Blue Devils Read the Book on the Hokies' Defense

Duke's offense got the better of Virginia Tech's defense.

[Mark Umansky]

Virginia Tech has their fair share of head scratching moments in what is rapidly becoming a lost football season. Saturday's 43-45 four overtime heartbreaker of a loss to the Duke Blue Devils included plenty more: rotating quarterbacks with Michael Brewer playing well, just five touches in the first half for Travon McMillian, chasing points, the onside/knuckleball kickoff, and punting from the 40 down 4 after a long completion to Ryan Malleck set up a 4th-and-short. Those blunders have left Hokie Nation confused and frustrated.

Unfortunately, there is one thing that is no longer a surprise; opposing offenses clearly understand how to attack the Hokies' defensive scheme and personnel. The Duke offense lacked an explosive playmaker like Jamison Crowder. Instead Cutcliffe, a master of identifying defensive tendencies through film review, developed a game plan almost entirely focused on attacking the personnel and scheme flaws I have pointed out throughout the season. Let's go down the checklist.

  1. Use formation to dictate the defensive alignment (to the Bear). Outnumber the defense at the point of attack using counter and isolation concepts on designed quarterback runs.
  2. Use formation to dictate the defensive alignment (to the Bear). Leave the edge defender isolated. Run speed option.
  3. Use your best route structures; especially rub route concepts, to beat man coverage. When your quarterback identifies outside leverage, audible to a quick slant coupled with a play fake to freeze the inside help for the corners.

In each of Virginia Tech's losses, the opposing offense exposed the defense via one of these three concepts. Duke's offense was uniquely designed to exploit all three concepts. By emphasizing these three points, Cutcliffe developed a game plan that sustained long drives, kept Duke quarterback Thomas Sirk upright, and made plays at every critical moment.

The Hokies just are not good right now on defense. The secondary made numerous mistakes with leverage and technique. Mook Reynolds was picked on early. Adonis Alexander was lackluster in run support and later was replaced by Desmond Frye after an alignment error contributed to the long Shaun Wilson touchdown pitch in the third quarter. Even the reliable Chuck Clark was completely frozen on a fake screen for Duke's game winning wheel route throw to Erich Schneider. The inside linebacker position is in dire straits. Deon Clarke and Andrew Motuapuaka are not generating pressure when they blitz, and were exposed in pass coverage when Foster only rushed four. Time and time again, Duke's tailbacks, I repeat tailbacks, looked like Craig "Ironhead" Heyward blocking Motuapuaka on quarterback sprint draws. The defensive line's tendency to get too far up field and take themselves out of the play is being used against them. Outside of stopping the traditional zone runs by Duke's trio of tailbacks, the defensive line didn't disrupt offensive rhythm. I didn't feel like anyone of the defensive line had a strong game beside Ken Ekanem. Ekanem was the only defensive lineman to generate any pressure, and nobody up front was more consistent in pursuit throughout an otherwise stale effort.

Most distressing is a general lack of pursuit across the board. The Hokies tackling has improved, however when Sirk got to the second level, you didn't see multiple guys running into the picture. Too often, the alley defender was left to fend for himself one-on-one. For a defense predicated on speed, this unit looks slow right now. Yes, there are personnel weaknesses. Yet, there are some good veteran football players that are not playing good football right now, and their poor performance only is exacerbating those personnel weaknesses in other spots.

Designed Quarterback Runs Against the Bear

Sirk was Duke's leading rusher going into this game, so it was no surprise that the Blue Devils were going to run him heavily against a defense that has struggled against designed quarterback runs all season. Duke came right out and used the quarterback counter-lead that East Carolina used to such great effectiveness several weeks ago. It starts with the vulnerability of the Bear front. Foster seemed to shift the defense into the Bear often when Duke used a tight end. Duke then is able to outnumber the Hokies by pulling a guard and using a tailback as a lead blocker away from the strength of the formation.

Tell me if you have heard this one before. The left tackle blocks Ekanem down (who gets cut by his own teammate Baron and topples over). The right guard pulls and kicks out Clarke. Sirk fakes a handoff to the tailback, who leads into the hole to isolate on Motuapuaka and drive him to the outside. Sirk follows him into the hole where he is untouched for 6 yards until Alexander and Brandon Facyson bring him down. The defensive lineman has to resist the down block. The edge player has to squeeze the trap. Most of all the mike linebacker cannot be blocked so easily by a tailback.

As the game progressed, Duke abandoned the counter step and instead ran the play like an old sprint draw. The offensive line draws the defensive line up the field. The tailback fakes the hand off and then isolates on the mike linebacker.

