Zeitler: Defense can build upon strong performance against Akron
Central Michigan defensive end Sean Adesanya celebrates after recording his second sack against Akron Sept. 14 at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
I was impressed by the Central Michigan football team’s performance in its 45-24 home victory over Akron on Sept. 14.
The Chippewas controlled play from wire to wire, stringing together drives that marched down the field efficiently on offense while the defense limited Kato Nelson, the Zips’ dangerous junior quarterback.
In the aftermath of the win, there was plenty of praise to go around for the offensive production, and rightfully so. New starters David Moore and Kobe Lewis put up great numbers in the backfield, the receivers and tight ends had a big day, and the offensive line did a fantastic job of warding off Akron’s defensive front.
However, we would be remiss to recognize the radical improvement seen on the defensive side of the ball within only one week.
On Sept. 7, the Chippewas were gouged for 599 total yards at Camp Randall Stadium against the No. 13 Wisconsin Badgers and generally looked overwhelmed on defense.
CMU was eager to move on from the 61-0 drubbing and set out to prove themselves against the Zips.
"I'm just looking forward to getting that taste out of our mouth from last week,” head coach Jim McElwain said two days before facing Akron.
I’d say the Chippewas did a good job of getting that taste washed out of their system. For the majority of the game, the Zips struggled to get any momentum going on offense.
Senior linebacker Michael Oliver ensured his defense made a statement from the get-go. After being voted a captain for the Akron game, Oliver had a request for McElwain.
“Last night at the team dinner, I had a conversation with coach and told him, ‘Let’s go defense first if we win the coin toss,” Oliver said. “I wanted to go out there and send a message early and let them know we’re not the same team from last week.”
CMU won the coin flip and, honoring Oliver’s request, chose to defer and trust the defense to get the job done on Akron’s first drive.
And they delivered. The Zips managed to gain 7 yards on 5 plays and punted after sustaining their drive for a mere two minutes and five seconds.
Throughout the game, Akron controlled the ball for longer than CMU and ran ten more plays, but had only 329 total yards in comparison to the Chippewas’ 533. That’s a testament to the consistent effort put forth by the CMU defense, be it tackling the Akron running backs near the line of scrimmage or penetrating the pocket on passing plays and sacking Nelson for a loss.
The Chippewas sacked the Zips’ star quarterback six times on the afternoon, a direct result of mixing up the defensive alignment to throw Nelson off his game.
“We felt we needed to do some different looks just to make him hesitate,” McElwain said of Nelson. “Whenever he knows exactly where he’s going, he’s really good.”
From what I saw in the games against Albany and Wisconsin, CMU’s base defense was a 4-3-4. That means four men were rushing the quarterback from the line of scrimmage (two defensive tackles and two defensive ends), three men were playing linebacker (a stong-side, a weak-side, and a middle) and four men were defensive backs (two corners, a strong safety and a free safety).
When the defense took the field for the first time against Nelson and the Zips, a linebacker was pulled and replaced by an extra defensive back, who played a “rover” position and covered short passes on the strong side – the side of the ball considered a bigger threat on a given play. In this regard, the 4-3-4 defense was converted to a 4-2-5.
With this new look on defense, CMU challenged Akron to use their run game to gain yards. Otherwise, Nelson would have an extra defensive back to worry about when he dropped back to pass.
The Zips, who came into the game with a poor running game, tried their best to run the ball early.
It didn’t work. On the afternoon, Akron ran 29 times for a total of 47 yards – less than two yards per carry.
So then the Zips fell back to their comfort zone with the passing game, and CMU was ready for it.
Last week, I came down on the cornerbacks hard. They struggled a lot in the first two games of the season.
But against Akron, the play of the defensive backs was, for the most part, really good. True freshman Kyron McKinnie-Harper and sophomore Darius Bracy took over the starting duties this week, and there was a noticeable improvement at the corner position.
I was pleasantly surprised to see the Chippewas locking down Akron’s talented receiving corps for most of the game, and the tight coverage paid off for the players in the trenches, who sacked Nelson six times because he had no one to throw the ball to.
“Our rush lanes were pretty good at times, and we stayed in coverage,” McElwain said. “That’s the one thing: he extends, and for the most part our secondary guys stayed in coverage until he did break the line of scrimmage.”
The Chippewas used a variety of different looks on defense to keep the Zips on their toes. For example, on the lone interception thrown in the game, senior defensive end Sean Adesanya switched it up on Nelson and sprinted out to cover a short route on the left sideline instead of trying to bully his way to a sack.
Nelson never saw it coming and threw the ball directly to Adesanya, who promptly returned it 49 yards to the CMU 5-yard-line in a huge swing of momentum.
Despite the Chippewas’ success on the defensive side of the ball against the Zips, both Oliver and McElwain stressed that there’s plenty to improve upon.
Oliver promised that we will see a more consistent defense in future weeks, while McElwain wants to see his guys stick to their techniques to get more tackles in the backfield.
“I thought we should’ve had a couple (more sacks) if we stay on the upfield shoulder,” McElwain said. “I mean, those are the disciplined, detailed things that drive me crazy as a coach.”
I agree with those two. While there were a handful of lapses defensively in the game, the unit looked much more confident and clean in their assignments, a positive change from the Wisconsin and Albany games.
Let’s see if that trend continues.
