MGOFootball» Offense

Western Michigan: 1st Half Offensive Breakdown

MGOMike — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:49:08 +0000

I’ve decided to break down the first half of play from Saturday. Michigan doesn’t have a scoring drive in the second half (damnit man!). If you like the break down – LEAVE A COMMENT – so I can change accordingly or add to it.

1st Quarter - 1st Series

Matthews fair catches a punt at Michigan’s 48 yd. line

Play	Down	Pos.	What the Hell Happened	Yards
1	1-10	Mich 48	Forcier hits Hemingway for a gain of 5	+5
2	2-5	WMU 47	Brown runs left for a gain of 3	+3
3	3-2	WMU 44	Forcier makes 3 potential tacklers miss and gets the first down	+3
	1-10	WMU 41	PENALTY – Illegal Motion on Odoms	-5
4	1-15	WMU 46	Forcier gets 4 on an option keeper	+4
5	2-11	WMU 42	Forcier hits Brown about 7 yds downfield on the sideline and brown does the rest for the first down	+14
6	1-10	WMU 28	Brown for no gain – WMU D line gets good penetration up the middle	0
7	2-10	WMU 28	Forcier scrambles up to the line of scrimmage and lofts a beauty to Hemingway down the sideline	+28

Drive Summary – 7 plays, 52 yards – Forcier looks great on his first drive as Michigan’s quarterback – Hemingway begins his coming out party by getting it done running the scramble drill along the sideline.

MICHIGAN 7 – WMU 0

1st Quarter - 2nd Series

Matthews fair catches a punt at the Michigan 11 yd. line

Play	Down	Pos.	What the Hell Happened	Yards
1	1-10	Mich 11	Forcier keeps the option right and goes down after a short gain	+4
2	2-6	Mich 15	D. Robinson comes around in motion and gets nothing on the handoff	0
3	3-6	Mich 15	Forcier drops back and takes off immediately – no gainer	0
4	4-6	Mich 15	Mesko punts for 47 yds

Drive Summary – 3 plays, 4 yards – RR shows some different looks this series getting Denard Robinson involved.

1st Quarter - 3rd Series

Matthews fair catches a punt at Michigan’s 16 yd. line

Play	Down	Pos.	What the Hell Happened	Yards
1	1-10	Mich 16	Forcier eludes 2 potential tacklers on an option keeper – shows some solid speed	+8
	2-2	Mich 24	PENALTY – Holding on David Molk	-10
2	2-12	Mich 14	Kelvin Grady drops a screen pass – goes right through his hands	0
3	3-12	Mich 14	Forcier goes deep for M. Webb – looks like he should have tried to hit Hemingway deep	0
4	4-12	Mich 14	Mesko punt goes 44 yards out of bounds

Drive Summary – 3 plays, -2 yards – Forcier looked great on an option keeper – Carlos Brown had a huge block on third down to buy Forcier the time to go deep. Good to see Forcier taking some shots deep after the play breaks down a bit.

1st Quarter - 4th Series

B. Cissoko returns interception to the WMU 38 yd line

Play	Down	Pos.	What the Hell Happened	Yards
	1-10	WMU 38	PENALTY – Illegal Procedure on Mark Ortmann	-5
1	1-15	WMU 43	Denard Robinson ignites his jet engines after fumbling the snap – LOOKOUT FOR DROB!	+43

Drive Summary – 1 play, 38 yards – Wow, Denard Robinson might be the fastest player to ever wear a Michigan Wolverine uniform. After fumbling the snap, he goes opposite of the play call – breaks one tackle and in about 4 seconds he’s in the endzone.

MICHIGAN 14 – WMU 0

1st Quarter - 5th Series

Matthews fair catches a punt at Michigan’s 32 yd. line

Play	Down	Pos.	What the Hell Happened	Yards
1	1-10	Mich 32	Robinson runs a QB draw off the right side for a decent gain	+5
2	2-5	Mich 37	Robinson throws a high bullet to Kelvin Grady – nice catch on Grady’s part	+7
3	1-10	Mich 44	Robinson and Hemingway had some miscommunication – ball winds up in the dirt	0
4	2-10	Mich 44	Robinson fakes the reverse and crosses midfield before an ankle tackle brings him down	+7
5	3-3	WMU 49	Robinson drops back then takes off up the gut – should have cut left – gets stopped short of the first down	+2
End of 1st Quarter
6	4-1	WMU 47	Brown picks up 6 running off the left tackle – 1 for 1 on 4th down conversions!	+6
7	1-10	WMU 41	Forcier keeps for a tough gain	+5
8	2-5	WMU 36	Forcier hits Koger on a hitch – Koger does a good job reaching for the first down	+5
9	1-10	WMU 31	Fake reverse to Grady – handoff to Brown up the gut for a solid gain	+11
10	1-10	WMU 20	Same play as before – this time Forcier hands off to Grady on the reverse	+11
11	1-G	WMU 9	I-formation handoff to Brown off the right side for a couple	+2
12	2-G	WMU 7	Play-action rollout left and Forcier finds a wide-open Koger for 6	+7

