Drive One:
1. From the angle we have, the first play looks like it could be either a Run and Shoot concept called "Go" or "Slide". Can't be sure what protection is called, but the simplest one would be slide protecting away from the running back and away from the routes. It looks like too many guys are pass blocking left here. That's really unfortunate because it looks like Duke screws up pretty bad on their coverage responsibilities, they get two guys covering the sweeping A-Back who goes from #3 to #1 and one of those two deep routes should be coming open off-screen for around 20 yards.
2. Second play is a Triple Option, Tackle takes an outside release instead of the Veer block (so is it really Inside Veer?). The Center's block on this play is so good, he gets the Mike all by himself. Duke's backside safety takes a godawful angle on this play and runs right into our blocking. A block on that play side safety in the alley is a Touchdown.
3. The Wide Receiver routes go out of frame so it's really difficult to say what we did. Could be go or slide. Very safe defense by Duke. Would have had more time and room stepping up and to the left in the pocket towards the routes instead of scrambling right towards the Linebacker in zone coverage on grass.
Drive Two:
The "Cross-Charging" / Blitzing begins. Also, the "Check Wars". Duke played pretty vanilla on the first drive and now they start being more aggressive, trying to get into a war of pre-snap checks. They've done this on a low level since 2008.
1. The simplest thing a defense can do like this is get an offense to check which direction they are running a play. Show some kind of unbalanced defense, then when the offense checks you guess that they switched the direction they are running the ball. Then you check to match. TaQuon checks (something) when Duke shows the linebacker blitz, then Duke clearly reacts by thinking what they should do is flip their own play. I think we come out on top here in terms of the scheming by running a Trap and completely negating this blitz. As Longestday said there were some more yards that could have been gained.
2. Different installment in the Check Wars. Standing up the Defensive Tackles in the weirdest way. When I saw this I thought "they want us to check to an inside run." I suppose we checked to Zone Dive and then Duke goes to a vanilla D. The play goes pretty well. Was the purpose of this to diagnose our call? It's like creating a soft box against a spread team and trying to figure out what is their check to Zone Dive / Inside Zone.
3. Duke plays Goal Line Defense on 3rd and 1. I thought "they want us to check outside," which we did, but after watching it again I'm not sure that was necessary. They put a defender in every gap and then have three backers. As Longestday says the blocking is weird. We could QB follow straight ahead.
4. I'm not sure what to say other than bad playcall? Duke played Goal Line Defense on 3rd and 1. Zone Dive is at its best against three defenders inside the tackles, Duke has five.
Drive Three:
1. Stand up Defensive Tackles again. We run Triple Option, so check if you want defense. Should Give against both the DE and LB in that stand up react mode.
2. We go to that formation we used most of the game which... is.... Over Heavy Near? We run a Belly Option with a little QB action to make it look like a Belly run. In this case the fake is effective, it gets their Mike to come down too close to the line of scrimmage and then he's blocked.
3. Football in a phone booth. Over Heavy Near with a Belly run. Tight End Down, Tackle Down, Guard Kickout, and... I think... the Center was supposed to Reach and Climb ending up on that Mike. First down tho.
4. Same as two plays ago, back to Over Heavy Near Belly Option. Duke's Mike (ESPN Impact Player!) is getting sucked into this motion and taken out of the play. So, he making the play on play #3, but on the Option Run he's nowhere.
5. Hey, run the same play again. It's open. It's 20 yards.
6. Let's do it again y'all. I like gaining 7-20 yards. To get the 20 yards you have to make all the blocks tho…
7. Back to the concept of #3... except the playside blocking is different so we can get a hat on the Mike who has been really focused on the B-Back on the last 5 plays. That blocking works great BTW. Real shame Duke makes this desperate, shoestring tackle, cuz, we've got a real nice running lane.
8. Play #7 but to the left. Handled the Mike again. Contra Longestday the previous time was not a missed assignment, it was a different assignment. After seeing their defense we switched to this assignment. The Kickout block doesn't go particularly well and so the running lane is occupied.
9. Who says drawing the opponent offsides on 4th and short never works?
10. I am confused about how this became a fumble. Isn't this a Zone run and not an option?
11. Over Heavy Near again. Here we go, another Belly series play... but no. It's Rip motion with a Speed Option.
12. Over Heavy Near... Midline Lead. The audio cuts out on me here. The gestures make it seem like Longestday is talking about blocking, but the blocking on this play is perfect. With a Keep... this play is a Touchdown?
13. We were going to run a cheeky A-Back sweep play here but the numbers were wrong. Timeout.
14. We go Trips Left and Duke looks like they are in Man Free. We run the play I thought we should have run the last time and TaQuon goes for the Bubble that's to the left of the center, but I think if we just stick with using the B-Back as a lead blocker everyone is happier.