Denard on the bootleg/short passing yardage
Okay, someone drop some knowledge on me here, because I've lost a few brain cells in the last 24 hours.
How many times has Denard run out of a bootleg? Thrown screens? Option roll-out with a pitch to Carlos Brown?
Maybe I'm just Sunday morning quarterbacking here but I feel that asking Robinson to drop back and (consistently) make the throw 15 yards downfield is not his forte yet. Which is fine, I think it's a little unrealistic to ask that from him.
And running straight forward is (probably) not going to work the rest of the Big Ten season. Too obvious.
Summary - I'd like more ingenuity in playcalling with Denard. Short yardage stuff.
October 4th, 2009 at 10:36 AM ^
At some point, you have to put some plays for Denard that allow him to make an easy pass for 8-10 yards. Maybe a roll out to the right that Tate does so well and have a receiver and a tight end coming across the field. We have to make the defense respect his ability to go vertically down the field and only then will it open up lanes for him to run through.
I love Rich Rod and think he has done a great job seeing as how he hasn't had that much time to get the right players into his system. Why hasn't he tried running an option with Carlos Brown and Denard? That seems like it would be so lethal with the amount of speed available on that play!
October 4th, 2009 at 10:39 AM ^
Right now, DRob is not a threat in any way to beat a team throwing. The defense KNOWS he's running. The kid obviously isn't comfortable passing the ball.
RR has to come up with better plays for DRob, because the hesitation draw that EVERYONE knows is coming, isn't working....
October 4th, 2009 at 10:43 AM ^
Right now the defense is playing Denard to run. All you need to do is put a couple of fake runs into the offense; e.g., Denard fakes the qb draw; Denard sprints out and then stops and passes, etc. I'd like to see that, especially on a third and four type situation.
October 4th, 2009 at 11:16 AM ^
In fact, I look like a jackass today because I told my friends that Michigan's practices were closed this week, probably because DRob was getting some new plays to take advantage of his speed. I'm not sure why I said that to them, since I really had no *factual* reason to believe that.
Anyways, for about 3 quarters they kept asking me why RichRod hasn't unveiled the DRob package yet. I said it's still coming. Then DRob comes in and loses yardage. They got a good laugh out of that.
October 4th, 2009 at 11:33 AM ^
from his freshman year. Simple like 5-10 yard throws and fake runs with short passes for a qiuck 3-4 yards. Mixed with his runs of course.
October 4th, 2009 at 11:37 AM ^
It might be nice to have a short yardage play where DRob fakes the draw and throws to a tight end in the back of the endzone. He is young and will only get better, and I think it is hard to get too disappointed given the way Tate brings the offense back late in games. The fact that we even had a chance in the last five minutes impresses me, and I think that we have a good enough team to play in a bowl game this year. It is definitely an improvement offensively.
October 4th, 2009 at 12:43 PM ^
This would be difficult to do as Denard isn't a great option to run on the goal line as Tebow is. The main difference being that Tebow is at least 50 lbs heavier than Denard and a bruising runner. Also, Tebow is Jesus' younger brother, or so the media makes it seem.
October 4th, 2009 at 12:26 PM ^
I keep wondering why the only run they give Denard is the ISQD. Do they not trust him to make the right reads on the zone plays? Because I feel like he would be all kinds of deadly scooting off the backside of a zone-read play.
October 4th, 2009 at 12:31 PM ^
I have been making this point for two or three weeks - no, the coaches clearly don't trust him to run the read option.
October 4th, 2009 at 5:27 PM ^
both our QBs arent great at reading the read option.
October 4th, 2009 at 11:29 PM ^
We can't assume that Denard is as good as Tate at throwing on the run.