Looking back at the problems to see which ones were the most severe, which ones are correctable, which ones are the most concerning:
* I'm just getting started in this exercise so I'm going to post them as I see them.
**
FIRST QUARTER
Opening Drive Defense:
+ Jacub Panasiuk drew the holding penalty on the left guard.
Punt.
Opening Drive Offense:
From the beginning, problems arise that won't be cured all day.
- Jordan Reid beaten by run-blitzing ILB Sanborn for loss of two on 1-10.
It's an inside zone. RT Reid has to move low and to his left to pick up the LB Sanborn and keep him out of the B-gap.
I don't know if Reid was a little slow, or played a little high, or if the ILB charged more quickly than he expected. Sanborn timed his contact with Reid perfectly, delivering a same foot/same shoulder blow while ripping through. He turnstiled Reid and tackled the RB instantly.
Lewerke's body language after this play was troubling. I'm not criticizing Lewerke about it. It just seemed that Lewerke was unpleasantly unsurprised by the error, and just had an air about him that he knew right then that this was going to be a long day. It's probably reckless of me to try to interpret body language, but if you wonder about lack of confidence, it seems plain to see right there.
- 2-12: Lewerke's reckless toss to the right sideline into a crowd, lucky it wasn't returned for a TD.
On this play, UW pressed the short side and gave the field side a free release.
UW showed six players with a pass rush posture right after the snap. But only four came. That's something we see in the NFL a lot but I haven't seen a lot of it in college football. UW does it, and that's part of what makes them tricky and good.
The o-line is working to block all six, but only four come. So sometimes a couple of hurrying o-linemen end up assigned to air, while the defense has a two vs one somewhere else. That didn't happen on this play, but it sometimes happens vs Wisconsin.
Lewerke reads the short side pressed WR first. But one of the six rush-posture defenders drops into curl coverage and takes away curl/hitch/slant to the pressed WR that Lewerke was reading.
It looks like Lewerke reads the TE second on a short release over the middle. The dropping defenders covered that one.
The free release to the field was open at the beginning, open in the middle, and open at the end, but Lewerke got to that read third. By that time, Sanborn is coming free to get some pressure on Lewerke. (Sanborn is an ILB, and is one of the four rushing on this play. He looped from the right side of MSU's protection to the left side. Luke Campbell had already committed to help Matt Allen with the nose. Campbell got off and got a piece of Sanbord, but UW did a good job of disgusing where the four-man rushers were going to be coming from. Everyone up front was most concerned about 56, Baun, one of the best pass rushers in the Big Ten and the best all-around LB I've seen in the conference so far this year. Michigan State had RB Collins chipping and ready to help Higby vs Baun. Baun showed rush, then dropped into pass coverage. Michigan State ended up "wasting" Higby and Collins on Loudermilk.)
Lewerke began to feel the pressure and threw a blind prayer out to the right flat to the WR who had been open for a couple of beats. You might remember the pass hanging in the air like a punt. Somehow it found the ground. Could have been a disastrous pick-six from the beginning.
My Take: Lewerke felt the pass rush on this play, ON THE FIRST PASS OF THE DAY. This was a carryover from the beating he took in the fourth quarter against OSU. He hurried a bad-decision pass and wasn't all that pressured on this play. Sanborn touched him after the release, but it's not like there was a QB hit on this play. I don't know if Sanborn was even credited with a pressure on this play, but Lewerke definitely felt pressured.
Lewerke has been a tough, cool customer all of his career. But you could see that he had no confidence in his protection on this play. He has the capacity to come back strong in a couple of weeks, but he needs a bye week pretty badly, to get his mind right and try to muster up some confidence in his pass protection.
I've seen Lewerke make some mistakes here and there. All QBs make mistakes. But I've not seen him get happy feet like that. I don't blame him. It is what it is. And that's one of the things Michigan State has to remedy and overcome in the games ahead. Michigan State will face some good defenses in the future, but UW's combination of diguised pressures and disguised pass drops AND the ability to get to the QB with a four-man rush, but always the threat of a five-man rush, can make things extremely difficult for a QB. Lewerke will have some difficult defenses to work against in two of the next three games, but not as difficult as the hieroglyphics UW presented.
**
I'm sorry this is such a long post on just two plays, but I thought both plays were emblematic of the rest of the day. I shot some video of these two plays with commentary. I plan to post it later.
