UFR POSBANG!

Submitted by 1VaBlue1 on October 28th, 2020 at 11:24 AM

So it's finally a Wednesday after a game - a HUGE win.  That means we're expecting a UFR today!  It's been so long that I don't recall if this will be offensive or defensive.  If it's defense, we'll learn how Don Brown's defense held one of last years better offenses to a handful of non-threatening points and irrelevant yards.  And that's the bad news UFR this week!!!!  What a change in perspective that is after the last few years, right?!!?

The offensive UFR will just be fun.  FUN.

stephenrjking

October 28th, 2020 at 11:30 AM ^

UFRs are great. Early in the year even a UFR of a questionable side of the field is useful, as we don't have a clear picture of how things look yet. So I am looking forward to the defensive UFR quite a bit; in certain seasons the deficiencies on one side of the ball make UFRs later in the year less interesting, when you basically know it's going to be bad and who the problem is. Though I still check it out.

Obviously, I'm eager to see how of the offense rates. But early on I'm interested in the DT performance (my impression: not awful, not great, basically irrelevant) and whether I was right that Gemon Green looks really good and Hawkins looks pretty bad. And I want to see how the DEs add up, actually kind of a question given how often they were eating double teams on those line shifts Seth discussed in the Neck Sharpie column. 

On offense? I want all of it. Of course. Even if Minnesota's defense is as bad as I think it is. 

IndyBlue90

October 28th, 2020 at 11:32 AM ^

Does anyone else do a watch-through the game before the UFRs come out and kind of try to figure out what you think is happening so that you can compare to Brian's notes? 

stephenrjking

October 28th, 2020 at 11:43 AM ^

A bunch of guys, including me, have watched through the Minnesota game, so you can see some of those thoughts. I have a diary still on the FP, and if you dig into the board you'll find a "full game video" thread where several people made observations. Not every week, though; the first game always has a lot more to explore, since we're seeing this year's team for the first time. 

The job Brian does analyzing and grading is peerless, and it is also time-consuming. And, since he tells you exactly why he grades things the way he does, it's easy enough to see the same stuff for myself if I question it. 

IndyBlue90

October 28th, 2020 at 11:47 AM ^

I absolutely agree. It is incredibly detailed and thoughtfully explained. It is what inspired me to start looking closer and trying to decided why a play ended up like it did. 

I teach music history and theory at a medium sized university and I always tell my students that the explanation is often more important than the right answer. I think UFR has that quality. Even the times I disagree with Brian's assessments I can see the rationale and at least see what he saw. 

reshp1

October 28th, 2020 at 11:50 AM ^

I do. I expect some takeaways to be:

DTs were actually ok. Issues were often LBs and S not filling behind them on slants. 

Barrett was not as good as initial watch. Had obviously very highlight worthy plays, but lots of bad ones too.

There was *a lot* of holding that went uncalled from Minn. 

Run blocking was elite. The crispness of execution and identification was as good as I've seen. OL, Mason, and All will all have high marks. 

stephenrjking

October 28th, 2020 at 12:16 PM ^

You've mentioned the Barrett issue a couple of times, I never saw what you did. I did, however, see a lot of what appeared to me to be RPS issues where guys like Barrett were matched up on OLs that put them at a disadvantage. Seth pointed out one RPS situation I noticed in that slack post--the run Upshaw stopped just short of the goal line was set up by a DT stunt that left Minnie OLs free to truck LBs. Other frequent situations would see Hutch or Paye eating a double team while an LB wound up getting blocked on the line by a tackle, counting on a fill from a DB that, uh, didn't always do the job well. 

I suppose we'll see. Seth seemed to agree with you in Sharpies that one of the reasons Minnesota ran so well is that Michigan chose to give them those numbers. Maybe we find out if that holds up.

 

stephenrjking

October 28th, 2020 at 2:18 PM ^

It's amazing how quickly people have forgotten how brilliant Peppers was at the Viper job. Unless he was eating guard blocks in the middle of the defense due to scheme, he was dominant. People argued, strenuously, that Hudson was just as good... and it never happened. Doesn't make Hudson or Barrett bad, but Peppers is as good of an athlete as Michigan has had since Carr left. 

Wouldn't surprise me to find that Barrett has work to do; frankly, I'm just delighted that we appear to have a competent guy in the spot, as it's no sure thing and it's a pretty important role in this defense. 

1VaBlue1

October 28th, 2020 at 2:29 PM ^

One of the most fun things I've ever watched an opposition offense do was seeing a screen play develop when Peppers was on the field.  The anticipation of the passing target being obliterated was a slow buildup with a resounding 'jump off the couch' finish!  If there was ever one constant on a football field, it was Jabril Peppers annihilating some hapless pass catcher on a screen pass.

Gawd, those were so much fun...

BigSi

October 28th, 2020 at 3:20 PM ^

I agree with this take.

Watching live I felt like Minn's success was due to poor interior D-line play.

However, on a detailed re-watch the D-line held up well. Most of the yards on the ground were due to poor fills from LBs, some run support issues from S, or from scheme (3-3-5).

I played DL at a DIII school so I feel pretty confident in my review of our DL. Less so on LB/S play.

I am interested if UFR agrees with my take on James Ross. Despite having several tackles and a great interception I felt like he made several mistakes by shooting/slanting into the backfield instead of flowing across the field...this resulted in him running behind and missing the RB instead of tackling at 2-3 yards. It is possible that this was scheme, but I tend to think these were over-aggressive errors that will get cleaned up.

Rafiki

October 28th, 2020 at 12:43 PM ^

I watch on Sunday mornings. Even loses (minus osu although I’ve come back to a couple of them later). 
 

I’m too emotional during game to really pay attention to detail. As someone else mentioned the UFRs still do a much better job of seeing the entire play and putting them in context of the whole game. But I do get a sense of what happened and who played well which usually aligns with UFR grades. 

tspoon

October 28th, 2020 at 12:44 PM ^

BotP was one of my favorites as a little kid.  I tried showing it to my sons (with a little bit of hype) ... it fell flat pretty quickly with them.  7 Zark 7 has not aged well, and the Keyop/Tiny thing was just weird.  The plots are incredibly repetitive from episode to episode ... I think they got through five or six shows and begged off.

A little bit of my youth died that day.

Trivia note: yes, that was Detroit’s own Casey Kasem lending his voice as Mark, the leader.

Champeen

October 28th, 2020 at 12:05 PM ^

I am curious in regards to Filiaga IMO he should have been named a top 3 player with Barrett and Milton.

Paye and Hutch were expected to dominate, especially considering they were going against a high school tackle ranked 1000 coming out of high school.

 

 

xtramelanin

October 28th, 2020 at 4:04 PM ^

i think the answer to your question is 'yes'.  we farm-kill the animals, load them into trucks, take them to a USDA licensed facility, zip them out of their suits, quarter them, then hang them in the cooler for a week or two for aging.

we go back and cut/package to order and people come and pick them up. for instance, mgohillbilly is scheduled to come out and pick up his half-cow in november.  

 

rc15

October 28th, 2020 at 12:12 PM ^

I care most about the RPS scores. We played some young guys on D, I’m not too worried if they made mistakes. I want to confirm the eye-ball test that they out-schemed/coached Minnesota.