Such a weird game. Would love to see Brian and Seth do UFR's

Submitted by Buy Bushwood on January 1st, 2023 at 6:49 PM

Once the dust settles and the butt-hurt subsides.  I'd really like to know more about what technically happened with the blocking (on both sides), play-calling, fake QB read options with handoffs into walls of purple and miles of green grass open on the edge.  Who's with me?  

VintageRandy

January 1st, 2023 at 7:03 PM ^

I’d also love to see it but I doubt it happens. It’s been a long and mostly joyous season and that would be a real bummer of a project for them to take on. I feel like if Seth felt he could glean some neck sharpie content from it he would take it on, but that game doesn’t strike me as tactically interesting in any way. What do you meaningfully learn from watching a team punch itself in the nuts for 4 quarters?

Joined: 04/04/2019

MGoPoints: 7209

trustBlue

January 2nd, 2023 at 3:35 PM ^

I'd love to understand why we couldn't run the ball against TCU's 3-3-5 defense. Conventional wisdom is that we should have been able to run the ball down their throat, but TCU did a great job of having their linebackers attack gaps and were very successful getting second level defenders into the backfield untouched. We also never seemed to have an adjustment for whatever they were doing.

IMO that was by far TCU's biggest schematic win, but it definitely changed the game as it forced us to try to play TCU in a BIG-12 style shootout.

Joined: 04/14/2014

MGoPoints: 8176

WalterWhite_88

January 1st, 2023 at 7:07 PM ^

Totally agree. I want to see what TCU did right and what Michigan did wrong. I mean, we sll know basically how Michigan f$ked up but it would be cool to see what the experts say. 

Joined: 06/14/2019

MGoPoints: 4646

Rico

January 1st, 2023 at 9:01 PM ^

I was watching the all-22 view and TCU ran some clever "delayed" pick routes on a few of their big plays. It happened on both of their TD passes where Duggan held the ball a long time and then flipped the ball out right before being sacked, including the 76 yard TD where Turner missed the tackle. Most pick routes happen early in the play, but these happened so late it was almost like they were improvised and the refs weren't watching for it at that point in the play.

Watch TCU slot receiver #4 clearly leave his route to interfere with Will Johnson while the pass is still in the air:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myhZ6eoaJrU

It still would have been a catch and nice gain, but Johnson almost certainly would have been catching up to tackle/push the WR out of bounds near the first down marker.

And then on their other TD pass, TCU sets up another blatant pick route with their slot receiver #27, Turner actually swerves to avoid most of the contact where if he just lets himself get hit the flag may have been thrown:

https://youtu.be/1HKmnriYImE?t=229

Joined: 03/06/2017

MGoPoints: 4466

Ronswanson13

January 1st, 2023 at 9:41 PM ^

Yeah, it was definitely disappointing. Both Moore and Minter had fantastic seasons - seasons that we’d gladly take 10 times out of 10 - but both dropped the ball for this one. Moore with the O-line being seemingly unprepared for TCU’s defense and Minter with his aggressive calls after they had repeatedly gotten burned on them.

Minter is actually more surprising to me. He got burned against Ohio State and never made the same mistake again. But today was just the complete opposite.

Joined: 02/11/2016

MGoPoints: 10264

DennisFranklinDaMan

January 1st, 2023 at 10:13 PM ^

Sure. But I don't know how much of the blame for those 14 points rests on the offensive line -- let alone its "preparation". One was a fumble on the exchange, and one was a failed trick play. 

I don't know. If you told me the offense would score 45 points in this game, I would still think we'd win. Those offensive mistakes definitely hurt, but ... I still think we clawed back pretty early in the second half, and if we could have stopped TCU one more time we'd have won.

But I hear you.

Joined: 01/23/2021

MGoPoints: 14417

Tex_Ind_Blue

January 1st, 2023 at 11:17 PM ^

Michigan's identity has been screw with the LBs and run the damn ball. The first play was awesome. And yet showed what might the night bring. Great opportunity but just a bit too far. 

Then they couldn't/didn't/wouldn't do what they had done the whole year! I think the fans should know or figure out what happened to the back-to-back Joe Moore award winning OL that they couldn't keep their identity and run the damn ball.

