UConn Snowflakes - The Offense
September 17th, 2022 at 3:27 PM ^
Not sure if this was mentioned in any of the leadup, but Jim would have played for Mora's dad on the Colts. Playoffs???
Nice win. Hope Cade is doing well.
September 17th, 2022 at 3:43 PM ^
Don’t think they mentioned that during the game, and I hadn’t thought of that. Good stuff.
Trente Jones is way too shaky at RT.
I don’t think a WR caught a single ball today thrown more than 5 yards downfield with YAC. The play-calling and complete lack of aggression downfield is a bit concerning, when you have two Co-OCs who don’t have a ton of experience calling plays.
I know we’ll never see a Harbaugh team do what Stroud did in the 1st half against Sparty last year. But maybe a downfield shot every now and then?
Thankful to see the worst non-conference schedule of my lifetime come to an end.
September 17th, 2022 at 3:48 PM ^
Jim plays "scoreboard". Chances are that all of your "concerns" came to be on purpose.
September 17th, 2022 at 4:16 PM ^
Haha. Yep. That’s it. Purposefully looking for non-existent concerns. You nailed it.
We completely made up that 2 of McCarthy’s last 25 completions (edit: 3) were more than 5 yards downfield and caught by a wideout without his back to the secondary. Against a couple defenses who hardly posed threats in the secondary, that part of the offense was non-existent. No slants, nothing off a RPO, nothing down the seam against a zone, two deep balls to Wilson & Johnson last game, nothing by either QB against CSU or again today.
September 17th, 2022 at 7:28 PM ^
Yeah so the “no slants, nothing off an RPO” thing is just a blatant lie.
September 17th, 2022 at 9:57 PM ^
Take a breather, pal.
September 17th, 2022 at 11:29 PM ^
Are you seriously bitching about 15/18 for 214? Wow
September 17th, 2022 at 4:15 PM ^
I enjoyed everyone of those games. We only get so many games a year. I don't care if they play a high school team. I thoroughly enjoy the game and the week leading up to it.
September 17th, 2022 at 4:21 PM ^
Do you read the opponent previews on this site? (I know the answer but thought I would ask anyway..)
Summary — UConn sits back in zone and takes away most chances at deep throws. To facilitate that they give a TON of cushion on the outside hence the prediction that M could march down the field ALL DAY in 6-8 chunks just tossing bubbles to the outside WR. M did mess up that plan a bit as Michigan receivers and blockers turned many of those into 10 to 20 yard chunks.
September 17th, 2022 at 4:30 PM ^
I do. But I don’t understand them. What’s zone?
All seriousness, I did miss one. Early in the game McCarthy hit Bell on an intermediate route. At first glance it may have looked like it was slightly behind the WR, but when throwing into a zone, there are windows between defenders. The ball was right on the money based on the positioning of the LBs and DBs. So 3 completions in 2 games.
Against a zone, you can also run slants both from the slot or from the outside that get the ball into receivers hands quickly and on the run. You can also attack the middle of the field against a two deep by hitting a TE or even a RB down the seam. Two starts against crap teams like this provided good chances to work that in a game. I wish they would have, both to practice the play and let McCarthy see the pre snap read with those calls against those defenses.
You kind of constructed a straw man by conflating statements about throwing the ball more than 5 yards past the LOS as equivalent with throwing deep.
September 17th, 2022 at 5:14 PM ^
You had the mid-level cross to Bell you are referencing, plus the post route to Schoon (I think it was him) a bit later on. There may have been another deeper throw that I missed.
Everything else was short or behind the LOS. That being said, this was a great example of taking what the defense was giving -- something that I and many others have clamored for for many years. I have said over and over, take the free yards. We did that today and destroyed the Huskies.
Did I want to see a few throws down the field? Sure, absolutely, let's practice those more. But today, it was so blindingly obvious that the short passing game would work.....
September 17th, 2022 at 7:05 PM ^
Amen. Many years what's made that team down South (and Georgia last year) look so dominant offensively was not the occasional athletic uber-freak play, but the consistent ability to find the weakness in a defense... and the patience to go with what's working until the weaker team stops you.
September 17th, 2022 at 4:42 PM ^
A man amongst boys. Perfect point, dont complain if you cant read the crowd
September 17th, 2022 at 5:17 PM ^
That’s exactly what JJ said in his post-game interview
September 17th, 2022 at 5:13 PM ^
The aim of this game was to win without putting anything on film that shows anything but a vanilla offense, and without anyone getting hurt. Unfortunately, Michigan didn't escape without that occurring.
