I have a few quick thoughts on Michigan’s extremely exciting win over Minnesota!
1. The story of the day for me was Michigan’s offensive coaching. No game is going to be perfect in terms of the game plan and the coaches’ play calling. Nevertheless, last night’s win featured Michigan doing a number of things that I was hoping we’d do this year – but that I was relatively skeptical that we’d actually see. Here’s the wish list I posted a few days ago (with my level of optimism that it would actually happen in parenthesis):
- Milton a lot more involved in the run game than Patterson was. (6)
UPDATE: CHECK √
He was more involved in the run game by design (clip 1) and also because he was more willing to keep the ball when he was nominally accounted for on a read play (clip 2).
- Way better pocket presence by Milton compared to Patterson (8)
UPDATE: INCOMPLETE
I think every Michigan fan had an ugly flashback to Patterson on Michigan’s first third down, but that was my only complaint about Milton from the entire game. Not bad for his first start.
- Giles Jackson, Mike Sainristil, and Chris Evans used a ton more and not only on jet sweeps. (4)
UPDATE: CHECK √
Okay, we should probably add Blake Corum and AJ Henning to that list of players. Michigan did a way better job than last year of getting the ball to its speed in space guys in space.
- More screen passes. (4)
UPDATE: CHECK √
- More big plays from the RBs (6)
UPDATE: CHECK √
- Offensive coaching that reminds me of the end the second half of 2019 and not the first half (7)
UPDATE: CHECK√
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=497 … I only included one video clip here but almost the whole game was encouraging in this regard
- Effective offensive coaching along the lines of what Gattis advertised as his system – RPOs, motion, defenders running the wrong way, lots of reads in the run game, lots of screens, lots of deep passes (4)
UPDATE: CHECK √
This is the area of the check list where Gattis/Harbaugh/Warriner really hit a home run.
- Motion sending defenders the wrong way – CHECK √
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=290
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=413
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=497
- Reads in the run game – CHECK √
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=270
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=413
- Lots of screens – CHECK √
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=279
- Better RPOs than last year – CHECK √
https://youtu.be/7te8y5ba4Gg?t=177
(oops… that’s a video of Denard to Roy Roundtree. Michigan ran a play a lot like this that didn’t make the highlight video because All dropped what would’ve been a sure TD :/ )
- Lots of deep passes – NO (coming soon, hopefully)
- Offensive coaching that makes me think Harbaugh is still great at developing QBs (4)
UPDATE: INCOMPLETE
A solid first game from Milton, though.
- One more thing that I didn’t officially put on the wish list but did mention in my “article:”
Ben Mason involved on offense – at fullback or H-back, not tailback (tailback is a total waste of his skill set) – CHECK √√√
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=55
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=198
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=319
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=480
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=504
I also just liked that Michigan ran plays that seemed to complement each other well. Last year it was mind boggling early in the year to see Gattis calling arch-read from time to time but almost never using split-zone – the play that arch read is basically faking to try to spring the QB into space. Later in the year, we started using those two plays to complement each other which makes each play more effective. Last night, we threw in a pass play that looks like arch read or split zone but instead the H-back, who the defense thinks is going to be a blocker, leaks out into the flat. It worked beautifully on Mason’s TD and we ran something similar a number of times.
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=198
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=394
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=420
We also had our guards pulling on some of our play action passing plays, which I don’t remember a lot of from past years, which makes our pass plays look more like run plays to the defense.
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=263
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=538
2. I’m almost giddy about what I saw from Michigan’s offensive coaching in this game. Hopefully we keep building on the great stuff that we saw last night and Michigan has great offense this season. I am NOT saying that my expectations for our offensive ranking at the end of the year are drastically changed based on one game. But I am just thrilled that for the first time since Rich Rod was coach it looks like we might have an actual offensive system in place that stresses the defense in a number of ways and takes advantage of our offensive talent. That could be a game changer for our program long-term – a “Happy learned how to putt” moment if you will.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ_7dERUU7E
3. How good is Minnesota? I don’t know. They looked pretty bad. With that said, out of Minnesota, Indiana, and Nebraska, I think that pretty much everyone would’ve said before yesterday that Minnesota was by far the toughest opponent of those three teams, and we arguably handled them with more ease than OSU and PSU handled (or didn’t handle) their respective opponents. I actually thought that Minnesota was a bit of a paper tiger coming into this game, but they were still a ranked team that finished last year 11-2 and #13 in SP+. They also came into this game ranked #16 in SP+, albeit without having played an actual game.
