Bonus Film Review: A Second Look at Defensive Gap Fits

I found another example of poor gap fits with a linebacker's perspective. Watch the outside zone Purdue ran in the second half. 1:05:31 on the embedded video.

So on this run, let's walk through what the linebacker is keying. APR sets the edge in a force posture, inside shoulder engaged, outside shoulder free to prevent the back from bouncing outside. Jenkins is also out wide as the alley defender, and he came up from a wide angle to force the runner. So, Tisdale, knowing Jenkins is in force and APR takes on the block in force, so he should be fitting based on Pollard's movement at defensive tackle. If Tisdale fit into the tiny little space between Pollard and APR and Mockobee cuts back, ok... The biggest soft spot is the A gap between Pollard and Fuga. In my assessment, that should be the fit, and if I am wrong, that means Fuga has to make this play. He doesn't, and there is a big run.

The stats can lie. This isn't good defense, especially in a gap scheme system. I hope the staff doesn't look at good luck and mistake it for good execution. There is a ton of room for improvement.