DEFENSIVE RECAP: 2023 Northwestern
The Blackshirts get aggressive
Glossary of Terms1
Link to Google Sheet2
DRIVE 1
3 Plays, -2.3 Yards Per Play Allowed
100% Success Rate
3 Havoc Plays, 0 Explosive Plays Allowed
DRIVE 2
3 Plays, 1.7 Yards Per Play Allowed
100% Success Rate
0 Havoc Plays, 0 Explosive Plays Allowed
DRIVE 3
3 Plays, -2.0 Yards Per Play Allowed
100% Success Rate
1 Havoc Play, 0 Explosive Plays Allowed
I call this stretch, “The Blackshirts save the game.” With one of these drives starting inside the Nebraska 25 and the other two starting inside the 50, the Huskers probably should have been down, at minimum, 10 points within the first five minutes of the game.
Instead, Nebraska’s defense moves Northwestern backward a combined 8 yards over three three-and-outs, doesn’t allow the offense a successful play, generates four havoc plays, gets two punts and gives up only a field goal. Northwestern doesn’t have a particularly good attack, but that’s sick work no matter the opponent.
Coordinator Tony White’s formula is largely the same over these three possessions: four-man fronts, man coverage, and heat from the edge. The Huskers use a four-man surface on all but one of these nine snaps, play Cover 1 on six of the snaps, and blitz a linebacker or safety through a C gap on six of the snaps.
Two notable things on this drive were Nebraska getting into some specific passing-down personnel groupings on the third downs, something we haven’t seen a ton of this year.
On the first two third downs, Nebraska took one of its three base personnel linebackers off the field to bring on a fourth defensive lineman as a pass-rushing specialist, sophomore walk-on James Williams, in purple:
Williams, who’s long-limbed at 6’5 and nicknamed “Sack Man” for his work on the scout team so far this season, wins around the edge and forces the quarterback up in the pocket into a sack by Nash Hutmacher and Princewill Umanmielen. Williams would later get a sack of his own out of this same package on one of the game’s final drives.
On the third third down of this series of plays, Nebraska gets out of base to go coverage, taking a linebacker off the field to bring on a sixth defensive back:
This is the first time I’ve charted Nebraska with three safeties and three corners on the field at the same time; it has previously subbed a safety out to bring on a third corner (on about 21.9% of its snaps), but had never taken off a linebacker.
DRIVE 4
4 Plays, 1.0 Yards Per Play
100% Success Rate
3 Havoc Plays, 0 Explosive Plays Allowed
This drive doesn’t start in dire straights, but White keeps the formula mostly the same, with four-player fronts on the first three snaps. Northwestern has been primarily operating with multiple tight ends on the fields to this point, and plays with 12 personnel on the first three snaps of this drive, also.
On the initial first down, White tries to combat the heavy personnel by bringing Nebraska’s field safety and boundary safeties down into the box, forming a 4-4 look, with both safeties blitzing into the C gaps, another edge pressure. It gets a drive-opening tackle for a loss. Nebraska entered attacking the C gaps — the gap between where the tackle and tight end align — on just 31.9% of its blitzes, but has on 88.9% of its pressures to this point in the game, and would for 53.6% of its pressures in the game, a season high by nearly 20 percentage points. Attacking the edges with extra rushers was clearly a part of the gameplan.
After a personal foul advances Northwestern 15 yards, White stops bringing pressure, though, not using it on the final three snaps of this drive, dropping into two zone coverages on first and second down, and bringing a standard five rushers out of a Bear front with Cover 1 behind it, with a batted pass at the line getting Nebraska off the field.
To this point in the game, the Nebraska defense has still not allowed the Northwestern offense a successful play.
DRIVE 5
9 Plays, 8.6 Yards Per Play Allowed
55.6% Success Rate
1 Havoc Play, 2 Explosive Plays Allowed
Northwestern gets a little something cooking on this drive, getting into field goal range on a drive of all runs. Most are pretty straight-ahead, Split Zone short-gainers that aren’t really anything to talk about, but the Wildcats do most of their damage on consecutive 15- and 39-yard gains, with both big runs coming off Nebraska getting into an aggressive stunt or blitz.
The first big run comes on third and 3, so Nebraska is playing in a five-man-across Bear front with a linebacker behind, with one deep safety and four secondary players spread out in Cover 1 over Northwestern spread doubles formation:
Northwestern has a really good call on here to counter things Nebraska has previously done on third downs in this game, pitching the ball outside to the back. Nebraska had played Cover 1 on all four previous third downs in the game, a look that is great for coverage but bad for keeping your eyes on what’s happening in the backfield. The Huskers had also blitzed on 3 of the last 4 third downs, exclusively into the C gaps.
