Gatiss' offense vs. Hamiltons... what did you see different?
September 1st, 2019 at 12:57 PM ^
Van Summeren did score a TD so it’s not like he didn’t get used. However the play from the 1 that got stuffed was all on the OL. I’m doubtful even Mason could have scored then.
September 1st, 2019 at 6:54 PM ^
I actually think he could. It's what he does.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:00 PM ^
That may be Harbaugh’s first ‘adjustment’ to the new Offense as HC.
September 1st, 2019 at 1:29 PM ^
I mentioned this last week. I used to read PSU boards and it was a permanent gripe under Moorhead that people just could never accept.
There is no fullback. There is no I-form in this offense. This is going to be constant. This segment of the fanbase is going to beg for old-school football on the goal line and it's probably never going to happen. We run spread now. Even on the goal line.
September 1st, 2019 at 9:20 AM ^
One thing I didn't see different - the pace of play was just as slow as last year. What's up with that?
September 1st, 2019 at 9:35 AM ^
What’s up is you’re wrong. They played noticeably faster at times.
September 1st, 2019 at 9:40 AM ^
The majority of the time I remember the ball being hiked with about 5 seconds left on the play clock
September 1st, 2019 at 9:45 AM ^
There were many snaps with 10+ seconds on the clock. They clearly slowed down late though.
It wasn’t a frenetic pace, but they did alter their speed - something the Pepffense was incapable of doing.
September 1st, 2019 at 9:52 AM ^
They got to the line quicker, absolutely. But they did not necessarily snap it quicker consistently. Note, if that's by design or not, i don't know. But quite a but of multiple clap gestures before snap. Quite a bit of play coming in from sideline after being lined up already.
September 1st, 2019 at 11:34 AM ^
Probably by design. I remember 2 interviews where Gattis said that we'd be going no huddle, but we wouldn't be running a "tempo" offense consistently. I've also seen him offer a few criticisms of tempo offenses on twitter.
September 1st, 2019 at 2:09 PM ^
People overrate “tempo,” as meaning going fast. It’s probably more effective that we’re able to vary our tempo to the point where we can hurry if we need to and slow it down if we need to. Going no-huddle all the time allows for both to be on the table.
September 1st, 2019 at 9:48 AM ^
Eh, we were snapping the ball with 10 seconds left usually instead of one, so we have that going for us. A couple of times shit was all fucked up and they had to use a timeout, which seems to be the Harbaugh norm.
September 1st, 2019 at 1:42 PM ^
That might be to appease Don Brown, who has said that his defense will play better if the offense plays slower and there are fewer snaps in the game. Of course, after the OSU game last year, Brown probably needs to re-prove himself to have a lot of influence on how things are done.
September 1st, 2019 at 9:34 AM ^
The WRs played a 1000% better. Their routes were crisp and they had someone at every level available as an outlet.
That two point conversion was amazingly well schemed.
The offense looked totally different early in the first half and then got janky, but it looked much better than anything Pep put together.
Execution was lacking, but scheme was not.
September 1st, 2019 at 6:59 PM ^
TING!!
There were 2 or 3 more TDs that were schemed that did not pan out because of 1st game execution issues.
That execution is much easier to fix than a scheme that is ineffective and unrealistic for college football.
September 1st, 2019 at 9:45 AM ^
The 2 main differences are 1) it’s no huddle. 2) we are now pass first.
But it’s not “up tempo”. They aren’t running plays at warp speed. Everything is based on the o-line giving the QB time to scan the field and make his throw. The jury is still out on that.
September 1st, 2019 at 10:16 AM ^
I looked up at the stats in the middle of the second quarter and the yardage was 2:1 pass vs run. I was good with that. Under Pep, if we didn’t have 100 yards rushing in the first half you knew it was tough going the rest of the game.
September 1st, 2019 at 9:46 AM ^
I was expecting a faster tempo. I hope that comes soon because we need to use this to grind defenses into dust
September 1st, 2019 at 11:11 AM ^
How many times do people need to hear its not a hurry up system? It's just an available change up. We may get a couple quick drives, but it's never going to be a super fast team on the regular.
September 1st, 2019 at 11:21 AM ^
I think the offense has the potential to go fast if needed. Last year, not so much
September 1st, 2019 at 9:58 AM ^
Tempo up, qb running up.
Execution meh.
September 1st, 2019 at 9:59 AM ^
Offense looked like everything that was "held back" from the offense the previous years but used as the base offense in Gattis'.
For that alone, I liked it, a lot.
Some plays weren't as crisp in some moments, but you could at least see the potential in what it was.
We saw the ceiling in Pep's passing game and it wasn't very high, even when ran at a turtle's pace.
We've only seen the floor in Gattis' offense and it's already more exciting and unpredictable, while going muuuch faster!
September 1st, 2019 at 11:39 AM ^
I like this take a lot. Nothing was crisp, but I would 100% say this is floor of this O. Runyan being back will help a lot, although Hayes did pretty well. Hated the fade to Sainristil though at the end of the first half, he’s a slot bug only.
September 1st, 2019 at 10:02 AM ^
Would like to see the ball come out faster.
Even though it was janky at times it is better than Pep.
September 1st, 2019 at 10:07 AM ^
This is an apples to carrots comparison, but FWIW:
First game 2018 against ND, we had 69 plays in 31:33 minutes of possession time
Third game 2018 against SMU, we had 59 plays in 33:08 of possession time
First game 2019 against MTSU, we had 78 plays in 33:16 minutes of possession time
We also had 78 plays last year against OSU and IU, but with two more minutes of possession
September 1st, 2019 at 12:33 PM ^
Interesting. Thanks!
