Best thing you saw: Week 2

Submitted by mi93 on

Another week of entertaining games, including a wake-up call in Ann Arbor.  There were definitely some solid finishes with ND-GA and the battle for all the corn and blonde maidens in Iowa the most entertaining.  With that…

Non-Michigan: though in a loss, I came away VERY impressed with Phillips (#4) of Western, he of the fumble return and KO return for all of their points.  He nearly added a pick to his day.  Watching OSU get dismantled for the second time in three games was very enjoyable.  The 4th quarter and OT of Iowa – Iowa St. was great theater.  However…the one-handed TD catch by GA was the best thing I saw today.  Incredible effort.

Michigan: funny how 18- and 19-year olds don’t always bring the same emotion and energy week-to-week.  Up 14 early, M looked like it let off the gas because ‘this gonna be easy’.  Best thing I saw here was a coachable moment – all within a win – that could prove the difference in keeping this young team’s attention as the games get tougher.

What say you?

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A Lot of Milk

September 10th, 2017 at 12:37 AM ^

This is going to sound petty as hell, but does anyone remember Northwestern's tweet about their record against their "academic peers" that included their winning records against teams like Stanford and Duke, but didn't include their record against Michigan? HINT: It isn't great. Well it was great to see their "academic peer" Duke stomp a mudhole on them today. The Thorson-Justin Jackson dual Heisman campaign took a big hit today

Joined: 02/17/2013

MGoPoints: 48623

tah15

September 10th, 2017 at 2:10 AM ^

So I haven't seen anyone mention this yet, but wasn't Gary's making his pressence felt a direct result of Michigan switching back to the 4-2-5 with Mone in the middle? It seemed like Mone took pressure off the other d-linemen by taking on numerous double teams. It allowed the others to get loose on one-on-ones and for Gary, especially, to split out wider into a 7-tech single gap attack position. Contrast that with the 3-3-5 through the first half of this game where Gary, Hurst, and Winovich were essentially having to take attention off (mostly) Furbush blitzing up the middle against a guard. Now, I loved the 3-3-5 last week against Florida (pro-style, pass-first team) and I think it's great for disguising blitzers on obvious passing downs. However, I do not like the idea of 3 down linemen going against power-rush spread teams. Didn't Durkin have us run a 3-man front against OSU a couple years ago and we got hammered? If it's a choice between Furbush isolated on a guard or Gary isolated outside of a tackle, I think I'd normally take the latter. Plus, against OSU, it seems the 3-3-5 would only work unless you blitzed a backer into the exact gap OSU was trying to run through. You guess wrong, you're toast. I love Don Brown, and I know we all like seeing more speed out there with two hyprids (Furbush and Hudson), but no one is that psychic. The 4-2-5 worked great against OSU last year in part because a badass NT that requires double teams cancels out the spread's ability to option a lineman out of the play. This game made me wonder if a 3-3-5 does too many favors for a power spread. Thoughts? 

 

Joined: 09/10/2017

MGoPoints: 1071

Jasper

September 10th, 2017 at 8:53 AM ^

Thoughts? Yes -- that was a bit tl;dr.

Also, a 240-pound linebacker hitting a gap with a head start doesn't differ much from a 280-pound guy hitting a gap without a head start. Also, the offense has a decent idea of where the big guy will go. Wisconsin (the manball team that gets everyone chubbed around here) often does that on defense.

tl;dr: The 4th guy doesn't have to be on the line to be effective.

Joined: 12/30/2010

MGoPoints: 3591

tah15

September 10th, 2017 at 2:14 PM ^

My take was based on Brian's UFR last week, which poked fun of Greg Robinson's 3-3-5 attempt where the 240-IB linebacker is essentially asked to do the job of a DT (but with momentum) and fails miserably. Furbush wasn't even hitting the 'A' gap with momentum in this game. He was stood up over the guard most of the time (hard to gain leverage there).

Now, Brown is certainly trying to disguise whether Furbush is actually coming or dropping back into zone coverage. On passing down's, this trickeration combined with another disguised blitz from elsewhere can cause huge problems (as it did to Florida). But the drawback is it forces huge splits between the three down lineman, requiring the SDE (Gary) to "pinch-in" to more of a 5-tech position, head-up over the OT rather than being in a harder to manage 7-tech position when Mone is in the game. The wider split allows Gary both a better angle to attack the QB and a wider position for helping contain on the inverted veer. 

As to the choice, it's between a 240-Ib linebacker standing up, threatening the 'A' gap, or a 280-lb Gary one-on-one outside of the Tackle. These two things are not the same! Brian's UFR was all about how there's a huge difference between these two choices. Gary was getting loose far more with Mone in there than with Furbush.

