Film Review: USC

Get Mike MacDonald Away From My Teams

You have to hand it to Lincoln Riley. In an offseason in which he faced, for the first time, existential heat about how his programs have handled the other side of the ball, he responded by hitting the biggest home run of the offseason at DC. In doing so, he tapped -into something that is taking over the world a level above. He in fact hit such a home run that he’s probably going to have to swing again this winter because D’Anton Lynn has an NFL job if he wants one.

Some of the situational particulars from LSU in both play-calling and execution were costly in a close game, but these things happen, are subject to variance, and will get fixed as the year goes on. It’s also worth noting that the most pressing concern going forward remains in the DB room, The story of the game, however, was D’Anton Lynn, and LSU’s introduction to the cult of Mike MacDonald.

Meet Mike MacDonald

Born out of the sport’s search to limit explosive passing plays in the modern era of offense, this defense is based around 2-high structures and coverages. Many are doing this, but former Michigan/Ravens DC and current Seahawks HC Mike MacDonald has perfected it. The aforementioned Lynn coached with MacDonald in Baltimore, and is a member of his rapidly expanding Justice League. Simply put, this framework commits both Safeties to deep alignments to ensure the D has resources deep. Instead of a single deep Safety that can only really play the post. This allows defenses to keep everything in front of them and handle downfield concepts with more specialization. Most plays before the snap look like the above. While you may think this allows offenses to simply attack the box or design pass plays for cover-2 and cover-4, the post-snap picture often looks very different. The idea is to be the same in the back-7 pre-snap and diverse post-snap, to hide their hand until the snap of the ball makes it shift into shape.

Like in tennis or the outfield, it’s easier to come forward than go back. This style of defense allows you to play with the Safeties and do anything you want with them. In coverage, the QB and OC have no idea if it’ll be Cover-2, Cover-6, Cover-3, Cover-1, or even a 0-blitz until the bullets are flying. That’s not the focus of this review, though there were multiple times the LSU passing game, like the Bengals, Chiefs, and many of the NFL’s best attacks, was fooled by this. The story of this game was how they were able to fit the run from these configurations.

Off the Roof

The response of OCs to 2-high structures is often to run the football. If the D is gonna commit those kinds of resources to defending space, it can be hard to move the ball through the air down-to-down. Remember, the foundational ethos of this defense is to put a lid on the offense and prevent it from going over the top, they’re going to make sure that’s done. Without the benefit of chunk plays, you have to string completion after completion together and a sack, drop, batted ball, missed route, or PBU can put you behind. Additionally, they can rotate into and out of any coverage look they want from their pre-snap structure, so they hold the cards and can easily both confuse the QB and stamp out the underneath stuff you’ll throw to attack them. Because of all this, you have to be able to run the football to break serve and force them to commit one of the Safeties to the box.

LSU’s new run game is going to be a big part of how they operate. With a talented OL and a TE who can block, LSU is built to be able to run it, and especially run counter, a downhill run scheme involving 2 pullers displacing gaps. This is LSU’s new identity, and it’s a big change. A season ago LSU ran almost exclusively inside-zone (when they went to counter as a secondary, it was not effective as it was naturally under-practiced), which worked against anything because Jayden Daniels’ legs gave them ways to leave defenders unblocked and steal extra numbers, and the combo of Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas guaranteed empty boxes. With Garrett Nussmeier, they needed to change things up. Counter is good against 2-high defenses, but D’Anton Lynn had his team ready to defend it from the top-down.

USC involved all three levels of the defense to stop LSU’s counter. As I wrote before last year’s Florida State game, there are two ways to fit counter which are distinguished by how you deal with the pullers and where you want to force the ball. You can spill the pullers, engaging them to their inside which forces the ball wide, or you can box them, engaging them to the outside and pushing the ball back inside the box. Which you employ depends on where your help is coming from. The above clip shows how USC tailored the fit to their two-high basis. As you can see, the LBs box the pullers back to the Weak Safety, who comes down from depth to play the cutback.

Here you see a similar idea but with a spill from the LBs.

As you can see, they hit the inside shoulders of the pullers and the back has nowhere to go but right into the unblocked S. With LSU having 4 eligibles to one side (which creates an overload on the pass-D to that side), the LBs are forced to bump over, which means that boxing this would be difficult as they’d have to book it to the other side to get outside the pullers and bounce it back to defenders who have to account for the receivers backside (and would also be out of position). So the available help is the Weak Safety, which dictates a spill. This play isn’t poorly blocked by LSU, but still results, even with a light box and RPO help, in a meager gain because of how well the LBs and S played it.

USC also did a lot of good work up-front. Their technique was solid and made things difficult for LSU, who struggled a bit more than expected on the line while breaking in a new face in the run game. Here USC places the NT in a “backside shade.” Normally in these 5 across fronts, (which are a staple of the MacDonald system and the Fangio and Martindale systems that he coalesced), the NT is head-up on the center in a “0 technique.” As an adjustment to counter and its blocking rules, Lynn placed him in a shade here to screw up the down block of the center. The late movement into the shade creates confusion (week one, new run game) and LSU gives up a TFL.

Growing Pains and Light on the Other Side

DON’T PANIC ABOUT THE RUN GAME YET! As much as we all expected them to be able to bully USC, running the ball is a fine art of choreography and synchronicity. If you don’t have a blocking scheme down to a reflex, it can be easily disrupted, like a computer chip and a grain of sand. There is no substitute for game reps to achieve that.

In combination with USC playing things perfectly, LSU screwed some things up that, if done correctly, would have led to a successful game on the ground and a completely different game-script for the offense. Here, the EDGE (34) successfully knifes into the B gap to force the play wide, the same way they fit the 4×0 formation earlier. Instead of adjusting to wrap around the perimeter where they’d have space and numbers, the pullers continue inside which forces the back to follow them into traffic. Additionally, 91, who had a terrific game, does a nice job in gap-control and folds back to make the play. If this play goes to the frontside perimeter though, it’s a touchdown.

Here, LSU motions at the snap into a pin-pull (a cousin of counter) to the boundary with a WR lead. This shows strength to one side and creates blocking numbers to the other. Even creative designs like this don’t work when two people block the same guy.

Here’s the good news: This is a good identity for LSU and fits their players well. The vision of the system is already clear in week one. This will be an offense designed to make you choose between defending multiple presentations of gap scheme runs that (usually) command bodies in the box to stop and a vertical pass game that features talented pass catchers and one of the most talented vertical throwers in the entire country. When LSU blocked it well, even D’Anton Lynn’s unit, which is specially designed to eliminate that exact conflict, had some trouble stopping them on the ground. Most systems, especially at this level, are not designed to play like this, especially against a front as talented as LSU. The run game showed a lot of creativity, using formation and motion well to create advantages. Because USC refused to leave 2-high, they couldn’t pop them over the top. There was no reason to do so, as they were able to fit the run well. As a Bengals fan who has watched Joe Burrow and company struggle with this exact problem against the Ravens, the helicopter noises were going in my head as I watched this tape. They kept trying to set them up to throw the knockout punch, D’Anton Lynn just never let it happen.