Previously: The Offense

Resources: My charting, Army game notes, Army roster, CFBStats, Bill C's preview data, Neck Sharpies on the 404 Tite defense

I was really looking forward to this. I broke down their Oklahoma game to write HTTV last spring and needed to draw up their blitzes and formations just to understand what I was looking at, particularly the 404 Tite, the latest in anti-RPO defensive technology. This also inspired the offseason Neck Sharpies linked above, as well as similar takes from all over the napkin scribbles web, some even specifically about Army.

So of course Army's first game was against Rice, who runs a Stanford beef offense predicated on pitches, Power and running off the fullback, exactly the kind of offense you don't need an ultra-modern, anti-Big XII spread defense against. Also Rice's quarterback is atrocious.

Dammit Rice. Where were you in 2017?

The film: Rice, who runs a Stanford beef offense. (sigh)

[After THE JUMP: Perhaps too much support for the troops, because I'm a geek]

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Personnel: My diagram: 

PDF Version, full-size version (or click on the image)

What you see above is pretty much all you'll get—even the backup nose guard didn't get any run in this one. The whole "burn the clock down with a gazillion tiny plays on offense" strategy means Army doesn't have to find more than 11 or 12 guys they're comfortable putting on the field. Also they're Army guys; there are probably soccer players who would pack it in before these dudes get winded.

The defensive tackles aren't supposed to do much but they got pushed around by Rice's poor man's Stanfordians. The nose guard, Rod Stoddard, was part of last year's rotation and is a poor man's Carlo Kemp: small, low, feisty at times, but no pass rush. They get little from Kwabena Bonsu as well. Jacob Covington is a converted linebacker with active hands who plays an Anchor-like role and gets talked about like a dangerman, but I removed his tentative star about halfway through this film. Edge rusher Jeremiah Lowery has a full-time Uche job that was a bad fit for this game, and SAM Amadadeo West was probably only in there for this game as a more traditional linebacker.

Last year the SAM was Cam Jones, who's been moved to the boundary safety role, permanently from the sound of it. He and field safety Jaylon McClinton are what you have to live with when you're Army: smart and willing to put their bodies in harm's way, but not very athletic. I have no idea who the third safety is but I suspect if they had one they'd move Jones back to the hybrid spaceplayer role.

Their best players are all at middle linebacker and cornerback. We'll get to Cole Christianson, the captain and press darling, and Arik Smith, who had a monster game, in the dangerman section. Boundary CB Elijah Riley is coming off a year of 7.5 TFLs and blew up a couple of plays with blitzes in this one. Field CB Javhari Bourdeau played with Metellus and the Devins at Flanagan for Devin Bush Sr., and you know what Flanagan guys are like.

I was tempted to give him a star, but he's pretty small, and was facing what's probably the worst starting quarterback in FBS this year. They also play off a lot; if Rice's quarterback wasn't winging it 8 yards off target there would have been some 3rd and long conversions.

Base Set: 404 Tite. Take a 3-4, replace your DTs with 4-3 DEs who set up on the OTs' inside shoulders, turn your strongside OLB into third safety, shove your weakside OLB a bit further toward the DE side of the LB/DE spectrum (think Uche), and push your MLB out to where he has to deal with tight ends more often than guards.

The "404" refers to how the defensive line sets up, counting shoulders from the ball (1. center's shoulder, 2. guard's inside shoulder, etc.). The fours are the inside shoulders of the offensive tackles. Zero is head up on the center. That gives them some protection against off-tackle runs like Inside Zone that modern spread offenses, used to dealing with 4-2-5 and 2-4-5 nickels, leave in the hands of exploitable WLBs.

The MIKE has to take on some of the role that the Viper plays in Michigan's defense, reacting to the fullback, or when there isn't one, pulling out to relate to the tight end like Khaleke Hudson does for us. This often leaves them with just five guys in the box. As such the WLB is more like your old fashioned middle linebacker: a plugger who can slip off blocks and blitz a ton.