Joined: 12/31/2014

MGoPoints: 7705

Ronswanson13

January 2nd, 2023 at 12:46 AM ^

They gave up 13 TFL, 4 sacks, and multiple pressures. The run game was also below their (admittedly high) standard and a large reason for our poor 3rd down conversion % was due to not being on schedule. It was great that the offense was able to be explosive to claw their way back, but only 6pts at the half was ultimately a hole to big to dig out of. Now obviously not all of it was on the OL. It was a team wide effort. Offensive play calling. The most costly turnovers imaginable. Jesse Minter going full Brown/Knowles. The refs stealing a TD. It all added up. But the OL had their hand in it as well and we expected more from this unit. They were supposed to smash. They didn’t.

 

Joined: 02/11/2016

MGoPoints: 10264

Chris in Cleveland

January 2nd, 2023 at 8:52 AM ^

I 100 percent agree with you. but it’s difficult for some of us, myself included, to watch a game where 2023 Michigan is not controlling the clock and can’t run effectively and conclude it is a good offensive effort. 
 

I think I’m probably wasting a lot of unnecessary mental energy if Look too far past our glaring and costly mistakes. 

Joined: 09/01/2014

MGoPoints: 240

1VaBlue1

January 2nd, 2023 at 9:00 AM ^

This is a rather simplistic look at the offense - 'we scored 45, it was fine'.  

The 39 points in the second half were a direct result of a drastic and sudden deviation from the game plan.  The original game plan was to run the base vanilla offense.  This is proven by the use of Edwards smashing into brick walls inside the tackles the entire first half.  By the use of Mullings - so very obvious that he would carry between the guards on short yardage.  By the complete lack of even a simple threat that JJ might keep.  By the utter lack of Edwards in the pass game, and the total ignoring of any screen game or quick slants into the middle when the LB's fired into the gaps on a simple play action (that also wasn't used).

We knew what TCU was going to do defensively, and Michigan ran straight into it.  No attempts to get the ball to places TCU defenders weren't in.

The hints of change in the first half were the long throws to Wilson.  Pretty obvious those were going to be there all night.  They changed to the 'all JJ all the time arm display' at halftime, and it worked.  Not one time all game was Michigan able to 'drive' the field, like the teams identity.  Instead, it was what we call 'arm punts', but instead of 50/50 balls Wilson and Bell were wide open and JJ was dealing dimes 40 yards downfield.  That is certainly not Harbaugh's preferred method of offense, but that's what it was in the second half - a drastic change because you gave your opponent no credit.

That is not a 'good offense', or even a fine offense.  It's desperation.  Michigan's coaching and scouting staff got pantsed.  That they made the change and had players ready for it was really good - and is a real credit to the staff.  That they had to make that change sucks...  Had the preparation been better, they wouldn't have had to.

Joined: 01/31/2016

MGoPoints: 127114

HateSparty

January 1st, 2023 at 10:04 PM ^

The line play wasn’t terrible but the blitz ID was rough. Some of that(most?) seems to be on JJ. On the screen it seemed obvious but our perch was different. JJ overall talked a lot the week leading up to this game and after the Big Ten Championship. I love him and hope his schtick is sincere with watching the celebrations etc. But please learn and just play. 

Joined: 12/17/2014

MGoPoints: 27141

Tex_Ind_Blue

January 2nd, 2023 at 12:59 PM ^

This is an interesting take. These are 18-19 year old college kids, boys. They are cocky. Going 25-2 with two beatdowns of OSU, and two B1G championships will make them more so. And that's the beauty of college football. The raw emotions. God knows TCU thrived on that.

And now we want them to temper down and act like an adult? Behave more like "business like". 

Hmm. 

Joined: 12/31/2014

MGoPoints: 7705

KC Wolve

January 1st, 2023 at 7:08 PM ^

This has always been my issue with college football. Everyone keeps calling it a “weird” game and it surely was but the reason was mostly due to a month layoff. I’ve always found it really stupid to determine a champion in a sport this popular over a month after the teams last game. The old reasons were that they are students and finals….but let’s be real here. The holidays also jam things up a bit but you would think a billion dollar industry could figure out scheduling to prevent a long layoff and sloppy play for a championship tournament. Can you imagine any other sport playing an entire season then taking a month break and starting a playoff? 

