Utah Snowflakes: Offense

When Rudock cuts down on mistakes this offense will be fine. Right?!

Gonna say that I'm not as pissed with Jake Rudock as I expected to be.  

First off, this loss is first and foremost on him.  He has at least a 17 point swing on his head. 

However, I really liked his final drive.  

He looks uncomfortable in a relatively safe pocket, I think on a number of his incompletions, he too quickly went to a low percentage early read.  It's hard to tell given the camera angles, but generally when you are throwing without pressure, you should be making a fairly reliable throw.  

The first pick was probably 75% on the WR.  That's a timed route, the WR needs to be where the fuck he's supposed to be.  

The second pick was an awful throw.  

The third pick was basically indefensible.  Not only was the opposite side of the field wide open, you can still put that pass in a place where only your guy is going to get it.  The Utah player had a great jump on it, but all he had to do was play Rudock's eyes and get the inside angle on the ball.  

Offense as a whole was REALLY good.  If they can ever click properly, this team will be super dangerous.  We finally have a coaching staff that gets constraints - they called plays outside to play against cheating inside.  They went deep (unsuccessfully only due to poor throws) after pulling pressure short.  With more accurate throwing, you could have seen a very good defense get completely picked apart.  

Overall, this season won't be super pretty.  However, we're going to be set up pretty nicely for next year, and will be scary to play against even later this season.  

              QB is the most important position on the field and Michigan has had bad ones for the roughly the past century.  Tonight Rudock continued the tradition.  The OL didn't look great in run blocking, but it's tough to get a running game going when the defense doesn't respect the passing game.  Rudock had at least 2 obvious opportunities to torch Utah and force them to respect the passing game.  He shit the bed on both.  Throw in two Morris-esque (Garden-esque, if you'd like) interceptions and that's the game.  Maybe Iowa benched him because he isn't very good.

The running game would be helped by backs with vision and/or speed, but Michigan has none of those.  Smith runs very hard at a very leisurely pace; Green is a bust; and Isaac might end up decent.  Johnson would be a big improvement, but I worry about him staying healthy. 

The upperclass WR looked good and Butt was great.  But we'll be "rebuilding" every goddamn year until we find a QB who doesn't pump out interceptions by the dozen. 

I'm not a natural "Drake Johnson is the answer" guy, but I can't ignore that he seemed to make the appropriate decisions as a RB last year. I have to think that Smith would have had a bigger challenge being the "unquestioned leader" at RB if Johnson was healthy for all of fall camp.

Rudock had a terrible game, and I expect (hope for) better the rest of the season.  Running game improved in the 2nd half to almost servicable, after being complete hot trash in the first.  That failure on the 3rd/4th and 1 sequence just clouds the whole 2nd half run game after they were getting some OK 5-7 yard chunks.  

So many what-ifs in this game offensively; I can see how the offense is supposed to run, and it seems much more coherent and organized than last year, but the execution is just not there yet.

One concern- I feel like Kap and Smith have overthrown many deep balls in the same manner. I'm worried that is how Harbaugh coaches it. Throw it low and hard so the safety can't make a play. Total opposite of Borges ball... Hang it up there short. All three deep shots would have benefitted from the "hang it up" philosophy....

Just win by 21+.  Makes it easier.

First, I didn't read every post so I'm not sure if anyone is arguing that it's a total coincidence that all 3 INTs were targeting Perry. But it's not a coincidence. Here's where your route running can make a QB look brilliant or awful.

1st INT: OK, announcers picked up on this, it looked like Perry broke off the route and hooked instead of following through with the out. Most people on here seem to agree he was mostly responsible for that particular pick.

