NCAA 2017 Football thread

[Senator Clay Davis]

Definitely don't cheer for any Atlanta/Georgia sports team. Fun last 11 months for them.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

That was a nice explanation by the QB and the replay to show how he drew the safety to the other side. Nice play.

No i'm pretty sure it was just god. all god.

and maybe some true freshmans.

[CaptainCrunch]

Baffling defensive call as Georgia had their corners in a soft back zone and were watching run first. The secondary was screwed either way as both wideouts basically ran inside leverage go routes and got a step on the coverage.

Great play by the QB looking off the safety, but I can't blame the safety, that was the wrong defense.

You know on second and deep that they're throwing, you play outside man, drop the linebackers and contain the pocket.

[Scornfire]

ugh, cringe

[nik-]

Followed that game by refreshing the reddit game thread in a Myanmar airport.

Pretty hilarious. Glad that incredible NC drought is over

[Sainters7]

Was way behind on the PVR last night, didn't finish the game until close to midnight. That was one of the craziest football games I've ever seen in my life. Really bored of seeing Alabama win seemingly every year, but with the storyline on how this one played it, it was pretty damn fun!

[CaptainCrunch]

That was a pretty play, but Georgia had a bad defense on the field

Here's what I saw



Georgia was running a cover 2 with an extra defensive back in for a linebacker. This was zone all the way, you can see that by the way the corners are playing presnap, where they are looking backfield/run first. The problem with this look is it causes a delay, but the play is designed so that the safeties can pick up the corner responsibilities.

What Alabama ran is called a Seattle. Its all about the angles.

From the left side, with the WR he takes a hard step outside and the corner still cheating in takes a step in that direction. The wide receiver then angles because on this play he has to have inside leverage. Pretty much any Corner will tell you that you're pretty much dead one on one if you give up the inside of the field.

The three back comes up and does a mesh, his job in a middle zone is to occupy a linebacker. The TE on the right's job is to angle to the middle of the field. By design the linebacker has to pick him up, but this play creates a devils choice for the Safety on the weak side of the formation (Where the ball eventually goes. The TE is pretty much the key here as the safeties in cover two need to split the field in half. But now you have a tight end in a mismatch with a linebacker going deep into the weak side zone. It doesn't help that the QB is eyeing the action on the strong side of the formation. The weakside safety makes the fatal decision that his corner should be able to make the one on one play with the wide out, the threat is that TE coming across the middle in a mismatch.

So where's the other safety? Again, he's seeing that Slot who has angled inside leverage on his man and is angling to the middle of the field. He has to respect it because right now there are three mismatch possibilities that the QB is eyeballing

The three back across the middle. The tight end to the deep weak side, the slot back with inside leverage on the HB attacking the middle of the field.

The WR on the strong side has one job and that's to draw the CB as far out of the play as possible and he does this by running straight to the flag on his side.

Now they're in trouble in Georgia.

So where's the failure. Its with the alignment and assignment of that weakside corner. By having him playing a run zone, he gave up technique and gave up his inside coverage. Once he did that this was over. The Safeties were compromised.

I would expect that if you talked to Georgia's defensive coordinator who had just received a huge sack, that he would expect Alabama to pass seam, or under zone. Or be really wacky and try to run something to the outside, this was a second down play, they were trailing by a field goal, he was thinking that the run game wasn't off of the table and that Alabama might think he was going to focus on the passing game.

What made this play work was the overload on the strong side of the formation and the angles of the routes. While we were looking at 4 deep routes, this really wasn't a situation from Madden where you run the hail mary and hope that you're athlete is in a bad position.

This play might not have worked if the corners were in man coverage and ensured inside coverage.

With man coverage you have the CB on the WR and force the WR outside. You have the outside linebacker picking up the drag route from the running back. You have the middle linebacker on the tight end with inside hip coverage while the safety eye balls it. And you have a one safety eyeing the outside weak side.

Just my two cents

[corporatejay]

Great breakdown CC.

Not to mention Tua made an insane throw, in stride 50 yards down field. The received didn't have to stop or adjust. If the ball is under thrown just a bit, it's possible the safety has time to get over. That was also great execution.

[CaptainCrunch]

It was a terrific throw, right into the basket, that play alone is why I really have fallen in love with College football.

