Game 2: Gators vs. UAB

After last week's impressive offensive performance, Brantley followed up with another solid game. This week, however, the running game stole the show. The Gators rushed for over 300 yards. If the Gators are doing that each week, they are winning a lot of games. Also, with the struggles of the offense in the Red Zone early, I will diagram every Red Zone play of the first half. As a refresher, I will diagram the formation, what the play was designed to do, then end with what actually happened. Offensive movements are in RED and defensive movements are in BLUE. Enjoy.

1st play of the game. Situation was 1st and 10, ball on the Gators 44.

The formation is a Pro-I formation. The UAB Blazers ran a 4-3 and a 4-2 all night, with little variation.

The play is a classic combination. A Drag underneath a Flag (Corner) route and a Post route to the backside. The play is also classic. The Flea Flicker.

The FS flies up into the box with the handoff, and the pass to Dunbar is completed over the top to the 4.

1st and Goal from the 4.

The formation is a Strong offset I, with a second TE placed as a wing. This causes UAB to come out of their Cover 2 shell. UAB physically shifts the SS down into the box and the FS over the top after recognition of the formation.

The play is a counter, with the backside Guard and FB pulling around. The key is to get the playside defensive tackle blocked.

The playside DT drives Wenger into the backfield, and the middle LB reads the play and tackles Rainey in the backfield. Loss of 1.

2nd and Goal, ball on the 5 yard line. Brantley checks out of the original play and formation, probably based on the number of defenders in the box. This is what he checks to.

With the SS not over the top, Brantley checks to a fade. He overthrows Hammond on the left side, incomplete pass.

3rd and Goal from the 4.

 

 The formation was a staple last week. Twins right and a single receiver left with split backs out of shotgun.

The play was a lead draw out of shotgun. The FB is responsible for picking up the middle LB.

The middle LB reads the play and blows up the FB right in front of Burton, who is running the ball. The disruption causes Burton to stumble. The Gators have to settle for a Field Goal.

Next drive, 3rd and 4 from the Gators 26 yard line.

This time the UAB Blazers line up with their nickel package against Florida's base personnel. Weis comes back to this later.

The play is a familiar one. The Gators ran this several times last week, with Rainey, Demps and Burton all catching the ball out of the backfield on this play.

Brantley's read was man-to-man, and this is probably his first option against man. Rainey on an inside LB. That would be my first option too. Rainey catches the ball and gains 22. UAB ran Cover 2 with man underneath three more times, and Brantley hit Demps for 11 and Rainey again for 25.

Weis comes back to the formation against UAB's Nickel formation. This time he calls a draw play. The nature of the spread out defensive formation opens a hole for Rainey, who gains 23 yards.

After driving the ball to the UAB 16 yard line, the Gators have 1st and 10 from the 16.

This sweep play was ultra-successful last week, and Demps excels at running it.

The playside DE crashes upfield, and Reed blocks him well, but Demps tries to get around the corner anyway. If he cuts inside the DE, its a TD because the Nickel is blocked by Halapio and the SS is on the ground after being cut by Burton. Loss of 3.

2nd and 13, ball on the UAB 19.

The Gators come out with base personnel, with Burton and Rainey on the field. This causes UAB to stay in their base personnel (no substitution of a Nickel) against the formation. This is one of the great advantages of Burton. He could be a TE, RB, or WR. In this case, he is in the slot on the left. With the formation called, Brantley likely has a run play and a pass play called in the huddle. Brantley calls the better play at the Line of Scrimmage (LOS). In this case, Brantley calls the Play Action pass of of a Draw fake.

After the Play Action fake, Brantley throws toward Deonte Thompson, open after running a very crisp route. Brantley hits him in the hands, and Thompson drops it.

3rd down 13, ball on the UAB 19.

The personnel is again base, this time Reed and Burton are in the slot left. UAB continues to keep their base personnel on the field.

The FS slides over towards the Trips side, and Brantley throws backside where Dunbar is one-one-one by himself. Brantley makes a perfect throw. The common teaching on the fade is that the QB should drop the ball on the back pylon. Brantley does this. The problem was that Dunbar's route and timing were thrown off by an extremely good jam by the UAB corner. Gators settle for another Field Goal.

Next drive, 1st and 10 from the UAB 45.

With base personnel, Weis switches Rainey and Burton's positioning within the formation. This creates a headache for the Corner, and also one for the SS, who now has to cover the slot receiver (Thompson in this case).

