The Film Room After The Vandy Game

[LSUDad]

The Saturday *Afternoon* Film Review: Vanderbilt

LSU is spreading teams out and firing in the seams.

By Seth Galina@SethGalina  Sep 25, 2019, 9:14am CDT

Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

I need to come clean.

 

I struggled with really really bad offense and bouts of punts for many years. It was crippling at times and, I wasn’t ever gonna stop watching, but there were a lot of times where I didn’t want to be a Tiger anymore. For some reason I just accepted this as reality. A few months ago something dinged in my brain and I realized it didn’t have to be that way.

I started passing the football and legitimately felt better than I’ve ever felt in my life. What I’ve realized is what spread football does more than anything is it let’s you make easier reads. So when I would normally spiral in hypothetical or irrational thoughts, it helps my brain to go “hmm that doesn’t really make sense. Let’s throw the ball on first down.”

I wanted to share this because we have no problems updating everyone on our physical injuries and recoveries, but we become embarrassed to talk about our team’s offense. If you don’t feel like you’re as happy as you want to be, go talk to someone. It’s not being selfish to make throwing the ball a priority.

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This revamped LSU offense is very close to an analytical wet dream. They use play action on a very high rate, they barely run the ball, they don’t huddle, they spread you out and they target the intermediate middle of the field. All they are missing is some more misdirection, especially with motion, and they’ll hit all the nerdly talking points. 

 

One of my favorite concepts that LSU is doing this year that they have almost never done in their history is how often they go into Empty formations. 3 receivers split out against 2 receivers to the other side is a big part of their offense so I’ll break down the 3 main concepts they run out of it. 

The first one is the Weakside Option (or Choice) route. This is one of the plays that we knew Joe Brady was going to bring from New Orleans. It’s always been an automatic completion from Drew Brees to any one of his running backs over the years and recently even to Michael Thomas. 

 

The idea of the concept is to try to get your weak side slot receiver open underneath in the middle of the field where you have vacated the defense through spreading the formation. Almost all the big plays from this concept come from the slot receiver running a slant into the middle. Defenses, of course, know this is coming when you line up in Empty so they try to tell their weak side linebacker to stay inside of the receiver and force an out breaking route. Still, offenses can find nice completion to the sideline but there’s a ceiling on the amount of YAC as the receiver gets closer to the sideline. Ja’Marr Chase had a touchdown on the weak side option route against Vanderbilt when they tried to press him and it backfired.

 

 

 

There are two ways to bracket this route but the overall play design has answers for both. Teams will start playing the Will inside the slot receiver to force the route to the sideline and have the cornerback sit there in the flat. The route by the outside receiver running vertically helps mitigate this. If the corner traps the inside route, you can throw to the outside receiver before the safety gets over to the sideline. It’s not an easy throw because once the slot receiver runs his route at underneath 5 yards, the safety is taught to look right away to the sideline receiver and make a beeline for him. 

 

A simple adjustment to get that outside receiver a little more wiggle room is to tighten his split. Now, lined up in a stack set, he can run directly at the safety and freeze him before running a corner route to the sideline (the same area of the field the normal go route would hit). You can only bracket the slot receiver this way by playing with two deep safeties. 

 

The other way teams can bracket the slot receiver is with the other linebacker. Now, the weak side linebacker will play outside of the slot and force him inside to his buddy, the Mike linebacker. Teams can use this approach when they play single high safety defenses because there is another underneath defender. The quarterback has to read that Mike linebacker during his drop to see which way he opens and drops into his zone. If he goes to the three-receiver side then the QB can work the weak side option route, but if he opens to the two-receiver side, the quarterback will work the 3 receiver side on the whatever quick passing concept the offense has called. Usually this is a stick concept. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

 

 

LSU has another weakside pass concept that looks like the tight split weakside option one but is just a normal smash concept with the slot receiver running directly into the flat. The outside receiver runs the corner route. The QB just reads the cornerback, there’s no read on any inside defender. Simpler and still effective. 

