Running back outlet in the Passing game
Pass protection has seemed to be a recurring issue. Somewhat thankfully now though, it's mainly from a blitz pickup standpoint...Whereas before there were also a lot of instances of pressure from the basic D-line.
Teams are showing a tendency to just send a backer and gamble on meeting the running backs at the mesh point, no matter if it's a running play or not. The RB has to then block them coming at full speed if it's a pass.
Leaking a back like Turner (and Evans last year) and his quick athleticism out in space, in the flat, rather than staying in to block, seems much more advantageous to the offense.
It gives the QB more room to operate and also another outlet receiver. The safety's have to keep an eye on that threat too, in case the assuredly slower LBs have a problems.
Wisconsin's D is very susceptible to this. I saw PSU use it a lot when Saquon was there (OSU also, but not quite as much).
He would just run out and stand by the sideline perpendicular with Trace and I would think how in the world is someone not covering him of all players. The answer is that you really can't.
I'm sure this is a wrinkle to the offense Gattis brought with him and we'll see it on Saturday, now that the tackles seemed to have earned some trust.
September 17th, 2019 at 2:54 PM ^
RIP Chris Evans and the ideal offense for his skillset
September 17th, 2019 at 3:40 PM ^
Doubtful they just would have ran him right up the middle into a 9 man front and got 2 yards. Go back and watch the tape Michigan uses a heavy amount of Two TE's. It's the same exact offense from last year.
September 17th, 2019 at 4:23 PM ^
We saw flashes of the new offense in the first game and when they executed it looked quite promising.
I don't know why they abandoned it in the Army game - their explanation doesn't make a lot of sense.
Having said that, Army was always going to be a weird game, MTSU is a better indication of what this offense will look like this year.
September 17th, 2019 at 8:12 PM ^
Playing Army doesn’t have to be weird. They don’t dictate your offense. They control the ball and you have less possessions, that’s the extent of weird.
September 17th, 2019 at 4:40 PM ^
Tuner has that skill set.
September 17th, 2019 at 6:26 PM ^
Let's be real. Chris Evans was no "Snake Hips" Tucker.
September 17th, 2019 at 4:38 PM ^
Check out Play #3...
September 17th, 2019 at 3:02 PM ^
The problem is, our QB dont seem to be able to hit our RB on the move. Shea tends to throw behind or completely airmail the passes.
September 17th, 2019 at 3:08 PM ^
It’s also hard when the game plan is to run it 30+ times into stacked boxes.
September 17th, 2019 at 3:39 PM ^
It was early in the game, well before 15 runs, that Patterson couldn't make the pass to Charbonnet. And so ended that experiment.
September 17th, 2019 at 4:06 PM ^
We were all excited for the space thing but this offense similar to last season minus a FB, Shea in the shotgun, and no play-action deep in UM’s own territory.
Lots of time left and we’ll learn more this weekend but I think what we’ve seen so far is all the space we are going to get.
September 17th, 2019 at 4:22 PM ^
Don't discount Harbaugh holding back the offense on film vs a lesser MTSU and weird Army opponent, for the Big Ten season. I believe he has done so and you'll see the offense we've been hoping for.
It didn't go as planned vs Army, but this is the most logical explanation, and I am banking on it... Your post might be a few weeks too early. If it's the same vs Army then we will know.
September 17th, 2019 at 4:40 PM ^
This has been theorized in previous seasons as well....
September 17th, 2019 at 6:03 PM ^
You left the word “all” (before previous) out of your sentence.
September 17th, 2019 at 10:22 PM ^
Your vast knowledge of football is amazing.
September 17th, 2019 at 3:10 PM ^
Are you basing this on what you saw in the Army game? Patterson is excellent at throwing screens and darts to the flat. He's an athletic, accurate qb when he knows where to put the ball. It remains to be seen how well he can read coverages and make quick decisions in the new offense, but this idea that he has all at once become inept at throwing is simply not borne out by his body of work.
(responding to UM21's comment above)
September 17th, 2019 at 3:14 PM ^
He actually threw a bad screen pass against MTSU, which negates all other good short passing he did over the last year.
