Boston College (Counter) Runs out of Virginia Tech's Bear Trap

Early Monday morning, Daily Press columnist David Teel shared an alarming statistic. Bud Foster's defensive unit, which is traditionally one of the stoutest defenses against the run nationally, has allowed the most 20-plus yard runs in FBS this season.

Per @cfbstats, #Hokies have allowed 27 rushes of 20 or more yards this season. That's most among 128 FBS teams.— David Teel (@DavidTeelatDP) November 2, 2014

According to Teel, in Tech's last three games, the Hokies defense has given up more yards rushing than the 2001 defense allowed all season (832 yards to 788). allowing almost six yards per carry. Even worse, Tech allowed an average 5.8 yards per carry against Pittsburgh, Miami and Boston College. That is unheard of for a defensive unit that dares opponents to throw the football by overwhelming the line of scrimmage with numbers.

So what has happened since the Hokies held Ohio State, one of the top rushing offenses in the country, to under 108 yards in a dominant defensive performance. Personnel is a huge issue. The lack of big, space eating defensive tackles put a burden on Chase Williams and Deon Clarke, two linebackers who thrive in space, in the position to take on and defeat blocks. In order to mitigate that issue, Clarke has spent much of the season playing in a 46 or a stand up-edge alignment in a Bear front. Up front, the injury to Luther Maddy has further forced Foster to abandon some gap fitting principles and instead shoot quick defensive tackles Corey Marshall and Nigel Williams through gaps in the hope of disrupting plays in the backfield before they can get downhill.

So far, this gameplan has produced a ton of negative plays, but has also resulted in huge gashing runs that have come at the worst possible times. Safety play has been a major culprit too. Regardless of what the Hokies front does, every defensive call features a collective of players creating a wall, an edge player to either force the running back inside or spill him to the outside, and an alley player who is unblocked and awaiting the back at the proper location. During this three game losing streak, senior safeties Kyshoen Jarrett and Detrick Bonner have found themselves alone in those alleys far too many times with little pursuit from the defense. On one play, one or the other will make a spectacular solo tackle. On the next, they take an abysmal angle, hesitate and grab air or just plain get run over. Bonner and Jarrett are both converted corners who were moved to safety to satisfy Bud Foster's desire to have five defenders capable of delivering solid man coverage on the field to combat spread offenses. But, while Jarrett was solid against the run for two seasons, both have been liabilities in run defense since injuries depleted the defensive front. It certainly didn't help Jarrett, Bonner, Clarke, or first time starter Andrew Motuapuaka against Miami when often both defensive tackles found themselves being driven into the second level time and again.

Adjustments for Boston College

Against the Eagles, Foster utilized the Bear front (three down linemen covering the gaps from guard to guard) and two edge players with Motuapuaka and Jarrett playing de-facto inside linebackers to stop the potent Boston College option attack. It was a very effective strategy against the option game, as Tyler Murphy did not break any big runs on an option play after an opening drive scamper down the right sideline. Despite looking a bit lackadaisical for long stretches, the Virginia Tech defense contained the Eagles most snaps.

The Bear front is designed to dedicate interior defenders to stopping the dive on option looks, while having defined edge players who have purely contain responsibility against the option. The assignments are simple.

• Nose and three-technique players must control the gaps of the inside shoulder from left to right tackle.
• The "Edge" defender aligns outside of the offensive tackle or tight end on the line of scrimmage standing up. They become the force/spill defender. A spill call means the edge defender crashes to the inside, and the alley player supports the run to the outside. More often, the wide alignment of the edge defender in the Bear front mandates a force call. On the force call, the edge player gets upfield and forces any run to turn inside of him, and the alley player fills the hole.
• The mike linebacker should "stay clean" because the interior defenders occupy the inside gaps, freeing the mike to scrape to the football.
• The safeties/alley players fill the alley created by the edge defender, inside or out. Most often the alley players are the rover and free safety, but certain alignments make the corner an alley player.

The Bear front is susceptible to the running game at one key area—off tackle. There is a large gap between the three-technique and the edge player. If a defense can make that bubble larger (by kicking out the edge player and getting an effective downblock against the three-technique) the alley player and mike linebacker has a more challenging situation to jam up the bubble.

To prevent the off tackle plays from being effective, the three-techniques must do one of two things: 1) physically dominate the space between the guard's inside shoulder to the inside shoulder of the offensive tackle, or 2) split the double team of the tackle and guard and try to make the tackle in the backfield. Without a big space eater like Luther Maddy, Bud Foster is forced to play the former, higher risk style. Ken Ekanem, Dadi Nicolas, and Nigel Williams, along with nose Corey Marshall, all work to shoot through the gaps unblocked and create chaos, because against a big power team like Boston College, Foster knows those smaller defensive linemen can't stand up to double teams all game long.

