(Written by kencraw)

I spent last night reviewing the Arizona game footage with a specific emphasis on why Arizona was able to run the ball on the edges. I had intended to go all high-tech and get screen captures a la HydroTech over at CGB. But technical difficulties (Slingbox and Tivo, why must you torture me so!) slowed me up enough I couldn’t follow through on that.

Nevertheless I came to four conclusions about the Arizona run game:

#1: The inside AZ run-game was pretty stong too

My memory of the game was that the Bears did a good job of stopping the run between the tackles but failed on the perimeter. Not so! While the the consistency of success in the middle was not as good as it was around the edge, a lot of the big runs where up the middle. The blocking schemes that Arizona threw at the Bears didn’t work often, but when they did, it was HUGE. Add in a bunch of missed tackles that allowed the run game to work more consistently than it should have up the middle and the run game was surprisingly balanced inside and outside.

#2: Cal used more ‘traditional’ 3-4 formations at times

A lot of longtime football fans have been surprised at what Cal is calling the 3-4 as in most of the plays it looks a lot more like a 5-2 with both outside linebackers all the way up on the line of scrimmage. Most of the time, the ‘traditional’ 3-4 had the outside linebackers about half-way between the line of scrimmage and where the inside linebackers were lined up. There were a lot more snaps where Cal’s 3-4 looked a lot more like the ‘traditional’ 3-4 against Arizona, particularly on passing downs or when Arizona went 4 or 5 wide. While I didn’t notice a very dependable correlation between when Arizona had success running on the edges and when Cal was in the ‘traditional’ 3-4 (it was hard with not many examples to work with) it did seem like Cal struggled in that formation.

#3: Corners getting blown back by WR’s

This was one of the more distressing things I saw. Usually Cal’s corners have been pretty good about at least holding their ground against the blocks of wide-receivers, if not great at getting off of them and forcing the play back inside to the line-backers who were in pursuit to crush the runner. However, Arizona’s wide-receivers OWNED Cal’s corners, particularly Hagan and Conte on Saturday. There were a bunch of plays where they could have disrupted things or prevented the majority of the gain, but because they were effectively on their backs watching, there was running room both inside and outside of their position.

#4: OLB’s taking C gap, not perimeter

This is the most difficult to explain and why I left it for last. The holes in the line where the running-back runs through are called the ‘gaps’. The A gap is between the center and the guard. The B gap is between the guard and the tackle. The C gap is between the tackle and the tight-end (or receiver if there’s no tight-end). In cases where there is a tight-end, the D gap is outside of them.

In the 3-4, normally the nose-guard has responsibility for both A gaps (one on either side of the center). The defensive ends are responsible for the B and C gaps and the outside linebacker covers the D gap, or in other words, the outside linebacker covers the perimeter/outside/edge. However, I said “normally” above for a reason. Often times there are ‘stunts’ (really too strong a word here because there are no crossing defensive linemen) where everyone shifts to one side to overload that side. The nose-guard takes the A gap, the end the B gap and the outside linebacker the C gap, putting more people in the gaps on one side than the offense is expecting to have to block.

While I didn’t have the time to analyze how many of the instances where Cal got burned on the outside was a planned ‘stunt’ or whether it was just a case of the linebacker jumping inside when they shouldn’t have, it doesn’t change the fact that what happened was the linebacker purposely jumped into the C gap and there was no pursuit from the inside linebacker or safety to take the outside, giving Arizona the edge for a big gain.

This in my opinion was the main cause of the issues.

We’ve heard it said before by the coaching staff that the defense sometimes bites too hard inside and doesn’t play their assignment to protect the edge. There was a ton of this against Arizona, with the outside linebacker, particularly Eddie Young, jumping in the C gap to try and get to the running back in the back field and giving up the edge, leading to a big run.

Hopefully they can get this cleaned up by tomorrow.