WVU football’s defense focusing on fixing contain ahead of matchup with U.T. Martin
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MORGANTOWN -- Rich Rodriguez said he doesn't give much input on West Virginia's defense. Defensive coordinator Zac Alley calls the plays and handles pretty much everything. Rodriguez rarely interjects, and while the defense is on the field, he's speaking with quarterback coach Rhett Rodriguez, scheming up the next offensive series.
During the Mountaineers Week 1 game against Coastal Carolina, Rodriguez couldn't help himself. The defense would break through the offensive line into the backfield, but would get too far up field, and Chanticleers quarterback Deuce Bailey would scramble outside the pocket. He'd either throw for a first down or pick up the first on the ground.
Rodriguez ran down the sideline.
"Contain," Rodriguez yelled.
Bailey led Coastal Carolina to a 24-point comeback in the second half, which came up a touchdown short, and he threw for 373 yards and three touchdowns. And most of that came when he rolled outside of the pocket.
"If I yelled contain one more time, my head would explode," Rodriguez said. "I think I was yelling it for three quarters."
Alley's defense had no issue creating pressure. Alley said about 40 times WVU pressured Bailey, and the defense racked up five sacks and had three quarterback hurries. The issue was what to do in the backfield. The defenders were losing containment and weren't disciplined, which allowed Bailey to run around them and extend the play.
It creates a trickle-down effect, too. When the quarterback extends the play, it leaves the secondary vulnerable, having to stay in protection longer. In the fourth quarter, down 10 points, Bailey was dead in the water, but he managed to scramble out of the pocket and hit a wide-open Jaden Allen-Hendrix for 33 yards. Coastal Carolina hit a field goal to make the 24-point lead to just seven.
Making sure the defense keeps containment is one of the top priorities this week in practice, and they'll hear the word containment, meaning flushing the quarterback inside, a lot.
Fixing it is a lot easier said than done. It's human nature to see an easy path and take it. But if that path brings you out of your zone, it's easy for the quarterback to scramble around.
"It's, for sure, difficult to make sure you contain," defensive tackle Corey McIntyre Jr. said. "But you just got to remember to do your job always, and help everybody that's behind you basically. Because if you don't do your job, then you're messing everybody else up."
It's especially hard after a long game of staying disciplined. Eventually, there's the thought of trying to make a play. Complacency is part of the problem, according to Alley.
"'This time I'm going to make a play.' You're not going to make a play if you don't do it within the structure of the defense," Alley said. "I think stressing that."
Alley plans to have the scout team quarterback scramble more, which shouldn't be too hard since all the quarterbacks on the roster are mobile. Alley said repetition this week should fix the problem.
Containment is an issue that needs to be fixed quickly because there are a lot of scrambling quarterbacks coming up. This weekend against U.T. Martin, WVU shouldn't have an issue because its quarterback doesn't move around as much. But WVU heads to Charlotte to play No. 25 Virginia in Week 3. The Cavaliers have quarterback Beau Pribula, who is a scrambler. He carried the ball 15 times for 110 yards in Virginia's season-opening win against N.C. State.
Containment will be crucial if the Mountaineers want to pull off the upset.
"You can’t let a guy that’s that dangerous extend plays and break contain that much," Rodriguez said. "We obviously got to learn our lesson from that standpoint because we’re going to play some mobile quarterback, and they’ll make you look silly like he did at times during that game."