UM-Penn State Game Rewatch
So i decided to watch the game again, particularly focusing on the offense to see how the drives developed and where we missed opportunities to move the ball and score.
From my view, the offense killed itself on numerous drives via penalties, dropped passes (oh so many dropped passes!), TOs, and missed reads (quite a few of these too!).
As i watched that game i saw 2 trends that seem to have continued (for whatever reason) from the Iowa game to this one:
1) Missed reads: Tate seems to be missing a lot more reads during this latter part of the season than he did earlier on. On various occasions he had open receivers (by this i mean receivers with 7-8 yard cushion on defenders) but decided to throw into double and triple coverage numerous times. Along this line, he had some throws that were up for grabs kind of throws
2) Dropped passes: Man did we have too many of these. Koger? Granted, Tate had quite a few low throws but they were "catchable". The worse thing about these drops is that they happened mostly on 2nd or 3rd downs, which either killed drives or put our freshmen QBs in tough 3rd and long situations.
My overall thoughts on the offense and this game is that we lost this game as much as they won it. We seriously undermined our ability to put up points. We ran the ball quite well but killed ourselves by not executing. Yes, our defense blew many coverages and we gave up 35 points but this offense, if they would have executed as they can, could of gone toe-to-toe with Penn State.
October 26th, 2009 at 8:42 PM ^
I haven't had a chance to re-watch the game, but the missed reads could definitely be a consequence of facing tougher defenses (especially D-lines) that don't give Tate time to survey the field. It seems as though he is not able to set his feet and work through his progressions. Fortunately, I don't think we will see D-lines like Iowa and PSU until The Game, meaning that our offense should look more solid for the next three games, and hopefully be improved by the time OSU rolls around.
October 26th, 2009 at 9:06 PM ^
but i think part of it also has to do with experience. Both Tate and Denard seem to "lock" onto a receiver and not let go regardless of the type of coverage his target has. Denard does this too, even more so than Tate. I understand this will happen much more under pressure situations but there were instances where protection was good but he still seemed locked on. He and Denard will likely grow out of this as they build experience but defenses are picking up on it and its resulting in more TOs.
October 26th, 2009 at 9:19 PM ^
After the first drive, I thought we were in a shootout where we were going to lose only because we'd have a few drives killed by simple mistakes. Turns out we made more than a few mistakes, but I agree that our O could hang with Penn St. on a good or maybe even average day.
October 26th, 2009 at 10:36 PM ^
the missed reads and dropped passes is the pressure PSU was putting on us. We definitely made a lot of mistakes, but our team has not gone up against a refined, dominant defense like that (Iowa are not as good... not even close. We ran it down their throats.)
It gets to people, the youngun's especially. Gotta wait for next year...
October 26th, 2009 at 11:10 PM ^
UM had a game on Saturday? I didn't catch it ... what happened?
October 26th, 2009 at 11:33 PM ^
He locks on his primary target and takes off when he's covered before looking for his next option. Getting concussed and dinged up like he has, I'm sure has something to do with it, but he needs to look for his second option before bolting out of the pocket.
I have re-watched the game as well and like the other losses, several big plays, penalties and mistakes by the young offense contributed greatly to the ugliness of the game.
Actually, there were many quality plays by the defense up front, with TFL and rerouting the running back. Too many mistakes and the simple fact the PSU is a much better team right now is mainly why we lost.
October 27th, 2009 at 12:29 PM ^
This is a problem that often plagues young QBs. Henne himself admitted to making bad reads and not checking down to his other recievers well (in a Michigan Daily article back in '06 or '07). During Henne's sophomore year it hurt us a lot, but his freshman year he had the Braylon advantage. Tate is probably not checking down to his other recievers and is just waiting until his 'guy' is as open as possible to make the throw. This is, fortunately/unfortunately, a problem that is solved with experience.
October 27th, 2009 at 11:47 AM ^
Watching Tate and Denard on Saturday, the perpetual theme of Freshman against experienced players on the defensive side of the ball was very evident but not surprising (just disappointing). There were several times in the first half that Tate would have Hemingway or Odoms open but didn't or couldn't complete his reads. Weather and defensive pressure contributed to the challenges, but to me, the biggest hurdle was inexperience. I'm very happy with both our QB's and look forward to the rest of this year and into next when they, and the majority of the team, have more game-experience.
October 27th, 2009 at 12:42 PM ^
Joelrodz: You're freakin me out with the proper capitalization of everything except "I". Is this supposed to be a reference to "i" as an imaginary number? What am I not getting?