HELLO NOTES:

HELLO! HI! I AM BLUE! I AM A TUBE! I HOPE AT LEAST TEN OTHER STUDENTS MAKE BLUE TUBES! HELLO! ISN'T LIFE EXICTING!

THING NOTES: Torrent had no audio this week, so neither do the clips. Good news for people who get creeped out by the walrus lovemaking noises in the slow ones.

FORMATION NOTES: A note on nomenclature here: Indiana had a kind of weird system where they had a linebacker/safety type (6'1", 225) out over the slot.

That in itself isn't too weird against spread formations, but he still hung out over the slot when there was one in I-form twins packages and the like, and Indiana brought down a safety.

I designated IU formations  with that guy in the gray area (and no safety down) "nickel" since the defensive formation thing is more about what the O is looking at than personnel packages the opponent has in and I felt their slot LB was a Hybrid Space Player, but I understand if you think IU was just in a 4-3 all game.

As for Michigan, they did not do much exotic in terms of formations. A lot of shotgun 3-wide stuff, some ace, some I-Form, etc. A couple things: I've changed Funchess to a WR in my personnel set tracking, so if you see "shotgun 3-wide" with four WRs that's because Funchess is the TE-type-substance. Also, when there are only four skill position players that's because Michigan has brought in an extra offensive lineman. Tackle over was still employed but rather rare.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Hoo boy. First: QB and RB were pretty obvious, with Green getting more run than he has in some other games in the past. FB was about split between Kerridge and Houma.

WR was a ton of Gallon and Funchess. Dileo went out early with an injury, leaving Jeremy Jackson to pick up most of the slot snaps. Chesson got in a bit but has clearly ceded a lot of PT to Funchess; Reynolds got a few snaps.

TE was mostly Butt and Williams; Williams ceded snaps to a sixth OL and also Jordan Paskorz, who got in some good blocks in the middle of the game. Funchess also lined up at TE from time to time.

And the OL. Burzynski started, tore his ACL, was replaced by Bosch. Glasgow was the C. Lewan was the LT, Magnuson the RG, Schofield the RT, except when guys were flipping all over the place. This game's version of tackle over was almost always a 6 OL with Kalis reclaiming his RG spot and Lewan flanking someone else: Schofield on the left and Magnuson on the right. Much less likely to get your QB murdered.

I noted OL changes in the notes below. Anyone not mentioned is playing their usual position. Apologies for cutesy name shortenings, but you try writing "Burzynski" and "Magnuson" for 80 plays. (Schofield defies shortening.)

[After the JUMP: nuclear samba Gallon.]

Well how about that.

It's a lot of points.

What about Borges now, Mr. Mad Pants?

I've got that teenage post-Iowa 2011 feeling.

When Michigan went I-Form twins in this one, whether it was with extra tackles or not, Indiana loaded up with seven guys in the box, one in the gray area, and a safety 8-10 yards off the LOS looking run first.

7 guys box, 2 guys half in box, S more aggressive than usual here.

This was a quarter-quarter-half type coverage that turned into man once the two outside guys went vertical—the slot guy was not carrying deep. Michigan turned this into pudding.

Hooray. They kept the gas pedal down all game because they needed to and IU never backed off this please-murder-my-CB stuff. Never. Insofar as anyone gets credit for stomping this IU defense, credit given. Twins against QQH coverage when you've got a safety and a dink against Gallon and Funchess is easy money.

I just look at the above shot and think…

stills from 27 for 27

…pucker, pucker, pucker. After watching PSU DBs against UCF and this Indiana outfit, plus their totally ineffective attempts to cover outs by Gallon on the late TD and one play on which M tried to get yards in their two OT-FG-to-win drives, I think the criticisms leveled at the Penn State gameplan are if anything sounder in the aftermath of the wake up call. It probably wouldn't have worked quite as well against a defense that's not a complete tire fire, but… uh… they kind of are in the secondary. Check the Bortles/Sudfeld lines.

Michigan went big so much against Penn State, taking one of their best weapons off the field to put in a not too good player, and got little in return. Even against the worst defense in the universe they got stuffed on 4/6 runs. There was a 15 yard run when an IU corner didn't keep contain (on third and one, when a big formation makes sense), the 27-yarder for Toussaint that came well into don't care time, and runs of 3, 0, 1, and –2 yards. (The throwback screen really should have been 7 yards but IU humped it hrrrrd.) A real defense gave them nothing.

