Luke Schoonmaker/tight ends held in check against Penn State.

Yes, PSU wasn't tackling the running backs.

My guess would be that it was a function of PSU having their safeties play from the parking lot. When we did pass, it was quick stuff to fast guys who could punish them in space.

All I know is that after that Eric All play last year they were probably keen on covering the TEs.

PSU lbers tried to stay in their zones, stay exactly where the te's would be.  In the film review sessions we have devasted defenses trying to stop the rec and backs and hit the te in the open zone.  Psu took that away keeping the lbers home and in their zones.  Hence why they weren't flowing with the pulling lineman.  IE get leveraged or get hit in the area you just vacated.  

The TEs were tired from finishing their blocks on all of the explosive running plays.  Great job by the TEs in this game.  Catches for TEs only tell part of the story.

It appeared to all be game planned. Guessing it was a zig when they had planned for a zag. 

There was one play were Luke was wide open in the middle and JJ forced a pass outside. Would have been a 15-yarder at worst.

Sidebar....This TE room is crazy exciting. Hibner, Loveland and Newsome running the ship? Very exciting.

M has an NFL style approach on offense where they build a game plan based on certain matchups they believe they can take advantage of. You will most likely see different receivers featured each week. They spread the ball around quite a bit.

this is unrelated. but i do miss Erick All. I think the dimension he adds in terms of a big fast pass catching TE down field isn't quite in the repertoire of the current TE group. Theyre all good, but.. he was really fun to watch and had some attitude with it too.

He's had a lot of injuries. If our TE room is as stocked as we think, I think he should get healthy and to the NFL next year. Another year of injuries and his NFL stock will be rock bottom.

To answer your question, I was curious about that, but we just ran over PSU and I think their guys may have been following our TEs to the peril of our RBs just running past their LBs. 

There should be a ton of TE passes this weekend as msu loads up on the run and they break open all over.

This is the natural evolution of defenses trying to find the soft spot on our offense.

JJ hit deep shots early in the season, so defenses moved back their safeties, opening up stuff in the middle.  Schoonmaker feasted.  Now the threats of JJ's legs and intermediate throws to Schoonmaker/Bell are pulling linebackers away from the box, but as PSU learned, you get Corum'd and Edwards'd in the face.  Load up the box to deal with that, and you're back to square one.

JJ, Wilson, Bell, Schoonmaker, Corum. . . all of these Dudes are chain-movers, and that really spreads out a defense.  The worst part for opposing DCs is that the offense is happily taking what they're giving, as opposed to "impose your will" lunacy.  So you take one thing away, and we'll just pummel you with something else, because the weapons are everywhere.

This last point can't be understated.  Us old fogies have seen multiple OCs come through Michigan that would be averaging 20ppg with this roster.

Held in check 😂 

You should go back and relearn Coach Harbaugh’s most and least important statistics.  41-17

OP's user name checks out. Is he Rainer Sabin? I wonder.

They held Brad Robbins in check all day long, too. Didn't get to punt once. Frustrating.  

Given the dominance of the run game it hardly mattered

Replace “hardly” with “didn’t.” Then change to “matter.” All set. 

Well they got 1 part of their gameplan right. The only dam thing they did right. 

Frames and Diaz were more worried about JJ completing passes than the running attack.  The plan didn't work out well.  Now, with MSU, they will focus on the running game no doubt, because they can't cover in the secondary worth a shit.  JJ, the TEs and the WRs will get their yards next game.  Wilson, Schoon and Bell may have career days.

As Klatt says- take the profit.  
 

Schoon was showing how well he can block as a TE thus showing his value to nfl teams and securing him in the 2nd round

This is a good question. In the stuff I rewatched, I wasn't looking at this too closely, but I did note some stuff.

Penn State was really focused on attacking the edges when a man motioned across the LOS at the snap. If a TE or receiver was in motion when the ball snapped, PSU had a guy charging to that side of the field. This allowed them to cover a lot of Michigan's shallow routes in the flat, and also provided an extra defender to the play side in the event of an arc read keeper from JJ.

I suspect a lot of what is observed in the OP can be explained by this and related stuff. The Penn State defense attempted to take away a number of the things Michigan has shown it likes to do.

The problem they encountered is that this action also erased a defender from the point of attack on runs between the tackles, which everyone recalls had a tendency to be enormously successful.

Michigan saw what Penn State was doing and had the tools to exploit that. This is an important fact to remember when people complain about play calls and about game plans and such. A lot of people want the offense to take what the defense is giving them, to take advantage of weak spots, etc. They want active work by the OCs to attack. I want that stuff. And while I want more of that stuff downfield, they absolutely were doing that here. 

Given the dominance of the run game it hardly mattered

It's been mentioned below but part of it was PSU sending pressure (which led to the TEs sometimes working through more bodies), PSU actively trying to take away the short TE passes, and McCarthy/UM realizing that meant there were fewer defenders to stop the run and taking advantage.  PSU has two top corners and trusted them to work on islands so they could devote more resources to stopping the tight tends and the related passes, and it sorta worked for a bit but clearly wasn't sustainable.

I'm okay with this.

And if the RBs ever have an off game, then perhaps the TEs will have a field day because they're getting open underneath while the defense is stacking the box to defend the run.

They also had Wilson running little slants and the like into the part of the field where Schoon usually goes to work.  I figured they'd bet on the TEs getting extra attention, and compensating in the game plan accordingly.

Yes, 418 yards on the ground.  No need to throw to anyone, when your backs are going for 65 yards every time, they touch the ball. 

I noticed that TEs were being closely guarded even on the 1st and 2nd drives. The short dump pass to Wilson down to the 5 on 3rd down was a great adjustment by our staff. All the more reason to realize that have great players and a great staff and great fans too (we don't cheer when someone goes down for the other team).

This is satire, right? You cannot be this dense.