Northwestern was keyed into this, letting the edge defender on the Bear front get into the backfield and tosses the ball where he just vacated, while the motioning outside receiver comes in to crack block him. The motion also pulls the outside corner into the center of the formation (it’s man coverage, so the DBs are running with motion), allowing him to be blocked by the slot receiver. This leaves just the outside corner and deep safety to make a tackle, with two pulling linemen to block them.
If the first big gain was an excellent call by the Wildcats, the second one is closer to dumb luck:
The Huskers have an end-tackle stunt on here with their interior lineman, meaning nose tackle Nash Hutmacher is vacating the interior A gap to loop around to the outside of the offensive line. Northwestern, though, is running a Counter play, with its wing tight end and guard pulling from the outside of the line to climb in the A gaps. Northwestern’s pulling blockers are going to the exact gap Nebraska’s line is vacating. Additionally, White is bringing another outside blitz, this time from the cornerback to the boundary.
The effect is Nebraska’s line vacating the interior playside A gap, Northwestern pulling two players into that gap, and Nebraska’s blitzer being too far outside from the action to make the tackle. What follows is dominos of blocks on both linebackers in the middle of the formation, with only the deep safety Omar Brown left to make a tackle. Brown takes a bad angle, gets beat, and then has to catch up to him from behind to prevent a touchdown.3 The 3-3-5 is a stunt- and pressure-happy defense, which is great when it’s generating pressure, but sometime those stunts and area vacations can backfire and leave you out of position.
After the big runs, White gets blitz and stunt happy, with Northwestern in scoring territory, bringing a stunt or blitz on 4 of the last 5 plays, though he does play more conservative zone coverages and at least two safeties deep on all of the snaps after getting burned. Northwestern isn’t trying to pass, and Nebraska gets a tackle for loss off one of the blitzes, putting NW behind the sticks and ending the drive.
DRIVE 6
4 Plays, 4.5 Yards Per Play Allowed
25% Success Rate
1 Havoc Play, 0 Explosive Plays Allowed
This possession starts with just 23 seconds left in the half, with the Huskers just trying to not give up a big play. White goes basic, with only one pressure(a four-man sim pressure, so not an extra rusher) and two or three safeties deep on all the snaps but one.
Northwestern gets a few short gains on two runs and a quick pass against the deep structures, but runs all the time off the clock and is forced into a endzone shot from its own 43, which is intercepted by Tommi Hill for his first career pick.4
DRIVE 7
3 Plays, 3.6 Yards Per Play
66.7% Success Rate
0 Havoc Plays, 0 Explosive Plays Allowed
DRIVE 8
7 Plays, 6.28 Yards Per Play Allowed
42.9% Success Rate
1 Havoc Play, 1 Explosive Play Allowed
DRIVE 9
5 Plays, 3.8 Yards Per Play
80% Success Rate
1 Havoc Play, 1 Explosive Play Allowed
DRIVE 10
3 Plays, 0.3 Yards Per Play
100% Success Rate
1 Havoc Play, 0 Explosive Plays Allowed
Nebraska holds Northwestern scoreless over this stretch to open the second half, with White largely utilizing one gameplan: Cover 1 and bringing five rushers.
After their long, all-run scoring drive in the first half, Northwestern is pretty much exclusively playing with two tight ends on the field, just trying to run the ball ahead for short gains, with an occasional deep passing shot or quick screen. This made Nebraska bring down a safety into the box for another body against the run, meaning single-high safety shells. Nebraska was in single-high 14 of 18 snaps over this stretch, and out of single high, you’re mostly stuck playing Cover 1 (all man coverage across the five eligibles with one zone safety over the top) or Cover 3 (zone coverage with three deep defenders over the top and four defenders underneath). The Huskers would run Cover 1 on 12 of the snaps (66%) and Cover 3 twice.
White also responded to the increased Northwestern box by bringing an extra rusher on most of the snaps of this stretch, bringing five rushers on 11 of the 18 snaps and six rushers on two of them. Overall, NU brought “pressures” — or an extra rusher based on the appearance of the shell pre-snap — on 61.1% of the snaps this drive.
