One key detail seems to have Michigan fans concerned coming off their mostly positive, 31-10 drubbing of visiting Washington. Sure Washington was coming off a defeat against Montana, an FCS program, but Michigan ran for 343 yards and took control of the game after converting a fake punt on 4th-and-1 from their own 30-yard line.

Pretty exciting to have a coach approach the game aggressively and see the team respond by immediately imposing their will on an opponent.

Still, there was something missing from the performance...

To say Cade McNamara didn’t light the world on fire would be an understatement. His 7-15 day passing for 44 yards at 2.9 ypa was very low, to say the least. He added three yards on three carries, none of which were sacks.

He pulled the ball once on a tight zone play when the nickel blitzed and went around the open edge for nine yards, this was certainly a positive. Then he also pulled the ball on a GT counter-read play when the outside linebacker wasn’t really committed to the running back and was chased down and tackled for a loss of three yards.

pic.twitter.com/h7DMbH2VSn

— Asst to the Minister of Culture (@Ian_A_Boyd) September 15, 2021

It was good for the Wolverines to pick up a win in a game many would have penciled in as at least a very plausible loss before the season. What’s next though? Will this offense be able to maintain success against Big 10 defenses if the quarterback is producing 47 yards of offense? Probably not. How did it work so well in this game?

[After THE JUMP: opposing imposing wills.]

The Washington defense

The Huskies were not well equipped to handle this Michigan offense. For one, they were routinely baited by offensive coordinator Josh Gattis into playing their nickel personnel when the Wolverines would play in 11 personnel.

The Huskies’ nickel defense is typically a base 2-4-5 scheme comparable to Michigan’s own base set. Their “Daxton Hill” is Brendan Radley-Hiles, a 5-foot-9, 185 pound transfer from Oklahoma. Radley-Hiles was notorious at Oklahoma for being good in coverage, but often a no-show in the run game and prone to committing cheap penalties at the most inopportune times.

Now let me back up and explain why this matters. One of the principal threats to a spread offense is a dynamic nickel who can work off the edge unblocked and blow up your run game. Anyone this far north remember when Oklahoma won the National Championship in 2000? They used Roy Williams in this fashion and it was devastating. How about the 2011 LSU Tigers with Tyrann "Honey Badger" Mathieu?

Eventually teams begin to focus on RPOs to protect their runs and prevent good nickel players from disguising a late edge pressure which could inflict negative plays.

Michigan’s use of RPOs in this game, or quarterback run reads, was sporadic and not always well executed. Put more simply, they actually ran a number of RPOs in which no read seemed to take place. A team with a run-stopping nickel might have exploited these issues, but Washington wasn’t well equipped to make the most of it.

This particularly mattered on two of Michigan’s biggest runs of the game.

The first one, Blake Corum’s 67-yard run following the fake field conversion.

It’s a counter run scheme, pulling the center instead of a guard to kick out the edge player and then pulling the off-ball tight end over to lead block. The edge player was taken aback to find the center and was unable to spill the ball, yet the weakside linebacker headed to the edge expecting the ball to be spilled only to then be caught outside by the pulling tight end.

The big issue for Washington here is they got beat at the point of attack and had no safety support because they were rotating to the other side of the field. Corum outruns the deep safety and it's 10-0 Michigan. Fake punt! Harbaugh is a genius! 

Later in the game on 3rd-and-2.

They flex the tight end out and run GT counter-read, a play where they pull the guard to block the edge and the tackle lead blocks behind him. The backside edge is left unblocked for the quarterback to read. Again, Washington is rotating to the three receiver side to keep Radley-Hiles in man coverage outside, they contain with their edge play, and once again they lose the point of attack and their safety can’t clean up until Hasaan Haskins has picked up 20 yards.

The Huskies were outmuscled by Michigan on a variety of sweeps, counters, power runs, and straight ahead zone plays. Zac Zinter got the start at right guard and was terrific as a puller on counter, regularly trapping Washington’s edge players inside when they tried to spill runs. But the Huskies also had some really poor answers for trying to make the most of Michigan’s limited passing game.

McNamara’s 47 total yards were not an inaccurate reflection of his impact on the game. He didn’t make consistently correct reads in their various spread-option schemes and he can only do so much damage pulling the ball down himself to run the ball. Nor does Michigan want to run him regularly given his smaller frame and injury history.

