Maryland Snowflakes: The Offense

JJs second start, first against a real team. Lots to build on in a win. That’s a win

I want Tennessee's passing offense.

First lets just take a breath and realize this was the first real game our guys played today. And without Edwards,  who would have made this a better offense.  

Moody isn’t always going to hit.

Young players are growing.

Imagine you play 3 teams who have led feet compared to the speed we saw today. Add to that the fact that JJ maybe had a good game but not down field.  

This Maryland team is Power run. Their D was used to playing against some of our schemes.

There offense screened us to death in the first half but I think our corners were good.

All in all I know the OLine needs work.  One game at a time.

The offense wasn’t bad but it was pretty far from elite. Yeah JJ missed some deep shots he would normally hit but the receivers also struggled to get real separation. Going to need to be a lot better 

So, uh, this figures to be the hot button topic of this week.  I'm not sure how much was play calling or poor execution, but it felt clunky at times.

On the bright side, pass protection is no longer the foremost worry in the mind of the Michigan fan.

However, JJ McCarthy's stat line looks a lot better than he did in this game.  There was a stretch in the middle of the game where he was making poor decisions and overthrowing WRs.  BUT, the thing I noticed is he hung in there anyway and made some big throws later on.  If you didn't watch the game, a line of 18/26 for 220 yards 2 TD 0 INT looks perfectly fine.  But, watching the game revealed that either (A) our plan for Maryland dropping 8 into coverage was really poor or (B) McCarthy's level of play dropped a bit from the superhuman we'd seen earlier this season.  Or both.  Running backward is never a good idea, and he almost threw a really bad INT late where the Maryland defender couldn't stay in bounds.  Let's see how he grows from his first setback this season.

On the brighter side, Blake Corum was a MONSTER.  He might've single-handedly won this game for UM with his pair of jump cut TD runs.  The one right before half got the crowd back into it at 17-13.  The one in the 4th QTR where Maryland badly lost contain essentially ended the game.  When a Michigan RB is doing things that haven't been done since Denard Robinson, you know it was a really good day at the office.  But, Donovan Edwards needs to get healthy soon, please and thank you.

Gio El-Hadi is getting a lot of run with Keegan's status being ?!???  Last year it was Zinter with a hand-club, this year the other guard seems to be the wild card.  In any case, the "let's run to Zinter/Jones side" was profitable for the first half.  Then, a left-handed running game worked well in the 2nd half.

The offense should have scored at least 20 more points in this one. MD does not have a very good D. IA has a good D and we will need points to win!

Pretty indisputable that both the OCs and JJ were not prepared for what Maryland showed them. MARYLAND. That’s on the OCs. 

Curious about how the game was on TV in regards to the two great Blake Corum read-and-cut-accelerate-breakaway-for-TD plays.

At the game, it looked like a sudden shift from right to the left and a burst of speed. Was it that abrupt - can't wait to see it on replay later tonight.

The offense looked solid, but a little sloppy with some unforced errors. Hopefully they get it cleaned up, but not too worried...yet

Praise to Coach Hart. 

JJ has some things to clean up. You can see why there was a QB competition. JJ is not Jesus Christ returned to Earth on a bicycle. He's a young QB with potential who still has a lot to learn.

The O line looked shaky at times, good at other times. I have no idea why the disparity. So they have some things to clean up, too.

The lack of seam pass plays by these new OCs is mind boggling. OSU eats teams up with those routes but our OCs act like those routes don’t exist. Pretty bad when you have the commentators calling you out on your poor play calling.

I liked seeing offensive lineman running toward the pile to push for those extra couple yards.  Like blocking receivers, it adds a lot to the mix.  I bet Haskins was nearly +100 yards last year from the push.

JJ was. a yard long on his deep balls or this one would have been a blow out 

JJ overthrew 3 long balls and underthrew (maybe threw too far outside?) a fourth. That, along with the three fumbles (though I thought the one that resulted in 3rd & 25 was an incomplete pass) needs to be cleaned up.

Otherwise it was a pretty balanced and successful day. JJ hits on two of those four deep passes and it’s a blowout. Hopefully that can get corrected.

If today was last year’s Rutgers game, I’m ok with it. 

Edwards will be needed badly at Kinnick, I hope he’s ready.

Why did we run from under center so much throughout the game (and not just at the end when we were killing clock)?

It was not very effective.  It gave me flashbacks to the bad old Harbaugh days of Bad Offense.

I like JJ humble. The perfection thing was cool, but he is no Kwai Chang Caine. No meditation coaching needed. Keep calm and hit the open route.

Though JJ was not perfect, Blake got it done. Good teams have ways and find them. Iowa will have their hands full.