Hokies Shutdown Purdue Behind Stout Effort from Adonis Alexander and Lunchpail Defense

On Saturday, the Hokies faced a good Purdue running game that featured a ton of counter action. Purdue's offensive scheme presented challenges to a Virginia Tech defense that struggled tackling in space, containing the edge, and dealing with misdirection. I expected that Purdue's receivers would struggle to get separation against the Hokies' excellent secondary in the drop back passing game; however any Purdue success in the running game had the potential to generate big plays off misdirection and play-action down field.

Bud Foster's defense responded with their best defensive performance of the season, and only allowed 10 non-garbage time points in a 51-24 route. Foster created a defensive scheme that accounted for misdirection by assigning man-to-man coverage on every motioning receiver, and he counted on his defensive front to handle the inside running game. True freshman rover Adonis Alexander had a breakout performance, and Sean Huelskamp stabilized the mike linebacker spot with a quiet, yet solid performance. Purdue's inside running game was a complete non-factor, and quarterback Austin Appleby couldn't exploit man coverage down the field. It was a complete team effort that had to leave Foster tickled.

Eliminating the Bread and Butter

In my preview of the Hokies' match up with Purdue, I emphasized how the inside zone read hand off facilitated a wide variety of option and counter action offense for the Boilermakers. The Hokies had struggled with counter action and option football in the first two games of the season. Purdue wanted to establish the inside zone read, especially the dive, and then use play-action and option to generate big plays.

The end result for the Boilermakers: running back D.J. Knox was held to 16 yards on 8 carries. Knox's counterpart, Markell Jones, broke off a 60-yard run against the second team defense in garbage time, but was otherwise held to 30 yards on 5 carries. Foster and his defense not only managed to render the Purdue running game useless; they managed to keep Knox and Jones from even getting touches. As result, Purdue quarterback Austin Appleby lead the Boilermakers with 13 carries. When you factor those extra hits on the quarterback, coupled with the fact that Appleby wasn't a home run threat with his legs, Purdue seemingly played right into the Hokies' hands.

Upon review of the film, it quickly became apparent that Foster forced Purdue's hand. Purdue's inside zone series is a true read play. The Hokies forced Appleby to keep the football by having the play side edge defender crash hard on the dive play. To account for the quarterback and the pitch man, Foster matched up his corners in man coverage. Chuck Clark matched up with the tight end or H-Back. Greg Stroman matched up with the slot receiver. If the tight end motioned, Clark motioned along pre snap, and then tracked him just like a pitch man on the option. If the slot receiver came across the formation, Stroman motioned with him and treated him like a pitch man.

Here's an example that highlights every element of Foster's strategy. The Boilermakers motion their slot receiver to a halfback alignment on the right of Appleby. Greg Stroman motions with him.

At the snap, the slot receiver crosses in front of Appleby (faking a potential sweep to the left), then Appleby hands off to Knox on an inside zone read. The Hokies keys Purdue's linemen taking a zone step to the right and slant with them. Sean Huelskamp identifies a bubble in the front and plugs himself into the wall of defenders. Ken Ekanem and Deon Clarke (both unblocked) crash to the inside and tackle Knox on the dive. Foster has numbers (six defenders against five blockers) and the advantage grows because Luther Maddy was able to win against a double team.

Watch the play again, this time staying focused back on Greg Stroman. At the snap, Stroman tracks the slot receiver across the formation and stays with him, taking away the pitch. If Appleby were to pull the football, he wouldn't be able to do the quick throw to the receiver flashing to the left slot as his "pitch option."

The scheme worked beautifully. It put tremendous pressure on Clark and Stroman to be sound with their positioning and tackle in space. Stroman got picked one time on the inside zone read that lead to a big play for the Boilermakers in the first quarter. After that, both the dive and the pitch were essentially non-factors. The inside zone read series, the bread and butter of Purdue's running and play-action game, was eliminated from the play book.

With the unblocked edge player taking the dive, and the motion defender taking away the pitch, Appleby had no choice to keep the football. Quarterback keeper could have been a huge play for Purdue. Foster used Huelskamp as part of the wall of defenders taking dive rather than scraping the mike out to take the quarterback. This is a bit of a departure from recent defensive schemes against inside zone based attacks, particularly against Duke last year. If you will recall, the Hokies slanted their defensive line into the inside zone against the Blue Devils, and then scraped Andrew Motuapuaka against the flow to take cutbacks and the quarterback keeper.

