The Indiana Hoosiers came into Saturday’s game allowing 191.6 passing yards per game.
The Minnesota Golden Gophers finished the game with 120 passing yards.
Second-year starting quarterback Drake Lindsey was 20-of-37 (54%), and nearly a third of his passing yards came on a 39-yard flea-flicker touchdown pass to tight end Roman Voss in the second quarter.
The big picture: The Gopher offense doesn’t do much of anything well at this stage of the season, and Minnesota currently ranks 90th nationally and 13th
in the Big Ten in passing offense.
Everyone thinks they know who is to blame. But let’s see what the film tells us.
If you had told me Indiana knew the offensive play-call here, I’d believe you.
The Gophers are in 11 personnel, with two wide receivers split out on the field side, one wide receiver split out on the boundary side, and Roman Voss at tight end. Voss starts on the left side of the formation before motioning right. The play is designed to set up a pass to Darius Taylor out of the backfield and into the boundary. The wide receiver — in this case, Noah Jennings — is supposed to take the cornerback out of the area, and Voss is to pick up the linebacker on the play side of the box.
The Hoosiers only rush four, but defensive end Tobi Osunsanmi sees Taylor leaking out of the backfield and immediately gets off his block in pursuit. The defender who really blows up the play is safety Preston Zachman. Indiana initially comes out in a two-high safety look, but Voss’s motion triggers Zachman to come down into the box, where he sees the play develop after the snap and beelines to Taylor to drop him for a loss.
So I would chalk this one up to great scouting and play recognition by the Hoosiers.
Later in the first quarter:
Here, you’ll start to see how much the offensive line struggled against Indiana’s defensive front.
Minnesota is in 11 personnel again, and all three receivers and tight end Jacob Simpson are running five-yard routes, using short passing routes to compensate for the lack of a consistent run game.
The Hoosiers are in zone coverage and using a simulated pressure up front, showing five defenders at the line of scrimmage but only rushing four as Osunsanmi drops into pass coverage in the flats.
The problem is up front, where defensive tackle Joe Hjelle and defensive end Stephen Daley run a twist against the left side of the offensive line. To his credit, left guard Bennett Warren picks up Hjelle, but the twist gets center Greg Johnson turned around and opens up a lane for Daley to get to the quarterback.
Lindsey takes a three-step drop and only has two seconds before Daley is in his face. His first read is Noah Jennings running an out route on the field side, but before he can move to his second read, he sees Daley bearing down on him and dumps the ball off to Darius Taylor. Osunsanmi is there to drop him for a loss.
Now let’s look at the Gophers’ lone touchdown of the game:
If this play looks familiar, it’s because Minnesota ran it against Penn State two years ago.
The Gophers are lined up in 12 personnel with two tight ends — an increasingly rare occurrence this season due to Minnesota’s well-documented issues at the tight end position — so the Hoosiers put eight defenders in the box, anticipating a run on first down. Lindsey tosses the ball to Taylor, who flips it back to Javon Tracy on the reverse, who tosses it back to Lindsey. The cornerback bites on the fake to Taylor and comes up in run support, passing off wide receiver Jalen Smith — who is running a deep post — to the single-high safety. Roman Voss sells his initial block against the nickel back before streaking down the field.
Genuinely a great play-call by offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh and perfect execution by the offense.
It worked because of the execution, but also because of the deceptive formation and because it broke tendency: Minnesota hadn’t attacked downfield in the passing game up to this point.
Now let’s see what happens when the Gophers attack downfield on a play in the fourth quarter:
Again, the Hoosiers only rush four, but right guard Tony Nelson is no match for defensive tackle Mario Landino and the defender is in Drake Lindsey’s lap within seconds for a sack.
But look at the routes downfield, particularly on the field side. The cornerback in coverage on Jalen Smith is about to have to choose between sticking with Smith or passing him off the deep safety and covering Roman Voss, who is essentially uncovered up to that point. At least one of them is about to be open for a big play.
But would Lindsey even see it? Is it more likely he would dump it off to Xavier Ford in the flats? We’ll never know because the play never had a chance thanks to immediate pressure from a four-man rush.
You probably think I’m going too easy on Lindsey. Let’s put the quarterback under the microscope:
After Indiana tied the game on a 34-field goal with three minutes left, Drake Lindsey nearly handed the ball right back to the Hoosiers inside the Minnesota 30-yard line on an interception that was ultimately (and correctly) ruled an incomplete pass upon review.
This isn’t terrible pass protection, though you’d prefer not to see left guard Bennett Warren get pushed into the backfield by the defensive tackle. Lindsey, to his credit, steps up in the pocket to avoid the pressure. When he feels Daley coming from his left, he tries to fit the ball into a tight window to Tracy, and the linebacker Jacob Savage sees it and makes a diving attempt at an interception.
