The UFR Glossary.

Substitution Notes: Smith most of the way, Jenkins was in for about half, Graham got his usual quarter-ish, and Rayshaun Benny got more play than usual, with Grant and Goode getting some run late. End was a rotation led by Morris. Harrell got in first and as much as Okie but the balance shifted towards Upshaw later, with 2 drives for D.Moore and McGregor. Linebacker was Colson and Barrett until garbage time. At CB, Turner went the whole way, and Sainristil most of it moving outside for a few snaps as Gemon Green gave more time to him and Johnson after the TD drive. Moore and Paige held down safety, spelled for a drive each by Moten, who adding another third of his ~20 snaps at nickel when Sainristil moved out.

Formation Notes: ESPN/ABC missed the start of a lot of plays while doing replays or following players/coaches around, which is a common old issue that I had forgotten about so remind me to write a kind letter to Fox thanking them for not missing plays. MSU had a bunch of funky alignments that I mostly shoehorned into old boxes. This half-bone/half-Fritz got called "Pistol WF" since the TEs are linked up like a wing and a fullback, though both at fullback depth.

Often a TE would then motion across the formation to an offset fullback position (Pistol WF-Cross) like so:

...which usually indicated a lead zone to that side. The other fullback weirdness was a thing in my NCAA playbook as "F stack" so that's what I called it:

They also sometimes lined up the RB in front of the QB, which is a thing that "Yes we are passing but we can't Pass protect either" teams do. I called it Empty RB since it's not really shotgun once the back is no longer in a spot to get a handoff.

[After THE JUMP: Another short show]

Screw those guys.

This isn't about the tunnel.

It's all the tunnel. Toxic fanbase. Toxic team. I take joy in watching them get their asses handed to them. And when everything they get is off of cheap bullshit they didn't do anything to deserve I only think that harder.

I happen to know some pretty nice Spartans.

Okay so what did they do this game that you were like "Okay, that's pretty good"?

They ran even fewer plays than Penn State, meaning I was able to go trick-or-treating with my kids and still get the charting wrapped up in a reasonable time.

Anything that cannot be accomplished through ineptitude?

They had ten drives, three of which gained more than 10 yards, and only one of those scored any points. The only drive to get to double digits in plays was mostly ref-assisted. There's a LOT of ineptitude here.

Okay so the one drive that got points.

They got two big plays by throwing it up to a well-covered Keon Coleman, a 6-4 basketball player with incredible strength, length, body control, and vertical. That dude was outta control. Mad respect.

And how many times did he commit an uncalled pass interference?

Two or three but that is fewer than the number of Hat Tip points I handed out to him. Like, I don't know what else you can do about a guy who does this:

I gave Green a +1 here and even that feels light because his hand is the first to touch the ball, and Coleman has basically catch this, while still airbound mind you, with his right hand because Green's arm is inside Coleman's left one. Dude.

The touchdown two plays later required a push-off but as Brian said it was one of those minor ones that rarely gets called.

It also required another acrobatic stab, and then Coleman also managed to stay on his feet to score when a 1st and Goal at the three was hardly a guarantee of points. The other OPI that led to a 1st down and extra on a 3rd and long was against Turner, and again when you have that kind of size/length/strength you can make pass interference look like mutual hand-fighting.

Would I like that to be called? Sure. Refs-1. But I don't really expect it to be, and would encourage Michigan's receivers to try this cheat as well, except none of them could probably pull it off like Coleman, hence Hat Tip!

So why didn't they just keep doing that?

For one because it's a gimmick. Big fade merchants have been a Michigan State staple for years--Cody White, Felton Davis, Donnie Corley, Aaron Burbridge, Tony Lippett, BJ Cunningham, Bennie Fowler, Mark Dell, Blair White, Charles Rogers...how far back do you wanna go? It makes sense for MSU because they probably can't come up with a run that's going to get more than 2 yards on 1st down, so why not burn that down on something with more upside?

But unless they have 4.5 speed as well these contested ball catchers are the Just-a-Shooters of their sport: you can't just leave them alone on a corner, but that's really the only threat they pose. You might get away with some Ahrens push-offs, but you can't build an offense out of that.

And you'll note that was the story in this game. State got a chunk play and then a touchdown on tempo, Michigan adjusted, and that was it. Late in the game MSU tried to attack Turner with a look that threatened Coleman over the top then came underneath and he wasn't buying.

#5 CB at the top

If MSU's thing was going to be max protection and lofting the ball up to their receiver who's never covered even if he's covered, Michigan was just going to have a safety get over him. Note where Paige was at the start of the first two throws, and then where they have Rod Moore set up on this one.

Coleman got some separation with a mid-route arm bar again but it doesn't matter because Moore is tracking it. This throw might even be shorted, because all of them have to slow up to get it. Coleman begging for a DPI call after this is rich though. Sparties gonna Spart.

Will you admit that Moore should have intercepted that?

The argument that it's 3rd and 6 has some merit but more than that I think it's about the angle that Moore goes up with. Coleman's a big boy, and Moore isn't, and the worst things he can do here would be to run over Turner, allow the ball to get plucked above his hands, or do something that could be called interference. Coming in sideways for an authoritive PBU is the safest choice.