4. My cousin texted me that Michigan’s defense was “sneaky good” and I would more or less agree with that assessment. I was hoping that we would dominate the line of scrimmage much more than we did, given that Minnesota was down a couple of offensive linemen. It did not feel like 99% of Michigan wins during the Don Brown era have felt – where we make the other team fight tooth and nail for every yard they get. And yet, at the end of the day, here was Minnesota’s drive chart:
***4 scoring drives:
- a 2-play, 17-yard drive after the blocked punt
- an 11-play 79 yard FG drive… aided by a 45 yard completion that should’ve been offensive interference https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=126
- a 10-play, 75-yard TD drive
- an 11-play, 71-yard TD drive)
***3 three and outs
***2 turnovers – an INT and a fumble – on drives that failed to gain a first down – one for a defensive TD by Michigan
***A 7-play, 14-yard drive for a punt
***A 10-play, 17-yard drive for a punt
***A 9-play 78-yard drive ending in turnover on downs
That’s not bad against last year’s #7 SP+ offense, returning its star QB, its star WR, a stud running back, and 3/5 of it’s o-line even with a couple of linemen out.
I was hoping our DTs and CBs would look a little bit better. This wasn’t necessarily a game that made me think we’re going to shut down OSU, Wisconsin, PSU, and Indiana. But this also wasn’t a game that has me ready to push the panic button on defense. At the very least, it’s worth waiting and seeing how Minnesota’s offense does against some other opponents before making very many negative assumptions about our defense. If Minnesota even has a top-20 offense, then this was a pretty good performance by our D.
Looking at national statistical rankings is weird when Michigan has played one game and some other teams have played as many as 6 games. But, it’s at least fun to note that Michigan currently leads the nation in yards per play on offense – having averaged 8.6 yards per play in our first game. Michigan’s defense is also tied for #7 in the nation in yards per played allowed, which is not bad considering that Minnesota, at minimum, should have a solid offense this year. That’s not to say that Michigan is necessarily going to have a top ten offense or defense at the end of the year, although it’s certainly a possibility. But anyone complaining a lot about our defense in this game probably doesn’t appreciate how well our defense performed statistically against an offense that was predicted by SP+ to be the 10th best offense in the country.
5. It’s fun to look back on a few of the key plays from this win. For me, if I had to choose one key play from this game, it would be the TD run by Charbonnet to level the score at 7-7.
A couple of huge mistakes had put us in a 7-0 hole even though we had been moving the ball pretty well before Ben Mason’s penalty on the first drive. If we hadn’t responded with a TD, every single mistake from there on out would've felt somewhat backbreaking unless we eventually clawed our way a comfortable lead. Instead, we erased two huge errors in one play and got back to square one, when the opening sequence had been a recipe for disaster: a promising drive turned into a punt turned into an easy opportunity for Minnesota turned into a 7-0 deficit on the road against a top-25 foe. If you believed the line at the time - only a few points - one gifted TD could've been the difference between a win and a loss. The TD by Charbonnet assuaged my fears greatly.
Aside from Charbonnet’s long TD run, Taylor Upshaw’s amazing tackle of Ibrahim where he ran him down from behind and tackled him at the 1 was extremely noteworthy. I don’t remember ever seeing a bulky looking d-linemen make a play like that in the open field. At the time, I thought that Minnesota was surely going to score the next play, but I was still admiring what a great play Upshaw had made. Instead, Minnesota went backwards, eventually settling for a field goal and Upshaw’s amazing tackle saved Michigan 4 points.
