Lloyd Carr's Last Football Game and Lessons Learned.
2007 Capital One Bowl vs. Urban Meyer's Florida. I remember that ESPN had Florida as 95% favorite to win the game.
Lloyd took the huge gamble and brought an offensive game plan that looked nothing like what Michigan had run for the entire season. Multiple wide receiver sets. Spread the field. I believe, if my memory serves me, that was the first time I remember seeing an empty backfield multiple times in a game. Lloyd took a big gamble and it paid off.
I hope, in prep for our Bowl Game, that Michigan takes a good honest look at their play calling and formations and comes to the conclusion that it perhaps isn't good enough against teams of equal or better talent. That Pep and Harbaugh bring a dynamic look to our Bowl Game. Why not? Take a risk! Get creative and see what works in the Bowl Game. What do they have to lose? Last year's performance against South Carolina shows what happens when you bring nothing new to the table.
November 25th, 2018 at 9:49 PM ^
Couldn’t agree more. I would love to play a big team that barely misses out on playoff. It might take the sting off a bit if we can win. Hard pass on Florida or UCF.
November 25th, 2018 at 9:50 PM ^
November 25th, 2018 at 10:02 PM ^
if you look closely, there were adjustments made at half time but OSU double-adjusted.
November 25th, 2018 at 10:08 PM ^
There were adjustments made after the first drive. I remember seeing the slot defenders switch their shading from outside to inside, choosing to give up the slot fade instead of slants and drags. OSU adjusted in several ways, including having the dragging receiver motion from outside into a stack or bunch to prevent the corner from gaining inside position.
November 25th, 2018 at 10:26 PM ^
The only 'adjustments' that will work are installing, practicing, and using in games (enough to be good at it) zone and zone blitz packages.
O.k., those are not adjustments. That is becoming multiple on D. But if the most important opponent and biggest rival's two base plays are mesh and drag routes... You better have something that works because just going man coverage is just asking to lose.
In the 70s Bo designed his D specifically with beating OSU first in his mind. Jim needs to do the same.
If Brown's D if great against 11 other opponents, but the exact wrong scheme against what Meyer/Day are now doing, then Brown's D has got to adjust, become multiple.
When Brown ran zone in the 2nd half his players were not good at it. So they have to install and rep in starting in Spring and August practices, and then use it in games.
November 25th, 2018 at 10:52 PM ^
Yeah I mean there was some zone being played after watching the replay. Man I was so ticked watching that game, I didn't know what the hell was what after it was 21-6.Harbaugh said it best in the press conference and it was quick and to the point. He said they didin't get the pressure on the defensive line that they wanted. That team has watched this Don Brown defense since he was probably in his first year as an assistant. They know everything that he wants to do or just about. There's only one thing that can really be done. Gotta go to work and hit the weights defensive line. You guys need to get faster and stronger tenfold. That goes for the entire team but especially dline. Need to get crazy psycho fast like I used to be. Hell, I still am at 36 but I'd pull a muscles as soon as I lifted my leg. Your best shot at beating those guys next year is to kick offensive lines asses. They will be better. They lose Campbell I think? Yeah, get your asses to work and fast!!!
November 26th, 2018 at 5:03 AM ^
But I was told our new S & C coach was WAY different and oh, so much better than that other loser we had before him. That this guy had new and exciting techniques that would make all the difference in the world.
So that cant be it.
November 26th, 2018 at 5:54 AM ^
Pizza
Wolves
Stamina
Injuries
Muscles
They're right, it's always the S&C guy.
November 26th, 2018 at 9:42 AM ^
Right and whole milk and steak.
November 26th, 2018 at 11:59 AM ^
I think the fact that they were only down 5, 6 led them to believe they could still prevail, more or less stick to the game plan. Klatt was still talking about M's desire to run on people into the third quarter when, as if in answer, it all fell apart.
