DE split?

[balds]

In the Iowa game last year, we split our De's out wider to prevent Iowa's stretch play, and perhaps more importantly their patented play action off of said stretch play. The result was totally taking that off the table for Iowa, but getting gashed up the gut (252ish for Coker).

Do we employ a similar tactic tomorrow to attempt to keep Robinson in the pocket, and if he runs make sure it's up the middle (where he hopefully gets hit)? Is Robinson getting to the second level on the edge worse than up the middle?

My two cents would be to put getting direct pressure on him on the back burner in exchange for keeping him in the pocket. I would much rather him beat us with his arm than his legs. It is my observation that he is far better improvising against pressure and making things happen than standing back there and flinging it. Rush 4 with wide end splits, 1-2 spies and let their WR's beat our 5-6 DB's. Oh yeah, and stop the run on 1st and 2nd downs or this doesn't matter.

 

[corcoran1]

Nebraska kept their DLs in gaps to try to control him, seemed to work. Will be interesting to see what Claeys does with this since he does not like gap control DL play strategies.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

I actually hope we do a lot less of that against Michigan. When Robinson drops back to pass the ball, we are in better shape when he throws the ball than if he's running (except if he's running for his life). When you set your DE's out wide, you create larger gaps for the LBs to cover, I don't trust our LBs to be able to tackle Robinson in space.

Nebraska, Notre Dame and Alabama copied what MSU has always done against Robinson. Announcers even refer to it as Denard Defense. It's precisely what Corcoran is talking about. You better stop the run and then on passing plays you bring 3-4 but insist on strict gap control. Don't let him run, make him pass into coverage and hope for INTs and for him to get frustrated. We have to try a version of this. It's going to be tough because that system counts on your LBers to make a lot of plays, hopefully ours can step up tomorrow.