"A man's got to know his limitations."

-"Dirty" Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood)

Michigan's perfect season continued with a tough road win over a pretty underrated Scott Frost Nebraska team. The Cornhuskers have four losses now, but three of them were single-possession defeats against currently undefeated teams while the fourth was the super public humiliation in Week Zero against Illinois when Nebraska clearly just wasn't ready to play yet.

The Wolverines' own limitations are pretty clear every week, yet their different strengths and superior gameplanning continue to put them over the top.

For all the national talk about Jim Harbaugh as a past-his-prime head coach who never maximizes this squad, this team sure is good at scheming good matchups which allows them to control games. For all the local talk about how Michigan lacks the higher end talent necessary to compete for championships, this team sure does seem to have a lot of NFL players on the roster playing big time football in key moments.

The field-side combination of Aidan Hutchinson and Daxton Hill came up big again in this game, several linemen on either side had good games, and the running back tandem of Hassan Haskins and Blake Corum continue to carry the offense.

The winning gameplan against Nebraska was an interesting one and revealed once more the matchup-conscious mind of Harbaugh and his staff as well as why Cade McNamara continues to get the nod at quarterback.

[AFTER THE JUMP, DETAILS ON THE GAMEPLAN]

Attacking the alleys

Nebraska may have been the best defense Michigan has faced yet this season. One indicator such is the case would be the Michigan offensive gameplan, which was pretty elaborate and often fixated on a single point on the field.

The Huskers have a really good interior on defense this season, a good trio of safeties if you count JoJo Domann (and you should), and know what they're doing at linebacker as well.

They have a tendency in their different schemes to "cover down" with Domann over slot receivers, having the versatile linebacker/safety hybrid manhandle the slots as they try to get out in their routes and play some man coverage out wide. With Domann out wide getting hands on the slot receivers and the safeties often playing in two-deep coverages, this means there's a fair amount of space in between the defensive end/edge players and the nickel or corner.

Michigan routinely attacked this space, looking to hit the ball into the alley. They ran several different versions of what you could summarize as "D-gap power."

Here was a small sampling:

Michigan really took aim for the D-gap against Nebraska. pic.twitter.com/I9BeOjXdUK

— Asst to the Minister of Culture (@Ian_A_Boyd) October 12, 2021

pic.twitter.com/G7Fo5U2kvk

— Asst to the Minister of Culture (@Ian_A_Boyd) October 12, 2021

They'd run counter to either side of the formation but often to a side with an inline tight end blocking down on a defensive end/edge player so the guard would kick out an outside linebacker or defensive back trying to set the edge. They also ran power, GT counter, and split zone plays to the tight end side all with the intention of kicking out a linebacker or defensive back rather than one of Nebraska's big, powerful defensive ends.

Results were steady. I was struck more by the intentionality from Michigan in trying to scheme those matchups than the success, which was consistent if not terribly explosive.

Some of their better run plays which did the most damage included the sweep above, some J.J. McCarthy zone-bluff pulls...

I knew JJ McCarthy could scoot a little but this one caught me by surprise. pic.twitter.com/UMOYuBnvRG

— Asst to the Minister of Culture (@Ian_A_Boyd) October 11, 2021

...and the third down run to Blake Corum which was an iso/lead draw play that caught Nebraska thinking pass on 3rd-and-10.

The sweep above is a scheme they've used several times this season. They love to flex Erick All into the boundary slot so he can run routes on a linebacker out there or else draw in a safety who then can't be used to defend something else. His positioning out wide also allows him to block down on a linebacker when they run a sweep to Corum. The scheme is technically an inverted zone-read, with the quarterback hypothetically running the inside zone path and the running back taking the wide path the quarterback would normally take on a keeper.

I'm pretty sure it's always predetermined, Michigan ain't trying to run Cade McNamara in the A-gaps, but it's very effective as a change-up and to make sure the unblocked ends don't get nosy in the backfield.

It also served as another way to hit the ball into the alley and avoid executing crucial blocks against the Nebraska defensive linemen.

Explosive runs ended up being hard to come by, but this focus did allow Haskins to pick up several big conversions with tough running on the perimeter. On the day, the two backs combined for 33 carries which yielded 212 yards at 6.4 ypc and three rushing touchdowns.

Oklahoma ran the ball as a team 35 times against Nebraska for 194 yards (also facing a lot of Cover 2) while Michigan State managed 71 yards on 30 carries.

