The Washington Huskies headed to Memorial Stadium and took down the Nebraska Cornhuskers 17-10 in a Halloween thriller. The game was a slugfest for most part, before the Dawgs scored 14 points in 15 seconds in the late 4th quarter. The defense once again came to play, racking up 3 more INTs (and 3 more balls to the turnover Space Needle) including the game winning pick-6 from Captain Alex McLaughlin. Elijah Brown started the game but Demond Williams Jr subbed in the final quarter, injecting life into the offense. Chris Lawson had a career game, including going back-to-back on game changing plays converting a 4th and 18 then scoring the tying touchdown (a la Penix in the 4th Q vs Oregon 2023). Suddenly there is hope again in the team as they head into the final month of the regular season.
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To the film.
In throwback Big Ten fashion, this was a brutal, low-scoring battle. Neither team found much sustained success on offense, and where there was success to be found, miscues derailed scoring opportunities. Elijah Brown started at QB for the second straight week, and while he avoided the turnovers that plagued his last start, he also failed to find the rhythm and passing efficiency that looked so promising against Iowa and Purdue. Nebraska’s stout run defense and smothering coverage took away Brown’s supporting run game and the easy catch-and-run opportunities. Faced with a pass rush that could tee off on a one-dimensional offense, and the added burden of having to win with his arm, Brown seemed uncomfortable through three quarters of play.
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Tapping Demond Williams to spark life into the offense off the bench, Fisch found just enough offense to secure the win in the fourth quarter. After a few weeks off the field, Demond looked more decisive, confident, and seemed to be seeing the field better. While his limitations as a passer were still evident, i.e. bad sacks taken, the version of Demond that we saw on Saturday was better able to will the offense to success because of his dynamic talents. He could more easily stretch the field vertically than Brown, and he is able to make off-script plays in ways that proved to be an equalizer against an excellent defense.
What changed? What version of Demond can we expect moving forward? Let’s take a look.
4th Quarter – 4:11 – 3rd & 15
We are all familiar with Demond’s scrambling ability, so we don’t really need to talk about that. What we wanted point out with this play is how his mobility affects a defense when they aren’t accounting for it as a central part of their game plan. Nebraska was forced to game plan for both Brown and Demond this past week, and with two very different skill sets, pure pocket passer vs. true dual threat, you have to prepare very different game plans that require a lot of reps to dial in. Against a pocket passer, the defense can dedicate more resources to pressure and sticky coverage in passing situations. They can also utilize different pass rush stunts and techniques because they don’t have to worry as much about contain and gap integrity when the QB isn’t a rush threat. In coverage, they don’t have to dedicate a defender to QB spy, so they can play more types of coverage, particularly 2-high coverages.
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Here, in a passing situation, Nebraska is running some form of pattern match coverage out of a 2-high safety look. I won’t bore you with the details, but it essentially ends up playing like Cover 2 man after the initial WR releases. That means the two safeties are playing deep, the DL gets a 4-man rush, and everyone else underneath is covering one of the five eligible receivers tight (i.e. not playing spot drop zone).
Given the long 1st down yardage, we have a deeper passing concept called with two in-breaking routes over the intermediate middle, two vertical routes on the perimeter, and the RB in a check-release out to the flat. This is a tough defensive look to pass against given how tight the Nebraska coverage had been all night in this type of quasi-man coverage call, and the two in-breaking routes weren’t even designed to get the first down yardage. Unless Demond was able to hit the low-percentage vertical routes on the perimeter, there really aren’t too many viable options for him to consider for converting for a first down. We’ll never know exactly what his thought process was pre-snap, but it’s not far fetched to assume he boiled the play down to a one-read-and-run situation pre-snap. It’s also likely that after watching the Nebraska defensive tendencies from the sideline most of the game, he also knew that he was going to face man coverage.
We’ve talked about the dangers of man coverage against a dual threat QB before in the context of our own defense, but for Demond, man coverage and green grass up the middle should be a green light to run. When defenders are in man coverage, their eyes are locked onto the receiver they are covering, so it becomes much harder for the defense to rally to the QB once he’s broken contain. In this case, the only defenders with eyes on Demond were probably the DL and the safeties. However, what created the opportunity for the long scramble was Nebraska’s poor interior gap integrity up front. You can see in the clip that the DL ran a ET stunt on one side of the front, that got picked up well by Kolt, and the other DT slanted outside, opening a massive lane up the middle for Demond to rush through. With the MLB following Bonner out towards the flat, there was no one at the second level with eyes on the backfield to make a play on Demond. Demond’s a good enough athlete that he can outrun angles when given enough space, and he was able to beat the safeties to the first down marker.
Nebraska could’ve played a more conservative rush, slow playing the DTs up the middle, and they could’ve kept a defender in as a spy. However, you can’t do those things while still playing smothering coverage like Cover 2 man without giving something up. Do you keep a LB in as a spy and play Cover 1 instead? Do you go with a 3-man rush, playing a DL as the spy, to keep the Cover 2 structure? You can’t have everything against a dual threat QB.
