Is there a reason for the lack of downfield passing?

Submitted by MaizenBlueBP on

I understand that being a true freshman no matter how early you enroll you're still going to have a learning curve during your first year. That said I'm really getting frustrated with the lack of down field passing. Obviously Tate has the arm strength and accuracy to complete the deep ball. Yet this year we have primarily been a sideline to sideline team. But when it comes to stretching the defense vertically I have only seen it when we have been in come from behind situations (with exception to the long TD to Hemmingway v WMU. And most of the long completions have been short patterns with good run after the catch (Stonum v MSU). Its imperative to keep a defense honest at this level. I'm hoping that in the coming weeks we take a few deep shots in good positions like on a 2nd and short or right after a turnover by the other team.

Do you guys think its just Tate checking down to make the easier throws to try and limit mistakes?

BlueinLansing

October 11th, 2009 at 7:50 PM ^

is keeping him from makeing deeper passes. Since the injury, he seems to have lost some zip on the ball.

Besides that, our receivers haven't been very good at getting open for a couple years now...there needs to be a talent upgrade at the wideout spot.

wolverine1987

October 11th, 2009 at 7:58 PM ^

not making proper adjustments. Herbstreit had an interesting comment on a couple of occasions to the effect that the receivers were not helping out Forcier by making proper adjustments to his scrambles. That and a general lack of a burner may be it.

jmblue

October 11th, 2009 at 8:06 PM ^

You need good pass protection to go deep. This has been a problem for us, so we've gone max-protect on a lot of vertical routes. The downside of that is that it leaves fewer receivers to run patterns, and so we frequently end up with our primary target being double-covered.

formerlyanonymous

October 11th, 2009 at 8:08 PM ^

Looking at his passes yesterday, he was floating a bunch of deep, soft passes 30 yards that stayed in the air long enough for double coverage come to break it up. It's probably just the shoulder injury. I'd also conjecture that Tate hasn't looked comfortable throwing in the pocket for whatever reason. He's looked much better on the run, where it's hard to get your body in a position to throw the deep ball.

DRob is throwing lasers on every pass (nerves?), and that is at the sacrifice of accuracy. That should get better over time, it's just not there yet.

VictorsValiant09

October 11th, 2009 at 8:15 PM ^

OP: I came to the same sort of conclusion in another thread, maybe not to the effect of straight downfield passiong, but rather, stretching the defense like the spread is designed to do. Slants, Outs, Posts, etc.

drexel

October 11th, 2009 at 8:25 PM ^

I think deep balls are still getting called, but if you look at the Iowa game, Michigan's receivers were not getting very clean releases on the outside. This disrupts timing of routes. Also, from what I have noticed, a lot of Michigan's vertical passing game still comes off the 4 vertical concept. I'm not sure if receivers are not reading safeties correctly or if Tate just doesn't quite have the timing down yet, but these routes just aren't getting completed right now.

Blue_Bull_Run

October 11th, 2009 at 8:28 PM ^

I once read an article (I think it was on SmartFootball?) that claimed that RichRod doesn't use good route combos, or something to that effect.

Does anyone remember the article that I'm thinking of? I'm fairly certain it was discussed on this board a while back.

GustaveFerbert

October 11th, 2009 at 8:41 PM ^

Receivers getting jammed on line of scrimmage.

Tate not seeing downfield well - or as Rod says - not having great field vision throughout the whole game.

No stud receivers.

BlueinLansing

October 11th, 2009 at 8:45 PM ^

they spent time talking with Oklahoma this off season......I have seen little to suggest they've utilized much of that other than maybe some roll outs with Tate. But again, there are a number of plays we haven't seen since Tate's shoulder injury.

FWIW, Oklahoma's passing routes are well designed, they've had minimally talented QB's the last few years win Heisman's with that system.

I really think Michigan's WR's just don't get separation from the DB's like they need to.....and that's a speed and technique issue.

The plus this year has been the WR's have really improved their blocking.

Topher

October 11th, 2009 at 9:17 PM ^

"FWIW, Oklahoma's passing routes are well designed, they've had minimally talented QB's the last few years win Heisman's with that system."

Huh? Who are you referring to? I don't care for Oklahoma, but their quarterbacks have been pretty darn good over the Stoops era. That guy they had between Jason White and Sam Bradford was pedestrian but Heupel, Hybl, White and Bradford are as good as you could find in their eras.

Ceding to your point for the sake of argument, they've had some real strong receivers that Michigan '09 doesn't have.

bighousechris

October 11th, 2009 at 9:37 PM ^

Tate isn't comfortable in the pocket at all. If his primary receiver isnt open, he instantsly rolls out of the pocket amd looks to throw on the run. I may be dead wrong, but IMO if you're on the run, its not as easy to find the deep man breaking free (much less make the throw), and his easier read is to the short/midrange option. Not that this is a bad thing, as the he can obviously do it and do it well. The bombs they be a'comin -just give him a year or two.

KBLOW

October 11th, 2009 at 9:44 PM ^

Sure looks like it's related to the shoulder injury. That and lack of proven deep threats seem to have really messed with the down field passing. (However, that makes the success of the running game yesterday that much more impressive. Also, we don't know how many times Tate has missed reads and/or patterns that were supposed to go deep.