Snowflakes Thread: Offense
August 30th, 2014 at 4:15 PM ^
But, there were almost always at least 10 seconds when the line was set. Maybe a little more time would be better, but if there are 10 seconds left, Gardner can still make adjustments. Usually, it was Gardner making adjustments that brought the play clock down. Last year, there was rarely any time for ANY adjustments.
August 30th, 2014 at 5:08 PM ^
August 30th, 2014 at 4:32 PM ^
I agree but I think the goal was to get Devin to the line much quicker so he could look over the defense rather than settling under center with 4 seconds to go like much of last year. If that was the goal I think it was accomplished. If the goal was to snap the ball with 10 seconds left on the play clock then no...but again I don't think that was the idea behind this.
August 30th, 2014 at 3:30 PM ^
- OL greatly improved. If Glasgow is our best lineman, that's a good sign.
- OL needs lots of reps.
- Funchess is #1. Will open things up for the whole offense.
- No QB controversy. About time.
- Want to see more receivers involved.
- Nice to see Hill get a catch. Butt coming back will open things up for TE position.
- RB's did a nice job. Think the OL last year was most of the problem for the RB's.
- Loved seeing Chesson on ST and blocking.
- Have great doubts about Gardner running.
- Want Morris to get as many reps as possible. He isn't ready yet.
- Want Nuss to keep as much as possible under wraps . . . until needed against MSU.
August 30th, 2014 at 3:46 PM ^
Glad you mentioned Chesson, that punt coverage was impressive. The ball came off of Hagerup's foot and I was thinking "shit, not enough hang time, here comes a big return." Nope, he was right there to tattoo the return man.
August 30th, 2014 at 4:20 PM ^
Chesson did all kinds of great stuff today.
August 30th, 2014 at 5:17 PM ^
Agreed. Chesson also had a great blocking play to help extend on of Green's longer runs another 10-15 yards I believe. Pound-for-pound, maybe one of the best hitters/blockers on the squad. Nowhere near as good as the guys who's JOB it is to block/hit, but certainly one the toughest in the receiver corps.
August 30th, 2014 at 7:01 PM ^
Yup, he's one of my favorite players, consistently a quintessential does-things-that-don't-show-up-on-the-stat-sheet kind of guy.
August 30th, 2014 at 3:31 PM ^
Rushing game was awesome to see -- FINALLY! I know it's only App State, but we didn't run like that against anybody last year -- so to me, it's positive progress.
I have to admit I was a bit worried after the first few handoff's that went for nothing or worse. But then, it seemed like the OL got it's bearings, began executing and started opening some nice holes.
August 30th, 2014 at 5:35 PM ^
Kalis got burned once because he didn't have the abiltiy to adjust laterally when a defender blew buy him. But I thought he regrouped nicely later on and started opening up those holes.
I especially loved that 12 yard push blocking for Smith for that touchdown late in th 2nd Quarter. Love seeing our O-Line ride donkeys down the field.
August 30th, 2014 at 3:31 PM ^
August 30th, 2014 at 4:22 PM ^
The alumni crew I watched the game with thought that Magnuson missed his assignment on that play.
August 30th, 2014 at 4:41 PM ^
August 30th, 2014 at 4:45 PM ^
It was Cole. His guy stepped outside and then inside and got his arm over Cole's and it was over.
August 30th, 2014 at 3:32 PM ^
I remember cursing Al for playing Funchess at TE. Thank God someone saw the light. He's elite at WR.
August 30th, 2014 at 3:41 PM ^
August 30th, 2014 at 4:05 PM ^
is supposed to mean an end to history, but. . . yeesh.
August 30th, 2014 at 4:23 PM ^
Prolly gone after this year, too!
August 30th, 2014 at 3:34 PM ^
As said above, the 0-line had some moments after a rough start rushing.
Smith hits the hole nice, Green had some good feet. Both seemed see the cutback after a weak initial few plays.
Surprised that Freddy only got in late.
I'm fine with Shane playing. He needs the practice. :)
I did not notice the TE blocking. Nice that Heitzman got a pass.
Complaint meter is well in the green zone on play calling. (Caveat that I'm no expert applies.)
August 30th, 2014 at 3:34 PM ^
August 30th, 2014 at 3:46 PM ^
August 30th, 2014 at 4:24 PM ^
I always thought that...
August 30th, 2014 at 3:36 PM ^
We looked awesome against Central Michigan last year too.
August 30th, 2014 at 3:45 PM ^
August 30th, 2014 at 3:50 PM ^
No we didn't.
We got most of our yards by surprising Central (and the rest of the world) by coming out and running outside zone. It was pretty obvious they never coached their EMLOS about not getting sealed and Lewan was sealing that edge all day.
Today, we came out and ran our base play and were successful for the most part. Some of those runs were really blocked beautifully. The competition will obviously be better, but guys playing their assignments correctly across the board is still a huge improvement.