Michigan continues to have one of the most consistent and efficient rushing attacks in the country and a big factor is their ability to run a variety of different power schemes each weak targeting different points along the front from different personnel packages and formations.

Harbaugh also got up to a lot of his traditional tricks in the passing game, throwing a lot of unique empty formations at Nebraska.

Hit a few options from this look. pic.twitter.com/eMb38vYjpJ

— Asst to the Minister of Culture (@Ian_A_Boyd) October 12, 2021

The first example was a play they used twice to pick up 3rd-and-long, each time the tight end slipped out of the protection late and was hit wide open for a conversion.

The more traditional set they used to hit Daylen Baldwin on the quick out a few times and Blake Corum on the hunt route over the middle a couple more.

Any time you can create a quick read and throw in open space to your most dangerous skill player (Blake Corum), that's a win.

These sets are a major reason why Cade McNamara beat Rutgers last year and why he's the starting quarterback now. He may not hit a lot of RPOs, play-action, or quarterback keepers to punish defenses for how they play Michigan's power run game...but the Wolverines don't necessarily need him to. As demonstrated above, they have a million different formations and personnel packages to use in scheming up matchups and angles for the run game without needing a strong quarterback constraint dimension.

What McNamara does bring is steady decision-making in the dropback passing game. In particular he has a knack for making quick decisions and getting the ball out in Harbaugh's empty game. Harbaugh has always thrived at scheming matchups in empty formations for his best receivers and McNamara has made his career dating back to high school out of distributing the ball efficiently in spread passing sets.

The interception was a rare exception, although he simply threw tight end further inside than he was sitting against the zone, so the error may not have been egregious. The window was there to throw a dig route, although it doesn't seem the dig route was the call.

Between Michigan's ability to scheme up the power run game against any given opponent and McNamara's timely bus-driving in the dropback passing game, this team has most everything they need on offense to move the ball and put points on the board. There isn't a situation where they don't have answers.

Load the box? They'll bring in extra blockers or find angles due to the multiplicity of their scheme. Short-yardage? Same situation. Passing downs? They can get into empty sets and hunt matchups and are also willing and able to mix in runs to pick up big gains if you get into exotic pass defenses.

J.J. McCarthy continues to show some fascinating upside as an athlete but games like this reveal why McNamara continues to hold the job.

Nebraska shenanigans

Scott Frost has built a physical team in Nebraska following a pretty sensible formula for winning games. I was skeptical of their efforts against Illinois, like everyone else, but since then they've revealed a much more versatile offense, a wildly improved Adrian Martinez, and a smart defensive philosophy.

This defense plays a lot of conservative calls in coverage and dares you to trade body shots in the run game and come out ahead. It just so happens trading body shots in the run game is more or less Harbaugh's exact preference.

Frost had some other ideas for how to win a hard-nosed slog in the trenches though and some of them were the football equivalent of "throw dirt in his eyes!"

One such example would be the "disconcerting signals" Nebraska was called for once and should have been called for a few other times. You're not allowed to mimic the offense's cadence in order to try and draw them into false starts. It's obviously unsporting but for that reason it's also illegal.

Nebraska also got away with an illegal formation on a touchdown which helped shift the momentum in their favor.

If you recall, we talked about unbalanced formations in this column a few weeks back after the Rutgers game. The trick with unbalanced formations is you end up with an ineligible receiver...unless you don't.

Someone here for Nebraska should be on the line of scrimmage, rules require you have seven players on the line and Nebraska has six. They ended up slipping the H-back up the field on a pop pass and Michigan didn't pick him up, resulting in a long touchdown. I'm guessing the guy on bottom should have been on the line of scrimmage because he didn't pass the line but instead stayed back and presented a target for a perimeter screen.

I'm not sure if Michigan stops this play even if the formation is legal, what really caught them was the H-back releasing upfield after showing a lead block inside. Nevertheless, a penalty here probably buries Nebraska in this game and forestalls the comeback which necessitated late game playmaking by the Wolverines.

The game ultimately ended with Nebraska trying a slot fade on Daxton Hill which he broke up on 4th-and-10. The Husker offense in this game came almost entirely by play-calling, such as the pop pass or a reverse orbit screen to Levi Falck the Wolverines lost, their traditional offensive plays fell victim to challenges like trying to beat Hill in coverage.

Looking ahead, the Wolverines should get a bit of a breather against a badly overmatched Northwestern team in the Big House before going on the road against Sparty. Provided the Northwestern game is as uninteresting as it should be, perhaps this space next week will feature an advanced scout of the rivalry game matchups.