Defending the Triple Option: Some Basic Realities.

by MaconDawg on Nov 24, 2008 5:30 AM EST Comment 17 comments

As you all know, the Georgia Bulldogs will face off this weekend against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, practitioners of occasional drug trafficking, international terrorism, poor academic oversight, and the triple option offense.

As you (and Miami coach Randy Shannon) also know, that triple option offense can gash even good defenses in a hurry. Defenses (like ours) which struggle with bruising running backs (like LSU's Charles Scott) are in danger of giving up tons of yardage to a guy like Tech's Jonathan Dwyer. None of this is even remotely mysterious.

What is a little mysterious is how you actually can stop the triple option. I propose that it can be done, assuming you first understand some basic realities. Now I'm not a football coach, but I play one on the internet. As such, I hope you'll enjoy this, my list of the six basic realities of defending the triple option:

1) It's just different from the beginning. The triple option is designed to take advantage of defenses by allowing the quarterback to make his reads during the play, not before. This has two important consequences. One is that you will rarely be in optimum position to stop the play. Because if you are, it means the opposing QB has failed to get the ball where it was supposed to be to take advantage of your location. Two, all of the presnap hoodoo in the world is basically useless. When you see Willie Martinez's defense standing stock still, don't be too surprised.

2) It will get its yards. An extension of the "rarely in optimum position rule" is that sometimes there's just not going to be anything you can do to stop this offense. It's designed to allow an astute quarterback, borrowing an old baseball axiom, to "run it where they ain't." Please do not hyperventilate when you see Dwyer and Roddy Jones break the occasional 15 yarder. The key is limiting the number of them. Holding Paul Johnson's offense under 200 rushing yards is a solid accomplishment. Keep telling yourself that.

3) It will put the ball on the ground. Especially with a young quarterback like Josh Nesbitt or Jaybo Shaw. The question is whether the defense can take advantage. North Carolina, Vrginia and Virginia Tech have each beaten the Yellow Jackets this season. Each forced three turnovers. I doubt seriously that this is a coincidence.

4) Blitzing it is a bad, bad idea. The first instinct of fans seeing a team defend the option is that you should attack. This is usually the worst thing you can do. Why? Because blitzing puts you upfield and out of position. Remember, the option is calculated to roll downhill fast and force defenders to make decisions on the fly. There's no quarterback scrambling aimlessly in the pocket. The offense will get to your personnel plenty fast enough. Blitz-heavy gameplans against the triple option mean that eventually somebody's gonna run right past their assignment. And when you're playing one-on-one assignment football, that means a touchdown. Remember this, ye acolytes of the "Willie Martinez never blitzes" faith. This is the one time we actually want Willie to dial it back.

5) The "A" and "B" gaps generally decide the ballgame. The first read the quarterback makes on most triple option running plays is whether or not to give the bal to his "A" back right up the middle on the option's version of the fullback dive. If everything went according to Hoyle in this offense, that play would be the offense. The line would drive the defensive tackles back and they would grind the opposition to a fine powder 5 yards at a time.

The only reason for the ball to ever move laterally in this offense is for the inside gaps to be unavailable. Flushing things outside allows a fast defense to catch up to the option, and it creates the need for the QB to pitch the ball, and potentially put it on the ground (see number 3 above). This means that Geno Atkins, Kade Weston, Deangelo Tyson, Corvey Irvin and Brandon Wood will be the most important guys on the field Saturday. I'm not saying that's a good or a bad thing. Just an existential reality to which you should accustom yourself. They will spend the day tackling the fullback on the dive whether he has the ball or not, and preventing Tech's mobile offensive line from getting back to the linebackers. Watching this personnel group in the early going should give you a decent idea of how this edition of Clean Old Fashioned Hate is going to go.

6) First down is the most important of all. If a decent triple option offense has 3rd and 4 or less, they will convert on a generous percentage of attempts. See Reality Number 2, above. The key to stopping this offense is to limit it to short gains on 1st down then play solid assignments on 2nd and 3rd. The triple option, like all offenses, will generally have trouble converting 3rd and 6 or longer. With the triple option you have the added problem that there's a limited passing arsenal. The goal should be to get them to 3rd and 7, give up 4 on the play, then get the heck off the field. Like so many other things in life, this is much more easily said than done.

Want to learn more? Try these sites:

Defending the Triple Option, by Nate Cochran, University of Wisconsin-Plattville

Football 101: Option Football, ESPN's Bob Davie

Until later . . .

Go 'Dawgs!!!

