Indiana Snowflakes: The Offense
October 8th, 2022 at 4:42 PM ^
Wait, which off season you say?
October 8th, 2022 at 4:30 PM ^
We were like 2nd in the nation last year in plays of 50 yards of more. What happened?
October 8th, 2022 at 4:33 PM ^
Gattis was left alone last year (well, relatively speaking). This year Jim is back to having a bigger role in the playbook and game plans.
October 8th, 2022 at 4:40 PM ^
Have you seen Gattis offense at Miami this year? Because it’s awful and you need to reevaluate your comment which could not be more incorrect.
October 8th, 2022 at 5:40 PM ^
My comment is correct. Gattis had a tremendous year at Michigan last year. I am not saying that I some huge Gattis fan. But his performance as OC was better than what we saw from Michigan's OC tag team for the first 2.5 quarters today.
October 8th, 2022 at 8:22 PM ^
Maybe. I don't know. I find it hard to believe that last year was the year of the Gattis and all that success was due to Gattis and then they let him go for a lateral position? My gut says it was in spite of Gattis, not because of Gattis or else we would have seen more of it before.
October 8th, 2022 at 8:49 PM ^
Exactly!
October 8th, 2022 at 8:53 PM ^
Exactly!
October 9th, 2022 at 11:01 AM ^
This is an easy one, I suspect the “How talented is Gattis?” question will become clear over the next couple years.
October 9th, 2022 at 8:13 AM ^
Wait…I thought the reason the offense was so good last year was that Weiss had more input in the play-calling and the game planning.
Gattis is totally on his own at Miami, he has a 1st round QB, and the offense is laying eggs.
But the, “Good play=Gattis, Bad play=Harbaugh” narrative is still prevalent.
October 8th, 2022 at 6:37 PM ^
I don't know that we have enough evidence to determine Harbaugh's relative influence between years.
I think he was involved last year (and the diverse running game would suggest that). I think he's involved this year. No offensive-minded HC would *not* be at least somewhat involved.
How much in relative terms? That's impossible to tell. We aren't there for the staff meetings, we aren't in the film rooms, we aren't on the practice field seeing how JJ gets coached, who is spending most of the time coaching him.
October 8th, 2022 at 8:31 PM ^
What makes you say "Gattis was left alone last year" other than your own notions?
October 8th, 2022 at 4:31 PM ^
Can Michigan hire new offensive coordinators before the game against Penn State?
October 8th, 2022 at 4:42 PM ^
Sounds like a winning strategy…most teams firing coaches mid season have a dramatic improvement and winning streak thereafter…NOT
October 8th, 2022 at 5:41 PM ^
Dude, you really could not detect that it was a joke?
October 8th, 2022 at 4:36 PM ^
Felt like we had a brain dead desire to ESTABLISH THE RUN for most of the first half. When we actually started being pass first, the running game opened up. I hope that was a blip and not representative of the Moore/Weiss co-OC battle plan
October 8th, 2022 at 8:32 PM ^
Certainly not a blip. We have wanted to establish the run for approximately 75687596434 years of Michigan football.
Especially against teams, it seems, that are vulnerable to the pass.
October 8th, 2022 at 4:36 PM ^
At the end of the day, the counting stats were there. JJ over 300, Blake over 100. But, didn't it feel like they made things difficult? I'm not sure if that was credit to Indiana for playing closer to the L.O.S. or if the O Line was a bit off their game.
The pass game was somewhat encouraging with both Bell and Schoonmaker having big games. CJ rebounded from a really brutal drop to nab a couple of TDs and a sick one-handed catch. Apparently Andrel Anthony is still alive--there was visual evidence from this game. Anthony needs more run though because he's always doing good things when he gets in there.
Trente Jones' injury did not look good at all. I hope it's not a full-on Grant Newsome situation. Barnhart was mostly ok in relief I thought, but we do need Jones and Zinter to mash strong side runs.
Corum added some nice tape to his Heisman campaign, but he got robbed by the block Ronnie Bell missed, which would've most likely sprung Corum for a long TD run with the Hoosiers sucked up in short yardage.
JJ suffered his 1st INT but, imo, it wasn't really a bad read or throw--it was a stellar play by the Indiana defender and an unlucky tip that went straight up. That same play is probably a TD catch for Ronnie Bell 7/10 times.
Michigan held the ball for nearly 40 minutes LOL. Maybe that extreme #chaosteam tempo Indiana runs isn't actually a good idea.
October 8th, 2022 at 6:10 PM ^
About 40% of Blake's yards came on a single run. Otherwise, for the first 3+ quarters IU stacked the box and bottled up the running game pretty well. There were more TFLs than I think anyone would like to see. JJ has pretty much mastered the <= 15 yard pass play. He needs more deep shots. And we need to give him some play action deep throws as well. Perhaps we're saving that up for the tougher games, but damn I hated that first half enough that a bit more of the playbook would've been nice to see.
