Michigan Football, the 2020 Abbreviated COVID Season

[hack]

And we also have to ask, how is Gattis taking all this? If he was promised (and given) full control of the offense, and now he doesn't have it, does that make him want to leave after the season, or is he all in with Harbaugh no matter what? Does Harbaugh even WANT to keep Gattis after this season?

All of these are good questions as well. The important ones.

[Jeff Buchanan]

My answer to that question is that he's taking it because, if you ask me, he's getting seasoned a bit probably by Harbaugh. I'd also say that after the results from the 2nd half of the PSU game and the entire ND game, in really shitty weather, we ought to be giving some credit to the offensive staff ..... see my post above.

Gattis is fine. He's a keeper.

[hack]

If you want to give credit to the offensive staff for the ND game, you'd have to have noted that what worked was pre-Gattis stuff that Gattis ditched. Which doesn't necessarily suggest he's a keeper, but it's hard to know at this point what's what.

I agree that Harbaugh may be helping Gattis with Gattis's learning curve. But it's not hard to find out there the opinion that Gattis oversold himself, and the fued with Locksley also points in that direction. It's not hard to envision a future in which Harbaugh and Gattis feel a bit of a shared destiny and work out an arrangement here that's not exactly what Gattis signed up for but is more appropriate for the long-term health of the team. Certainly Gattis knows at this point that he's further away from an HC position than he was three months ago.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Fair points ....... I believe Gattis is having an impact on Harbaugh think.

Out of the gate, the Gattis offense was not ready for prime time and the Army game, IMO, was a preamble to that view. Against Wisconsin it turned out to be the same kind of dud ND dialed up for Booke, in a rain storm v. M, i.e., a lot of passing that turned out to be non-threat allowing M to gang up on ND's run game. Shit happens, right?

But, it's a lot like what happened to M's O in Madison probably because of the multiple factors that we've talked about here ..... IOW, not just Patterson although he took the brunt of the blame for that loss, unfairly in retrospect, IMO. Again, shit happens, right?

So, who, in our minds, has gotten the offense to where it is post ND? TBF, and to my eye, there's a good deal of "speed in space" that's coming from Gattis. The RPO was run v. ND successfully, but I'll wait to see what Brian has to say about how many times and to what effect later today.

Interestingly, with 6:18 left in regulation v. ND, it was McCaffrey that threw two excellent passes (it had stopped raining) one to Giles Jackson and one off an RPO slant to Mike Sanistril that went for a TD. Obviously, passing plays including RPOs are in the play-book. I'll be very interested to see if Gattis pulls these out for Patterson v. Maryland. If not, that will tell us pretty much all we need to know, esp. if McCaffrey gets some time at QB and these plays are dialed up for him but not for Patterson.

New found offense in HV and at home v. ND. Is it a fluke soon to disappear or are the last 6 quarters a harbinger of a very good M, run-centric offense? I guess we'll see. But, if the efficiency of M's "new found" offense persists v. Maryland, IU and MSU, that would be a very good thing going into The Game. I don't think any of us know who is actually calling the plays from the play sheet. I've seen plenty of close-ups of JH on the sidelines. He definitely has a play-sheet in his hand. I haven't seen one in Gattis' hand but this is the first time I've thought about it.

The bottom line, though, is the offense has improved since post Wisconsin/Iowa. I'm not sure I care at this point who is the primary mind behind those improvements or who is calling the plays from the sideline.

[WM Wolverine]

What we do know is that Gattis' has yet to have a QB that can run his base offense. The reads you make sound incredibly difficult to make are usually pretty easy, JB even with the television feed replay. I can usually read which defender Shea is trying to read based upon where he's looking and even if there is a read on the play or not.

[Jeff Buchanan]

WM, I can't and I'm not saying you can't.

What I can see is that on PAs on a 3 step (quick throw) or 6 step (deep drop and probably a deep pass) he doesn't always throw on rhythm/throw receivers open - he hesitates and either bails or makes some kind of bad throw. That issue is well documented beyond my eye's ability to evaluate it. I will say, I think he's gotten better at this but that's a dicey assessment because, well, I'm not a QB coach among other things I am not.

