Video: Urban Meyer draws up, and breaks down, the perfect offensive play
If you're anything like me, the headline of Urban Meyer breaking down and drawing up "the perfect offensive play" is how I wish I could start every Monday morning from this moment forward.
A week or so ago now, Nick Saban shared that the old adage that "good defense can beat good offense" is no longer true.
"Good defense doesn't beat good offense anymore," Saban shared with ESPN. "It's just like last week. Georgia has as good a defense as we do an offense, and we scored 41 points on them. That's not the way it used to be. It used to be if you had a good defense, other people weren't going to score. You were always going to be in the game."
"I'm telling you. It ain't that way anymore."
As an offensive-minded head coach, I tend to agree with Saban's thoughts there, and feel like the football landscape (especially at the college and high school level) have shifted toward the offense the last 8 years or so.
Over the weekend, before Michigan lost to Michigan State, the Big Ten Network aired a segment with Meyer and Gerry DiNardo where Urban answers the question - "What does the 'Perfect Play' look like?"
The segments opens with DiNardo mentioning Saban's comments.
"The concepts of the spread are this. Number one, it's a game of numbers - don't run the football into unblocked defenders. Number two, it's about leverage. Don't fight leverage. Football is about leverage," Urban opens by saying.
"It's also about the perfect play. The perfect play means that there are multiple concepts within that play. It's a run play, but you can throw a screen, that's called a relief. It's a run play, but we can throw it downfield off of a defender, that's called an RPO. Or, if they give you numbers, you can run. The added element of a quarterback that can run the ball, now - I've heard defensive coaches say that you're playing with 11 and a half people."
Meyer then turns to the big screen where Michigan is in a 12 personnel set with a tight end and wing to the boundary and two receivers to the field against Minnesota. The running back goes to motion to the field, and Urban dives into breaking down the options that Wolverines quarterback Joe Milton has on the play.
"The only way you stop this play, and I would yell this at our players, is if someone misses a block. If perfectly executed, you cannot stop this play."
See the full break down of the play in the clip.
It's not often that Urban is slinging compliments of any kind up toward Ann Arbor, so you know this is a really nice play design by Josh Gattis and the Wolverines offensive staff and having Urban break it down is why coaches love that he has joined the analyst side of things.
