in Backfield.

5- 3rd+7. Finally a nice blitz and tight coverage on short pass! Roby drops Interception!!

 

OSU5 – 10:47, own 21

1- Flair right to Hyde – nice! 3 yds.

2- Freeze Tempo  – up tempo, but then take time to call the play. Essentially freezing the D. Up middle Hyde for a couple.

3- 3rd+4. Nice scramble Miller, eluding pressure, looking downfield and hitting Philly Brown on the sideline for a big 1st down. PENALTY – Ineligible WR downfield! ugh..

4- 3rd+9. QB Draw. NICE CALL. Didn’t get it, but we are at least starting to mix it up more. Bodes well for the 2nd Half.

HUGE PENALTY! UNSPORTSMANLIKE ON UM’S BEST DLINEMAN FRANK CLARK! 1ST DOWN OSU.

This could be huge for OSU. Honestly, it looked like a bad call. Not much in it. Lucky for OSU.

5- Hyde 5 more up the gut! 

6- Hyde again.

7- 3rd+3. Timeout OSU. GREAT KEEP BY MILLER ON RO POWER SWEEP. HE RUNS FOR A BIG GAIN ON THE OTHER SIDE, BUT HOLDING ON TAYLOR DECKER!! BIG PENALTY! SLOPPY

8- 3rd+13. Sack by top recruit Frosh Taco Charlton! Max protection again. No one open. Too predictable guys.

 

UM5 – 5:48, own 17

1- Pro Set run for a couple.

2- Another great PA! Fake the WR reverse, RB screen the lft – the other way. Great play by LB Perry to create a 3rd dn.

3- PS Pro (2 RBs in Shotgun). Gardner escapes pressure from Spence and Bosa for 11 and a 1st!

4- BIG BLITZ SILVER BULLETS!! Shazier and Bennent on the Sack!

5- TE Screen for 3. Nice misdirection again, but Buckeyes on it! FINALLY

6- 3rd+11. Fake Draw, quick WR screen INC! Big blitz from Shazier and tight aggressive coverage by the Buckeyes! They are slowly adjusting to all the PA and Misdirection.

GREAT PUNT BY HAGERUP!

 

OSU6 – 2:41, own 9

1- HURRY UP TEMPO!  Hyde for 8. 

2- Hyde for 13. Amazing. Hyde slow getting up and comes off the field. Should be fine. Get in the great backups! TEAM TEAM TEAM!

3- GREAT PA PASS DOWN MIDDLE TO HEUREMAN FOR 37 YDS!! THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!!

4- Another PA pass down left SL. Man coverage – just long, but good call!

5- A dart pass to Fields for 12! 1st Down in the Hurry Up!

6- No one open. Again max protection. Miller scrambles and throws it away.

7- Again, TE in for Max xtra protection. Conservative 4 man rush by UM. Miller has all day and is able to break free down the right sideline for an easy 21 yd TOUCHDOWN RUN!!

OSU 91 YARDS IN LESS THAN 2 MINUTES! INCREDIBLE. THEY NEED TO SCHEME LIKE THIS THE WHOLE GAME! NOT JUST THE BEGINNINGS AND ENDS OF HALVES.

OSU 21-21

UM6 – 1:21, own 20

1- Pro Run.

2- Pro Run. Booing by the fans. 

The conservative Defense and Offense at the end of the game is the problem with Borges/Hoke. Such a great game plan and design all Half, then shut it down. It’s not even about the score. It’s an attitude. This sends the wrong attitude heading into the 2nd Half and why I picked the Buckeyes to pull this out in the 4th Quarter.

 

 

HALFTIME

OSU is trying to open it up, but its tough when its not what they have done all year. Some great plays by Miller and the power of Hyde and the Oline has overcome the scheme situation. The last drive was nice. Simple, but with variety in Space and Time. OSU needs more in the 2nd Half.

 

Incredible Gameplan and Design tweaks by Borges/Hoke, but at the end of the Half, Mattison’s D got too conservative. No pressure on Miller was deadly. Then UM just ran out the clock on O. This is the old school stuff that gets them in trouble. Should be an OSU 2nd Half.

 

 

 

3RD QUARTER

UM1 – 15:00, 25

1- Pass Spread. Quick pass. Accurate, but dropped.

