Defending the Read Option...

[CookieMonster.sixpack]

I read this quote from Clay Matthews about defending the Read Option and found it interesting. I don't know the X's & O's, but if I were a defensive player I'd be hitting the quarterback every time he made that fake. Eventually he either will be hesitant to run that play or he'll be on the sidelines because he's taken too many hits. Someone with more knowledge explain why defenses don't do that. Click here for a link to the full story.

"One of the things that the referees have told us is that when these quarterbacks carry out the fakes, they lose their right as a quarterback, a pocket-passing quarterback, the protection of a quarterback," Matthews said in the interview. "So with that, you do have to take your shots on the quarterback, and obviously they're too important to their offense.
"If that means they pull them out of that type of offense and make them run a traditional, drop-back, pocket-style offense, I think that's exactly what we're going for. So you want to put hits as early and often on the quarterback and make them uncomfortable." (Emphasis mine)

 

[msstate7]

I've been saying this for awhile. Forget the rb. Punish the qb every time. The offense will quit or have to sub a new qb soon

 

[57stratdawg]

That's why it's called 'roughing the passer' not 'roughing the quarterback'.

I think that's an easy thing to say, and not so easy to do especially in college. You have to have a pretty nasty D to physically punish an option QB in college football.

 

[msstate7]

The qb reads the de. I would think any sec de could light up any sec qb with pretty much a free shot esp since there's no cam or tebow

 

[CookieMonster.sixpack]

What would be the tactical disadvantage if you had your defensive end, who is unblocked on a lot of these plays just simply always unload on the QB? Obviously that's one less guy trying to tackle the ball carrier. But what else?

Would it be prudent to allow the running back to gain more yards if you got to hit the QB on every play?

I think I'd take that gamble. But again, I don't know the X's and O's like others on here.

 

[Shamoan]

bottom line, the defensive end's responsibility is containment, which means he is responsible for the outside man. the linebackers are responsible for cleaning up anything else outside of those parameters. our ends just got caught trippin' time and time again. if they follow assignments, we might have given up a td and a field goal assuming the lb's were in position.

 

[ckDOG]

Lay them out.

QBs in the option game are also RBs. If they are running towards the line of scrimmage without the ball, they should be viewed as a potential blocker and can be hit just the same. I don't understand why they aren't hit every read option play either.

 

[cofreb]

I think the reason

it generally doesn't work is that, run/blocked correctly, the read option leaves only one defender to account for both the QB and the RB at the point of attack. Most offenses would actually rather give it to the RB, so just hitting the QB every time allows them to do so and likely without anyone touching the back for several yards.

Additionally, it gets more complicated because the offense can read different defenders. Lets say you tell your DE to just hit the QB every time the other team runs the read option. Well, Oregon would figure that out, block the DE, and read the OLB. Or maybe, instead of running the inside zone read where the RB chooses between the tackles and the QB keeps to the outside, they'd run the outside zone, where the RB bounces outside, the QB runs between the tackles, and the read man is a DT or an ILB.

Anyway, I think all the variables from different read men to different paths for the RB/QB make this strategy less effective than it would seem at first blush. I am, however, not a coach (though I did read Smart Football).

 

[CookieMonster.sixpack]

This is what I'm getting at. Obviously you'd hit them if they have the ball. But if they "act" like they have the ball then are they free game? If so, I'd probably have whoever was assigned to cover them hit them hard just to make sure they don't have the ball. It's not like you can penalize a guy for falling for a fake.

 

[NCDawg.sixpack]

Don't understand why we hadn't practiced defending it, since OSU has been running it for the past 2 years.

 

[Heawww]

Defending any option is about staying at home/in your lane/etc. and taking out YOUR man, and relying on your teammates to take care of theirs. After that, talent takes over. If the QB/RB can around/through his defender, it really doesn't matter.

But when the QB is running wide open with nobody within 10 yards of him, somebody isn't accounting for him at all.

 

[starkvegasdawg]

I would love to see that. You can bet that the teams such as TSUN or A&M would start doing everything they can to protect their QB since he is all they have on offense or the only one that can get it to the other playmakers on the team. Provided our offense can get its head removed from its southern most orifice and score more than 3 points a game I would say it would be worth it to give up a handful of big plays or even a TD or two if that means you can legally decleat the best player on the offense. When the first thing hitting the ground is their head you can bet the read option goes bye-bye in a hurry.

 

[BigDog72.sixpack]

Agreed. I said before to go back and look at the wishbone and how it eventually fell. The defensive end should have the QB regardless on every play. Make him commit. He's not pitching it and 9 times out of 10, the weak side DE should already be in the backfield. Look at the Vandy game and how many times #92 chased the RB and Wallace pulled it back in and ran around him. That wasn't his assignment. He should have just laid into Wallace and let the RB get the ball or Wallace gets stopped for a loss. You have 3 LB's back there and their job is to get the RB. That's what happened with the wishbone and why it stopped being the "soup de jour" of the 80's. It got figured out. Lay some leather to the QB and you take away a lot of the spread. Even if the running back gets the corner, you will still have a QB that will be nervous about running the next play due to the pain in his sides.

 

[ckDOG]

I think most systems do a decent job protecting the QB.

QBs making the decision from the snap point at shotgun usually run laterally and shift turn their back when DE approaches them. It becomes obvious at that point the QB is not involved with the play any longer and the end will turn their attention to other things.

However, I'm picturing some of those plays where the QB hands off and fakes by running through the interior (Freeze/Wallace does this a good bit) or just continues along with the play for some dumb reason. Somebody has to hit them hard when they do that...why not?

 

[esplanade91]

This is what made Relf the best QB on our roster. Add a massive guy with average athleticism who either doesn't feel pain, doesn't give a **** how much pain he's feeling, has the balls of a full grown bull (pre-kang), or is too dumb to realize he's going to get hit every time he comes out of the pocket to an offense CORRECTLY run by a spread option guru and we win 8 or 9 games on the reg. Relf is easily one of the worst QB's as far as skill sets at MSU (which is quite a feat) but for one of the reasons above he got it done better than anyone.

I'm on the long list of people that agrees Prescott is our best chance of winning right now but from his limited action last saturday it doesn't appear that he has that "get hit and forget" like Relf had YET. Could have been the situation in which he came in, the fact that there wasn't a guy behind him, or his inexperience... who knows.

How many people watching that 45-0 Egg Bowl loss ever thought 5+ year later we'd be talking about how awesome Relf is? I don't care what the reason was for calling the plays from the sideline with him, but we need to be doing it now too. ****'s ridonculous how we can downgrade from that to this.

 

[coach66]

Back in my day I was a QB and ran both the Wishbone and the Veer Option. When

executed well it is very difficult to stop no matter how the defense schemes. In my day the strategy was to kill the QB and I can assure you I got hit every play whether I was involved or not. You pitch it and a guy would drive you into the ground. Yeah, i got tired of getting hit but I just looked at it as part of my job.

I agree with the guy that said the defense has to stay in their lanes and can't miss tackles is a big part of containing this defense. How many times did we hear Ole Miss complain about their defense when Relf was ripping their *** a new one every year. You gotta stay in your lanes, it got Nix fired.

I also agree you got to pick your poision. In my opinion you beat Ole Miss if you deny Wallace the ability to hurt you with his legs. In that case I would suggest hitting him every play.

Defensive line penetration is what defeated the Wishbone (remember Miami quick lineman versus Big 12 Orange Bowl every year) and what will probably work on the Pistol Read Option as well. If you can disrupt things before they get going that is a good plan.