Run/Pass balance on 1st down
I was reading over at GBMWolverine.com and a poster mentioned how against Akron, UM ran on first down 20/27 plays, and against Uconn they ran on 23/27 first downs. He also said against ND the balance was about split in half.
That got me thinking that maybe Al's 1st down play calling is too predictable and conservative (which has probably been mentioned here) and why we would often see the box stacked on first down. Thus when we lost a yard or 2 due to the extra players in the box, Devin is now forced to make more hero-like plays on 2nd and long translating into mistakes.
Do you all think maybe in the bye-week they will think about mixing it up a lot more on first down as they get ready for the B1G schedule? Maybe Al was intentionally holding back a lot against our very inferior opponents on first down to not give up too much film, despite Brady always praising whatever team we play no matter how good or bad? Obviously it backfired quite a bit by rattling Devin.
Something tells me the coaches are going to come out firing a lot stronger vs. our B1G opponents (maybe minus MSU as I think they will be expecting a field position battle) and we may be pleasantly suprised, as long as the team doesn't cough it up too much.
just some thoughts I hope you all expand on.
this is my first thread, be easy on the OP :)
September 25th, 2013 at 8:46 PM ^
Mike Leach has an offense that does a few things well. On top of that a lot of the success of his offense is based on exploiting a defense after the snap. Borges is almost the complete opposite. Let's huddle for half the play clock and run the play as scripted. Borges plans all his deception with different formations while running scripted plays. Leach runs his offense almost exclusively from the shotgun with the deception coming after the snap. Leach also calls the play with his offense going no huddle giving the coaches a chance to see what the defense is aligning in.
To me, Borges has been painfully predictable on first down, and in this case, given the lack of success on average when running on first down, I'd say the splits prove contrary to the point you're trying to make. When you are predictable and unsuccessful on first down, the predictability of the next downs goes up as well.
September 25th, 2013 at 9:35 PM ^
September 26th, 2013 at 1:19 PM ^
September 25th, 2013 at 8:37 PM ^
My biggest beef with Borges is that he has almost completely eschewed a running game that hummed in the previous regime. You can keep what works as you transition without being no huddle. I, for one, believe that play calling has a huge impact on execution, and with a few exceptions Michigan simply hasn't surprised many teams offensively. Michigan has no staple play or base offense. If you can run the different plays well, this can make for a dangerous offense. When you don't, you establish no rythm and have no established plays to fall back on. Michigan is a disjointed mess on offense, period.
September 25th, 2013 at 9:28 PM ^
on first down vs UConn. In the fourth quarter we had seven first downs. The first two were incomplete passes. The next 4 were runs by Fitz; 12 yd TD, 14 yd, 6 yd, 1 yd (he fumbled 3 yards backwards). The last was the victory formation. For all of the hyperbole about the constant 2nd and 12s, (no doubt there were too many negative plays), there were a number of decent gains. Even though we were so predictable that UConn could overplay the run, we were in a poor position every single time we passed on first down. I think Borges would like to pass a lot more on first down, as we did vs ND. Perhaps the reason we didn't is something other than his being a stupid dinosaur who likes to butt his head into walls.