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A&M - Bama 2012 and JFF vs. the Zone Defense
Posted on 7/31/13 at 11:10 pm
Posted on 7/31/13 at 11:10 pm
I still can't believe Bama basically refused to give up man-to-man in favor of Zone and dared JFF to be accurate. It seemed like the best defense against him was a 3-3-5 with a zone blitz. I think Smart/Saban gave up on the zone when JFF hit Swope after the bobble, since they started having success blitzing 5 with man-to-man. I don't know why they didn't keep blitzing every down, but I know they rushed just 4 when he hit the flag route TD to go up 12 in the 4th. Smart stopped blitzing as much in the 4th, and A&M got 2 scores out of it (0 pts. in the 2nd and 3rd.)
Do y'all think Saban/Smart stick to their trademark man-to-man this year? If they do, I think A&M's got a great chance. I think you have to force Manziel to place the ball into a window downfield and hope he's off (a la LSU). You can't just wait for his receivers to beat you in Man the one time you don't blitz. They will.
Can any A&M guys can tell me if OU played zone against y'all in the Cotton Bowl? Or if JFF faced an opponent other than LSU and Florida that mixed in a lot of zone blitzes and three man fronts and still got whooped?
Do y'all think Saban/Smart stick to their trademark man-to-man this year? If they do, I think A&M's got a great chance. I think you have to force Manziel to place the ball into a window downfield and hope he's off (a la LSU). You can't just wait for his receivers to beat you in Man the one time you don't blitz. They will.
Can any A&M guys can tell me if OU played zone against y'all in the Cotton Bowl? Or if JFF faced an opponent other than LSU and Florida that mixed in a lot of zone blitzes and three man fronts and still got whooped?
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Posted on 8/1/13 at 1:12 am to madddoggydawg
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Posted on 8/1/13 at 1:15 am to madddoggydawg
Alabama will beat the shite out of A&M this year. Manziel has a problem and cant seem to get his shite together.
Posted on 8/1/13 at 1:17 am to madddoggydawg
quote:
I still can't believe Bama basically refused to give up man-to-man in favor of Zone and dared JFF to be accurate.
JFF hadn't really proved he was the most accurate QB yet. Limited by the coaches in the UF game, and LSU picked him off regularly. It was the correct call at that point in the year, JFF just came up big in the clutch.
Posted on 8/1/13 at 1:50 am to madddoggydawg
I think the main problem with man-to-man vs. zone against JFF is not so much the coverage, but him taking off and running against man-to-man when the DB's have their backs turned to him. The long run against MSU is a good example.
LSU did a great job at containing him and also not allowing any big plays, but I'm not sure whether that was because of scheme or superior athletes.
LSU did a great job at containing him and also not allowing any big plays, but I'm not sure whether that was because of scheme or superior athletes.
Posted on 8/1/13 at 5:07 am to madddoggydawg
Florida just held their ground on defense the second half once they saw what the Aggies did. Dared Johnny to beat them over top. Zone and gap blitz it seemed were very effective. Then the zone just move with Manziel. Florida still rushed four I believe the whole game though. We said we were going to 3-4 but really we used a Dline as the buck most of the year cause Powell got hurt. That or I have no clue what I'm talking about...either way :).
Posted on 8/1/13 at 7:11 am to madddoggydawg
I started rewatching the game yesterday for the first time since it happened. It was just one of those games where the ball kept bouncing A&M's way, at least in the first quarter.
Our new OC didn't call a particularly good game, at least not early on. Smart has said he wishes they'd pressured Manziel more. A tipped pass for an INT. A no-call when one of our DB's got held and let Manziel break off a long run. JFF fumbling the damn ball to himself then throwing for a TD when the defense reacted. Fumbles. ETC. ETC.
All of these are things that happen in football. It's just that this was one of those games where they all happened at once, and Bama couldn't overcome it. If it had been against a bad team, they probably could have still won, but A&M was pretty good, and were going to be hard enough to beat if things were going right.
