Offense vs. Penn State Every Snap video

Submitted by Thorin on

Not Stonum's best game. Two penalties and he doesn't seem to adjust to throws that are a little high or low. We really missed Odoms as a possession receiver in this game IME.

T4L

November 3rd, 2010 at 11:13 PM ^

the game live, as I was at a high school football playoff game, I was able to watch this objectively and I thought our offense was pretty solid.

I hate to beat a dead horse (but I'm going to anyway), but without seeing Penn State's score continually rise on the video, I would have assumed we had won this game. Our offense did more than enough to win, but the D just isn't getting it done, which is a weird thing for me as a long-time Michigan fan.

blueheron

November 4th, 2010 at 8:59 AM ^

"... which is a weird thing for me as a long-time Michigan fan."

I'm a long-time Michigan football fan, too (well, as far back as I can remember, which is the mid-'80s).  In all honesty, though, having another team explode offensively on Michigan isn't something I consider weird.  (Aside: I've heard from my dad and others that Bo's first few defenses were awesome.  Can't comment personally ...)

Examples:

* Miami, notably in the 4th quarter, '88

* Florida State, 50-something in '91 (Michigan had lots of offensive firepower that year and they got their points, but the other team got more.)

* Northwestern, *54* points in '00/'01 (on a day when another high-powered Michigan offense scored, I think, 51)

* Appalachian State and Oregon in '07 (Florida, too, if you think about it ...)

* I won't hurt the reader with examples from '08 - '10.  Not enough space ...

So, yeah, I'm obviously cherry picking here, but even in '06 we had OSU and USC run up a bunch of points.  '97 (not surprisingly) looks like the exception rather than the rule.  In the Moeller and Carr years Michigan found itself in a lot of shoot-outs.

It's also worth nothing that, until the Carr years, Michigan's NFL placement was close to 2:1 for offense:defense.  They had almost no one from the defensive line play in the NFL.  Offense?  Obviously a different story at all positions ...

- - -

In the modern era the "O" has gotten it done more consistently than the "D."

IronDMK

November 4th, 2010 at 9:28 AM ^

He made a few mis-reads for sure and a couple of poor throws... but nothing that those receivers should not have made.  I didn't get to watch the game at all as I was in a wedding so that was tough.  Watching the offensive plays I thought they got screwed a few times on no calls (PI and hit QB OOB) but whatever, they still didn't play well enough to win.  Overall, I think the offense can play much better than that and that is a good sign.  Let's hope it happens this weekend.

I like Stephen Hopkins running the ball.

I like Vincent Smith catching the ball more than him running the ball.

mejunglechop

November 3rd, 2010 at 11:22 PM ^

On further inspection, I think it's fair to say we played OK on offense. Denard had a great day running, but throwing not so much.

joeyb

November 3rd, 2010 at 11:35 PM ^

I counted. There were 2 flatout drops, 3 tipped/batted passes, 1 pass that should have been pass interference, 2 low passes that still should have been caught, 1 high pass, 1 out of bounds, 1 into double coverage, 1 bad pass.Giving him the drops, the pass interference, and 2 of the 3 tipped/batted, that puts him at 16/23 or roughly 70%. That's a pretty good day IMO.

WolverineinDallas

November 4th, 2010 at 12:28 AM ^

I agree, we dropped a lot of catchable passes in this game. A few of those passes were thrown a little low to Stonum, but I think he still should have came up with them. Also, penalties in key situations hurt us again in this game. A false start penalty in Penn State territory and a holding call in the red zone really didn't help our cause. Of course, handing the ball off to Smith on 3rd and 1 in our opening drive didn't help either. 

tpilews

November 3rd, 2010 at 11:22 PM ^

UM needs to throw the ball up the seam more, that was open every time they went there. The slants were not working against PSU. The little "flare" swing pass at 6:42 and 7:59 worked great against PSU. I remember that play being successful in the past too. Carlos Brown took one to the house against IU last year. McGuffie took one to the house against ND in '08.

whyyoumadtho

November 3rd, 2010 at 11:33 PM ^

I feel like if we want to win games the offense needs to play better in the first half. Turn games into shootouts and hope the other team crumbles. At the very least would put pressure on the other team to score.

Keeeeurt

November 3rd, 2010 at 11:35 PM ^

Is it just me or has Denard's ZR's gotten better from just the fact that he is leaving the ball out there longer?  I don't have the best eye on those kind of things so I'm just curious.

TheMadGrasser

November 3rd, 2010 at 11:44 PM ^

Had a decent game. He's very useful in the little flare screens. We had a few 8-10 yard pickups on those. I also like the way Hopkins runs with authority.

The offense played well enough to win a game, but definitely not great. What's with Stonum and that dropped pass deep in our territory which could have kept the drive going?

It's hard to complain about the offense, but I would like to see them go vertical more often. If nothing else, it will keep them honest so they can't creep up into the box.

EDIT: Denard is outstanding at waiting for blocking to develop in front of him. I'm impressed every time I watch him run.

