Picture Pages: Getting The Edge

and this is just speculation with no football knowledge, that if the LT blocks the DE and tate runs some sort of option play there drawing in the LB, all that would stand between the RB and a huge gain would be the slot blocking that downfield safety.

Have you noticed doing the UFR's if Michigan is inserting new plays for every game? If so, is it more in the several range or just 1 or 2?

I really like this play w/ Shaw as he is the shiftiest of the rbs. When they tried it w/ Minor just looked clumsy. I would like to see them run this out of a 5-wide set and motion Odoms into the backfield.

continually evolve the offense from week to week to add wrinkles to play off the things the opponents probably scouted the week before the game. Other than changing some of the blocking of the zone stretch play and the occassional trick play, the last few years of the LC regime was maddening in that it was essentially a carbon copy of the same offense each week.

Can you even imagine the amount of plays and knowledge these guys are going to have in the next 3-4 years when they don't have to look to the sideline to get the calls? I mean, if they can run 4 or 5 plays that are all variants of a single play they've learned as a base offensive play, then what would the opponents scout each week, except to be everywhere and defend every inch of turf at all times.

With all of these reads that the defense will have to do to defend all of the punches and counter punches, does this slow down the opposing D as they have to read more than just filling and scraping?

Wouldn't it make good sense to put Koger out in Odoms' spot to utilize TE blocking, and maybe oven motion over the wide out? Or have Robinson in for the RB and have him take the pitch and then have Odoms wiff the block only to get up and recieve the pass from Robinson. If the defense lines up like this again, this formation could give a couple of good wrinkles.

The reason the play is called is to prevent the DE and MLB from cheating. The MLB takes the false steps inside, he wouldn't make it back to the QB unless he runs a 4.5 and can cut like Barry Sanders which he can't because he is a MLB. Now if he's not cheating then sure he can get over there, but if he's not cheating we just run the dive and bludgeon them to death because they have only 6 in the box, which is why they are cheating.

oops sorry supposed to be for bsb2002's response to Mgoobes

...i understand more than i did a few minutes ago.

the question, of course, is if you think we wanted to run it more vs. msu...why didn't we? were they doing something that would have kept it from being effective? did their scheme simply not have the same sort of exploitable weakness?

was the zone read option. I'll wait for the UFR, but I don't recall seeing that run. This pitch would appear to be a nice complement to the option, but it's not currently integrated with it. Perhaps that has to do with Iowa's approach to defense. Regardless, it'll be interesting to see if that gets reintroduced or not.

and maybe MGoObes and bsb are getting at this:

1) Is the LT supposed to get the LB on the 2nd level (because it looks like he didn't in these frames)?

2) Is there a backside seam pass option with this? If you look closely, the LB is flying to the pitch leaving the area between the hashes wide open for Koger. This would appear to be even more open against teams that run an aggressive scrape exchange with their LB's and/or corners.

Great stuff as always!

I just sent a variation of this to Brian re: this play. It is really only a quick pitch since the QB never threatens to run.

I didn't pay attention to this during the game, but I would be curious to see if Michigan ran this play when the field corner was pressed up in this fashion.

A normal Cov. 2 corner is going to be around 6 yds off the LOS and 1 yard outside the widest WR with his eyes inside (to prevent any outside release, help the safety, and be the force player vs. the run. Also, look at the boundary corner). In the pressed up corner scenario, the corner does not have his eyes inside and can never see this play coming. Then the WR must try to stay on this block long enough to make the CB choose a side. I would be curious to know how often they ran this play against the pressed up corner. I will also be curious to see the actual film footage to see how Michigan's WR tried to set up the corner for this.

Also, by pressing the CB can create havoc for a WR trying to crack the safety in the run game. I don't know how often Michigan cracks the safety in the run game (again, haven't paid attention to this detail specifically), but I'm sure the press had something to do with that. The UFRs (past and upcoming) are probably telling.

This is the kind of play that should destroy Delaware State's will.

Along with the I-Right 34 Blast on Go.

I recognize the need to practice the playbook so Denard (and Tate, frankly) feel comfortable. But Michigan's 5 basic plays should be good enough, with the talent Michigan has, to score 70 points.

With the safety commiting to the run this is a big gain/TD play if the other slot (Koger) runs a post over the top of the vacated safety position and the RB throws to him.

owned his block. Nice job Greg.

One more counter to this. Forgive me if this has already been suggested since I have not read all of the comments and I am contributing via Blackberry.

What if the outside receiver fakes a block and goes downfield? The running back then throws the ball to the outside receiver streaking down the sideline for a touchdown. This would be great to save for OSU.

Thoughts?