Breakdown Sports - Coaching Points: Michigan vs OSU
I went into some depth with my thoughts on the game, still based off the original watch.
Offensive Summary:
- Michigan believed based on film that their core playbook was sufficient for what they wanted to do offensively, and provided the highest likelihood for success (vs the idea of drastically altering things for one game in an effort to catch the opponent off guard, it's a risk balance equation)
- Michigan did add some new wrinkles, as they do in most game. There were some things OSU hadn't seen on film that in theory were good additions. Mixed results overall, but the new wrinkles were basically the scope of wrinkles added week-to-week
- Some plays that are in the playbook were missing, and I question some of that.
- Gameplan going into the game was mostly sound - they rode what got them there - but did not adjust quick enough when defense started struggling
- Don't like handling of backup QB. Other personnel issues aren't significant.
Defensive Summary:
- Game plan going in was bad
- Brown made quick adjustments and then extensive adjustments at half; the game snow balled on him though
- OSU was extremely well prepared. They knew what parts of their core playbook they would start with, and understood Michigan's checks and adjustments and were consistently step-for-step with anything Brown threw at them
- Pressure didn't get home, to small degree there was a schematic reason (to protect against the run), but mostly was about execution on OSU's part
- Some questions about what to do going forward.
Overall:
- There are no excuses. Michigan got whooped. Schematically, adjustments, talent; and then it snowballed on them. I don't think either side of the ball needs to drastically change. I think they need to adjust some things, add a few new wrinkles to help when the game situation changes on both offense and defense, and do a good self-scout so that opponents aren't so prepared to change with you when you do.
November 26th, 2018 at 3:42 PM ^
PSU last year was an ass kicking, but not until relatively late in the game - when it was clear the offense just couldn't get it done. I can still sleep well writing that game off to the season-long horrible offense.
November 26th, 2018 at 7:52 PM ^
I never watched that game again, but didn’t they run a wildcat on the first two series, leading to one or two play touchdown drives both times?
That was an ugly game.
November 26th, 2018 at 9:04 PM ^
It worked one time - when Barkley went the distance. Never gained more than two after that.
November 26th, 2018 at 1:38 PM ^
Thanks for doing this, esp since it seems like Brian won’t (again).
Makes me me feel a bit better, but I keep coming back to the complete lack of DL pressure. If anyone had said before the game that not a single DL would lay their hands on Haskins the entire game, would you still have expected a win?
November 26th, 2018 at 2:57 PM ^
I would've bet my left nut we wouldn't have given up more than 30 points. I was thinking mid 30's for UM, mid 20's for OSU. Still in disbelief as well. Especially when we got lucky and got two scores in 6 seconds I thought "Ok, shitty 1st half but Don B will make adjustments and we'll be fine". Sadly, these adjustments did not work.
November 26th, 2018 at 1:50 PM ^
Space...no that seems to familiar; Mr. Coyote, thanks for the write up. I agree with your concluding thoughts that maybe Michigan will have a better plan next year. Seems like the last 2 years Michigan had the better schemes but didn't make the plays to steal the W. I thought the coaching staff would again out-scheme OSU, but nope, that didn't happen at all. Thought they finally had the talent to match up and I took the coaching advantage for granted. Guh.
November 26th, 2018 at 1:50 PM ^
I do like 99 % of the world, spend some time on twitter. I happen to see Saturday during the game a tweet from Kareem Walker saying something to the fact that he knew what was going on but cant say.......wondering if anybody else caught that
November 26th, 2018 at 2:35 PM ^
I had not until you mentioned it. Exact words were "We all know what's going on.....just can't speak on it." and it was sent about 1/2 through the 4th quarter.
Interesting.
November 26th, 2018 at 3:39 PM ^
I don't know what he means.
November 26th, 2018 at 4:12 PM ^
I think that was in reference to the Peters yank.
November 26th, 2018 at 1:50 PM ^
Excellent, excellent post. "A ++" to use a Harbaughism. Actual non-emotional analysis from someone who knows what they are talking about is the perfect antidote for my soul from the dipshit fit-throwers on this blog. Well done.
