The Snowflake Thread: Offense
September 14th, 2014 at 1:04 PM ^
I find it hilarious you're still trying to critique offensive line play and ragging on others for being wrong when no one was more clueless and off last week about the line than you.
But hey, keep being you.
September 13th, 2014 at 7:15 PM ^
The interesting stat that I am seeing, is that Shane held the football once. For 27 yards.
There is no way he is faster than DG, and DG had more carries and chances to run.
I think Shane's overall vision is better than DG. However, I'd start DG every single game. It's frustrating to have his turn overs sometimes, but spread out over the course of the season, I think 2014 DG would be better than 2014 Shane by quite a bit.
Give Shane one more year in Doug's system, there is a possibility he could be a beast of a QB for Michigan 2015.
2014 is DG's time.
September 13th, 2014 at 7:49 PM ^
Agreed. I'm looking forward to seeing Shane start . . next year. Not the blowout I was hoping for today, but there are signs of progress. Here's to hopefully being healthy soon!
September 13th, 2014 at 6:47 PM ^
Subtract the onside kick, the Darboh fumble, and the tipped pass int, and this game is a convincing blowout. Green had much better vision today and Darboh / Canteen / Jones got valuable experience. I'll call it an overall step in the right direction, but I'm not feeling any better about the season's potential.
September 13th, 2014 at 6:57 PM ^
I left mildly less so. A few fluke turnovers are why Miami even got to double digits. But the offense looked so anemic out there at halftime. Definitely some Akron / UConn omens over this game ime
September 13th, 2014 at 7:13 PM ^
September 14th, 2014 at 12:40 AM ^
The dropped fourth down pass, all the yards they lost on silly penalties, and the wide open deep ball.
The score of this game accurately told the story of the play on the field, unfortunately. The blueprint for beating our defense is obvious.
September 14th, 2014 at 10:04 AM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 6:47 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 6:47 PM ^
Green's vision looked a lot better. He actually made something out of nothing mulitple times, and ran through tackles. That's something he hadn't done before.
Darboh and Butt showed we have options in the receiving game outside of Funchess.
It's Miami of Ohio but whatever, it's still good to see. Give the young guys some confidence going forward.
September 13th, 2014 at 7:38 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 6:47 PM ^
thought the other recievers were adequate but not a great game for them
Butt coming back is a bright spot along with Green looking good
September 13th, 2014 at 6:48 PM ^
Butt, nice to have him back.
September 13th, 2014 at 6:49 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 6:49 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 6:57 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 6:50 PM ^
The brief breakdown is like this:
460 total yards of offense (184 passing, 276 rushing).
Devin Gardner and Shane Morris combined for 13-22. Shane was 0-2, but Devin was 13-20, so 9.20 yards per attempt and 14.15 yards per completion.
Those 276 rushing yards were spread across 45 carries, so we managed 6.1 YPC overall. Roughly half of this, of course, was Derrick Green.
September 13th, 2014 at 7:23 PM ^
Keep in mind both of those Shane passes were almost perfect throws.
Heitzman dropped a pass to him, in stride!, that should have been hauled in.
I believe the second was a pass to Jehu Chesson that he hauled in and then dropped. Yes DG > Shane, but Shane's 2 passes were good throws.
Take away the turnovers, offense played pretty well IMO.
Not trying to be argumentative, just trying to emphasize that even though we didn't win as we wanted. There were good things on offense.
September 13th, 2014 at 9:03 PM ^
The best two throws of the day were both drops and both made by Shane. I think we could do worse than have Shane as our QB.
September 13th, 2014 at 10:17 PM ^
Lot of folks saying this, but the throw to Chesson was a little behind - he had to slow down for it, and let the defender get an arm in. Still a catchable ball though.
September 13th, 2014 at 6:52 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 7:24 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 8:45 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 6:53 PM ^
So in conclusion we need to stick with Green Butt!
September 13th, 2014 at 7:24 PM ^
Green Gardner Butt Peppers.
September 13th, 2014 at 8:19 PM ^
Green Peppers Gardner?
. . . Butt
September 13th, 2014 at 6:54 PM ^
Good they got experience without Funchess. Hopefully it helps Devin spread the ball around in the future instead of locking onto #1 too much.
Also Shane threw an end zone dart that should have been a TD catch by Chesson.