September 17th, 2019 at 3:19 PM ^
Like hell he is...you must be confusing him with Mahomes-damn is he good!!!
Edit: You guys negging me here must be mindless homers. I do not believe Shea has hit his RB in stride this year-so far. My Mahomes reference is from last Sunday when the Chiefs offense insolated the RB on an LB. The LB read what was happening pre-snap and played it perfectly but had no chance because Mahomes' pass was so perfect the RB never had to break a fraction of an inch of stride-what a beautifully executed play. And I said out loud, "I hope Patterson is watching"...because he is struggling to even complete this simple, short pitch yet alone hit his teammate in stride. I believe this is a composure issue. This kid has got to get a grip here. Shea has a ton of talent...but if you can't make the play live it doesn't matter how good you look in practice.
September 17th, 2019 at 6:40 PM ^
I'm basing it off the last 10-15 years of watching Michigan football. Go back and watch that comeback we had in the Metrodome in our huge comeback. That was predicated on screen passes to the RB. It wasn't long after that we stopped being able to effectively make those plays.
September 17th, 2019 at 4:43 PM ^
Very disheartening when ohio brings in a transfer and his throws are perfect. I'm not going belly up yet; however, this next game will be very telling. Do we have a new O. Can a SR QB lead. Is the OL better. Can the coaching staff outcoach someone???
September 17th, 2019 at 3:08 PM ^
especially if the running back is fast...... and you can get him the ball in the open field....
that's like speed in space! we should try that!!
September 17th, 2019 at 3:22 PM ^
New wrinkles on offense wouldn't work. The Michigan way is to do things the hard way. Even if the defense knows what's coming, Michigan will still run that fucking play. Being bland and vanilla is preferred rather than innovative and modern.
September 17th, 2019 at 3:47 PM ^
So, last year in the 38-14 win, Nico was our high yardage guy for passing and he had 31 yards!!! Patterson had 124 yards passing. Higdon had 105 rushing.
Hopefully the old guard who, at the first sign of game time trouble appears to step in and say "run it because we are 29-0 if we can get a rusher to 100 yards", stays quiet. We'd like to really see what this offense can do, please.
September 17th, 2019 at 4:15 PM ^
I'd love to see a 40/60, run/pass split. Or some where between 50/50 and this.
September 17th, 2019 at 4:41 PM ^
Assuming we have time to pass I would bet you'll get your wish
September 17th, 2019 at 4:54 PM ^
A huge % of this new offense is supposed to be post snap reads & then running or passing based on what certain defensive players are doing.
I don’t give two shits what the run/pass ratio at the end of the game.
What I want to see is us making the correct reads & efficiently executing the play to pick up as much yards as possible. If a team stacks the box like Army, yes I want to see us on the edges & torching them through the air.
But if a team gives us a soft middle because they’re hedging against the “speed in space” stuff, then obliging then and cramming a Charbonnet sandwich down their throats is exactly what we should do. In fact, in that circumstance, trying to edge them or bomb them through the air would be just as dumb and stubborn as running into a stacked box repeatedly.
September 17th, 2019 at 4:49 PM ^
I know that "Michigan" is a kind of metonymy in your and other posters very sage writings for coaches, tradition, the football program, Schem Hall, whatever, but honestly. . . this all gets so reductive and repetitive. Can you all get a room, put your heads together and come up with something, anything, new? How many times can the same uninspired tropes be assembled in the service of such quarter-arsed thinking?
It just doesn't follow--and wouldn't make a lick of sense--for Jimmy to hire Gattis and completely jettison the playing style they've worked months to master. Not gonna happen. May hiccup, may fail. But it isn't being tossed out after one-and-a-half games.
I absolutely promise you that if the current experiment doesn't work out the narrative will be reversed and the same people will be talking about how Michigan lacks an identity, keeps changing coaching philosophies, etc. Who are we, why aren't we the tough Michigan of old. . . you can already see hints of it in Wojo's column this morning.
Or how about this? Since Patterson and a bunch of guys were injured and we were playing Army last week, give this thing two weeks. If they still play like complete crap thinking people can all concede the field to the lemmings and crazies, get on with our lives, and let you carry on with your torches and pitchforks. Clearly, this is now what America does--shriek a lot--and Michigan football fans do it with the best of them. For people who want to criticize football players and their coaches, there is an interesting undercurrent of hysteria to it. . . that they might want to take a look at.
