Minnesota Snowflakes: The Offense

Peters has bad pocket awareness, which is one of the few things both Speight and O'Korn were very solid at. 

 

The first two sacks he easily should've avoided. 

Designed to mitigate pass rush. They basically abandoned that once the outcome of the game was no longer in question. I get it--it's like when Wisconsin ran straight at us 25 times in 2010. Don't fix what ain't broke. That said, I'm with the people who think Peters should have been given some more passing experience. Not slow developing pass plays, but quick stuff. Slants, hitches, bubble screens, waggles, etc. I don't think he needs the raining wheels on.

Peters wasn’t great but didn’t need to be near it, the run blocking,runs and cuts by Higdon and Evans were devistating.

I know that being able to pass would be nice but look no further than Notre Dame to a top team that runs the ball, passes minimally, and wins. It’s yet to be seen if the run game can hold up vs. better teams like Wisconsin and OSU but at least the offense looks better in one facet. Excited to see the team in action in person next week.

Pass protection leaves a lot to be desired and an effective passing game WILL be needed to beat both Wisconsin and OSU. Iowa threw for 250 yards and 5 TDs on OSU today, compared to only 1 rushing touchdown. Teams will great defensive lines and linebackers will just load the box and force our young QB and receivers to make plays. That's why I think it's important to start getting Peters some valuable passing reps the sooner the better. If we play Maryland the same way we just played Minnesota, I could fully see Peters first real passing game against Wisconsin (20+ attempts) looking a lot like a repeat of JOK's performance in the Penn State game. Hopefully Peters can spin the ball a lot more next week.

A lot of OL pass pro drills against line stunts this week in practice, I hope.

Running game was flat out dominant. Kugler might be a bigger part of the pass pro problem than the RT. They went into a shell with Peters once they went up two scores, and understandably so. Don't know that we learned much about him either way.

has two arms and functional hands with fingers that can grip onto things.

Just teach them to hold like MFs. They don't call it anymore, and even if they do, picking up one or two flags per game is a small price to pay for a healthy QB and a passing game that might work.

Hold like a cat on a clothesline in a motivational poster.

Not an expert, so I would like hear from those who are more knowledgeable.

Frey was brought in to teach the zone blocking scheme, but I read somewhere that UM was going back to Drevno's gap blocking scheme.

Does today's success mean that one of the systems has won the debate?  

Is it possible to mix the different schemes, or is it too confusing for the OL to switch between the two?

RBs Obviously the key to this game! It just opened up! Karan Higdon getting the job done, and Chris Evans finally looking like the player we saw last year! I hope they keep this up next week to give our QB room to grow. QB Brandon Peters is looking like a developing redshirt freshman. Two steps forward, one step back. The good thing was that when the mistakes came, he was able to stay calm and tough. Also, those steps back just led to annoying incompletions instead of turnovers. Onward to Maryland. Offensive Line I was at the game so couldn’t break the oline play down too much, but from what I saw, our line has improved incredibly! So amazed and proud of those guys! WRs They looked ok, not too many opportunities to see them as our running game took over, but they looked pretty meh. Some annoying catchable balls dropped, but not that much film to work with for me to go into UNACCEPTABLE mode.

a few not even close.  

Time to work the bugs out in practice and try again

next weekend.

were an offense against broadcasting.

I'd rather listen to Pam Ward recite War & Peace then listen to those fuckwads ever again.

was blowing dudes up while pulling from his rt guard spot tonight... looked quick as hell.

Ruiz looked solid in his first extended playing time. Umm, 200 and 191 yard performances for Higdon and Evans pretty much sums it up; would have liked to see more passing just for added reps and whathaveyou.

It was great to see the O-line play improve to the point of being able to run up almost 400 yards on the ground and thereby rely on the passing game only sparingly. That was the most refreshing and encouraging part of the offense's performance. What little we saw from Peters wasn't outstanding, but it gave plenty of reasons for optimism given that he's a freshman who was making his first career start.

I mean I get it, the passing game wasn't good.  But we just had one back run for 200 yards, another run for 190.   They were both over 100 yards in the FIRST HALF. 4 running TDs.   I expected at least a little more enjoyment in this thread.    

- Minnesota was overmatched - much like Rutgers. They're clearly a team with some significant issues and even Fleck's 'cult leader' persona isn't gonna turn these guys into champs overnight.

- If we were where we would like to be, we'd win by more than 23 points and without expending significantly more effort. 33-10 scoreline isn't some kind of loving hommage to the 70s, it's what happens if your offense only has a plan A. With even a moderately successful passing game that can be trusted, we'd have easily put 50-60 on them. Whether that was a matter of not having to show the plan B because plan A worked so well or because plan B isn't very good at all..well I suspect it's more the latter.

- This new 'identity' of Michigan is not one of choice but of necessity. Harbaugh doesn't want to run 75% of the time. That's not how we started the year or what we did in the last two years. Much like I suggested a couple weeks ago, the offense has become a 'run first and then run again' offense because the passing game is a 'work in progress' to put it mildly. At some point you gotta go with what works and not with what you'd like to work if you want to have even a measure of success.

- We're still underdogs in Madison and by a good margin. Very, very good Michigan teams have gone there and lost. From what I've seen of Wisconsin, I'd say they're cut above us this year. Michigan will need to show a plan B offensively and we also need to be prepared for the fact that Wisconsin is going to put some TDs on the board. Hornibrook is going to make some plays and as a result their running game will have some success, too. We have a very good D but it's not without its soft spots (which is the case for pretty much all Ds for what it's worth).

- Main goal at the moment needs to be to win in Maryland and we really should. Get a W there and Michigan has gotten the 8 wins that can be realistically seen as the 'normal' outcome for this season at this point. Anyone who allows wishful thinking to fool themselves into believing that we *should* win vs Wisconsin or OSU is approaching this very wrongly. If we win those games or even any one of them, we should treat it as a fantastic success, not merely an expected outcome. If we lose them, it's unfortunate but not the end of the world or 'unacceptable' 'disgusting' or whatever other terms is used by some of the yahoos on this forum every time our D allows a score or every time we go 3 and out.

Then when the running game was killing it I'm sure Harbaugh figured it was best to keep gashing them on the ground.  It was late, weather wasn't great, and offense was clicking.  Why should they have stopped running the ball?  

I know that Peters will need to hit some shots in closer games to keep the running game open like that, and I believe that he will, but the coaches are trying to keep it closer to the chest to try and surpise WI and OSU.

Brought me back to 1976, Rob LITTLE and Harlan running thru the line all day.

 

Run blocking exceptionally improved, and running backs breaking tackles and finding holes which is a huge improvement from the beginning of the year. A large part of the issues in the passing game appeared to be Ruiz and his exposure to stunts. A large part of an offensive line working in pass protection is everyone knowing their role and who to hand off to on stunts and twists. That requires everyone playing the part and any new person in game will make that a liability. Peters isn't as physically big as Speight or Lewerke so if he gets hit he is going down. I don't think those sacks he took will inform what his pocket presence is as the rush was on him quickly. I think the passing game will be waggles, roll outs, screens and throw backs. The QB is too young at reading defenses to do much more. I did really like the people Jones back shoulder throw so the talent is definitely there.