November 26th, 2018 at 2:00 PM ^
What surprises me about the defense was Brown had pretty good schemes the past couple of years. Was it just that OSU's personnel matched up really well against UM? He started off poorly but then I thought I saw enough adjustments to compensate, yet every time OSU needs yards they got them, usually in bunches.
November 26th, 2018 at 2:19 PM ^
He had good schemes for Barrett, which was a large factor in his hiring.
He still has no answers for Haskins.
November 26th, 2018 at 2:52 PM ^
It's starting to feel like that. It does feel like Martell is more in that Barrett mold, so we'll see.
November 26th, 2018 at 2:57 PM ^
Even if Haskins goes pro, Meyer/Day are not going to abandon the mesh and crossing routes as a base play.
Brown has to figure out how to defend it better or....you know the rest.
November 26th, 2018 at 4:16 PM ^
Brown and Co. had the old Ohio State offense downloaded where it was a QB whose primary threat was running and not passing. If you can’t pass accurately and do so consistently, Brown is going to murder you. He has now seen 6-7 quarters of Haskins and has not figured out Urbans offense when they have a great passing QB. I would expect that when the reigns go to Martell, it will return back to 2016 form. Not sure what Brown will do for the next meeting with Haskins. Pray? If you have no pressure from the DL, Haskins is going to pick on the weakest link in that secondary time and time again
November 26th, 2018 at 2:07 PM ^
How many RPOs did we use?
How many zone reads did we use?
How often did we use tempo?
How many 2nd or 3rd stringers were out there on offense in the first quarter?
[Edit: I counted 1, 3 , never, and way too many, respectively, but someone who knows this stuff should weigh in]
Our offense wasnt pantsed as much as our defense, but damn that was a head scratcher of a game plan. Sometimes it seems like Harbaugh is actively trying to win 21-7.
November 26th, 2018 at 2:25 PM ^
To be fair, that strategy seemed to work well for Tressel and Dantonio.
November 26th, 2018 at 2:17 PM ^
Space Coyote, what do you make of Hudson's complete invisibility as the season wore on, and particularly on Saturday?
November 26th, 2018 at 2:24 PM ^
I think he blitzed a few times, but it was always to the backside of the play. One time he got absolutely flattened. Were they reading him?
November 26th, 2018 at 2:29 PM ^
They used him more on man coverage against TEs than they did as a blitzer. Think that's the majority of it.
November 26th, 2018 at 2:22 PM ^
Was 8 min left when Peters was pulled.
Score - onside kick - score. All in 2 min.
November 26th, 2018 at 2:34 PM ^
Michigan was down 23 points with 6:42 to go the first time Milton stepped on the field - for whatever it's worth. We were toast.
November 26th, 2018 at 2:40 PM ^
Ok - was going off another poster saying 8 min.
Still a miracle chance tho right? Don't like quitting when there is any remote chance. Could have been within one score with 4 something to go with some luck ...
November 26th, 2018 at 2:48 PM ^
Yeah, I'm with you. Your post sounded way too "do-able", so I had to check. Either way, I'm playing the 2nd best guy I've got.
November 26th, 2018 at 2:27 PM ^
It seems to me like the MSU approach is the best one against that OSU offense. Load up the box and dare them to beat you deep. I wonder what the ramifications would be if Brown had pointed at Long and Hill and said "you two. islands. on your own now", and had Hudson, Metellus, Kinnel, etc. crowding the area 8-10 yards from the LOS ready to put the beatdown on the damn crossing routes. Even if the outside corners get beat deep, you're making Haskins recognize that and make the throw, which he didn't consistently do.
November 26th, 2018 at 2:33 PM ^
Mork held them to 19 using that approach. Also gave up 48 last year in the Shoe.
November 26th, 2018 at 2:34 PM ^
Going for 2 before the half made no sense to me. Any reason why we did that?
November 26th, 2018 at 2:38 PM ^
I agreed with the call at the time. Tie the game. Get into halftime with a clean slate after getting worked over for the better part of 30 minutes.
Logically, you never chase the points. Especially not in the first half. I think they made that call looking for an emotional boost.
November 26th, 2018 at 2:45 PM ^
I didnt really have a problem with that. You have a chance to tie the game after a half where not much had gone right. I dont mind going for it there and giving yourself to chance to go into the locker room and tell your guys "Hey, we just played our worst half of the season and we're still tied, so lets do this."
