WTKA Roundtable 9/29/17: A Good Time for a Bye Comment Count

Seth

image

[Patrick Barron]

Things discussed:

  • Purdue was never going to win that game. Offense had to find its footing; Purdue never faced a defense like that.
  • Yay defense! Furbush and Gary are very good at generating havoc. Long & Hill killing it.
  • Flargeting: why wasn’t the one on Speight seen on replay? Brian gets talked out of his take.
  • O’Korn! Let’s not underestimate the transformation from Indiana to now. Was making confident pre-snap reads and executing them. First reads were there for him more than they’ve been for Speight. Improved pocket presence over the course of the game.
  • Sam: O’Korn was for real as of Rome.
  • Kudos to the Fox director—as long as Tim Brando isn’t on the call. Could see the receiver play really well in this game.
  • A lot of Perry and Schoenle outside. TE rotation settled with McKeon and Gentry on top. DPJ had a lot of routes and release moves to learn to function in this offense.
  • Alarming game for the OL. Not for Onwenu.RBs rough moments in pass blocking. Drevno or youth or both? First level rules still not being executed.
  • ND-MSU things: DL in South Bend isn’t creating havoc—Cole Chewins versus Michigan’s DL is a massive mismatch.
  • Ahead to Penn State: their defense is much better than we thought; Devin Bush is THE guy you want vs Saquon Barkley.
  • Ed’s numbers have UCF on top because numbers don’t know about Maryland’s QB situation.

You can catch the entire episode on Michigan Insider's podcast stream on Audioboom.

Segment two is here. Segment three is here.

THE USUAL LINKS

Comments

Late Bluemer

September 29th, 2017 at 9:12 AM ^

I don't get all the Josey Jewell love on ABC last week.  He looks like the prototypical B1G LB from decades past - good instincts but questionable athleticism.  Barkley just about broke his ankes a couple of times on jukes from what I saw.  If he gets 1st team All-B1G over Devin Bush it will be a travesty.

1VaBlue1

September 29th, 2017 at 9:45 AM ^

Watching that Iowa defense trying to stop Barkley was just a series of 'ohhh, cmon, make the tackle....' phrases.  They were a step slow across the field, at every position.  Good defense, just not athletic enough to be great.  You can't make those tackles unless you're a step closer.

Michigan will be a step closer, across the entire field.

Blue1995nyc

September 29th, 2017 at 9:35 AM ^

So now Sp8 did not have the same quick reads as O'Korn?

Can we stop doing this? We have eyes you know. 

No coincidence the TEs caught tons of passes after Sp8 went down and very few beforehand.  Also no coincidence O'Korn took almost no deep shots.

Not a play calling thing.  A QB thing.

1VaBlue1

September 29th, 2017 at 9:42 AM ^

So you're saying that the QB calls the play - deciding when to throw to a crossing reciever short, and when to throw deep?  That's all on the QB, with nothing Harbaugh says making a difference?  Because that's what you just said.

Interesting take...  I don't buy it, but its interesting...

Seth

September 29th, 2017 at 10:25 AM ^

I think you're at risk of oversimplifying things. There's more going on than that, and it goes into the kind of offense Michigan ran last year versus what they ran against Purdue.

Last year Michigan finished the season running a highly advanced, almost modern NFL-style offense. Watch Speight on this play and count the bounces (corresponding to reads):

FOUR reads. That's Tom Brady-level access to a passing offense when in college most teams rarely give their quarterback more than two passing reads before telling them to scramble. The Speight making that play is vastly above the highest hopes for O'Korn.

Speight has not been that guy this year, but we were running an offense the first three games that largely asked him to be. Against Purdue however they greatly simplified the passing game. Look at this one:

For a moment ignore Speight bugging out of his pocket too early to see the blitzer came and McKeon (his hot read) was opening up. If the TD pass to Khalid Hill is super complicated, this play is super easy. Schoenle is supposed to be running his snag route as a pick route, ie the point is to put Schoenle INTO coverage so Hill will pop wide open and get some YAC. The only thought process other than "pass to Hill when he gets open" is "if there's a SAM blitz hot read to McKeon" but that blitz was delayed and Speight didn't trust his pocket and he moved right on to the one thing this play really expects him to see.

