Western Michigan Snowflakes: The Offense
September 8th, 2018 at 3:22 PM ^
Didn't seem like the backups were worse than the starters at least not to my untrained eyes. I know it's not a lot of snaps but is there any reason not to entertain taking the lumps and replacing our tackles with the backups?
September 8th, 2018 at 3:29 PM ^
Backups looked great in limited play. Not sure if they were against WMU starters though or how much WMU had given up. Still I think the LT position needs to be given to Mayfield or at least let him get more PT next week.
September 8th, 2018 at 3:23 PM ^
Yes, just Western, but looked more in sync than last week, and definitely better than last year's cupcake games. This team's got some real weapons, Shea looks fantastic, hopefully he doesn't continue to have one WTF per game. Western's DEs were small but fast, good to see the OTs stay in front of them. Good to see the interior pave the guys they should. RBs looked better, read blocks better, pressed holes and then cut decisively. Evans looks like Barry Sanders 2.0 out there at times.
September 8th, 2018 at 3:27 PM ^
No one looks like Barry Sanders.
September 8th, 2018 at 3:30 PM ^
The most uniquely incredible player I’ve ever seen in any sport.
September 8th, 2018 at 4:36 PM ^
In team sports, yes.
In his prime, Usain Bolt obliterating the other fastest men in the world on the track created a similar sense of awe.
September 8th, 2018 at 6:03 PM ^
Usain isn’t that unique. Tall for a sprinter, yes. But he isn’t that different. Barry is unique because nobody has ever been able to do anything remotely like he did. Other guys have been fast or powerful or explosive, but the WAY he played is simply different from every other player in history.
September 8th, 2018 at 9:51 PM ^
Totally disagree. Bolt is an absolute physical freak, and completely changed belief/thinking about sprinting.
BS was an amazing runner, and had a unique style; Usain Bolt was an absolutely unique athlete.
From NYT:
"At its most basic, speed is the product of stride length times stride frequency. Though Bolt stands 6 feet 5 inches, he starts nearly as explosively as smaller sprinters and needs only 41 strides to cover 100 meters, while other elite runners need 43 or 45 or even 48."
He also had an unusually unbalanced stride, possibly due to scoliosis, that placed far more force on one stride than the other.
Perhaps Bolt's running doesn't look so unique because he's tearing down the track like every other sprinter, but within the constraints of his event, he is one of the most unique athletes from any sport. No one ever looked like him or ran like him.
September 8th, 2018 at 3:55 PM ^
I had a thought like the OP: Evans looks like Barry if Barry had to slow down when he cut. Evans definitely had that stop/start thing going, but what separated Barry from everyone is it just never seemed like he had to slow down when he was doing it. Everyone else stopped to deal with his change of direction, and he went right by them, like they were playing waist deep in water and he wasn't. Evans doesn't have that. No one has that. But I get the OP's impression of similiarity.
September 8th, 2018 at 4:24 PM ^
Defenses playing waist deep in water against Barry is the perfect analogy. Most impressive, and funnest, RB I've ever watched.
September 8th, 2018 at 4:28 PM ^
Closest I've seen was Darren Sproles...but he had nowhere near the power or acceleration during and after the cut.
September 8th, 2018 at 4:40 PM ^
Agree on Evans. Not to sound like a broken record, but Michigan really needs to get him the ball in space a lot more. He's a great open field runner, that's obvious.
September 8th, 2018 at 5:00 PM ^
He's a case of a RB with talent who gets better with experience. He takes that extra second to survey the LOS and probe for a hole. He looks smooth because he is smooth at this point. And I agree he should get a couple screens and swings a game.
September 8th, 2018 at 8:35 PM ^
Chris Evans wheel route will defeat OSU this year.
September 8th, 2018 at 9:35 PM ^
The closest thing I've ever seen to Barry was Warrick Dunn... And yet the gap was vast. Then maybe Darren Sproles...
September 8th, 2018 at 3:23 PM ^
Unbelievable play by Michigan’s offense today.
