Here's some more on the Pitt defense and why the "under" look worked far better for them in the tail end of the season along with (as mentioned by RoadtoNumber10 ) the 3 man DL sub package on 3rd downs rather than traditional 4 man front in a 4-3 or a 4-3 nickel package.
While the defensive adjustment wasn't exclusively using a 4-3 under front, the defense did use the "under" principle of bringing a 5th man onto the LOS and using a variety of 4 man pressures that allowed Pitt to play faster and more aggressively whether they were in a 4-3, 3-3, or 3-2. The common denominator seems to be an "under" look with much tighter alignments from the LB's.
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As a refresher, this is how the defense looks under the traditional 4-3 alignment
and this is how they adjusted into a more aggressive alignment.
Game by game is probably the easier way to do this so I'm going to focus this post on the VT game which Pitt lost 20-14 but played very well defensively. They forced Josh Jackson to go 17/37 for 218 1-1. Not perfect, but good enough to win @ VT.
VT
First, a little bit more bad. Even though the defense was playing better against VT, there still were times when the 4 man front hurt them against the run and the pass. But within the VT game, the adjustments made benefited the defense tremendously.
So here's a bit more of the "bad", this time against the nickel look. My preference is another guy on the LOS at least as the H-back will create a blocking angle somewhere against this 4 man front. But Pitt plays with 6 in the box. There are 5 OL and an extra blocker. That's a hat on a hat and usually bad news for the defense.
And a hat on a hat is exactly what happens. Every defender is accounted for and the result is a gain of 14 which included the RB picking up 9 yards before he was even had to face contact. The wrinkle VT adds comes later in the drive when they use the option near the goal line to add their wrinkle with the QB.
The option out of the gun when the defense was in the regular 4-3 had been hurting them pretty badly, including this TD run. So out of the same set as above, Pitt looks OK, except for accounting for the QB now.
The root of all of this, again, is that the DL wasn't big or physical enough to make many plays out of the 4 man alignment and the LB's, who are also of the smaller and faster variety, got killed because of it. Pitt's DL, particularly the DT's, were not good against double teams.
This is how it hurt Pitt in the passing game.
My biggest issue with the regular 4 man alignment is the gaps in the coverage, especially against spread teams. It puts the LB's in so much of a run/pass bind that relatively simple plays can leave the defense exposed. Here, we see a slant pattern from the slot WR. Whitehead is playing 11 yards off which isn't an issue if Idowu is getting to his drop. However, Idowu's got to honor the run fake. I have the DT circled here because he provides exceptional pressure but even that isn't enough to stop a relatively easy throw and catch.
The QB is getting hit before the receiver is even 5 yards downfield. The slight run fake holds the LB's, as the option action had been hurting the defense up to this point. This ended up being a 15 yard gain (or so) on a play where there was immediate pressure. You can't have that.
But it's very much related to the problems the defense had against the run in the regular front.
The Good
In the same game, the Pitt defense wasn't always in the traditional alignment, particularly on 3rd down. The personnel groupings weren't as important as the alignments, in my opinion. Whether it was a 4-3 or 3-3 or even 3-2 personnel grouping, when Pitt started the play with a 5th man crowding the line of scrimmage, the results were far better and even plays that VT made were the result of great individual efforts rather than easy pitch and catch plays.
There are essentially 6 men on the LOS but Brightwell bounces back and forth enough that I consider it a 5 look. Zeise, who's outside on the right, shows blitz but at the snap collisions the inside WR. The slot defensive back is much tighter on the slot WR and the safeties are playing a more comfortable depth. The other bi-product of this alignment is that the defense gets pressure more consistently without actually needing to blitz. They still almost always brought 4 but the combination of twists and stunts with tighter play on the intermediate routes resulted in more hits, sacks, and 3rd down stops.
You see everyone playing much tighter. The RB is occupied with Idowu, allowing Brightwell to keep the QB from throwing a quick slant. All that's left is for the QB to throw a deep fade out of bounds that had a very very low percentage chance of being caught.
Here's another example. It was 3rd and relatively short on the last example, now it's 3rd and long. Again we see Pitt crowding the LOS as opposed to earlier in the season.
To be sure, Pitt wasn't always lined up this vanilla on 3rd and long. But the front end of the season featured this look far more than the aggressive 5 man looks. And, at the very least, even if the percentages of using 4 vs 5 man looks ended up closer than I estimate, the success rate was significantly more favorable to the 5 man looks.
So back to VT, 5 man look, tighter even though it's 3rd and long...
At the snap, Brightwell drops off the line and collisions the slant coming from the outside at the top of the screen, Briggs is able to play heavy on the underneath route and prevent a long out to the sideline, the safeties are at a comfortable depth and able to play the ball in the air should the QB try a deeper throw, and the aggressive look, combined with a stunt, allows Idowu immediate pressure with a 4 man rush while still allowing Zeise to spy the QB/play the middle of the field. Sack. Punt.