Duke has the advantage of six blockers and a runner versus six defenders in the box. The Hokies try to adjust by curling a defensive end back to the inside. Dadi Nicolas loops to the inside, and the Duke right tackle drives him down field. The defensive tackles are allowed to run up field through their outside gaps. The tailback plants Motuapuaka right on his tailbone. Virginia Tech dominated the ACC by being the most physical and best schemed defense in the league. Duke is out-scheming and playing more physically than the Hokies on this play. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence, as Sirk followed his tailback for nice chunk gains inside most of the night.

The Speed Option Strikes Again

The one thing the Hokie defense did effectively was stop Duke's tailbacks on zone runs. The trio of Shaun Wilson, Jela Duncan, and Shaq Powell only combined for one big run the entire game. Unfortunately, that run was a backbreaker, and it featured another concept Tech's opponents have exploited the Bear front with this season; the speed option.

Ohio State's only success in 2014 against the Bear came on the speed option. On a speed option against the Bear, the edge defender has two choices—he can either take the quarterback or the pitch. The rover is aligned inside the tackle box, and the free safety has to play deep in center field. That distance leaves the edge defender isolated. If the edge defender takes the pitch, the quarterback can turn up quickly in the natural bubble created between the three-technique defensive tackle and the edge player for a solid gain. If the edge defender takes the quarterback, it leaves the safety with a ton of distance to cover to take the pitch man. So far this season, Ohio State, N.C. State, and Duke have been able block their tackles down to cut off pursuit by Motuapuaka, option Clarke, Ekanem, or Nicolas, and then get huge chunks of yardage while the Hokies' safeties scramble to catch up. Duke used motion to compound the Hokies' problems by confusing Adonis Alexander and causing him to align wrong.

The Blue Devils motion the tight end across the formation. Chuck Clark is playing shallow and picks up the tight end. Alexander also motions across with the tight end, leaving the Hokies with four defenders against four blockers and two runners to the play side. Foster mentioned Alexander's alignment error in the post-game press conference. I think Andrew Motuapuaka may also be aligned incorrectly. In the bear, the mike usually aligns behind the nose tackle or shaded slightly to the field side of the nose. Motuapuaka also looks to be over-shifted to the motion, although only Foster would know for sure.

Duke runs speed option to the bottom of the screen. Nicolas slow plays the quarterback and forces the pitch, then tries to recover. The Hokies are in man coverage so the corners are running off with the receivers. Motuapuaka gets cut off. Alexander is way out of position and then makes a pretty feeble looking attempt to force Wilson out of bounds. Wilson then breaks Terrell Edmunds' ankles for a touchdown. Even with the vulnerability in alignment, the Blue Devils don't score because of the Bear. They score because of freshman mistakes. Alexander has played above and beyond expectations this year, but Saturday wasn't his best effort. After this bust, coupled with several coverage busts earlier in the game, Alexander found himself replaced by Desmond Frye.

Young Defensive Backs and Man Coverage

The two questions that I've been asked the most since the game concluded are "why don't our defensive backs turn around and find the football?" and "why won't Foster run zone instead of isolating young players in man coverage?"

As I pointed out when I previewed the matchup with Ohio State, the Hokies use two forms of leverage coverage. On inside leverage technique, the defensive back is trying to prevent the receiver from breaking to the inside of the field. This technique requires the defensive back to align to the inside and keep eyes focused on the receiver. The defensive back's alignment triggers a sight adjustment for the receiver. Instead of trying to run a slant or a post, they will switch to a fade or an out route. At the snap, the defensive back isn't looking at the quarterback. Instead, back to the football, he shadows the receiver on the inside and keeping his body between the receiver and the football. If the receiver cuts outside, the defender jumps the route. If the receiver threatens the defender's cushion deep, the defensive back turns and runs in a chase position, again keeping his body to the inside of the receiver and between the quarterback and his target. The defender keeps his eyes on the receiver. His key is the receiver's hands. When the receiver looks for the ball and starts to raise his hands, the defender knows that the hands will take him to the football. The defender attacks the hands in the attempt to deflect the pass by getting in the path of the football. In the worst case scenario, the defender can make contact with the hands to prevent the catch even if it results in a pass interference. Brandon Facyson displays perfect inside leverage technique.

The use of inside leverage requires the "man coverage" defender to only defend half of their space. The outside release fade is a lower percentage throw than a slant or a post, and by using inside leverage, a defender takes away the more dangerous half of the field. There are downsides to the technique. First, it is almost impossible to get an interception because the defender is defending the man and not the football. Second, underthrown balls often result in a pass interference penalty. Finally, if the quarterback is accurate and the receiver has good ball skills, they can often make the catch despite perfect defensive back technique.

