(Video) Michigan at Minnesota Full Game
http://hailtv.com/2020-football-michigan-at-minnesota/
If it would happen to be taken down from youtube, I'll post a new copy at the link above.
October 25th, 2020 at 7:52 PM ^
I've seen this game. If you haven't yet, it's a highly recommend.
While not a perfect game, there are some obvious issues that are going to need to be worked on. But the combination of the delayed start of the season, so many question marks going into the season, Joe Milton debuting, the Gattis Offense year two, all appear to feel like the beginning of something different/better.
I give it four stars on two thumbs pointing up.
October 25th, 2020 at 8:47 PM ^
The DTs make a lot of plays early. I wasn't expecting that on a rewatch given all the carping about them in the game thread.
Hope All works out the drops. Everything else seems promising enough, especially if Daxton Hill isn't badly hurt.
October 26th, 2020 at 9:36 AM ^
Your first and biggest mistake? Game thread.
I wouldn't wish the game thread on my deepest enemy or Curt Cousins. All of the most neurotic fan bases worst neurosies combined in one central location, private thoughts happening in public, in real time. Half the pages are just stand alone curse words, or the contingency of fans who are adamant that everyone should be fired, on field, after every play.
Game thread man.
October 25th, 2020 at 8:45 PM ^
I was watching this trying to figure out how Hill got hurt. Paige stepped on his hand on Minnesota's second TD play. Best view is at 49:36. Hope that just fucked up a finger and didn't break a wrist.
Incidentally that play got free because Hawkins tripped on Hutchinson's leg. What a clusterfuck of a play.
October 25th, 2020 at 8:45 PM ^
Deja vu.
Excellent Groundhog Day.
October 25th, 2020 at 8:46 PM ^
Thanks for posting. Running on BTN at 8:00 cst
October 25th, 2020 at 9:57 PM ^
So why did Charbonnet only get 4 carries? Trying to preserve his health for the season along with testing different packages? Can't really think of any other reason, I mean they didn't really need him after halftime so that was cool. Just curious given the hype.
October 26th, 2020 at 9:40 AM ^
Haskins 6
Charbonnet 4
Corum 5
Evans 5
My guess? They want to spread the ball around to as many guys as possible. It's a talented backfield and gone are the days of a 'feature' back. I like that we have four different pitches, plus Milton had 5 carries too. I also like the diversity, if for no other reason than it makes the opposition have to fully scout four different running backs. It doesn't hurt that they are all good to maybe very good. Corum as the frosh getting even carries as these other guys is a big deal IMHO.
October 25th, 2020 at 10:00 PM ^
Hot Take Snowflakes upon Rewatch:
- Play Calling Got Yards. I cannot recall the last time we had plays where the structure of the call created favorable match ups. It didn't rely on everyone "manning up" and beating their guy. SO many plays had multiple people open. It wasn't a question of if it was going to be a big play, but which Wolverine was going to make the big play. Plays were we reverted to out muscling, we got pushed around (18:14 on 3rd & 2)
- If things continue to blossom, Would people be open to Gattis being promised the Head Coaching job if he sticks around until Harbaugh retires?
- Team SPEED. Our WR & RB have SPEEEEEEEEEEED. I think next week vs. MSU is going to be a track meet.
- Charbonet: I get we have a couple good runners in Haskins, Zach, Evans and Corum. However, if I was Zach and just ripped off a 70 yard run to then basically sit the rest of the game? The next play was 3rd-2 running into a loaded box where it was obvious we were running and blown up. I didn't feel they did Zach any favors or gave him any other good looks the rest of the game. I am a believer in RB's needing to get into a rythm and warming up.
- Milton: Wow. Very few poor decisions. Calm, composed, electric, cannon, speed... Get touch on that deep ball we will be putting 70 on the board weekly. It will be fun to watch him grow up with Jackson, Corum, Wilson, Zach, Henning, All, Wilson... This is could be fun
- Side note: Was pleasantly surprised with Cade McNamara. Obviously only a few throws, but better than I thought.
