I've been critical of MSU's tight end blocking a few times this year, especially in the Nebraska game.
But in this game-changing 57-yard TD run by Kenneth Walker III, Michigan State's Tyler Hunt and Connor Heyward both got the job done!
It's an outside zone, the first time all day Michigan State ran an outside zone.
Hold that thought.
Michigan is in a legitimate 3-4 defense for this play. Michigan is a base 4-2-5 (or a 2-4-5 if you want to count Ojaba and Hutchinson as OLBs instead of defensive ends. Same thing).
But basically, Michigan plays the majority of its plays during the season with five DBs. That's their base.
They played some four-DB looks against power-running Wisconsin.
In today's game, they went with some four-DB sets to try to stop Walker. But they never got it done.
On this play, Michigan has 32 Jaylen Harrell on the field as a 6-foot-4, 242-pound outside linebacker. He's on the field in place of one of the usual five defensive backs.
This SHOULD give Michigan more run-stopping muscle.
However, he engages with Tyler Hunt, and loses that collision. In fact, Harrell never really shows up for the collision.
Harrell is stringing it out and looks like he has Hunt's outside shoulder gap responsibility. Harrell should have attacked that shoulder earlier and more vigorously in order to set the edge or bounce the play. But he does neither. He strings it out and stays soft the whole time. Hunt drives him to the sideline for a seal.
Now look at Heyward. He stalks safety Daxton Hill. Hill is usually Michigan's nickel (slot) back. But in going to a 3-4, he moved to safety.
Hill fights harder than Harrell, but Heyward controls him and seals him to the outside.
Rewind and watch it again and watch Hunt and Heyward stalk their targets. They look identical. Same body tilt. Same inside-out angling. Same foot/same shoulder contact. Similar hand placement.
When Mel Tucker talks about technique and fundamentals, hand placement, pad level over and over until we (media) get tired of hearing about it, well, this is what he's talking about. And these are two players who have not been consistent blockers this year. But when they put in the work for demanding coaches, these are the results. Mid-season improvement.
Meanwhile, getting back to Michigan's use of a 3-4. The Wolverines tried to be all things to all threats. They wanted to be a 3-4 defense when they smelled run. They wanted to be a 4-2-5 in passing situations.
That's hard to do in today's age of uptempo offenses.
In order to morph from having three d-linemen on the field to having two d-linemen on the field, and vice-versa, and back-and-forth, Michigan State sometimes caught them in the process and had a hurry-up call to catch them with 12 men on the field. You saw it happen a few times. And you saw Michigan State get a light-resistence TD run out of it on one occasion when Michigan had too many on the field AND didn't get aligned.
This was an example of MSU's coaches undressing Michigan's coaches in a few rounds of speed chess.
As for this play, Michigan had their chosen personnel on the field - a full-fledged, run-stopping 3-4. But their point-of-attack linebacker (32) lost his collision at the point of attack.
Michigan has been pretty good at winning their collisions most of the year. But, as Tucker would say, this play was a case of one team continuing to hit harder into the late rounds, while the other team didn't quite toe the line.
But in this game-changing 57-yard TD run by Kenneth Walker III, Michigan State's Tyler Hunt and Connor Heyward both got the job done!
It's an outside zone, the first time all day Michigan State ran an outside zone.
Hold that thought.
Michigan is in a legitimate 3-4 defense for this play. Michigan is a base 4-2-5 (or a 2-4-5 if you want to count Ojaba and Hutchinson as OLBs instead of defensive ends. Same thing).
But basically, Michigan plays the majority of its plays during the season with five DBs. That's their base.
They played some four-DB looks against power-running Wisconsin.
In today's game, they went with some four-DB sets to try to stop Walker. But they never got it done.
On this play, Michigan has 32 Jaylen Harrell on the field as a 6-foot-4, 242-pound outside linebacker. He's on the field in place of one of the usual five defensive backs.
This SHOULD give Michigan more run-stopping muscle.
However, he engages with Tyler Hunt, and loses that collision. In fact, Harrell never really shows up for the collision.
Harrell is stringing it out and looks like he has Hunt's outside shoulder gap responsibility. Harrell should have attacked that shoulder earlier and more vigorously in order to set the edge or bounce the play. But he does neither. He strings it out and stays soft the whole time. Hunt drives him to the sideline for a seal.
Now look at Heyward. He stalks safety Daxton Hill. Hill is usually Michigan's nickel (slot) back. But in going to a 3-4, he moved to safety.
Hill fights harder than Harrell, but Heyward controls him and seals him to the outside.
Rewind and watch it again and watch Hunt and Heyward stalk their targets. They look identical. Same body tilt. Same inside-out angling. Same foot/same shoulder contact. Similar hand placement.
When Mel Tucker talks about technique and fundamentals, hand placement, pad level over and over until we (media) get tired of hearing about it, well, this is what he's talking about. And these are two players who have not been consistent blockers this year. But when they put in the work for demanding coaches, these are the results. Mid-season improvement.
Meanwhile, getting back to Michigan's use of a 3-4. The Wolverines tried to be all things to all threats. They wanted to be a 3-4 defense when they smelled run. They wanted to be a 4-2-5 in passing situations.
That's hard to do in today's age of uptempo offenses.
In order to morph from having three d-linemen on the field to having two d-linemen on the field, and vice-versa, and back-and-forth, Michigan State sometimes caught them in the process and had a hurry-up call to catch them with 12 men on the field. You saw it happen a few times. And you saw Michigan State get a light-resistence TD run out of it on one occasion when Michigan had too many on the field AND didn't get aligned.
This was an example of MSU's coaches undressing Michigan's coaches in a few rounds of speed chess.
As for this play, Michigan had their chosen personnel on the field - a full-fledged, run-stopping 3-4. But their point-of-attack linebacker (32) lost his collision at the point of attack.
Michigan has been pretty good at winning their collisions most of the year. But, as Tucker would say, this play was a case of one team continuing to hit harder into the late rounds, while the other team didn't quite toe the line.