Drive Summary – 12 plays, 68 yards – Great 12 play drive. Forcier looked sharp and the offensive line opened up some holes for Brown. At this point I was surprised not to see RR toss in Vincent Smith or Michael Shaw to grind it out down the field. Forcier has complete control of the offense. Kelvin Grady is looking really good and fast -comparable to a one Steve Breaston.

MICHIGAN 21 – WMU 0

2nd Quarter - 1st Series

Matthews finally gets to return one – a clean catch yields a solid cut upfield and about a 15 yard return.

Play	Down	Pos.	What the Hell Happened	Yards
1	1-10	WMU 42	Miscommunication between Forcier and Hemmingway – Forcier tosses for a deep corner route incomplete	0
2	2-10	WMU 42	Robinson back in – tosses out to Savoy for a decent gain – another hard throw from D. Rob	+11
3	1-10	WMU 31	Shaw shuffles forward for an earned fiver	+5
	2-5	WMU 26	PENALTY – Holding on David Molk	-5
4	2-15	WMU 36	Forcier back in – tosses a great ball on the run to Brown along the sideline – after review it’s incomplete	0
5	3-15	WMU 36	QB draw and Forcier slips around to get UM in field goal position	+10
6	4-5	WMU 26	Olesnavage makes a 44 yd field goal with plenty of leg

Drive Summary – 6 plays, 16 yards – Forcier again makes plays that would not have been made last season. Michigan puts 3 more on the board instead of giving the ball back to Western. It’s little plays in the drive that may make the difference this season when comparing it to last. Good to see Olesnavage confidently hit a relatively long field goal and be pumped up about it afterwords.

MICHIGAN 24 – WMU 0

2nd Quarter - 2nd Series

Play	Down	Pos.	What the Hell Happened	Yards
1	1-10	Mich 15	The O-line opens up a gaping hole for Brown to get up the middle	+12
2	1-10	Mich 27	Play-action pass and Forcier whips it out to an open Matthews along the sideline	+10
3	1-10	Mich 37	Brown up the middle for a nice gain – still waiting for Brown to break a long one	+6
4	2-4	Mich 43	QB draw – if Brown blocks the linebacker Forcier would have had a chance	-4
5	3-8	Mich 39	WR screen to Hemingway – solid blocking and good running by Hemingway converts the 3rd down	+14
6	1-10	WMU 47	Forcier throws deep – nobody open	0
7	2-10	WMU 47	Forcier keeps it around the right side – not much room to run	+3
8	3-7	WMU 44	Forcier throws another beauty down the sideline to an open Hemingway for a TD!	+44

Drive Summary – 8 plays, 85 yards – Good all around series. David Molk had a great play on the 3rd down conversion when Hemingway went for 14. He made one block and got off that to make another. Forcier again showing off his ability to throw an accurate ball.

MICHIGAN 31 – WMU 0

The Michigan Spread Offense 101

MGOMike — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:37:02 +0000

The program has taken a sharp turn from the Lloyd Carr era into the Rich Rodriguez era. Many things have coincidentally changed along with the obvious – the stadium construction brings change to one of college footballs most sacred temples, the Spring Game now is an event that should soon attract 80,000 – 100,000 fans, Rich Rod doesn’t mind talking details and being cordial with the media, and the offense is no longer the pro-style offense that utilizes your typical, tall, John Navarre-esque drop back quarterback. In light of such an offensive scheme change, it’s beneficial to holistically understand the basics of the scheme.

Generally speaking, the spread offense makes it hard for opposing teams to prepare by forcing them to have to defend everything – no cheating against the spread. The Michigan Wolverine spread offense attack will stretche defenses horizontally – effectively widening the field for the offense, forcing the defense to defend more space, and making it easier on the quarterback to read the defense. The defense naturally has to declare what they are doing because they spread out and get out of the box – also creating some undesirable mismatches for the defense. A well-oiled spread attack is very dangerous and can be a nightmare to defend, especially when the QB can do more than just.