Again, aggressive alignment on a 3rd and long. Before, I would estimate that more often than not, if a LB was playing this close to the line earlier in the season, it meant there was a blitz and the QB would kill the defense with a hot route in the middle of the field. Now Pitt has been mixing their looks, mostly bringing 4 man pressures, and getting good collisions on the WR's in the middle of the field. They're far less predictable in this alignment.
Again, look at the the lane for the pass rush because of the alignment confusing the OL for VT. The WR's aren't in their breaks yet because they have to push routes farther up field with the defense playing more aggressively in the middle of the field. Everyone is blanketed. The QB ends up rushing the throw and tosses it into the feet of the slot WR who is being played tightly by the LB and unable to take advantage of his speed due to the pressure.
What DID hurt Pitt in the 5 man?
I think it's fair to show what hurt Pitt even in the better alignment to show that even if a defense gives up some yardage in a certain alignment, it doesn't mean they need to change the look.
This one is starting mid-play but Pitt was again in the 5 man alignment. Idowu does a good job keeping outside leverage to keep the QB contained on a planned rollout. Weaver is beginning to push towards the QB where he is forced to throw long and to the outside. The problem was the DB keeping his eyes on the QB even though there's no real threat of him needing to make the tackle. This is called "covering grass" where I come from. Find someone to cover! The QB throws a nice pass on a deep out for a 1st down but the defense was sound.
This is an eventual 3rd down conversion on a run where you can see how playing aggressively at the line could hurt Pitt at times. The RB breaks the LOS and the safety, while in position, is left one on one and misses the tackle, resulting in a first down.
But my personal preference is for first down to be given up because the other guy made a play, not because my guys were in poor position to make a play because you trust that eventually your guys will make that play if given the chance again. Same drive, VT runs the same play out of relatively the same formation and alignment from Pitt.
And both Weaver and Zeise are in really nice position and the lay a nice hit that forces a punt, giving the offense another crack at adding points before the half.
By this point in the season, the defense wasn't always in a 5 man look every down or even every 3rd down but I think the tape tells the story about the usage increasing as the season progressed and the results differing pretty dramatically between the two alignments.
This shows some of the differences within the VT game. VT wasn't a great offense, but they had good WR talent, a mobile QB, and decent enough RB's that they fit a perfectly good illustration of a "good" offense that Pitt needs to play effectively to start winning 9 and 10 games a season. What I saw was the potential to do just that even in a game that didn't result in a win.
While the defensive adjustment wasn't exclusively using a 4-3 under front, the defense did use the "under" principle of bringing a 5th man onto the LOS and using a variety of 4 man pressures that allowed Pitt to play faster and more aggressively whether they were in a 4-3, 3-3, or 3-2. The common denominator seems to be an "under" look with much tighter alignments from the LB's.
- - - - -
As a refresher, this is how the defense looks under the traditional 4-3 alignment
and this is how they adjusted into a more aggressive alignment.
Game by game is probably the easier way to do this so I'm going to focus this post on the VT game which Pitt lost 20-14 but played very well defensively. They forced Josh Jackson to go 17/37 for 218 1-1. Not perfect, but good enough to win @ VT.
VT
First, a little bit more bad. Even though the defense was playing better against VT, there still were times when the 4 man front hurt them against the run and the pass. But within the VT game, the adjustments made benefited the defense tremendously.
So here's a bit more of the "bad", this time against the nickel look. My preference is another guy on the LOS at least as the H-back will create a blocking angle somewhere against this 4 man front. But Pitt plays with 6 in the box. There are 5 OL and an extra blocker. That's a hat on a hat and usually bad news for the defense.
And a hat on a hat is exactly what happens. Every defender is accounted for and the result is a gain of 14 which included the RB picking up 9 yards before he was even had to face contact. The wrinkle VT adds comes later in the drive when they use the option near the goal line to add their wrinkle with the QB.
The option out of the gun when the defense was in the regular 4-3 had been hurting them pretty badly, including this TD run. So out of the same set as above, Pitt looks OK, except for accounting for the QB now.
The root of all of this, again, is that the DL wasn't big or physical enough to make many plays out of the 4 man alignment and the LB's, who are also of the smaller and faster variety, got killed because of it. Pitt's DL, particularly the DT's, were not good against double teams.
This is how it hurt Pitt in the passing game.
My biggest issue with the regular 4 man alignment is the gaps in the coverage, especially against spread teams. It puts the LB's in so much of a run/pass bind that relatively simple plays can leave the defense exposed. Here, we see a slant pattern from the slot WR. Whitehead is playing 11 yards off which isn't an issue if Idowu is getting to his drop. However, Idowu's got to honor the run fake. I have the DT circled here because he provides exceptional pressure but even that isn't enough to stop a relatively easy throw and catch.