I can’t see what routes the other wide receivers were running because of the camera angle, but I don’t necessarily hate the decision to throw this ball. It’s the throw itself that is the problem. See what I mean:
The throw is behind Tracy. If he hits Tracy in stride, that’s a completion. But Lindsey doesn’t set his feet, throws off his back foot, and the errant pass is nearly picked off for a game-changing interception.
Just bad mechanics. It’s a bad habit from this season that Lindsey has got to break.
Alright, let’s head to overtime:
3rd & 10 at the 25-yard line after two straight incompletions, and the Hoosiers decide to give the Gophers a break and only rush three, dropping eight defenders into coverage. Even so, Indiana runs a twist with defensive ends Stephen Daley and Tobi Onsunsanmi against the right side of the offensive line, and right tackle D.J. Shipp barely gets a hand on Daley, who gets around him and nearly sacks Lindsey.
To his credit, Lindsey does not panic. He works through his progressions as Noah Jennings finds the soft spot in the Hoosiers’ zone coverage, and the pair connect for a 17-yard gain and a first down.
The next third down:
3rd & Goal inside the four-yard line. Indiana sends a blitz into the left A-gap with linebacker Jacob Savage and he gets a clean shot at Lindsey, who is able to slip out of the ankle tackle and run to his right. Javon Tracy is running along with him at the goal line before Lindsey eventually commits to running it himself for no gain.
You might not notice it from this camera angle, but Indiana safety Amare Ferrell is tugging on Tracy’s jersey to keep him close. The officiating crew — to the surprise of no one — doesn’t throw the flag for holding. That said, Lindsey needs to throw that ball to Tracy. Worst case scenario, it gets knocked away by Ferrell.
You can see Jalen Smith trying to improvise and get open for Lindsey, but he can’t seem to get much separation from safety Preston Zachman. You would have liked to have seen Roman Voss slip behind Tracy in the back of the end zone, but instead he literally slips and falls after getting tangled up with cornerback Jaylen Bell.
Poor pass protection followed by a nice escape by Lindsey, only to become a victim of his own indecision.
And now the final play of the game:
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Indiana only rushes four. It turns out that was more than enough. Stephen Daley beats right tackle D.J. Shipp around the edge, forcing Lindsey to step up in the pocket. But he steps right into the path of an oncoming Osunsanmi. Left tackle Nathan Roy barely gets a hand on him, and left guard Bennett Warren tries to help at the last second, only it’s too late. Lindsey gets dropped for the sack.
Here is what I think the play design was:
Lindsey’s first read is Jennings, who sets up just inside the end zone, where the safety is in position for an easy pass break-up. Tracy is not an option, either, as he is inside the 1-yard line but is likely to get tackled short of the end zone by the cornerback. I’ve seen a few people say Smith is open across the middle and that should have been where Lindsey threw the ball, but if you watch the replay, he never turns his head to look for the ball. I believe he is running a deep crossing route to the back corner of the end zone, behind Jennings and Tracy.
You can’t see it from this camera angle, but if you watch the play closely, I’m pretty sure the tight end Kaden Helms comes wide open in the back of the end zone. He is in single coverage against a safety and gets inside leverage. The free safety has his eyes in the backfield and never sees Helms get behind him.
Not a bad play design, I must admit. Unfortunately, it never had a chance to develop because of pass protection.
So what did we learn?
The problems start up front. If your offensive line can’t consistently block a four-man rush, you are extremely limited in what you can do in the passing game. If you try to attack downfield with long-developing routes, you risk a drive-killing sack. You can try to neutralize a defense’s pass rush with short and intermediate passes, but if there is no threat of a downfield passing game, you’re going to see defenses put more defenders near the line of scrimmage to limit the gains on those short and intermediate passes.
And I don’t think you can pin the offensive line’s struggles entirely on injuries. Four of the five starters from the Indiana game also started the season opener against Eastern Illinois, with the only difference between that Greg Johnson started at center rather than left guard, where Bennett Warren has been playing. Was the season-ending injury to Ashton Beers enough to upend the performance of the entire offensive line? Would it be that much better if second-string center Brett Carroll was starting with Johnson still at left guard? And while I understand Warren is playing out of position, why was he the only transfer portal addition on the offensive line?
I have so many questions for offensive line coach Brian Callahan.
As far as Drake Lindsey is concerned, I hear the calls for a quarterback change, but I’m not sure what you’re expecting from fourth-year former walk-on Max Shikenjanski. He certainly seems to be more mobile than Lindsey, which could mean he is better equipped to elude pressure and extend plays or just give the defense something else to account for. But if he could command the offense as well as or better than Lindsey, I would have to imagine he’d have seen meaningful snaps by now and not just in mop-up duty.
I fully anticipate that head coach P.J. Fleck will ride through these final four games with both Harbaugh and Lindsey, and then decisions will need to be made in the offseason — not just about the offensive coordinator and the quarterback, but more importantly, also about Callahan and the offensive line.