- Defense: ... .... I am going to make myself feel better by thinking that Minnesota beat Auburn, in their 3rd year of PJ's coaching, and that Ibrahim is going to the NFL. This may be a year where the pressure is on the Offense to outscore everyone, and the defense just needs to get an extra stop or two (or turn over) for the win.
October 25th, 2020 at 10:39 PM ^
Couple of things. I would absolutely love the idea of Gattis eventually taking over. Good coach and definitely a players coach. I think I’m the first game, the coaches just wanted to get everyone’s feet wet. I’m sure if the game was any closer, Zach and Haskins would’ve been the primary RBs.
I’m worried about WR position. We have speed but absolutely zero length and size. Every team needs a “Nico” type or two and we don’t. Sometimes when Milton gets into trouble, he may throw it up and I’m not sure our guys will come down with it >50% of the time.
oh and Corum, that kid needs to play every down. Receiver, rb, idc...
October 26th, 2020 at 12:45 AM ^
If Gattis is good enough to be a Michigan HC, he is good enough to produce offenses that make Michigan a serious contending team, and that means that Harbaugh still has 10+ good years left here if so. I like the idea, too, but there's no way we can keep him around long enough to make that work. At best, we can make him "associate head coach" and keep him for maybe 5 years, but if he's really that good a power 5 team somewhere will poach him and it will clearly be the smart move.
October 25th, 2020 at 10:46 PM ^
Good write up.
My take on the defense was a combo of over pursuit/undisciplined play that can be chalked up to rust/1st game, Mo Ibrahim is a freakin’ helluva RB (and maybe the best we see all year), some lucky ass, wobbly, ducks that hit as their lucky ass WR was falling backward, and (not surprisingly) youth. The backup Safety took a horrible angle on Bateman’s one real big play, and looked totally out of position before on the coverage. Hutch is unblockable — except by cheating — and Barrett seems to have great instincts and a great deal of speed.
On offense Gattis has a lot of tools to use, and I think it’s a great sign that he’s already trusting the young skill players at this point. Corum getting the ball and making a big play early is huge. RB’s seem to be more package that “hot hand” kind of rotation, and I think that’s a great addition to the scheme as it keeps the opposing DC guessing and sets up big “tendency breaks” and misdirections. I think we saw this with Evans as he drew all the attention into the flat, and Milton hit a slant right behind him. So many options and so many different ways to attack the defense — PJ Fleck said as much as well. Yes, Michigan was helped by Minnesota’s kicking issues, but Gattis showed a lot and what he showed was seemingly endless variety and a mix of power and speed that was unlike we’ve ever seen.
As for Milton, I feel like he played a average of a game as he could have played, and it was heads and shoulders above what we’ve seen of late. He’s so big and imposing, and seemed lope along when he ran but easily picked up 5-6 yards by being patient and letting his blockers get out in front him. He wasn’t asked to make a play to the 1st down maker, but woe be to the DB who takes him in if he’s got a head of steam. Just that element alone was worth the price of admission. Shea had some good run — not sure why he suddenly lost his nerve to pull the ball, and they didn’t call that many designed keepers, but Milton looks so causal, where Shea looked terrified. Maybe it’s because Joe is huge and Shea was just an average sized dude. I’ll be honest, I was so hoping to see Joe thrown for 300+ with 2-3 bombs completed, but realistically, I’d say this was as solid of an opening start as I could have hoped for from Joe.
Go Blue!
October 26th, 2020 at 7:24 AM ^
I agree.
Defense - it will be hard to know what is what until Minnesota plays someone else. Good elements, but some cause of concern when looking @ OSU (I am always concerned of late about Indiana, but I am glad we get them weeks before OSU as opposed to the week before OSU).
