The Good, The Bad and the Ugly: Georgia vs. Ohio State Drives 12 & 13
Keep taking shots and not everything matters.
For each play under the microscope of this series, the questions have been asked: why did this play work or why did this play not work? We’ve paid special attention to the fundamentals of the game: numbers, space, and leverage to find our answers. Additionally, other fundamental techniques have come up over and over again giving insight.
The working theory to success in football is that not everything matters.
Let’s dive in.
Drive 12
1st & 10 at the -24 (8:41 4Q)
Down 11 in the 4th quarter is never a good place to be in — it’s a two possession game requiring two touchdowns, and the other team needs only a FG to keep you out of reach. So this one play drive was essential to keeping the Bulldogs in the game in terms of time.
It is yet another slot fade concept against MOFC Man. A great look to run the play against and obviously the defender falls down. The defender is keeping over and outside leverage which gives him the advantage, and wouldn’t be a good look if the QB had been looking there initially. However, the QB is looking to the right first and by the time he gets his eyes to the left the WR is wide open.
This eye movement also eliminates the threat of the free safety. This look-off also seems to impact the defender over the slot fade. He looks worried that they WR might break inside (and might have his eyes on the QB) and when the WR gives a nod thataway the defender got all mixed up.
My takeaway from this play is more about the importance of continuing to take shots, especially against a team that is going to play so much MOFC Man. The more an offense challenges this look, the more chances there are for a defender to make a mistake such as this. Cover deep one-on-one is difficult.
And as we see here, one tiny mistake can result in incredible gain for the offense. Georgia’s explosives in this game have come from a couple broken tackles in the run game, but in the pass game it’s been because they dialed it up in the design and Bennett let it rip. They’d had trouble hitting these calls throughout the second half. But thankfully they believed in it again, and trusted that it would hit again as it had in the first half.
2 Point Conversion
Deciding to make it a three point game, the Dawgs go for two with the classic rub sprint-out. Ohio State is playing Cover 0 and bringing a 5 man pressure to the side of the sprint-out.
Bennett does a phenomenal job of being prepared for the pressure, putting on the brakes, and letting the ball rip. Ohio State is all messed up on the backend and is facing a serious numbers problem. They don’t have anyone available to cover the corner route or the flat route. I’m sure they’re misaligned, but at one point they’re also banking on the pressure getting there since they’re in Cover 0 and have to face some sort of switch releases out of the bunch.
Once again, Bennett’s readiness for the pressure makes all the difference. This readiness is a fundamental factor that makes any roll out work: being prepared for pressure.
Drive Summary:
1 play, 76 yards, TD (0:10)
Score:
OSU 38 - UGA 35
Drive 13
2nd & 8 at the -30 (2:00 4Q)
Ohio State responded with a field goal off a six minute drive leaving with Georgia with one last offensive chance to score and take the lead.
First down saw the Bulldogs attempt a deep drop back that resulted in a two yard check down. No matter, they return to another drop back and complete it here. Ohio State is out of man coverage and back to Cover 3. They’re playing “Country Cover 3” meaning they aren’t getting good collision or carrying any verticals — a real misfortune against Georgia’s curl and comeback scheme they’ve got dialed up here.
The key to this play is the throw of Bennett — I find myself calling these types “throws with conviction.” Against zone, the QB has to zip his throw because the defenders’ eyes are all on him and they’re reacting to his eyes during the drop and they’ll break on the ball immediately upon throwing. If the QB hesitates or doesn’t rip it, a pass break up or interception will ensue. It’s a law of the game.
Bennett knows the law and right before the rush gets to him he lets it rip with everything he has into a tight window that beats the two hook defenders. Can’t overstate the phenomenal job the TE does of securing the catch knowing he’s got the weak hook defender coming down on him immediately.
So a throw with conviction and a fearless catch push the Dawgs to around midfield with less than two minutes to get the job done.
1st & 5 at the 50 (1:42 4Q)
Ohio State has gotten beat bad playing man coverage and zone coverage on back to back explosives and now go to the old faithful Cover 2 Man in this obvious passing situation.
Another fundamental at play: a running linebacker with his back to the QB can only cover the width of his shoulder. All the QB needs to do is put enough air on the ball in the vicinity so the WR can make a play. Bennett does so and whether on purpose or not, put the ball in a beautiful place.
The linebacker is playing under and inside so if the QB had thrown the ball inside, the WR would've potentially had a tough time running through the linebacker if the ball was under thrown even a little. Bennett, however, does under throw slightly, but outside so the linebacker isn’t a factor. The WR’s adjustment is obviously fantastic, a real pleasure to the eyes.
Suddenly the Bulldogs are at the 15 yard line with a real chance to win this game.
1st & 10 at the +15 (1:28 4Q)
With Ohio State playing soft and defending the goal line, the QB checks the ball down for a five yard gain — he can do this unlike the time prior when it was third down and the Dawgs had to get to the end zone. So this play is on here so we can set up the last play and look at the difference between Ohio State’s strategy…
2nd & 5 at the +10 (0:54 4Q)
The Bulldogs start in their trusted bunch formation and motion to 2x2 against Ohio State’s split-field coverage. They are playing Cover 0 to the boundary and Cover 4 to the field.
Unfortunately for the Buckeyes, the switch release smash concept to the boundary is excellent against man coverage. The offense is running the concept with drive on the backside, so this really just turns out to be a perfect play call. They have a man-beater to the play side as the first read in the progression so there is no chance (as long as the QB follows the progression) for the QB to miss this chance.
A huge factor that makes this play work is that the natural chance for a rub between the switch release doesn’t interfere with the WR’s corner route. Any collision on that corner route is often deadly for the route.
Finally — the excellent sell of the over by the WR and the anticipation from Bennett finishes off the ideal play call with a demonstration of premier QB and WR play. Result, game winning touchdown.
Drive Summary:
5 plays, 72 yards, FG (1:49)
Final Score:
OSU 41 - UGA 42
What Matters?
As I put forth in the beginning of this post, not everything matters.
There are only a limited number of fundamental factors that lead to offensive success. I do not know all of them nor did this series touch on a fraction of them (for example, we didn’t dive into all the happenings of OL play). But this series was the first attempt at analyzing a game through this specific lens and hopefully the start of a discipline of doing so for all games.
It’s an attempt at a ruthless discipline of focusing on what matters and treating all else as a distraction stealing you of time from getting better at the things that do matter.
Until tomorrow,
Emory Wilhite
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