Sure the numbers say just kick the extra point and go into the half down by one point, but this just felt like a situation where he was trying to get him team back into it psychologically, moresoe than getting the odds exactly right.
November 26th, 2018 at 2:58 PM ^
I didn't like it because there was still a high likelihood that OSU was going to be kicking FGs (which they ended up doing). More than that, UM hasn't been exactly great in those sorts of situations near the goal line this year (though they have been great in those situations on 3rd/4th downs, so I dunno).
The second time going for 2 was the correct call.
November 26th, 2018 at 5:37 PM ^
Everybody on earth thought this would be a somewhat defensive game with a final score in the 20s or so. I still think Michigan believed a) points would be tough to come by and at a premium and that b) the defense, as it had all year, come back and keep OSU contained in the 2nd half. I thought the decision was fine at the time as well thinking the final might be 31-28 or something. Clearly it didn't play out like that.
November 27th, 2018 at 5:54 AM ^
nope. Brian predicted 40-27 on this blog. My family and I were thinking 38+ points would be needed to win. Absolutely people saw the shootout potential in this one. Surely the coaches had to have seen that possibility as well given that M has consistently scored 40+ on teams ranked similar to OSU’s D this year and OSU’s offense has not scored less than 30 at home all season and only once in the past 2 seasons (Oklahoma).
November 26th, 2018 at 2:38 PM ^
I want to start this off by admitting that you know 1000x more than me about football, but I did have a couple questions about the offense. Defense was obviously the main problem, but I hated our offensive game plan.
When I have watched OSU this year, I think they have one basic strength on defense. The play of their DTs. No one ever gets much push on those guys.
The big plays I have seen OSU give up all year were pretty much outside the tackle box. I didn't see anyone have any success running in the A gaps, but it seemed our basic plan was to run in the A gaps 30-40 times. It didn't work. It was never going to work. Am I wrong about this?
The second strength/weakness of the OSU defense is the play of Harrison. He's a freakish athlete, but I have seen him be undisciplined all fall. Constantly biting on fakes. Picking the wrong gaps. Terrible run fits.
OSU sends him downhill at our backfield basically the whole game. I'm waiting for us to run some sort of fake or jet sweep to get him out of his gap - or better to allow him to take himself out of his own gap - or even have a hot throw to the space he vacates at basically every snap.
I'm still waiting. It didn't seem we ever tried to exploit him ever and instead made him look like an All American.
What the hell were we doing?
November 26th, 2018 at 2:58 PM ^
Maybe a bit of hubris on Michigan's part: thinking they could finally, after all these years, impose their will on Ohio State by running right over or through them. It seems like we made it easy for them--very little misdirection, little putting their LBs and safeties in conflicts.
November 26th, 2018 at 3:05 PM ^
We didn't run one jet sweep from what I remember. Maryland was killing them with that. We of course faked a jet sweep and got killed.
Our offense remains cute with little substance
November 26th, 2018 at 3:40 PM ^
I think the number of runs in the A gaps is exaggerated based on perception. The majority of runs were outside runs (C gap or outside), and maybe half the inside runs had some form of misdirection (fake sweep, false pull, read element). They had a lot of success running to the boundary, and probably should have gone that way more. As I said in the post, would have liked to have seen the actual give on the sweep as well.
So agree on not doing enough to to get Harrison and the other LBs out of gaps, because they aren't disciplined. Too many runs as well straight into the edge without enough of an inside threat to force that issue. You're not going to just out athlete them. Michigan did a few things, but not enough of it.
November 26th, 2018 at 3:49 PM ^
Meyer/Day offense is about creating mismatches and getting athletes the ball in space.
Harbaugh/Pep offense is about 'body blows.'
O.k. that is a hot take over simplification. But it does explain why Harbaugh/Pep did what they did.
November 26th, 2018 at 2:59 PM ^
SC- maybe I've missed it buried in this thread, but did have a much lower blitz rate this game than usual? I don't recall seeing 5-6 guys getting after the QB much at all. We were already manned up on everyone, seems liked we could've rolled the dice with it some more.
Also- I was annoyed that they never tried out Ambry Thomas at the nickel- your thoughts there?
