Why couldn't our line push Army around
Maybe this doesn't deserve it's own thread, but believe it or not, I watched the game over and I just can't believe, even with that horrible play calling, our line couldn't just push this team around. Their largest lineman was 280lbs. Ruiz probably had his worst game ever at UM.
September 8th, 2019 at 12:42 PM ^
Snowflakes:offense
September 8th, 2019 at 12:48 PM ^
I didn't read every post, but I didn't see any questioning the lines lack of push. I saw play calling, I saw Shea holding the ball to long, and why couldn't our receivers get open, he'll I even saw people saying Pep was better, but not this.
September 8th, 2019 at 1:04 PM ^
Lmao I think the point is you were supposed to put this in the snowflake thread, not that the answer is already in the snowflake thread. But then your question wouldn’t get as much attention, right? Which, I think, was the other posters point
September 8th, 2019 at 12:43 PM ^
Mods, combine this with the post below. We were obviously thinking the same thing at the same time.
September 8th, 2019 at 12:44 PM ^
Because they’re not as good as advertised. Same reason MTSU did so well.
September 8th, 2019 at 12:53 PM ^
Michigan ran the ball 45 for 233 for 5.2 vs MTSU.
September 8th, 2019 at 1:08 PM ^
And Michigan put over 300 yds on Army, a ball-control-time-control team that limits possessions.
Again: fix the fumbles, and you eliminate a lot of the issues we have.
September 8th, 2019 at 1:25 PM ^
3 ypc isn't good. Throw out your 300 yards of offense all you want. That line is not as advertised...yet
September 8th, 2019 at 1:51 PM ^
Got a W didn’t it?
I’d rather have an ugly loss than a pretty win.
And again you are ignoring the significance the 2 TDs from turnovers played. MI doesn’t turn the ball over, it’s a different game
September 8th, 2019 at 2:20 PM ^
5 fumbles lost, 4 opposing TD's on the ensuing possessions.
The one that wasn't was the Army possession where the RB got the 15 yard penalty, which that offense has no shot of overcoming.
The defense pitched a 2nd half shutout and obviously came up big in the OT session, but you'd like to see a better percentage on drives starting off turnovers.
Oh, and Khaleke Hudson should have gone pro immediately after the Minnesota game two years ago.
September 9th, 2019 at 1:53 PM ^
Khaleke Hudson has been a nightmare for offenses this year. I just rewatched the Army game (condensed) and he's kniving through blocks left and right. He and Kwity Paye are a large part of how the defense shut down Army after halftime.
September 8th, 2019 at 2:26 PM ^
Say that again?
September 8th, 2019 at 3:19 PM ^
That name again is Mr. Plow.
September 8th, 2019 at 3:34 PM ^
But 3 of the same guys got much better push last year and should only be improved this year. My best guess is they are taught to block differently in our new offensive scheme and they are much better with however the hell we run blocked in last years run scheme.
I don't know enough about OL to know if this is accurate but right now it's the most logical/probable thing I can gather.
September 8th, 2019 at 12:46 PM ^
Yes this belong in the offense thread. But before it gets deleted, I went through the whole thread and only Stephen Jerking mentioned the poor o-line play. In my view, this was the 90% of the issue yesterday, not Gattis or Harbaugh, not Shea. We got beat upfront on both passing and rushing downs, 2.5 yards per carry against Army is dare I say it, unacceptable.
September 8th, 2019 at 1:06 PM ^
Yeah that was Hoke-level running yards per carry.
September 8th, 2019 at 1:49 PM ^
Well, there are limits when they know you're going to just run it between the tackles every other play.
September 9th, 2019 at 8:59 AM ^
Read option with no read or option doesn't work?
September 8th, 2019 at 2:29 PM ^
Stephen Jerking is an unfortunate name.
September 9th, 2019 at 5:55 AM ^
What made it worse, was they kept doing the same thing over and over. Kept throwing Charbonnet into a stacked box with no push from Oline...If there isn't something else in playbook when teams do that, then this will be a long season.
September 8th, 2019 at 12:49 PM ^
The OLine and entire team are overrated and somewhat soft. Lets call it like it is.
September 8th, 2019 at 12:51 PM ^
My guess is that for Army,
defending the run:defense::triple option:offense
By that I mean that Army knows its DL are small so it makes sure you can't just "push them around" with the play of their LBs. This is part of why the offensive game plan was so weird, or at least in the second half. It's like Michigan thought that they were the only ones who recognized how small Army was, and like a big dumb Goliath acted accordingly.
September 8th, 2019 at 12:53 PM ^
I have a feeling that Upon Further Review will reveal that Army stacked the box all day and Michigan decided to run into it anyway, or Patterson just made the wrong reads time after time. And we have to consider that the coaches are telling him to give it even when the read says to keep it. Otherwise it makes no sense that they'd keep playing a guy who makes the wrong read 4 out of 5 plays.
Also, I didn't think they covered our receivers well. Shea just couldn't seem to find the open guy, like ever. Now for my blazing hot take: it didn't seem to me that Shea was very well prepared for this game. It was like he was confused on every play, like Army was giving him looks that he didn't know what to do about. He held onto the ball too long on what felt like half the passing plays, and there were times when the open receiver was right in front of him and he seemed locked onto a guy who was double covered. I have no idea if that was a preparation problem or that Shea is regressing, but that was bad either way.
