Michigan Football, Team 139, 2018 Season

[Jeff Buchanan]

Was there some kind of question about him returning? That would be weird.

He's signed with the Texas Rangers. There is that out there. It's something like the Henson thing with the Yankees - without the rumors that Steinbrener was in cahoots with the osu football program over that one.

It is widely believed Patterson will put his name in the hat for an NFL draft review. It is also widely believed he'd be a mid-rounds pick. Reportedly, the QB competition would be more favorable for Patterson this year than they would be in the 2020 draft. Thus, even though he might play well in 2019, he also risks getting bumped back in the draft because more QBs would be in front of him. He's not a prototypical NFL QB - too short - but he's likely to grow into and be a very good CFB QB. The question is does he want that or does he want a chance at pro-sports either MLB or NFL football and the money that comes from that.

I can see him getting an agent after this season, going through the combines, seeing where he places and if it's not good enough, he'll go play baseball.

[WingsFan]

Hes not playing baseball, he will be back playing football for Michigan in 19

[Jeff Buchanan]

Correct ..... I could see him doing that but he won't. He'll be back in 2019 despite rumors to the contrary.

[froot loops]

He needs as much time as he can get at the division 1 level to make it into the pros. He may have some sort of baseball career but it would be much easier for him to get a job in the NFL than the Show in my opinion. I never thought there was any other scenario than the one where he comes back as a starter.

[WingsFan]

Steve Deace who has a podcast with Micheal Spath said after the ND loss he would get a tramp stamp of Jim Harbaugh face if Michigan wins 10 games. He announced last night that he was drunk with defeat after the game, but he is a man of his word. and its happening. lol

[Detroit Dan]

It's one thing to win the B10. It's another to beat these southern powerhouses. And, unfortunately, I think Georgia will be up there with Alabama and Clemson soon enough. And, btw, Notre Dame is going to run into the same problem.

This is a good way to look at Michigan football at this juncture. We're in a battle with Ohio State, Notre Dame, Penn State, Michigan State, and Wisconsin for midwest supremacy. That's fun, and we're having a good year in this league. Enjoy the success at this level and, if we beat OSU, rejoice. At best, we'll probably get blown out by Alabama, but that's still a step forward and what we should hope for.

Remember, it's a game and everything is relative.

[WingsFan]

There is a circle of hell reserved for people who wear bow ties, use the word 'smut' with a straight face, say 'going forward' in conversation and say 'it's only a game'.

[Detroit Dan]

I should add that, as much as I hate Ohio State, I felt quite a bit of B1G pride when they beat Alabama in the 2015 Sugar Bowl.

The 2015 Sugar Bowl was a college football game that was played on January 1, 2015 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was the 81st Sugar Bowl, and a semifinal game in the College Football Playoff. It was one of the that concluded the 2014 FBS football season. Sponsored by the Allstate insurance company, the game was officially known as the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

In the game, the fourth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes defeated the top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide^[5] The Buckeyes advanced to the College Football Playoff Championship Game against the Oregon Ducks, which was played January 12 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

[Detroit Dan]

There is a circle of hell reserved for people who wear bow ties, use the word 'smut' with a straight face, say 'going forward' in conversation and say 'it's only a game'.

Right. It's not a game. It's WAR, and lives will be saved or lost depending upon its outcome. (Wait, that's not actually true. <Adjusts bow tie and resumes watching smut.>) Going forward, let's hope that WingsFan shares more of his hellish insights.

[hack]

There is a circle of hell reserved for people who wear bow ties, use the word 'smut' with a straight face, say 'going forward' in conversation and say 'it's only a game'.

Not everyone in a bowtie is an arrogant buffoon, but it's definitely a warning sign.

[Jeff Buchanan]

This is actually PSU/M game related but I'll put it here because my intent is to demonstrate how effective M's run game has become. The link below will take you to the guy that started doing some excellent video work with diagramed play breakdowns. He's pretty good and the videos are a plus-up from Seth's Neck Sharpies and even Brian's UFRs. It's a 25 minute review of 10 plays. Here's my bulletized take-aways:

• You can learn about the complexities of OL play that include initial steps, blocking assignments, influence strategies and more by watching these.
• Seeing how well M's OL executed in these plays is impressive and points to the very positive effect Ed Warriner has had.
• Constraints and these blocking influence strategies boggled the minds of PSU's pretty decent front 7. There are plenty of obvious examples of PSU LBs and Ss dorfing.
• There are also examples of how making or not making blocks facilitates a 50 yard gain best case or a 2 yard gain worst case. The interior OL left to right is very good at getting to the second level when the play calls for that. Compared to 2016, the OL actually looks like it knows exactly what they are supposed to do and do it correctly most of the time.
• M's offense calls for a lot of TE blocking. It's OK, but not great and in these 10 plays you can see why a decent gain of, say 7 yards, could have been a big play of 20 or more if the TEs had made their blocks - mostly of the second level or erase a DE threat (play side or back side) type.
• WR blocking is particularly good but a lot of times the runner wouldn't get past the second level because the TEs would miss or get beaten in their assignments.
• You may remember the screen play that Patterson over-threw Higdon on. If that play is made, it probably goes for a 40 yard TD. Bredesion and Ruiz were out in front with one PSU guy an initial threat and one deep S threatening. Both would have been easy pickings. There were two player errors: (1) Patterson tossed the ball off his back foot in a sort of jump shot manner while stepping back - didn't need to step back. If he steps up or plants in place, he completes the easy throw. (2) Higdon, when he saw the ball come off Patterson's hand, needed to adjust his route ever so slightly downfield to run under it. He had room to do that and it appears he thought a LB was closing and took a step toward the LOS. The LB wasn't a threat.

https://mgoblog.com/diaries/film-ana...-plays-offense

[WingsFan]

I guess we can laugh at this now.



Michigan's opening dud the beginning of the end for Jim Harbaugh



Pat Forde
Yahoo SportsSep 2, 2018, 1:15 AM


https://sports.yahoo.com/michigans-o...051509925.html

[Jeff Buchanan]

Here's another set of things I picked-up on from the video on 10 defensive plays from the same guy above that did the offense videos:

While the back end is good, that is not what has made M's pass D #1. It's pressure on the QB that M is getting from a 4-man rush.

• I really don't think McSorely's injury status, and he was not 100%, made a whole lot of difference in this game. Some, but not a lot. There's one play videoed where he has time and sets up well but misses a tight window badly. He rarely does that and probably injury related as his back foot plant in the set up was probably painful. Coverage was pretty good so there is that.
• This was the play that the ball was batted and intercepted off of that. The rest of the time, he was under so much pressure that unless he was getting rid of the ball in 2s or less, he had to bail. I suspect his injury hampered his ability to make throws on the run - something he also usually does well. He didn't v. M part of that was coverage, part on his injury.
• Why is M able to get the kind of play killing pressure it's getting? Part of it is the the quick step-off from the DEs. Part of it is from the 4-man scheme for pressure run play to play. It's never the same. You can watch the videos and see for yourself how varied it is. It's nearly impossible for the OL to tell where its coming from and it is rarely just from one spot.
• I don't think the last two OLs M has played (MSU and PSU) are great. Watching the videos makes the mistakes these two OLs make play to play pretty striking. Wisconsin's OL was good and Brown managed to dial up plenty of pressure albeit on an injured Hornibrook. Both Lewerke and McSorely were also not 100%. Need to keep this in mind when assessing the quality of the pressure metric M has developed and the number of QB sacks M has racked up over the last three or four games.
• That M has the kinds of pressure numbers and QB sacks it has racked up, has to be viewed in the context of the opponent's OL and QB injury status. I look at Alabama's OL - and I can't say I've looked at it to the extent I've seen Wisky's MSU's and PSU's, v. M's DL - but Saban has built the sustained success of his Alabama teams around his OL and DL. I have a hard time imagining that if M get's into the CFP and faces Alabama that the kind of pressure metrics and QB sacks we've seen from M will be duplicated v. Bama. JMO.
• Versus the buckeye OL? The outlook is good. I don't believe a case can be made that osu's OL is significantly better than the last credible three that M has played and dominated. haskins has already shown he's not as good as he has shown he can be when he's getting a lot of pressure/hits. Not confident that osu's run game can take the pressure off of him to make plays and he's not going to make them with his feet. I taste victory in c-bus.

• https://mgoblog.com/diaries/film-ana...acks-ints-more

[Detroit Dan]

I taste victory in c-bus.

Yes, me too. I haven't watched OSU closely, but OSU obviously vulnerable on both sides of the ball. Michigan superior on defense, and good enough on offense to get 4 TDs v OSU.

[Jeff Buchanan]

In reading around yesterday and this morning, the best informed observers of M football and the CFB scene caution M fans to avoid speculation about the CFPs and channeling all your energy into helping players win the next two games. After that, think about burying NfW in Indy but not until osu has been put to bed.

I think this is good advice. It's just hard to not peak at how the other contenders are doing.