Snap counts and PFF grades for Saturday
Wyatt do y'all think? Does this line up with what you saw or was PFF too hard on us? Grant was the only one I was really focused on on defense and I definitely agree he had a great game.
September 3rd, 2023 at 5:02 PM ^
I have started down the road of believing CB2 is going to be ok and I am still worried about the pass rush. This seems to agree with me so I believe it
September 3rd, 2023 at 6:21 PM ^
I think we need a bit more data on the pass rush. Hard to say with these poor OOC teams. We only got 1 sack against Hawaii last year on like 40 passing attempts, but that was because they were almost exclusively doing 3 step drops
Then we had 7 sacks against CSU on far fewer attempts, because they tried throwing downfield more. And 0 against UConn, who again did not trying anything other than 3 step drops
ECU was trying to get the ball out fast, to avoid pressure. I was watching the DL and Grant was definitely a bright spot, and Moore looked like he had quite a few "near pressures" that would have impacted the passing game, had ECU not tried to get the ball out instantly
Not worried about Jenkins or Graham either. We know they are good. If Grant can be good too... whoo boy.
Stewart also had a couple nice plays. I think we'll be at least as good at edge as last year. Harrell 2023 = Harrell 2022, Soph Moore + Stewart = 2022 Morris
September 3rd, 2023 at 7:31 PM ^
Good stuff about the OOC games from last year. It didn't look good early on but they got better. It's way too early to make a judgement on either pass rush or sacks.
JJ wasn't sacked either as he had good protection from his OL against ECU.
September 4th, 2023 at 11:46 AM ^
Added because they left out the Safeties.
September 4th, 2023 at 10:05 AM ^
From an eye test, I thought we were getting consistent pressure from the DL, but ECU was getting the ball out fast. Once Rod Moore and Will Johnson are back, I think we see that pressure turn into sacks/pressures/hurries
September 3rd, 2023 at 5:06 PM ^
I know the blog doesnt agree with PFF O line grades, but from the eye test Myles Hinton does not belong on the football field and this grade shows it. If JJ wasn't as mobile a QB back there is gonna get killed - hope to god he's not the starter and Jones steps up next week
September 3rd, 2023 at 5:15 PM ^
September 3rd, 2023 at 6:04 PM ^
Yeah I think their issue is the consistency of the grading, and the ability to make meaningful comparisons. There was some belief that Hinton was going to need a RS year to correct some bad habits from Stanford, so I don't think this is surprising.
September 3rd, 2023 at 6:22 PM ^
I wonder how much of this is like starting Cade as Game 1 last year , then JJ.
Do they start the presumed guys in the 2nd game? I was very surprised Hinton was in conversation for starter after his Hello post
September 3rd, 2023 at 7:20 PM ^
This is what Im thinking, no hoping. In my eyes the Stanford duo came up short. Not saying Nugent isnt the starter, but you can definitely tell that that was a close battle in camp. If Crippen gets some more snaps next weekend and shows out, I wouldnt mind slotting him in. Man I miss Olus ability to reach block and his ability to identify targets in the second level.
September 3rd, 2023 at 8:06 PM ^
Agree with you. Hinton and Nugent seemed to struggle yesterday. Maybe they haven’t been able to gel yet, maybe it’s because there coach wasn’t there, or something else, but watching from where I was sitting, I didn’t think the line played at the level we’ve become accustom to.
September 3rd, 2023 at 8:31 PM ^
Agree, though with Nugent I'll give him a bit more time because I do think it's hard to pick up a lot of the line calls at center coming over and Olu sort of spoiled Michigan fans with how quick that transition was. Hinton never struck me as a realistic starter at tackle and this feels like a game where the coaches gave him a chance but sort of knew he wasn't quite ready. He'll probably redshirt and then you've got potentially 2 years of him being good.
September 4th, 2023 at 12:37 PM ^
With the 4 game redshirt cushion, why not? That way you can give a transfer used to playing time a fair shot in a real game. PFF and Mgoblog of course don't think Hinton is the best option.
September 3rd, 2023 at 10:15 PM ^
Last time I remember a UM OL struggling and getting beat up on this board was Runyan at ND in 2018. He recovered ok.
But yeah, Hinton had some pretty visible mistakes.