Outside leverage is more of a type of matchup zone than a man coverage. In outside leverage, the corner stays to the outside of the receiver and looks back in at the quarterback. If a corner is in outside leverage, he should have safety help to his inside against slants and posts. The corner stays to the outside and tracks the receiver on his outside hip. From this position, if the corner gets a good jump on a slant route, he may get an interception. (See Jayron Hosley's game winner against Miami in 2010.) When a corner can show true man coverage and maintain outside leverage, he can bait quarterbacks into throws outside where the interception is easily made. This is exemplified by Kendall Fuller's interception against Cincinnati in the Military Bowl.

This is what they are taught to do. Inside leverage combined with pressure causes incompletions. Outside leverage with the threat of pressure rushing the quarterback's throw causes interceptions.

These leverages and zone coverage requires strict adherence to technique and discipline, neither of which tend to be strong suites of young players. The Hokies started two true freshmen and a redshirt freshman against Duke, and fundamental breakdowns of these techniques resulted in several big plays for the Blue Devils. The biggest culprit wasn't the defender in direct coverage. Instead, Duke caught the Hokies playing outside leverage and used play-action to freeze freshman Adonis Alexander so he couldn't provide inside help against the slant route. Duke's second touchdown showcases the breakdown perfectly.

The Hokies are in the Bear against a four wide receiver look. At the bottom of the screen, Mook Reynolds is aligned to the field side on slot receiver Max McCaffrey. Mook is showing outside leverage. His shoulders are turned to the inside and he is looking at the quarterback at the snap. McCaffrey runs a slant and Reynolds gives him a free release to the inside then runs on his inside hip.

Now, watch again with your focus on Alexander, who is aligned as a deep safety to the boundary side. This is man free, and Alexander should have inside leverage support for Reynolds. Alexander's alignment is a big screwy. (I would think in man free he should be head up over the Duke center.) Alexander steps to his assignment, and then Alexander sees the run fake from the Duke quarterback. He bites, and then tries to recover back to the outside. He can't get there in time. Sirk delivers an accurate throw and McCaffrey makes the touchdown catch.

Alexander is a young player. He is an aggressive run supporter who, frankly, has needed to be aggressive in run support due to Tech's inability to stop the run much of the season. He is going to be a really good player, and with a little more seasoning this is likely an interception. Outside leverage makes the corner look really bad when the safety doesn't get there. Ask Kendall Fuller after Kyshoen Jarrett took a poor angle on inside support on Tyler Boyd's long touchdown in the 2014 Pitt game.

For a corner, you know they were beaten in outside leverage when a receiver catches a pass deep and to the outside. For most of the season Duke relied on slants, screens, and rub routes to move the football in the passing game. Cutcliffe went against tendency and ran several "sluggo" (fake slant and go) routes to try and slip behind Hokie coverage. Normally reliable veteran Brandon Facyson tried to jump a slant route, and instead got burnt deep by Anthony Nash.

This is the perfect play call by Duke. Torrian Gray has an outside coverage "robber" going on, where Facyson shows outside leverage and soft coverage at the snap. Facyson and Gray expect that Nash and Sirk will sight adjust and run a slant. Facyson takes one backwards then jumps the slant. Nash sells it and then bends back outside fading away from Alexander trying to come over the top to help outside. Sirk had this route structure open several times and he overthrew the ball. This time, he gets it close enough for Nash to haul it in after a bobble. Gray and Facyson rolled the dice and got snake eyes.

Rub Routes for the Win

After Alexander was pulled in the third quarter, Desmond Frye took over at his safety spot. I saw Donovan Riley getting work at the corner spot replacing Terrell Edmunds, and Anthony Shegog got some work in dime packages. The defense steadied against Duke's passing game until overtime. Duke went back to their film review of the Hokies and used a trips rub route concept to bust the Hokies' leverage zone on the goal line.

The leverage look works really well in short yardage on the goal line when the offense uses two receivers. The defense shows man coverage, and the offense will often cross receivers to set a pick (the "rub") to get one open. Instead of chasing the receiver, the two defenders take a zone and match up on the receiver that comes into the zone. Here is a great example from the Military Bowl.

