Game 1 -- Middle Tennessee State at Michigan -- 7:30 PM August 31, 2019 -- BTN

[Niffla]

I was at a fantasy football draft party during the game and could only watch off and on (mostly off), but did I hear correctly that there was a lot of booing in Shea's direction? Especially when he re-entered the game after Dylan came in for him?

[Hannibal]

I don't remember the fans booing Shane specifically but there were some a few boos in the 3rd quarter when they got a delay of game penalty.

[Niffla]

This is where I read it.

https://wolverineswire.usatoday.com/2019/09/01/michigan-football-shea-patterson-starting-quarterback/

There was a sequence though last night where McCaffrey came in at quarterback and The Big House erupted with cheer for him. Then when Patterson was let back in, there was a loud amount of boos aimed at him.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I was in the stadium. The boos came during the frippery involving the two QB plays. After one of them, where both QBs appeared to be confused about the play call, the boos started. Then a time out was called from the sideline. The boos got louder.

I don't think they were aimed at Patterson. Fans were booing the delay and probably the stupidity of having two QBs out there.

Speaking of Patterson, there's some commentary on the web that pieces together Harbaugh's post-game presser commentary ("Shea was working through something"), with comments from various posts that say he looked sharp early (he was 9/12) but not sharp after he might have injured something (he went 8//17 the rest of the way). That "something" injury is thought to be his ribs as he kept fiddling with his torso padding.

Also, observers think that M can provide the Brown required pressure and do well against the run game of the lesser teams given what we saw from the DL but not against the stronger teams M faces. Same for the OTs. Both Hays at LT and Mayfield at RT got handled a couple of times by the smaller DEs playing for MTSU. They'll have trouble with the bigger, quicker DEs they'll face from quality teams. Runyan may not be that much better than Hayes when he returns. He was good against the weaker teams M played in 2018 but got handled v. the good ones.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Here's another interesting observation made by a poster: WTF was Patterson doing spiking the ball at the end of the 1st half, driving for a TD, when there were 2 TOs left?

Well, it seems like a good call because he probably did it to prevent a review of Freshman wide receiver Cornelius Johnson's catch right before the spike play that was ruled a completion but actually was a non-catch.

[Niffla]

I was in the stadium. The boos came during the frippery involving the two QB plays. After one of them, where both QBs appeared to be confused about the play call, the boos started. Then a time out was called from the sideline. The boos got louder.

I don't think they were aimed at Patterson. Fans were booing the delay and probably the stupidity of having two QBs out there.

Ah okay, thanks for clarifying, Jeff.

[drok]

Here's another interesting observation made by a poster: WTF was Patterson doing spiking the ball at the end of the 1st half, driving for a TD, when there were 2 TOs left?

Well, it seems like a good call because he probably did it to prevent a review of Freshman wide receiver Cornelius Johnson's catch right before the spike play that was ruled a completion but actually was a non-catch.

I saw that too. I'm hoping that actually is the explanation as that spike drove me nuts.

[Hannibal]

LOL at the "4D Chess" explanation of Harbaugh's retarded clock management.

[hack]

I'd feel better if that were the reason for that spike, sure.

[drok]

LOL at the "4D Chess" explanation of Harbaugh's retarded clock management.

Yeah I'm skeptical. I'd feel much better if they even just admitted it was a mistake.

[Jeff Buchanan]

That it may have been a planned move to avoid a review of the C. Johnson non-catch makes as much sense as it is reflective of bad clock management. The sideline would have had to ignore the fact that the clock was stopped at the point of the completed past and, inside 2 minutes in the first half, the clock does not start until the next snap. So, you could argue that the spike wasn't a means of stopping the clock from running - it was already stopped - but rather a means of advancing the next play to prevent an official review of the catch.

[Hannibal]

It wasn't a planned move. They didn't hurry up for the Christian Turner run where the officials blew that call. I highly doubt that they were wasting a down just to preserve that catch.

[Tslisher]

I felt a lot like the initial posts after the game, but upon further analysis I'm hoping some of the items can just be chalked up to first game jitters that can be worked out. The offense on the whole worked, although rather vanilla, guessing the coaches didn't want to show everything. Both the run game and pass game were effective. The defense likewise was only scored on during short field turnovers and in garbage time with the 3rd string backfield in the game. Before garbage time STSU had less than 300 yard of offense.

I didn't like the stupid 2 QB on the field move, you have a whole stable of highly talented receivers - why put in a QB as a receiver? Was this just to set something up in the future?

The offensive line and running backs were great at blitz pickup - they were bringing blitz's almost every down and almost none got home. We should have had a better 'quick out' to take advantage of this though and Shea didn't do a good job of coming off deep field throws for a short check down.

Overall - a bit of a mistake prone opener, but things that can be cleaned up before Wisconsin.

[Jeff Buchanan]

The UFR Offense is out at mgo. I'll summarize:

Brian is very worried about Shea Patterson's mental mistakes apparent in his first game and also present in 2018. He made a lot of them UFR. They involved incorrect reads in the RO/RPO game and missing the open receiver in his progressions. This, according to Brian, may be who he is. He hopes not. A mitigating thought is that Patterson apparently got injured on the first play (ribs?) and Harbaugh may have taken away his option to keep on multiple plays involving arc zone reads where the blitheringly correct thing to do was keep; he handed it off. Supporting evidence that he wasn't making the reads or was, more likely, prohibited from carrying the ball to protect him, when McCaffrey came in, his first play was an arc zone read. He kept the ball and got 14 yards.

RBs are very good. Both Turner and Charbonet are good at picking up blitzes let alone they can both ball.

The WRs are very good. Brian notes that Gattis called multiple 3 and 4 receiver Verts. Michigan did not do that once last year.

The OL is good. Hays at LT exceeded expectations. Mayfield was OK. Hays is a bit small. The question is how good will he be facing 280lb DEs that are quick. Shafer blitzed on every play bringing 5 and sometimes 6 defenders. For the most part, Patterson was kept clean.

Noted up thread in my Neck Sharpies post, Gattis has added the second level reads off M's bread and butter run plays. This is an area that Patterson seemed to excel at considering how badly he did in his progressions on designed pass plays and on the arc zone plays.

Finally ...... the spike was a stupid play regardless of who called it. There is compelling evidence that it was and not "4D Chess" as has been speculated. The haters are correct. Fuck them.

[drok]

On offense, feels like there are a lot of encouraging signs. But still quite a ways to go to get what is needed out of them. Need Shae to be better and more consistent. OL is encouraging but still too early to tell. RBs seem legit, and not in a "against shitty competition" kind of way. I'm excited by the WR core. Really like what Gattis is doing with the offense so far. Seems that he's building on the things that worked last year and making a more cohesive approach to the gameplan. Just get rid of the stupid 2 QB plays.