slants

Is this where we come to talk about the slants? 

Usually we take care of some housekeeping first.

UFR GLOSSARY is here.

FORMATION NOTES: Nebraska used a lot of them with varied personnel. This fullback (#16, Janiran Bonner) is more of a 6'2"/220 running back so I counted him as a back, but he also lined up at TE and WR. Michigan responded to him with their 5-2 personnel.

There was also a 3-3-5 look from Michigan I called a 30 stack.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: The starters were done after 20-something snaps in this one, with Grant limited to just 17. Harrell and Colson were regulars while the starters were in—both Harrell and Stewart were on the field for obvious passing downs. Michigan was also playing around with different secondary configurations like +Sabb (Sainristil at CB, Moore at Nk), and +CB (Wallace at Nk). Other than that it was the usual rotations before backup time, which they used to rep Wallace and Moore in the slots with one-high looks. Amorion Walker returned and got a few snaps at CB.

Now the slants?

I haven't posted the charting yet.

You're going to make me scroll through all that gibberish?

You could just scroll down to the Neck Sharpies. Or Brian's game column for that matter.

Gibberish, then slants.

And a jump.

[After THE JUMP: Gibberish, slants, more gibberish.]

Previously: Podcast 11.0A, Podcast 11.0B, Podcast 11.0C. The Story. Quarterback. Running Back. Wide Receiver. Tight End. Offensive Tackle. Interior OL. Defensive End. Defensive Tackle. Linebacker. Cornerback. Safety. Special Teams. 5Q5A Offense.

1. Are slot fades better or worse than slant vulnerabilities?

[Patrick Barron]

Michigan played slot coverage with outside leverage last year. This meant slants happened:

And after the slants happened Michigan spent a lot of time and energy making them stop happening without eating more slot fades. This necessarily meant taking the linebacker level away from git-em duty and using them as underneath zone defenders:

But mostly it was the coverage. Michigan shut off Wisconsin slants before they even began by playing man with linebackers in short zones. Bush gets a deflection on Wisconsin's first drive to boot the Badgers off the field:

That was Wisconsin's only slant of the game until their final play. That comes at a cost—Bush is not rushing, and he's not able to fire hard against the run—but it was clearly a good tradeoff to make.

That tradeoff did make slants a bad bet. By Northwestern this space was crabbing at folks to "cut that out" about slants since the Wildcats managed 5.6 YPA on them. Even so it was no longer clearly good by the end of the season. Perpetually-annoying Indiana was the tremor before the quake:

…non-Dwumfour DTs were complete non-factors. Four man rushes were set up to single up the DTs and then double-team Michigan's most dangerous rusher, which was Winovich for a while and Gary later. The Winovich cheapshot was an excellent example:

Both Gary and Winovich get outright doubled. Michigan has nothing resembling a complete DT this year so on a play like second and six Indiana can single up the DTs with impunity and Michigan can't play Dwumfour.

The UFR pressure metric was a slim +1, well below Michigan's standard under Brown. Indiana was not particularly good at avoiding sacks last year—41st in sack rate allowed. When the above cheapshot hobbled Winovich against OSU (the #17 pass-pro team last year) Michigan lost its best bet to Carter Coughlin OSU LT Isaiah Prince, and they almost didn't lay a hand on Haskins all game. You know what happened after that.

[After THE JUMP: Uche wally]

Mailbag! Most of these are twitter questions. I'm not answering anything that's directly addressed in the upcoming season preview, so if your question didn't get picked maybe that's why. Maybe.

does BPONE fit under any of the categories of mental disorder listed in the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders?

— RYCERATOPS ᕕ[ ᐛ ]ᕗ (@ryanmopo) August 20, 2019

The Black Pit Of Negative Expectations is not a mental disorder, it is a defense technique based on a rational extrapolation of past feelings to future events. BPONE trades lower highs for higher lows and is thus a wise approach for people who may wander into the streets to rend their clothing and wail without BPONE.

BPONE is therapeutic. Never tweet during BPONE.

If McCaffrey plays every game, is it a couple of 2nd Quarter drives, or is it a couple of one-off plays each game? Or something else?

— Jonathan Drouin (@JonDrouin) August 20, 2019

To me, "play every game" implies more than some goofy one-off trick plays. If I had to bet, we're going to see McCaffrey get one or two drives per game. This isn't a Henson/Brady situation where the starting job is truly being contested during the season—Patterson is the starter. It is a spot where Michigan has so much faith in their backup QB that it makes sense to get him some meaningful reps in case Patterson is unavailable at some point.

[After THE JUMP: quit asking me about worst case scenarios you BPONE maniacs]