What I loved about Gattis' scheme was that it allowed "average play" to create great yards. So often, since the Carr years really, our great play relied on great players being great. The story the essentially embodies this classic Michigan ideal comes from the 80s: Our OLine lining up at the goal line, telling the MSU defender "It is coming to this gap, and there is nothing you can do about it" before escorting the RB into the endzone untouched. When our technique wasn't perfect, or when we were not athletically superior, the plays don't work. Our worst plays were the ones where we lined up with 7 big guys and tried to run - got blown up 70% of the time. This was the first time (even more apparent upon rewatching) that the scheme allowed our players to have an average day with great results. SOOO many times, I would pause the screen and see 3 wide open options, and NOTHING Minnesota could do about it because they were trapped. Any move in any direction would make a bad situation worse. Add to that Milton being willing and able to run safely run... Damn. And we did this with a bunch of freshman/sophomore WRs, plus two tall WR/TEs in All & Scho. (I can only imagine if we could have added Nico, DPJ, and Black to this mix....) But, other teams have made small speed work for them when the scheme is right and we might just have the right scheme.
October 25th, 2020 at 11:13 PM ^
The TE dropped two, one was a walk in TD.
I have concerns on crossing routes
October 26th, 2020 at 12:43 AM ^
There was one crossing route against man. It wasn't something that Minnesota could use a lot of; Michigan plays a significant amount of zone. It's the sort of thing that a team can check to when they get the right look (Michigan was CLEARLY in man) but won't be the sort of thing that burns us consistently like it has in the past. All teams give up plays on occasion.
October 26th, 2020 at 7:38 AM ^
Well to me, seemed like this game was the most Zone I had seen from a D.Brown Defense?!
October 26th, 2020 at 7:40 AM ^
We were down our #1 TE Eubanks. The announcers never even mentioned that (unless I missed it). They sure made a point to say Minnesota was down the 2 OLinemen and kicker though.
October 26th, 2020 at 11:30 AM ^
Crossing routes take time, I'm encouraged our Dline won't be giving too much.
October 26th, 2020 at 12:08 AM ^
My random thoughts:
—Michigan needs to get Johnson more involved on the outside. I feel like those passes to Wilson should have been to Johnson. We need his size. Wilson still looks a year away physically. Johnson seems like the obvious choice to fill the Nico Collins void.
—Corum reminds me of Chris Evans, but maybe even a little faster. Unlike Wilson, he seems physically developed and ready to go as a true freshmen.
—Henning looks a lot like Corum and Jackson to me. He may be our main guy on end-arounds this year.
—Paye and Hutchinson are obviously the best players on the defensive line. With that said, to my untrained eye, I feel like they got sealed inside and failed to hold the edge on several run plays that busted outside.
—It was a very quiet night from our two talented linebackers. I’m not sure if maybe they were asked to play more coverage in this game, but they were very quiet against the run.
—Gemon Green will be an above average Big Ten corner—good enough to slow down most non-OSU receivers.
—Erick All reminds me of Zach Gentry; I have high hopes for him.
—Milton’s willingness to run the football is a huge plus to this offense.
—Josh Gattis was the MVP of this game. Great play calling; a true speed-in-space game plan. Unlike prior years, I feel like this offense can actually overcome miscues. They don’t have to play perfect in order to get first downs and put points on the board. I actually believed that we were going to score touchdowns in the red zone and not settle for field goals. This offense feels different.
October 26th, 2020 at 12:40 AM ^
Something about the first game of the season that just begs for more rewatches. Here goes:
- Going to gently push back on Mgrether's frustration on Zach's lack of carries. Michigan gave a total of 20 carries to RBs. Haskins had 6, Evans and Corum had 5, Charbonnet had 4. It's pretty even, just how things break out. Our RB stable is *loaded*. And I can't say that I mind them spreading the ball around to so many players.
- The Milton deep pass question that has come up on several threads: He threw a total of two deep passes. The one was that overthrow, which may or may not have been intentional based on how tight the coverage was. The other was the pass where he scrambled and threw that 45 yard pass going the wrong way almost perfectly, a jaw-dropping pass that just missed; you can't hold that against him.