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Its very simple, in theory

Just stay in your lanes, do your best to make the QB hold the ball, and make the initial tackle. If the defense is in the right place, they have an advantage. If they don’t crash on the QB and stop him from being able to pitch the ball, they have a HUGE advantage. But sound tackling is the most important. If our defense can do a solid job of bringing down the runner on initial contact, we will win. Plain and simple. Now, each of these things concern me. We struggled with the first two against UK and the one time that Auburn ran any option-like subtance (why they didn’t try that more, I’ll never know). Our tackling has been a little on the shoddy side all season. The team just needs to play sound, smart assignment football in order to win. That is all.

by SG Standard on Nov 24, 2008 9:38 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Dead right SG,

it sounds like we agree that the problem this week is that the things which are absolutely essential to victory are the things we’ve shown a sporadic inability to accomplish. This game is starting to worry me a little, especially if our offensive line is not able to hold up. One positive is that GT appears to be pretty dinged up, especially on defense.

by MaconDawg on Nov 24, 2008 10:18 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Good post - minor correction

I like this post, but just wanted to point out the initial hand-off option is to the B-back (Dwyer) and the players lined up in the offset position outside the tackles are the A-backs (Jones and Cox).

I am worried defensively in that our best LB is hurt and most likely out and one of our best safeties is hurt. I worry more about the LB, because we are already week there and you guys have Knowshon. Cooper Taylor has filled in admirably at S.

It could be a shoot-out.

by JacketDan on Nov 24, 2008 10:59 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Thanks JacketDan . . .

I always get those backwards. I would also be worried about whether Jahi Word-Daniels is 100%, because I imagine we’ll be testing the corners early, especially if the defense shows some ability to handle the option offense.

by MaconDawg on Nov 24, 2008 11:09 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Nice analysis

You did a nice job on the analysis. Don’t worry about getting the A back and B back mixed up. It happens a lot. I think that if ya’ll limit the 3rd and shorts, ya’ll will be fine. It’s gonna be all about discipline.

I’m really scared about us stopping ya’ll’s offense. We have a young team in general, especially a young secondary. So I am curious to see how our young secondary handles Green and Massaquoi. We need to limit those guys as much as possible. Obviously, it’s very important to keep Moreno from having a big game.

It would be nice to see some of our questionables play in the game. Hopefully we can start up where we left off last thursday.

by dpearson6 on Nov 24, 2008 1:01 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

By the way, my A-Back, B-Back snafu . . .

is now fixed. And dpearson6 makes a good point. We will probably be attacking that young secondary early and often to take advantage of inexperienced guys missing assignments. That worries Tech fans, but only about as much as we Georgia fans are worried that Matt Stafford will throw ill advised picks. Which means, essentially, that we’re all worried senseless about somebody doing something stupid at sometime or another. Is this a great rivalry or what?

by MaconDawg on Nov 24, 2008 1:16 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

More Analysis

I don’t know Stafford’s numbers this year, as in how many picks he has or whatnot. I know we have 17 picks. We also have Morgan Burnett (#1), a great safety, so keep your eye on him if you’re worried about INT’s. If Stafford tries to go deep, I’m hoping Burnett will give our corners some help and maybe even give us the ball back. Our other safety, Cooper Taylor, is a true freshman, so it would be better for ya’ll to throw long balls his way (even though Burnett is only a sophomore).

The big thing that has killed us this year is short passes and dump-offs to RB’s. I think if ya’ll utilize that, then get us on the long ball every now and then, ya’ll should put up a good number of points on us.

Another key will be the battle between your offensive line against our defensive line. If our guys can’t get pressure on Stafford, and he gets forever to throw it, we could have a problem on our hands.

by dpearson6 on Nov 24, 2008 1:32 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Clean Old Fashioned Polite Discourse on Gridiron Strategy?

Wow…What a mutually gregarious exchange of pleasantries…

Personally, I am looking forward to sitting at a long table this Thursday and observing and participating in the annual smack-talk over turkey with my loving family (seating is arranged by alumni allegience down each side of the table in order of graduation, with a few exceptions to minimize food/fist fights which upsets my grandmother, UGA ’48)

And when it’s all over, I’ll get to see everyone at Christmas and say I told ya’ so.

Maybe we need to lose one to Tech, just so we can drop the pleasantries and get back to basics…I HATE Tech…Friggin Dirt Dobbers rolling around in the Jalopee of theirs…

Second thought…naaaahh…Dawgs win in dominant fashion, yet again…

Love you, Grandaddy and Uncle Michael, but your Dobbers are going down again!

Happy Holidays!!! Go Dawgs!!!!

by Got Knowshon? on Nov 24, 2008 1:47 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

It's funny how the level of discourse . . .

around here changes depending on who we’re playing. My excuse is that I play down to the level of our intellectual competition.

by MaconDawg on Nov 24, 2008 2:23 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I just like to. . .

analyze our games and see what other people think about the in’s and out’s of our matchup. I’m not cocky or anything when it comes to my Jackets, so I think it better to talk with people in this manner than to talk trash and say my team is going to win.