I'm pretty sure that presnap Tua and everyone knew where that ball was going to go. The play was primarily designed for that result.

[CaptainCrunch]

Oh and you can bet that I'm totally stealing this play design route wise, but with added protection from my full back.

[Lubicon]

CC, that is a great explanation. I listened to an interview Mark packer did with Tommy Tuberville yesterday and it was almost word for word what you said.

I was pulling for Georgia despite the fact they beat my Sooners but I thought it was still a great game. Very impressive [performance by some freshmen on both teams and ridiculous to think Bama will have that QB, receiver, and the RB for another few years - all three of them are freshmen. And a lot of guts for Saban to change QB's at the half. Like him or not he is now tied with Bear Bryant for national championships. I'm not a huge Bama fan but am more impressed with Saban every year it seems, they guys just gets it done year after year. Best of all for me was this was the first championship game I have been able to watch in about 5 years. Now I'm bummed that football is pretty much over and there is not much to watch until NHL playoffs begin.

[CaptainCrunch]

It takes guts to change a QB in a national championship game. But changing QB's can be a really effective option, especially in a national championship game.

Georgia prepared for a different type of QB, they would have never expect the change to happen when it did.

Now you've got a change of pace happening with a slightly different play call happening and your defense is on the field so adjustments are difficult.

[CaptainCrunch]

I downloaded the clip of the winning td play into huddle so I could really break it down.

That was just flat out a great play design, and a perfect call against the worst kind of defense, and then executed really well.

Don't get me wrong, that play isn't an uncommon one, most teams run a variation of that kind of angle routing to freeze the safeties.

But

If you get man coverage inside shade on the corners. The Halfback takes inside hip on the slot back, and the linebacker and strong side safety play a two on one on that tight end, with the two inside linebackers dropping and splitting the box. Then the play breaks down.

I'm convinced that the Georgia Defensive Coordinator looked at the field position after the sack. Took a look at the scoreboard where Alabama needed 3 points to tie, and looked at the field position, and he said to himself. They're going to rnn a backside sweep and try to get 10 yards back.

That's the only reason why I can see those corners playing run first.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I'm convinced that the Georgia Defensive Coordinator looked at the field position after the sack. Took a look at the scoreboard where Alabama needed 3 points to tie, and looked at the field position, and he said to himself. They're going to rnn a backside sweep and try to get 10 yards back.

That's the only reason why I can see those corners playing run first.

I would not disagree with that logic. But Bama's kicker just missed a game winner a few minutes earlier (badly) and missed earlier in the game and looked like a bundle of nerves. Easy for me to say but I'm not sure I would have been too worried about them getting 10 yards back, it would still be a 42 yard FG from that point assuming their D held on third down.

[CaptainCrunch]

that's assuming that the D held on third down, but you're now giving a QB a third and 10 scenario and a pretty wide open playbook at that point.

Tua came in and had a 71% QB rating and had thrown for 3 touchdowns and 166 yards.

You can't think about the field goal kicker being a bundle of nerves, because as every coach will say, every player has a good play in them.

Personally I do think that the Georgia Coordinator really over thought it.

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

that's assuming that the D held on third down, but you're now giving a QB a third and 10 scenario and a pretty wide open playbook at that point.

Tua came in and had a 71% QB rating and had thrown for 3 touchdowns and 166 yards.

You can't think about the field goal kicker being a bundle of nerves, because as every coach will say, every player has a good play in them.

Personally I do think that the Georgia Coordinator really over thought it.

Disagree. Coaches never do that. Especially in big games...

[transplant99]

Stunning news out of Pullman tonight.

Washington State quarterback Tyler Hilinski, 21, was found dead Tuesday in an apartment in Pullman, Washington, according to police.

Hilinski suffered an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, and a rifle and suicide note were found next to him, according to Pullman police.

http://www.espn.com/college-football...ide-police-say

[CaptainCrunch]

That's really sad to read and at that age.

I thought the college season was over, why are they still practicing?

[tvp2003]

On my twitter feed the first post was from Ryan Leaf (former WSU QB) who battled depression, including thoughts of suicide, before turning things around.

Sad and shocking -- he was probably next in line at QB with Luke Falk graduating. Only 21 and "living the dream", on the surface at least.