The QB is getting hit before the receiver is even 5 yards downfield. The slight run fake holds the LB's, as the option action had been hurting the defense up to this point. This ended up being a 15 yard gain (or so) on a play where there was immediate pressure. You can't have that.
But it's very much related to the problems the defense had against the run in the regular front.
The Good
In the same game, the Pitt defense wasn't always in the traditional alignment, particularly on 3rd down. The personnel groupings weren't as important as the alignments, in my opinion. Whether it was a 4-3 or 3-3 or even 3-2 personnel grouping, when Pitt started the play with a 5th man crowding the line of scrimmage, the results were far better and even plays that VT made were the result of great individual efforts rather than easy pitch and catch plays.
There are essentially 6 men on the LOS but Brightwell bounces back and forth enough that I consider it a 5 look. Zeise, who's outside on the right, shows blitz but at the snap collisions the inside WR. The slot defensive back is much tighter on the slot WR and the safeties are playing a more comfortable depth. The other bi-product of this alignment is that the defense gets pressure more consistently without actually needing to blitz. They still almost always brought 4 but the combination of twists and stunts with tighter play on the intermediate routes resulted in more hits, sacks, and 3rd down stops.
You see everyone playing much tighter. The RB is occupied with Idowu, allowing Brightwell to keep the QB from throwing a quick slant. All that's left is for the QB to throw a deep fade out of bounds that had a very very low percentage chance of being caught.
Here's another example. It was 3rd and relatively short on the last example, now it's 3rd and long. Again we see Pitt crowding the LOS as opposed to earlier in the season.
To be sure, Pitt wasn't always lined up this vanilla on 3rd and long. But the front end of the season featured this look far more than the aggressive 5 man looks. And, at the very least, even if the percentages of using 4 vs 5 man looks ended up closer than I estimate, the success rate was significantly more favorable to the 5 man looks.
So back to VT, 5 man look, tighter even though it's 3rd and long...
At the snap, Brightwell drops off the line and collisions the slant coming from the outside at the top of the screen, Briggs is able to play heavy on the underneath route and prevent a long out to the sideline, the safeties are at a comfortable depth and able to play the ball in the air should the QB try a deeper throw, and the aggressive look, combined with a stunt, allows Idowu immediate pressure with a 4 man rush while still allowing Zeise to spy the QB/play the middle of the field. Sack. Punt.
Again, aggressive alignment on a 3rd and long. Before, I would estimate that more often than not, if a LB was playing this close to the line earlier in the season, it meant there was a blitz and the QB would kill the defense with a hot route in the middle of the field. Now Pitt has been mixing their looks, mostly bringing 4 man pressures, and getting good collisions on the WR's in the middle of the field. They're far less predictable in this alignment.
Again, look at the the lane for the pass rush because of the alignment confusing the OL for VT. The WR's aren't in their breaks yet because they have to push routes farther up field with the defense playing more aggressively in the middle of the field. Everyone is blanketed. The QB ends up rushing the throw and tosses it into the feet of the slot WR who is being played tightly by the LB and unable to take advantage of his speed due to the pressure.
What DID hurt Pitt in the 5 man?
I think it's fair to show what hurt Pitt even in the better alignment to show that even if a defense gives up some yardage in a certain alignment, it doesn't mean they need to change the look.
This one is starting mid-play but Pitt was again in the 5 man alignment. Idowu does a good job keeping outside leverage to keep the QB contained on a planned rollout. Weaver is beginning to push towards the QB where he is forced to throw long and to the outside. The problem was the DB keeping his eyes on the QB even though there's no real threat of him needing to make the tackle. This is called "covering grass" where I come from. Find someone to cover! The QB throws a nice pass on a deep out for a 1st down but the defense was sound.
This is an eventual 3rd down conversion on a run where you can see how playing aggressively at the line could hurt Pitt at times. The RB breaks the LOS and the safety, while in position, is left one on one and misses the tackle, resulting in a first down.
But my personal preference is for first down to be given up because the other guy made a play, not because my guys were in poor position to make a play because you trust that eventually your guys will make that play if given the chance again. Same drive, VT runs the same play out of relatively the same formation and alignment from Pitt.
And both Weaver and Zeise are in really nice position and the lay a nice hit that forces a punt, giving the offense another crack at adding points before the half.
By this point in the season, the defense wasn't always in a 5 man look every down or even every 3rd down but I think the tape tells the story about the usage increasing as the season progressed and the results differing pretty dramatically between the two alignments.
This shows some of the differences within the VT game. VT wasn't a great offense, but they had good WR talent, a mobile QB, and decent enough RB's that they fit a perfectly good illustration of a "good" offense that Pitt needs to play effectively to start winning 9 and 10 games a season. What I saw was the potential to do just that even in a game that didn't result in a win.
