UFR review shows pass protection in Shotgun Empty formation is stellar
With Brian's latest UFR out showing the tire-fire that is our pass protection, I thought I'd point out a glowing light amidst the darkness:
Michigan's pass pro out of the shotgun empty formation has been nearly flawless!
Coming into the game, Michigan ran the Shotgun empty formation on 12/77 passing attempts. Brian charted them with perfect protection on 11 out of those 12 attempts. The only 0/2 was on a redzone play against Air Force, where a zero blitz defensive call RPS -1 was the main culprit.
In this formation, Speight was 9/12 for 11.5 yards/attempt (with 1 INT on the play where he TacoPantsed a wide-open Perry against Florida).
In the Purdue game, O'Korn had 4/38 pass attempts out of the shotgun empty formation. Brian charted the protection at 7/7.
O'Korn was 3/4 for 15.5 yards/attempt. The sole incompletion came on the play where Brian notes, "If he can catch and run here he’s getting 20 yards. JOK wings it wide and Perry can’t bring in a difficult diving fingertip catch...RPS +2."
We were all excited about the prospects of the 5 wide coming into the season, and early returns have been extremely promising. Based on a rewatch of those specific passing plays, it seems like the OL communication issues are mitigated by the easier reads. They don't have to worry about whether or not they are getting help from another OL, TE, or RB; it is simply mano-a-mano, and so far the OL has thrived in that situation. When the defense sends a blitz, the QBs are 1 for 2 on attempts to stand up to the rush and make them pay (O'Korn's loft to Gentry for the targeting And-1).
Small sample sizes apply (16/115 passing plays), but hopefully we see more of this formation moving forward.
Edit, for reference compared to another formation: Michigan lined up in some variation of shotgun (not including empty) on 48% of passing plays. I slightly modified the UFR scoring system such that a 0/3 protection is -3, 1/2 is -1, 1/1 is +1, 3/3 is +3, etc.
Using that scoring system, Michigan's pass pro averaged 0.26 out of the Shotgun, compared to 1.9 out of the Shotgun Empty set.
October 2nd, 2017 at 5:03 PM ^
October 2nd, 2017 at 5:07 PM ^
The other issue is hitting on QBs.
M is better than MSU on every position, but how come MSU has had Cousins, Hoyer, Cook all pretty good and now Lewerke.
I mean can we hit on some decent QBs. Our last was...Henne? like 10 years ago. Sheesh.
And O Line development - I think just repping for 2+ more years of the same scheme and we'd be rolling. Besides, who had "dominant" OL besides bama in CF? Hire Cristobal?
October 2nd, 2017 at 5:16 PM ^
Putting aside Rudock in '15 and Speight in '16, our last decent QB was Denard Robinson. He was an excellent college QB.
October 2nd, 2017 at 5:19 PM ^
Lewerke is not even close to as good as the other QBs you listed.
October 2nd, 2017 at 5:15 PM ^
OK, I understand mostly none of this, but does this mean we block better when we are not using our RBs as blockers?
October 2nd, 2017 at 5:29 PM ^
October 2nd, 2017 at 5:42 PM ^
or to have a guy wiff his blocks since we don't have RBs who seems to consistently pick up blitzers...
October 2nd, 2017 at 8:31 PM ^
October 2nd, 2017 at 5:35 PM ^
Nice post. Thank you for taking the time to analyze that. Would love to see our success running out of the shotgun as well.
I do not believe the best way to minimize a deficiency is to add more of it. By that I mean, since it's clear we don't have great pass-blocking, I don't want to add more blockers who are theoritically worse at blocking than the guys ahead of them to pass pro. Let's get more of our strength on the field.
To me, this team's offensive strengths are as follows:
- TEs
- FB/H-Backs
- RBs as runners - but not consistent in pass pro
- WRs - talented but perhaps not yet fully in tune with the offense
How do we maximize these strengths? I would like to see us use more motion. Move the TEs and H-Backs around. Run 22 personnel out of the shotgun and motion the RB, FB, or H-Back. Run 21 personnel out of the shotgun and line the TEs up in the slots, then motion them into trips formations that we can run or pass out of. Or, use 22 personnel with two RBs and motion one out. When using WRs, focus on getting them in space on slants, screens, rubs, and drags, and use McDoom more.
