ND 24, Michigan 17

[Whitley]

There is no depth on O-Line. Driving home from work I was thinking about this one thing and maybe I am being too simplistic here. IF Newsome had not gotten hurt he would be the starting LT right now and how much difference would that make for Michigan right now. Now at the very least you would have Runyan (most likely) at the RT or maybe JBB.

Would Newsome @LT made this O-Line at least average in Big Ten standards?

[WM Wolverine]

Newsome is the solution to one of the pass protections four, five problems.

[WM Wolverine]

Answer to the question is no, at least on Saturday. Every single OL was giving up pressure and/or missing blocks in the running game. Credit goes to NDs front seven as they are really good.

[UMStan White]

"He (Wimbush) was average after that in the face of a very aggressive pressure D that didn't give up big plays."

Yeah giving up 22 yards on a Wimbush draw up the middle on a 3rd and 18 isn't giving up a big play.

"UM held Notre Dame to 64 yards in the second half."

Yeah wow! That's great for a defense that gave up a 96 YARD DRIVE in the first quarter while already trailing!

As I said, did you watch the same game as the rest of us?

[paul daugherity]

It is amazing to me that the Harbaugh era in year 4 has played out the way it has. The fanbase is dividing in a way similar to what happened under Hoke. It is crazy. I don't know exactly why it has happened, but Harbaugh has been an utter disappointment.

[WingsFan]

"He (Wimbush) was average after that in the face of a very aggressive pressure D that didn't give up big plays."

Yeah giving up 22 yards on a Wimbush draw up the middle on a 3rd and 18 isn't giving up a big play.

"UM held Notre Dame to 64 yards in the second half."

Yeah wow! That's great for a defense that gave up a 96 YARD DRIVE in the first quarter while already trailing!

As I said, did you watch the same game as the rest of us?

I did Stan, your right about everything. Totally unprepared again, no excuses - fish rots from the head down - program is a joke - Im surprised this thread is even open as this point? b/c you know - Jeff wants to talk Western!


We will more than likely be 5-1 with Wiscy coming to town. Might as well enjoy the mirage until then.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Just watched one of those condensed video versions of every defensive and offensive play for both ND and M. This is what stood out to me and my eye is not as well trained as Brian's is when he does his UFRs, so take this for what it's worth.

On the majority of snaps on offense Patterson was in the gun. Patterson went under center when M went to it's heavy 21 sets (2 TEs and 1 RB). I only saw this in the RZ and on short yardage.

There were a lot more 3 and 4 WR sets, a couple Trips but more spread than I thought there was from watching the game live. A lot more.

ND didn't do anything tricky on pass coverage. They played a lot more zone than they did man but their zone coverage, from what I could see on the TV video (the same one I watched live), was extremely well executed with Ss getting great positioning in the middle zone and the LBs covering the short zones well. If Shea had long ball options, it looks like he didn't take them. You can't see the deep coverage on video or live unless there is a replay but you sure can't see it developing like the QB can see or should see. If there is a piece to this offense that is missing, it is the long ball option. Maybe Shea was told not to go deep if ND was in Zone and most of the day they were. I think that is a bad approach. Gun it up there and let your receivers go up and get it.

The play calls included what appeared to me to be a lot of RPOs.

Either it was a set play or Patterson missed a couple of reads on the RPO giving the ball to Higdon instead of pulling it and going for the pass. He also missed what looked like open receivers on some of the RPOs unless he had a single read and I don't think he does. McCaffrey did have just one read to make on his pass plays.

Higdon looked like he rushed into places he wasn't supposed to go to and the hole was on the opposite side than where he ran. This kind of thing is hard to pick-up. Brian does a much better job at that than I could hope to do. When he hit the hole and got to the second level, he was hard to bring down. ND S play was excellent in stopping big run plays that Higdon is very capable of breaking.

Stunts are still a problem and ND ran a lot of them. This should be no surprise in that in 2017 it was a big problem. Not all of them worked (that's an improvement) However the one's that did produced big stops for the ND D.The sack-strip-fumble on the play that ended M's drive to tie it, came from the ND NT stunting over Bredeson and Runyan who were occupied with one-on-one blocks of a ND DT (Bredeson) and DE (Runyan). To me, that's a pick your poison situation for these guys. If you release to block the stunting NT, your man gets through. I'm thinking, this may be a play design or QB issue in that the TE was lined up, behind the LOS on the L side. He dropped back to pass-protect and at 1.5 counts he broke out short as a receiver to the L flat. This left the stunting NT a free run at Patterson who was sacked, stripped and then he fumbled it.

Did the TE not see the stunting NT and just didn't pick him up or was the play design for him to get out in the left flat as quickly as possible. Patterson, in the gun, was dropping straight back. He could have stepped up as, at that point, the pocket was holding up but instead he scrambled right feeling the pressure coming from the free rusher (the stunting NT) who easily ran him down. Lots of parts in motion here. Hard to say where the problem was: TE or QB decision making, play design or just a darn good defensive play by ND. My bet is that the play design was fine, it was a great defensive play that Patterson didn't react to correctly when he scrambled right instead of stepping up.