2- Green run for 5.

3- Too much pressure Spence. Sack by Bennett! Defense adjusted part way thru the 2nd Quarter. Borges’ turn.

 

OSU1 – 13:34, own 48

1- Hyde smacked by Ryan. 3 yd loss! Finally a good run blitz by Mattison.

2- Nice PA quick pass on lft sideline for 1st, but Smith stepped oobs before the catch! INC

3- 3rd+13. INC. 

Big Punt Johnston. THE AUSSIE!

 

UM2 – 12:33, own 20

1- Big hit on screen lft by Doran Grant 

2- Pressure from Bosa, but great quick West Coast type of pass scheme. Dileo for 1st Down.

3- PA bootleg right Gardner and little dump off for 7 yds to FB Kerridge!

4- Pro Power. Smith 3 for 1st.

5- Another pro power run for 1. Can’t use Pro that much.

6- Nice Middle Screen call to RB for a couple.

7- Offsides!

8- 3rd+10. QB Screen. Nice call that almost gets 1st dn, but great closing speed by Reeves and Shazier. FUMBLE RECOVERED BY OSU!

PLAY UNDER REVIEW….. PLAY STANDS! GARDNER’S KNEE WAS NOT DOWN. 

 

OSU2 – 8:53, own 44

1- Jet Sweep Brown, but Miller keeps. Great ball handling and run by Miller!! 16 yds! 1st Down!

2- Hyde for 3.

3- Guess who hasn’t broken a big one in a while?? CARLOS HYDE! HUGE RUN OFF RO DOWN LEFT SIDELINE! 33 Yds!

4-Hyde stuffed up gut.

5- RO Sweep lft. Miller keeps with D keying on Hyde now. TOUCHDOWN!

OSU 28-21

UM3 – 6:59, own 17

1- PA quick slant. Butt again. Nice call. 1st Down.

2- Pro Draw to Green for 2.

3- Another nice PA pass for 10. This time to Chesson.

4- PA down middle of field to Gallon. Overthrown. One of the few ad passes by Gardner today.

5- Power I. We had it stuffed, but bad angle by Shazier and a missed tackle by Frosh Cameron Williams turns a 0 yd gain into a 38 yd gain! Great strength and determination by RB Smith.

6- Power run again. Stuffed, but again Smith makes something out of nothing. The Old School stuff Hoke loves. This won’t last in today’s modern game. 

7- Right on cue – another Power Run Stuffed!

8- 3rd+3. PA pass, but great pressure by OSU and tight man coverage again! 

FG unit out, but then a TimeOut by Hoke

9- 4th+3 and UM is going for it! BLITZ PRESSURE BY PERRY, TIGHT COVERAGE SHORT MIDDLE, INC OSU BALL!! Nice Defensive Call!

 

OSU3 – 3:27, own 14

READ OPTION TIME

1- Hyde 20

2- Hyde 7

3- Miller 17

4- Jordan Hall gets a run. 4.

5- Hyde for 12 more.

6- Play Action, Heureman wide open down the seam for 22 yds and a TOUCHDOWN!!

INCREDIBLE.

OSU 35-21

UM4 – 1:05, own 17

1- Great dump off to Toussaint by Gardner with Bosa and others all over him! 8 yds.

2- Power run Green. 1st dn. Quick pass No Huddle is what’s called for now, but will Borges do it?

3- Another PA strike by Gardner to Gallon for 19 and another 1st Dn. Gardner was never the problem. Borges/Hoke were.

 

 

4TH QUARTER

4- Deep Pass INC

5- More PA from under center. Quick pass Funchess on a down and out. Inc, but holding on Perry. 1st Dn.

6- Old Zone stretch Power Sweep Left. Big blocking and nice run Toussaint for 12. But Borges can’t just keep doing this. IT’S NOT 1983!

7- More power. Run Blitz by CB Roby. Stuffed! See.

8- Misdirection pitch left to Toussaint. Not enough. Nice play Bosa/Shazier. Now 3rd+Long. Not good scheming.

9- 3rd+6. GREAT EXECUTION BY GARDNER AND BUTT FOR A FIRST DOWN STRIKE. Quick out by the 2nd TE, who sat right in the open space of the zone.

10- More power running. STUFFED!