- Well, almost. The actual error on that play was not the pass, but his decision not to throw to Jackson when he was wide open screaming toward the post with no safety. There was an easy TD that Milton did not throw that led to his scramble throw. Since there were a couple of plays where he tucked the ball, I wonder if he is confident in his downfield reads. That choice not to throw was uncomfortably Shea-like, but should be noted that it contrasted with his usual non-shea-ness in most other plays. He was decisive on most shorter throws, including shorter slants into zone defenses that would give Wilton Speight the yips.
- Another big question: The DTs. Well, they didn't play much. Michigan used a lot of small lineups, and not infrequent were times where Michigan's "interior" was getting pushed around, but that was because Aidan Hutchinson was eating a double-team playing in the middle. I did see a really bad play by Hinton where a single OL walled him completely off of a play, so that was discouraging, and the fact that DB didn't seem willing to roll with his DTs for much duty doesn't inspire confidence. Welschof played as much in the middle as Hinton did, meh. Kemp did have that one great play, though.
- The DEs, when they were playing DE, were dominant. Comes clear in a rewatch, and not just on those big sack plays. Those guys were having their way with the Minnesota OL when not put in the middle.
- Hot take of the post: Gemon Green is our best corner. He's handsy, but he has learned from the best. Green was draped all over every receiver I saw him cover. That long pass he gave up early was due to a clear pushoff, though better vertical skills would probably do him well, but he had dominated the route until that push. Additionally, on several occasions Green was assigned as the cover guy half of a double-team on Bateman, while Gray was single-covered elsewhere, a reasonable strategy... but Green was often right on top of Bateman. A sparkling debut.
- McGrone was ok, but uneven. I was hoping for a bit more. Barrett's performance seemed to hold up on rewatch, though.
- Michigan didn't seem inclined to run a lot of zone read, but they did have that one pull by Milton early. A perfect balance, really--just enough to keep the D honest, but not a regular staple. They saved most of Milton's runs for pin-and-pulls that he could exploit for big yardage, or TDs.
October 26th, 2020 at 3:00 AM ^
Agree with everything.
I bet if the game were tighter they would have gone to Charbonnet a lot more. He's clearly the most talented of the bunch and if they felt the need, I bet he would have gotten a lot more carries. No need to wear him out in the first game of the season.
I'm feeling your Gemon Green hot take. The secondary still looks shaky as a whole but he's got some promise. Give him a few weeks and I bet he takes the number 1 corner spot from Vincent Gray.
Interesting McGrone take. I wonder if his problems were partially related to the D-Line getting pushed around on run plays? Both Ross and McGrone were nowhere to be found on most of Ibrahim's carries.
Barrett already looks like an upgrade over Khaleke Hudson, sorry to say. Khaleke was good but there was something missing with him. Right now I'd rank Michigan's top vipers past and present as 1. Peppers, 2. Barrett (if he continues this level of play), and 3. Hudson. If Barrett can find a way to blow up wide receiver screens in the backfield then he'll be just as good as Peppers to me. I still cackle maniacally watching old Peppers highlights. lol
October 26th, 2020 at 7:35 AM ^
Looked like our DE's lost containment of the edge a few times however will need to review to verify.
October 26th, 2020 at 11:52 AM ^
Containment was lost a number of times, but it was usually the responsibility of someone else. Michigan's DEs generally werent the contain man. Hawkins, Paige, and the like were much more likely to be the guilty party.
October 26th, 2020 at 9:33 AM ^
Two adds to your clear points:
1. Agree on Green. He has the physical skills, he put himself in position and now he just needs to make the big play. I noted some solid technique and he is long. Experience should bring confidence - it looks like he needs to relax and just finish the play.
2. Brown was testing some DL combos that were not ideal against Minny. A lot of the run issues seemed to occur from poor run fits by the LBs and DBs. DTs still need to hold-and-shed better but the middle didn’t crater like it did last year in multiple games.