It was pure calculated risk-reward for Foster. If his interior defenders get into the backfield, the defense can generate negative plays that put Boston College into uncomfortably long down and distance situations. The Hokie defense generated nine tackles for a loss on Saturday as result of that strategy. However, when the interior linemen were not able to out-quick the Boston College blockers through the gap, often they were driven to the inside. This expanded the gap between the edge defender and the interior linemen, exposing the Hokie alley defenders in space time and time again.

To their credit, the Eagles found a way to attack that weak spot and improve their advantage with counter action off tackle. In both the Bear front and the base four-man look, the Hokie defensive line reads keys. If a blocker steps to the inside, the lineman either crosses the blocker's face or trails the play right off his outside hip. This technique is very effective against inside and outside zone reads, where the blocker's step takes you to the football. However, it makes a defensive tackle very susceptible to a down block by the adjacent blocker to the outside. Boston College's most consistently effective play all game long was designed to show the defense an outside zone read, with the back side linemen and the running back all going the same direction, while the Eagles would pull a lineman and the H-Back from the opposite side to kick out the defensive end and lead up on the alley player. It was truly a battle of attrition, with the Hokies defensive line slashing through down blocks to make tackles in the backfield on one play, followed by a gashing run for big yardage the next.

Let's watch two plays. The first highlights how the high risk approach was effective at disrupting Boston College. The second shows how, if that three-technique can't make the spectacular play, puts the edge and alley players in a very difficult position.

Against most of the option looks, the Hokies were able to get penetration and stuff Murphy. Here is an example. Boston College runs a veer dive with a wham block.

Dadi Nicolas is aligned as the three-technique and is presumably the optioned defender. He explodes up field and almost runs into the back and Murphy near the mesh point. Murphy pulls the ball, and Dadi wraps him up for a big loss.

Now, watch how that penetration backfires when Boston College runs the quarterback counter off the outside zone fake.

Boston College's left offensive tackle (No. 67) blocks down on Corey Marshall, who is attempting to shoot through the guard-tackle gap to the bottom of the screen. Nose tackle Ricky Walker beats the center cleanly, but is chasing the running back to the top of the screen. This creates a huge gap between Marshall and the edge defender Ken Ekanem. BC pulls two blockers from the right side. The first kicks out Ekanem, who is playing a force technique and must stay outside to prevent Tyler Murphy from breaking contain. Because of the alignment, Kendall Fuller and Kyshoen Jarrett both have inside alley responsibility, with Andrew Motuapuaka scraping across. Fuller is a mismatch against the second puller. Motuapuaka scrapes across, and the down blocking tight end just barely gets a piece of him to prevent him from getting square in the hole. Jarrett's angle is too wide to close the space, and Murphy gets a big run.

The Hokies stuffed most of Boston College's running playbook with the exception of the long touchdown run and the late quarterback draw, but the quarterback counter off the outside zone read action burned the defense again and again. Every time, the plays looked like carbon copies of each other.

Again, like Corey Marshall on the previous play, the interior lineman (Nigel Williams, 3-technique to the top) gets driven inside. The edge player (Nicolas) gets sealed outside by the pulling guard. Motuapuaka gets pancaked by the pulling H-Back, and there is no alley presence to help support the play.

Boston College had so much success on the counter off the outside zone that they caused the defense to key so much on it that the secondary completely lost the H-Back on the same play-action Y-dump pass that I highlighted in my preview.

Subtle Highlight of the Week

There's been so much negativity the last couple of weeks that I didn't want to end without recognizing a subtle great play by a real defensive standout this season, Corey Marshall. It is easy to recognize Marshall's speed and big play ability on the inside, but with his team wavering in the second half, Marshall made two huge, yet almost impossible to spot plays that helped give the Hokie offense a chance to find itself and get back into the game.

First, you can see Marshall takes on a double team. Instead of trying to shoot the gap with his speed, he gets low and stands both blockers up in the hole. Marshall isn't built to do this every play, but by sacrificing his body and eating up two blockers, Marshall prevents the tackle from sliding down to block Motuapuaka on the inside from being blocked. Motuapuaka makes the solid tackle in space, while Marshall doesn't get any credit from the statisticians or the fans. But, I guarantee Foster and Charley Wiles appreciate this kind of play as much if not more as the tackles for a loss.

Later in the same series, Marshall takes on another double team from the nose tackle spot.

Marshall splits the center and left guard, and those two kids are big, bad men. Marshall then makes the tackle for no gain. This is a combination of brilliant pad level and technique, coupled with outstanding effort at a critical juncture in the game. I am sure many of the defensive linemen have plays they'd love to have back, but plays like this from Marshall show me that the effort on this battered Hokie defense has not slacked off.