November 26th, 2018 at 1:25 AM ^
The same D that would focus on beating OSU would beat the other teams on our schedule. Everyone is going to some form of the spread. As long as we keep recruiting strong, mobile DL and LBs, we'll be able to handle teams with archaic offenses (ie. MSU).
November 26th, 2018 at 6:11 AM ^
I think they did this to a certain extent already when Brown came in. Brown's defense IS designed to beat the spread that we see across the country. But as of just last year, OSU's version of the spread looked very different than what we saw yesterday. Brown's D is perfect for beating the spread-to-run outfits that featured Barrett. Just look at how well they were shut down last year until he got hurt. But this offense with Haskins is a different animal and set up perfectly to beat man heavy coverage.
That said, I agree with the premise that the D needs to be a bit more multiple. We did see more zone in the 2nd half but it looked bad. Guys got out of position, didn't see routes breaking into or out of their zones, etc. It was clear that they were not as comfortable there.
I'm confident that they will go back to the drawing board and adjust again.
November 26th, 2018 at 9:00 AM ^
This is the most correct take I've read. Brown's defense dominates the spread offenses that are primarily designed to run the ball. The huge flaw in the defense is when it faces a pro-level quarterback with talent and depth at WR/TEs/RBs with receiving ability. Penn State last year with Gesicki, Hamilton, and Barkley. OSU this year. FSU in the bowl game, to a lesser extent.
My one hope is that Haskins goes pro and OSU reverts to the "old" OSU of the last few years with Tate Martell.
November 26th, 2018 at 10:00 AM ^
Yes, I think that Brown's base scheme is a good base scheme against the JT Barrett spread.
But even there I would have preferred that Brown develop the ability to be multiple even against that kind of spread.
First, the ability to competently mix in zone against a run spread can neutralize the QB draw/scramble on 3rd a long, which has been a problem for Michigan against JT Barrett and many others.
Second, most teams have gone to pass or mixed run/pass spread anyway. The RRod at WVa style spread has faded out. Even if Haskins goes to the draft, Meyer/Day are not going fully back to the the JT Barrett offense. Those mesh and drag routes are still going to be there as a base play. OSU is going to create those coverage mismatches until Brown implements a system that can neutralize it.
Third, being multiple (and for Michigan that would mean running zone and zone blitz schemes competently maybe 35% of snaps) just gives the QB more to process and think about. Brown gives the QB a lot to think about with his blitz packages. Why not do the same by mixing the back 7 coverages? Why not drop a d-lineman into coverage to mess with WRs mesh point?
Anyway, Michigan has to base its D around beating OSU (the other 11 games will take care of themselves). Being multiple on D is the way to go because OSU is going to continue to have really smart and well put together offenses that are going to exploit your weaknesses on D. You have to be able to mix it up and make it hard for them to so easily scheme against you.
And, yeah, whatever D Brown runs, the d-line will have to do better than they did on Saturday. My guess is that is in part due to injuries. But the fact that there was a d-line under performance on one day should not be an excuse for failing to see that press man with one safety is not good against the kind of offense OSU runs (at least not if that is all you are able to do and can't go multiple). Also not good to try to run zone as an adjustment when your guys have done so little of it all year and can't actually pull it off.
Zordich seems like a real plus on this staff. Even if zone packages are not Brown's strongest expertise, my guess is that Zordich would be ale to teach this stuff really well.
November 26th, 2018 at 8:15 AM ^
I think the defense was built to built OSU. The problem was, it was built to beat OSU of 2017 with JT and the read option.
November 26th, 2018 at 10:00 AM ^
If Brown really did think about that 2017 Penn State game every day during the subsequent year, he needs to think about this Ohio State game twice a day, every day, for the next year.
November 25th, 2018 at 9:51 PM ^
The play calling and game plan was creative and beautiful. Had us all wondering how they were able install such a system in a short period of time and why they had not used it previously.