September 17th, 2019 at 5:04 PM ^
Good points...Saturday we'll know if it's time to break out the hard liquor
September 17th, 2019 at 5:49 PM ^
Thank god we have self righteous posters like you to keep us all straight.
/s
September 17th, 2019 at 3:38 PM ^
True?
I don't know what this is. Is there a question? Sometimes running backs run routes? I agree. We should do that? We do.
September 17th, 2019 at 4:37 PM ^
Check out Play #3, you'll see what I mean.
Looks like by the way the reciever blocks they ran it to get Saquon the ball here , but it doesn't necessarily have to have that intention.
Just him standing over there makes the LBs have to move out of the middle of the box to account for him.
September 17th, 2019 at 4:59 PM ^
Cool. Now here it is without the hurdle:
September 17th, 2019 at 5:52 PM ^
You must think I was being critical or something. Wasn't my intention.
Your play is similar to what I'm talking about but not quite.
Wasn't much space with the ball being on the right hash. The play was pre-determined to go to him.
Eubanks' particular route actually hurt the play. Drew attention plus they were able to guard both at the same time. Had he ran a drag, a slant, or anything over the middle, the LB would've had to chose (conflict).
*Even on that play Charbonnet garners so much attention that Shea could've ran to the left and easily got the First down at the least.
Also, If the top receivers were running Fly patterns, he's running until they turn around.
September 17th, 2019 at 5:57 PM ^
I dont think you're being critical. I honestly don't know what your point is. You want us to use our RBs like that? We did. We will continue to.
September 17th, 2019 at 3:41 PM ^
Unfortunately we are not good at throwing to people who start in the backfield.
September 17th, 2019 at 3:58 PM ^
The OL situation may partly explain this. The coaches might think the extra blocker is needed with Mayfield and Hayes being thrown into starting duty as redshirt freshmen, and especially so if they think Shea is bailing on plays too early.
Then I seem to remember that Harbaugh's offenses have never really emphasized the RB in the passing game, and I shrug. But that's more feelingsball.
September 17th, 2019 at 4:09 PM ^
The flare to Evans last year against OSU was nice. The Angle route against OSU two years ago was nice, except JOK couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.
Would think these two types of routes would help fill spaces where blitzers came from
September 17th, 2019 at 4:10 PM ^
I think the shiftiness of Chris Evans was a bit over blown, honestly, and his lack of ball security (ironic I know) would have scared me coming into the year. I know he had a few good moves, specifically I remember his run against FSU. But for a guy that was supposed to be really elusive, he seemed pretty easy to take down, even in the open field.
Am I the only one who thinks this?
September 17th, 2019 at 4:17 PM ^
He didn't go down easy......until he was touched.
September 17th, 2019 at 4:58 PM ^
Freshman Evans was shifty and elusive. Once he gained a ton of muscle I think he running style changed notably.
September 17th, 2019 at 8:03 PM ^
The coaches had him bulk up for no reason. His freshman year he was very fast and elusive.
September 17th, 2019 at 4:18 PM ^
What is this "passing game" you speak of? I'm intrigued
September 17th, 2019 at 4:21 PM ^
Have they run a screen play since Harbaugh has been here?
September 17th, 2019 at 4:25 PM ^
More screen passes please!
September 17th, 2019 at 4:29 PM ^
Run 4 bubble screens and 4 fades (at least) every game.
September 17th, 2019 at 4:29 PM ^
One of these days UM will find a qb that has qb passing instincts. I guess Rudock counts. It just goes to show you how tough it is to find these guys unless you play for Oklahoma.
September 17th, 2019 at 4:45 PM ^
I look forward to the day we see QBs who M recruited and came up through our system start and play. Good teams always seem to have strong qbs every year to start not sure why we don't after 5 years.
September 17th, 2019 at 4:59 PM ^
Somewhere, over the rainbow...way up high
September 17th, 2019 at 5:01 PM ^
Three different OCs in 5 years might have something to do with it.