Against Purdue, there wasn't a single Hokie near the line of scrimmage to account for the quarterback. Foster chose to use his centerfield safety, Adonis Alexander, as the alley player against Appleby. Alexander played on the field side hash and 10-15 yards off of the line of scrimmage most of the day. As the motion defenders ran to the pitch, it was Alexander's responsibility to read the play correctly and fly forward to take the quarterback. The freshman passed the test with flying colors. Most of Appleby's 13 carries ended with Alexander wrapping up the Purdue quarterback for a short gain. This play shows Foster's game plan and the execution by the entire defense, culminating in Alexander tackling in space. The Boilermakers run an inside zone read (with possible triple option threat; "pitch" pass to No. 88) to the wide side of the field.

Each element is executed perfectly. The defensive line slants to the boundary and Dadi Nicolas contains on the edge. Clarke and Huelskamp plug the bubbles created in the defensive line. Ekanem is the unblocked option man and crashes hard to take the dive, forcing Appleby to keep. Clark trails the H-Back across the formation to take away the quick forward pass that functions as a pitch. Appleby turns it up and is met by Alexander, who makes an excellent tackle in space. There is tremendous pressure in this scheme for Alexander to make a sure solo tackle in space. Alexander responded with 7 solo tackles in a stellar effort.

Alexander's performance on Saturday may mean the end of any mention of a competition for the safety spot opposite of Chuck Clark. Desmond Frye struggled with tackling in space and in man coverage against Ohio State. Those struggles continued in limited action against Purdue. Frye played Alexander's role in goal line defense. On Appleby's touchdown keeper, Frye got caught inside and didn't even get a hand on Appleby. Later in the game, Frye was beaten down the slot in bracket coverage on a vertical route up the seam. Last week, Alexander proved that he is superior to Frye in man coverage. Now, Alexander has proven his ability as an alley run defender. I would imagine that Alexander, who will likely still make some freshman mistakes, will be the safety opposite Clark for the rest of the season.

The Alexander Factor in Pass Coverage

Alexander's open field tackling ability facilitated the defensive scheme against the run, and his ability to play sound man coverage (thanks in part by playing at corner) in the spring, factored into the first Hokies' touchdown of the game. Defending a third-and-long, Foster used a dime defensive look. Desmond Frye replaces Woody Baron and plays a deep free safety. Alexander moves over as a deep rover. Chuck Clark stacks behind the boundary defensive end. Huelskamp aligns on the inside shoulder of the field defensive end, and Deon Clarke aligns over the field side slot receiver.

As Appleby goes through his pre-snap progression, Alexander starts to sneak out behind Kendall Fuller on the boundary. At one point, Appleby even looks at the boundary and Alexander takes a step back to the middle. At the snap, Alexander moves over and takes Fuller's receiver in man coverage. Nicolas ties up the right tackle. Clark blitzes to occupy the running back. Maddy slants to his left and slaps at the right guard to occupy his attention. Ekanem crashes hard inside to draw the attention of the left guard and the center. Clarke press covers the slot receiver, and Huelskamp sinks into inside leverage bracket coverage with Greg Stroman deep to take away the post. This is a great job by Huelskamp to take away the first read for Appleby. Fuller comes unblocked around the corner and does a great job of securing the tackle and then punching the ball out as Appleby crumbles to the turf. Chuck Clark cleans up the trash with the easy scoop-and-score.

This is team defense at its best. Foster's best pass rushers are acting as decoys to draw blockers. Foster's best cover guys are blitzing, and the guys who should be liabilities in coverage (linebackers and the freshman safety) are playing excellent coverage. I bet the meeting room was whooping it up watching this play.

Alexander's role here can't be understated. He is in man coverage with no help against Purdue's most explosive receiver. A good quarterback (Appleby has all the tools, but was abysmal in reading coverage all day) will throw into the blitz. If he had, Alexander was in excellent coverage. Appleby had nowhere to go.

Alexander also demonstrated tremendous range as a centerfield safety reading the quarterback and helping out the man coverage defenders sideline to sideline. Down 17 points, Purdue was mounting a decent drive when Alexander was able to read Appleby and get over to help Facyson over the top for a game-sealing interception.