* I'm just getting started in this exercise so I'm going to post them as I see them.
**
FIRST QUARTER
Opening Drive Defense:
+ Jacub Panasiuk drew the holding penalty on the left guard.
Punt.
Opening Drive Offense:
From the beginning, problems arise that won't be cured all day.
- Jordan Reid beaten by run-blitzing ILB Sanborn for loss of two on 1-10.
It's an inside zone. RT Reid has to move low and to his left to pick up the LB Sanborn and keep him out of the B-gap.
I don't know if Reid was a little slow, or played a little high, or if the ILB charged more quickly than he expected. Sanborn timed his contact with Reid perfectly, delivering a same foot/same shoulder blow while ripping through. He turnstiled Reid and tackled the RB instantly.
Lewerke's body language after this play was troubling. I'm not criticizing Lewerke about it. It just seemed that Lewerke was unpleasantly unsurprised by the error, and just had an air about him that he knew right then that this was going to be a long day. It's probably reckless of me to try to interpret body language, but if you wonder about lack of confidence, it seems plain to see right there.
- 2-12: Lewerke's reckless toss to the right sideline into a crowd, lucky it wasn't returned for a TD.
On this play, UW pressed the short side and gave the field side a free release.
UW showed six players with a pass rush posture right after the snap. But only four came. That's something we see in the NFL a lot but I haven't seen a lot of it in college football. UW does it, and that's part of what makes them tricky and good.
The o-line is working to block all six, but only four come. So sometimes a couple of hurrying o-linemen end up assigned to air, while the defense has a two vs one somewhere else. That didn't happen on this play, but it sometimes happens vs Wisconsin.
Lewerke reads the short side pressed WR first. But one of the six rush-posture defenders drops into curl coverage and takes away curl/hitch/slant to the pressed WR that Lewerke was reading.
It looks like Lewerke reads the TE second on a short release over the middle. The dropping defenders covered that one.
The free release to the field was open at the beginning, open in the middle, and open at the end, but Lewerke got to that read third. By that time, Sanborn is coming free to get some pressure on Lewerke. (Sanborn is an ILB, and is one of the four rushing on this play. He looped from the right side of MSU's protection to the left side. Luke Campbell had already committed to help Matt Allen with the nose. Campbell got off and got a piece of Sanbord, but UW did a good job of disgusing where the four-man rushers were going to be coming from. Everyone up front was most concerned about 56, Baun, one of the best pass rushers in the Big Ten and the best all-around LB I've seen in the conference so far this year. Michigan State had RB Collins chipping and ready to help Higby vs Baun. Baun showed rush, then dropped into pass coverage. Michigan State ended up "wasting" Higby and Collins on Loudermilk.)
Lewerke began to feel the pressure and threw a blind prayer out to the right flat to the WR who had been open for a couple of beats. You might remember the pass hanging in the air like a punt. Somehow it found the ground. Could have been a disastrous pick-six from the beginning.
My Take: Lewerke felt the pass rush on this play, ON THE FIRST PASS OF THE DAY. This was a carryover from the beating he took in the fourth quarter against OSU. He hurried a bad-decision pass and wasn't all that pressured on this play. Sanborn touched him after the release, but it's not like there was a QB hit on this play. I don't know if Sanborn was even credited with a pressure on this play, but Lewerke definitely felt pressured.
Lewerke has been a tough, cool customer all of his career. But you could see that he had no confidence in his protection on this play. He has the capacity to come back strong in a couple of weeks, but he needs a bye week pretty badly, to get his mind right and try to muster up some confidence in his pass protection.
I've seen Lewerke make some mistakes here and there. All QBs make mistakes. But I've not seen him get happy feet like that. I don't blame him. It is what it is. And that's one of the things Michigan State has to remedy and overcome in the games ahead. Michigan State will face some good defenses in the future, but UW's combination of diguised pressures and disguised pass drops AND the ability to get to the QB with a four-man rush, but always the threat of a five-man rush, can make things extremely difficult for a QB. Lewerke will have some difficult defenses to work against in two of the next three games, but not as difficult as the hieroglyphics UW presented.
**
I'm sorry this is such a long post on just two plays, but I thought both plays were emblematic of the rest of the day. I shot some video of these two plays with commentary. I plan to post it later.
