Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Wolverine Wednesday: Moving On From Army

It's Wednesday and I've have had enough of what the Wolverines did or didn't do last weekend.  As a famous former Ann Arbor resident said, lets "Turn the Page" and talk about some needed improvements during the bye week.

Let's talk about DPJ and Jon Runyan.   I believe both have been sorely missed during the first two games.  Yes, Ryan Hayes has played well and so have other WR's.  The biggest need is at punt returner where its been a bit of a wild ride while DPJ is out.   It will be interesting what happens to Jalen Mayfield's spot when Jon comes back.  Does Ryan Hayes move over to Right Tackle?

This week and next, I'm sure they will be working on ball security and have Shea make quicker decisions when passing.   MTSU QB's got the ball out quickly which gave Michigan's defense trouble at times.   The other thing Shea will have to improve at, is getting the hot route identified during a blitz.  This is a big difference between college and NFL offenses.  In the NFL, if you continuedly blitz a top tier QB, they will pick you apart.  In college, the QB's are inexperienced and have a tendency to get rattled.  That is why Don Bown's defense works 80% of the time, but when you have time to prepare for it like OSU, Florida, and MTSU you can game plan around it.

Michigan now needs to do the same, the film is out that MTSU and Army have flustered Shea with the blitz.   That he is holding the ball too long, looking for the home run ball, and there is an opportunity to strip the ball.   The offense needs to get the ball out quick the next two weeks.

The last thing Michigan offense needs is a power look.  When you hand off to a RB in the shotgun it automatically becomes a draw play.  So when Michigan has 3rd and two and wants to get it on the ground, they are running a draw play.   That play takes too long when everyone knows your running.  Now the defense has a chance to run blitz and you saw Michigan get blow up consistently on 3rd and 4th downs against Army.    Put Shea under center and how about putting Ben Mason in the backfield and run a little power.   We don't need to see this play on any other down then goal line, 3rd or 4th down and short.  Charbonnet of course can run it, but it seems Ben was very successful last season running that play and has been struggling at DT.   I'm not looking to kill Speed in Space, just adding a power look to it.

Don says, "Michigan can now get back to Michigan Defense" which I can understand as the first two weeks had strange offenses.   Michigan is going to face the best RB in the county in two Saturday's and will need a good game plan to stop him.   They did last year but have recently struggled against top RB's on the road (@PSU and Barkley).  I think the 3-3-5 is an over reaction to the OSU game, yes Michigan needs to be able to run it, but I still believe another DT is needed against running teams to jam up the middle and stop the running game.

The other reason Don is running the 3-3-5 is so he can get Uche and Glasgow on the field together.   Both players are hybrids and don't really have natural positions.   Uche is Michigan's best pass rusher and Glasgow might be the Wolverines smartest defensive player.   Those statements are 100% true but they also can be neutralized against a talented 300 pound offensive lineman.  Play Kemp and Jeter (or Dwumfour if healthy) together on 1st and 2nd down and put Wisconsin's offense in 3rd and long, then run the 3-3-5.

  • Zach Charbonnet was named BIG 10 Freshman of the Week 

  • Michigan's defense held Army's offense to its lowest yard total since 2015

  • For some reason Nico Collins only had 3 targets against Army, which is way too low. 

  • Bill Connelly is now at ESPN (from SB Nation) and beaks down college football like it should be.  His box scores are full of good content.  Michigan's offense success rate was Q1 = 47%, Q2 = 63%, Q3 = 40%, Q4 = 32%.   That 2nd half success rate is horrific.   He also removes stats in garbage time, last weeks game didn't have garbage time. :-(

1 comment:

Cormac said...

>Put Shea under center and how about putting Ben Mason in the backfield and run a little power. We don't need to see this play on any other down then goal line, 3rd or 4th down and short. Charbonnet, of course, can run it, but it seems Ben was very successful last season running that play and has been struggling at DT. I'm not looking to kill Speed in Space, just adding a power look to it.

I agree totally. I didn't think that you had to totally abandon last year's offensive system. You could have merged it with the best (possible) of the "speed in space" system. I don't think that there no need to go totally under center or totally in the shotgun. Get something that Shea is comfortable with. I have been advocating bringing Ben Mason back to the offense when needed which would mostly be short-yardage situations although I don't think that he would make a half-bad running back.