Picture Pages: Backside DE Pursuit

"He makes Denard better and provides a thunderous counter to all that dilithium."

I think Smith is a good back but if you're going to be using your superback as a lead blocker regularly, it may help if he's you know, big.

Brian,  it is this level of in depth analysis that makes this blog the best on the net.  I would love to see the MSM even attempt such a thorough and detailed analysis.  Thanks, as always.

Nothing against Smith, who I think has done a good job considering his injury, but Hopkins had some nice plays in his limited time Saturday.

He moved the pile on his two runs, while Smith was yet again stopped on another third and one (it's happened in several other games).

We will need our bigger backs going forward into the meat of this schedule.

What changes in the second half?  I'm going to guess it's us being down 14 to 21 points the whole time and becoming a more pass-first offense.  

I'm with you on Hopkins.  I like Smith and Shaw ok, and they seem to better receivers, but I think Hopkins has the best shot right now of giving us a truly complimentary RB (assuming Toussaint is still suffering from injury woes).

too little of Shaw Saturday, and mighta coulda used him.

awesome and nuanced analysis. Watching without the benefit of replay, this is something that is nearly impossible to pick up.

Re: potential chop block, one thought of mine is that although a chop block is good in theory and would be good here, it takes your player out. If Dorrenstein gets just enough of this backside D end, he can also flow down the field, becoming a useful blocker for Denard if he breaks one and/or does his usual improvisation. Not a ton of D ends will make this type of play and even though this d end did, it was a very tough tackle at that.

This is one of maybe a dozen plays on which one player fails to execute and costs Michigan a touchdown.

I haven't had the stomach to watch this game again, but I was hoping this is what was the case.  Hopefully these failures are coachable/correctable in a short period of time and not failures forced by a superior opponent, which will spell doom against Iowa/OSU.

in the first half of the season. What changes? Well beyond much rougher opponents, we shall see how improved they are.

website in history. If I wanted to create a site for myself, it would be about M football, but i wouldn't be clever enough to include all of the things I see here.
I tell everyone I know about it, jealous as I was initially to guard my source of knowledge. If they don't love it, I immediately dismiss them as a fan of Michigan football

As usual, this is really helpful.

Schilling gettting shoved back by the DT or not, I don't know how long we expect Denard to stay behind him. Schilling was rendered useless in the play, ok -  but would it really matter that much if he only partially engages the DT then bounces out faster? Denard is still going to have to slow down and wait anyway.

Also, I totally agree, more Hopkins please.

1.  Wasn't the TD pass to Webb off of something similiar to this?  He engages the backside DE, releases and as the backside DE crashes down the line Webb goes out into the flat for an easy TD.

2.  Can anyone recall UM having a wr go the opposite way of Denard in the backfield faking/setting up a reverse to get the backside DE at home?  I see other teams do it some but I can't recall seeing UM do it.

It took me a couple days to watch it after being in the stands, but I've gotten through the 1st half as well.  What I came out with so far is that we were, as Brian said, so close on a dozen plays to a different ballgame:

• The obvious: Robinson throws late and behind Roundtree on the 1st possession for the INT in the end zone. He had him if he makes a better throw.
• 2nd possession, Robinson had Stonum open down the sideline and over threw him into the end zone. He had the safety and corner beat.  Just needed a better throw.
• Same possession, 3rd and 3 - Robinson gets stopped short of the sticks...Dorrenstein flat out ran by the either linebacker that would have slowed them enough for the 1st down.  Dorrenstein knew it as soon as he whiffed...  We had to settle for 3 points.
• MSU 1st touchdown IIRC came 2 plays after that 3rd and 15 conversion after we had them stopped.  The play never stood because of MSU false start penalty.  Ugggg
• We made up for the Roundtree drop by getting into the end zone a few plays later
• MSU 2nd touchdown - 1 play after State fumbled the snap and it was there for the taking...I thought Ezeh had it...
• Robinson made a decent throw to get the ball out to Odoms  just before halftime for a 40+ gain.  Fieldgoal blocked/bad snap - If Robinson leads Odoms that was a touchdown.  He had them beat.  Now that's asking a lot, but it was there.

After seeing all this I felt better because you can see how close we were and it wasn't that we just got manhandled/beat... That 1st half could have been 28-7 if we are on instead of off.  As some have said, we can beat anyone, but we can lose to anyone too...

I'm hoping for being on this week and beating Iowa. That will take the sting out of this week a bit.

Love this kind of stuff.  Awesome post.

A couple thoughts:

- The TE's have been a key component of the rushing game this year, as Brian says.  With Webb being a senior and Koger a junior, I believe, it seems like we should take one both this year and next to replace them, if indeed RR would like to make the TE's a permanent part of his scheme.  So far I don't really think we're in on any, though.  I wonder if not having another TE will hurt us next year.

- Secondly, if we don't end up taking a TE in this class, I wonder if Hopkins is slated for that H-back spot that Webb and Koger currently play.  He has the size, blocking ability, and can receiving ability for it, plus, it could lead to some new looks with him recieving hand offs from that spot.  

Does anyone know if there was some reason Hopkins never got back in.  He seemed to be very effective for the few plays he was in and then never reappeared, even in situations where a big back seemed like exactly what we needed.

A couple of points. Robinson was really amped during this game, and often didn't show the patience he had in previous contests. If he attacks outside a little more and lets Schilling get back in the play, likely he'd have set this up a bit better. Sometimes, faster is not better.

Jones is a good LB. He misses Denard, but he forces him back inside to a spot where he knows (or hopes) he has help. This is a nightmare matchup for a ILB, the only thing worse is having noone helping outside of you here. Jones knows he has a man for outside contain, seals Robinson from getting between he and Hopkins and force Robinson to cut inside.

Unfortunately, this play was about as good as it got on the ground for Michigan.

By the second half, Denard was in pocket-passer mode -- I don't know if that was because of MSU's scheme or UM's (likely both) -- but once this offense makes that tactical switch, they should put Tate in. He's way more accurate in the air than Denard and he can still run when the opportunity presents itself.

Not that I was calling for Tate during the MSU game, only that in hindsight it seems he could've exploited MSU's secondary better since Denard couldn't exploit enough on the ground or in the air.

Maybe it's been mentioned elsewhere (I haven't read all of the threads since the game), but I'm just curious to know if anyone else had the same thought about this offense.

Great job on this site & this post.  The breakdown  and analysis is very much appreciated.  

But just remember, that on any of unproductive MSU drives you would likely find similar mis-cues.  It was not in the 1st half where the game was lost, it was the 2nd.    

Looking at this at non-dilithium speeds, it seems like Robinson would've been better served to bounce this one outside of the Hopkins block, away from the flowing pursuit.  I know the theory is to run right at Jones, to negate his speed, and if Dorrestein had held his guy a few seconds more, there would've been more space.  But once Robinson ran past Schilling, he should've gone into improvise mode and hit the turbo button towards the sidelines.

Having not watched the replay, I'm interested to read the UFR, and see if there are more plays like this. Also, it seemed like Robinson should've kept it a lot more, instead handing off to the RB going up the middle.   I don't know if it was bad zone-reads, or if the defense forced it to happen.