-d’marco
September 8th, 2018 at 3:25 PM ^
Demarco was struggling today.
September 8th, 2018 at 3:37 PM ^
Geez man, will all your posts be about Murray ? It’s the first game, relax or stfu or something
September 8th, 2018 at 4:03 PM ^
The announcers were all bad. Hard to stomach the rhetoric and scripted narratives they try to force viewers to believe. Then as it doesn't pan out, and actually is the contrary, its all the disingenuous, tongue-in-cheek BS. This is what sickens me about the culture of this sport.
On the brights side I'm glad we shut those dumb mouths up with our play. Line was so much more cohesive and shifted well (FFFF listed the DEs as danger men) and were noticeably better in pass protection. Great to see those run lanes again and our backs take advantage, gotta do that against Wisy though. Tru looked good, hype might be accurate on that one. McCaffrey is and has always been #2 following the bowl game. Glad more of you are recognizing this also!
September 8th, 2018 at 3:23 PM ^
On the naked boots, there is always an unblocked end. Could we maybe chip them? Maybe run a shuffle pass inside the end?
September 8th, 2018 at 3:29 PM ^
I'd have to see a replay to confirm, but I think the problem is if the TE helps chip that gives the defender an extra second to recover and cover the TE, then the route is dead. Versus if the TE just takes off he's likely to outrun a LB or be open for a bit until a DB can catch up, at least enough for a small gain.
September 8th, 2018 at 3:43 PM ^
You call that play because the DE is crashing down against the run. If he sniffs it out and runs straight upfield it's basically a wasted play. It's one of my least favorite plays. It buys you a +1 like a zone read does, but puts the QB under way more pressure when the DE doesn't do what you want because the QB has his back turned..
September 8th, 2018 at 3:23 PM ^
I missed the game last week, and opted not to watch it after the fact, so this was my first look at Patterson. He sure looks like the real deal. Those passes to Martin on the sideline and DPJ for the TD were big time throws.
September 8th, 2018 at 3:24 PM ^
Fantastic but wonder why we rarely see a fullback right now.
September 8th, 2018 at 3:25 PM ^
Like how they used Mason. Can't forget about him. He just moves people. I think it was Evan's TD run but he got leverage on DE or LB and lifted him off the ground.
September 8th, 2018 at 3:26 PM ^
They did what they should have done. So that is a positive. We probably won't know too much more until Wisconsin.
September 8th, 2018 at 3:40 PM ^
NW defense at least has a pulse. We should learn some about our O that game.
September 8th, 2018 at 5:02 PM ^
I am watching Colorado-Nebraska right now. They look good. Not sure how we are going to keep apatterson from getting killed.
September 8th, 2018 at 3:27 PM ^
Shea is a baller. If he can stay upright he can pick any defense apart. Unfortunately the starting tackles struggled in pass pro against a bad defense. Small sample size but the backup tackles looked much better and obviously have much higher upside. Wonder if they'll continue to get reps so they can potentially start against the meat of the schedule.
September 8th, 2018 at 7:49 PM ^
Yep. That TD to DPJ was beautiful. Shea was running for his life on most pass plays and still had a solid performance.
That being said, the run game really got going today. Yeah, Western has a bad defense, but we ran on them like we should against a D (or lack thereof) like that. Tru Wilson looked very explosive and I wouldn't be surprised to see him get some meaningful carries as the season goes on.
September 8th, 2018 at 3:28 PM ^
Western isn’t good, but this was a blow out game from Michigan that we haven’t seen in a while. They took care of business, played well, and looked good against a bad opponent. That being said, this just confirms in my mind two things:
1. Michigan isn’t as bad as people thought, but is also not the world beater some expected.
2. This is why you should start a season against a weaker opponent. Beating ND with our schedule would have meant very little with our conference tilt. Not trying to make excuses, but since the second half of the ND game the defense has been good and the offense looks better than last year.
