Not only was I there (way to cherry pick about five plays that leave out how many times they decimated this defense over the middle), I’ve also coached defense before at a state champion high school. So I certainly don’t need lessons on defensive scheming. Illinois doesn’t necessarily need to play man in order to blitz, but if you think we have had a lot of success getting pressure with just our front four, then you’ve been watching the wrong team.
What? I mean, I called out 5 touchdowns. Those plays represent 34 of their 46 points. That’s not “cherry picking” anything, it’s simply showing how and why they scored. I would be more than happy to breakdown the entirety of that game film if you’re up for it. That is something I truly enjoy.
Jeff Brohm’s entire offensive philosophy is based off of misdirection and relying on his WRs in space (Which is one reason why his WRs are asked to block down field more than any team we’ll see. They got away with a lot of questionable stuff last season). He wants to draw you in with the blitz to set up the screen, he wants you to sell out on the playaction, he wants your defense to overflow to one side so he can hit you with the reverse (Different effectiveness without Rondale Moore, obviously) or the gadget plays he likes to call and he really, really, REALLY wants you short on players in the secondary so he can get one on one matchups in space against less athletic linebackers (Where we got touched last season) or now, outside the hash or on the dig with David Bell. We played almost solely Cover 0 and Man 1 single high last week and heavily attacked the LOS because Wisconsin is not interested in that type of game. They will (And did, when you break the film down) ignore a WR in a Cover 0 set with no high safety if they’ve broken the huddle with a run play called. They don’t care that they have a favorable look outside, they’d rather run the football. Purdue will not do this.
I agree wholeheartedly that we will struggle rushing the passer with 4 down lineman, especially if Betiku’s injury is game threatening, I’m just not sure I care much. You don’t beat Purdue by chasing the action, you beat Purdue by filling up passing lanes and preventing YAC. If you can play strong assignment football (We’ll see come Saturday) with single high safety towards David Bell and you can fill the middle of the field with defenders to prevent the easy YAC that killed us last season, you force Jack Plummer into a situation where he can only get down the field on his own accord. That, my friend, is where we gain the upper hand. If we were playing Nebraska I would agree with you 100% and say blitz, blitz and blitz some more. You beat Nebraska by forcing Adrian Martinez to process the defense faster than he wants to, which limits his ability to decide where to go with the RPO and frankly his accuracy comes and goes when pressured. But this isn’t Nebraska. Scott Frost wants his OL to maximize the time Adrian Martinez gets to process what is happening in front of him, Jeff Brohm only wants space. If we want to win, we need to take away that space. Otherwise, yeah, it could be a long day. Keeping our defense off the field for 40 minutes isn’t a bad idea either....