August 30th, 2014 at 4:07 PM ^
August 30th, 2014 at 3:38 PM ^
He was one incompletion away from perfection. I think someone posted his QB rating which was in the 200 rang? Didn't even think it was possible for a QB to get a rating that high.
August 30th, 2014 at 3:38 PM ^
August 30th, 2014 at 3:44 PM ^
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August 30th, 2014 at 4:05 PM ^
Michigan beat Central 59-9 in their opener and went on to beat ND 41-30. Two very respectable offensive performances. The cracks didn't start to show until narrow wins over Akron and then UConn.
I feel like the diference this year was that the offense was a lot more efficient than they were vs. Central. Only one turnover this year vs. 3 against Central. Plus we had two guys over 100 yds rushing vs App State. Against Central no one was over 60 yds.
August 30th, 2014 at 4:05 PM ^
August 30th, 2014 at 4:04 PM ^
Against CMU last year, UM put up 242 yards rushing. 38 of those came from a play that would never be effectively repeated (the Norfleet sweep) and 52 came from Gardner. Another 50 came from long runs by Green and Toussaint (30 and 20 yards respectively). If you excise those 4 blig plays of 38, 30, 22 and 20 (the long runs by Norfleet, Green, Gardner and Toussaint respectively) you've got UM coming in at 129 yards on 42 carries, or 3 YPC.
Today, UM got just 9 yards from Gardner, and he was completely unnecessary. If you excise the longest runs of 61, 62, 27 and 18 (the long runs by Green, Smith, Johnson and Hayes respectively), you wind up with 182 yards on 32 carries, or 5.68 YPC.
UM had fewer runs today that went much, much farther much more consistently. This was not last year's CMU game and we definitely don't want to confuse the two. Level of competition obviously applies, but this was a team that went out and effectively dominated their opposition in all 3 phases today. That's something we haven't seen in a long time, and considering how young this team is, it's incredibly encouraging.
August 30th, 2014 at 4:26 PM ^
The key was that last year, it seemed like our ONLY offense on the ground was Devin Gardner scrambling. In fact, I can't remember a game with a consistent rushing attack from our RB's like today since Mike Hart left the program, though I might be forgetting something.
August 30th, 2014 at 4:36 PM ^
First let me say I generally agree with you. But yes people were giddy after CMU and "we're back" after Devin looked like Vince Young vs ND. So after the first 2 games things looked solid although the trenches were an issue.
The big difference between CMU and App State games were (a) Devin didnt make errors today - he did a year ago (b) our actual RBs got the runs this year - Devin did almost zero runs today, whereas vs CMU we still had the QB hero ball system going. So if we assume App State and CMU are about the same in "bad-ness" what we saw today was better than last year. But it doesnt mean a whole lot in relation to playing teams with actual 3/4 stars on them. Good for confidence and spirit and "executing" versus an overmatched defense.
August 30th, 2014 at 6:45 PM ^
I think the "Hero Ball" description is a really apt one.
August 30th, 2014 at 4:09 PM ^
August 30th, 2014 at 4:19 PM ^
Kalis was great. Glasgow is not going to sit him down.
August 30th, 2014 at 6:46 PM ^
My favorite play of the game was the TD (Smith I think...) when Kalis took the defender all the way to the endzone. Made a believer out of me.
August 30th, 2014 at 3:38 PM ^
Watching multiple long runs by our backs...man, that was AWESOME. Felt like a high school kid at a party getting BJ'ers from multiple girls. OH MY GOD ITS HAPPENING AGAIN!!!
August 30th, 2014 at 4:20 PM ^
What high school did you go to?
August 30th, 2014 at 5:26 PM ^
Brazzers High
August 30th, 2014 at 3:38 PM ^
I look to the OL to improve each week. Did Kalis play the most with the ones? I know Joey B started, but dunno how much he played.
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August 30th, 2014 at 3:42 PM ^
August 30th, 2014 at 3:45 PM ^
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August 30th, 2014 at 3:43 PM ^
Absolutely loved that Nuss started out the game by playing to our strengths with the screens and putting our superior athletes in space. He could've said WE WILL RUN POWER ESTABLISH RUN IMPOSE WILL and caused a lot of consternation amongst fans and confidence issues among players by getting stuffed (which our early run attempts suggested we would). So glad he played basketball on grass until we got rolling a little bit and loosened them up.
August 30th, 2014 at 4:21 PM ^
But if he did that, he would be Al Borges.
August 30th, 2014 at 3:48 PM ^
made a few mistakes but that was to be expected. The running backs looked good for the most part also.
I still feel the passing game is going to have to carry the running game. I was happy to see Funchess come up huge.
August 30th, 2014 at 4:05 PM ^
August 30th, 2014 at 4:36 PM ^
August 30th, 2014 at 3:49 PM ^
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