Rainey's motion causes both the Corner and the FS to widen, opening the middle of the field.

After the Play Action to Burton, Brantley hits Thompson on the Post route for a gain of 27. The key here is the route by Thompson. The coverage is basically Cover 4, with both Corners and both Safeties covering 1/4 of the field. Thompson freezes the SS by running right at him, gives a quick jab step to the outside, which gets the SS's hips turned, then sticks his foot in the ground as Brantley hits him on the Post.

1st and 10, ball on the UAB 18 after the big pass to Thompson.

The formation and play are simple. A lead draw out of the I formation. Gillislee gains 7 yards on the play.

2nd and 3, ball on the UAB 11.

The play is a stretch play to the left. The fullback, Joyer, comes across the formation to block the DE. The FB action does two things. 1st, it cuts off the backside DE, opening the cutback for the RB. 2nd, it sets up a bootleg play where he slips past the DE and the QB hits him in the flat.

In this case, the DT and LBs over pursue, and Gilly cuts back for 7 yards. The play is the same from a different formation the next play, and Joyer scores a TD.

4th drive, 1st and 10, ball on the Gators 45 yard line.

The formation is a staple. The play is no different.

 We have seen this route combination many times this year. Usually, the inside receiver (Reed) runs the shallow drag and the outside receiver (Dunbar) runs the deep drag. This time, Reed and Dunbar switch routes. Brantley reads cover 2. The FS deepens with the deep route by the single receiver. The LBs stay shallow to cover the shallow drag. Brantley puts the ball exactly where it has to be. The margin of error is slim. The next picture shows how small that margin of error is.

The ball has just gone past the CB's hand. That is a big league throw by Brantley.

1st and 10 from the UAB 30 yard line. Personnel in the game is 3 RBs. Rainey, Burton, Joyer are all in the game.

Rainey is split to the left. The play is the stretch play Gilly hit for 7 the drive before.

The result is much the same as before. Burton cuts it back for a gain of 26.

1st and Goal from the 4 yard line.

The play is the old fashioned Isolation play. The FB leads on the LB and the OL generally drive blocks straight ahead.

The DT slides off his block and blows up Rainey in the backfield. Loss of 2.

3rd and Goal from the 11 after a Delay of Game and a Brantley throw away.

The play is the same counter run earlier in the game.

The Middle LB slides off the block of the pulling guard and makes a great play on Rainey. Rainey fumbles and the ball is recovered by Nixon. Gators settle for another Field Goal.

Score is 19-0, 2nd and 5, ball on the UAB 33 yard line after the safety.

Brantley throws to the single receiver left, and Debose is wide open between the safeties. 1st and Goal.

After a 9 yard run by Rainey, the Gators have 2nd and inches from the 4 yard line.

This one should be familiar to all college football fans. It is the old read option. With Burton at QB, he puts the ball into Rainey's stomach. If the DE plays contain, Burton gives to Rainey. If the DE crashes, Burton pulls it and runs.

The DE crashes, and Burton scores a 4 yard TD. Gators go up 25-0.

The last play I will show is a brilliant in-game adjustment by Weis. The situation is 1st and 10 from the UAB 20.

The formation is a Weak offset I. The second half adjustment to the I formation was for UAB to move into an Under look. The DE and DT move down and the OLB moves over the TE. The Gators quickly shift the TE to the other side of the formation.

UAB adjusts quickly as well, but their adjustments put them into an unsound defense. They have no one for either the weakside A gap (between Center and Guard) or B gap (between Guard and Tackle).

Rainey cuts back against the grain for a 20 yard TD.

The entire second half was an offensive line clinic. The Gators dominated UAB physically, and ran the clock well, especially in the fourth quarter. The Gators will need to be able to do this to win games in the SEC, especially on the road. It was a good offensive game between the 20s, but the Gators struggled in the Red Zone. It was not a play-calling issue. It was an execution issue. The Gators will be fine offensively. Weis will continue to expand the playbook each week as the game plan dictates. Rest assured, however, that the Draw play and the Flare routes out of the backfield will be staples as long as we have RBs who are matchup issues.

