Brandon Harris tells Florida to talk to the hand cuz the face don’t give a damn – Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Film Room Looks at Brandon Harris’ game against the Florida Gators.
Previous games in this series: MSU, Auburn, Syracuse, EMU, South Carolina
8:25 1st Quarter, 3rd & 5 on the Florida 49 –
LSU is running an interesting screen pass where Dural is going to come in motion and then reverse back to become the screen guy. As we’ve broken down LSU’s offense thus far we’ve seen how different teams teach their backside players to deal with bootlegs and zone runs. Watch No. 14 on Florida do what’s called a PUP technique and then be able to shake off his block and make a play. So far this season we’ve seen some teams chase the running back (EMU) and some teams chase the QB (South Carolina) but I feel like this is the best technique to handle these type of plays. Still, Dural has to come up with the catch because he can probably turn the corner and pick up a few yards.
2:32 1st Quarter, 1st & 10 on the LSU 12 –
Another boot for LSU and you’ll notice No. 20 for Florida playing that same PUP technique before diagnosing that Harris still has the ball and attacking him. This means that Harris doesn’t have time to go through a progression. He’s still able to dump the ball to Gordon accurately.
0:48 1st Quarter, 2nd & 6 on the LSU 34 –
The progression on this play is, first, the tight end, Jeter, and then outwards from there. Jeter is taken away by the middle of the field safety. Even though the linebacker is in pretty good coverage, against split safeties you can find a way to get the ball in there over the backer. Harris, then, works to the next receiver, Dupre. Harris doesn’t like that the outside linebacker is walling off anything coming in which denies Dupre a free passage to the inside of the field. Finally, because that outside linebacker walled and then stuck with Dupre, it gave a window for Dural to get into. Good play by Harris to stay in the pocket and eventually find someone. Not often do we talk about Harris getting to his third read in a progression so kudos to him here.
0:13 1st Quarter, 1st & 10 on the LSU 48 –
Harris hits Dural on the crossing route when the Florida safety, who had crept up pre-snap, gets enough depth to take away Dupre on the deep route. Harris has a lot of time in the pocket and he makes the right read although the ball could be a little more outside.
15:00 2nd Quarter, 1st & 10 on the Florida 34 –
Florida is playing a lot of one-high safety coverages so that they can stop LSU’s rushing attack. When you play these coverages, often, you’re going to have to play with soft corners. What do soft corners get thrown at them? Comebacks. Here’s Harris missing Dural wildly on a sideline comeback route where Dural is wide open.
14:05 2nd Quarter, 3rd & 8 on the Florida 31 –
More man coverage from Florida off their blitz. Once Harris realizes he can’t make a play over the top to Dupre because of the deep safety, he comes down to hit Dural on the mid-level crossing route. There are two linebackers that could be patrolling the underneath middle of the field but since Florida is in man, they are staring at the two RB’s and end up in no mans land. There are a couple things you can do when you’re in man coverage with a backfield player and that player doesn’t go out for a pass, this is not the best idea. Usually you’ll see teams blitz that player or actually drop back into a zone, Florida does neither here.
10:12 2nd Quarter, 1st & 10 on the LSU 33 –
Unfortunately, we don’t get the replay to show exactly which concept LSU is running here. The Florida cornerback runs with Dural on his pre-snap motion suggesting that Florida is playing man but then at the snap you can kind of see some of the defenders dropping into zone. Either way, Harris takes his time and throws to his checkdown and Dural gets a few yards.
7:00 2nd Quarter, 3rd & 6 on the Florida 30 –
Nothing to say about Harris on this play but I like the design of this screen pass. LSU really made it look like a regular drop back pass before releasing for the screen. Also, the middle screen aspect of it can confuse a defense. Defenses will talk about which defensive player has PEEL technique when a back swings or bubbles out of the backfield meaning which player will pick him up in coverage. All of a sudden you run a middle screen and it can confuse the defensive assignments (not that it did here, but it’s something to think about).
5:07 2nd Quarter, 3rd & 5 on the Florida 9 –
This might be my favorite pass by Harris this season. He’s reading if someone drops into the deep corner of the endzone which would take away his corner route to Dupre. When no one does, he knows he can put the ball to a spot and has to trust that his receiver will get there. Also, a great adjustment by Dupre to find the ball.
2:52 2nd Quarter, 1st & 10 on the LSU 42 –
Again, Florida is playing with one safety. The flea flicker action get the safety to come down and Harris throws it over the top to Dupre for a big play. You may be wondering why the safety jumps down when Dupre is basically running at him. A lot of teams tell their receivers not to block the cornerback in front of them because teams would rather leave a cornerback unblocked than a safety. The safety, on this play, may be thinking Dupre is coming to block him and that’s why he stepped up.
0:35 2nd Quarter, 2nd & 13 on the LSU 46 –
Interesting decision to call a screen pass in this situation. Harris looks off before coming back to Dupre for a minimal gain. It’s possible he was reading the amount of defenders who ran to the RB screen on the bottom of the screen before coming back to the WR tunnel screen.
:27 2nd Quarter, 3rd & 9 on the LSU 49 –
lol.
13:29 3rd Quarter, 3rd & 14 on the LSU 21 –
There’s no replay on this one. I think Florida is in a split safety coverage meaning that the dig or post route by Diarse is gonna be the area where you wanna throw the ball. It’s not an easy throw considering the linebacker is in a trail position under Diarse and both safeties end up squeezing it. Diarse actually frees himself from the linebacker but the ball has to be thrown a little quicker. I’ve written about throwing seams on time and this is the same thing. Harris gives time for the safety come over the top and kind of make a play.
7:22 3rd Quarter, 2nd & 6 on the LSU 28 –
Here’s where Harris gets himself in trouble. How many times have we seen him just throw the ball up to a receiver down the sideline who covered well. Hargreaves should have picked this off.
7:13 3rd Quarter, 3rd & 6 on the LSU 28 –
No replay. Harris stayed in the pocket as long as he could. Tried to make a play. Couldn’t see the route concept.
1:47 3rd Quarter, 3rd & 5 on the LSU 20 –
Again, no replay. I guess good on Harris to get to his checkdown but I can’t tell if anyone was open down the field.
13:44 4th Quarter, 3rd & 5 on the Florida 46 –
LSU is running their triple slants concept. Florida is in a split safety coverage meaning the linebacker who is inside of the third receiver has to protect the middle of the field first which opens up the second slant to Dural against an off nickelback.
11:33 4th Quarter, 2nd & 8 on the Florida 11 –
Fade route against a press corner. Pretty good ball placement by Harris but it’s really good coverage by 31 of Florida.