September 8th, 2019 at 1:02 PM ^
Clearly saving Shea for the B1G given his injury. That game plan was conservative to protect the QB. McCaffery is coming along but must not yet be there even with Shea at less than 100%. Will see what they do different in the bye week. Certainly need to work on ball control and discipline at LOS - too many motion errors and confusion.
September 8th, 2019 at 1:05 PM ^
That type of rationalizing doesn't make me feel better anymore. That's what we said all last year and it never materialized.
September 8th, 2019 at 2:28 PM ^
In 2006 Michigan played 2 or 3 games of as vanilla and frustrating an offensive game plan as anyone can remember. We wanted to hang Lloyd Carr.
Then they go to South Bend and it's vertical pass after vertical pass and UM blew Notre Dame out of their own stadium. We were all like, "OH, so THAT'S what they were saving it for."
We've been waiting since then for a repeat performance.
I'm still hoping.
September 8th, 2019 at 1:05 PM ^
I agree. Shea seems to have regressed based on the two games worth of information we have at this point. Maybe he should have been in the QB room all summer instead of on the golf course? Maybe that subtle shot Gattis took at him in his first fall presser had more than a little truth to it?
September 8th, 2019 at 1:17 PM ^
This. Patterson has receivers open and is throwing it into triple coverage. He really doesn't seem to grasp what his progressions should be. He looks like ass out there.
September 8th, 2019 at 2:23 PM ^
September 8th, 2019 at 1:48 PM ^
This is what I saw as well. I thought play calling was ok, and just about everyone except Shea played fine to good. He’s off for some reason.
September 8th, 2019 at 1:58 PM ^
Totally agree. Either that or it was a huge fakeout for Wisconsin who will now prepare for this garbage offense while we come out with the real speed in space offense
September 8th, 2019 at 2:30 PM ^
This! I have to watch it again but the Army linebackers were crashing and blitzing a lot I believe. Part of the speed in space thing would be to get players in the area vacated by blitzes. We didn’t. We just ran into it.
September 8th, 2019 at 12:58 PM ^
Well UM has two freshman starting at both tackle positions. With that, the LT was a 230 pound high school TE and the RT was an all-state DE in high school. #50 is so fat and slow he can’t move and Ruiz is really good at standing around and watching the ball carrier get clobbered but Ruiz will still grade out at a +1000 on Brian’s UFR
September 8th, 2019 at 1:01 PM ^
Ryan Hayes looked lost.
September 8th, 2019 at 1:10 PM ^
Army is the master of disguise. I thought a lot of this was caused by Army's approach to our pre-snap adjustments. They are extremely well coached and prepared. I don't believe Army is restricted from practicing more than 20 hours a week like a normal NCAA program and it shows in their game week preparation.
September 8th, 2019 at 1:17 PM ^
When a dude a running as fast as he can toward the LOS and you’re just out there with your hands in the air like uhhh and you can’t piece together that hey I should try and do something to prevent him from taking a free run at my QB and instead you look away.
Please stop playing Hayes. He missed so many assignments yesterday. But Brian will grade him out as +2864.
September 8th, 2019 at 11:35 PM ^
Who would you propose instead? We're down two tackles right now. It's not like he's a starter by design.
September 8th, 2019 at 1:17 PM ^
They have the same practice rules as everyone else.
September 8th, 2019 at 2:00 PM ^
Army are dirty cheaters? That's a bold statement Cotton
September 8th, 2019 at 1:59 PM ^
Neither tackle is a true freshman. they are redshirt freshmen. big difference
September 8th, 2019 at 3:16 PM ^
Don’t forget the All-B1G LG who can’t get in rhythm with the snap count.
September 8th, 2019 at 1:17 PM ^
I’m not sure because I wasn’t at the game, but the announcer said they were doubling our receivers and blitzing their linebackers so I can only conclude they were playing with 13 men on defense. The refs didn’t flag them for it because of AMERICA!
Joking aside, a defense like that leaves the middle wide open. That’s why Ronnie Bell was open so often.
September 8th, 2019 at 1:46 PM ^
Maybe Braylon Edwards was right. Ruiz and Shea are weak.
September 8th, 2019 at 1:46 PM ^
You can’t run into a stacked box with multiple blitzers on every play, it won’t work. There were yards to be had, Shea just refused to pull. This wasn’t an O-line issue imo
September 8th, 2019 at 2:35 PM ^
I felt like the tackles and rbs werent on the same page on pass pro. I feel like on a few sacks/pressures both the Tackles and Rbs looked inside while a blitzer was going outside.
September 8th, 2019 at 4:22 PM ^
Michigan ran a lot of zone blocking. Getting push isn't nearly as important as reach blocking is in that scheme.
September 8th, 2019 at 9:44 PM ^
Because they have no talent and even less coaching.
That has been the recipe for over decade at Michigan now. No talent, less coaching, and immense hype.
I would rather be Maryland right now. I would KILL to have Locksley as our coach. Or i would kill to have Frost as our coach. At least these guys actually install and implement what they set out to do.
Imagine the fucking stupidity to install a new shotgun spread offense, but then just run the same old RB dive plays, but now without a fullback.
Our staff is the fucking stupidest assholes in the country.