neck sharpies

If Washington was Boris Gishenko this was the exploding pen. [Bryan Fuller]

I apologize for this taking awhile to get out but gravity hasn’t been functioning properly since last Monday night, and it’s hard to type when your feet won’t touch the ground. I was also trying to wrap my head around all of the parts of Michigan’s pass defense to show you, until I realized that’s going to require an entire UFR (that and the Rose Bowl one forthcoming).

So let’s do something simple that you can show your friends and relatives for equal enjoyment, that being the Michigan run game that blew a big enough hole in the Washington defense to drive a national championship parade through it.

The star of the Michigan running game, once again, was Duo, the Schembechler favorite that Harbaugh re-popularized in the middle teens. This was foreseeable. Washington has weak DTs and linebackers prone to big mistakes they can’t fix with Alabama LB athleticism. Even without Zak Zinter, Michigan has an experienced, large, mashing offensive line. But to really make it work against Washington, they had to have so much more. And while these plays are probably already being talked to death, when we talk about Michigan’s offense, we ought to understand how much value all of these parts are bringing to a running game that won them the Championship.

[AFTER THE JUMP: Big runs]

Oh god he's loose. [Bryan Fuller]

Here’s an interesting observation: Ever notice that a lot of the highlights from this year’s Playoffs and conference championships came from under center? Have you noticed the same thing in NFL highlights? Is this real?

Not too long ago Jim Harbaugh was one of a dying breed of offensive minds in football who still ran their offenses primarily from under center or the pistol. A decade later, under-center offenses have made a major comeback in both the pros and the highest levels of college football. It’s not that big of a surprise; defenses figured out how to react to shotgun spreads, and did so. But offenses are still primarily from the shotgun, or various hybrids like the Pistol and Offset. But I think there’s also a sampling bias going on with the big plays, because under-center plays are more likely to produce explosives.

Under-center runs have two things going for them when it comes to producing explosive plays:

  1. The ball is hidden at the mesh point, and
  2. The running back is able to angle towards more gaps with momentum.

The first point reduces the amount of time the defense has to react to whoever ended up with the ball after the mesh point. The second dramatically shortens the timing of the play’s development. While you’re giving up the gun’s benefit of letting the quarterback see the field, what you’re getting in return is more effective play-action, and runs that have a better chance of breaking big as the RB has access to more gaps that the defense has less time to react to.

Contrast this run from under center

With this one:

Even though they’re attacking the same spot, the way they play out is so different. Everything is compressed in the under-center run, with fewer defenders flowing to the ball because they haven’t had the chance to react. Those with the play in front of them are reacting as quickly as they can, but even that works against them, as one of these dudes overruns Corum.

If under-center/pistol running was manifestly better these teams would not have spent most of this game in the Gun. Keeping your quarterback’s face towards the defense has all kinds of benefits for passing and quarterback running. But there’s something to be said, when you need a big play, for going behind the center.

[After THE JUMP: The good explosions.]

If you can see Patrick you can see endzone. [Patrick Barron]

There's not a lot to gripe about when Michigan has played thirteen games, won thirteen games, and is the #1 seed in the Playoff. But we're going to find a way to do it anyways, because the usage of Donovan Edwards this season has been a consistent annoyance. As good as Harbaugh and his assistants have been about finding ways to crack defenses with tight ends, it's hard to get over the thought that they're wasting a five-star tool in Edwards who could be so much more. This was a point Brian made in the game column:

What are we doing with Donovan Edwards? There were a number of plays on which Iowa showed man-to-man coverage with Edwards split out. Edwards invariably motioned back into the backfield when this happened. They never took a shot at Edwards, or even looked him up on a slant.

Even more frustrating were times when Iowa would show and run man coverage and Edwards would leak out of the backfield and sit down in front of a linebacker. One angle route there and Edwards is running for a million yards. I don't know; it just seems like something is off with him. And the coaches.

He's barely been used in the pass game. #1 must fix before the 'Bama game. Alabama has lockdown corners; Edwards needs to be a factor.

So I thought we'd use this space to talk about this play and some others that have us questioning how Michigan deploys this backfield weapon, and how they could probably do a better job of using his actual skills.

[After THE JUMP: Two gripes.]

Check your backside. 

Like Maryland, Ohio State likes to run stretch as its base running play, and like Maryland, they use Counter as their favorite changeup.

Why we run.

Let's pretend we're freaking out about the running game so we can talk ourselves out of it.

Yep, that's me.

Windbacks.

Horray another week where we get to talk about the one thing that worked for a minute.

Slants. Why slants?

They're going to test your toughness.

An excuse to talk switch coverages.