October 9th, 2022 at 1:40 AM ^
Other than in his 1st start and spot action prior, he’s been missing the long shots, badly. So intermediate passing game, 79% bcs leading completion percentage and ground and pound it is. Long shots are low percentage plays in any event, but when you’re scheming bombs with guys getting open by 3-4 steps and you can’t connect it’s the same as burning downs with RB dives into stacked boxes except those at least the latter keep the clock running and help with TOP
October 9th, 2022 at 11:38 AM ^
He's been missing the deep shots lately, but I wouldn't classify them as bad misses. Ronnie Bell was covered well on the play so perhaps leading the play a bit on the far side was by JJ's choice. I don't have any problems with JJ throwing the deep passes, even if they miss. Against a bad pass defense, schematically it's probably the right thing to do. And I don't have any issues softening them up with a bunch of short passes either. I think just a few more deep shots are warranted against that type of defense.
October 8th, 2022 at 4:39 PM ^
Ugh. The offense is good. I want it to be great. It has the tools to be great.
The passing game conundrum can pretty much be summed up: JJ threw for 300 yards and 3 tds with an excellent completion percentage and good yp/a.
And yet it is perpetually frustrating that the offense seems reluctant to regularly attack downfield, taking advantage of matchups…
And yet when Ronnie Bell gets single coverage down the seam with no safety help and JJ fires it right to his hands it’s an interception.
I mean, it’s exasperating. That throw was everything you want to see more of except for the result. How absurd is it that known quality player Ronnie Bell can successfully be covered by a LB?
I don’t know.
This is a good offense. It is reasonably efficient. Has good pieces. JJ is doing a lot of things well. You’d think this would be the game where things were even better, but this is basically the same good-but-not-great we’ve gotten all year.
Still plenty of chances to level up. We’ll see what happens.
October 8th, 2022 at 5:45 PM ^
Sums it up nicely. A good offense, but an offense that has the personnel to be much better. I'd like to seem Michigan start to take more advantage of the talent differential on the field, starting with McCarthy's 5 star future NFL QB talent. He has amazing tools. IU has a terrible secondary. So why play with 1.5 hands tied behind your back for 2.5 quarters?
October 8th, 2022 at 6:58 PM ^
I think the problem is we all just assumed the receivers are stellar when I'm not sure they are. There certainly is NOT an alpha who can go up and get it, and often we see JJ drop back only to see everyone covered. We have a bunch of receivers who are good but would definitely be secondary options on top tier teams. No bell cows + unseasoned QB + vanilla routes + defenses keeping receivers in front of them = no downfield threat. We have enough data now.
October 8th, 2022 at 7:15 PM ^
You are correct on WR. Most overrated group by Michigan fans. And that’s where we miss Gattis the most. His work with WR group was very good
October 8th, 2022 at 8:43 PM ^
I respect the work of the blog writers but the preseason prognostication of Cornelius Johnson being a 1st round NFL pick and starring him in the FFFF previews never made any sense. Missing Roman hurts, but there's something lacking when JJ has good protection and no one is open. The WRs are good, not great
October 9th, 2022 at 1:43 AM ^
Stop. See, eg, Miami offense
October 8th, 2022 at 7:35 PM ^
One thing I wonder, and of course it's just speculation, but how much work is actually being done in the downfield passing game in practice. We know Jim is run-first and focuses most on safe throws, often to the TEs. So I wonder how much work the WRs are getting in downfield routes, and also how much time the coaches are putting in in downfield route concepts. Perhaps that's why our WRs are having trouble getting open. Lack of scheme, lack of practice time on that task.
October 8th, 2022 at 9:47 PM ^
This is where analysis is tough because we lack all-22. But:
The thing is, a lot of the route combos that are called are plays that combine deep routes with short and intermediate. This stresses the defense and provides quality throws for the QB. Granted, some of these deep routes aren't really fancy, but they don't need to be to be effective, and they often *are* valid reads that just don't get used much because defenses refuse, for obvious reasons, to allow receivers to break hand-wavingly wide open deep.
After Maryland there was some griping that the offense was sending too many guys too deep at once. Due specifically identified one play that send 3 guys vertical.
It's not like every player goes short. Some go intermediate and deep, and JJ makes a read and, so far, very often throws to a guy that is open underneath.
We do not have the all-22 film to offer better analysis than this, unfortunately. As fans we simply cannot get good access to material that tells us how much the route combos stress defenses vertically and whether or not Michigan QBs are turning down deeper passes that are at least somewhat available.
And even then, we don't know what the coaches are telling the guys. I was mentally grousing about how maybe JJ was being coached to go to the next option if he saw a DB near a receiver, even though the receiver could beat the DB. But then he threw that seam route to Bell, a pass that I literally was eager for him to throw (I'm not clairvoyant and don't see that stuff coming a lot, but on that play the angle was fairly wide and Bell was clearly single covered and headed for the end zone and I thought "touchdown" to myself as JJ released) and then it wound up being a pick.
It's frustrating because we have not-great-but-good receivers and a talented QB who has turned out to be remarkably accurate and efficient and has a gun for an arm and we have a coaching staff that knows a thing or two about offense, so one would think we could attack more, and.. so far not so much.
October 8th, 2022 at 8:17 PM ^
Other than Roman Wilson, the receivers don’t seem to be decisively winning a lot of matchups.