 

 

The third concept from empty is one that I didn’t expect to see from the Tigers. It’s not something that the Saints ran very much while Brady was in New Orleans. It is, however, a staple play from another NFL team that lives in Empty: the New England Patriots. “Hoss Y-Juke” is the Pats completion machine for Tom Brady especially in the underneath areas of the field. LSU and Joe Burrow have to tried to hit some bigger plays out of it. 

 

You’ll notice that both main concepts have option routes built in. For Hoss Y-Juke that route comes from the strong side of the formation. The defense can try to control where the ball goes to by playing either single-high or two-high safety defenses. Against one high the ball will be attempted into the seams. 

 

 

Against two high, there’s more room underneath so you can get the juke route matched up one on one. 

 

Almost anytime Tom Brady gets two high versus this concept, he is throwing to Julian Edelman underneath. He’ll take a peak at the seams but NFL safety’s are superb at capping seams from half field. What has been nice for LSU is that even against two high, Burrow is making his reads and firing the ball into the seam window if it’s there. He’s not predetermining his reads. 

 

 

The other long Chase touchdown shows this off:

 

 

The way Burrow has been executing this offense has been nothing short of astounding after four games. You rarely see quarterbacks develop like this even at this young of an age. With the arsenal of play makers surrounding him and the offensive mind of Joe Brady behind him, the sky is still the limit for Burrow and this offense.

[LSUDad]

Joes take on the game. 

 

 

[LSUDad]

 

Need for speed: LSU's offense works best at a fast pace; How must the defense adjust?

BY BROOKS KUBENA | STAFF WRITER

SEP 24, 2019 - 8:10 PM

 

Vanderbilt running back Keyon Brooks (21) slips LSU safety Cameron Lewis (31) in the first half between the Tigers and the Commodores, Saturday, September 21, 2019, at Vanderbilt Stadium in Nashville, Tenn.

STAFF PHOTO BY HILARY SCHEINUK

Brooks Kubena

The LSU offense had a need for speed, and now that it has it, the Tigers coaching staff is trying to figure out a whole other problem.

Yes, those previous limited offensive schemes needed an upgrade. Another shutout loss to Alabama, 29-0 last season, was enough proof of that.

The Tigers needed to score more points, and LSU coach Ed Orgeron sought to better utilize the program's annual pool of talent at offensive skill positions in a modern spread system that best suited them.

And as LSU entered the 2019 season with the up-tempo, spread offense that was constructed by offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger and first-year passing game coordinator Joe Brady, the offense started humming like a hyper-efficient robot with artificial intelligence.

But like anyone who's seen a science-fiction movie knows, sometimes that robot can get a little out of control.

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The overall benefits of LSU's revamped offense are evident: the Tigers lead the nation in scoring (57.8 points per game). LSU hasn't cracked the top 20 in that category since 2011, when the Tigers were national runners-up.

LSU quarterback Joe Burrow is playing like a Heisman favorite, ranking among the country's top passers with 1,520 yards (2nd), 17 touchdowns (2nd) and a 225.63 passer rating (2nd).

And back to that speed: LSU's 28 offensive touchdown drives this season have taken an average of 2 minutes, 5 seconds — according to the team's statistical archive. That's nearly a half-minute faster than the team's pace on touchdown drives in 2018 (2 minutes, 28 seconds).

Even LSU's total offensive drives — punts, turnovers and half interruptions included — are happening nearly a full minute faster on average (2 minutes, 6 seconds) than the Tigers' offensive drives in 2018 (2 minutes, 54 seconds).

In LSU's 66-38 win over Vanderbilt on Saturday, the Tigers scored touchdowns on each of its four drives of the game and each drive took fewer than two minutes and required no more than five plays.

