Illini Film Review: Brandon Peters Running No Longer a Laughing Matter

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Maybe now folks will stop laughing about Brandon Peters’ ability to run because he never understood the joke in the first place.

The Illinois quarterback has now proven in back-to-back weeks that he can pull the football back on RPO (run-pass-option) plays called by Illini offensive coordinator Rod Smith and the quarterback dive element will result in positive yardage.

"Why is so laughable though?” Peters asked with a smile Saturday. "Is it because I'm so laughable and tall? Especially with how good our run game is, the QB run game has opened up a lot lately and I've never questioned by athleticism."

Smith has clearly enjoyed using these designed runs for Peters on first down to give the Illini a manageable second and third-down situation. The Illini are still 12th in the Big Ten Conference in third-down conversions but were 6 of 14 this past weekend against Rutgers.

“That’s exactly it where it gives (Peters) and this offense an opportunity to get into a groove and allows him to settle in as a quarterback in our scheme,” Illinois wide receiver Josh Imatorbhebhe said.

By looking at the film of the Illini’s 38-10 victory over Rutgers this past weekend, we’ll detail Peters’ only designed run play (a 54-yard run that resulted in a Dre Brown touchdown run just one play later) and look back at two weeks ago at Purdue when Peters had five runs of positive yards on a sloppy, wet field in West Lafayette, Indiana.

NOTE: We should always preface this by explaining to the reader that we aren’t exactly sure what each Illinois player is being asked to accomplish in the scheme. So this is never intended to be an individual indictment or applause on a player’s success or failure to execute his job but simply pointing out a noticeable difference from week to week. In this case, Peters’ ability to keep on RPO plays may have to eventually be accounted for by future opposing defenses.

The video clip above shows a lot even before Peters takes off on this option run. The play-action fake inside dive play to Reggie Corbin is either botched from an execution standpoint or not communicated correctly because it appears Peters fakes it to nobody as Corbin begins to head parallel of the line-of-scrimmage early as the pitchman on this play.

Peters immediately begins to effectively head out of the tackle box assuming he’ll engage either the rush end or a linebacker for the pitch. Without having much previous experience with RPO quarterback run actions, Peters’ athleticism and football intelligence have allowed his traditional drop-back nature to progress in this version of Rod Smith’s scheme very well.

“That was just a great play call because of how their linebackers were playing over the top," Peters said. "I just did a little jab fake and it worked out perfectly."

In this film review, we’ll also note two effective run blockers at the tight end position and wide receiver position on this play. First, the crackback block of sophomore tight end Daniel Barker is near-perfect execution. Barker, who stands 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds, is able to immediately engage the middle linebacker off the snap and turn his body 90 degrees to give the defensive play no leverage toward making a play on any run to his left. This block allows the play to essentially be a 2-on-1 situation between the Illini’s Peters and Corbin and Rutgers outside linebacker Tyreek Maddox-Williams.

Unfortunately for Rutgers’ defense, Maddox-Williams plays this option play about as bad as one can. The assumption is the fourth-year junior linebacker isn’t ever convinced Peters will actually keep the football and that’s a fine assumption but this screenshot shows that Corbin may have actually still got the corner anyway if Peters actually makes the pitch. However, because Maddox-Williams actually finds himself in the purgatory of not committing to either the quarterback or the pitchman until the final second, Peters attempts a fake pitch and gets more than a step on the Rutgers linebacker.

Once Peters gets to the second level of Rutgers’ defense, the middle linebacker is screened by Barker and Peters is left with the single high safety that backpedaled when he saw Peters pull back the initial faked RPO dive. Rutgers safety Christian Izien either takes the worst angle possible for this tackle or misjudges Peters’ athleticism or both by simply get run past on a simply cutback action toward the middle of the field and suddenly Peters has a clear path to the end zone.

The final piece in this play is the outside perimeter block by 230-pound wide receiver Caleb Reams. The senior has been incredibly effective securing the edge on run plays in each of the last two weeks and gives Peters a path to the far sideline on this play.

Peters was fantastic on these yesterday.
Safe 4 yds on 1st Down ✅
Keep the Defense honest ✅ pic.twitter.com/FUskGLfNWq
— Martin O'Donnell (@MartinOD64) October 27, 2019

This tweet from Illini radio color analyst Martin O’Donnell from Illinois’ win in the previous week at Purdue shows how Peters was able to get positive yards on five carries in a 24-6 win against the Boilermakers. With Illinois traveling to Michigan State, who is Xth in the league in rush defense but will be without linebacker Joe Bachio due to a performance-enhancing drug suspension, the Spartans may have to respect the quarterback run a little bit more in Rod Smith’s scheme.

“I’ve been saying that for quite a while. He doesn’t get enough credit for being the type of runner he can be, when we need him to, and our offense occasionally, we need him to," Illinois head coach Lovie Smith said. "If that happens, offensive line has to open some good holes. Not like he had to break a whole lot of tackles, but outstanding play by him.”.