November 25th, 2018 at 9:54 PM ^
Truly!!! I remember being so pissed wondering what Carr's Legacy could have really been had he made these changes earlier in his career. I was so happy for Lloyd going out on top, but also sad that he could have done so much more...I believe...had he been willing to make these changes years earlier.
November 25th, 2018 at 10:18 PM ^
Most coaching staffs become riverboat gamblers in bowl games--plenty of time for players to practice and get healthy, not as much to lose. It's good to see the possibilities, but by the following September, most of them revert to a far more conservative style of playcalling.
November 25th, 2018 at 11:18 PM ^
Carr has said they had been to hoping to use that offense most of the year but Henne and Hart got hurt in the first couple games and it was a patchwork offense until everyone was healthy for the bowl game.
November 25th, 2018 at 9:58 PM ^
Michigan already has a lot of spread looks in their playbook. What else could they install that would be such a huge turn from the norm?
Every time a team loses the fans automatically start harping on the "creativity" of the offense. Coming up with more "creative" plays won't make us a better team. This isn't the Water boy.
November 25th, 2018 at 10:03 PM ^
Did you watch the Bowl Game last year agains South Carolina? My man, they looked like they took about 30 min to prepare for that game.
How about running the majority of your plays out of a spread formation. Also, one obvious change that could be made is to utilize mismatches with your WR's. Black, Collins, DPJ, etc. How about through the ball at least 50% of the time. Stretch the field.
Get away from an offensive game plan that everyone knows is coming. Michigan is gonna try and pound the ball...pound the ball...pound the ball. Eventually the hope is that the DL gets punished and it opens up the pass game.
How about pass the ball more than 30% and utilize the passing game to eventually open up the run game.
November 25th, 2018 at 10:34 PM ^
I think the resistance to opening up the passing game is still a lack of confidence in Michigan's OL, and that is certainly justified based on Saturday. Patterson was only sacked three times, but the interception was a result of pressure, and there were numerous other pressures. I think the drop in sacks this year was partly due to OL improvement (not a lot of missed pickups on stunts this year), but more to the combination of Shea's mobility and his pocket awareness. Speight and Peters were sitting ducks last year, and Peters especially tended to hold the ball too long while O'Korn was mobile but never knew when to throw the ball away. The OL is better as a group in terms of line calls and adjusting to stunts, but its 1-on-1 deficiencies were somewhat masked by the schedule.
As it turned out, there just weren't that many teams on our schedule that had dangerous DLs (especially DE), and the ones that did were the four road games we played (I'll throw The Gaz in there). Why were we so much worse on the road? That's when the OL couldn't hold up as much in pass protection, so we had to be more conservative on offense.
Also, we don't have the personnel at WR to run out 4- and 5-WR sets for a whole drive. We only have 6 scholarship WR on the roster, and one of them is still recovering from missing a season and a half. If you're wondering why McCurry was out there yesterday, that's why. We will have 8 scholarship WR next year, including more athletic slots, so you might see more such sets next year.
November 25th, 2018 at 10:47 PM ^
Wide Receivers on Michigan's roster.
1. DPJ
2. Tarik Black
3. Nico Collins
4. Oliver Martin
5. Ronnie Bell
6. Grant Perry
Then mix in a TE into the set
1. Gentry
2. Mckeon
3. Eubanks
Your post doesn't hold water when you look at the weapons we have. They could easily roll out 4-5 WR / TE sets.
November 25th, 2018 at 11:09 PM ^
I think the bigger issue with spread formations this year in particular is that it removes the TE from being able to help in pass pro, even if it's just to chip a DE, or to alter their rush path. I don't think we have a good enough OL to run a spread offense against teams with good-to-great DL. The spread offense increases the importance of 1-on-1 OL/DL battles, and we sure as hell didn't win many of those on either side of the ball vs. OSU. We'd be running bubble screens half the time to mitigate the pass pro deficiencies, and we wouldn't be able to protect long enough to take the kind of downfield shots that Black, DPJ, and Collins are built for. They aren't quick-twitch slot smurfs that can get open in a phone booth. They are at their best when they can use their size and long distance speed, and they aren't as able to do that if the QB is on the ground before they come open.
