Film Study: How Did The Tar Heels Defense Fare Against Wake Forest’s RPO?
An L is an L, but as one of the great coaches in my life always told me, "Find a bright spot in your losses, and be hypercritical in your wins." Football is difficult enough already, and it's even harder to do when you're still thinking about the plays you missed in last week's loss.
Without the talents of elite defensive tackle Jason Strowbridge, (who leads all defensive linemen on UNC's roster with 18 career TFL's and 8 sacks), Tar Heels linebackers were forced to make their reads through a little more traffic than usual.
PAUSE - Why is this important?
The RPO relies on confusing the linebackers, and slowly but surely getting them to creep up further and further to the LOS, opening up behind them the hook zone they're "supposed" to be in.
When your defensive line gets blown back, you think "run", so you fill. Therein lies the importance of defensive line play against the RPO. Their job is to make the reads as easy as possible for the tackling machines behind them.
UNPAUSE
Worth Noting - RPO scout teams never do a good job, and it's not their fault. So really, the first quarter is the first time any of these defenders go live against it.
Mack's response to playing Wake Forest without Strowbridge:
“He is probably our best player and he is definitely our best pass rusher. And he is a senior and a leader, so you’d sure rather him be out there. We did not get much pressure on the passer. They did a good job with (Tomon) Fox, of making sure that they had guys around him where he had trouble getting there. So We didn’t get the pressure on the passer that we needed last week.”
So, How did UNC do? Let's take a look.
1st Quarter
RPO Football just flat out looks funny, and this play is a perfect example. I like the defense UNC calls here. The left defensive end and tackle switch responsibilities, in an attempt to match Wake Forests slow-hitting plays, and make reads murkier for the QB.
Look at how long the mesh point lives for. Look at what could have been if the QB gave it. Most importantly, look at the left safety. If the slot receiver ran anything vertical, that's 6 points. Wake Forest’s coaches are licking their lips.
If these issues are still happening in the 4th, I'm concerned.
1st Quarter
With a clear pass read, the defensive line wasn't able to generate any pressure here. Not expecting anything from the ends on passes thrown in under 2 seconds, but this is a play where the Tar Heels clearly missed Strowbridge.
"For a while there, we thought he might play some, so we kind of went in thinking if he played at all, we’d try to get him on third downs some. I don’t think it affected us a lot. Obviously, Jason is a really good player, but I thought Xach (Gill) and Ray (Vohasek) battled pretty good in there when they were in there. Wake forest did a good job of not allowing a lot of one-on-one pass-rush opportunities, so I don’t know how much it would have made a big difference, really."
-Defensive Coordinator Jay Bateman
1st quarter
Front 7 is solid all around, safety needs to rise to the occasion.
2nd Quarter
Tip your cap to the Wake Forest coaches.
3rd Quarter
Besides the obvious missed tackles, the defensive line fared very well on this rep. The penetrator actually ended up making the tackle 15 yards downfield. Love that effort.
The middle linebacker needs to trigger faster, because judging from alignment, there's no way he had any pass responsibilities other than the TE, who was engaged throughout entire handoff.
Defensive coordinator Jay Batemen said it best, "They make you play kind of passive in the front and that’s hard for kids to do sometimes.”
Telling a teenager or 20-year-old who has been conditioned his whole life to attack on the football field, to slow down, is one of the main reasons why more and more college teams are running RPO concepts.
Wake Forest's commitment to the scheme might even get them a chance at a big postseason bowl game.
Final Grade - C+
UNC did enough to stop Wake Forest's potentially earth-shattering offense, and with wins against Utah State and Rice, Wake Forest was the tricky pop quiz UNC wasn't ready for.
That's what happens after you ace a HUGE test vs Miami. You forget to... read... for next week.
