Question About Offensive Play Calling/Sets with McNamara vs Milton

Milton just gets us behind and off schedule because he can't consistently hit the right read or open man.

Cade made the right decisions and got the ball out quick, kept us on schedule most of the night which led to better playcalling etc..

The series and play calls set up each other with success.  Milton was hurt by the fumble and then unraveled again.  
 

McNamara hit Johnson for the Td and came back and drive right down the field again to end the half when the fg was missed.  This pulled the safeties back and opened the run game.  With Milton unable to consistently throw more than ten yds down field the defense keys on the run first.  With McNamara they couldn’t and it really opens the offense up.  It also helped big time with Charbonett picking up the blitz and Haskins/Evans as well blocking well for McNamara.  
 

The passing game helped the young Oline and in turn the run game put the Rutgers defense in a bind.  It starts with the Qb in today’s football 

I noticed Cade making the right read on a large handful of RPO’s, so I’d argue the play calling was not the difference between Cade and Milton.  Not reading, or making the wrong read, on RPO’s will make your offense look disjointed and bad.  I’m assuming that’s at least part of Milton’s issue.

I think the general consensus is actually the complete opposite

I don’t think it was different play calling. 
Cade is able to see the entire field, that changes everything.

When Cade came in, I saw more touch on the passes, and a QB who could read the defense quickly.  I saw a lot of dropped passes when Milton was in, and many passes seemed catchable from my comfy recliner (aside from nearly every deep attempt).  Part of me wonders if some of the drops were influenced by too much pepper and/or timing problems between QB and receivers.

Aside from that, the deep pass Cade hit on the first TD loosened up the defense a bit, which opened up the short stuff.  Without that threat, the offense does not function properly (true of most any concept).

Finally, I saw Cade make several veteran decisions to avoid big losses/drive killers.  I especially liked the effortless side-armed dump pass to avoid the blitz.  This team currently has a grand total of 4 starters from last year who are available to play now.  It has been a rough and ugly season (and that doesn't figure to get much better before the end), but McNamara's performance was fun to watch, and I'll keep tuning in to see how he progresses.

After watching some of these plays over, I totally believe the play calling was adjusted when Cade came into the game. But, I also saw a Rutgers D adjust when a competent QB came in and could hit receivers.  I don’t think we have seen ‘speed in space’ at all since Gattis has been here. I think JH is uncomfortable with running a full spread and always will be. 

Look like the first half was Harbaugh, running the backs into a stack line on down one and two and setting up 3rd and longs for Milton.  Cade had more spread offense calls, which look like Gattis took over to me. Cade is a more accurate passer and can hit our small and quick WR and can occasionally launch a long ball with touch. I think Gattis would prefer to keep Cade as our QB.

I do wonder if there was a specific plan to work the edges more in the run game with Milton in an attempt to get LBs and SSs to work wide, as if he was more comfortable throwing in the middle than to seams and sidelines.

Would explain Corum and all the mis direction as opposed to the Hassan Chop washed down with fine Charbonnet.

I actually disagree with the premise that it was suddenly Harbaugh's playcalling or Harbaugh's plays when Cade came in.  

What did feel pretty clear was that Cade McNamara has been preparing to run the offense from the second half of Saturday's game his whole life. All of his reps in HS in Nevada and at 7-on-7 tournaments...you could see that translate to the plays.  In a complete rarity for UM quarterbacks, he seemed to know pre-snap where he was going with the football and why. I think there is something to be said for the fact that Cade is the byproduct of the modern Power-5 QB industrial complex if you will - the kid threw thousands of passes during HS, some in games and some against air at 7-on-7.  I think Shea came from the same background (I don't think any of Harbaugh's other QBs have), so while we'll have to see how things play out I was encouraged by Cade's play (small sample sizes and Rutgers caveats do apply).

I think Gattis and Jim have been trying to craft gameplans that cater to Milton's strengths, which are deep shots down the seams and down the field, some QB running on power running etc.  It absolutely baffles me, however, how we have gotten so far away from the gameplan we saw against Minnesota that featured a lot of horizontal plays and built-on the gameplans of last season with the Zone Read, Arc Read, Split Zone and power packages.

I don't think we can ever go back to the Harbaugh man-ball offenses of old - the game has moved on.  Modern offenses need to stress test defenses, consistently take whatever easy yards a defense gives them and punish defenses for their tendencies.  The guys on the Cover 3 Podcast at 247 Sports (excellent CFB podcast) started referring to UM's offense before the Minnesota game as the "dirtbike offense" due to the dimunuitive nature of our WRs.  That's speed in space, and stressing the defenses horizontally has to be a regular part of our offensive gameplan, and it just hasn't.  There's not some unwritten rule that we can't throw to our RBs more than twice per game. With Cade in at QB, that improved. 

Chris Evans, Blake Corum, Giles, Henning, Sainistrill and even Ronny Bell - it's incumbent on the coaches to get them the ball quickly - and in space! - and either the coaches or the QBs just haven't been doing that consistently.  That should be the identity of our passing offense, and it just hasn't.

Also, fire Don Brown.