Or, if you'd prefer, the choice can be seen as between, again, a 240-lb linebacker standing up over the 'A,' or a 330 lb Nose Tackle hitting the 'A' with leverage, thus forcing the center/guard double team and allowing the other three lineman one-on-one's with bettter angles. That's a 90-lb difference with more strength and leverage for the latter. Again, not the same.

All in all, I just think the 3-3-5 is a great change-up Brown has added to the toolbox, but against OSU, I want to see his bread and butter 4-2-5 most of the way. Worked great last year. That is all. 

Joined: 09/10/2017

MGoPoints: 1071

StephenRKass

September 10th, 2017 at 12:40 AM ^

  • "Teachable moments." Michigan is so young, they've got to learn.
  • Two pick sixes. Go secondary.
  • Gary getting a penalty, then turning up the intensity. Keep it up, big fella.
  • No interceptions for Speight.
  • Finally having a RB with a number of decent carries.
  • Oh, and a humiliating OSU loss. Definitely a good thing.

Joined: 07/15/2008

MGoPoints: 23101

uncle leo

September 10th, 2017 at 7:37 AM ^

A noticable uptick from his play before that penalty until after in terms of the intensity. And I was watching him damn close after our conversation a few days ago.

Doesn't that ultimately speak to how Braylon said he doesn't give it all 100 percent every play?

Joined: 07/29/2012

MGoPoints: 34636

AmayzNblue

September 10th, 2017 at 7:57 AM ^

The same talk about Jedeveon Clowney when he was in college. Do you guys want the Clowney's and Gary's on UM's team or not? I'm grateful we have a monster like him that teams feel the need to double even if he occasionally gets a little gassed on a play. Watching him turn a QB into a crepe is pretty special

Joined: 01/10/2015

MGoPoints: 5016

tah15

September 10th, 2017 at 2:21 PM ^

The difference was not emotional ("I'll try harder now") but tactical. Gary was getting loose because of Mone's presence once they switched back to the 4-2-5 just prior to the targeting penalty. See above. 

Joined: 09/10/2017

MGoPoints: 1071

Bambi

September 10th, 2017 at 12:43 AM ^

Obviously there's a lot to chose from in the Michigan/OSU/ND/Baylor etc. categories. But I want to make sure something else doesn't go unnoticed:

MSU beat Bowling Green 35-10 @ MSU last week. They threw for 250 yards at 6.9 YPA and gained 465 yards.

This week, BGSU lost at home to South Dakota (FCS who finished 4-7 last year) 35-27, giving up 520 yards and 305 passing yards.

A 4-7 FCS team had a better offensive and passing game showing at BGSU than MSU could muster at home against BGSU.

Joined: 10/12/2013

MGoPoints: 23158

Bambi

September 10th, 2017 at 10:27 AM ^

I watched that whole game. The run defense looks much improved but pass d still had multiple break downs that the QB missed wide open guys.

On offense they still struggled running the ball with their backs. Take away one 44 yard run by Scott at the end of the game and he had 17 carries for 42 yards, and the other backs were at 3.5 and 4.5 yards a carry. Lewerke looked average at best throwing the ball. 7.7 YPA today to follow up 7.6 YPA last week (good for 73rd in the country YPA to this point, Speight is 14th) against two very weak pass Ds.

MSU is much improved and can probably get to 5/6 wins. They are also still very young, lack depth and talent, and have a few major issues. At home we should win that game with a solid cushion.

Joined: 10/12/2013

MGoPoints: 23158

MIMark

September 10th, 2017 at 8:44 AM ^

The new coach needs to go. He is in over his head. In his second year and he inherited a team that had won the MAC East three straight times all of which were east sweeps, two of three conference championships, three recent wins over Big Ten teams, and he has sank the team quickly and has utterly killed interest among the alums and fans. He's got to go before causing even more damage. And BTW, South Dakota most certainly has a more impressive offense than MSU.

Joined: 05/05/2009

MGoPoints: 3735

ghostofhoke

September 10th, 2017 at 10:23 AM ^

I could totally be a bigger dick. Especially if you don't recognize that obviously 9 out of 10 people had seen the Mayfield incident since it was posted all over the place just above my post and obviously someone didn't understand the obvious irony and sarcasm of my post. I guess I need to do a better job using the "/s" in the future because maybe Captain Obvious isn't so obvious.

Joined: 11/21/2014

MGoPoints: 8562

bacon

September 10th, 2017 at 1:04 AM ^

Our RB started the season with back to back 100 yard games. I could be wrong, but IIRC we haven't had a RB with back to back 100 yard games since 2011. Correction, Higdon did it last year against Rutgers and Illinois. It's still not happening enough.

Joined: 01/04/2009

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