Keeeeurt

November 3rd, 2010 at 11:51 PM ^

I was wondering on the play where he ran in front of Hopkins stopped waited for him to get the block and took off again (sorry I don't know the time in the video), who's fault was it?  I'm assuming it was that QB power that they run quite a bit but I don't know if Denard thought he had a clear hole and took off right away and went oh crap, get in there Hopkins, or if Hopkins was slow getting to the hole?

ajchien

November 4th, 2010 at 2:16 AM ^

This is why Denard us our best RB and QB. He sets up and runs off of blocks better than anyone else ive seen ... In many years at Michigan. The other things that make him a great RB is that he rarely takes a really big hit and he always seems to be able to fall forward after contact.

tubauberalles

November 4th, 2010 at 12:49 AM ^

And I'm embarrassing myself even typing this, but based solely on this video, I'm optimistic about the OSU game.

And in order to best maintain that optimism, I'm going to go ahead and believe we can improve our defense enough to get one additional punt and our offense will catch one more pass or omit that clipping/chop block penalty they have called each game. 

Oh, and I'm going to skip reviewing the "Defense vs PSU Every Snap " video when it's uploaded.

3. Profit!

griesecheeks

November 4th, 2010 at 2:00 AM ^

things i noticed:

(1) handoffs to vincent smith are ineffective down-wasters. Throwing to him, however, has paid remarkable dividends.

(2) Hopkins has promise.

(3) Where has Roundtree gone? they need to be feeding him the ball. Im too impatient to slow this down and try to figure out whether teams are taking him away in coverage, or if we're back to the haphazard "throw to anyone" thing of 2008 and the first part of 2009. I know he had the flat drop on the TD a few games ago, but I'd still say he's our most reliable receiver.

(4) Jr Hemmingway: Is he clutch? or is he not clutch? seems to be a bit of a crapshoot. He and Stonum need to stop worrying about interference and make a play. if you can get your hands on it, you need to make a play.

(5) I absolutely adore the play where Denard throws the skinny post/slant as he runs toward the line of scrimmage. that is pure offensive genius. how the fuck do you stop that?

(6) Denard's an unreal runner. Pretty amazing that he's taken the allure of 5-10 yard gains away. It's crazy. He gains 7 and I almost wanna groan! It's pretty amazing. I still say that if michigan wins the next 2 and at least one of the Wisc/OSU games, he should still have a shot at the heisman. There is literally no person in the country who means more to his team than denard. and it's not close.

(7) 31 points in Happy Valley on Saturday night should always be Plenty enough to win against Penn St. 

(8) Denard goes for back-to-back 200/200 games these next 2 weeks. I could see us losing to Illinois, but it won't be because we didn't score.

BlueGoM

November 4th, 2010 at 5:08 AM ^

Uncharacteristically Omameh appeared to have trouble with the DT he had to block sometimes, I think #71?   (3:28, gets beat on a pass) Also resulted in at least 1 run play getting stuffed as well.

Penalties have to stop!  Molk's on 2nd and goal was really bad, forced us to kick a FG, ultimately

Denard still doesn't seem 100% right with his shoulder, and/or tried to rush some of the late passes...

speaking of which, it's 3rd and 8 with 4:50 left, you're down late, and you call a play action pass?  (9:01 in the vid).  Are they really going to bite on a play fake at that point? .....  Having watched that play again, v smith looked like he would have been wide open so IDK.  Just seems like an odd call.

Nice to see some screens added into the offense.  Don't think we saw these much at all prior to this game.

Having said about all that,  our offense is good enough to win in the Big 10.  31 points is 31 points, and should be enough to win most games. 28 points against an Iowa squad that was ranked #1 in scoring defense the week we played them (link below) shows the offense is fine.  If we had just an average defense we'd have won at least 1 of the past 3 games.

http://web1.ncaa.org/football/exec/rankingSummary?org=312&year=2010&wee…

tlh908

November 4th, 2010 at 5:21 AM ^

I was just hoping that we would have had he ball at the end of the game for 1 more series so that Denard could have tried for a 200/200 game.  He was so close.  But I am sure he will get another 200/200 yard game this week or next week at Purdue.  Our offense is solid and exciting to watch, just need a little help from the other side of the ball.

Captain Obvious

November 4th, 2010 at 10:29 AM ^

I counted a minimum of 6 very catchable drops and a maximum of 8 (hard to tell if a few were PBUs).  Including 1 that would have got something going when we started from our own 2.  Many of these were drive killers, obviously.  Any other day we catch 4-5 of these.  Given the way we were moving the ball otherwise, I'm guessing this cost us at least 14 points.  Given the way our defense can't get stops, this also gave PSU a number of unknown points.  The drops were huge.

I love this offense and if we don't have it next year I'm going to be very, very angry.

Hannibal.

November 4th, 2010 at 11:08 AM ^

Ogbu for Penn State had a monster game.  Since he's the best defensive tackle in the conference, I'm not terribly bothered by that.  The line, as usual, looked great other than that.  And of course, Denard running is Denard running.

RockinLoud

November 4th, 2010 at 1:25 PM ^

Man I hope Shaw and/or Touissant gets healthy soon.  Or Hopkins gets more carries.  Smith, while a great kid, just doesn't have what we need at RB most of the time.