Also untrained, but some thoughts

• with our no huddle, they send out their base formation, look at how the defense is aligned - then make the play call/adjustment. 
• Respecting the deep ball. With this in mind, when the defense doesn’t have to respect the deep ball, they can keep all 11 near the line of scrimmage. They can over commit to the run and short passing. This kills all options at the line other than “throw deep” or run a doomed play. 
   
• when Cade hit Johnson wide open deep, the game changed. Safeties and LB played back more, opening up more running and short pass options == 5 TDs (and 3 missed field goals). 
   
• I think we saw more speed in space with Cade until the first OT. First OT was classic Harbaugh. But without the ability to stretch vertically (which we haven’t been able to do since... Ruddock?) any of our schemes are screwed 

I actually felt like it was the opposite.

Milton time: running into stacked boxes, slow developing play action. (manball)

McNamara time: One read, get rid of the ball. (speed in space)

Now maybe that's a function of the two players' abilities to make that single read and then choose A or B as the read dictates but if there truly was a playcalling difference then it felt more like Gattis calling the stuff for the bulk of Cade's time.

So I thought the opposite, but i'm no offensive coordinator. The question I still can't figure out the answer to is this. The message from UM is that Gattis is calling the plays and has the "keys to the offense". A lot of people think that JH is calling certain plays or at least strongly pushing certain plays or a game plan. I'm not disagreeing with this as it does appear that they run two different offenses during some games, but why would Gattis stick around if JH keeps undermining him. This offense has been a mess outside of a few decent games or quarters where it appeared "speed in space" was a thing. If Harbaugh is calling runs into stacked boxes or insisting on man ball concepts, why on earth would an OC/playcaller put up with that? Wouldn't he be looking for the nearest exit since the message is that he is the one calling these plays?

4) You see any high level teams running the Harboffense? You think that's just a coincidence?

The OL performance in the run game seemed to flip a switch once Cade came in. I don't truly understand why this would be the case. No more designed QB run game = power running which should be the strength of our generally meaty OL. Did we remove RPOs freeing the OL to get a push? Or did the deep ball TD and threat of future deep balls lighten the box? I thought our OL was making mistakes whether we had numbers or not.

Nick Baumgardner, love him or hate him, tackled this issue in a recent article in the Athletic. (Pay site) I will try and summarize what Baumgardner thought of the change in play calling.

"When Milton’s in the game, Michigan often tries to take advantage of his arm with plenty of vertical routes — be it down a seam, in a corner. Wherever. Milton’s preference is often to trust his arm, which can lead him to some seriously difficult (sometimes lower-percentage) throws."

Baumgardner wrote that Rutgers (and I am going to guess that Indiana and Wisconsin probably did the same thing) came at Michigan with a lot of pressure and Milton continued to drop back. "Rutgers sold out on the run as Milton was only a threat on designed keeps — not read-keeps. When Michigan was in obvious passing situations, Rutgers brought heat there, too."

Baumgardner uses a play to illustrate this. In the second quarter with Michigan facing a 3rd and 6th from the Rutgers 31. Bell and Corum ran crossing routes and Jackson went deep on a wheel route. Corum worked his way open but Milton tried to force the ball into Jackson. "He actually makes a really nice throw, but it’s pretty well covered and just too much for Jackson."

Baumgardner points out that it was 3rd and 6 and instead of taking the easy underneath route he pushed for the bigger play. 

Baumgardner then talks about McNamara who "took his first easy run-pass option (or run play with a pass tag) read and made it work. He forced Rutgers to adjust in a way Milton hadn’t."

Baumgardner goes on to explain on "McNamara’s second snap of the game. Michigan’s going to block what looks like a power play at the line of scrimmage. But watch McNamara’s eyes and watch wide receiver Mike Sainristil. The Rutgers cornerback hasn’t seen a read like this all night. So he sees Michigan pull a guard and he’s off to the races into the backfield. Only McNamara properly reads this, pulls the ball and hits Sainristil for an easy completion and a first down.

On the very next play, Michigan calls play action and partly because McNamara just caught Rutgers off guard with a read, Cornelius Johnson is able to run into wide-open space after a safety bit hard on the play fake."

Baumgardner also talked about how McNamara opened up the run game. Early in the 3rd with Michigan driving at the Rutgers 35 yard line and 1st and 10, "watch McNamara’s impact on this play as he carries out his fake. Nearly everything Michigan ran in the ground game from here on out featured either a read or a sold read from the quarterback.

And it bothered Rutgers quite a bit. On the play above, watch the circled linebacker hesitate as McNamara carries out a fake after handing the ball off on what looks like a split zone. There isn’t an extra read here, but McNamara sells one and it gives Haskins just enough room to find extra space for a big play. Michigan finished this drive with a touchdown in the red zone that featured another ball fake from McNamara and, most important, a soft and easy throw into the end zone that tight end Nick Eubanks could adjust to and haul in."

I really like how Baumgartner stated, "not every read was perfect and Michigan still made life more difficult on itself than necessary with errors in the second half, but the Wolverines went away from the vertical stuff and relied more heavily on underneath throws and quarterback reads from McNamara. And the second-year quarterback made more reads than he missed."

 

I have to say, I've enjoyed this thread more than any in the past several weeks.