Wild Wings Preview: Attacking TCU's 4-2-5 Defense

     Sparty fell short of its Rose Bowl ambitions this season and will square off against another team who had a bit of a disappointing season, TCU.  The Horned Frogs were once a power house in the old SWC back in the '30s and '50s.  The arrival of Coach Gary Patterson in 1998 marked a turning point in TCU football and a resurgence to national prominence.

     The modern TCU team is perhaps best known for its 4-2-5 defenses championed by former DC and current Head Coach Gary Patterson.  In this post we'll look at how the Spartan offense is likely to attack the Horned Frog defense in the 2012 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl.  These are the plays TCU must stop if they want to slow down the Spartans and these are the plays Sparty must execute if they want to defeat the Horned Frogs.

     The descriptions below make a lot of reference to the Boise State defense.  The Broncos are the only team that MSU faced this season that ran the 4-2-5.  The defensive alignments are very similar to what TCU will present on 29 December.  Also, due to the tight camera angles the networks insist on, its difficult to get a very good idea of the routes being run in the passing game.  Therefore, this post will focus on the running game.  Its safe to say that Sparty will run play action passes and some bunch passing concepts.  TCU's secondary is weaker this year (52nd in the country) and the Spartans should be able to maintain a balanced attack if the line can provide Andrew Maxwell the protection he needs.

Power

     If you had to pick one play to define Spartan football in 2012 you would have to pick the off-tackle power play.  They easily ran this play more than any other all season.  When Sparty needed to convert on a 3rd or 4th and short yardage situation, this was their go to play.

     This is the classic Power-O play.  To the strong-side of the formation, the Guard and Tackle will execute a combination block.  They will first double team the 3-technique defensive tackle and then one of them will release and block the backside inside linebacker (Mike in this example).  The Tight End (TE) releases inside of the 7-technique defensive end and blocks the first linebacker inside.  The center will block down on the 1-technique Nose, freeing the backside Guard to pull and lead through the hole.  The backside Tackle will step playside and climb to the linebacker level, cutting off backside pursuit by the Weak Safety (WS).  The fullback kicks out the defensive end, opening a hole for the running back to follow the pulling guard through.

     Sparty ran this play a lot all season, especially in their opener against Boise State.  To counter it, the Broncos began to crash the backside defensive end hard down the line of scrimmage.  He began catching Le'Veon Bell from behind and stopping the play for a loss.  Andrew Maxwell posed little threat on the bootleg.  With the WS available to cover the bootleg, their was little risk and everything to gain by the Boise State adjustment.

     Sparty countered this in two different ways.  The first adjustment Sparty made was to replace the SE with a second TE.  This caused a number of slight adjustments by the Boise State defense.  First, the nose guard shifted from his 1-technique to a 2i-technique and the End shifted to a 7-technique. The WS tightened his alignment and the Corner rolled back to a position 8-10 yards back directly over the TE.  For the Spartans, nothing really changed in the blocking scheme.  The backside TE was able to lock up on DE preventing him from chasing the play down for a loss.

      Going to a two TE set has another advantage as well.  Since Power can be run equally as effectively to either side, the offense can approach the line and determine which side of the defense is most vulnerable to the Power play, i.e., which side of the defense offers the best blocking angles to the offense.  The QB would read the front and audible to the best side.

     The second adjustment that MSU used to hold the backside DE in check was to bring the Flanker in orbit motion away from the play.  After handing the ball to Le'Veon Bell, Andrew Maxwell would fake to the Flanker going in the other direction.  The defense was forced to honor this fake or risk getting beat for a big play.

     If the defensive end did not honor the threat posed by the Flanker, the Spartans would tighten the alignment of the SE and have him crack the WS.  With the defensive end flying inside to stop the power play and the WS sealed inside by the SE, the Flanker would be free for a big gain.  This is a constraint play designed to force the defense to play honest so that Sparty can continue to ram the ball down their throats with a steady dose of Power.

Quick Pitch

     Le'Veon Bell is a north and south runner and he does not have break away speed.  If MSU wants to get him to the perimeter, especially against a defense built around speed like the 4-2-5, they must do it quick and get Bell running down hill as soon as possible.  The goal of the quick pitch is to get the edge, fast.

     The Spartans align in a bunch formation and the defense responds to the trips look by playing 2-Solo coverage.  The key to the play is leverage and MSU has the defense out flanked.  The outside reciever in the bunch blocks down on the SS.  The middle receiver in the bunch blocks down on the Sam linebacker and the inside receiver in the bunch blocks down on the defensive end. The tackle is now free to pull around the outside and lead the back down field.  The playside Guard and the Center combo block the Nose up to the Mike backer.  To the backside, everyone reach blocks into their playside gap.  The SE looks to block a safety setting up the potential cutback by the running back.

     When it came time to execute, a false start penalty, an excellent play by the Sam linebacker, and a stumbling Fou Fonoti limited the effectiveness of the play against Boise State.  However, properly executed, the play could lead to a few solid gains.