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4th Quarter – 3:02 – 3rd & 4
One of three explosive passing plays attributed to Demond in this game was this catch-and-run play to Chris Lawson. Lawson, the offensive MVP of the game, was electric in this game. His role in the offense has been growing since the start of conference play, but this was the game that solidified his spot alongside Roebuck as one of our top offensive weapons. Obviously his downfield abilities have been proven by his 6/8 games with an explosive (20+ yards) play to his credit, as well as his miraculous 4th & 18 conversion later in the same drive as this play. However, Lawson is more than just a vertical threat or a possession receiver. He’s a pretty dynamic playmaker with the ball in his hands in the open field.
Jedd Fisch’s offense is particularly well-suited for versatile, dynamic playmakers because it is built around creating opportunities for its best skill players. His top three or four offensive weapons typically account for a large share of the targets and touches, reflecting a philosophy that prioritizes getting the ball to the players most capable of turning opportunities into explosive plays. Rather than designing the offense with answers for every possible defensive look, Fisch often structures plays to showcase those key playmakers in advantageous situations. This approach leverages talent and matchup advantages while simplifying reads for the quarterback. However, it can also create limitations in high-leverage situations when defenses show an unfavorable look for a given play (a possible explanation for some of Fisch’s odd timeout decisions and questionable play calls in hurry up situations this season).
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This play is a great example of when the play call gets an ideal defensive look, how the offense can hammer a known matchup advantage, plus a nice new wrinkle to our screen package. Here, we’re facing a 3rd and manageable situation with all options on the table for the offense. As I mentioned in the last play, Nebraska had been leaning on it’s man coverage to great success all game, and they had also been blitzing on about half of all pass plays. Anticipating this type of look, Fisch dialed up a Drag Screen play. Similar to the Backfield Screen to Roebuck against Purdue that we broke down on the last Film Study, this is a screen designed specifically to take advantage of man coverages. At a basic level, the concept has the featured receiver run a Drag route across the formation right at the line of scrimmage while all the other receivers come from the other side of the formation to create traffic over the middle. The idea is that the non-featured receivers draw their coverage defenders towards the backside of the play while also creating a rub on the featured receiver’s defender to spring him open. This is all legal because of the fact that the Drag route is run at or behind the line of scrimmage, thus allowing for blocks downfield without drawing the OPI. If the defense is in man, the non-featured receivers don’t even need to block their defenders to neutralize them since their defenders’ eyes will be on them instead of the ball carrier.
As I mentioned, this was a great play call for this specific situation and against this particular man pressure look from the defense, thus resulting in a easy big play for Demond and Lawson. Lawson has the speed to hit the corner on this play and get yards after the catch in the open field that not every X WR can get, so it’s worth featuring him on this kind of play. Looking ahead, the hope is that Fisch continues to expand our screen and quick game package with plays like this so that Demond doesn’t feel as much pressure to make the “hero ball” plays that often get him in trouble. Early on in the season that package was largely just Speed Outs and Bubble Screens, so defenses started to key in on those plays. There’s still a concern that Demond’s limitations as a passer over the middle could constrain our ability to expand that portion of the play sheet, but its a crucial piece of the offense that needs to get figured out given our other limitations in the run game.
4th Quarter – 1:37 – 2nd & 10
Last play up on offense this week, we have probably the best quarterbacking play we’ve seen all season from Demond. No, this isn’t his most impressive pass, nor was it designed to be. The reason why this was one of his most impressive reps as a quarterback was because it showed pre-snap recognition, and post-snap processing, that has been missing from his game this season.
Nebraska has a corner blitz called on the play with the pressure coming from the boundary. The CB tips the blitz just before the snap, so there isn’t a ton of time for Demond to recognize the pressure and figure out where to go with the ball. Jayden Limar (RB, #22) has the blitz picked up, so this isn’t a true hot read for Demond, but this type of pressure situation has gotten the best of Demond in the past. Typically, QBs are taught to pass into the blitz because there is usually open space where the blitz came from. In this case, with the CB blitzing, the next closest defender to Lawson (the WR the blitzing CB was covering) is the deep safety. If Demond passes to Lawson immediately there shouldn’t be anyone near him to contest the catch and possibly an opportunity for Lawson to get a catch-and-run.
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Both Demond and Lawson recognize this, and Lawson makes a sight adjustment to slow play his route and immediately look for the ball, anticipating the hot throw. This is growth from Demond and likely a lesson learned from past negative experiences like the late sack he took against USC. If he can consistently punish blitzes with his arm with these types of hot read passes, he’ll not only be able to get easy completions for nice gains, but he’ll also be able to force defenses out of blitzes and help his OL deal with pressure overall.
As I alluded to in the offensive section, this was a game that was won by the defense and special teams units. Walters’ squad played lights out with limited offensive support for most of the game, and they played their most complete game against an offense with a mobile QB. The secondary blanketed receivers downfield and picked up three crucial INTs, but I was almost more impressed by the DL’s performance. Despite a rather unimpressive box score, the DL executed the game plan extremely well. They bottled up the conventional run game well enough where Nebraska felt the need to continue passing despite the INTs and an early lead, and their pass rush was exceptionally disciplined against a true dual threat QB. Colandrea has multiple games this year as Nebraska’s leading rusher, and yet we were able to hold him to just 20 yards on the ground and consistently made him uncomfortable in the pocket. Sure, their offense still racked up nearly 400 yards, but the Nebraska offense never quite got in rhythm over the course of the game and was really only in position to score 10 points before their final garbage time FG.