September 4th, 2023 at 9:18 AM ^
What happened to Laderius at LT and Barnhart at RT?
September 4th, 2023 at 10:15 AM ^
I think we're using preseason to test some tackle combos. Wouldn't be shocked if next week was Henderson at LT and Jones at RT, then the last week will be whatever combo the staff thinks is best and they will start moving forward
September 4th, 2023 at 7:45 PM ^
Barnhart can play both sides. Not everyone can do that.
I am guessing they need depth at LT and maybe Henderson is not as good as they were hoping.
Hinton did not look that great but UFR will be interesting.
I would not be surprised if it’s not Barnhart at LT and Jones at RT when the dust clears. Plus your depth is better that way.
I would be more confident Barnhart will be starting somewhere.
September 4th, 2023 at 10:14 AM ^
I wonder how much starting Hinton was more of a live reps progress assessment to see what he needs to work on. I don't think anyone is actually buying that he's currently remotely the best option at RT
September 3rd, 2023 at 5:09 PM ^
I feel like its going to be hard to keep Hausmann off the field. Him and Colson are our two best linebackers which means Barrett might see his snap count drop dramatically.
September 3rd, 2023 at 5:24 PM ^
Might be able to use Barrett more as a viper, his natural position, rather than a MLB if Hausmann is the real deal (which he appears to be right now)
September 3rd, 2023 at 7:00 PM ^
I think Barrett is a natural linebacker now. He was better than Colson last year and now he’s bulked up to 239.
September 3rd, 2023 at 5:51 PM ^
Colson, Hausmann, and Sabb all had some missile tackles on Saturday.
September 3rd, 2023 at 9:31 PM ^
where was Rolder? I hadn't heard he was injured
September 3rd, 2023 at 9:54 PM ^
Rolder was on the pregame injury report as out. No idea what his injury is.
September 4th, 2023 at 10:54 PM ^
Hausmann is a hoss
...man
September 3rd, 2023 at 5:17 PM ^
There’s a reply that has the full defensive back grades and shows Sabb with the highest grade, which seems like a great sign
September 3rd, 2023 at 6:33 PM ^
Agree on Sabb. Based purely on what I saw yesterday I'd say that Sabb, Hill, Waller, and Hillman at least look the part.
September 3rd, 2023 at 5:17 PM ^
Keon Sabb didn't play amazing football yesterday?
September 3rd, 2023 at 5:20 PM ^
He's on the extended list (we played a lot of guys). Actually graded out as the best DB (barely beating out Sainristil).
September 3rd, 2023 at 5:21 PM ^
Klein ahead of Hibner and Frederick Moore running 12 routes while Clemons only ran 2 are the only things that stand out to me.
September 3rd, 2023 at 6:47 PM ^
Clemons is battling injuries and limped off after his catch
September 3rd, 2023 at 8:14 PM ^
Hibner was out due to injury.
September 3rd, 2023 at 5:23 PM ^
Not a super big fan of PFF's grades, but it seems to match the eye test from my memory for the most part (I'm ignoring OL grades because last year proved they're wildly off base).
Kenneth Grant is gonna be a problem, he was all over the field. Way more mobile than he any right to be. Hausmann is a spectacular portal grab, him and Colson together make a great tandem of sideline to sideline backers. Josh Wallace has instantly quieted my concerns for the CB2 position for now, as he looked totally natural out there. Keon Sabb and Zeke Berry also stood out to me in a good way, and PFF seems to agree.
September 3rd, 2023 at 8:46 PM ^
Honestly the o-line looked pretty mediocre yesterday.
September 3rd, 2023 at 11:27 PM ^
Josh Wallace has instantly quieted my concerns for the CB2 position for now, as he looked totally natural out there.
Really? It was ECU Wrs not MH or PSU receivers.
September 3rd, 2023 at 11:49 PM ^
I would hope we don't put Wallace on MH very often if Johnson is healthy.
September 3rd, 2023 at 5:23 PM ^
I’m interested in the UFRs this week - I didn’t see OL play like we expected. Could have been the excellently planned strategy that ECU brought to the table. I’m not an expert, so I’ll defer to smarter minds.