What I definitely can't see, though, are who he is reading when it's clear - and I don't think it is always clear - a RO play has been called. I might think I can see it but when you see a play diagrammed off a video, if he's looking at the EMLOS or DE, there's usually a LB or S right behind those two that might just as well be the conflict player and/or the one that's getting read (see the Neck Sharpies article). That will depend on the play design and even if it's obvious as the play unfolds what play that probably is, who the QB and RB are reading is not always clear.

So, my thinking is it's not fair to Patterson to fault him from our arm-chair seats for not making the reads he is supposed to make.

[lineygoblue]

I miss Brian Griese and 'the waggle' ... we won the NC with that freaking play ...

[hack]

Good play for Shea, you'd think.

[Niffla]

I miss Brian Griese and 'the waggle' ... we won the NC with that freaking play ...

Gosh yes. That play was the epitome of a money play.

[WM Wolverine]

It's not always clear who he's reading on the RPO but it can be done if the camera angle cooperates. Usually its the DE/OLB on the play side but defenses will do stunts and/or bring up a safety. Army was the best at this, they repped a ton at stopping the option and M's run game suffered for it...

Shea being slow to get rid of the ball and then waiting till a receiver is open is the core of his passing issues. His arm strength is okay, his accuracy is good enough, I thought he appeared more athletic at MSu in highlights and should be getting more yards/first downs with his feet. He doesn't trust the play to develop or his receivers to get separation.

I don't see any NFL future for him which is usually the talent M will need at QB to beat the Buckeyes. If Patterson didn't arrive with the 5-star hype he did, I don't think his critics here would be so loud. If he came here as a guy who was beat out at his position like Ruddock, he'd be viewed more favorably.

[Jeff Buchanan]

WM, can't disagree with anything you posted above.

Just poured through the UFR Offense v. ND.

Patterson had just 12 throws. He completed 6, most of them after the rain stopped. He got bailed out of two bad throws by DPJ (the picking the ball off his shoe laces catch for a TD) and Sanistril on a crossing route thrown behind him. He had 4 dead on throws. Hard to judge based on sample size but played OK.

Patterson ran 4 RPOs, two of these were, per Brain, inexplicable play calls inside the 5 - you lose RPO effectiveness with cover 0 which is what ND was in on the goal line. Just run Inside Power behind Mason please. 2 of them were keeps that were the right call but stuffed by ND's good play.

Brian was surprised how often M called outside zone stretch plays with ND committed to not giving up the edge. Like 6x with none of them gaining > 3 yards.

There is speed in space but not where most fans have been looking for it and claiming there isn't any. What M does - and this is clearly a Gattis addition - is line up 3 or 4 wide then move the slot guy behind the LOS towards then away from the play side. It draws a LB away from the play and, what ufm calls, equates defenders to blockers. CBs and S are drawn out of the area that the RB will run to and boom ..... big play. M won about 8 of these from anywhere from 4 to 49 yards.

McCaffrey had two RPOs and nailed both of them. Looks confident. Throws accurate darts. Not enough data to judge.

Brian thinks Warinner and Harbaugh have nudged Gattis back to some of the base runs that worked in 2018. Those were M's best plays v. ND. Brian calls one of these successful plays (run multiple times successfully) the dart. It looks like a P&P but it is just really a quick pull (the dart) with the RB hitting the unblocked gap behind the puller. It works well because ND flings it's LBs into gaps blindly and there is usually 1 or 2 open gaps to pull to. Also, plain old iso and traps along with the arc-zone run as a constraint to dart and vice versa. Brain praises the play calling that did this and boxes the ears of the play calling that had outside zone runs..... repeatedly when ND had those defensed cold. Reminded him of Mike Debord who kept running Hart off-tackle left because he thought M could either out-execute or over-power opponents. Never works.

Looking ahead to Maryland:

Run the ball. Haskins looks to be the real deal. Having three pretty good RBs (Haskins along with Charbonett and Wilson) is a plus. Give Patterson the RO as it looks like he does OK with this play but good defenses are still eating this up. Maryland is not a good defense and like ND did once on Patterson's 22 yard keeper, Maryland will do it way more than that.