All is not lost offensively! We have a QB and a good stable of RBs. The sky isn’t falling.
Man, does winning feel good, it’s been far too long!
September 8th, 2018 at 3:28 PM ^
Was a good thing to see today, but not much you can tell from a bad Western team. We won’t learn much more about this team until probably the Northwestern game.
But after last season, when the offense struggled to put ANYONE away, you’ve got to take today as a step forward. Even if it’s a small one.
September 8th, 2018 at 4:25 PM ^
Northwestern lost to Duke today 21-7.
September 8th, 2018 at 5:13 PM ^
So then we may not learn anything until Wisconsin. Looks like that Northwestern win last week was fool’s gold considering Purdue lost to EMU.
September 8th, 2018 at 3:28 PM ^
If Tru Wilson can pass block, he's going to get much more playing time as the season goes on. He seems to have good burst and he hit the hole hard. I liked what I saw from him in his limited carries.
September 8th, 2018 at 3:38 PM ^
I mean, he looked solid. But, IMO, Higdon and Evans are all big-ten caliber backs. Hard to find many touches for him.
September 8th, 2018 at 3:51 PM ^
Thank you!
September 8th, 2018 at 3:29 PM ^
Today this offense still looked just o.k. Western is not good. Michigan made a bunch of big plays on offense. But it was done by just being bigger and faster than WMU by a wide margin.
Still not seeing anything close to an 'offensive machine' that will be hard for even good teams to slow down.
OTOH, it also looked like the offense could develop into the best offense since JH arrived, or IOW better than the 2016 offense.
Patterson is the real deal. Really encouraging to see him throw accurately on the run, and also spreading the ball to many different receivers (on just 17 attempts).
September 8th, 2018 at 3:32 PM ^
Shea (ohh autocorrect police, again) looked good and showed some more of the arsenal he has in the tool bag. That TD to DPJ, it was very nice. Over all the team did what they should do against a Western MI caliber squad. Looking forward to the next true test a few weeks down the road.
September 8th, 2018 at 3:34 PM ^
Shea Patterson is good. Super excited to see what he brings to the table the rest of the year. With that said, I can see him either making a crucial mistake or getting hurt at some point this season by the way he tries to extend plays.
Offensive line problems do not help.
September 8th, 2018 at 3:41 PM ^
Ben Mason is my Spirit Animal
September 8th, 2018 at 3:49 PM ^
Passing TDs 4tw
September 8th, 2018 at 4:07 PM ^
Still looks like the Tackles are huge liabilities and passing is still going to be difficult. I really hope that this game was to establish the run game and next week we dial it up passing vs SMU. Also, I wouldn't take this game too serious either with the run. Last week Syracuse put up 300 yards running against WMU and we just eclipsed 300 today so hold your breath.
September 8th, 2018 at 4:07 PM ^
Honestly didnt think the offense looked that good. A few chunk plays and some really short fields made for some easy TD's. For the most part, this team really struggled to consistently move the ball and the OL was still bad.
September 8th, 2018 at 4:15 PM ^
Honestly the second team OL looked better in their limited action. I still believe they need to get the young guys in there as soon as possible
September 8th, 2018 at 4:20 PM ^
If you remove Higdon's long run (67 yards) and the long pass (44 yards), we *still* averaged 6.7 yards per play, and scored touchdowns on 5 of our first 6 drives.
Blowout is blowout.
September 8th, 2018 at 5:33 PM ^
Thank you! Some people are never satisfied...
September 8th, 2018 at 4:19 PM ^
Nice to beat a bad team but the pass blocking was still terrible. The tackles aren't cutting it.
September 8th, 2018 at 4:25 PM ^
Shea is a huge step up from the last couple years of QB play. If we had good pass blocking I think this would be one of the top offenses in the B10. As it is, I think we're probably about as good or just a bit worse than our 2016 offense.
September 8th, 2018 at 4:26 PM ^
The first passing TD brought tears to my eyes. What a thing of beauty.