I have no problem with people who do the former, though.

by dpearson6 on Nov 24, 2008 4:18 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

You were fortunate . . .

to not be here two weeks ago before the Auburn game. “Trash talking” would be a terribly polite term for it.

by MaconDawg on Nov 24, 2008 4:48 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Ha i don't see. . .

what all they had to trash talk about. I like Auburn and all, but there wasn’t much hope for them that game.

by dpearson6 on Nov 24, 2008 5:22 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

One note about Auburn:

I can understand why you bear no animosity towards the Plainsmen now, dpearson6; since Georgia Tech left the S.E.C. (before either of us was born), some of the Yellow Jackets’ traditional rivalries have fallen by the wayside, particularly in the wake of the Ramblin’ Wreck’s joining the A.C.C.

Back in the day, though, the Auburn-Georgia Tech series was quite a rivalry. In fact, the Tigers’ meetings with the Atlantans were very nearly as much a fixed constant on the schedule as their showdowns with the Athenians: Auburn and Georgia Tech began playing one another in the early 1890s and they met every year but one from 1906 to 1987.

Legend has it that, in the late 19th century, on the night before the Golden Tornado was scheduled to play in the Loveliest Village, Auburn students sneaked out and greased the railroad tracks so the train carrying the Georgia Tech team would skid past its scheduled stop and force the Peach State players to hike back to town carrying their gear. The Plainsmen won handily, although they should not now wonder why so many of their rivals resisted for so long the prospect of playing at Auburn if those were the sorts of hijinks they considered acceptable.

When the two teams met in 2003, ESPN provided some background on the storied series. If you like Auburn, that’s your business, but, whereas I merely want Georgia to beat Georgia Tech when the in-state rivals play, I can’t stand Auburn, so I just wanted to point out an aspect of your heritage as a Yellow Jacket fan in an effort to persuade you that you should hate Auburn, too.

As for there not being much hope for the Plainsmen in their game against Georgia, they had a chance to win it on their final offensive play, so I’m not going to criticize them for their confidence, just for their tone. It’s a rivalry game, which means anything can happen. There have been a lot of Georgia-Georgia Tech games over the years where one team clearly was better than the other, yet the team with the lesser record managed to make a game of it to a greater degree than anticipated. Such is the nature of hate, clean, old-fashioned, and otherwise.

Go 'Dawgs!

by T Kyle King on Nov 24, 2008 8:16 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

My Grandaddy loved this one...The UGA Grandaddy that is...

A Gator alum, a Clemson alum and a GT alum all get arrested and are gonna go to the electric chair.

Now, in the state they were arrested, they had a “one-switch” rule stating that if they flip the switch and the chair don’t work or you were somehow tough enough to survive 50,000 volts, they had to set you free.

So the Gator goes first and they ask him if he has any last words…

“Go Gators!!!” he says…They flip the switch, nothing happens, so they let him go…

They get that Clemson boy up there and ask him the same question…

“Go Tigers!!!” he says… They flip the switch, nothing happens, so they let him go…

Then that Tech alum gets up there and they ask HIM if HE has any last words and he says:

“Yeah, you twist that blue wire n’ that yellow wire together, you oughta be able to get this sucker a’hummin’ again!”

Moral: Grandaddy says Techies are too smart for their own good n’ just never know when to shut up.

Go Dawgs!!!!

by Got Knowshon? on Nov 24, 2008 6:03 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I am educated on the. . .

Auburn-Georgia Tech history. I know that we used to play them every year. I am now bitter because we don’t. We now play them every now and then, two years in a row. We don’t play them again til 2017 and 2018, sadly enough. Then we can pick up on our two-game win streak, which was made possible by none other than Reggie Ball. I actually liked him then, winning the first Auburn game as a true freshman in his first game.

I actually heard about the whole greased wheels story about a month ago. I found that pretty funny and desperate.

The reason I kind of like Auburn, though, is because one of my best friends goes there. There’s a lot of SEC teams that I don’t care for (cough cough, Georgia), so I find myself rooting for them whenever they have conference games. Although some of the time I do find myself rooting for them to fail miserably, so I guess that’s a hint of the rivalry in me. Now when Tech plays Auburn, all those good feelings go out the window. They become that hated rival.

I guess I don’t hate Auburn because I was never around when that whole rivalry was going on, so I don’t feel any of that hate inside me really.

I wish Tech had more rivalries to indulge in. The only one we really have to look forward to other than UGA is FSU, and we just did get to play them this year for the first time since the new teams joined the ACC I think.

That said, I can’t wait for the games saturday. I’ve got two teams to root for.

by dpearson6 on Nov 24, 2008 8:37 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

There's an interesting sort . . .

of parallel between Tech/Auburn and Georgia/Clemson. Both are regional rivalries that have lot some of their starch with expanded conference schedules. Maybe we should have some sort of “ACC/SEC challenge” every year to facilitate these historic matchups.

On second thought, I just don’t know if I could take the Duke/Vanderbilt-NC State/Kentucky doubleheader every year. Forget that proposal.

by MaconDawg on Nov 25, 2008 9:17 AM EST reply actions 0 recs