They were fortunate to get a blizzard of turnovers and 19 drives to get the yardage and points they did, because they ran into a brick wall so much. After doing so a couple times early, Michigan finally said "eff it, going deep" against Indiana. Which, hooray. Doesn't change the results last week. Michigan ran more effectively from the shotgun than under center and tore up IU with play action featuring their best weapons on the field. I liked it. I'm still waiting for the other, gross shoe to drop sometime in November.

They ran more effectively from the shotgun, you say?

Yeah. The numbers were a bit distorted by the should-we-even-still-be-playing touchdown at the end, but the shotgun did do better per play even so. Michigan was able to enjoy the luxury of extended double teams on their zone plays.

With a DE held by the zone threat and IU's linebackers trying to read instead of screaming banzai, Michigan gets to blow both DTs off the ball with double-teams and then play from there. M saw some of this in sets under center but less so; shotgun PA can come out so quick that LBs have to respect the pop pass unless they're going to get aggressive with safeties. Also, the run threat is more pronounced. Here it drags a linebacker to Gardner even though he doesn't have the ball. That doesn't happen under center.

Encouragingly, Michigan showed a coherent set of plays they executed. The play after this was a counter that showed inside zone and then went backside for nine yards. That drew a corner blitz; Michigan responded to those corner blitzes first with the pop pass and then the packaged run that featured in Picture Pages. The play right after the counter was play action of an inside zone look that prevented a LB from getting into a drop and opened up a 15-yard dig. All of those fit together and Michigan went from the base you must respond to to a couple of constraints and then back to the base after IU had been constrained. It clicked together. I assume the many and various Funchess/Gallon routes did as well, but BTN's tendency to show you useless sideline replays made that hard to judge.

Borges argued that they got more yards from under center than the shotgun, which okay. There are plenty of teams ripping it up from shotgun attacks and with a QB like Gardner it seems to make more sense to be a primarily shotgun team—passing from it didn't seem to be much of a problem, either—but that's never going to happen because… well, no one's ever deigned to explain it in a presser so I don't know. Probably something about toughness. It is what it is.

Speaking of toughness, Please tell me Bosch can play.

There's got to be some reason he was stuck behind Burzynski, who I should point out picked up two –3 plays because he was playing with one ACL, tops, and I've set those aside below in the

CHART

chart. But even before that it seemed pretty clear that any largish defensive tackle was going to be flinging him into the backfield. For Bosch to be behind him speaks to inconsistency, missed assignments, what-have-you.

Anyway. Numbers.

Yeah. Indiana is real, real bad. (I would ask you to guess which play that is but you already know.) I know you know this. But watching Michigan's finesse tackle fling guys to the ground or launch them across the formation brings it home after a week in which they could do little even when they did draw defensive ends. One of the bubble troll plays featured Michigan blowing the entire IU line about three yards off the ball:

Does not compute. Anyone telling you they know more about the offensive line after this one is engaging in wishful thinking. These guys may have run into tougher competition in high school.

Also, like… pressure. One guy came anywhere near Gardner all game, and he just ran around the dude and flipped into the endzone like he was a ninja. One guy. Indiana, I sing of your awful defense! It's bad! You should try harder!

Bosch.

Bosch looked the part, physically. He pulled with some effectiveness and comboed effectively, for the most part. This is a pretty good play here:

The quick shoulder spear visibly rocks the DT into a spot where Lewan should be able to handle him and then he's out to a linebacker; stalemate at first but by the end of the play guy is moving backwards with some velocity. I liked his control on a draw play, too. On that he got in space and kept himself moving at a pace that didn't allow him to blow up the LB but he made contact and held his ground, which is good enough when you're in acres of territory. Just make the guy shed you and the RB is gone.

Bosch felt heavy on tape, if that makes any sense. Lewan feels heavy. Magnuson does not feel heavy. When Bosch impacts you, you go places, generally. If you're Indiana. If you're anyone else… ask again later.

Williams was even. Progress?

I don't know, man. Look at those tackle scores and compare. Indiana was running out frisbees at DE. Sometimes it's just like… wow.

That is TJ Simmons blasting through there, a true freshman. He did that again on first and goal in the fourth quarter. (On a play with other problems, granted.) I'm down with their Kalis sixth OL thing, since Williams hasn't run a pass route of more than two yards all year.

Give me your huddled Toussaint yearning to breathe free. I want them, my Tousssaints.

This is…

He made some yards.