In terms of running backs, Donovan Edwards adding excellent pass blocking to his resume…it’s going to be tough to keep him off the field.
And, with no intention of disparaging him, I’m surprised that Warren’s grade was that *high*. The second team offense looked like a big big dropoff from first team, with the biggest gap being at QB. Game 1 caveats apply, but dude.
September 3rd, 2023 at 5:37 PM ^
After TCU and ECU I think we might need to ask if Michigan can run on a 3-3-5. The offense was fine in aggregate but running plays didn’t seem to have the same effect as they did last year
September 3rd, 2023 at 5:38 PM ^
We can't run when there are nine guys charging the line immediately (at least without some kind of counter action). That's basically every football team ever.
September 3rd, 2023 at 6:11 PM ^
UFR will prove it but I agree with you. They were firing the safeties and LBs into the LOS every play. You can't run well when you're outnumbered in the box. Conversely, JJ carved them up through the air. It was the OSU strategy with less JJ runs to redirect their safeties ("we're ECU they're not gonna do it" - paraphrasing a podcast quote). And it was the OSU result without the offense keeping their foot on the gas until the end of the game.
I think that's how games are going to look until someone decides to bracket our receivers and find out whether we can still run when there's only 5 guys in the box.
September 3rd, 2023 at 7:15 PM ^
Brian tweeted out during the game that ECU was ignoring the JJ run options on the plays that included that as a constraint....thus doing very well on those plays. There was no way M was going to "waste" carries by JJ on this opponent.
IIRC - Brian added that the under center plays which didn't have the QB threat were performing better. (Not a football guru but I am assuming the QB/RB exchange in Pistol/shotgun gives the LBs and safeties more time and/or indication of where the RB will go without the threat of a QB keeper?)
September 3rd, 2023 at 5:50 PM ^
I’m hoping that yesterday was a case of Michigan not wanting to show much and be as vanilla as possible in the OOC. What I do know is that JJ being utilized as a running threat will open up the run lanes more. We have shown the ability now to pass on people Eventually teams won’t be able to sell out. JJ not being a run option is allowing teams to send everyone into the interior of the line like kamikaze’s.
September 3rd, 2023 at 6:21 PM ^
Or they'll keep selling out against the run and JJ will keep playing video games against them. Corum gave a quote yesterday saying exactly that.
September 3rd, 2023 at 6:26 PM ^
I do believe he is up to the challenge from a passing perspective but I do think we need to scheme him into the run offense more, especially against better opponents. Think Illinois and TCU last year. Also, we will clean up some of the issues from this week going forward from a run block perspective. That 22 personnel play that almost got Blake a td is stuff we can do going forward to help the run game.
September 3rd, 2023 at 8:00 PM ^
3-3-5 isn’t the issue. Defensive scheme is irrelevant, sending 8-9 guys to stop the run is going to slow your rushing attack no matter how they line up
September 3rd, 2023 at 8:03 PM ^
I recommend you re-watch the game and then see if your criticism is valid. ECU sold out on run defense to the point that the Pirates were more concerned with getting gouged by Corum and Edwards than getting beat downfield by JJ and Wilson and company.
ECU regularly lined up with 8 or 9 near the LOS and then ran multiple run blitzes through A and B gaps to mess up blocking schemes
September 3rd, 2023 at 8:50 PM ^
And the response by the offense was to run into stacked boxes and then have third and longs all game. Against ecu that wasn’t a problem but against a real defense it will be, or an offense that can also score like tcu last year. You can say they just kept things in the box because it was ecu but it’s also the dna of Michigan under harbaugh so there isn’t a ton of confidence it will change
September 3rd, 2023 at 9:38 PM ^
The running games outcome is completely irrelevant against ECU. We knew they were stacking the box and we didn't care. We were going to win and we are a running team so the line needs their reps. We need JJ all year and I hope we don't see any carries by him the first 4 games. The board would be in flames he got hurt keeping an option against an opponent that couldn't score on us.
September 3rd, 2023 at 9:17 PM ^
Yeah I mean Michigan has run into stacked boxes a lot over the last few years. Obviously the numbers in the box matter but OSU played super aggressively as well and ECU still held Michigan to a lower YPC than OSU. Despite being a very bad d line and linebackers according the Alex. So yeah idk