Thunder/Magnus at Touch the Banner talks the game

And the fat lady hasn't even sung yet.

It was mentioned a few weeks ago on Mgoblog roundtable on WTKA from Craig that the numbers prove play action, regardless of how well you are running the football creates higher YPA.  I did not anticipate that statistic was true.

I am in agreement you would think if you are pounding a team that much you can take advantage of that at times.  I do think though passing/running are independent of each other, either you can do it or can't.  Being good at one doesn't mean it makes doing the other any easier in my opinion.  

And that’s what has people upset. I don’t care that we threw it 15 times. I agree that the running game is working so it’s fine to lean on it. But when you DO pass it needs to be efficient and effective. It was not that last night, and that IS a cause for concern moving forward. There’s nothing wrong with acknowledging that and being happy with the running game and a 21 point win. Both can be true. 
 

You have one side pointing out the area for needed improvement, and the other side is up in arms that people aren’t just happy with the win and misinterpreting what has been pointed out. 
 

That's my issue too. We didn't pass until we had to, then lined up in empty sets and telegraphed it without even the threat of run. Still feels like run and pass games are designed by different people entirely. Was hoping Gattis getting the keys fully (allegedly) would bring some cohesiveness, but I guess not. 

Drevno, Pep, Brown… all kept around at least 1 season too long.

Hoke is a good DL coach whose ceiling is HC at a mid-major. Drevno is a position coach who’s out of his league as an OC at a school like Michigan.

Starting to think the same thing about Gattis. He seemed a strong position coach at PSU and at Alabama. I wrote in the game thread something like I’d love to get his playbook and see what his route tree and combos look like. I think I’ve seen more from HS offenses. 
 

I don’t fault him one bit for his play calls last night. But I’m hoping to be able to get to Saturday’s game and see firsthand what the wideouts are doing play to play.

(Unless someone knows how to get their hands on some coaching film…)

For the run to open up the pass, it assumes the defense is responding logically.  Washington didn't do that.  I'm glad we kept taking what they gave us.

Spot on, I'd imagine any highly recruited receivers in the crowd for yesterday's game came away underwhelmed with Michigan's play calling. Now obviously, the number one objective is to win the game, not impress prospective recruits. But under this context, it's also important to note one dimensional teams don't consistently compete for conference championships and playoff births, where Michigan proclaims they want to be. 

If the play calling/passing offense calibrates over the course of the season, I think recruiting at those positions should still be fine. If this is just what Michigan wants to be, a more potent version of Navy, running the ball on 70% of their offensive snaps, we'll have MAC level talent on the outside in a few years and resemble something close to Iowa playing a B1G East schedule. Something I am hoping this coaching staff is not too obtuse to consider. 

On the flip side, by that logic, every elite RB and offensive lineman would be jumping at the chance to join the team. 

If we keep winning games by exploiting the opposing teams’ inability to stop our running, even if we don’t throw another pass all year, I’m not going to complain. 

Didn't seem to me like he was down on the offense for this particular game.  But, rather, concerned about long term implications if more passing is not utilized.

 You've got a good point.

Speaking of magnus…..whatever happened to SpaceCoyote? Maybe I just scrolled by him, would like to get his input. He was the only one who kept me somewhat level headed during the Hoke era…however, I enjoy Harball mostly, just needs to figure out how to hold OSU to 35 or less.

I partly think Gattis knew this would work with a two headed RB monster, so he went with a ground and pound attack this year, with a strong emphasis on this game. We also need to remember how much Shea came on in the passing game the second half of 2019, like, all of sudden. 
 

When they panned to his face in the press box on TV, he looked incredibly stressed, as in, “how the hell am I going to be able to pass the ball on these corners?” stressed. And plus, not having Ronnie might add to it as well. 
Maybe it’s just his game face, but it seemed unusually stress-filled to me just reading his demeanor.

You must have a passing game if you hope to win at any substantial level

No one is arguing that this year's team is going to win on a significant level without a functional passing game--I mean, unless we get reassigned to the Big Ten West.  Some people are arguing some combination of the following:  1) the passing game is currently inferior to the running game and so we should rely on our current strength; 2) Washington has stud corners; 3) Washington was playing two deep safeties all game and daring us to run, even when we proved that we could; 4) the offense is recovering from the loss of Ronnie Bell; 5) not passing yesterday doesn't logically entail that we can't pass going forward; 6) not passing ten more times yesterday isn't setting back the development of the passing game is some substantial way.  There are folks who are arguing that the offensive imbalance of the Washington game actually harmed our prospects going forward because we didn't pass it another 10 times, which I'm not really buying.  

Personally, I haven't lost faith in Cade, but I do think that Ronnie Bell was in a class above the next best receiver on the team, given his route running, blocking, ball skills, and experience; the WR core isn't thin, but I don't see a lot of elite talent, which I'm happy to be wrong about. I'm still mildly skeptical of Gattis as an OC.  (And why are our receivers not more fundamentally sound--wasn't he a receivers guy when we hired him?)  So, I do think that the passing game won't be great this year, and that will cost us some games.  But I'm not interested in throwing the ball around with a 14 pt., second-half lead, in the direction of good corners, behind a line that's run blocking better than pass blocking.  If we can't get a passing game going against NIU and Rutgers--and if we show ourselves unwilling to do so when the game is out of hand--then obviously that's another matter based on more data points (and wouldn't be a complete surprise given coaching history).  And, yes, the recruiting optics aren't good if this becomes more of a pattern.