Arkansas Defending Auburn Inside Zone Part 2

At the end of the first half Arkansas brought in #34 Braylon Mitchell at the outside linebacker position to replace #26 SS Rohan Gaines in run support to stop the Inside Zone. This gave another linebacker in run support and slowed down Mason on the Indy both between the tackles and on the bounce that he had been successful with earlier. 

Both the SS Alan Turner on the boundary side and Mitchell had a good angle on the Inside Zone variations that were giving Arkansas trouble early. 

1st and 10 at AUB 13

Tre Mason rush for 4 yards to the Aub 17.

Here Mitchell is able to close down the C Gap that Mason was able to make his cut in to earlier in the game. 


The response from Auburn to this adjustment to start the 2nd half was to throw the quick bubble screen to the slot receiver. This attempted to stretch the defense horizontally and forced the LB Mitchell into a one on one match up in the open field with a quicker WR. 

Kentucky Wildcats Head Coach Mark Stoops on defending the IZR: "We do not want to bring the Will linebacker back inside because the bubble screen is a part of the zone read play. He has to stay in position to support and attack the bubble to his side. That is the first thing the offense wants to see. They want to know if you are respecting the bubble screen. That is the reason for the strong safety's alignment on the slot receiver to his side."

2nd and 7 at AUB 38

Nick Marshall pass complete to Ricardo Louis for 11 yards to the Aub 49 for a 1ST down.

On this play Mitchell is cheating inside the box to play the run as he did on the previous play, which allows the uncovered Slot to get outside easily. 

In the fourth quarter it was the keep side of the Inside Zone read that put Auburn up 35-17 and effectively ended any thoughts of a comeback for Arkansas. The use of the extra LB crashing inside allowed Marshall more room to get outside. 

This is where defending the IZR gets difficult with a dangerous runner like Marshall. If you send a defender after him on every play the numbers dictate that it will be easier to run inside the tackles on either the IZR give, the trap, or the power. The key is in having both personnel who can tackle in space, and having leverage to contain the QB keep. On this play Arkansas had neither of those, and gave up a costly big gain. (Although Marshall recovered his own fumble)

1st and 10 at AUB 25

Nick Marshall rush for 22 yards, fumbled, recovered by Aub Nick Marshall at the Ark 47 for a 1ST down.

Rich Rodriguez: "The backside defenders ran as fast as they could to the ball and watched for the cutback.” In other words, the defense cared only about the running back and essentially ignored the quarterback. The only job of the defensive players away from the run’s initial path was to stop the back from escaping out the back side. “That has all changed,” Rodriguez said. “Defenses fit the front side of the defense one way and fit the back side another way because the quarterback is a threat to run the ball.”

More after the jump on how Miss. St. defended these plays.

Mississippi St. Defense

The use of the LB instead of a Nickel Corner or Safety VS the Slot is also what Mississippi St. started out the game with against the Auburn offense. Miss St. used #22 Wells as the LB to play the run, the quick bubble and attack of the edge on blitz packages. He becomes the "overhang" player.  

You can see Wells signalling to the safety that he is blitzing and wont be in position to play the bubble, slant or any routes to the #2 receiver. This gives him the freedom to fly into the backfield negating any outside cut by the back. 

Front:

Miss State used a 1 and 4i tech defensive tackles most of the time instead of 1 and 3 by Arkansas. This
forced the double team wider on the 4i side giving more of a lane for the middle backer to fill in the A gap. It resulted in more cuts by the back inside the tackles where pursuit was able to limit the yardage. With the 9 tech out that far on the boundary side it took away the Indy bounce to the outside and forced Auburn to run inside the tackles. This combined with the use of the LB off the edge as the force player caused the Auburn Offense to struggle early in the game.

It was the first SEC game for Nick Marshall and Auburn when they played Miss. St.last season. Seems to take Malzahn a few weeks to figure out exactly what schemes and plays his team will excel at and then he sticks with them with a few alterations. In this game he went away from the Inside Zone that would be so successful later in the season. The Bulldogs were able to force 3 and outs, hold Mason and Grant to under 50 yds rushing each, and take away one aspect of the game. (Inside Zone) Marshall was still shaky in reading coverages and missed several open receivers.

For Arkansas to be in the game against Auburn this fall they will have to put together an effort similar to what Miss. St. did last season. LSU was able to slow down the Auburn Offense but that was with a load of NFL caliber talent.(Playing Man coverage, four man pass rush spying Marshall.) What Miss. St. has is much closer to the talent level on the Arkansas Defense.

In the final part I will look at what experience Robb Smith has in defending the Inside Zone Read and what schemes he may employ.
If you missed part 1 check it out here
Also check out all the videos seen in the posts on youtube.