unWavering

September 11th, 2016 at 8:52 AM ^

This lends to the theory that UCF completely sold out on the run. I was frustrated yesterday, but seeing other top teams struggle to run against inferior competition but tear it up through the air has me feeling a bit better.

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restive neb

September 11th, 2016 at 10:01 PM ^

There is more than one way to sell out against the run.  While it's true that they usually only had 7 in the box, a deep safety was involved in each of the first two tackles on Michigan's opening possession, one at the line of scrimmage, and one in the offensive backfield.  He wasn't in the box at the snap, but he was screaming forward immediately.  It is why play-action worked so effectively all game -- their safeties were selling out against the run with a very high frequency. 

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LSAClassOf2000

September 11th, 2016 at 9:04 AM ^

I think it became very apparent very early on that this is exactly what UCF was doing on most plays, and when I look at the net rushing stats and realize that, even with what seems a numerically paltry performance that the only negative rushing came from the Allen dropped snap and a Speight sack, also that the 2 rushing TD belong to Khalid Hill and all of his nine yards rushing, we were still getting some push when it mattered. I feel fine about that, especially because now other teams can see that the attitude is, "Fine, we'll burn you through the air then" and then we do. 

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reshp1

September 11th, 2016 at 10:29 AM ^

Our Fullbacks and Tight Ends were pretty awful at times too. A lot of perimeter running and plays in multiple TE sets were torpedoed by that, in addition to UCF selling out. Also, Braden and Bredeson are conspicuously missing in the positive list. I thought that left guard spot was an issue most of the game with either guy. Kind of surprised Kugler didn't get a shot given his performance last game.

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Rasmus

September 11th, 2016 at 3:54 PM ^

He is #55 -- I don't think he played week 1, and I don't remember seeing him yesterday.

Might be hurt, but if not then that means he's not in the 2-deep. I don't think they've played the 3-deep on the OL, which needs as much work as it can get at this point.

If he's healthy, then he'll play later in the year to relieve the 2-deep as the season wears on. But this probably means he's never going to play much. Still, I'll be surprised if he doesn't get a 5th year (if he wants it) next year, since they will need the depth and the incoming class is already crazy big.

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mGrowOld

September 11th, 2016 at 9:04 AM ^

If you read their so-called "expert analysis" they claim Michigan's offensive line dominated in the trenches which I know is complete and utter nonsense because I participated in the open thread yesterday so I KNOW our offensive line was the worst in the history of offensive lines.

Oh, and that Harbaugh guy is a big, fat liar too.  He said the o-line played well too in his presser.

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FreddieMercuryHayes

September 11th, 2016 at 8:53 AM ^

I'm guess, as even post game interviews mentioned, UCF was heavy run blitzing. Sending extra run defenders that blocking numbers just can't account for. UM seemed content to run into it and then simple play action in the passing game.



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evenyoubrutus

September 11th, 2016 at 8:57 AM ^

I rewatched the first half last night and it sure seemed like a lot of Michigan's runs were stuffed by the aggressive safety play. That's probably why we could beat them over the top so easily.

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LKLIII

September 11th, 2016 at 11:57 AM ^

Yeah that's a good point RE the pre snap misdirection. IIRC, Stanford at peak Harbaugh was really good at this. We weren't great at it last year because we were installing the playbook for the first time--but even then anonymous Bug Ten defenders from last year said we were less predictable than the Hoke era. My hope is this year we've got a bunch of pre snap & misdirection plays up our sleeve due to year 2 installation, but we just haven't had the need to use them yet.



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worstever

September 11th, 2016 at 8:59 AM ^

At the game it was hard to tell just how often they were blitzing but after reading this and watching the highlights you can see that 2/3 of the time they were selling out at least 2 extra defenders. I suppose if you know you're overmatched this is probably the best strategy.



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readyourguard

September 11th, 2016 at 9:00 AM ^

If there's anything to nitpick after a 37 point victory it would be....
Three UFC LBs graded well. To me, that's an indication that we're not getting to the second level very well. The LBs we play later this season will be a hell of a lot better than UCF.

Also, Braden had a really rough start after missing last week.

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BlueWon

September 11th, 2016 at 9:20 AM ^

When thre are effectively six of them -- UCF had 9-10 in the box all day long.

Listening to Speight's post-game comments, that is exactly what Harbaugh and Fisch expected and they reacted appropriately. 

Had the rains not hit UM likely would have put up 60 yesterday.

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MGoChippewa

September 11th, 2016 at 10:30 AM ^

Simply stating something doesn't make it true. When PFF says it was happening, and Jim Harbaugh says it was happening, and when Brian's probably going to say the same thing a few days from now, I'm glad you'll have the "I'm totally right guys, I'm just not going to tell you why" leg to stand on.

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restive neb

September 11th, 2016 at 10:05 PM ^

There were not 9-10 guys in the box.  There were frequently only 7.  However, UCF had their deep safeties flying forward immediately, so while there weren't 8 or 9 in the box at the snap, the safeties were selling out to stop the run.  Michigan scored 51, because they effectively used play-action to keep those safeties charging forward as Speight threw the ball all over the field.

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MichiganStudent

September 11th, 2016 at 9:01 AM ^

At the very least, this makes me feel much better about the performance. It was obvious the UCF was selling out to stop the run, but I still felt like we should have had more success. I look forward to the UFR this week to confirm what PFF alreday told us.

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