11- Quick PA pass to FB in flat. Bad by Borges again, leaving 3rd+7 for his QB and Team!

12- Sure enough, heavy pressure by the Silver Bullets, but FANTASTIC SCRAMBLE BY GARDNER AND WIDE OPEN DILEO IN THE CORNER OF THE ENDZONE!

Borges is not doing his Offense any favors, but his players are playing their hearts out! Led by battle tested Gardner!

UM 28-35

OSU4 – 11:15, own 25

1- PA for quick pass lft. Miller holds it and scrambles lft for a short gain. Nice call.

2- Another POWER RUN by Hyde, but fighting for extra yds, the ball is stripped and recovered by LB Morgan. Can’t fault Hyde. Good play UM.

PLAY UNDER REVIEW… UM BALL!

 

UM5- 10:55, opp 41

1- More Power runs from under center – STUFFED

2- GREAT PA PASS DEEP DOWN MIDDLE TO THEIR GREAT TE FUNCHESS FOR A TD, BUT HE DROPS IT!! OHHHH….RIGHT THRU HIS HANDS!

3- GREAT SCRAMBLE ON 3RD+LONG GARDNER FOR BIG 1ST!

4- Gardner just overthrows an open Gallon near Goaline!

5- Jet Sweep to Gallon but great read Spence, Roby and company! 2 yd loss!

6- 3rd+12. Blitz, but great pickup by the Oline and great pass Gardner to Gallon! 1st Down!

7- ZR this time to Smith for a couple.

8- Roll lft out of shotgun, quick out lft Gallon for a few. Nice call.

9- 3rd+2. Heavy Blitz BUCKEYES! Almost Intercepted. Powell the pressure. Barnett almost the Interception, but great play Dileo ripping the ball from him at the last second.

4th+2. UM going for it! TIMEOUT. Borges really making me eat my words here. Too much pro power, but he went back to mixing it up with PA and even using a Quick Huddle.

10- POWER SPREAD. GARDNER POWERS IT UP THE GUT FOR THE 1ST DOWN!

11- Back to the Power I. STUFFED!

12- Power Pistol – Stuffed as well. Nice play Shazier. They need play action here! Borges??

13- Right on Cue – PA and TD to the completely shocking Star of the Game- backup TE JAKE BUTTS!

UM 35-35!!

OSU5 – 5:01, own 35

1- GREAT CALL! RO Power Sweep Right with Hyde as the Lead Blocker for Philly Brown, but Miller wisely kept it and raced the other direction for a big gain! 32 YDS.

2- Now power Hyde for 5!

3- Same RO Power Sweep as the 1st play, but this time to the lft and this time Miller gives it to Brown. Same result – another big gain! 12 yds. PS AT ITS BEST IS SO SIMPLE!

4- Hyde for 8.

5- Hyde for 7 – almost touchdown!

6- POWER PISTOL. HYDE TOUCHDOWN STANDING UP!

OSU 42-35!!

UM6 – 2:20, own 16

Great KO coverage by the Bucks!! UM must go 84 yds!

1- UM HURRY UP. INC

2- Funchess in the middle. Gardner strike!

3- Dileo in the middle. Another Gardner strike!

4- Roll lft Inc in the flat.

5-  Another strike to Dileo at the markers. 1st Dn!

6- Gardner quick scramble and another strike to Reynolds again in the middle and another 1st down! OSU NEEDS TO BLITZ. STOP THE CONSERVATIVE STUFF!

7- RIGHT ON CUE – BLITZ AND BIG SACK BOSA/SPENCE! THANK YOU FICKELL!

8- 2nd+17. Blitz threat. Quick out to Hayes for a few. Nice deception by the Buckeyes.

9- BIG BLITZ FICKEL, BUT UM READ IT! ROLL RIGHT, SCREEN TOUSSAINT LEFT FOR A HUGE GAIN TO THE 2! 29 YDS!

Fickell totally showed his hand!! Can’t do that. Passive Aggressive Deception!!

10- Quick pass Funchess for TD. Lined up 1 on 1 with the smaller CB. Just overpowered him.

UM GOING FOR 2PTS! OSU CALLS TIMEOUT!