It was cool to see, but Rice is such MANBALL outfit most of this game was spent in a traditional 3-4.

What shall we call the hybrid today?: SAM.

Man or zone coverage: Base Cover 2 with some Quarters.

Pressure: GERG or GREG: GREG and interesting. You'll note they don't rush more than six nor less than four, ever.

The pressures they use are fascinating though because they will get everyone involved in it. CBS Sports also gave us some All-22's to play with.

They also sometimes get way too cute.

The OLBs aren't great in coverage but they're asked to do it a bunch to keep the blitzes varied. This works in tandem with their offensive philosophy: shorten games so the offense never gets to face the same blitz twice, and run a lot of different blitzes. Unfortunately this game doesn't have many examples, which makes me nervous.

Dangerman: You won't open an Army program without hearing about senior captain MLB Cole Christianson so let's discuss him. Remember in this defense the WILL is the inside linebacker who gets all the blocks while the MIKE gets the TFLs. He only had one sack last year, but 12 tackles for loss despite what I said above about the paucity of snaps they face. I was surprised to be more impressed with his coverage.

But this wasn't a great game to show off his skills. What the above shows you is his uncanny acceleration, the same trait Don Brown's army of linebacker recruits in the 2020 class all possess. Against Rice this meant accelerating into being taken out by a fullback. When he got the chance to stick a running back, the back stayed sticked.

This clip wouldn't have been possible without Arik Smith, who's odd indeed for an Army player. For one, Smith played extensively last year as a freshman. Two, rumor has it he had Power 5 offers (his recruiting profiles are still as walk-onny as any Knight). After one game, I get it. Maybe Christianson wasn't built for Power offenses but Smith was in his wheelhouse, poppin' blockers in the mouth, scootin' past others, and generally making himself a nuisance wherever the ball went. He charted +12/-6.5 by my account—remember breaking even is good linebackin'. Most of those negatives were over-aggression from a true sophomore. Also remember this was in about half of a normal game's worth of snaps. This is Wisconsin middle linebackin', where the DL are just trying to keep you clean to do your thing.

The afore mentioned blitzy cornerback, Elijah Riley, is a guy people have known about for a long time. After having a game against Oklahoma this was a walk in the park.

OVERVIEW:

okay but is THIS a chopblock, truthers?

If my take on the Army offense came off disrespectful to the troops, it's partly because I needed to establish I'm not a total Army homer before I get to talking about the Black Knights' defense. Much of its design has to be credited to Jay Bateman, who arrived with Monken in 2014 and left to join Mack Brown's staff last offseason. Structurally they have a lot in common with Michigan State: the 404 Tite trades off better B gap protection for weaker A gaps, so when they blitz they come for those gaps you were expecting to be open:

It's also really hard to get them to screw up. Like the offense, they play mostly upperclassmen, but unlike the offense, the defense really takes advantage of skills that most teams don't have. They're smart guys—smart in the way you have to be to command U.S. ground forces in a tactical setting. Unable to pass, Rice tried to crack them all game. It happened once, on a wholesale breakdown:

That was on both safeties, the only guys on the team I considered cyans for. It's relevant because that's the position the new DC coaches.

What made this team so dangerous to Oklahoma was the blitzes, which take advantage of the brilliant minds available to them at West Point. Few teams can have a playbook this deep and not make mistakes with it all the time. With the offense chewing away clock, their defense has to face less than half of the snaps of an average one. Rice got to snap the ball just 48 times in this one, which was also the difference between the number of snaps Army faced last year and the team that faced the second-fewest. As soon as you think you're in a groove, they'll pull out something that wasn't on film and out comes the 3rd and long team.

At least that's what they were last year. It's too early to tell if 1st year DC John Loose will keep it going. This game was vanilla; the Oklahoma game last year had about 20 things that the Heisman winner didn't see coming. It could be a sign that Loose isn't the mad scientist Bateman was. More likely it means they've been saving it for Michigan.