2nd INT: At first, I just thought this one was flat overthrown. It might have been, depending on the call, but I actually think it's more likely he was supposed to be running a corner and broke it too flat so it was more of a deep out. When you're running a corner, you're a) supposed to press the DB inside with a post step with your inside foot (left foot in this case) and little head bob over your inside shoulder to sell the post action, then break to the corner at a 45-degree angle. It didn't look like he did either of those things: the DB was on top but was never pressed inside, and just remained squatting up high exactly where the corner would go. The QB isn't waiting to see what his angle is coming out of the cut-- if it's a corner, he throws it exactly where Rudock threw the ball. 

So it's possible it was an overthrown deep out, but just as likely (and I think a little more likely) that he was expecting Perry to be about 5 yards deeper out of the cut. Rudock is an accurate passer-- that would be a completely wild throw to miss by that much, I'm just not buying it.

3rd INT: bad pick six, but the bad read probably should have just been a breakup, not a pick, if Perry doesn't "drift" after his cut. His route was what we used to call a "return" or square out where your body opens up to the QB instead of turning your back to make the out cut.  This is the route Greg Mathews ran on the winning pass from Tate vs. Notre Dame in 2009. The one thing you're never, ever allowed to do is drift upfield after the cut, because you give the DB an unobstructed lane inside of you to make the pick. The DB squatted on the route from the beginning and it was an unwise choice to force it in, but without the drift (one of the announcers caught that and called Perry out on it on the second or third replay) Perry is at least in a position to fight for the ball. 

You can see all the talent with Perry, but I thought he had opportunities to help Rudock out with better routes and didn't. I'm more willing to believe the instincts of a true freshman need some polishing more than I'm willing to lay it all on a 5th year senior with a rep for accuracy and lack of mistakes.

I hate out routes across your body in press coverage. Rudock sucked balls but that ones a terrible play call.

What happened to Drake Harris. No stats. Was he ever in?

The offense will be better.  We have at least one guy who can take the top off of the defense and the offensive line will get better.  Developing chemistry takes time, and I'm not going to overreact when Rudock is having to get used to new teammates on the fly and the line is learning their third system.  The team didn't give up and if they keep getting better this season will still be a good one.  It just sucks to wait a week before they can get the bad taste out of their mouth.

I just keep thinking about Smith not bouncing it out on the 2nd and 2, looked like it might have been a touchdown instead of a cutback and no gain. At the very least a big gain and a first down. The next play was the pick 6 of course!

Dave Dawson fan club, full steam ahead!

Offense was a wreck.2 bad timeouts taken by the coaches showed miss communication on the play calls. Really felt like the team came out flat and not ready to go. Bottom line is you can not and will not win football games when you lose the rushing yards and turnover battles.The 2 most important stats in all of football.

QB: I think JR will be serviceable, which is about all that most of us expected. He is not going to win us any championships and is inaccurate on throws over 20 yards, but I thought he was decisive (no sacks?) and accurate on the short throws. The first pick was on the WR. The second was on JR. The third was a little on both (not the best route, but he stared the receiver down and needs to be able to go through progressions). If the TO issues continue, that would obviously be very concerning.
RB: I guess we will see in the UFR, but I thought there were quite a few instances where Smith had cutback lanes and chances to bounce it outside, but he chose to run into a big pile of bodies instead. I don't know if it is a lack of speed, or vision, but it is the difference between a 1-2 yard gain and a 10-20 yard gain. I don't think he is the answer at RB. I am hoping that Drake can get healthy again. I felt the OL actually blocked pretty well, the holes were there.

I really think the first game nerves got to Rudock.  The overthrows on sure TD's, and other overthrows as well, are a sure sign that he was anxious.  He also made some nice throws and I am confident he will settle down and reduce the mistakes as each game passes.

Even with the turnovers and the loss, I think this team looks more polished and more organized than anything Hoke fielded.  They appear to finally have an identity and I have zero doubt that identity will be established and in full force by mid-season.  If nothing else, the WR bubble screens were a thing of beauty!

Hopefully if Morris isnt cut out for it - Gentry can be ready to play soon. We seen what Cardale did - maybe Gentry could do the same.?