September 17th, 2022 at 5:52 PM ^
My favorite part of having this conversation every year is the idea that throwing the ball down the field occasionally is still some weird exotic wrinkle that we can’t risk putting on film.
September 17th, 2022 at 7:13 PM ^
My 10 year old had a football game in the middle of the Michigan game so I watched half of it on "tape delay," but it felt like there were quite a few longer passes. I do miss the Elvis Grbac to Desmond bombs on play action after running the ball play after play. (or any QB/WR combo in the Bo/Mo/Lo eras.)
I can't wait to play a non soup can opponent, but the offense feels like it is a lot more dynamic with JJ in there. I want to see him hit more long passes so that when we play MSU/PSU/OSU he can hit more long passes.
September 17th, 2022 at 7:59 PM ^
Bamf_16,
Haven’t we seen plenty of M game plans where they ran into the stacked box ALL DAY and refused to use the underneath stuff to put athletes in space? It seems like we have been complaining about that since Heiko was here. Even Gattis was guilty of this with the Army game.
JJ threw 18 passes today. Your concern is that too few of them were slants and routes aimed deeper into the defense. That feels like a bit of a nitpick when they were FINALLY doing the athletic things being given to them and scoring 5 TDs (starters).
I look forward to Heiko (somebody find him and have him call) asking Borges about these bubble screens in Sam’s MMQB this week.
September 18th, 2022 at 8:51 AM ^
Good point. Yes we have.
It’s an observation that I understand is a nitpick if you don’t like it and bitching if you hate it! Haha. Anyways…
I wish they’d have thrown downfield more. There are routes in a route tree designed to attack the intermediate of the defense and beyond, even when DBs hang back in zone. I don’t buy the, “they don’t want to put anything on tape” or the “that’s all the defense was giving” explanations.
I understood the criticisms of the lack of downfield passing after the Washington win last year. But that was a team with a pulse (so we thought) and UM was coming off a 2-4 season and the outcome was in doubt a bit more.
It’s a matter of preference, I guess. I think this team right now is capable of taking more shots and I’d have liked to have seen them do it more, at least with Anthony, who still doesn’t have a catch this season.
September 18th, 2022 at 11:50 AM ^
LMAO! You don't "buy" that the defense was giving them short easy passes all day? Then go become a fan of an air raid team if your preference makes you whine about a curb stomping like we saw.
September 18th, 2022 at 1:41 AM ^
Ahhhhh, McCarthy completed 100% of his passes in week 1, then down to 91.7 last week, now down to 83.3 this week!! The the regression is clear!! Fire everyone, Davis Warren for QB1!!!!
September 18th, 2022 at 10:54 AM ^
You're right... by the time we get to a bowl game he won't complete a single pass!
September 17th, 2022 at 3:44 PM ^
Now that you mention it pretty sure you are right about Coach Harbaugh playing for Coach Mora Sr. Good points.
September 17th, 2022 at 6:08 PM ^
Pretty sure I thought I saw him mouth "say hi to your dad for me" during the post game handshake. Then they chatted a bit longer than Jim normally does. Then it hit me... Captain Comeback played for Mora Sr in the lead-up to Ole Horseface.
September 17th, 2022 at 3:28 PM ^
Those are probably the three worst football teams I have ever seen.
September 17th, 2022 at 3:55 PM ^
You missed the Delaware State game in which a mediocre (at best) Michigan team eviscerated them scoring something like 63? Recency bias. There was also a U Mass team that was dreadful.
September 17th, 2022 at 4:21 PM ^
Damn… the 1 possession win against UMass. Another of the games I guess we just wiped from our memories.
The offense is awesome. Every play call was perfect. Averaging 55+ per game. Everything is great. Everyone is performing. Nothing to analyze or discuss further.
September 17th, 2022 at 5:48 PM ^
Yeah that DSU team was awful but Michigan wasnt awesome either. Id say these three games are probably the highest delta Ive ever seen between Michigan and an opponent. All three were just non-competitive from the drop
September 17th, 2022 at 10:33 PM ^
At least Deleware St brought a great marching band.
September 17th, 2022 at 3:30 PM ^
Would love to see the pass pro cleaned up next week. This may be premature but I’d really like to prevent JJ from developing any Shea Patterson Bug Out disease.
September 17th, 2022 at 3:32 PM ^
I'm with you. Definitely haven't been impressed with Jones at RT.
That's the only thing I can nitpick from these first 3 man-handlings.
He gives up a lot of pressures and has given up atleast 2 sacks, if it's not 3.