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=149
6. It’s hard to draw a lot of conclusions about Milton from one game, but I thought he looked competent. He only egregiously bailed on a clean pocket once. He seemed to make good decisions in the run game. He got the ball out quickly on pass plays. For a first game as a starting QB, for a guy who has always been very raw, this was a great first step. Hopefully he improves a lot as the season goes on. If someone had offered me this performance by Milton going into last night’s game, I would’ve taken that performance 10 times out of 10.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHfXxzFhJHc
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=263
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=341
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=497
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=538
7. I’m obviously thrilled that we ended up winning handily in a game that was supposed to be extremely competitive. At this point I’m just really hoping that MSU doesn’t suffer a Covid outbreak this week – intentional or otherwise – because I really want to see this team in action next Saturday, putting a beating on Michigan State. Sidenote: MSU is terrible but probably not quite as bad as people think. Losing 5 fumbles in a game isn’t the sort of thing that happens very often, and MSU was better than Rutgers in first downs and yards. I’m not saying that MSU is good. I’m just saying that, while we’d all love to beat them 78-0 or maybe 100-0, we probably shouldn’t be disappointed if the score line isn’t quite as lopsided a both fan bases seem to be predicting.
8. Not to nitpick, but I was not a fan of the 3-3-5 on defense on standard downs (for people not paying close attention – that wasn’t our main defensive formation on standard downs but we did run it a number of times). I get that Michigan doesn’t have a ton of quality depth at DT. If you want to lift Hinton or Jeter from time to time to run the 3-3-5, as a way of relying on those guys a little bit less since they’re both still kind of proving themselves, I guess I get that. But in this game, there were a few times I noticed we were lifting Kemp – our best interior lineman – to bring in 250 lb Van Sumeran to hopefully eat up one blocker. Just leave Kemp in and he matches up way better with any blocker they can throw at him. I guess I just don’t really get that specific package.
9. Tough game for Jake Moody. If he really outplayed Nordin by a lot in camp, I’d stick with him because all of those misses were only about a yard off target. That’s a little bit unlucky. It’s nice, though, that we have two quality options at kicker if Moody continues to struggle.
Thanks to anyone who read this. Go Blue!!!!
1. The story of the day for me was Michigan’s offensive coaching. No game is going to be perfect in terms of the game plan and the coaches’ play calling. Nevertheless, last night’s win featured Michigan doing a number of things that I was hoping we’d do this year – but that I was relatively skeptical that we’d actually see. Here’s the wish list I posted a few days ago (with my level of optimism that it would actually happen in parenthesis):
- Milton a lot more involved in the run game than Patterson was. (6)
UPDATE: CHECK √
He was more involved in the run game by design (clip 1) and also because he was more willing to keep the ball when he was nominally accounted for on a read play (clip 2).
- Way better pocket presence by Milton compared to Patterson (8)
UPDATE: INCOMPLETE
I think every Michigan fan had an ugly flashback to Patterson on Michigan’s first third down, but that was my only complaint about Milton from the entire game. Not bad for his first start.
- Giles Jackson, Mike Sainristil, and Chris Evans used a ton more and not only on jet sweeps. (4)
UPDATE: CHECK √
Okay, we should probably add Blake Corum and AJ Henning to that list of players. Michigan did a way better job than last year of getting the ball to its speed in space guys in space.
- More screen passes. (4)
UPDATE: CHECK √
- More big plays from the RBs (6)
UPDATE: CHECK √
- Offensive coaching that reminds me of the end the second half of 2019 and not the first half (7)
UPDATE: CHECK√
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=497 … I only included one video clip here but almost the whole game was encouraging in this regard
- Effective offensive coaching along the lines of what Gattis advertised as his system – RPOs, motion, defenders running the wrong way, lots of reads in the run game, lots of screens, lots of deep passes (4)
UPDATE: CHECK √
This is the area of the check list where Gattis/Harbaugh/Warriner really hit a home run.
