I'm not trying to defend Rallis here either as I to think he has difficulty in shedding blocks.
On both the first half touchdwown by Mark and the second half touchdown after the turonver by Gray into triple coverage we were caught in a blitz call I believe by the linebacker coach. I don't belive Rallis and Cooper were in on the first half touchdown I believe it was Manuel and Hill.
They caught us in certain defensive blitz look both times by the linebackers as we were expecting bubble screens or pass plays on both to the outside and we were cheating two backers into a blitz look.
Northwestern spread us out four wide, and we had a wide man gap in the middle of the football field by the defensive tackles. On the first touchdown, the two defensive tackles in the game I believe were both young guy's or Freshman 97 and one of the others. We gave them a wide two gap look where we completely vacated the A and the B gap with our tackles giving the center and the right guard nobody to engage or block along the line. On the second touchdown we took wide man gaps on both and vacated the middle with nobody closing down or even being in a position to close down before the back hit the hole. On the first touchdown, both defensive tackles looped around the defensive ends to the outside, nobody maintained middle contain, and nobody closed down from the defensive end position to fill the middle. I'm not saying this was the call I don't think both tackles were supposed to loop outside, but they did catch us in a blitz passing look with an extra defensive back wide. These things happen when your young and can be dumb in a football sense to major college football. The second part is Rallis did not recognize the QB changes the call on the second half touchdown to the inside draw or trap. He and Cooper both come with there delayed blitz, on the second half touchdown, to the outside shoulders and are pursuing outside rush lanes. Rallis breaks off when he sees what is up but it is to late to do anything as he is sealed, and cannot shoot around or go low and try and trip him up. This is the one thing I do not like about our backers, if your engaged and there on you and you cannot work free, get low and at least try and get the blocker cut, and you to get in the way so that the back has an obstacle to get through and you have a shot at his feet. If your not going to be able to get off or disengage, you have to get the blocker eliminated into the backs way. If you cant take him on cut and shoot. Neither is in a position to fill, but yes it is Rallis job to at least fill the middle there. He get's sealed by both the center and guard on that play, it is easy to get a hat on him, because there is nobody else to fill the middle and get a shot at Mark, he is untouched, and Cooper has already run by him. By the time the Safety' Vareen and Thompson and corners Carter and Baltahazzar, Stoudermire are able to react, they are all caught in deep man drops for the 4 wides look they split us out for. I'm not sure we had run a 4-2-5 look until the play they burned us on but the QB burned us badly. They obviously recognized our look on film on the second half touchdown, and were prepared for this call and they executed an explosive play on both occasions. Mark made a one cut run on both plays but they had this drawn up in the film room long before we were able to adjust or do anything about it.
I dislike our defensive line rotation at the tackle spot, and think we could winnow it down here. Johnson and Botticelli and Hagemen are the best we have and should play more, not less, I know the point is to keep them fresh but we need there experience in there, they can recognize and change the play more. We do not have a true middle linebacker right now one that can change and get everyone lined up and change on the go. We have been caught in our looks by the other side the last two Big 10 games. Yes they have adjusted and gotten better each game but they are catching us with our phants down on explosive plays to often, some of it is coaching some of it is the players we have. The solution is get better players, and try to get better at coaching. On the first one they caught Manual and Hill completely off guard with the run up the gut, both were playing pass, even though Hill should have come up to the tackles hit them on the butt and pushed them closer to the middle on that play. Doesn't mean it will change much but yeah Miller got nailed by the Northwestern coaches on both touchdown runs as much as the players.