In defense of the OL, it looked a lot better to me on the video than I think most of us took away from the game in the immediate aftermath of the loss. It wasn't elite but it's better than last year. Last season, there were probably stunting free rushers all the time because the OL couldn't deal with that and it appeared that the coaches didn't make any adjustments for it. There was one play in the 3rd quarter where a S stepped up and aligned himself to JBB's right. I think JBB thought there was a RB going to take the S. Nope. Patterson had to bail and ended up tossing the ball OOB to avoid the sack. That play reminded me of last season and prompted my view that things are no better at all post game. But on viewing the video replay, there weren't a lot of those plays, at least not as many as last season

The play calling was situationally very good on second viewing with lots of rewinding. If it was a run play, execution wasn't terrible; I thought Higdon missed some holes. I also thought Patterson made a lot more mistakes than I thought he did watching live and in the aftermath period. Yes, Runyan got beat a couple of times in pass-pro but overall, he wasn't as bad as I first thought. He held up probably 80% of the time and I'll defer to Brian's UFR to confirm that or shoot it down.

TBH, this is an RPO offense with a lot of spread sets using trips, three and 4 WRs. IMO, it's really different than last season, does take into account Patterson's skill set and is, for all intent and purpose, a whole lot more like the hybrid Harbaughffense we expected than not. It wasn't executed as well as it should have been but execution was not as bad as we all took from the game in the aftermath period where emotions run stronger than good analysis. JH called run (end around to DPJ) and pass plays (quick throws) from spread sets with an empty back field. ND defended the edge really well so, toss sweeps and outside zone run plays didn't get much. The blocking on those plays wasn't great but ND's D swarmed to the ball getting more helmets into the wash than M had helmets to use to block as well as beating the M blockers on those plays. It is possible that against lesser opponents, these outside plays are going to work big time; against elite defenses with speed to seal the edge, they aren't.

It didn't look to me like Patterson was doing a lot of reading the defense and changing plays. Didn't see that once and I think it was purposeful given the stadium noise. After the snap, I'm pretty sure he had the RPO available. Not sure he chose correctly thinking he had in his mind where the play was going and stuck with that ....... that might also have been purposeful to avoid mistakes and turnovers.

[CGVT]

I'll save you all some time.

Michigan got outplayed by a more talented team.

On to next week.

[WingsFan]

I'll save you all some time.

Michigan got out coached by equally talented team.

On to next week.

FIFU

[CGVT]

No. There was an obvious gap in talent.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Just read, Brian's post at mgo. It's cute talking about the Black Pit of Negative Expectations or BPONE. That part is funny. He goes on to rip the OL play and Jon Runyan.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that because of BPONE, Brian saw mistakes live on the OL that I'm not seeing on video ..... at all. While there were some mistakes, a gaping one on Ruiz where he blocks air and completely misses an A Gap Blitz that you'll have the pleasure of watching but I don't think in my analysis the OL play is anywhere near as bad as it is being made out to be by a lot of folks.

I suspect Brian will write an offensive UFR that now comports with his view that the OL sucks. If he does this, picking select plays where there were mistakes to support that view, while not giving credit for the good plays the OL does make, it will be the end of my close following of those articles. I'm hoping he does a decent job and admits his hot takes on Runyan are mostly wrong. But, I'm getting skeptical that he's an honest broker when it comes to this seasons UFRs. He's got a stake in Harbaugh and Michigan failing. That's not a good place for a supposedly good, unbiased analyst to be.

I've linked to another video with only the pertinent offensive plays, i.e., M's first 3 and out is missing as is McCaffrey's plays when he was in. I charted 20 plays; there were a couple more on the video but I got tired of looking for OL mistakes that weren't there. Out of the 20 plays I looked at, I didn't see any massive Runyan mistakes on the left side. There were 2 issues on the right side where JBB got beat. In both cases, ND overloaded on that side. They faked a S blitz on one and actually blitzed on another. I think one of JBB's plays where it looks like he got beat was on an empty set where Patterson should have checked out of that play when he saw the likelihood that ND was going to bring 5 on a safety blitz over JBB. That's exactly what happened and Patterson got sacked.

There's a lot to this stuff. I think the fan base in general latches on to something, i.e., the OL sucks, and it simply becomes an echo chamber of negativity when there is a loss. I also think this video proves that. Look for yourself. It's 8 minutes long and provides a timer on the screen so you can start, stop and rewind to your hearts content. If you can find the level of incompetence attributed to Jon Runyan at LT, or even JBB at RT let me know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXQ0WguuQfs

[WingsFan]

How do you figure? Michigan lead almost every category possible



Total Yards / 307 - 302


First Downs/ 21 -20


Kick Returns/ 120 - 20


Punt Returns/ 4 - 0


Time of Possession/ 31:33 - 28:01


That is an obvious gap in talent?

[CGVT]

There are stats and then there is the game. Michigan has no play makers on offense. They were never in the game.

[WingsFan]

Agree, just saying we are pretty equal in talent. Patterson is a better qb than Winbush. Play calling in the red zone, second and goal from the 2 and you have an 8 yard sack? Botched chip shot FG snap. Targeting on us (and not them when it was clear on gentry).

NG kicked that 48 yard FG when the clock was on 0- Delay of game not called.

They were never in the game.

We had the ball with over a minute left before Shea fumbled ?

[WM Wolverine]

Gap in talent was very obvious between NDs front seven and Ms offensive line. Everywhere else, M was very comparable.