Joined: 10/09/2010

MGoPoints: 12673

treetown

January 1st, 2023 at 7:29 PM ^

Yes, it will probably happen. This site started out seemingly like many other fan sites but from the start it had a professionalism to it. Yes, it is a homer site but the analytical part is top notch and I dare say unrivaled outside of the paywalled sites. 

Happy New Year to Brian, Seth and everyone at MGoBlog!

Joined: 11/10/2010

MGoPoints: 6339

JT4104

January 1st, 2023 at 7:40 PM ^

I'm gonna bet most the OL comes in badly save Hayes and maybe Zinter. Barnhart was completely lost all game and felt like Keegan picked a bad time to be bad

Joined: 10/25/2008

MGoPoints: 12328

Ronswanson13

January 1st, 2023 at 9:46 PM ^

I’m surprised Barnhart kept the job. Well actually I’m not as Harbaugh has shown a history of injured players not being able to fully reclaim their jobs upon return. We seen it last year with Turner taking Green’s job and basically the same with Johnson this year, which both worked out don’t get me wrong.

But I just don’t see much with Barnhart. He had just as much trouble with pass protection as Jones did earlier in the year, but I don’t think he’s nearly as good at run blocking. And Jones still came in and played some these last few games so he appeared to be healthy enough to contribute.

Joined: 02/11/2016

MGoPoints: 10264

KeyserSöze

January 1st, 2023 at 8:19 PM ^

I would be interested in hearing people’s opinion regarding how TCU stopped the Michigan run game.  It didn’t seem like they were committing extra guys to the box every down 

Joined: 01/26/2016

MGoPoints: 230

Buy Bushwood

January 1st, 2023 at 8:22 PM ^

I think no QB read option killed us. They were selling out on the RB, and they were always right.  There was no constraint. Seth or Brian did a whole article on how just a few keeps by JJ opened up a ton of space against PSU.  Edwards' 85 yarder against OSU was 85 yards instead of minus 1 when the scraping DB off the edge paused to look at JJ instead of grabbing Edwards, who was his assignment.  

Joined: 10/24/2020

MGoPoints: 21657

M-Dog

January 2nd, 2023 at 5:24 AM ^

Teams can stop the Michigan run game by run blitzing like crazy.  Indiana did it.  TCU obviously did it.  

You have to back that off by punishing the defense in the areas they are vacating, both horizontally and vertically.  Michigan eventually did it, but they took too long to adjust.  They did not want to believe that Big 12 defense, small-school TCU was stopping the vaunted Michigan run game.  But they were stopping it just fine.

How many times did we see a 2 or 3 yard gain on a first down run followed by a run-blitzed TFL on second down?  Those put us off schedule and led to too many three-and-outs.  Which also tired our defense.  

There is a lesson to be learned there for Michigan when it goes up against top teams.  You can't get too wrapped up in your "smash mouth" identity to not have a Plan B ready to go expeditiously. 

Swallow your pride and take what the defense gives you.  You are not going to ever be a 65% running team in a CFP game and win it.   

 

Joined: 07/06/2008

MGoPoints: 257517

alum96

January 1st, 2023 at 8:45 PM ^

Run blocking was abysmal.  I would have asked a retired grizzled veteran 3-3-5 coach to come in and assess during those 4 weeks of practice the alignments and fits and have our scout team adjust to whatever he said so our OL could figure it out. THIRTEEN!!!!!! TFL! THIRTEEN!  Our young staff looked bamboozled by it.

The red zone offense scoring TDs was the same issue we had all year.  Watching a number of NFL teams today scoring with ease in the red zone using something other than 1 yard and a cloud of dust thinking v watching us run it up the middle stubbornly over and over and over and over all season, it's pathetic.  We have really good TEs - match them up vs LBs in the red zone and get it done.  Even if we dont have a 6'5 unicorn WR to throw it up to on a corner fade. (They have 2 great CBs)

Happy with where the program is overall.  Red zone and time management and things like that could be fixed but we have a stubborn head coach.

Watched the highlights of GA - OSU.  Loads of great execution.  Felt like 3 teams played near their ceiling in the playoff (Max D didn't even play that well) - one team completely punked a half.  That was us.  Play our 3rd worse half of the year yesterday rather than our worst (in all facets) and UM wins this by 17.

Joined: 04/28/2012

MGoPoints: 82516