Would love to see us incorporate what the KC Chiefs are doing in their offense. They use multiple TEs out of the shotgun and misdirection with fly sweeps, shovel passes, screens, and draws. Make our opponents think twice about the blitz-heavy schemes that have been shredding our OL. Higdon/Evans as a proxy for Hunt, Gentry a proxy for Kelce, McDoom a proxy for Hunt/Hill in the passing/sweep game, other RBs/TEs/FBs and WRs fit the other pieces. Oh, and now we have a QB that can move like Alex Smith.
Make it happen!
October 2nd, 2017 at 6:16 PM ^
Been reading many years even though I only joined a few years back.
Rarely post but as a 1980 under and a Ross 1990 MBA alum I should have some cred?
OK I gueess not. Certainly no real football cred.
In any case.
A general request for a liittle bit more tolerance/kindness/patience for fellow posters/imposters/alumni
We are here because we love BLUE!!
The negativity is a bit too much.
Let's enjoy the journey.
Sorry if that sounds corny.
I JUST LIKE TO RELAX!!!
October 3rd, 2017 at 8:50 AM ^
If you've been reading for a long tine then you remember what this blog used to be like. Way less OT stuff, way less repetitive snowflake crap, and most board topics were serious Michigan Football topics.
The blog was like that BECAUSE people were so vicious in the policing of the atmosphere. Many of us want the blog to be like it used to be.
In some ways the blog has grown for the better. In some ways the more "mlive" like nature it has taken on is kind of a bummer.
October 2nd, 2017 at 6:21 PM ^
going to need good pass pro against sparty. their only chance in the game is to be disruptive on passing downs
October 2nd, 2017 at 7:47 PM ^
Michigan State's only chance in the game is to kidnap Coach Brown and make him smoke a big bowl. "Solve your problems with...peace and love, bro."
Hey, it worked for Appalachian State.
October 2nd, 2017 at 6:29 PM ^
Michigan running shotgun empty formations against MSU will be like encasing a down in ice.
October 2nd, 2017 at 6:44 PM ^
Granted the coaches probably forgot more about football than I know, but wouldn't it make sense that if you have turnstile OL and RBs to keep your QB farther from the opposing DLine?
Seems to me giving the QB a little bit more time can make all the difference especially when you have supposedly superior talent on the receiving end. And thats even before the empty backfield shotgun formation.
Forgot about pistol and shotgun, any football team ever make for a non pooch punt rifle formation.
October 3rd, 2017 at 2:18 AM ^
Replied to wrong post.
October 2nd, 2017 at 11:35 PM ^
..."Michigan lined up in some variation of shotgun.... 48%(+ shotgun empty) of the time"
Although it's encouraging that they only had O'Korn throw from the shotgun 34% of passing plays; that seems like the better ratio IMO. O'Korn had to throw as much as they ran but he was throwing in less obvious "throwing situations" and the off sceduling seemed to keep the D off balance.
Only bad aspect of O'Korn's performance against Purdue was, since he had to play because of injury, he probably ran a bunch of plays Harbaugh would have preferred "under the veil" till Happy Valley.
October 3rd, 2017 at 2:16 AM ^
You can also run from a shotgun formation. We ran it all the time a few years ago. Harbaugh ran it all the time in SF.
October 3rd, 2017 at 11:29 AM ^
...that's MY point.
I'd like to see the offense be unpredictable so absolutely more running from Shotgun, but mostly less use of it, especially on 3rd and medium, mostly save the look for big plays downfield on off scedule downs.
It seemed to me that the playcalling when Speight was in reflected a desire to get extra work on the new zone read concepts, at least I hope that's the case. Now that they have some video for the players to digest, I hope they get back to a more ball control ratio of run/pass and shotgun/under-center.
Plus where the hell is my 5TE set?