September 1st, 2019 at 10:08 AM ^
Was at the game last night and honestly we should have scored more than we put up on the score board. Bell had two missed catches. Can’t believe it, with all the hype with him coming out of camp the past few weeks.
2 QB system is fine with me, but what the hell was that in the third quarter. Got called for the delay of game because we had. Had no clue what we were running. Came back from the delay of game to run it again.
Its going to need sometime. Definitely be up and running by Wisconsin.
September 1st, 2019 at 11:59 AM ^
"Bell had two missed catches. Can’t believe it, with all the hype with him coming out of camp the past few weeks."
I feel bad for the kid, but this isn't the first time in my Michigan fandom history that I've heard rave reviews about some guy tearing it up in fall camp who then disappears during actual games. Hopefully it's just opening game jitters for him.
September 1st, 2019 at 1:29 PM ^
The coaches must still have confidence in him, though, since he saw more touches, including in return duty.
September 1st, 2019 at 10:15 AM ^
Is it me or did our OL not get any push in the run game? I was expecting more out of our interior.
September 1st, 2019 at 10:59 AM ^
The OL looked mediocre and the DL looked bad.
September 1st, 2019 at 11:14 AM ^
They started doing better with more downhill running and fewer jet sweeps and getting to the edge. Space coyote talked about it on Twitter as well.
September 1st, 2019 at 10:20 AM ^
I really wish Gattis would have gone under center on 3rd and long and called a play action pass. Those were my favorite.
September 1st, 2019 at 7:04 PM ^
Watching Shea do those 9-step drops was like watching Fred Astaire do his thing. Pure magic.
September 1st, 2019 at 10:33 AM ^
I just logged in to upvote this post’s Cobra Commander-approved spelling of our OC’s last name
September 1st, 2019 at 10:43 AM ^
Definitely more passing on first down. You can tell that when DPJ comes back, it's going to be alternating chunk plays to him, Black, and Nico.
Bizarrely, I don't recall a single crossing route.
And they might want to re-evaluate their goal line options.
September 1st, 2019 at 10:47 AM ^
Receivers drop more passes. That’s one difference but at least they get more passes thrown to them
September 1st, 2019 at 11:22 AM ^
McKeon was par for the course but I was surprised Bell dropped 2 big ones, and Nico let one slip.
September 1st, 2019 at 11:06 AM ^
I’ve never been a fan of running shotgun on the goal line, that’s one thing I admired about Hamiltons offense.
September 1st, 2019 at 11:19 AM ^
I saw some real explosiveness in the passing game. With some better execution, they're going to put up alot of points.
September 1st, 2019 at 11:25 AM ^
Would like to see Mason & a RB in...in goal line. Mason as a quick dive ...or to clear way for RB following him.
Forget his name - but 3rd string QB in also. He could also run & launch over the pile if it was there.
September 1st, 2019 at 11:52 AM ^
I do not want to see the 3rd string QB in the game in goal-line situations, unless he directed the drive downfield.
September 1st, 2019 at 11:52 AM ^
Successful run plays, followed by rpo.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:00 PM ^
Fumbles appear to have the same effect on both offenses.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:04 PM ^
The Michigan offense narrowly missed on a few huge gainers and a couple easy TD's. That stuff is gonna get better as the season wears on. I am convinced that we would've scored 55+ points if this was game 3 instead of game 1. I like this offense and I think it'll serve us well.
September 1st, 2019 at 1:07 PM ^
Also probably would have scored 55 if Bell didn’t drop passes and Hill didn’t doink that almost certain pick six.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:33 PM ^
PEP WAS NEVER MICHIGAN'S OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR. Jesus Fucking Christ.
His official title here should have been "Scapegoat For Fans Who Aren't Emotionally Ready To Criticize Jim Harbaugh."
September 1st, 2019 at 1:15 PM ^
Sorry Pep you fucking sucked at Michigan and in the NFL. Hopefully WWE works out better for you.
September 1st, 2019 at 1:28 PM ^
So when confronted with an undeniable fact you choose not to finally address it but make the claim that posters pointing this out must be Pep Hamilton, which doesn't even work as a joke. You're an unhinged imbecile. Your life must really suck if you have this much rage simmering about an ex-Michigan coach.
September 1st, 2019 at 1:00 PM ^
It felt like this game, understandably, was viewed by the coaching staff as a "test run" of the new offensive scheme. As I thought would happen, Gattis immediately came out with the intention of throwing deep -- something I think he learned from Moorehead. Shea made a good decision (I think) to tuck and run, made a nice run, and then fumbled. This broke up the rhythm of the offenses opening scripted plays. Ok ... no big deal but that probably won't happen again all season long.
What intrigued me the most, and was most exciting to see, is how Gattis turned on the RPO for a series, gashed MTSU, and then shut if off just as quickly. I know people in here are screaming why go away from something that is working, and the answer is because he could and it was basically a scrimmage with no chance of losing.
Lots of things worked last night, and I got the sense that Gattis was still trying to get a sense of what he has in his playmakers. In regards to the drops, I thought there was only one -- Nico's surprisingly -- that was a true "drop". The others fall into the tough-but-should-have-been-caught category.
Other than the largely ineffective 2 QB thing, I was thrilled by what we saw especially the RPO and I look forward to seeing Gattis go with it for several series in a row.