Clinic Talk: Film Review of Toledo at Miami

Mark Richt’s offense looked improved from a year ago and is being led by Mark Walton’s ability to cut back underneath tacklers and his blockers and Malik Rosier’s improving accuracy and touch. The offensive line did a great job both with pass blocking and run blocking and Miami, who trailed at one point, roared back and won convincingly in the end.

The ‘Canes defense struggled the most and gave up 300+ passing yards to Logan Woodside, although that’s not out of the ordinary for Toledo. They’re a passing threat and we knew they would get theirs against Miami’s defense if Bethune Cookman did. Malik Rosier accounted for four touchdowns (3 passing, 1 rushing) and his ability to scramble to pick up yards or pull and run on the inside zone read play adds a new dimension to the ‘Canes offense that was needed.

It keeps the defensive end off of Walton’s heels while also dragging the defensive backs up closer to the line of scrimmage making them easier to exploit in the passing game.

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Dee Delaney’s Cornerback Play

Dee Delaney had a rough game agains the Toledo Rockets on Saturday. Delaney was burned repeatedly and on any type of route and depth. Toledo got him on quick slants, digs, and fades as Logan Woodside threw for 342 yards and 3 touchdowns against the Hurricane defense. But was this all Dee’s fault?

On one of the quick slants, he was playing outside leverage and that’s an easy mark for a slant route. There isn’t a whole lot a corner can do against a quick slant from outside leverage. If the ‘Canes were in cover 2, quick slants will happen. In a cover 3 they won’t because your corner plays inside leverage on the wide receiver. You can see inside leverage on the left of the diagram below and outside leverage on the right.

In the video, Dee is playing a flat footed zone coverage technique. His eyes are on the QB instead of the receiver. His hips are always turned in towards the QB instead of out to the outside releasing WR. This tells me he’s playing cover 2 as the flat defender (underneath routes) while maybe he should be playing “quarters” or as a deep guy. Zach McCloud is equally as lost on the play. Check out the video below:

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‘Canes Buck Sweep Play

Buck sweep is one of my favorite plays and Mark Richt ran it at a great time and to perfection. The ‘Canes saw Toledo had an even front (four defensive linemen) and that makes it easy to run buck sweep. The play side tight end and offensive tackle will “down” block the defensive end and defensive tackle that lined up inside of them. The job of the TE and OT here is to just push their defensive linemen down to the other sideline.

The play side guard and the center are going to pull. The guard, leading the way, will “kick out” the first defender he sees that is unblocked. A kick out means he blocks him to the near sideline. The center is second around and he will block the most dangerous defender he sees- whether that’s laterally or turned up the field. The running back takes the ball horizontally and reads the defenders. If they’re outside he cuts back inside, if they’re inside he continues to run outside.

Check out the buck sweep video below:

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Miami Pass Combo: Out/Corner

We don’t cover a ton of passing combinations here because they’re hard to really judge when you don’t have All-22 film. However, this one was well shot and you can really see what the defense does and how the receivers make them respond to them. Richt uses an out/corner combination where the outside receiver runs the out and the inside receiver runs the corner.

The out drags the Cornerback to the sideline and the play-action fake lures the safety down on a run read. This drags the safety down and puts the nickel in a 1on1 with Berrios. Berrios slowly drifts his route over the numbers on the field and to get himself even further away from the safety. This makes it a play where only Berrios can make a play on the ball if it’s properly thrown. It’s well thrown and Berrios bring it down for a touchdown.

The ‘Canes got the win against the Rockets but it was far from perfect. Here’s looking forward to the Duke game on Friday night. Daniel Jones and the Blue Devils will be a tough test for the Miami defense.