Jamming Receivers Came From Different Flavors
October 06, 2021 | Football, #ForBoston Files
BC's defense was elite against Clemson thanks to a smothering press coverage.
It was a Sunday afternoon, but Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley still bristled at his team's 19-13 loss to Clemson from Saturday night. A late-night flight home from Death Valley didn't totally alleviate his chafing, and the fires lit by the disappointment of another near-miss against the Tigers still burned in his voice and on his face.
"It was a long night," Hafley said, "and most of us didn't sleep very well. You go into Death Valley and have the ball at the 11-yard line at the end of the game [to take a lead], and [we] couldn't get it done. You just kind of replay everything. I know I said it [on Saturday night], but I'm proud of the [team's] fight. We have a special group [and] a special group of coaches."
It stung, but Hafley drew a clear emotional dichotomy between the defeat and the way his team performed. He very clearly harbored an amount of pride for BC, and he knew his Eagles were the better team on Saturday night. The defense in particular was spectacular over all four quarters, and the overall output by the team silenced Memorial Stadium. Clemson had been favored to dominate, but the Tigers instead clung to a win that wasn't enough to keep them ranked.
Quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei was stuck in the mud for the entire night, and his 207 yards on 13-of-28 passing lacked the explosiveness from his first career start against BC last year. He threw a 54-yard pass to Joseph Ngata, but he didn't throw a touchdown and stalled twice into field goals in the BC red zone. The only time his offense broke a touchdown was when running back Kobe Pace exploded for a 59-yard run.
The Tigers finished with more than 430 yards of total offense, but the damage felt limited. Four drives ended in field goals, and Clemson needed two 40-plus yard field goals from B.T. Potter to post the marginal difference on the scoreboard. Punter Will Spiers felt like the most active Tiger, and he booted five different kicks, including one that was launched 55 yards downfield.
"The defense was lights out," Hafley said. "Against that team, 3-of-14 on third down, the goal line stand inside the six to hold them to a field goal - [Clemson] could barely move the ball. They got the ball inside the 30 yard line, and we held them to a field goal. We stopped them on 3rd-and-1, then stopped them in a four-minute situation. They had the long run early where we kind of busted, but they made a nice play and scored, so all credit to [Clemson]. But after that, how hard the defense played, the corners were outstanding."
BC didn't record an interception, but the trio of Jason Maitre, Jaiden Lars-Woodbey and Josh DeBerry all recorded five tackles. They finished slightly behind safety-turned-linebacker Kam Arnold, and Maitre later added a key sack that forced the final Spiers punt prior to Boston College's fourth quarter drive.
"I told him to start deep and walk down to get the quarterback because I felt like the quarterback was going to keep the ball in that situation," Hafley said after the game. "I made that mistake last year, and I learned from it; now that was me telling him that and he actually had to go make a great play, so he gets all the credit. He gave us a chance with the rest of the defense to win the game at the end."
It marked a second consecutive week where a defender made a key play in a huge spot, but the style points were different from Brandon Sebastian's interception against Missouri because Maitre's sack required several different pieces of the BC defense after Clemson ran into the thick of the front on first and second down.
The Tigers had used different formations to slice seven yards off the down markers before bunching the line on 3rd-and-3. Uiagalelei was in a pistol/shotgun snap, but the bunched line indicated a run up the middle for a game-clinching first. Maitre, however, snuck back off the line as the hole opened for the play action and attacked through whatever was left of the pocket as the quarterback rolled to his right.
He was left isolated against Uiagalelei and tackled him to the ground for a significant loss, but the quarterback also had nowhere to throw as he rolled to his right after BC dropped into coverage. Both Lars-Woodbey and Vinny DePalma were in coverage, and both cornerbacks removed options out on the corner by playing up to the line of scrimmage.
That type of man coverage forced the targets to run outside of their intended routes, and it physically imposed a misdirection on the passing lane. Clemson's receivers couldn't open themselves up as a result, and BC minimized its risk by having Maitre attack the backfield. The coverage was also something the Eagles had done all game long, especially on the outside with both Sebastian and Elijah Jones.
"It's the way we practice against our own offense," Hafley said. "We do a bunch of seven-on-seven and one-on-ones each week, and we felt like they were getting better to the point where we felt confident or we could be more aggressive. Looking back at the game from last year, I was angry at myself for not being more aggressive with their wideouts."
The isolation taught those defensive backs how to play in a phone booth against stronger, more athletic receivers, and they battered Clemson by jamming the line of scrimmage with their hands. Sebastian, Jones and Josh DeBerry all perfected the art of slamming the receivers' chests, and it disrupted the offense enough to allow the front seven to do its thing while the linebackers covered underneath routes and checkdowns.
"They kept hitting quick access, easy throws on us [last year]," said Hafley, "and I wasn't going to coach that way again in this game. So I challenged them, and Coach Aazaar [Abdul-Rahim] did an unbelievable job of getting them ready. Both Brandon and Eli played lights out. There was no separation from those wideouts. They finished violent and played with great technique. The third down stops, they did a great job. Those two deserved a lot of credit for how they played in the game, and the coaches did a great job preparing them."