November 26th, 2018 at 3:43 PM ^
Started out with a ton of 5 man pressures. Most of these weren't getting home because those mesh routes and crossers were hitting on time, which means three step drop and out. Based on a rewatch, I don't think the pressure would be as concerning for most people if Michigan had at all forced OSU to go through a progression. A few of OSU's half rolls had all day, but for the most part they were getting the ball out quick because they identified a matchup and attacked it quickly.
I addressed the Thomas issue I think. He's more athletic, but still needs to clean up technique/assignments, IMO
November 26th, 2018 at 3:08 PM ^
Space Coyote,
thank you so much for doing this! I am frustrated with the obnoxious attempts at humor and the screaming at the universe and questioning of Hell.
I just want objective analysis of what happened and why it happened and what it means going forward. I really appreciate you doing this and if you want to do further review/analysis I would support it any way I could.
November 27th, 2018 at 5:58 AM ^
Definitely seems some here like the joking about hell, which I can understand. And I've definitely enjoyed some of his depressing posts, but I definitely appreciate this more. I think in part because I really don't feel we're in some hell forever. Harbaugh is still building. They need to make some tweaks but we're on the right path. Yes people will still be talking about our record vs OSU but they won't be talking about our record vs PSU and MSU. I expect the team to be even better next year. Probably similar level on D, better on O.
November 26th, 2018 at 3:18 PM ^
Thanks for the explanation. How common is it for a team to self-scout for shortcomings? It sounds logical, but do the college teams have time/resources to do so?
November 26th, 2018 at 3:43 PM ^
They all do it, and the analysts should be doing it to some extent in season. How much is a question, because how much are you going to change in season? But certainly before the bowl and especially over the off-season they'll look a lot into it.
November 27th, 2018 at 11:27 AM ^
On another note, regarding the head-scratching personnel decisions like Ross-Gill; do you think the coaches are grading on different metrics compared to whatever the general public is seeing? I mean if a player grades out higher than another but gets less playing time, is that on scheme or something else?
Also why not devote half a practice session everyday for a year for one opponent? I know practice times are limited in NCAA. Still if other schools can do it, what stops Michigan from doing so?
Thanks.
November 26th, 2018 at 3:39 PM ^
Very nice analysis. I agree we don't need to blow things up and we're getting closer. Never feels good to get your ass beat but maybe in the long run it'll help as the whole organization needs to take a look at what went down and why and if we somehow had just barely lost the game it wouldn't happen in quite the same way.
November 26th, 2018 at 3:51 PM ^
Space,
I don't know if you can answer this one, but I was curious why Michigan got zero pressure? Specifically, did OSU change pass pro schemes from what they've been doing all season? It just doesn't make sense that the defense with the #1 sack rate in the country got zero pressure against a team that couldn't block Minnesota's pass rush. I went to see Don Brown speak a few years back and know that he studies the pass pro scheme and attacks it, and for this game whatever attack happened was completely impotent.
November 26th, 2018 at 4:01 PM ^
No good answer on this one. There are a combination of predictable answers
UM rush was leaking through on a couple of the mesh routes, but Haskins was able to release at the end of his drop to his first read, so that didn't help. Those were also 5 man protections, so pressure is going to leak if you can just hold up long enough on the back end. I don't think people are as concerned about it though if the coverage holds up at all, because they would get home.
But the ball was out quick almost all day, and that really mitigated the 5 man pressures that Michigan started with and any stunts from having time to get home. Then Michigan struggled to get them behind the chains. Once that happened, Michigan mostly rushed 4 and kept it mostly simple, and OSU countered with well blocked half-rolls and some max protect schemes. And frankly, OSU just executed really well on their pickups. DTs were a problem from a push standpoint, think the DEs weren't great but did enough but Haskins could step into every pocket.
So not a great answer, admittedly. A few things though
November 26th, 2018 at 4:09 PM ^
Coyote: your thoughts on jamming the crossing receiver? As a team using LB’s too not just the CB.
November 26th, 2018 at 4:13 PM ^
Problem is most of the crossers are coming from off the LOS, and many times it's with another receiver also in breaking (hurting any combo coverage). I would like to see Michigan get much better at walling off crossers. They don't do that much in their coverage, but that would help break up the timing/spacing on some of those routes (it's something MSU is great at)