Excited to see if this team can take the proverbial big step between games 1 and 2. Minny was a tough opener, tested a bunch of guys and exposed some areas to improve. If Dax recovers, it seems like an excellent start to a season.
October 26th, 2020 at 10:46 AM ^
I certainly understand their mentality - divide evenly. Maybe it was a "we don't have puff games, so we want to see everyone in competition"? I know some coaches like the "stable" mentality... that has never been my personal preference, but that is just me. It is not right or wrong - and clearly they have not paid me any money to participate in the program.
With that said, I see we have a wealth of talent at the position, and it will be hard with wanting to get them all on the field. I hope to see them also appear in the slot with the threat of screens orbit/sweeps, motions, etc to mess with the defense. I LOVE how Gattis always has something going in both directions of the field - so that the linebackers have to respect from sideline to sideline. If I was a DC, thought of Corum/Henning/Evans moving towards wide open space with the ball would give me hives.
Kudos to Harbaugh, for being willing to evolve. This is the happiest I have been as a Michigan fan in a while.
October 26th, 2020 at 11:59 AM ^
The RBs are definitely a cog in the orbit motion game. Corum, we'll recall, was the recipient of the very first play of the game on an orbit-to-flare pass, had nothing between him and a Minnesota defender in front of him, and torched the guy for a gain of 20 yards. Later, Milton's 20-yard pin-and-pull run that I clipped in the "gleanings" diary that set Michigan up at the 5 included an orbit motion the other way, this one run by Haskins, that drew a box defender out of the play.
In the past we would have expected Chris Evans to the "the guy" with that sort of play, and he'll run them. But... there's so much RB talent right now, all of them can run it and be dangerous. My early read is that we're in better shape at RB than we've been since we had Mike Hart.
October 26th, 2020 at 3:52 AM ^
Rutger @ West Rutger highlights here if anybody interested. About twenty minutes. Enough for me. Maybe this deserves its own thread? I dunno.
October 26th, 2020 at 7:14 AM ^
Highlight reel Monday is always a favorite of mine after these big Michigan wins
October 26th, 2020 at 7:33 AM ^
Will watch again today concentrating more on the line play (my belief is the O-Line played very well (possibly great), while the D-Line was simply ok to good). Also, will take another look at the penalties, especially that pass interference call on Dax (ball looked uncatchable therefore no flag?)
October 26th, 2020 at 9:24 AM ^
In general, the continuing takes that the middle of the D-line was problematic and getting pushed around is not substantiated by the film-is a false narrative. It is true that they are not dominant and disruptive and collapsing the pocket. However, it is also true that they held their own and clogged up the middle. I have not watched the whole game film but the longer highlight clips show no significant runs up the middle. The problem with containing Minnesota's running game was that the DEs were turned loose and the LBs were not filling the gaps this left on the outside-that and Ibrahim is a nice back. The concern here is that Ibrahim was consistently bouncing runs to the outside for good gains and Michigan never made the necessary adjustments.
October 26th, 2020 at 11:13 AM ^
Agreed!
The hand wringing around here about DTs and CBs is weak.
The hole that started at the tackle position and leaked to the DTs is closed; we may not have fully developed "dudes" at those positions but they are fucking DUDES..... not "just guys".
IMO the only word that needs to be mentioned as far as DT is concerned: Welschof.
And even though they don't have the luxury of that one top10 ranked CB to lock down one side, they have plenty of top50 CBs that can succeed with the Zordich touch.
If anything, the fact that no one batted an eye when the #3000+ ranked OG of the '16 class was now the starting center, even though we heard Carpenter's name all off season, is what I'm most shocked at.
And Vastardis may be this years MVP!
October 26th, 2020 at 10:23 AM ^
I can definitely watch this game over and over. Any links to the game but plays only? It would be alot nicer if it was cut down to an hour without all the fluff
October 26th, 2020 at 11:35 AM ^
Game Recap:
October 26th, 2020 at 8:35 PM ^
Forgot to give you a plus 1 on this. thanks js!