BC dominated defensively, and despite the yardage, Clemson couldn't manage a whole lot of anything over the four quarters. Two plays accounted for almost a quarter of the total output and prevented the Tigers from ever pulling away. It put the team into a position to win, and although the Eagles didn't walk out of Death Valley with the victory, it offered a building block on Sunday as the team's bye week began.
"It was a long night," Hafley said, "and most of us didn't sleep very well. You go into Death Valley and have the ball at the 11-yard line at the end of the game [to take a lead], and [we] couldn't get it done. You just kind of replay everything. I know I said it [on Saturday night], but I'm proud of the [team's] fight. We have a special group [and] a special group of coaches."
It stung, but Hafley drew a clear emotional dichotomy between the defeat and the way his team performed. He very clearly harbored an amount of pride for BC, and he knew his Eagles were the better team on Saturday night. The defense in particular was spectacular over all four quarters, and the overall output by the team silenced Memorial Stadium. Clemson had been favored to dominate, but the Tigers instead clung to a win that wasn't enough to keep them ranked.
Quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei was stuck in the mud for the entire night, and his 207 yards on 13-of-28 passing lacked the explosiveness from his first career start against BC last year. He threw a 54-yard pass to Joseph Ngata, but he didn't throw a touchdown and stalled twice into field goals in the BC red zone. The only time his offense broke a touchdown was when running back Kobe Pace exploded for a 59-yard run.
The Tigers finished with more than 430 yards of total offense, but the damage felt limited. Four drives ended in field goals, and Clemson needed two 40-plus yard field goals from B.T. Potter to post the marginal difference on the scoreboard. Punter Will Spiers felt like the most active Tiger, and he booted five different kicks, including one that was launched 55 yards downfield.
"The defense was lights out," Hafley said. "Against that team, 3-of-14 on third down, the goal line stand inside the six to hold them to a field goal - [Clemson] could barely move the ball. They got the ball inside the 30 yard line, and we held them to a field goal. We stopped them on 3rd-and-1, then stopped them in a four-minute situation. They had the long run early where we kind of busted, but they made a nice play and scored, so all credit to [Clemson]. But after that, how hard the defense played, the corners were outstanding."
BC didn't record an interception, but the trio of Jason Maitre, Jaiden Lars-Woodbey and Josh DeBerry all recorded five tackles. They finished slightly behind safety-turned-linebacker Kam Arnold, and Maitre later added a key sack that forced the final Spiers punt prior to Boston College's fourth quarter drive.
"I told him to start deep and walk down to get the quarterback because I felt like the quarterback was going to keep the ball in that situation," Hafley said after the game. "I made that mistake last year, and I learned from it; now that was me telling him that and he actually had to go make a great play, so he gets all the credit. He gave us a chance with the rest of the defense to win the game at the end."
It marked a second consecutive week where a defender made a key play in a huge spot, but the style points were different from Brandon Sebastian's interception against Missouri because Maitre's sack required several different pieces of the BC defense after Clemson ran into the thick of the front on first and second down.
The Tigers had used different formations to slice seven yards off the down markers before bunching the line on 3rd-and-3. Uiagalelei was in a pistol/shotgun snap, but the bunched line indicated a run up the middle for a game-clinching first. Maitre, however, snuck back off the line as the hole opened for the play action and attacked through whatever was left of the pocket as the quarterback rolled to his right.
He was left isolated against Uiagalelei and tackled him to the ground for a significant loss, but the quarterback also had nowhere to throw as he rolled to his right after BC dropped into coverage. Both Lars-Woodbey and Vinny DePalma were in coverage, and both cornerbacks removed options out on the corner by playing up to the line of scrimmage.
That type of man coverage forced the targets to run outside of their intended routes, and it physically imposed a misdirection on the passing lane. Clemson's receivers couldn't open themselves up as a result, and BC minimized its risk by having Maitre attack the backfield. The coverage was also something the Eagles had done all game long, especially on the outside with both Sebastian and Elijah Jones.
"It's the way we practice against our own offense," Hafley said. "We do a bunch of seven-on-seven and one-on-ones each week, and we felt like they were getting better to the point where we felt confident or we could be more aggressive. Looking back at the game from last year, I was angry at myself for not being more aggressive with their wideouts."
The isolation taught those defensive backs how to play in a phone booth against stronger, more athletic receivers, and they battered Clemson by jamming the line of scrimmage with their hands. Sebastian, Jones and Josh DeBerry all perfected the art of slamming the receivers' chests, and it disrupted the offense enough to allow the front seven to do its thing while the linebackers covered underneath routes and checkdowns.
"They kept hitting quick access, easy throws on us [last year]," said Hafley, "and I wasn't going to coach that way again in this game. So I challenged them, and Coach Aazaar [Abdul-Rahim] did an unbelievable job of getting them ready. Both Brandon and Eli played lights out. There was no separation from those wideouts. They finished violent and played with great technique. The third down stops, they did a great job. Those two deserved a lot of credit for how they played in the game, and the coaches did a great job preparing them."
BC dominated defensively, and despite the yardage, Clemson couldn't manage a whole lot of anything over the four quarters. Two plays accounted for almost a quarter of the total output and prevented the Tigers from ever pulling away. It put the team into a position to win, and although the Eagles didn't walk out of Death Valley with the victory, it offered a building block on Sunday as the team's bye week began.
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