September 17th, 2022 at 3:39 PM ^
The last time we saw such a disparity between run blocking ability and pass pro like Trente Jones has shown so far was Juwan Bushell-Beatty. And Jones is far more athletic than JBB, so I'm not sure what's going on there. And he's not the only one having troubles-- Zinter and Hayes have been a little shaky here. But my guess is that these are just early-season hiccups that OLs just have to go through in order to improve.
September 17th, 2022 at 9:00 PM ^
I think there's a legitimate possibility that defenses can be bad enough that it makes offenses inefficient. You're expecting a certain level of resistance and build your offense around that. I think that's why Bama and OSU frequently look so flat despite being relatively dominant.
September 17th, 2022 at 4:37 PM ^
The offense is averaging 55+ points per game. What’s with the negative critique?
Everything is great. The offense is humming. Nothing could cause concern unless you’re creating it yourself.
Allegedly.
September 17th, 2022 at 5:51 PM ^
There are things to cock your eyebrows at. Trente Jones let up another whiff at RT and I had my eyebrow slightly cocked sometimes at the lack of running room for the RBs at times. Plus JJ having to scramble a few times. Maybe its nothing, but the OL definitely didnt look like one of the nation’s best like they were expected to be
September 18th, 2022 at 12:47 AM ^
The Jones issue is real, IMO.
I'm in wait-and-see with some of the running game complaints. Michigan has a *lot* of different running calls, and some of these issues may firm up over time as the players fix little mistakes. One run got stuffed because of a mental error where Zinter and Jones kind of both put a hand on a guy assuming the other would fully engage, and neither did - block that right and the run is fine. A few others didn't have anywhere to go because UConn stopped respecting counters at all after the game got out of hand and Michigan validated that by not seriously trying those counters, resulting in numerical mismatches.
I checked a few of the poor runs on replay and found several cases where the OL blocked their assignments fine but the RBs ate an extra guy firing downhill. These are the sort of things that Michigan has the tools to attack but isn't going to fully deploy when up by 30+.
September 17th, 2022 at 6:58 PM ^
You're very salty today. Im slightly worried about your Saturday demeanor when the team doesnt win by 59 points.
September 17th, 2022 at 3:31 PM ^
September 17th, 2022 at 4:01 PM ^
Didn’t you get banned for posting this crap video 1000x last year?
September 17th, 2022 at 4:08 PM ^
Posting that once warrants a ban in my book. Dreadful.
September 17th, 2022 at 7:40 PM ^
I stopped coming around the blog because of this video. Serious bullshit here.
September 18th, 2022 at 12:10 AM ^
LOL, all these monkey money dance videos are awful. Just stop posting them.
September 17th, 2022 at 3:33 PM ^
WR blocking, YAC is awesome. Offense can be very explosive. Bell is amazing
Stokes and Gash looked like they can get those tough yards. Corum seems to be able to do it all.
OL.had a few busts but overall would love to see them at full strength. I think they will improve as the season goes on.
JJ is incredible. He had a few misses but some of those conversions out of the pocket were awesome. Kid got it. He will be a big weapon against OSU.
Overall, a great game with things to patch up for B1G play.
September 17th, 2022 at 5:52 PM ^
I feel like this is the first time we’ve actually seen speed in space with all the quick passes to Ronnie and Roman to the outside. Not sure If thats a Weiss/Moore vs Gattis thing or its just a ‘finally having a qb who has the arm strength to do that’ thing
September 19th, 2022 at 12:32 PM ^
I was impressed with way Gash ran today. Downhill with bad intent.
September 17th, 2022 at 3:34 PM ^
Not a hot take, just thumbs up with a smile.
September 17th, 2022 at 3:34 PM ^
I have some serious concerns about the OL at this point
We're giving up way too many TFLs and sacks to horrible, horrible defensive teams
Trente Jones looks shaky at pass pro. Ryan Hayes had trouble with really good pass rushers last year. Zinter looks...off at times so far.
I hope its just unfocused play against creampuffs, and we round into shape during the conference slate
September 17th, 2022 at 3:40 PM ^
I must agree. These three games have made me nervous about the offensive line.
September 17th, 2022 at 3:52 PM ^
Poor pass protection and I feel like there was too much penetration in the run game as well. Hopefully it was boredom, but O-Line play was not good against all three opponents. Given poor O-line play killed the 2017 season it would be nice to avoid a repeat.
September 17th, 2022 at 4:01 PM ^
I got ripped in the game thread for calling out the oline. Will they grade well? Probably because it's a pathetic team they just played. But that oline play won't cut it against MSU, PSU and OSU. Flat out.