The strategy largely worked, with Northwestern’s offense successful on just six plays over the stretch, punting three times and missing a field goal once. The aggressiveness did almost backfired horrifically on one of the big six-player pressures:
This is a Cover 0 look, with man coverage across the board and no one deep. Seven players are across the line in a pressure package, and six do blitz. White had Rover Issac Gifford playing a quarterback spy/short zone over the middle to disrupt any crossing routes the Wildcats might bring against the man:
That proves key when the play develops and it’s clear Northwestern is running a screen with blockers out in front to gain enough yardage to get into field goal range. With everyone else on the defense either rushing past the play to get the quarterback or in man coverage on a receiver, Gifford is the only player capable of making this tackle, and blows through the block of a 300-pound lineman to stop the receiver four yards short of a first down. Insane effort/play by him.
This is the clearest stretch where you can get the big picture of White’s gameplan. Cover 1 largely leaves your back-seven to win one-on-one on islands, and it indicates you think your corners, safeties, and linebackers are better than the players across from them. Then you bring extra heat to get the ball out of the quarterback’s hands fast (meaning the coverage doesn’t have to hold up as long), with the added benefit of getting more pressure. Nebraska’s Cover 1 rate for the game would be 49.2%, and its blitz rate would be 65.6%. Those are both 28.2% and 36.4% higher than the season averages entering Saturday. White was bringing the heat.
It’s also evident in how little Drop 8 coverages — with eight defending the pass and three rushers — White used Saturday. The season average entering had been use on 27.0% of Nebraska’s snaps, but we saw just one snap of Drop 8 on Saturday.
White had no use for sitting and playing passively; he wanted to attack all day Saturday.
DRIVE 11
5 Plays, 13.6 Yards Per Play Allowed
80% Success Rate
1 Havoc Play, 1 Explosive Play Allowed
DRIVE 12
6 Plays, 2.8 Yards Per Play Allowed
50% Success Rate
3 Havoc Plays, 0 Explosive Plays Allowed
Nebraska’s aggressiveness DOES bite it on this drive, with a long completion against Cover 1.
Nebraska is playing a variation of Cover 1 here that’s a little tricky. This pre-snap alignment would indicate the down boundary safety, Brown, would be covering Northwestern’s second tight end, with defensive end Jimari Butler going after the passer as usual. But instead, Butler is the one covering the tight end, with Brown coming on a slot pressure to the E gap:
The pressure does trick the Northwestern line, but the quarterback displays some nice pocket movement and escapes upfield. The X receiver wins one-on-one on a double move against the outside corner, Malcolm Hartzog, who has spent most of this game playing safety and was subbing in on the outside to give one of the starting corners a break. Hartzog does make an excellent recovery to prevent a touchdown.
But the NU defense stiffens here again, playing the same Cover 1, five-rushers style, stuffing an inside run and two throws to the outside to get off the field.
The next drive is much of the same from the Blackshirts hold up these two drives on largely the same style, with Cover 1 on 5 of the 6 snaps and five rushers on three of them. Northwestern does hit a 14-yarder against NU but is undone by three tackles for loss, including a sack by the walk-on Williams.
Drive 13
6 Plays, 0.16 Yards Per Play Allowed
66.7% Success Rate
2 Havoc Plays, 0 Explosive Plays Allowed
With a one-score lead and two minutes left, White starts off conservative, going with four rushers and deep, soft zone coverages to prevent a big play. He gets immediately burned for a 10-yard scramble and a 13-yard completion.
So much for that: From here on out he brings five rushers each snap, throwing a Cover 3 pressure on the ensuing first down, then bringing a Cover 0 pressure on second down with and extra blitzer and two defenders dropping into quarterback spies. Which is a pretty gutsy call, considering if one of your coverage players fails for any reason, you’ve probably given up the game-tying touchdown. On the remaining two plays, White lines up in the Bear-front Cover 1 look and brings all five rushers.
The late aggressiveness does pay off, with Nebraska generating two more sacks and two incompletions to end the game. It was clear Saturday that White didn’t respect Northwestern’s receivers to beat Nebraska’s secondary players one-on-one, and he leveraged that to bring extra rushers, which paid off in eight sacks and 13 TFLs.
Yards Per Play measures how many non-penalty yards NU allowed on a possession divided by its non-penalty snaps. Success Rate measures how often NU prevented a gain of 50% or more of the yards its opponent needed to convert on a first down, 70% or more of the yards its opponent needed on second down, or 100% or more of the yards its opponent needed on third or fourth down. An Explosive Play is any designed run that gains more than 12 yards and any designed pass that gains more than 16 yards. A Havoc Play Allowed is any tackle for loss, sack, fumble, interception, pass break-up or batted ball.
Side note: This is the slowest running back I’ve ever seen? This should be a walk-in touchdown, but he gets caught from behind AT THE 30. Is he running, like, a 5.3 40 or something?
Hill has dropped, like, three dead-to-rights picks this year, then converts the one where there’s no time left on the clock?