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it's like he's wearin' nothing at all... nothing at all... nothin' at all [Bryan Fuller]

image-6_thumb_thumb5_thumb_thumb_thu[3]SPONSOR NOTE: Upon Further Review is sponsored by HomeSure Lending and Matt Demorest. Rates are the lowest they've been in three years so it can't hurt to check whether you can save money on a refinance. Or you could buy a house in Ann Arbor! Good luck with that!

Matt's relocated the bus to Pioneer this year, BTW, and invites everyone to stop by and say hi. There's beer. I mean, obviously. Matt. Matt and beer: a good pairing.

FORMATION NOTES: The return of McKeon resulted in more two TE sets, and what's this? A fullback? A fullback.

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Kudos to ABC director for his wide shots and frequent overhead replays.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Mostly the usual at QB and OL, with Milton and McCaffrey getting in late. Hayes was used as a tight end in a nameless 80 jersey for a couple goal line snaps. Second-team line remains Hayes/Filiaga/Vastardis/Spanellis/Hongiford.

RB rotation was mostly Haskins/Charbonnet with Wilson getting in towards the tail end of competitive time; Turner and Van Sumeren got some late action. Mason got 5 snaps as a FB/TE.

Eubanks was still TE1 in terms of snaps, because he sticks on the field for passing downs. McKeon got about half the snaps; All got some 3 TE snaps in the redzone and the occasional live-fire snap outside. Bell/Black/DPJ/Collins split WR snaps about evenly, with Sainristil added as pretty much an equal member to the quartet. Jackson and Johnson got some garbage snaps.

[After THE JUMP: a steamrolling]

And then were gonna go go go go go go and were not gonna stop til we get across that goalline. [Patrick Barron]

Good offenses are often good at running a few things that force defenses to compensate for by doing unsound things. Historically Harbaugh's teams were good at running power, so good in fact that defenses would have to add safeties to their run fronts to cover the extra gaps created. As defenses adjusted, Harbaugh kept adding more gaps, whether that meant flooding the field with extra tight ends (or linemen), or inserting fullbacks. Then they tweaked, pulling different guys, trapping or wham-blocking defenders as they got too aggressive in leaping through what they thought was one gap only to find themselves deeply committed to the wrong one of two.

We said Michigan was a "Power" team but every offense needs to be versed in more than one philosophy, else the opponent will take away what you're good at. This is what a program extremely committed to its base and the direct counters to its base looks like (yellow are zone concepts, blue gap-blocking concepts):

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Last year Michigan found firm footing again with their Arc Read/Split Zone game, paired with a Pin & Pull/Down G combo (and other stuff). We've talked about this so much by now it should be old hat. For today's purposes I'll point out that the Arc Read package mostly attacked the formation's backside while the Pin & Pull game was an aggressive assault on the frontside. This is the new Power O/Iso.

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Notre Dame noticed something about these packages: they both attack the edges. So the Irish game-planned to take that away. Extra defenders were committed to one or both edges, an interior gap be damned:

Note how Notre Dame has nobody for the gap between Onwenu and Ruiz. However there are two guys protecting either edge. When Eubanks gets across to kick out the EMLOS, he has to pick one. The other is alone in the gap to tackle.

It's too bad it was beat too because this is a neat concept Michigan tried out of their Arc package, doubling the backside tackle to run down the gut:

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I always have a hard time drawing Belly because it actually goes right down the middle, but the gap it's going into is off the double-team of that tackle, who's supposed to get washed down the line (and help out by trying to attack the direction the play goes. Ronnie Bell is a second arc blocker in addition to Eubanks so a keep becomes a convoy.

However this play ran right into how Notre Dame planned to attack us. The SLB (they call him a Rover) and the strong safety are out on the edge—the same one the SDE is getting read in. It's the same plan as Army in fact: start a linebacker inside, shuffle the end towards the give and have the LB ready to leap outside to make a QB keep incorrect. This SDE makes the tackle on the hash mark; if it was kept Eubanks is behind the line of scrimmage and in trouble.

Shea even tried keeping against this down near the goal line, and got wrangled down then punched in the face for his efforts.

[After THE JUMP: But the arc read worked today, I'm sure of it!]

[Patrick Barron]

image-6_thumb_thumb5_thumb_thumb_thuSPONSOR NOTE: Reminder that Matt is hanging out at the Charity Tailgate at 327 East Hoover (if you were at the preseason MGoEvents this year and last it's the same place). Food trucks, beer, TVs, and also those things. When not tailgating Matt is also a person who will get you a mortgage right quick from the comfort of your own home. If you need one, he's the man, man.

FORMATION NOTES: Even more gun/pistol than usual. Up to almost 70%, and a number of the exceptions were short yardage/goal line stuff. I have just 11 snaps with a fullback on the field, and here's something I never thought I'd say: that's probably not enough.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: At this point this is all as expected. OL, QB, RB, FB the usual given Chris Evans's injury. Wilson got scattered snaps and nobody else saw the field at RB; Wangler got a few snaps but it was Mason when there was a FB. The most notable item was dearth of McKeon snaps after his drop. Usually one drop doesn't get you exiled. I wonder if something else was going on.

DPJ, Perry, and Collins got the large bulk of the WR snaps, with Martin and Bell getting the remainder. There was a distinctly Carr-ish thing where Michigan tended to tip run when Martin and Bell were in.

[After THE JUMP: a bit of a festivus]