Right.  This game was a reminder of what it was like to have Fitzgerald Toussaint when he was able to operate in space. It is pretty nice.

His pointless touchdown was similar. (A commenter pointed out that Toussaint really has a flair for pointless late touchdowns, which… yeah. That was at least the third to go with 2012 Minnesota and 2011 Illinois.)

That is why he seemed like Mike Hart but fast after his sophomore year: given space in which to do something, he can do it. I'm not sure we'll ever see it again what with the state of the line and the Indiana defense's ability to paper over that, but I'd take a late flier on the guy in the draft. Not even Mike Cox would look like an NFL back with the blocking he's had the last couple years.

Did I detect a flash from Derrick Green?

You may have, yes. Green had a smooth cutback on one of the trolltastic fake bubbles and busted a gap outside of plan on a power play. Both were excellent feet for a large man, and he looked quicker. Still going down on first tackle attempt all the time, though. He did squeeze out an impressive couple of yards after contact on one power run.

I feel that we're not talking about something sort of important.

The throwing, probably.

Yeah, probably the throwing.

Here is the throwing.

Devin Gardner 2012

Devin Gardner 2013

Shane Morris

A ball to Funchess in the turn, a few garden-variety bad reads, a scramble on third and twenty, and a couple of throwaways on which there was really no one, and that's the negative bits of Gardner's day. And I may have been super harsh! A catchable throw to Butt in a tight window was marked BR since I thought Gardner went to the wrong side of the field; the throw itself was basically perfect given that there is a dude all up in Butt's business. STOP TITTERING. I thought a throw in a tight window to Jackson was questionable because it was late and marked it CA instead of DO.

What else is there to say? The guy had target practice and took it. No PRs, tons of guys hand-wavingly open all over the field, etc. This was a shooting gallery.

One excellent thing: the Gardner redzone ninja thing came through in a vengance in this game. Michigan got a couple of scramble touchdowns, one when Gardner faked a throw that probably still has the IU DE in the air, the other after a busted protection.

Receivers?

[Passes are rated by how tough they are to catch. 0 == impossible. 1 == wow he caught that, 2 == moderate difficulty, 3 == routine. The 0/X in all passes marked zero is implied.]

Jeremy Gallon, man. He had that easy drop on a dig route that would have been a lot of yards, but he also did this:

That jump by the corner is the jump that would result in 70 yard touchdowns to Gallon and he still makes the catch. He showed a lack of breakaway speed on a couple of these… because his route was good enough to get him open by yards. Such a good player.

Have we somehow underestimated how much of a freak Devin Funchess is, despite asserting that he is essentially an albatross-themed pro wrestling gimmick?

Maybe. Maybe.

The worry was that Funchess was not a mismatch because he can't block. That's no longer a worry, because he is still a mismatch against anybody who tries to cover him, blocking or not. He really does seem to have 4.5-type speed, and he can leap like that. The possibilities are becoming plain, and Michigan's occasional use of the guy as a tight end has resulted in plays like that and the PSU touchdown where their middle linebacker tried to carry him 40 yards downfield. If he has production against MSU, it's over and he's a star. Since the move to mostly WR he's averaging over 100 yards a game; keep that up and Michigan will have two WRs crack 1000 yards in a season.

Heroes?

Everybody!

Maybe not so heroic!

Joey Burzynski's ACL! Epic dick move, dude! Ligament! Whatever.

What does it mean for Michigan State and the future?

NOTHING. But other than that…

Bosch is the guy for now. Looked the part, big recruit, enrolled early, seemed to know what he was doing. No idea if that holds up against MSU. Honestly, would be more surprised if Magnuson kept the RG job over Kalis if Kalis can fix some of his issues than if Bosch got passed by Bryant.

TOUSSAINT BACK? Buried buried buried last week, good here. Think he's played really well since the first bye week and the accompanying threats about pudding.

Tackle over is dead-ish. De-emphasized, used a bit, mostly with short yardage and an actual tackle at tackle.

If you don't pressure Gardner he will put it on your face. On your face. When he gets antsy with his feet his mechanics break down and bad things start happening. Here he was 100% confident in his protection, with good reason, and he was incredibly accurate.

Gallon and Funchess should be isolated to one side of a formation and Michigan should run max protect until someone stops it. Go go gadget enormous WR and tiny WR. Remember what the ND offense was like the year they had Golden Tate and Michael Floyd and they just ran eight man protections all damn day? That. That's what they should do.