Spring Game Day Open Thread
As soon as we go to more of a spread look, we made a nice play on offense. I hope you're taking note of that, Al Borges and Brady Hoke.
Both offensive scores are against the second team D. I hope the 1st team D has really become the Ravens in a couple months but I find that is a little hard to believe.
Plus one of them was a big play by Mike Cox - I'm worried that we haven't seen consistency from either offense yet.
Of course they are taking note...
The staff knows, I'm sure, that elements of the offense similar to what the guys did a year ago will be successful. This is a coaching change. The new staff wants to go in a new direction, and are mixing in new concepts with some old. It's not hard to understand what is going on. It does the staff no good to simply try and keep the spread train rolling. I'd say they've done a nice job of easing into the transition.
I can't believe people really expected the offense to light it up for the spring game...
Take a deep breath, and have some f-ing faith in the staff. When it gets to August, Borges will identify the plays and concepts that maximize Denard's ability and comfort level. In the meantime, they're trying to teach new things to the guys.
Finally a J Stokes sighting
My stream isn't very good. Was that TD an great throw, or a lucky arm punt a la Devin's other deep throw?
a lucky throw, it was into double coverage. Stokes just made a really good play on the ball to bail him out somewhat.
you mean shoving the DB out of the way then I guess I agree with you. Obvious offensive pass interference that wasn't called.
Arm punt for most part. No way he gets away with that in the Big Ten.
may be a chance to move up the depth chart. If only he could kick.
Is this staff really going to rely on this team running through the tackles to win games? I really would like to see a lot more zone reads and designed carries for denard. Hopefully they're not running him to protect from injury.
We've run zone read and it's been stuffed. They will run Denard more if he is the starter. Keep in mind this is a spring practice and they he needs as many reps passing as possible.
They didn't run the zone read last year. Either that, or Denard made a lot of poor reads. I think they ran the look a lot, but didn't run the actual read too much.
Watching this game is like driving a Ferrari 15 mph.
I miss the fast tempo of the spread, but this defense is making me very happy.
These technical difficulties brought to you by All State.
ahha nice
What happened to using TEs? I see them out there but we haven't been throwing to them at all...
A long time ago, in a place far far away, tight ends used to block.
QB - Denard still hasn't been able to overcome his tendency to overthrow the open receiver downfield. Devin looked pretty bad to me, his TD to Stokes wasn't the result of a good throw(it was actually pretty bad), but a great play by Stokes.
RB - Cox looked good, but Shaw needs more carries(perhaps injury prevented this), less Smith please
Defense looked better, but I don't know how much better they would've looked if it wasn't for the bad QB play, the secondary was burned a few times but our QBs weren't able to connect.
There is no way that Furman is a sub 4.4 forty, he really couldn't close the gap against Cox. Looks to be in the high 4.5s.
Ryan looked great
For the life of me, please don't put our QBs under center during the regular season, you can see it simply doesn't compliment them very well.
I'm not sure how to feel about the Spring Game. Not sure if the results were due to improvement on defense, or difficulty executing on offense (particularly re: the run). Any other thoughts on this?
All the passing yards now have to come honestly. There are no wide open Illinois-game passing lanes because the D has to keep an eye on the entire width of the line of scrimage.
Yes.
Jake Ryan was nothing short of spectacular. Carvin looks great. The D line stuffed a bunch of runs. Love the tight coverage in the secondary. Thank God for Mattison.
Offense? I don't like it so much. Pace is too slow. I know the goal is ball control but I don't think we're going to be able to run MANBALL with much success given the zone blocking pedigree of our O line. I want to see a ton more spread formations, shotgun, read option and QB designed runs.
If you figure that the offense has had about 3 months to learn a whole new offense and the defense has been pumped to show them that they've improved, I'm not surprised by this performance. It will be interesting to see who emerges from the pack at QB because it sounds like Denard might get squeezed out unless Borges pulls his head out of his butt and starts running plays for the reigning B1G OFEENSIVE POY!
Several things were going on:
1. They were running plays to see if the kids knew them - not running plays to score.
2. Our offense can't handle a blitz, and we're in trouble because we're going to get blitzed A LOT!!!!!!!! Naked boot legs probably aren't going to work at any point of the season with Denard and Devin...
3. Defense is far better than offense. Why? Well... because we have the equivalent of RR on defense now. That and the OL is undersized for what they're doing.
4. There was a near miss on a 40 yarder......? Finally. Someone who can kick it 40 yards.
5. We need to get much better at passing.
Offense:
QBs: We have 4 of them. Holy crap.
RBs: Mike Cox should have been elected Governor. Michael Shaw should be elected Badass-and-Chief. Vince Smith... he used to be my favorite... now he's got issues, nice catch though.
OL: NICE TRAP BLOCKING! but you forgot how to zone block. Also, snap the damn football TO the QB.
WR: Catch ball; will score. Drop ball; we'll cry.
Defense:
DL: Hello! Welcome to Michigan. We've been expecting you.
LB: Ta.. Ta.. Twins? I can't believe you both came.
DBs: HOW DO YOU ALLOW A 30 YARD COMPLETION WHEN THERE ARE TWO OF YOU AND ONE OF THEM!? Oh, also I'm glad you learned how to cover.
I should add, it's much easier to teach a player how to blitz (especially when they already knew how to) than it is to teach them multiple new pass blocking schemes and techniques.
The best part was the interviews after the game.
I feel empty now. I'm faced with a roaring silence for 5 months.
Too bad there's not a Summer Game.
if he's "all in" and Michigan still sucks? We may find out.
BLUE WINS IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was considering rushing the field.
but I hope everyone can have a beer and chill the fuck out.
1) You CAN'T possibly believe our D won't be improved under Mattison. Seeing signs of that already.
2) The offense has had what, twenty practices? Offense takes longer than D to learn new schemes, etc. I doubt if we saw more than half of it, run by guys still learning, (hesitating, overthinking etc.).
3) Two of our top OL were out. One of the major problems on offense was blocking and protection. Plus they're still learning the damn plays too.
4) QB play was indeed spotty, but WTF, see #2 about overthinking instead of going on autopilot.
5) Don't forget that our D has seen the plays in practice and has an advantage, especially when to O is probably working with a limited playbook at this point.
Relax...it is year one. Recruiting is looking up, we will have Woolfolk back, kicking CAN'T get any worse and Wile will be in camp. Defense is going to improve, and we have talent on Offense. They are going to look better in the fall.