Game 1: Gators vs. Florida Atlantic

A lot of speculation went in to what Charlie Weis' version of the Gator offense would look like. I tried many months ago on a different blog to give a small sample size of what it would look like, but even I had no clue. Well, the waiting time is over. We have our first sampling of the Charlie Weis offense, Gator style. In this blog I will draw out some of the specific plays I saw, both good and bad, and show why they worked or didn't work, as well as the mindset behind the play. I will draw out formations, follow with what the play is designed to do, and finish with the result. The offensive movement will be Red, the defensive movement will be Blue. Please note that what I name the plays is what I call them, not what Weis calls them. We will begin with the first drive.

1st play of the game, after the holding brought back the kickoff return to the 20 yard line. 1st and 10, ball on the 20 yard line. The personnel was 1 RB (Rainey), 2 TE (Reed and Burton), 2 WR.

The formation was 2TE to the right, 2WR to the left. The defense was in their base 3-4 all night, with the outside linebackers (OLB) playing loosely off the TE or Tackle. Notice the Strong Safety (SS) has moved down over the slot receiver. This was the primary way FAU adjusted to Twin Receivers throughout the game. This formation gave Coach Weis two things. One, FAU's base adjustment to twin receivers, as well as their coverage. The defense adjusts to this formation using a zone, most likely cover 3 but possibly using cover 4.

The play call was an inside zone or stretch, with each offensive lineman blocking not a particular man, but an area, depending on the movement of the defense.

Notice the Center and Left Guard will move to the playside, double team the nose tackle (NT), and one of them will move on to the linebacker. The Right Guard and Right Tackle will do the same thing. The Left Tackle is responsible for cutting off the defensive tackle over him, creating a cutback lane for the runner.

Rainey is a great cutback runner, and Nixon does a great job of cutting off the DT. Wenger and Harrison get very little push on the NT, and the LB runs over the top quickly. Rainey does a nice job of cutting back for a gain of 14 on 1st down.

The third play of the game, after a 2 yard loss on 1st down, was 2nd and 12, ball on the 31. The personnel grouping was 2WR, 1TE (Reed), 2 RB (Rainey and Burton).

The formation was split backs, twins to the right, single receiver to the left. I noticed two things immediately. One, the tightness of the formation - all receivers were within seven to ten yards of the tackles, and the depth of FAU's CBs. The CBs played off all night, and Coach Weis has a tendency to spot a weakness and then attack it until the defense changes its game plan. The defense here is likely Cover 4, with the corners and safeties occupying 1/4 of the field approximately fifteen yards downfield. There is no player to cover the flats, so if a running back comes out of the backfield, the OLB has to break off his rush and cover the back. With Rainey, Demps, Gillislee or Burton, that is a mismatch.

The route combination is classic. To the right a Drag behind the LBs and a Dig behind the safeties. If the Safeties come up, the QB throws the Dig. If the safeties retreat, the QB throws the Drag. To the left, the WR runs the CB off, occupying him from making a play on the Drag as it pops out the backside. The RB runs a Flare, often called a Flare-Control because it controls the blitzing LB - stops him from rushing and forces him into coverage.

Here, probably on a pre-snap read based on the alignment of the CB and the presumed Cover 4, Brantley judges that the OLB will not be able to cover Rainey out of the backfield. Completion, gain of six. This play was run from several formations throughout the night, using both backs and both sides of this basic formation. The very next play was similar, except the receivers to the right ran curls and Brantley hit Burton for 11 and a first down. Brantley hit Rainey on a similar play for the one passing TD, and once again to Demps for a gain of 7. Even when Brantley did not throw to the back, this combination seems to be a staple for Weis to the backside of the play. Expect big things from the RBs this year catching the ball. Not many LBs in the country can cover Demps or Rainey or Burton out of the backfield on a consistent basis. The RB group may in fact lead the team in receptions this year.

The fifth play from scrimmage is a good example of a player losing an individual matchup, causing the entire offensive play to be stopped. The situation was 1st and 10 after Brantley hit Burton for the first down. The personnel grouping was 1TE (Reed) and 3WR.

 Using different personnel and a different formation, Weis has again forced FAU to show their hand to the adjustment to what will be a base formation. Based on the position of the FS and SS, the coverage here will be Cover 3. FAU has not substituted a 3rd CB (Nickel), so it is unlikely they will ask their SS to cover our slot receiver man-to-man.

The play is a quick counter play, with the RB taking a quick jab-step to the left to simulate a stretch play, then countering back to the right. On this play, the Right Guard and Center double team the NT, and the Left Guard loops around their double team to block the playside LB. The Left Tackle cuts off any penetration by the DT.

