Comparing Offensive Production by Drive vs. Utah 2014 & 2015.

Cool analysis, thanks.

Also '14 at home, '15 away. 15 is better. 

This game is 38-3 with the last staff. Would've folded up shop down 17-3 on the road at night against a respectable opponent. And after the pick six? Forget it. Instead, Rudock led the team right down the field and gave us a chance to recover an outside and potentially tie the game. On the road, at night, with no timeouts. That's improvement. Big time.

It felt different no doubt, in a positive way. Plain and simple.

Great Analysis!

I was not impressed with our offense last night.  It reminded me of the Carr offenses- off tackle with Smith...  Where was the motion Brian talked about?  Where were the imaginative tweaks to give us an advantage?  Frankly, I could imagine Hoke calling those plays. Iowa fans must have been chortling about Rudock.  He is average at best.  Perhaps the first interception was not his fault (but receivers are told to "sit" in an open area), but the other 2 were definitely his fault.  The overthrows were clearly his fault.  Chesson was so wide open, he could have floated the ball up there for an easy score.  An experienced QB should know better.  I am so tired of getting my hopes up every year to have them dashed against the jagged rocks.  We should just go the way of University of Chicago and reminisce about the glory days.  I have been watching Michigan football for 40 years, and this is crap. 

Moved the ball well the whole game, but whether it was interceptions, turnover on downs, or missed FG, just couldnt finish.

The passing game will get better with Haurbaugh coaching Rudock and Rudock and the WR's/Butt getting better chemistry. The run game was not good at all and that has to be the biggest concern.

Hopefully the run game gets better otherwise we might have to become Texas Tech.

Nice analysis, thanks.

Agree that there is improvement.

During the game, I felt like the run game was actually more improved than the stat line indicated. This was a pretty good defense. Will be interesting to see what Brian finds in the UFR. 

Also during the game, I felt like every phase of the game was good enough to win except the QB play. The non-Lewis corner was not stellar, but seemed serviceable. They attacked Stribling relentlessly on that first drive and he got it together enough to make the sure tackle on that all-curls 3rd down play (I think it was all-curls) that held them to a field goal. And our own kicker looks shaky too. And our LBs are not what you would call fast, a lack of speed made worse by sometimes being out of position.

But really, everything looked good enough to win against a good opponent on the road - except the QB. It's the most important position on the field, and it's our worst.

Curious what numbers would look like if you took out garbage time drives.

was vanilla and didn't see as much shifting as I expected. Both of these expectation I'm rationalizing were the result of playing on the road and the staff wanting to gameplan for execution results rather than seeking to confuse a non-conference opponent. 

Anyway, this is the second time in playing Utah that Michigan managed to outgain the Utes and still lose because of costly turnovers, one that cancelled an excellent drive that might have produced an early TD giving the team a major momentum lift. The other TO ended the game. 

My other criticism of the staff would be squandering timeouts and failing to take advantage of mismatches in pass coverage, specifically throwing to backs out of the backfield. Michigan used to be a great screen team and we never saw one last night, just quick bubble throws to Darboh and Chesson where Perry, out of the slot made some nice blocks to spring for extra yards. 

Michigan equaled Utah in TOP and first downs with 20 apiece. Defensively Michigan limited the Utes offensive numbers in rushing and passing to about 150 each, which is extremely good. Most of the Utes hidden yards came from quarterback runs, either designed zone reads or draws that produced both first downs and a score. Michigan was better than good on third down conversion stops limiting the Utes to 3 of 13 but I think they were not so good on second down plays. 

Michigan made Booker a non-factot and the Utes anticipating that the defense would key on him, used him mostly as a decoy early and a receiver hoping to get him yards that way. That strategy was somewhat effective. Utah also was effective when thrwoing to their slot guy, a freshman, who came up with several nice catches that extended drives or got the Utes into the red zone. 

Great work! Thank you for the comparison. Could you put the comparison in a table as well please? Much easier to see the numbers, instead of reading through the text. This team felt different than the last year. We do have to remember, in spite of Rudock being a grad transfer he is still learning a new system along with the receivers and backs. So the chemistry is not there yet. It will come and it will look wonderful. AJ Williams looked rusty in catching the football. Remind me what exactly he does well? 

Nice analysis. Funny when I saw NSFMF I took it as not so fast, MFer.

I wonder if the thinner air affected us on the deep ball. All 3 missed opportunities (two to Chesson, one to Darboh) were consistent in that Rudock threw them too long. They weren't thown short, they weren't off target horizontally. All three were consistently 1 or 2 steps ahead of the receiver. That was also the case on Rudock's 2nd interception where he overthrew Perry on what would have been a 17-yard completion had they connected (that pass was about 25 yards through the air based on where Rudock threw it from). 

Clearly half time adjustments were made. We haven't see the team improve after halftime since '62.

Compare the second half of 2015 to the first: 

First half: 129 yards, 3 points

Second half: 256 yards, 14 points

 

That's moving in the right direction. 

Gained about 100 more yards on two fewer plays. Wouldve been fewer plays and more yards had Rudock hit Chesson on those two long passes. And more TDs.

The playcalling is certainly there, and the pass protection is certainly there as well. Just need to execute better.

As much as I complained about the constant runs up the gut for no gain, the offense looked MUCH more cohesive than last year and we did have great play action and deep ball opportunities because the O set them up purposefully. 

I'd love to see an accurate QB, though. Henne would seem to be a perfect fit for this offense.