Trick or Treat Quarterbacks: Taylor Martinez and Denard Robinson

Early in the Michigan-Northwestern game Saturday, following an opening drive of eight plays covering 74 yards, Denard Robinson drifted right in the pocket after a run fake.  

With a defensive lineman breaking a block and shooting through the middle of the pocket, Robinson unleashed a long throw down the seam to Junior Hemingway, a near carbon copy of the throw that set the Wolverines up in scoring position on the first drive.

This time it didn't end so well.  Instead of giving Hemingway a manageable jump ball over top of single coverage, Robinson air-mailed the throw five yards too long and right into the hands of a Northwestern safety in a deep middle zone.

A long return later, Northwestern was set up for its second score of the game en route to a 24-14 halftime lead.  Robinson would go on to throw two more interceptions in an ugly half of football.

For fans of Nebraska and Michigan, this kind of story is all too familiar this year.  The two teams employ deadly athletes as quarterbacks, and while each is capable of making exceptional plays in both the passing and the running game, they are equally likely to cost their team dearly with a bad read or turnover.

While Robinson was able to come out in the second half and clean up his passing, converting on seven of his eight second-half passes for over 150 yards, Martinez wasn't so lucky two weeks ago against Wisconsin.

Early on against the Badgers, Martinez looked every bit the confident second-year starter that he had shown in earlier games against lesser opposition.  He connected on a few nice passes, and the combination of Martinez and Rex Burkhead was moving the ball well against the stout Wisconsin defense on the way to a 14-7 lead.

After a touchdown and missed extra-point sequence that pulled the Badgers within one, the teams exchanged three-and-outs.  Once Nebraska got the ball back, it was quickly forced into a third-and-long situation.

Martinez dropped back to pass and looked to the right.  In doing so, he lost track of Wisconsin linebacker Mike Taylor dropping into a short zone underneath.  Martinez made the throw right into the hands of the waiting linebacker, setting Russell Wilson and the Wisconsin offense up for its first of two passing touchdowns.

Martinez followed that drive up with another interception, leading to a second Badger passing touchdown.  One more pick on the first play of the second half was merely academic.  The game was already well in hand for the Badgers.

Both Robinson and Martinez have shown an ability to make big plays in the passing game at times. Robinson has a trio of 300+ yard passing games to his name, including a three-touchdown fourth quarter performance in the comeback against Notre Dame, and Martinez's best to date was a 323-yard, five-touchdown outing in a shootout against Oklahoma State last season. 

It was just after that game that Martinez's high ankle sprain began to really affect his running ability and limit his passing options, which leads into just why these two can be so dangerous.

Both Robinson and Martinez present such an effective running threat out of the backfield that it changes the game for linebackers and safeties.  Most traditional play action involves establishing a ground game with a running back in an effort to catch linebackers and safeties trying to cheat.

Once a team can get safeties to react to run action in the backfield and ignore deep responsibilities, it is easier to get receivers into holes in deep coverage and find favorable one-on-one matchups.

Classic drop-back passers like Kirk Cousins depend on this sort of play action threat for most of their big plays, a big reason Cousins struggles when his running game is held in check.

The beauty of having a quarterback like Martinez or Robinson is that it opens up options in play action that can further confuse the defense.

One good example is last year's Michigan vs. Notre Dame game*.  Michigan's base play at the time, the zone read option, offers the quarterback the opportunity to attack the back side of the line of scrimmage if the defense crashes down too hard on the running back going to the play side.  

The next progression from this is the bubble screen pass to a slot receiver once the outside linebackers begins to suck inside in an effort to stop the run action in the backfield.  This play is essentially the next evolution in triple option football, allowing the quarterback to isolate defenders and find playmakers open in space.

The interesting progression the Wolverines used to take advantage of safeties and corners tasked with reading backfield action and staying in position to make a play in case of a bubble screen was by running a zone-read-action, pump faking the bubble screen to draw defenders up, then passing to a receiver running down the seam.  

This play was employed multiple times for Michigan last year and more often than not resulted in big plays for the offense.  In the new offense, this play-action spirit is alive and well, but has taken a couple of new forms.

While most play-action is very running back dependent, having a quarterback that is such a home-run threat on the ground gives defenses one more thing to worry about.  

Now, instead of staying home on a fake to the halfback, linebackers and safeties have to honor option plays out the pistol and shotgun formations, which complicate reads and open up more opportunities for misdirection and big plays.

However, these quarterbacks still have to make the throws, and both have struggled to set their feet, read the defense, and put throws on target.  The threat of the run is only effective when its capitalized on with accurate passes and big plays.

Last week both quarterbacks struggled in the first half (Robinson with three interceptions and Martinez with one), but each settled down by halftime and came out much improved in the second half.  More importantly, both led their teams to 28 unanswered points and big wins in crucial conference games.

For both these teams to continue to win as the Big Ten season goes along, these two quarterbacks will need to cut down on costly mistakes and run their offenses more efficiently.

If that happens, the Nov. 19 game between these two in the Big House could be for a trip to Indianapolis two weeks later.

*(While the offensive coordinator is different, the Wolverines still employ a spread-heavy offense that relies on quite a few of the base plays that Rich Rodriguez's spread offense was known for, only with some tweaks in blocking and execution.  Don't mistake the occasional I-form play for a sea change in the Wolverine offense.  This is still a spread team at heart.)