October 8th, 2022 at 9:49 PM ^
I've griped about Roman, too.
It's hard to tell if they're not winning or if they're not getting thrown too; we just aren't seeing much downfield, thanks to the vagaries of televised football. Wilson certainly seems the most explosive and does stress defenses deep, but his route tree seems pretty simple.
October 9th, 2022 at 1:51 AM ^
Klatt was of the opinion that we’re not doing the WR any favors because we’re not creating leverage opportunities as we don’t use a lot of motion on passing plays. This makes sense to me. You can have all the expertly designed and executed route combos in the world but when the D is dropping 6 or 7 and you’ve got a 2 or 3 receiver route combo it stands to reason WRs won’t be open or the windows will be tight where you’re not scheming them open. See, eg, your complaint about the interception throw. If execution isn’t perfect disaster awaits.
October 9th, 2022 at 2:20 AM ^
johnson and anthony were open all day. JJ threw multiple times in double coverage where underneath guys were wide open. i can't wait for the gardner QB analysis
October 9th, 2022 at 2:19 AM ^
this reminded me of a mike debord offense.
October 9th, 2022 at 2:22 AM ^
JJ was pressured maybe twice all day. imagine being the IU QB. he completed 75% but that still seemed mediocre to me give zero pressure all day.
October 9th, 2022 at 7:41 AM ^
"That throw was everything you want to see more of except for the result. "
Yep... Which is why you keep throwing it, and not let that one interception make you more conservative.
October 8th, 2022 at 4:52 PM ^
very impressive 98 yard drive.
plenty to clean up but conference road wins never a bad thing.
interesting to see so many under center snaps this year
October 8th, 2022 at 5:03 PM ^
As I said in the defensive thread, I'm giving everyone a pass for sections of the first half after the Hart situation. That had to be awful to see and then to try and play (and coach) through. One thing this Michigan team is is close to one another, and to see one of their own in serious trouble had to be rough.
JJ looked somewhat uncomfortable in the first half but seemed to settle in (aside from the INT) in the second half. I'd have to wait for UFR to see if this lightened up the box, but the run game improved greatly then, too. Hopefully, this means great things for PSU at home -- i.e. let's play the way we did in the fourth quarter.
October 8th, 2022 at 5:40 PM ^
I skipped the first half watching baseball and I probably feel waaaaay better about today than you guys.
October 8th, 2022 at 8:33 PM ^
You just might. On the other hand, having to watch baseball is a heavy price to pay
October 9th, 2022 at 2:15 AM ^
ya, watching 14 inn of scoreless baseball was similar to that 9-6 IL vs Iowa game. hoo boy.
October 8th, 2022 at 6:22 PM ^
Looked to me like the air went out of the balloon in the first half when Mike Hart went down. The team looked very upset, especially Corum. It had to be a significant distraction that didn't help with their concentration.
Edit: In the postgame presser Harbaugh got visibly choked up talking about Hart and said everyone on the team and the coaches were pretty upset.
The Trente Jones injury didn't make matters any easier The first-half officiating was awful.
To the team and coaches' credit, they made adjustments, settled down, and had an effective second half.
As for JJ, they turned him loose enough to win, but he's still a 19 year old guy who makes mistakes, like the forced throw into the end zone that was intercepted, and the run he got clobbered on. Still, 300 yards passing demonstrates that the coaches didn't always try to keep the genie in the bottle. And 3 passing TDs.
I wasn't happy with the second quarter, in particular, but the stats don't lie. The domination was complete in the second half.
October 8th, 2022 at 6:37 PM ^
I agree. Obviously, no INT is good, especially in the end zone, but that throw was right on the money and gave the receiver a chance to make a play. Unfortunately, it was the Indiana defender who made the great play. That is was tipped up and intercepted instead of batted down or batted away was more bad luck than anything else. If you never take those shots, you’ll stay safer but you’ll also miss some touchdowns.
October 8th, 2022 at 7:22 PM ^
I didn't have cell service the entire game so I was astonished to see Blake's total rushing yards. It felt like he was stifled all day. This game was very frustrating to sit through even though they did what they had to do to win.
October 9th, 2022 at 2:10 AM ^
he had like a 40 yarder on the first TD drive. pretty meh after that.
October 8th, 2022 at 7:45 PM ^
Our offense needs to score more TDs, if we want to win against PSU and OSU!
October 8th, 2022 at 8:06 PM ^
We have won 18 of the last 20 games and too many fans are not enjoying this stretch of football.
October 8th, 2022 at 8:14 PM ^
BTW - wasn’t that targeting on that hit to the head of JJ in 4Q? I thought this over aggressive officiating crew was waiting all afternoon to call one.
October 9th, 2022 at 2:08 AM ^
he wasn't defenseless
October 8th, 2022 at 9:00 PM ^
The spacing on offense needs to get figured out. Bell and Loveland were within 2 yards of each other on a route early in the game and there was another concept in the second half that had a similar feel where Klatt highlighted Henning on a failed third down.
Not sure if that’s a freshman running the wrong route but the one in the second half was two digs in different levels and the IU guy who was dropped in zone could’ve essentially had both covered.