UM 41-42

2 PT TRY FOR THE GAME!

No pre snap motion by the Buckeyes. Very average Defensive scheme. Triple Bunch Right for UM. Dileo pulls back for the quick pass. Gardner throws it to him, but Brilliant Read by Powell for the INT and the game for the Buckeyes!!

OSU6 – Recovered onside kick. GAME OVER!

OSU 42 MICHIGAN 41

 2 IN A ROW AND 24-0!!

 

WRAP

Wow. What a game. Great adjustments by Borges and the Offense. Gave their tough QB a chance to make some plays again and not be a sitting duck. Still, there was a lot of Pro Power stuff under the center. If not for the heroic play of his players, the game would have gotten away from Hoke again. To Borges’ credit, he shifted gears at the very end after a lot of power running. Again, he caught our defense off guard with tons of Play Action and Misdirection as I said he might do in my Preview. 

 

The problem for UM on Defense is that as good as Mattison is as a DC, he really doesn’t understand the mixed aggression or deception required to compete with a top PS team. As he usually does, Mattison had a good game plan, but UM was undermanned with their young LBs in the run game. A couple of deep passes by the Buckeyes and Mattison was too scared to run blitz or stack the box. First he keyed on Miller. Then Hyde. Then both, so OSU put Philly Brown into the fray. Too reactive and not enough proactive from a good, but old school DC in Mattison.

 

OSU could have mixed it up more, but they did so a little more than previous games. With UM undermanned against the run and not willing to sell out to stop it, Meyer had to keep it on the ground. The Power Sweeps with Brown in the backfield at the end was a nice twist. Basically Miller and Hyde are Heisman type players on the field and Meyer rode it. The best stop for UM was their offense eating up the play clock with the Slow Huddle and Power Run/Pass mix.

 

The big complaint from Buckeye fans will be Fickell and the Defense. Again. I think Borges had his best gameplan and design in years. He enabled Gardner to be at his best today and show some of his big time ability.  Also, we were over-confident this week. Both fans and team. UM still has top talent. In saying that, I also must say that Fickell and his staff seem to really get into a stubborn rut of play calling. They Blitz too predictably, show their hand too much and have very little pre-snap movement and adjustment.

 

I swear I saw more Passive Aggressive Deception from Fickell under Tressel than under Meyer. At least more Zone Blitzing and mixed pressure. Since I see the same predictability many times on Offense as well,  I have to think that Meyer has a lot to do with what we are seeing on D. Very fixated on certain ideas without much variety at times. We get away with it more on Offense due to two Heisman types in the backfield and the inability of Defenses to stop Power Spread Offense. Not so easy to get away with it on D.

 

I must reiterate, though, that this is still very much a case of a team really playing great on Offense rather than bad Defense. Even a little PS goes a long way on Offense today and the Defenses all over the country are trying to catch up. No one’s figured it out – not even Nick Saban. Check out the stats vs Texas A&M the last two years. Make sure to check out the game now. Auburn will get their yds, I guarantee that. PS offense -or even a well designed mix of it with conventional sets- is tough for everyone, but certainly some more PS ideas (variety, deception, flexibility) on defense would help the Buckeyes. Maybe Meyer should leave the coaches over there to coach? Or maybe he should get more involved?

 

Speaking of Auburn/Alabama, Auburn has a 7-0 lead at the moment. The problem may not be Alabama losing, but how we come back from this HUGE victory. An emotional letdown is inevitable. Even at 70% we still should beat MSU. The scheme and talent level is much better for OSU. But if we play at 60% or below, then we will be in trouble, because MSU can’t wait to knock us out!  

 

The good news is that Urban hasn’t nearly showed all his cards on Offense and there’s still time to improve on D. If we really mix it up and use more Tempo, as we do sometimes at the beginnings and ends of the halves, then you will see REALLY HUGE SCORING with Miller/Hyde. So no matter how our D does, we will not be stopped.

 

I’m not sure we are going to see this, though. Urban may become too concerned in helping the D instead of just getting as many points as possible. Especially after a week of complaining about the Defense from the Buckeye fans, I’m worried that we may even start huddling to use up more of the play clock. Any back up of aggression on Offense would be a big mistake, imo. The answer is in the Defensive schemes – not reducing the Offensive production. In the end, a win is a win. 81-55 is as good as 10-7.

 

Go Bucks!

 

~PS