My breakdown of Miami’s downfield passing game

Thursday, 24 September 2009 , by : Chris

Available over at Dr Saturday. Thanks as always to the good Doctor, so check out my analysis of Jacory Harris, Mark Whipple, and some thoughts on what Virginia Tech might do in response.

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  • Silver Charm

    Good Stuff Chris. Whip will still be a Cane after years end. One more year on the job with this young Cane crew will have his status that much higher and lucrative.

    Canes can thank ex-Cane TE Rob Chudzinski, now in the NFL coaching ranks himself, for the Whipple referral.

  • CANE

    Awesome analysis as always!!

    Please do a breakdown of Miami-Oklahoma next week also, Im curious about the Oklahoma offense, what do they do well, and how do you stop it.

  • Brad

    Hey Chris, good analysis.

    Supprised you didn’t mention Miami’s heavy use of tackle over formations. Saw them do it multiple times in the GT game both to run and pass. One play they hit a nice pass to the TE lined up next to the guard. Looked like they were runing some of their usual passes but releasing the TE and using the FB to block the DE.

    I found it interesting since most teams only hit the weak side TE/OT with a pass as a trick play out of tackle over, but Miami seemed to run some of their base stuff out of that formation.

  • Mr. Bocankles

    Great post on Da U.
    …
    Saturday’s forecast in Blacksburg calls 100% chance of rain, temps in the 50s. How does the weather effect Whipple’s approach?

  • http://smartfootball.com Chris

    Brad: Yeah I couldn’t get to everything, but he’s doing a great job with the unbalanced stuff. Whipple uses a lot of waggles and half-rolls with what appears to be gap protection, so unbalanced doesn’t seem to dramatically hurt their pass protection. It’s definitely something to watch for against Bud Foster’s 4-3 “G” look.

  • pete

    Chris,

    hard to tell if VT’s defense really out-schemed UM’s offense or if UM’s offense simply slid around and completely off balance because of the weather.

    i’d been following the weather report for days and was, to be honest, very worried about it.

    any thoughts?

  • http://smartfootball.com Chris

    I am working on a follow-up to the game. Foster was very aggressive early, and the big Jacory Harris fumble came on an all-out cover 0 man blitz where Foster blitzed the corner from the closed side (just a TE there). He did this several other times. On third and longs he used a lot of zone blitzes with loose coverage to rush Harris and force short throws where they could make the tackle. But the rest of the game they played a lot of Cover 2 and their special Cover 2, that Cover 2 “robber” (F/S in the middle, corners sink deep for the deep 1/2s). Harris could not fit the ball in well against this.

    I’m sure the rain was a factor but to be honest, I thought one team looked like it was having a great time playing in the rain and the mess, while another looked like it didn’t want to get dirty. I think Miami will bounce back from this (though next week will be more of the same), but this was some classic Beamerball.

  • pete

    I saw the same thing on that first turnover. I think the problem with that play was that it was that Whipple had called a screen to the left side. Not only did Harris not see the corner coming (b/c he was looking left, and 3 wide receivers were lined up left) but what options would he have had even if he did? The linemen were releasing downfield. Maybe sidestep and run up the right side of the field for 5 yards, but that was about it.

    Any video/additional analysis would be great. Love the site.