That offense is what Michigan State and Wisconsin run because they don't trust their quarterbacks to survey the field and find the open guy in the milliseconds they have to process that information, nor their receivers to create space to throw it. 

I think Michigan installed that offense for Speight because he's not been executing the Tom Brady offense, and Michigan felt Purdue's inexperienced defense wasn't going to be able to shut it down, then O'Korn was accidentally the recipient.

We're not judging either quarterback on their receivers' drops. This is all UFR and game review data.

Fezzik

September 29th, 2017 at 5:24 PM ^

Saying Speight made 4 reads needs to be taken with a big block of salt here. A QB usually reads a safety or a particular man to judge if a route combination will open. He doesn't look at each WR individually to see if he's open. If he does he will take a lot of sacks from holding the ball too long and passes will be late. On that play I only see the point of Speight's Facebook move once from the left half the field to the right half. As far as we know he made 2 reads here. This is a good play by Speight but can we stop including his name in the same breath as Tom Brady? Regarding the 2nd clip, are you saying this play is designed to have only one read, not counting the blitz read?

Alumnus93

September 29th, 2017 at 9:54 AM ^

Who is number 96?  I saw a 96 with no nameplate come in late in the game at RT I think, or TE, but boy he looked like a man... I hope it was him because I'd like to see whoever that was, at RT.

 

Alumnus93

September 29th, 2017 at 10:23 AM ^

Thanks...But are you sure it wasn't James Hudson?   Either way, I'd like to see Ruiz or whoever it was, get on the field, even at RT.  He had an edge about him that I think is needed on the starting OL

Zeke21

September 29th, 2017 at 10:35 AM ^

Everyday over Brian.  Brian all over JOK for indiana game, now all over Drevno.

Come on Man.

Brian has easiest job in world, sit back and Be Critical of things He Has Never done.

But I Love Mgoblog for info.

Alumnus93

September 29th, 2017 at 10:52 AM ^

In both cases it is merited.   JOK was poor vs Indiana... and the OL recruiting was poor at the tackles, especially knowing the empty roster Hoke left us. The entire thing with Swenson is affecting us... it appears they took Ulizio to fill space, much like the Dan Samuelson scenario, that they missed on their first two or three options and had to fill the spot.... the one spot we needed most is OT and it was epic fail... We've all seen how much we needed tackles and it was the one spot that wasn't filled... Maybe Henderson going to Stanford did us in but this is part of the recruiting, and they should have went after others.  Drevno can be hammered for the recruiting side... but not the coaching side.

Amutnal

September 29th, 2017 at 11:51 AM ^

This app is essentially unusable at this point. I get it’s free and all, but multiple blank pages and multiple refreshes just to get content to load. Sometimes it just goes to a blank screen (Harbaugh post game presser). My girlfriend constantly jokes that she expected a much product considering leaders and best. It’s only gotten worse since the HD app was banned. Really not trying to be that guy talking out of site, but I love this blog and the app is making me frequent this site less.

jjelliso

September 29th, 2017 at 12:29 PM ^

I like Sam but he is such a Pollyanna.

It would be nice to see someone address the "Harbaugh knows who the best QB is and we should trust him" argument that was the primary justification for sticking with Speight from Sam, Ira, and Brian.  Saturday  throw a bit of a wrench in that.  Was Harbaugh wrong in his assessment of who is better?  Was he overvaluing Speight's purported superior knowledge of the offense?

yossarians tree

September 29th, 2017 at 12:35 PM ^

Love these podcasts though I have to work past the fact that these guys sound like they are doing Radio Lab. Also I preferred the one where Brian had a cold because it gave a gruffness to his voice and you could actually hear him. Somebody tell Brian his voice trails off on the ends of his sentences.