Film Review: Nicholls

Something is a bit off about every level of this offense.

I know it’s early in the season, but in all three phases, something isn’t quite right about the LSU offense so far. There are small cracks that weren’t there a season ago, including in position groups with continuity in personnel and coaching like the OL. The Nicholls game was uneven. If this staff is what we think it is, it’ll get evened out, but it will have to get done quickly as this unit’s margin for error is 0, considering the other side of the ball.

In the Passing Game

Despite the gaudy box scores, Garrett Nussmeier is having a touch-and-go start to his year. He’s not seeing things very well in the dropback game and this has led to inconsistency from LSU when passing without the benefit of play-action, which has been the only consistent element of the unit. On this play, LSU has a smash concept into the boundary (corner-flat) which is designed to put a cover-2 CB into conflict. He sees the corner turn his shoulders to carry Kyren Lacy initially, but jumps the gun on his decision and misses the opening. He’s guessing instead of processing, which tells me that things are moving a bit fast for him right now.

The confusing part of this is that it isn’t like we’re simply finding out that this is who Nussmeier is. We know differently from the entire bowl game. LSU has the same play called and instead of rushing his read, Nussmeier confirms the deep route isn’t going to be open and goes underneath. He even shoulder-fakes the flat to try to influence the CB to jump it, but resets and checks it down when he fails to take the bait. In the clip against Nicholls he’s not even comfortable confirming the read let alone trying to manipulate defenders as he makes it. We know he can handle these things.

A similar mistake here. He’s supposed to be reading the slot defender to see if he widens to the hitch or matches Lacy in the seam. With the way he opens his shoulders, Nussmeier has to pick up early that he won’t be able to carry the seam and hit this for a touchdown. Instead, he goes straight to the hitch. Either Nussmeier needs a few weeks to get to full-speed mentally, which is totally okay, or he’s not trusting his concepts… or he’s not trusting protections. Distrust in either element will cause you to feel sped-up, and we know he has the raw processing ability to be better than this.

Here you can see general disorder which could contribute to the sort of distrust of surroundings that both QBs did not have a year ago. Aaron Anderson is blocking for a swing-screen and CJ Daniels is running a comeback, so it’s clear that Anderson isn’t on the same page as the call here.

Both in assignments and design, the pass protection unit, which was the best part of the offense last year, is having some issues. Last season they were consistently in the right calls, getting everything picked up, handling twists and movements…everything was taken care of no matter what got thrown at them. Here we have bad rules and design centered around misuse of the back and TE, rather than a blown assignment.

I drew how they would have responded to these pressure looks a year ago. They would make a protection check that I call “wing-squeeze.” Essentially, they move the TE and RB into wing alignments and tell them to take the rusher aligned outside the Tackle, and release into the flat if they don’t rush the QB. What this allows the OL to do is “squeeze” down and take the 5 most dangerous rushers (most dangerous=most direct line to QB), which gets everybody blocked up. What LSU does instead is have the TE and RB “chip-help.” This means that, on the way out into their route, they hit the rusher assigned to the tackle to assist his block. Additionally, because of the protection, I think that the RB was responsible for 7 if he blitzed, before moving into his chip if he didn’t. The result of this structure is that there is nobody assigned to number 10 if everyone on the interior of the defense rushes.

It’s possible that within this structure, C DJ Chester, who has had a very difficult start to his season, had the assignment to pass off his guy to the guard and double back to the blitzing LB number 10 (MDM-most dangerous man rules). Nussmeier cleans him up and makes a play, but you can’t be giving up free rushers with 7 bodies available in protection.

This is a busted assignment. LSU had a full-slide called to the left (line slides to one side as a unit). instead of working with the slide, Taylor takes the backside edge which is the RB’s job, which Williams was clearly ready to do.

RPOh-MY-GOD

LSU’s RPO game right now, folks, is a disaster scene. This is a critical element of protecting their run game, so they have to get this right. The design here is quite literally illegal. It’s understood that coaches can and should stretch the enforcement of ineligible-man downfield rules on RPOs but you cannot *design* an RPO around a route that takes 3 minutes to break. A route like this is not designed to get open if you simply like a matchup or if a defender does something, like RPOs are supposed to. It’s designed to get open no matter what like a true pass play. This is going to get flagged 9 times out of 10 and there is no schematic advantage created like this. Maybe Nussmeier thought the call was PA and not RPO, and the assignment was busted, I don’t know for sure, but this play is a mess.

The biggest issue with LSU’s RPO game, however, is the QB. RPOs are often used to insulate QBs from difficult reads so it’s a bit shocking, but Nussmeier is missing very simple run/pass keys. In the first clip, the overhang defender (over Anderson) freezes which opens the bubble, but he hands the ball off and because this guy is in the run-fit, they have the bodies they need to stop this. In the second, he gets confused by the slot pressure, but the first puller is designed to take that guy, so this still needs to be a give to the RB.

Run Game

The run game continued to struggle. I’m not super worried by the low production, as Nicholls sold out to stop the run and exposed themselves a lot in play-action, which was punished, and they made some corrections on assignment errors they made against USC. It was encouraging to see growth on some specific things, but they do continue to struggle with consistency in their assignments and choreography when running counter, their base run play. Here, Emery Jones loses his down block which impacts the path of the second puller (Mason Taylor) and forces him wide into the back’s path.