Screened

I, for one, do not think it takes an offensive genius to assume what the game plan against Georgia’s defense will be this week.

Remember all those screens and hitches that Kent State was hitting Georgia with Saturday? Hard to forget, right?

Now imagine them being called for Luther Burden. He’s Missouri’s five-star freshman wide receiver who spurned defending national champion Georgia to play for his nearby university. But he’s not even the Tigers’ main threat. That would be Dominic Lovett, a 5-foot-10 flanker who has 21 catches, leads the SEC with 376 receiving yards and is averaging 18 yards every time he touches the ball.

No, Missouri is not the great offensive juggernaut it has been in the past. But thanks to Kent State, the rest of college football now knows where the soft underbelly of the mighty Bulldogs defense is located.

It’s in the screen game.

That happens to be where Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz has earned his offensive reputation. Drinkwitz has conducted coaching clinics on a special breed of plays he calls “run constraints.” They’re actually not runs but quick-timed passes his offenses use to ensure that opponents can’t load up against their run game.

Now, “offensive reputation” may be doing a little heavy lifting there.  Missouri is currently twelfth in the conference in passer rating, so a passing juggernaut the Tigers aren’t exactly.  But it would be borderline coaching malpractice not to take note of plays like this…

TOUCHDOWN KENT STATE

The Golden Flashes (+44.5) make it 12-10 vs #1 Georgia https://t.co/o2fjQ1qLQf

— Barstool Gambling (@stoolgambling) September 24, 2022

… and not attempt to probe Georgia’s coverage in a similar way.

“We mis-fit one of them, the one really explosive one,” said Smart, referring to a 56-yard touchdown play by Devontez Walker on a simple wide receiver screen on the left sideline. “We just mis-fit it. Kid didn’t get outside leverage.”

That “kid” was sophomore cornerback Kamari Lassiter, a first-year starter. He and safety Christopher Smith were left alone outside the numbers against two Kent State receivers. A play-action fake to Cooper inside kept Georgia’s linebackers at home, Lassiter was defeated by a blocker, and the senior Smith was left to make a one-on-one, open-field tackle.

Smith never even got to try.

Designed for the cornerback to take “outside leverage,” meaning get to the boundary to turn the play inside, Lassiter never made it. And Smith took an early, overaggressive line to the inside. Catching the ball 2 yards behind the line of scrimmage, the fleet-footed Walker was left with nothing but green grass to negotiate. No Georgia defenders were in position to run him down.

“Football 101,” Smart sighed. “You turn the ball back into your defense, and if you don’t, you get outflanked. Didn’t do a good job of doing that. And the safety (Smith) was expecting him to come back inside, and he went outside, and it made for a big play. So, that was a good job by them, poor job by us.”

That wasn’t the only screen pass misplayed by Georgia defenders.  I’ve got the feeling I know what they’ll be working hard on in practice this week.

The good news is that this won’t be the coaches’ first rodeo.  ‘Bama killed the Dawgs defense with that trip formation/screen pass call in the SECCG.  It wasn’t nearly as successful in the rematch a month later.