So you need a RB and in-line TE on the field at all times. Which means you're looking at a standard Ace 3-WR set (maybe with a TE as one of the split-out WRs). I'll bet we had a bunch of those Saturday. I don't think we can spread things out more than that.
November 25th, 2018 at 11:26 PM ^
A lot of Patterson being rushed against OSU was down to unsuccessful runs on 1st and 2nd down that put Michigan in terrible 3rd and longs.
Michigan o-line is pretty good at pass protection. Certainly no longer a problem spot that should alter play calling.
If anything worries pass protection should make you want to avoid a bunch of third and long situations.
No one is calling for 4 and 5 wide sets for entire drives.
But holy crap, why not some RPOs in first down that suck up the run stopping LBs and then hit a slant in the middle. JFC, is that to much to ask?
November 26th, 2018 at 7:35 AM ^
Exactly this. WE DON'T BREAK TENDENCIES.
November 26th, 2018 at 3:08 AM ^
DPJ also needs to learn where the first down marker is and run his routes accordingly. If I remember right, a couple of first downs were lost due to running short routes.
November 26th, 2018 at 8:36 AM ^
" I think the resistance to opening up the passing game is still a lack of confidence in Michigan's OL, and that is certainly justified based on Saturday. "
Yes... but a lot of that can be mitigated by using lots of fast developing routes off 1 and 3 step drops. Slants, outs, lots of crossing stuff with picks, rub routes, screens of a dozen sorts, etc., etc.
November 26th, 2018 at 10:34 AM ^
Seems like this is not part of what Pep and/or JH wants to do. We rarely saw that stuff this year.
But this not having this as part of the offense is...curious.
November 26th, 2018 at 10:02 AM ^
I think it is simpler than this. I've never understood or agreed with the notion that the offense is there to dictate what the defense is doing.
The offense has an advantage in that it can see the defensive formation pre-snap and audible to plays that take advantage of any weakness. Even if you aren't heavy on audibles, you can see that they are stacking the box on first and second downs and try to throw to the sidelines or over the blitz.
This thought that being predictable and running into a brick wall over and over is a good way to score points because it will open up the pass is baffling to me. The pass is ALREADY OPEN because your opponent is stacking the box with 8 men because they know your dumb ass is going to run up the middle 19 out of 20 times on first down.
November 25th, 2018 at 10:04 PM ^
I disagree. We might "have" spread looks but we sure as shit don't use them, maybe very little. I would think that there a lot of other OCs out there can call a play other than rb dive up the gut for one yard on 2nd and 10 multiple times in a game when trailing. Maybe i'm wrong...
November 25th, 2018 at 10:16 PM ^
Seems like we're always "saving them" but what we're saving them for is the mystery
November 25th, 2018 at 10:04 PM ^
I feel like the complaint is we believe they have three stud receivers and we don't use them at all. Again Jones led the team going into the game with 32 receptions for 477 yards. That is horrible no matter the metric you want to use
November 25th, 2018 at 10:11 PM ^
And not one of us relates those stats to ability. DPJ gets open and has great hands and YAC ability. He just doesn’t get the ball enough and when he does he’s having to make crazy adjustments to the ball. We probably hit on 60-65% if deep balls to Nick this year. The guy is a jump ball matchup nightmare. Not to mention we have Black who runs the best go route and overall has the most refined route running on the team (minus Perry who also is underutilized).
Next year the big 3 are all back and Bell looks to take a big step forward. Having those guys be the primary threat will open Gentry and Eubanks up more. It shouldn’t be the other way around
November 25th, 2018 at 10:15 PM ^
Whats up with Eubanks? He seems reliable when he gets the ball downfield but he seems never to get targeted.