- Motion sending defenders the wrong way – CHECK √
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=290
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=413
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=497
- Reads in the run game – CHECK √
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=270
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=413
- Lots of screens – CHECK √
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=279
- Better RPOs than last year – CHECK √
https://youtu.be/7te8y5ba4Gg?t=177
(oops… that’s a video of Denard to Roy Roundtree. Michigan ran a play a lot like this that didn’t make the highlight video because All dropped what would’ve been a sure TD :/ )
- Lots of deep passes – NO (coming soon, hopefully)
- Offensive coaching that makes me think Harbaugh is still great at developing QBs (4)
UPDATE: INCOMPLETE
A solid first game from Milton, though.
- One more thing that I didn’t officially put on the wish list but did mention in my “article:”
Ben Mason involved on offense – at fullback or H-back, not tailback (tailback is a total waste of his skill set) – CHECK √√√
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=55
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=198
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=319
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=480
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=504
I also just liked that Michigan ran plays that seemed to complement each other well. Last year it was mind boggling early in the year to see Gattis calling arch-read from time to time but almost never using split-zone – the play that arch read is basically faking to try to spring the QB into space. Later in the year, we started using those two plays to complement each other which makes each play more effective. Last night, we threw in a pass play that looks like arch read or split zone but instead the H-back, who the defense thinks is going to be a blocker, leaks out into the flat. It worked beautifully on Mason’s TD and we ran something similar a number of times.
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=198
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=394
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=420
We also had our guards pulling on some of our play action passing plays, which I don’t remember a lot of from past years, which makes our pass plays look more like run plays to the defense.
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=263
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=538
2. I’m almost giddy about what I saw from Michigan’s offensive coaching in this game. Hopefully we keep building on the great stuff that we saw last night and Michigan has great offense this season. I am NOT saying that my expectations for our offensive ranking at the end of the year are drastically changed based on one game. But I am just thrilled that for the first time since Rich Rod was coach it looks like we might have an actual offensive system in place that stresses the defense in a number of ways and takes advantage of our offensive talent. That could be a game changer for our program long-term – a “Happy learned how to putt” moment if you will.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ_7dERUU7E
3. How good is Minnesota? I don’t know. They looked pretty bad. With that said, out of Minnesota, Indiana, and Nebraska, I think that pretty much everyone would’ve said before yesterday that Minnesota was by far the toughest opponent of those three teams, and we arguably handled them with more ease than OSU and PSU handled (or didn’t handle) their respective opponents. I actually thought that Minnesota was a bit of a paper tiger coming into this game, but they were still a ranked team that finished last year 11-2 and #13 in SP+. They also came into this game ranked #16 in SP+, albeit without having played an actual game.
4. My cousin texted me that Michigan’s defense was “sneaky good” and I would more or less agree with that assessment. I was hoping that we would dominate the line of scrimmage much more than we did, given that Minnesota was down a couple of offensive linemen. It did not feel like 99% of Michigan wins during the Don Brown era have felt – where we make the other team fight tooth and nail for every yard they get. And yet, at the end of the day, here was Minnesota’s drive chart:
***4 scoring drives:
- a 2-play, 17-yard drive after the blocked punt
- an 11-play 79 yard FG drive… aided by a 45 yard completion that should’ve been offensive interference https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=126
- a 10-play, 75-yard TD drive
- an 11-play, 71-yard TD drive)
***3 three and outs
***2 turnovers – an INT and a fumble – on drives that failed to gain a first down – one for a defensive TD by Michigan
***A 7-play, 14-yard drive for a punt
***A 10-play, 17-yard drive for a punt
***A 9-play 78-yard drive ending in turnover on downs
That’s not bad against last year’s #7 SP+ offense, returning its star QB, its star WR, a stud running back, and 3/5 of it’s o-line even with a couple of linemen out.
I was hoping our DTs and CBs would look a little bit better. This wasn’t necessarily a game that made me think we’re going to shut down OSU, Wisconsin, PSU, and Indiana. But this also wasn’t a game that has me ready to push the panic button on defense. At the very least, it’s worth waiting and seeing how Minnesota’s offense does against some other opponents before making very many negative assumptions about our defense. If Minnesota even has a top-20 offense, then this was a pretty good performance by our D.