Watching the replay from the Appleby's perspective, you can see that Alexander is aligned on the boundary hash. At the snap, Appleby looks to his left all the way. Alexander reads Appleby's eyes and turns to run to the field side deep third almost immediately. DeAngelo Yancey (No. 7) gets a step, and Appleby never looks at anyone else. Even if he wanted to, pressure up the middle from Huelskamp takes away time for Appleby to check down. Alexander tracks the ball the entire way and makes a terrific play.

Other teams will see this film. A savvy quarterback is going to try and look off Alexander to one side, and then come back the other way. Alexander will be tested down the road in these situations.

Highlighting Stand Out Performances

The scheme on Saturday was terrific, and the defensive execution made it work. Team defensive football took away Purdue's go to plays, and they could not establish anything in the drop back passing game to loosen up the front. Several players really stood out with their performance on Saturday to keep Purdue from finding some other way to attack the Hokies. Brandon Facyson and Kendall Fuller were terrific in man coverage. Chuck Clark was excellent tackling in space. Dadi Nicolas, Ken Ekanem, Woody Baron, and Corey Marshall all won battles inside.

Two guys really stood out to me. First of all, Luther Maddy had his best performance of the season. Purdue's offensive line featured five returning starters. Maddy collapsed the middle of Purdue's front time and again, despite facing a ton of double teams. On this play, the Boilermakers tried to pin and pull Maddy on an outside zone.

Maddy blows the play up. He beats the down block by the Purdue right guard, and then bends back to the outside to follow the pulling center to the football. One thing to note, Corey Marshall gets chop-blocked on the back side of the play. The officials caught them one time, however the Boilermakers got away with two or three chop blocks where a blocker was engaged and a second blocker hits the defender low. I was not impressed with the officiating crew, especially going back and watching a second time in slow motion.

This is the type of explosive play that forces opponents to double Maddy on a regular basis, which frees up players like Marshall, Baron, Ekanem, and Nicolas to beat solo blocks with their superior quickness.

Greg Stroman had a bounce back game at the nickel position. Stroman has been picked on some this season, and has not been involved much in the running game. Against Purdue, Stroman was sound in coverage except when he got beat on a pass to the flat on Purdue's first touchdown drive. Stroman also made several plays as an edge defender that erased some doubts about his ability to support the run.

Purdue tried to exploit Stroman by running a student body quick pitch at him. The Boilermakers isolate Stroman, and pull a tackle to kick him out.

Stroman is at a size disadvantage, and he will lose the battle if he tries to squeeze the block like a defensive end or outside linebacker. Instead, he uses his quickness to slip inside the blocker, and then tackles through the outside leg of the running back (keeping outside leverage, so if the back slips off, he will go to the inside where Stroman has help). Stroman made an identical play against another toss in the third quarter (that was called back thanks to the only penalized chop block). The only concern here is the tackling technique. Stroman has an outstanding aiming point; however he needs to wrap his arms and keep his head up to prevent a potential neck injury.

Finally, many have asked me how Sean Huelskamp performed. I thought he played well. Foster didn't scrape Huelskamp much in the option game. Instead, Huelskamp spent much of the game plugging in gaps in the defensive line and forcing the running backs back to the free hitters in the defensive scheme. He wasn't involved in a high volume of tackles but the scheme wasn't designed for him to be involved in many tackles. Huelskamp held up against blocking and seemed to be in the right place at the right time. When called upon, Huelskamp executed his assignments. As I mentioned above, he took away the post route on Kendall Fuller's forced fumble. He read the quarterback and made a beautiful interception on a skinny post in the fourth quarter. He pressured Appleby on the Alexander interception. Huelskamp was much more involved than the stat sheet indicated.

Perhaps most importantly, Huelskamp was in the right place at the right time when called upon in run support. Here, the Hokies use the Bear front, and Huelskamp has to fill the bubble created between the three technique and Dadi Nicolas on the edge.

Huelskamp fills the hole correctly and trips up the running back. It is a simple play; however simple plays were not always being made in the last two weeks.

This Saturday, the Hokies face a familiar foe—the East Carolina Pirates and their Air Raid pass attack. Last season, Tech's secondary was beaten time and time again on jump ball fades from the Pirates' slot receivers. The Pirates lost quarterback Shane Carden and star receivers Cam Worthy and Justin Hardy. ECU is not as talented at the quarterback position this year. Still, the Pirates will play at a breakneck pace, and get the ball out quickly to a group of talented receivers that run excellent routes. Foster will have to change pace and find away to win the one-on-one matchups this season for the Hokies to silence the Pirate faithful in Greeneville.