November 25th, 2018 at 10:17 PM ^
Exactly. When we had Darboh and Chesson they were getting hit in stride all the time. All 3 of Black, DPJ, and Collins have shown great hands...but they're never open!
November 25th, 2018 at 10:18 PM ^
DPJ averages 14 yds/rec
Collins 16.7
Gentry 15.8
Tarik Black will be right in there eventually.
Those are our 3 leading receivers and maybe our best, still coming off his injuries. Do you like those metrics better?
Even Ronnie Bell, Eubanks and Evans are receiving weapons
Gotta throw them the damn ball.
November 25th, 2018 at 10:09 PM ^
187 yards to the tune of 5.5 yards per pass against the OSU secondary that got carved up all season. An offense starting a 5* QB and a receiving corps of Black, DPJ, and Collins that almost any team in the nation would die for.
Michigan’s offense couldn’t be further from elite if it tried.
November 25th, 2018 at 10:17 PM ^
But could be elite if the coaches tried.
November 25th, 2018 at 10:42 PM ^
I’m calling the first offensive series of 2019 now.
1st & 10: Run into stacked box for 3 yard gain
2nd & 7: Run into stacked box for 1 yard gain.
3rd & 6: Play action pass, coverage sack due to no WRs open because of middle school slow-developing route tree
November 25th, 2018 at 10:44 PM ^
I believe they could be if they did try.
Seeing OSU get carved up all year and not gameplanning that way was a huge mistake.
Coaching staff did the same with MSU. Sparty was getting hamblasted by the passing game all season.
In both games, we went with the run game first and foremost, both times using just enough (but not enough) zone read QB keepers to make the D honest.
But in both games, we could have gone pass happy early to establish dominance, in essence setting up the run with the pass.
Most teams all year decided to go all out against the run because Jim wants to run first. And everyone knows it.
NOT doing that would have been the great changeup and gotten our first couple good drives into the end zone and changed the entire landscape of the game.
Clearly, OSU was playing with emotion and if we hadn't given them every opportunity to keep getting more and more confident instead of wearing them out with frustration, well, emotion turns to mistakes quickly as we found out.
November 26th, 2018 at 8:44 AM ^
What sticks in my memory is the game many years ago against USC. USC came out in the first half and tried a balanced offensive attack. Michigan had a great run defense and the run plays ended up just setting downs on fire. The USC staff goes into halftime, recognizes that it is futile to run the ball, so they totally abandon trying to run the ball, throw it a zillion times in a row and win the game.
Hard to imagine Michigan making having that kind of self-awareness and being willing to make that kind of adjustment in-game or over the course of a season.
November 25th, 2018 at 10:37 PM ^
How about trying to score from the jump rather than using the first half to set up for the second half?
November 25th, 2018 at 11:37 PM ^
Seem like a good idea, right?
But Pep and Jimmy and 'body blows'....so...never mind.
November 26th, 2018 at 8:32 AM ^
The "get the play in early enough so that you aren't rushing up to the line with 10 seconds on the play clock" play would be nice.
They don't need a huge turn from the norm - they need a huge turn TO the norm.
November 25th, 2018 at 10:05 PM ^
I hope the team doesn't shit the bed in the bowl like they did against USC and FSU.
November 25th, 2018 at 10:08 PM ^
USC was a disaster. Horrible job by the coaches. Cant see how anyone could honestly disagree with that.
FSU was another story. Peppers getting hurt in warmups and missing that game was just a massive scrotum punch. That changed so much of what our Defense wanted to do.
November 26th, 2018 at 9:38 AM ^
The Peppers thing was beyond their control. However, and it's been a while since I watch this game, I recall Michigan with the lead very near the game and then losing on a run back punt/kickoff. Is that correct?
I'd expect Peppers being out to discombobulate the defense, but all three phases of the team played poorly (at least in the first half) if I'm remembering correctly.
In any case, Harbaugh needs to deliver a Florida-like bowl game, not a USC-like one.