Looking at national statistical rankings is weird when Michigan has played one game and some other teams have played as many as 6 games. But, it’s at least fun to note that Michigan currently leads the nation in yards per play on offense – having averaged 8.6 yards per play in our first game. Michigan’s defense is also tied for #7 in the nation in yards per played allowed, which is not bad considering that Minnesota, at minimum, should have a solid offense this year. That’s not to say that Michigan is necessarily going to have a top ten offense or defense at the end of the year, although it’s certainly a possibility. But anyone complaining a lot about our defense in this game probably doesn’t appreciate how well our defense performed statistically against an offense that was predicted by SP+ to be the 10th best offense in the country.
5. It’s fun to look back on a few of the key plays from this win. For me, if I had to choose one key play from this game, it would be the TD run by Charbonnet to level the score at 7-7.
A couple of huge mistakes had put us in a 7-0 hole even though we had been moving the ball pretty well before Ben Mason’s penalty on the first drive. If we hadn’t responded with a TD, every single mistake from there on out would've felt somewhat backbreaking unless we eventually clawed our way a comfortable lead. Instead, we erased two huge errors in one play and got back to square one, when the opening sequence had been a recipe for disaster: a promising drive turned into a punt turned into an easy opportunity for Minnesota turned into a 7-0 deficit on the road against a top-25 foe. If you believed the line at the time - only a few points - one gifted TD could've been the difference between a win and a loss. The TD by Charbonnet assuaged my fears greatly.
Aside from Charbonnet’s long TD run, Taylor Upshaw’s amazing tackle of Ibrahim where he ran him down from behind and tackled him at the 1 was extremely noteworthy. I don’t remember ever seeing a bulky looking d-linemen make a play like that in the open field. At the time, I thought that Minnesota was surely going to score the next play, but I was still admiring what a great play Upshaw had made. Instead, Minnesota went backwards, eventually settling for a field goal and Upshaw’s amazing tackle saved Michigan 4 points.
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=149
6. It’s hard to draw a lot of conclusions about Milton from one game, but I thought he looked competent. He only egregiously bailed on a clean pocket once. He seemed to make good decisions in the run game. He got the ball out quickly on pass plays. For a first game as a starting QB, for a guy who has always been very raw, this was a great first step. Hopefully he improves a lot as the season goes on. If someone had offered me this performance by Milton going into last night’s game, I would’ve taken that performance 10 times out of 10.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHfXxzFhJHc
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=263
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=341
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=497
https://youtu.be/JHfXxzFhJHc?t=538
7. I’m obviously thrilled that we ended up winning handily in a game that was supposed to be extremely competitive. At this point I’m just really hoping that MSU doesn’t suffer a Covid outbreak this week – intentional or otherwise – because I really want to see this team in action next Saturday, putting a beating on Michigan State. Sidenote: MSU is terrible but probably not quite as bad as people think. Losing 5 fumbles in a game isn’t the sort of thing that happens very often, and MSU was better than Rutgers in first downs and yards. I’m not saying that MSU is good. I’m just saying that, while we’d all love to beat them 78-0 or maybe 100-0, we probably shouldn’t be disappointed if the score line isn’t quite as lopsided a both fan bases seem to be predicting.
8. Not to nitpick, but I was not a fan of the 3-3-5 on defense on standard downs (for people not paying close attention – that wasn’t our main defensive formation on standard downs but we did run it a number of times). I get that Michigan doesn’t have a ton of quality depth at DT. If you want to lift Hinton or Jeter from time to time to run the 3-3-5, as a way of relying on those guys a little bit less since they’re both still kind of proving themselves, I guess I get that. But in this game, there were a few times I noticed we were lifting Kemp – our best interior lineman – to bring in 250 lb Van Sumeran to hopefully eat up one blocker. Just leave Kemp in and he matches up way better with any blocker they can throw at him. I guess I just don’t really get that specific package.
9. Tough game for Jake Moody. If he really outplayed Nordin by a lot in camp, I’d stick with him because all of those misses were only about a yard off target. That’s a little bit unlucky. It’s nice, though, that we have two quality options at kicker if Moody continues to struggle.
Thanks to anyone who read this. Go Blue!!!!