The Hokies' defense faces a third-down-and-goal situation from the six. Focus on the top of the screen. Foster has three defenders: Kendall Fuller on the slot, Kyshoen Jarrett behind him and slightly outside, and Greg Stroman lined up near the sideline. Note each player's body position at the snap of the football. Fuller almost has his back to the quarterback and is inside of the slot. Jarrett is deeper, but also has his back to the quarterback. Stroman bails out from his alignment quickly, but he is angled inside, almost looking at the quarterback.

To the quarterback, this looks like man coverage, but it is really a zone. Almost every route combination that could be run into the end zone is effectively covered as long as each defender plays their responsibility correctly. In this case, the slot receiver runs to the flat, and the outside receiver runs a deep crossing route. When the receiver cuts to the inside in front of Stroman (No. 3), he runs right into Jarrett (No. 34). Fuller (No. 11) has the receiver in the flat, but if the slot wheels deep, he runs right into Stroman who would be in perfect position to intercept the pass (similar to Donovan Riley's interception against Florida State in 2012). As result, the quarterback has nowhere to go.

The Hokies seem to use this concept most often in goal line and short yardage passing downs when they expect a quick throw. Ohio State picked up on that tendency and decided to flood the leverage zone by motioning an extra receiver. The Buckeyes beat the Hokies to death by using the two static receivers to set picks to free the motion man wide open in the flat.

The Hokies' adjustment against this concept was for the static wide corner to play outside leverage and take the motion man, with the motion defender and the slot defender playing inside leverage against the double slant/pick. Cutcliffe anticipated the adjustment and instead picked the motion defender with one slant route and breaking the outside slant off and running a corner route. Let's take a look.

The inside slant route wedges himself into Mook Reynolds and drives him back into the path of Brandon Facyson motioning across. Edmunds jumps the motion man in the flat. Facyson gets picked, and Nash is wide open for an easy pitch and catch. The frustration in the body language of Tech's young defensive backs is palatable. Reynolds and Edmunds look into the back of the end zone with their hands clenched and jerking. You can almost hear them screaming "how is he open?"

On Duke's game winning two-point conversion, the Blue Devils used the same rub route concept from a different formation. Instead of a tight end away from the play, Duke had a split end aligned wide. This time, the Hokies made an adjustment. They were in a base front instead of the Bear front, which freed up Chuck Clark to be an extra defender on the flood side.

That wasn't the Hokies only adjustment. On this play, Facyson doesn't motion across. Instead, Desmond Frye motions across from his free safety spot. Mook Reynolds is aligned wide and takes the short flat. Edmunds takes the corner route deep. Chuck Clark is the extra defender and takes the inside slant. Frye is motioning across to undercut any throw to Clark's man, who is posting up Clark like a center in basketball. If Sirk tries to force a throw, there is a chance that Frye can pick it off and head the other way.

Instead, Sirk runs. Everything that happens is emblematic of this awful season. Dadi Nicolas gets blocked by a tailback. The tailback goes to the ground and pulls Nicolas down in a clear hold. Nicolas, instead of getting up and making a play, lays on his backside and yells to the official for a flag. Motuapuaka scrapes and overruns Sirk and falls down when Sirk (who isn't Barry Sanders) cuts back. Ekanem and Maddy try to pull Sirk down at the goal line, and Sirk wins. It just isn't good enough.

This is pretty much the defense at this point. The outcome of Virginia Tech's remaining games will be determined by the ability of the offenses of the Hokies' opponents to exploit these weaknesses. Boston College is abysmal offensively; however they have the blocking scheme that could open things up for quarterbacks Jeff Smith and Troy Flutie. Georgia Tech is going to be Georgia Tech. North Carolina creates all kinds of matchup problems with big receivers, Ryan Switzer's quickness, and the outstanding running ability of Elijah Hood and quarterback Marquise Williams. Virginia has been decent offensively against every opponent except for Boise State. Bowl eligibility seems like a huge question mark, and unless Foster decides it's time to throw Carson Lydon and Tremaine Edmunds into the fire there aren't many available personnel changes that can change the chemistry of this battered defensive group.

TKP's own Mark Umansky took a poignant photograph of athletic director Whit Babcock in the south end zone tunnel at the end of the game.

The pained, thoughtful expression on Babcock's face spoke volumes about the state of the program. It can conclude this review better than I can. Let's hope that next week leads to better things.

Comments

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"I liked you guys a lot better when everybody told you you were terrible." -Justin Fuente

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"I liked you guys a lot better when everybody told you you were terrible." -Justin Fuente

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"I liked you guys a lot better when everybody told you you were terrible." -Justin Fuente

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'Its easy to grin, when your ship comes in, and you've got the stock market beat,
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"You know when the Hokies say 'We are Virginia Tech' they're going to mean it."- Lee Corso

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