Well, now there's film. We have stuff to look at. And, of course, there are some interesting things going on schematically; let's look at a couple that I noticed tonight.

1. Michigan is pulling guards with abandon

Michigan ran a ton of gap plays and gap looks tonight. The first TD is your basic power, with the line blocking down and the guard pulling around. 

That's LG Chuck Filiaga pulling around as the right side of the line and FB Ben Mason cave in the Minnesota DL. Note: The reason this is a TD is because the MLB gets stuck behind that massive OL push, something of a misplay, but one caused by the push.

Michigan ran gap, pin-and-pull, and zone runs that I saw between the game and the highlight reel. That's a good repertoire. And it's not a brief gimmick--Gattis has guards pulling all over the place on various forms of play-action and misdirections. The passes range from short flares and tosses to long stuff downfield. There are guards pulling everywhere to mess with defensive keys.

2. Using the H-back for short passes

We saw a number of these: Short passes to the H-back cutting across the formation, the easiest things in the world to complete, putting reasonably beefy guys into space. 

I clipped the Mason TD because it uses split zone action. Split zone was a basic run play of ours last year, and it also is the base play that sets up the zone read arc action that Michigan has used well in the past, most notable two years ago against Wisconsin.

Here's Mason running left across the back of the OL as they run their outside zone blocks to the right. This is looks like a standard split-zone run play; in the past, Michigan has also been known to option the contain defender that knifes in, while arcing the H-back around him to lay a block downfield as the QB pulls and runs for dozens of yards.

Here we see Minnesota has a counter for that arc pull: The LB scrapes, but the other edge defender is there as well. They are ready for the zone read arc bluff... but Michigan isn't running that play. Instead, Mason rolls out to the flat, wide open, Milton hits him, and Mason jumps one guy to score a TD.

Michigan ran stuff like this all night, as you'll recall. It wasn't always split zone stuff; that pass to Erick All after All's drop, for example, used one of those pulling guards. But the basic idea is the same. Eventually, teams are going to send a guy to cover the man pulling into the flat, and Milton is going to throw behind them downfield, or pull the ball and run into open space for chunks of yards. 

3. Michigan's edge pass package is excellent.

Flares to threaten the edge aren't new to the Gattis offense, but Michigan's execution of them was terrific. The very first play to Corum, a play to Ronnie Bell, etc. I've clipped this one, to AJ Henning, as a good example.

The logic is sound and we understand the basics of it. What's encouraging about this is the execution. Everybody is in the right place at the right time. And I clipped this frame to demonstrate a huge part of what makes this work: Milton is making perfect throws on these flare passes. They hit the receiver in precisely the right spot. Just wide enough, catching him as he begins to run forward, ahead of him but not too far. This wasn't a fluke; he threw several of these passes, and they were all dead on. 

That crispness of execution is crucial in these plays, because they rely on speed of execution to edge the defense before players can recover. A hesitation of a second is very significant; here, instead, Henning catches the ball in stride and winds up gaining 15 yards. 

For years we have been frustrated watching Michigan try to do the "speed in space" thing, with ultra-talented players running plays that we see other teams run, but never quite getting it right. 

The work has paid off. Our offense is now getting it right. We may have had higher-rated prospects in previous years, but Michigan is actually using the skills of these guys now, at least in this game. The proof is on the field.

4. Milton has the tools to put it together

The goal, of course, was always to have a coherent offense where all of the parts worked together to form a better whole. I've already discussed the guard pulls and the flares and such. What happens when you use all of this stuff?

You get this:

Michigan is threatening an edge pass to the left. You can see Minnesota defenders rushing to meet it. Meanwhile, the OL is running pin-and-pull right, and the numbers are good because there's no RB here; the runner is the quarterback.

Milton will wait for his blocks to set up, carve through the hole, and run inside the 10 on this play, and looks effortless doing so. And there's more to get to here, too--look at the receiver setting up to block for the nonexistent edge pass on the bottom of the screen. There are eight Minnesota players within three yards of the LOS, all of them moving forward to try to defend Michigan's action. Not hard to see a play where this action is run, the receiver fakes a block, and then runs somewhere into the wide open space behind the LBs where Milton can pull up and throw to him with ease.

Much of the stuff we wanted to see working together, the stuff we wanted to see last year, seems to be falling into place. Can we imagine Shea making these plays work? Regretably, I cannot. Milton, in his first game, is running these concepts like they're second nature. 

5. A defensive note: We got the zone we wanted.

Michigan is definitely running more zone on defense. Whether it is an understanding that press man will get us torched by OSU, or simply an adjustment to the less talented personnel, Michigan is running it.

This is a pass from Morgan to Bateman; Bateman sneaks behind the zone and catches the ball near the line-to-gain, where he is quickly tackled by a dropping safety. Notable, the defender in the backfield charged in on a corner blitz, while the LBs are visible at roughly the 34 yard line, dropping into a shallow (perhaps a bit too shallow, but I'll defer to people who know more about it than I do) zone coverage to defend the pass. Morgan does a good job finding the window to hit Bateman. 

But he did not always find the window.

This is the Ross interception. McGrone and Ross are visible in zone coverage here, and the intended receiver is running across the field behind them. I find this play encouraging; one of my critiques of Brown is that while he has always had some zone defense in his pocket, the defense doesn't seem very effective running it. Like, he understands the basics, but the small adjustments and skills that make good zone defenses work haven't been in his wheelhouse. 

Well, this INT looks good. The LBs are reading Morgan's action, covering good amounts of ground to reduce the size of the windows he has available. As he throws, Ross stops, cutting off the path of the ball and intercepting easily. 

These are not the only two plays where Michigan ran zone. There were a lot of these kinds of looks. While I'm bearish on the defense, I was encouraged that there were several plays where Michigan used change-up coverages to RPS the Minnesota offense and get stops. We'll need to see more of that. 

Man, it's fun to just talk football.