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This week, we wanted to take a look at a couple of the less well-talked about contributions that led to the defense’s complete performance, as well as one of the splash plays that sealed the victory.
2nd Quarter – 2:13 – 3rd & 6
One of the keys to our success was the defense’s ability to play tight man coverage extensively against Nebraska. Colandrea is a dangerous dual threat QB who can buy time with his legs and scramble for yards, but Walters’ game plan revolved around forcing him to beat us with his arm against tight man coverage. It was a calculated gamble, but it’s one that often works if you can contain the mobile QB since they often look to scramble when facing man coverage. Our DL was able to contain Colandrea (more on that on the next play), but this strategy also relies on being able to play a variety of man coverages while still having the appropriate personnel to stop the conventional run game. This meant playing our base nickel personnel with 2 LBs and regularly asking them to matchup with TEs and RBs downfield.
On this play, we’re running Cover 1 Robber, a version of Cover 1 man coverage with a safety (Alex McLaughlin) playing robber underneath on crossing routes. With one safety playing deep and one safety playing underneath, both LBs (ZRS and Manu) had man coverage responsibilities. Nebraska’s TE #8 Luke Lindenmeyer is one of their top receiving threats, and ZRS had a tough assignment. On the play, Lindenmeyer has a Wheel route up the sideline that ZRS matches step for step. He’s able to stay in position through the break up field and contests the catch to get the incompletion. This wasn’t the only time our LBs stepped up to play great man coverage. Manu had his downfield coverage play against a RB later in the game, and while there wasn’t a huge volume of passes to the RB (who we tried to keep Manu on in coverage), he held up well enough in those few passes that they couldn’t just pick on the match up.
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The DBs got the splash plays, but the LBs did more than their fare share to allow the game plan to do its thing.
4th Quarter – 10:45 – 3rd & Goal
As I said, the DL did a great job containing Colandrea on the ground. The fundamentals of containing a mobile QB are to maintain gap integrity up the middle, never let your EDGEs rush past the depth of the QB, and to slowly collapse the pocket from the inside. The goal is to either tackle the QB in a confined pocket or to flush him towards the sideline where the LBs and DBs can rally to meet him at the sideline.
Here, Nebraska is running a QB Draw out of an empty formation, so it’s not a true scramble type of situation, but the DL has to play it the same way as a pass play. Elinneus Davis and Derek Colman-Brusa take on the three iOL right at the snap but are taking up field rush paths through the iOL. Davis in particular does a great job of displaying rush discipline by engaging the RG, locking out to allow for a quick disengage, and keeping his eyes in the backfield. DCB takes on the center and LG double team a bit more aggressively as the pocket collapser. The real key individual play here was actually Isaiah Ward’s rush at the bottom of the screen. Instead of taking a wide path around the LT which would’ve opened up a huge rush lane inside, Ward takes a shallow rush angle right at the LT. He doesn’t try to dip under the block and instead locks out and keeps his hips square to react to Colandrea’s potential rush to his side. This allows Ward to quickly shuffle inside to squeeze the rush lane, forcing Colandrea to bounce his run into the oncoming run support from McLaughlin and Xe’ree Alexander.
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4th Quarter – 1:25 – 1st & 10
Finally we have the dagger pick-6 from one of the best safeties in the country, Alex McLaughlin. McLaughlin has been a playmaker all season, and his instincts playing in an underneath robber role are a huge reason why he’s been able to make plays on the ball so frequently this season.
We’ve got an Inverted Cover 3 called out of our 3-high safety look. This is another one of our change up coverages that we call out of this look in passing situations. Typically, we’ll put McLaughlin as the middle safety in this look and then call Cover 2 where he’ll drop into a robber role underneath, but this time we put him at the perimeter safety spot and drop him and Rashawn Clark (the other perimeter safety) into underneath robber roles.
This type of robber role, even from a different initial alignment, perfectly suites McLaughlin’s strengths. He can play deep zone and man coverages, but his instincts and vision are what set him apart. By starting from a deep alignment but with a shallow zone coverage robber responsibility, he’s able to allow the routes to develop in front of him while keeping eyes in the backfield without worrying about other routes getting past him. From this vantage point, he’s able to play downhill and break on passes in the air.
You can see it on the end zone angle just how patient McLaughlin can be with his breaks when playing from depth. The TE, who’s route McLaughlin breaks on, is seven or eight steps into his route before McLaughlin even takes his second step, but McLaughlin also has the downhill closing speed to break on the ball. Its a great play from McLaughlin and another example of Walters finding ways of putting his best players in a position to make a play from a unique look.
This week goes to team MVP for an absolute (clean) hit stick to get the stop and change the momentum in favor of the Dawgs.