Stay with what Patterson does well in the passing game to keep the defense honest. He can hit the slants and bubble screens and if CBs play off receivers, he can hit out patterns if Maryland wants to give them. Zone coverage that opponents seem to run a lot of provides opportunities for seam routes run by the TEs. Also, Collins is still undefeated in arm-punts thrown his way. Undersized CBs will give up and so obviously grab Collins that the refs can't ignore it and have to throw a PI flag. All Patterson has to do is get the ball in roughly the same zip-code that Collins is in.

[iam416]

Death Star

[Jeff Buchanan]

Well, not really ..... more like a moribund asteroid.

There's been a lot of articles on M's offense after the ND beat down. Most ask why this took so long and in the process M lost two BT games and by mid-October was out of the running for BTCG/CFBP?

I don't think you can rule out the notion that the coaching staff mismanaged the changes. The best comments on this that I saw were in a Maze and Brew piece. It basically said, bit off more than they could chew. Secondarily, another good comment: Can't get out of their own way. IOW, self inflicted wounds. Lots of posters think that Patterson is the primary problem. I disagree and have said why. Patterson is what the coaching staff has made him or allowed him to be. YMMV.

It seems to me those two things go hand-in-hand. Trying to do too much creates the circumstance for high error rates on a play-by-play basis. That is not to say that the coaches could have done a better job implementing the changes they chose to implement. The success of the LSU example as measured by on-field success stands in stark contrast to M's failures by that same measure.

A poster at mgoboard opined this morning that Harbaugh and Warinner may be designing the game plan and making the play calls with "Gattis pushed to the back burner." In support of that position he notes that Gattis has not appeared for post-game interviews since the Wisconsin loss. Well, Don Brown didn't appear before the press for months after the osu loss and he's still very much M's DC. We can't know, so, why speculate about this. Seems like a sort of click-bait post. I still see the Gattis fingerprints on play design but you have to know what to look for to see it. I also see Warinner's inputs in the incorporation of power concepts and Harbaugh's in designing the offense to fit what Patterson does well. So, I'll go with a team effort to get the O to where it is post ND ..... but I'm a homer so TIFWIW.

Anyway, I was never on the fire coaches band-wagon nor was I on the bench Patterson one. Aside from the laughable implications of "stay the course," that's where I am. The reasons for that position should be obvious. I'd like to see McCaffrey get garbage time play - a lot of it - when it is available. And, it may not be in M's remaining games. I'm still reticent to claim M will get the job done against opponents coming up and before osu. It's BPONE. There's this "can't get out of their own way" thing that's in the back of my mind ...... unforced errors. I also can't fully endorse JH's football philosophy (or what ever you want to call his over-all management of the team on the field and in the planning and practice week leading up to the next game.

His track record in that regard is full of identifiable and not so positive trends. The road game in Bloomington should be a concern and the knives will come out if M loses that game followed by MSU and osu losses and they probably should. 7-5 should, indeed, cause the deciders to seriously assess the road ahead for M football ..... but I am not remotely close to endorsing that idea right now.

[iam416]

I don't think you can rule out the notion that the coaching staff mismanaged the changes.

I think Occam's Razor suggests that this is precisely what happened. Not only can't you rule them out, it's what happened. The other suggestion is that perhaps ND's run defense isn't that good and they were just terrible. But, I think the former carries more weight.

I'm still firmly of the mind that the coaching staff vastly overestimated what they had in Shea. Perhaps Gattis thought he was Tua Lite. Well, yeah. REALLY Lite. And when you design your offense around capabilities you don't have it looks like total fucking shit.

So, IMO, the staff vastly overestimated Shea and wasn't quick enough to solve the problem. That's a huge self-inflicted wound. Now, they got away with it. They didn't lose to Army. They didn't lose to Iowa. I think they were going to lose in Madison no matter what. So, you know, they are probably in the same place. YMMV on that, but I do think the early season offensive shitfest is directly attributable to a mismatch in approach and talent.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Co-signed.