Our new OC didn't call a particularly good game, at least not early on. Smart has said he wishes they'd pressured Manziel more. A tipped pass for an INT. A no-call when one of our DB's got held and let Manziel break off a long run. JFF fumbling the damn ball to himself then throwing for a TD when the defense reacted. Fumbles. ETC. ETC.
All of these are things that happen in football. It's just that this was one of those games where they all happened at once, and Bama couldn't overcome it. If it had been against a bad team, they probably could have still won, but A&M was pretty good, and were going to be hard enough to beat if things were going right.
Posted on 8/1/13 at 11:15 am to madddoggydawg
IMO, a lot of JFF's accuracy, was due to Swope breaking off the routes and giving him a good target to get to. Without Swope, he's 13 of 20 for 142 and 1 TD.
That's not to take away from him though. He made clutch plays to extend drives, especially on third down and many of those on third and long. He's a talent to watch and looking forward to the game this year.
That's not to take away from him though. He made clutch plays to extend drives, especially on third down and many of those on third and long. He's a talent to watch and looking forward to the game this year.
Posted on 8/1/13 at 12:03 pm to madddoggydawg
The real key is confusing JFF and getting him to make mistakes. That's getting harder and harder to do though. One thing that seems to be overlooked is that Manziel was a Freshman QB who had only won the starting job a couple weeks before the season started. He had a very limited understanding of the offense and made a lot of plays with his athleticism because of it.
This year he will be running the offense much more as it is meant to be run. The offense is fairly simple, it is designed for there to always be at least 1 mismatch on every play and for the QB to recognize it at the line and attack it. The key with a guy like Manziel is he leaves you with an extra option on every play because of his running ability and thus you will have 2 mismatches (either because of him running or dedicating a defender to stop him running). Knowledge is key in this offense.
The only way to stop the offense really is for A) the QB to make mistakes or B) to have a significant talent advantage. The scheme is less relevant because if the QB recognizes what the defense is doing he will simply adjust. Against UF Manziel didn't even throw deep much less really understand the offense.
Against Ole Miss they did an excellent job of confusing him by making him think he could run when he really couldn't and forced mistakes until late in the game. Against LSU they had the best DL athletes he faced all year and they also did an excellent job of confusing him. By the time he played Bama he was starting to adjust as things were taken away from him. After Bama he really was unstoppable and no one really even challenged him. The question is if he continues on that line of development or not, the odds favor development because of experience.
More than that though, the Bama game is going to come down to the Bama O vs the A&M D even though JFF is getting all the pub.
This year he will be running the offense much more as it is meant to be run. The offense is fairly simple, it is designed for there to always be at least 1 mismatch on every play and for the QB to recognize it at the line and attack it. The key with a guy like Manziel is he leaves you with an extra option on every play because of his running ability and thus you will have 2 mismatches (either because of him running or dedicating a defender to stop him running). Knowledge is key in this offense.
The only way to stop the offense really is for A) the QB to make mistakes or B) to have a significant talent advantage. The scheme is less relevant because if the QB recognizes what the defense is doing he will simply adjust. Against UF Manziel didn't even throw deep much less really understand the offense.
Against Ole Miss they did an excellent job of confusing him by making him think he could run when he really couldn't and forced mistakes until late in the game. Against LSU they had the best DL athletes he faced all year and they also did an excellent job of confusing him. By the time he played Bama he was starting to adjust as things were taken away from him. After Bama he really was unstoppable and no one really even challenged him. The question is if he continues on that line of development or not, the odds favor development because of experience.
More than that though, the Bama game is going to come down to the Bama O vs the A&M D even though JFF is getting all the pub.
Posted on 8/1/13 at 1:11 pm to madddoggydawg
Bama's zone is a man/zone hybrid. Don't think we won't have CJ Mosley spy him like we did Tebow in 2009 with Ro McLain.
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