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.
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