The 28-7 first-quarter lead tied a school record for most points scored against a Southeastern Conference opponent, last matched in LSU's 62-0 win over then-SEC member Tulane in 1965.

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But remember that out-of-control robot — that Michael Crichton "Butterfly Effect."

Not all those points in Nashville were the Tigers' doing.

Vanderbilt's 38 points were the most scored by an LSU opponent in regulation since the Tigers beat Texas A&M 54-39 in 2016.

Some of the defensive issues had to do with the tall injury pile, which included starting defensive ends Rashard Lawrence and Glen Logan, pass rusher K'Lavon Chaisson and free safety Todd Harris.

Some of it had to do with the inexperienced depth that replaced those players: junior defensive end Justin Thomas had his first career start against Vanderbilt, and Orgeron said he stepped out of his gap on the first play of the game, which led to a 41-yard run by Commodores running back Ke'Shawn Vaughn.

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But there's also some defensive issues because of LSU's extreme offensive pace.

No, it's not the amount of plays, Orgeron said. The defense is actually averaging fewer plays through four games in 2019 (68 per game) than it played through four games in 2018 (71.8).

It's that dizzying rate of scoring. LSU is averaging only 2 minutes, 19 seconds per scoring drive this season (field goals included), which is also nearly a minute faster than 2018 (3 minutes, 12 seconds).

"That's not a lot of rest on the sideline," Orgeron said Tuesday.

LSU's Joe Burrow named SEC Offensive Player of the Week for third time this season

Don't expect the Tigers to change their offensive philosophy now — especially while it's functioning at a historic level.

"There may be a time where we have to slow the offense down," Orgeron said. "But when you score 66 points, you've got to let them go."

LSU has also struggled offensively when they've slowed the offense down.

In the first three drives of LSU's 45-38 win over then-No. 9 Texas, the Tigers averaged 3 minutes, 47 seconds per drive.

LSU kicked a field goal, threw an interception and punted in those three drives.

Burrow said after the game that he checked in with Ensminger following those drives, and he received a pretty clear adjustment.

"Coach (Ensminger) just said, 'Screw it, we're gonna go fast and make them get lined up to us,'" Burrow said. "We kind of got them on their heels."

Against Utah State, LSU will have morning kickoff in Tiger Stadium for 1st time since 2017

LSU averaged 2 minutes, 4 seconds on its next nine drives, and the Tigers scored five touchdowns, kicked two field goals and punted twice.

Faster does seem to be better for the LSU offense.

On the four drives that have taken more than four minutes this season, LSU has kicked two field goals and punted twice.

When a drive takes fewer than three minutes, the Tigers score a touchdown 60 percent of the time.

So what's the solution for the defense?

"When we have a quick scoring drive, we're going to have to make sure that guys are fresh or we may have substitute guys," Orgeron said. "We're just going to have to regulate that."

The substitution list is light with the injuries on defense.

Peek at LSU vs. Vanderbilt film: A dive into LSU's run game corrections, defensive issues

The coaching staff had to move tight end TK McLendon to the defensive line due to the injuries to Lawrence and Logan. Orgeron said he is "doubtful" for Lawrence to return by LSU's game against Utah State on Oct. 5, and he's said that Logan could return as soon as the Florida game on Oct. 12.

Senior linebacker Michael Divinity also suffered an apparent leg injury while making a tackle in the Vanderbilt game, and Orgeron said on 104.5 ESPN's "Off the Bench" Tuesday morning that Divinity will be out "a couple weeks" with the injury.

True freshman nose tackle Joseph Evans also recorded his first start against Vanderbilt, and junior Cameron Lewis filled in at free safety at times for Harris, who is out for the season with an apparent knee injury.

"Some guys are going to have to play," Orgeron said.

"These guys got to step up," Orgeron said. "I do believe when we get K'Lavon Chaisson back he's going to help us. When we get Glen Logan and Rashard Lawrence back, now we're going to be able to go three-deep on the defensive line, which would help.