The RPO and option game

The main reason a team like Michigan would be interested in RPOs is to protect their running game. However, you play a dangerous game when you turn to RPOs as a solution to protecting your spread run game from defenses sending numbers late into the box.

If you rely on the quarterback reading defenders for direction on whether to throw or hand-off, you’re essentially surrendering agency. The defense can either choose for you where the ball should go, in this case perhaps loading the box and daring Michigan to make perimeter throws perhaps against man coverage, or they’ll muddy the reads and complicate matters.

Today’s defenses include a lot of teams using “replacement” blitzes. They bring four pass-rushers and play base defense behind it, but the four pass-rushers include two to three defensive linemen and then one to two blitzers. Who’s playing where? It’s hard to be sure and it’s easy for the quarterback or offensive line to let guys free who can blow up a play. Michigan has this in the arsenal themselves in Mike MacDonald’s own 2-4-5 defense. Here's how it can look when done correctly:

https://twitter.com/Ian_A_Boyd/status/1437767325168685064?s=20

The edge player drops back to replace the Mike linebacker, the defensive tackle stunts wide to replace the edge player, and the Mike linebacker blitzes to replace the defensive tackle. Arkansas loses the plot, doesn't block the blitz, and a normally lethal quarterback GT-counter run is a negative play on their own goal line. This is what you face against higher level teams when you want to be all-in on the RPO game. Things get complicated.

It doesn't appear Michigan is really invested in getting complicated with their own RPO game. When they ran apparent RPOs against Washington the decision-making often seemed predetermined.

Washington is staying home on the swing screen here opposite another GT counter run. Is it really a run/pass option or were they trying to scheme an easy throw to Blake Corum in space? pic.twitter.com/yB6CQEAsRp

— Asst to the Minister of Culture (@Ian_A_Boyd) September 15, 2021

RPOs also don’t solve for short-yardage or the red zone. Everything tightens up and you can’t create space or run/pass conflicts very easily, so you need different answers for pounding the ball on the ground.

Michigan has the hard part down, they can run the ball from multiple formations and do it from spread sets or bigger formations with extra blockers on the line. They don't need RPOs to make the run game easy. Against Washington, Gattis also revealed a knack for scheming open opportunities for the run game even when the RPO or quarterback option threats weren’t serious.

Michigan’s challenge in future games is protecting the run game as teams wise up to the situation.

The obvious solution was to throw the ball to Ronnie Bell, which was also a useful solution for passing downs, on RPOs or play-action. Obviously this is no longer an option.

The rest of the Michigan wide receiver corps is mostly players recruited to be “speed in space” threats for the RPO game. Currently they’re pretty young and redshirt sophomore Cornelius Johnson is the elder statesman in the room. Additionally, it’s not clear Cade MnNamara thrives in the RPO game and again, he’s certainly not the guy for getting regular work on quarterback run options.

What made McNamara a good fit as the starter was his ability to execute Harbaugh’s passing down schemes in the dropback passing game and to hit Ronnie Bell. Now? His best utilization against Washington was to present the possibility of a backside keeper when Michigan ran GT counter-read from spread sets.

So from here, what does Michigan do? Future opponents are going to load the box against bigger formations while playing man coverage outside and will send late pressure against spread sets and dare McNamara to beat them in the read game (running or throwing).

The easiest way to maximize this team would be with a quarterback who can present a real threat in the quarterback run game, but Joe Milton is gone. Alan Bowman executed an RPO system at Texas Tech, but he’s still learning the Michigan offense and it’s not clear whether the Wolverines have been practicing or emphasizing RPOs in the offense anyways.

Then there’s J.J. McCarthy, who is a potential upgrade over McNamara in throwing vertical routes against man coverage outside because of arm talent and in pulling the ball around the edge due to some solid quickness. Is he an upgrade though in managing the offense? Helping to check out of bad plays? Protecting the football with good decision-making? Less clear. I'll venture a guess and say when he proves in practice he can handle 3rd-and-long without giving the game away he'll get his chance.

One thing is clear, from here on out the story of the Michigan season will be how they scheme ways from week to week to make the most of a legitimate power run game while figuring out how to set up their quarterback to punctuate drives.