Sometimes you need to tip your cap to the opposing coach. In this case, Paul Chryst came up with an excellent game plan against the Buckeyes. It almost lead his team to an upset victory over Ohio State.  Here is a quick look at his Jet Sweep. It was just one of the excellent plays used against the Buckeyes.

If you are familiar with the Wing-T offense, then you are familiar with the jet sweep. For those of you who wish to learn more, you can check out this site: bucksweep.com.  

The situation facing coach Chryst was such: he did not have the same talent and speed that Ohio State possesses.  He needed to emphasize a series of plays that would help his team move the ball with lesser talent...enter the jet sweep.

Here is a play early in the second quarter.  The only player on Wisconsin's roster with any true speed is #11 Jazz Peavy. Watch the blocking during the play. Wisconsin blocks almost no one on the play.  The jet sweep is designed to allow success with the minimum number of blocks required. In reality, Wisconsin only blocks one Ohio State player on the play, #35 Chris Worley, with a cut block. 

Did you notice that almost none of the defensive linemen are blocked? All by design and good enough for a 20 yard gain. Nice work if you can get it.

So how did Ohio State eventually stop this play? Well, instead of requiring the CB to run across the field and chase Peavy, they rotated their CB and Safety to the motion side like below. Notice that instead of Lattimore chasing Peavy across the formation, he moves back to the safety position so that Malik Hooker can attack the motion side of the play.

To you purists out there...this isn't exactly the same formation and circumstances. This play is run into the boundary while the previous play was run to the wide side of the field. But this play easily shows the adjustment the Buckeyes made.

Unfortunately, the damage had already been done by this point in the game. What I mean by that is the jet motion will impact plays for the entire game...even when Peavy doesn't get the ball.

Below is an inside run off jet sweep motion series of plays. By alignment, #17 Jerome Baker should have B gap responsibility. If you watch closely, you will see Baker makes a small, but false, step to the outside because of the jet sweep motion. This mistake is just enough to allow #81 Fumagalli to get inside position on Baker from his wing alignment and execute a good block. In essence, the jet sweeps from earlier in the game had an impact on this play which was run very late in the game.

Finally, for those of you who were wondering what happened to Raekwon McMillian during the game, be sure to watch this play closely. It is difficult to make tackles when your own players are pushed into your lap. If you watch the film, on just about every successful Wisconsin running play, something like this is happening to some interior lineman. Unfortunately, it is not the same person each time and, quite frankly, I find it alarming.