Nobody is a bigger fan of Coach Schembechler than I was. He revived Michigan football at a time when it needed reviving. I thought Jim Harbaugh was going to be the reincarnation of Bo. In some ways he is. But Bo was wrong about his comments on passing the football. He said that when you throw the football, three things can happen and two of them are bad. Not only is that pessimistic, it's incorrect. When you throw the ball, five things can happen and three of them are good. Sure, the pass can be incomplete or be intercepted, that's the bad. But in modern college football the average completion percentage for starting QB's is somewhere around 57%. I'm guessing at this next stat but it seems that interceptions happen about 3% of the time in College football (I know this number is around 2% for the average NFL QB). The three good things that can happen on passes is that you can complete the pass (more often than not) draw a pass interference call (more calls on this than interceptions made), and/or make Linebackers and Safeties take a step backward when defending the run.
Why do I bring this up? Because I rewatched the Rutgers game and specifically slowed down the plays so I watch the line play to see who was underperforming and/or what the defense was doing to stuff our run plays. What I saw was that our line did a pretty job. Unfortunately, Rutgers had 8 or 9 guys crashing the LOS on every play. They completely disregarded the passing game. That's why the crossing routes in the first half went for so much yardage. They were in man defense the whole game with the safety on the action side of the ball crashing down on every play. 7 guys can't block 9 guys no matter how good they are. The deep passing game was open. The deep middle passing game was open. Hooks in the middle of the field were open. The edges were open because there was only one defender out there and they also crashed A LOT. We threw zero deep passes. We ran one outside run (for 10 yards) and never went back to it. Hill was so open on one middle hook up that he stood there waiting to get tackled but no one was home so he gained about 25 yards. Another thing that has to change. Our receiver telegraphed every running play by jogging out to their blocking assignments. The safeties were sprinting toward the line of scrimmage because there was such as obvious difference on the receivers get off on passing plays.
I think we all understand the value of establishing the run. But sometimes you have to make defenses pay for selling their souls to the devil. Wisconsin watched the film of this game. OSU, MSU, and PSU will watch the film on this game. When observers talk about coaching adjustments, taking advantage of what is coming is what they mean. I think Cade is capable enough. It's clear Michigan has talent and a handful of quality playmakers. Now we just need elite level play calling and game planning.
Why do I bring this up? Because I rewatched the Rutgers game and specifically slowed down the plays so I watch the line play to see who was underperforming and/or what the defense was doing to stuff our run plays. What I saw was that our line did a pretty job. Unfortunately, Rutgers had 8 or 9 guys crashing the LOS on every play. They completely disregarded the passing game. That's why the crossing routes in the first half went for so much yardage. They were in man defense the whole game with the safety on the action side of the ball crashing down on every play. 7 guys can't block 9 guys no matter how good they are. The deep passing game was open. The deep middle passing game was open. Hooks in the middle of the field were open. The edges were open because there was only one defender out there and they also crashed A LOT. We threw zero deep passes. We ran one outside run (for 10 yards) and never went back to it. Hill was so open on one middle hook up that he stood there waiting to get tackled but no one was home so he gained about 25 yards. Another thing that has to change. Our receiver telegraphed every running play by jogging out to their blocking assignments. The safeties were sprinting toward the line of scrimmage because there was such as obvious difference on the receivers get off on passing plays.
I think we all understand the value of establishing the run. But sometimes you have to make defenses pay for selling their souls to the devil. Wisconsin watched the film of this game. OSU, MSU, and PSU will watch the film on this game. When observers talk about coaching adjustments, taking advantage of what is coming is what they mean. I think Cade is capable enough. It's clear Michigan has talent and a handful of quality playmakers. Now we just need elite level play calling and game planning.