On this play, the DT over the Left Tackle (Nixon) slants hard to the inside, and Nixon is unable to block him. This throws off the path of the Left Guard (Wenger), who is unable to block the LB, who stops Demps for a loss of 2.

The 11th play of the drive, after the bad snap, left the Gators in 2nd down and 25. The personnel is 2WR, 1 TE (Reed), 2 RB (Rainey and Joyer).

Believe it or not, this is a balanced formation as far as defenses go. There are two receivers to the left (WR and FB) and two receivers to the right (WR and TE). The defense can stay in its traditional Cover 2 look, able to run multiple coverages to that side. Weis uses motion to change the status quo.

The motion of the fullback to the opposite side puts three receivers to the right, and FAU chooses to adjust by moving their SS into the box. 2nd and long is a traditional running down, and the motion has created a traditional running formation. Weis calls play action.

The outside receivers run Out routes, and the TE runs a Post. The two backs stay in pass protection.

As it turns out, the defense still ran Cover 4, and since the safeties split, the Post from Reed had the best opportunity. Reed did pop open, but Brantley delivers the ball a touch late, and the FS is able to break the play up. The next play Brantley makes a great throw to Dunbar on the sideline, setting us up for the Field Goal. It is clear that Brantley is not the QB this year that he was last year, and Weis has got him where he needs to be for the season opener.

On the Gators second possession, 2nd down and 10, ball on the Gators 39 yard line. The personnel grouping is 2WR, 1TE, 2RB. Demps and Rainey are on the field at the same time.

The formation is a familiar one, the Gators used it heavily all night for run and pass. The Gators have run stretch to the TE/WR side at least four times.

The play is a bootleg off of the stretch to Demps. The right RB is Rainey getting to the flat. Brantley throws the ball to Reed for 15 yards and a first down. The remarkable thing is the throw. There was about three yards of clearance between the FS and the LB. Brantley put the ball on Reed's back shoulder, forcing Reed to reach back for the ball, where he makes a great catch. Reaching back for the ball shielded Reed from a big hit because the FS barely got a piece of Reed after he caught the ball. This is the Brantley we hoped for last year.

Later in the game, 1st and 10, ball on the 35 yard line. Personnel in the game is 3WR, 1TE (Reed) 1RB (Demps).

The formation is Trips to the left, with 2WR and 1TE. The defense shown here was the expected defense based on previous formations. This was not the defense FAU showed.

FAU tries to stay in its Cover 4 shell. The OLB walks out over the slot receiver. This leaves the defense outflanked to the left. The TE has no defender over him. It is easy for him to block down on the DT over Left Tackle, and the offense can easily gain 5-7 yards off tackle. The play call was stretch to the left. Watch what happens.

The TE (Reed) and the Left Tackle (Nixon) make a cross block. Reed comes down on the DT, Nixon comes out to the OLB, and the outside receiver (Thompson) makes a wonderful block on the CB. The SS runs under the slot receiver's block, taking himself out of position, forcing him to take a bad angle to Demps, who cruises by him for the TD.
Later, Rainey makes the same run from a similar formation - the one where he does a 360 to avoid a tackler. The thing that I absolutely loved about this play had nothing to do with Rainey. Halapio was beat on the play but continued downfield, picking up the block to spring Rainey for a TD.

2nd and 12. The personnel in the game are 2WR, 1TE (Reed), 2RB (Rainey and Joyer).

The formation is a familiar one.

This play is a High/Low route combination run by the TE/WR. A Quick Out and a Deep Out forces the CB to choose. The QB throws to the route the CB leaves. Notice even when the right side is the primary route, the backside always has the flat route by the RB.

This time the CB comes hard on the Quick Out, and the SS is slow getting over the top of the Deep Out, and Brantley makes a nice throw to Reed for a First Down.

The offense was nothing like I expected, however I am allowing for the fact that we did not want to show too much this week. A lot of these plays were the same concepts used here for the last six years under Urban. The difference was, nobody asked a QB to run the ball (except on the sneak). The RBs will be featured this year and going forward. I was pleased (for whatever that is worth) with Brantley's development, although he is not where he needs to be. He needs to develop as the season goes on, and I think he can be a top-3 QB in the SEC.

As the week goes on I may add more plays as time allows.