September 13th, 2014 at 6:55 PM ^
Still a work in progress, but there was improvement.
September 13th, 2014 at 6:55 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 7:10 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 7:26 PM ^
Please keep in the mind the HUGE DIFFERENCE between 2013 and 2014.
In 2013, did the backups get any snaps verse UConn or Akron?
Backups got snaps verse both APP St. and Miami (NTM) this year.
Maybe not as many as you'd like, but a big difference from last year.
September 13th, 2014 at 6:55 PM ^
... regular season, but wouldn't be surprised by 7-5. I just don't see the fluidity in the offense. Against a real team we're in trouble.
September 13th, 2014 at 6:57 PM ^
I was glad to see Green's vision improved, and that Butt was able to pick up where he left off.
Watching Shane's delivery is impressive -- especially when comparing it to DG's.
I am not on the "Bench DG, Start Shane" bandwagon, but DG's mechanics seem to have regressed despite Nuss's coaching -- those two passes to Butt were scary bad mechanically. I was also impressed with Shane's wheels on that zone-read he ran, and again, something is wrong with the way DG is running the ball -- it's like he's not attacking the defense, he's just running scared. He seems to take an odd angle on his designed runs, not going straight up the field, but at a oblique angle. I don't know the proper football terms, but it's odd to me.
Glad we got the win, and that the OL started opening holes -- finally.
September 13th, 2014 at 7:03 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 7:00 PM ^
Green appears to be improving. He looked like he was running harder and with better vision.
Butt is awesome and I'm glad he's back. Recievers got experience and Darboh got open a lot.
Morris came in and threw 2 money passes that were unfortunately dropped.
O-line got better as the game went on.
If the attrocious and disturbing turnover shit-storm did not occur in the second quarter this would have had a very similar final score as the App State game.
September 13th, 2014 at 7:04 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 7:01 PM ^
I'm optimistic that the line play will be consistent enough this year. I'm a bit worried about Devin seeming a bit squeamish when he has time, but the offensive line seems much improved from last year, and if Devin gets comfortable I think the offense could keep getting better. I just wish they would vary the pace a bit at certain times, but that apparently won't happen under Hoke.
September 13th, 2014 at 7:01 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 7:06 PM ^
It's now, what, 3 games into his run under Nussmeier? It takes QBs some time to get acclimated as well. He threw for 2 TDs, 14+ ypc, and completed 65% of his throws. He isn't great, but he looks WAY better than he did last year at this time.
Also, the one INT was a deflected ball that he shouldn't have thrown but that's true for anyone. And the pick-6 would have been pretty tough for most college DBs to make.
September 13th, 2014 at 7:29 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 7:46 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 7:55 PM ^
He wasn't exactly a world-beater last year either.
September 13th, 2014 at 8:36 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 7:01 PM ^
Three games down, Turnover margin is 1:8 in favor of the bad guys. Yet, our cumulative score is 86 to 55, good guys. This will not hold up if we cannot take care of the football. What gives?
September 13th, 2014 at 7:03 PM ^
I'm going to guess that the TO difference will shift to the positive; that feels way more like the outlier than the scoring.
September 13th, 2014 at 7:05 PM ^
Wouldn't that be great? If we could return to the norm in TO differential during B1G play, we may actually stand a chance.
September 13th, 2014 at 7:01 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 7:02 PM ^
It was fine. Wasn't pretty, but 34 points is still a certain level of competency that people are downplaying. Green looked good running the ball, and it seems like they are settling on him which will be good for continuity.
Darboh looks like a future playmaker, and Butt made a couple of nice catches. Would like to see more Norfleet, but he had a nice return.
Not the greatest performance, but was a workman one that wasn't nearly as bad as people are making it out to be.
September 13th, 2014 at 7:13 PM ^
Like you said, it definitely wasn't pretty. But it's not as bad as some are making it out to be either. It's not like Miami was doing much to scare Michigan...it was Michigan doing it to itself.
September 13th, 2014 at 7:28 PM ^
The spread for this game was 35 points. We didn't really even come close to covering. Now, there are reasons for that, sure, lots of guys injured, a turnover that really wasn't etc. We still played a pretty sloppy game, and it kinda feels like the team gets dangerously close to mentally unraveling in the bad moments.