He got a +1 for this. Asking more is asking for Woodson.

So Rod Moore is not going to win the Heisman over the Tennessee quarterback this year?

No, because Moore could not bring this in with a one-handed stab and then get a foot down inbounds. Woodsons are known to do that.

But I liked him all the same. After weeks of wheel spinning that I thought might be related to his lingering injury I'm even more inclined to go with that theory, because Moore was flat out fast again this week. I couldn't grab all of the clips but this game was a return to what I loved most about him as a true freshman--the zooming down from on high to matter in the run game--with a side of that pick-hunting dawg from his recruiting profile.

Perhaps you can represent that performance arithmetically.

I can give you a chart with Moore in it.

Moore Chart!

Those five DBs that OSU took over Rod Moore must have been amazing.

I sure hope not.

Can I try to guess when's the last time we had a safety score like that?

Sure, the database goes back to 2008. Guess away.

Never.

Not quite never. Not counting linebacker hybrids (Peppers, Khaleke) there's Jordan Kovacs against Western Michigan in 2011 (+13), and Delano Hill vs Hawai'i (+11). Metellus was close a couple of times but never cracked double-digits. Also this list I just generated is littered with Peppers games, so that's the level of impact we're talking about here.

If you're going to make that list a game-ending (for the defense at least) interception is a good way to start. Not all interceptions are equal; often it's more on the quarterback for missing a read or getting thunked or batted. I believe this is the other kind: where the defender induces the throw he knows he can get to. Try looking downfield like you're Peyton Thorne.

Moore is #19 the deep safety on the right hash.

It's subtle but Moore is giving you signs like he's worried about getting over a corner route. After all, most of State's yards this game have come on fades. There's a hesitation move to sell it and then as soon as the QB is committed Moore is driving. He knows he's going to steal this from the moment it's thrown. I want to +4. I did +3.

That and ending the Keon Coleman fades weren't even half of his day. There were a lot of reasons for the second, comprehensive 4th and short stop, but one of them was the deft way Moore managed to weave his way into the backfield.

bottom of the formation behind the yellow line, just inside the CB

In a game where 3rd or 4th and short was far from a sure thing, Moore was responsible for several critical stops short of the sticks when a player had the momentum to get there or near enough. For example there was a ton of planning put into this play that ultimately got a big RB with a head of steam heading at a little safety. It got 2 yards.

Rod didn't even get a score for tracking down Coleman after the 51-yard pass earlier on the last drive, but he did that too. He also held the play when Moten bit on play-action to just 6 yards when the same play-action pass set up MSU's tying points against Wisconsin.

That was the only Moten event I charted despite #6 getting more playing time this game. Paige continued to hold down the other safety spot and was eventfully medium. To the bad: he got beat once by coming unattached to Coleman on a comeback and I wanted him to get over faster on the touchdown. To the good, he had a hand--actually a helm--in stuffing the first 4th and 1.

The (relatively) big scores from the safeties is noteworthy because usually they're not that involved.

I take it you have a theory why they were in this game?

Well now I have to come up with one. But I think I know where to look. Or at least I think I know what was missing, e.g. from the Moore pick.

Are we guessing?

We are guessing.

Pressure.

Good guess. Here's that play again without the coverage part:

This isn't the best example because it's from the part of the game when Michigan was actually trying to pass rush, and because I thought Jenkins and Smith messed up a stunt to leave a gaping hole Thorne could have run through instead of testing Rod Moore. But it's also a good example because Morris is doing an okay job and nobody else is getting anywhere near Thorne, particularly Taylor Upshaw, who's rushing from the bottom edge.

Michigan seemed to respect their opponent's legs to give Thorne the Sean Clifford treatment, where they have one guy trying to reach the quarterback and the rest on contain (a reverse of their approach against Iowa and Indiana). Michigan State also seemed to respect their opponent enough to have Thorne getting rid of the ball as soon as he felt even a wee bit of pressure. As with the 2020 game, until forced to throw downfield the passing game was either jump-ball fades to guys in single coverage or dump-offs; they do NOT trust his accuracy in any kind of real traffic.

I am also workshopping a theory that "Sean Clifford style" is just another way of saying "playing Taylor Upshaw." Brian questioned whether I meant Jaylen Harrell when I kept bringing up Upshaw on the edge on the podcast. Yes, I meant Upshaw, who was consistently placed on the edge in pass-rush situations. This happened against Penn State as well, and my guess is this is because they trust him most with contain and feared Thorne's legs more than the possibility he might get to third reads.

The issue here is when he goes against even a remotely competent line (read: anyone but Indiana), Upshaw can't even provide a D+ level of pass rush. This one is against two tight ends, at least until one of them is like "Uh, do you need me or should I go run a route"?

#91 DE at the top of the screen

Here he's the DT at the bottom and looping to try to get Okie into the guard, but that guard is so unworried about Upshaw that he's looking at Okie the whole way.

Michigan got some good plays out of Upshaw in the first half of the season by having him start at DT and do things like loop or drop into coverage or thwack a lineman who's supposed to be picking up Okie, but now that's been scouted. He's effective for a DT so I don't have an issue with him spotting Jenkins in Michigan's racecar package. He's the bottom DT here: