ECU Snowflakes: The Offense
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:23 PM ^
The first drive of the game and the whole 4th quarter…
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
JJ McCarthy is good at football
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:23 PM ^
Really nice by JJ.
Feels like we need to get the OL finalized and gelling sooner rather than later.
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:41 PM ^
I prefer in their jelling rather than maintain a gelatinous texture.
September 2nd, 2023 at 6:03 PM ^
For jelling purposes, I’d really like them to figure out a starting 5 on the o line soon.
And just my opinion from one game, but Hinton should not be on it
September 3rd, 2023 at 10:12 AM ^
Curious to see the UFR, but my take, live, was surprise that Hinton started, and belief that he was missing blocks.
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:57 PM ^
Missing Olu for sure, especially without coach Moore.
September 2nd, 2023 at 7:41 PM ^
I thought Corum was dancing around too much instead of just going forward. Maybe just trying to do too much today with all the hype. I think he'll figure it out when they watch some film.
September 3rd, 2023 at 11:49 AM ^
Corum still isn't right. Maybe its a mental thing he has to work through before he fully trusts his body right now or the fact that he didnt really get hit all off season. Hoping he works his way back into last seasons form against the easier early schedule. Because yesterday didn't look good. It was worrisome to see.
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:25 PM ^
First of all, JJ looks incredible. Roman is going to be very hard to stop. But…
Something seems off about Corum, not saying he’s bad or anything, he’s still a beast. He’s stopping way too much to try to change direction but the burst coming after the stop seems less than he had last year. Maybe it’s just a first game thing, but am I the only one that thought so?
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:26 PM ^
Partially that.
Partially the timing of the line seemed off most of the day. But if that’s the biggest concern, pretty good start to the season!
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:27 PM ^
One of his last runs he had a huge lane on the outside after bouncing it out, and he stops to change direction as if he didn’t trust his speed to get the edge, which lets the defense catch him. Took a 10+ gain and made it a 6 yard gain.
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:26 PM ^
he doesn't look nearly as explosive...... /ducks
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:58 PM ^
Unnecessary bulking and 2 injuries will do that to you.
September 2nd, 2023 at 6:43 PM ^
I didn't think that Edwards looked particularly explosive either. Was hoping to get a glimpse of Cabana at the end of the game to see if he looked noticeably quicker/shiftier.
September 3rd, 2023 at 3:59 AM ^
He averaged 7.3 per carry...higher than his average last year of 5.9. Not too shabby for his first game back.
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:28 PM ^
I think it was just a lot of Michigan sending him into a loaded box, knowing that it was a loaded box. He couldn't do much when there were more defenders than blockers.
September 2nd, 2023 at 5:25 PM ^
That's right. Running against a stacked box is not easy. (unless you're Barry).
September 3rd, 2023 at 12:12 PM ^
I kept telling my wife that the play would be a pass when there were 9-10 men in the box. When JJ didn't change the play she thought I was an idiot. The offense didn't always take what was given.
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:28 PM ^
Not sure he was completely trusting his fixed knee in his first live action.
September 2nd, 2023 at 4:38 PM ^
Knee injuries are a bitch to overcome mentally. I never did smh.
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:30 PM ^
First game. Stacked defense. I don’t think there’s anything here from which to draw conclusions.
September 2nd, 2023 at 4:21 PM ^
Plus no o line coach to make adjustments for them. I see most of yall are in mid season form complaining about every play already.
September 2nd, 2023 at 9:54 PM ^
I’m most impressed that you avoided ending your sentence with a preposition. This is a rare quality these days; I usually see this from those who have used a grammar handbook published by Abeka.
September 3rd, 2023 at 2:17 AM ^
This is the sort of pedantry up with which we should not put.
According to famous grammarian H. W. Fowler: "It is a cherished superstition that prepositions must, inspite of the incurable English instinct for putting them late [...] be kept true to their name & placed before the word they govern."
Using dangling prepositions is and has been common in English usage. Apparently, no one had any preferences against that until the 1600's, when an influential grammarian here and there took a vocal dislike to it. (Maybe they liked Latin, where supposedly dangling prepositions can't be created. I don't know Latin, so I couldn't say.)
September 3rd, 2023 at 7:00 AM ^
Very astute observations! Unfortunately, misplaced prepositions are so common in our vernacular that it now seems awkward at times to follow the traditional construction.
I'm not sure about Middle English, but I can tell you with certainty that neither Koine Greek literature nor Masoretic Hebrew literature contain a single sentence that demonstrates a proposition after its object.
September 3rd, 2023 at 7:35 AM ^
Get a room.
September 3rd, 2023 at 8:19 AM ^
Logged in to upvote this reply. Not so much for the sentiment, but for the humorous tone in which it was written.
PS: Hodges Harbrace FTW.
September 3rd, 2023 at 11:39 AM ^
haha, perfect
September 3rd, 2023 at 9:52 AM ^
+1 for rational take that doesn't overreact
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:31 PM ^
Corum was getting hit 2 yards behind the LOS on just about every run. I put his bad day on the OL
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:46 PM ^
Not sure it was the OL as much as it was ECU sending extra bodies and Michigan just saying "eh, let's just see if we can run through it anyway"
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:52 PM ^
OL missed a lot of blocks too, it wasn't just a numbers issue. I think they'll come out pretty mediocre in this week's UFR.
September 2nd, 2023 at 4:10 PM ^
Sustaining blocks seemed to be the biggest issue watching live.
September 2nd, 2023 at 4:21 PM ^
Yes, they seemed to get shed way too quickly. They also seemed to let defenders into gaps in a way that wrecked their blocking angles, but that may be an alignment and/or snap count issue.
September 2nd, 2023 at 4:16 PM ^
I noticed Hinton in particular missed a few from what appeared to be just a lack of effort. He’s a big guy but a few plays I saw him get beat and he was standing almost straight up
September 2nd, 2023 at 6:45 PM ^
I watched Hinton intently the first half and he seemed uninterested, not to mention getting blown back over and over. He sure looks the part physically. Didn't watch him the second half.
September 3rd, 2023 at 10:14 AM ^
I don't have a take on his effort, but did take note that he seemed to be standing there while 4 ECU guys were surrounding Corum. I think ECU flooded the box, and I suspect Hinton was not good. The UFR will be interesting!
September 3rd, 2023 at 11:41 AM ^
He seemed to have no mobility, flexibility, quickness. I doubt he plays much more this year until he works to improve his footwork, etc.
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:54 PM ^
It’s not always easy to read OL performance in the moment, but I agree ECU selling out on the run often had a lot to do with it.
September 2nd, 2023 at 5:36 PM ^
I had the same impression. Maybe a little rust? Maybe thinking about the knee? He still managed 7.3 a carry, had more runs than last year where he was stopped for little or no gain. We’ll see.
September 2nd, 2023 at 7:11 PM ^
Last year, teams like Iowa made it clear they were content to let M drive the field as long as they didn’t give up big passing plays. It wasn’t until Illinois that anyone really tried to take the run away. Corum and everyone feasted for 10 weeks while we all scratched our heads on why boxes weren’t more stacked.
Maybe this year teams will do the opposite and take the run away all year and JJ can make them pay.
September 2nd, 2023 at 6:01 PM ^
Too early to judge for me, but my concern all off-season has been that since he didn’t have months to do lower body weight lifting, he might not have quite the same power and explosiveness this year. Should still be really good though
September 2nd, 2023 at 8:51 PM ^
Coming off an injury and very hyped he may have been a little tentative today. He may have been told not to empty the tank? (I am not sure if that’s a thing).
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:25 PM ^
JJ and Wilson were solid. Everything else was frankly pretty unremarkable.
also, wtf is up with Corum? Is he hurt?
September 3rd, 2023 at 11:37 AM ^
Liked what I saw from CJ and Loveland also.
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:25 PM ^
Line was disappointing. Hinton missed a lot of blocks.
JJ looked really good except for the last goal line series.
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:30 PM ^
You’d think after the TCU loss they’d stop fucking around at the goaline and just run the fucking play. Second straight time the rush to catch the defense off guard failed miserably.
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:31 PM ^
Why are they going to try anything unusual at all against a minnow in a blowout?
September 2nd, 2023 at 3:49 PM ^
IMO this is a strange tendency that has developed around here to deny even obvious faults. Michigan is terrible at goal to go offense and has been winning despite it.
September 2nd, 2023 at 4:23 PM ^
Goal-to-go was a problem last year. This season Michigan got a first-and-goal and passed without play-action and scored, something that basically never happened this year. In a goal-line situation they scored easily with Corum.
Then with a big lead on a drive where people were already asking why the starters were still playing, they came out and said “we’re going to try to get Donovan Edwards a td.” He’s not their short yardage back or even their second choice for it. They weren’t going to do anything other than hand it off into the line, ECU knew that.
When you say it was a problem last year, we all agree. When you want to see whether there has been change or growth coming into the new season… this doesn’t provide us any data at all.
“Let’s show our good, new short yardage stuff to win by 34 instead of 27” is not something an interim coach and OC is likely to think is a reasonable choice.