So if the spread offense is so hard to defend, why doesn’t everybody run it? Oh right, there are some drawbacks that are worthy of mentioning. The QB is going to inevitably take some physical pounding and unless he has great natural passing ability – he may not get enough dedicated time in practice to polish passing skills. So it is a must to have multiple capable quarterbacks in case your starter gets dinged up and can’t play. In considering the 2010 recruiting class, Michigan will have at least 4 quarterbacks that have the athletic ability that fits into the infrastructure of the offense.

Versions of the spread offense around the Big 10
Pure zone read option teams: Michigan, Illinois, Penn State, Indiana
Run first spread: Northwestern
Pass happy dink and dunk spread: Purdue, Minnesota
Pro-style teams that adapt to the spread based on personnel: OSU, Wisconsin, Iowa, MSU

Here is a video of Rich Rod talking through the different options that the scheme allows for – enabling the quarterback to have as many as 4 different possible options and decisions to make on any given play. The zone read is relatively simple- the QB reads the end and makes a decision to hand-off or keep the ball if the end bites on the back. In any given option play, there are effectively four possible decisions or options that the QB chooses from in a split second: inside run, outside pitch, QB keep or throwing some type of bubble screen. Check out the vid to hear Rich Rod go through some of the options while he had Pat White at West Virginia.

Here are some numbers that Rich Rod’s spread offense piled up at West Virginia. Let’s hope we see similar results in the near future in the Big House – how about we start on let’s say…September 5th, 2009.

West Virginia ’07: #3 in rush offense 297.23 ypg, #1 in rush ypc 6.15 ypc, #9 scoring offense 39.6 ppg
West Virginia ’06: #2 in rush offense 303.00 ypg, #1 in rush ypc 6.68 ypc, #3 scoring offense 38.8 ppg
West Virginia ’05: #4 in rush offense 272.42 ypg, #11 in rush ypc 5.23 ypc, #31 scoring offense 32.1 ppg
West Virginia ’04: #7 in rush offense 252.83 ypg, #10 in rush ypc 5.14 ypc, #29 scoring offense 30.1 ppg

How will Rodriguez play Forcier and Robinson?

MGOMike — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:30:46 +0000

With August looming on the horizon I’ll call it fair to lay down a few valid questions about Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson. What will their roles be? Is it even right to include Nick Sheridan in that picture? For the sake of not wanting to relive some of last year, I’m to just talk about Michigan’s two youngsters.

A quick look at each 4 star QB

QB	Pre-UM	Rivals	Scout	Highlight Vids	Maize & Blue Calling
T. Forcier	6-1, 185 lbs.	#4 Dual-Threat, #167 Overall	#15 QB, #137 Overall	High School,Spring Game	Puttin’ the rock on the numbers, slingin’ on the go
D. Robinson	6-0, 180 lbs.	#14 ATH, #188 Overall	#16 CB, #159 Overall	High School	Now you see him now you don’t, think lighting

tate forcier

The Skinny on Forcier
Bottom line – the dude throws an accurate ball. If his high school highlight vids don’t convince you of that you can check out how he fared in the ’09 Spring Game and see that he put it where he needs to – even with pressure in his face. Forcier has some wheels as well, but look for him to throw first, or throw on the run before he prematurely tucks and runs. He seems to be a natural in the backfield and has great mechanics – a release that Michigan fans haven’t seen in shall I say forever? Ok maybe not forever, but you’re not getting your drawn out low release that makes fans cringe on every batted ball by the opposing D-line.

denard robinson

The Lowdown on D. Rob
Don’t race him – he will beat you. The D. Rob can fly. Look for Rich Rod to get him in games early in the season simply to utilize his speed and quickness. Which leads me to believe that we may see both Forcier and Robinson on the field at the same time. Last year, Justin Feagan was tossed into the mix but could only run. Robinson will be handled much differently – assuming he manages himself well as a freshman by picking up the playbook and showing his value in practice – he can actually threaten a defense because he can throw the skin o’ pig. I look for Rodriguez to roll him when possible to get him on the run but still potentially pass. Nevertheless, how could you not be excited about a guy that is more explosive than my trips to the bathroom during my recent visit to Guatemala.

Will we see Denard Robinson and Tate Forcier on the field together?
If both QBs come close to living up to their hype – I think you’ll see Rich Rod’s creativity in some plays getting both involved. I hope to see Denard in the slot and even split from Forcier behind center. Needless to say, those first few practices in August will begin to paint us a clearer picture of what we’ll see on September 5th.

Who has the advantage going into August practices?
Obviously, Forcier has a leg up on Robinson simply because he has been there all spring. Forcier’s play in the Spring Game was rather impressive – compared to the 2008 Spring Game where several picks were thrown and QB play wasn’t sweet like Forcier’s spring game outing. You do see some banter on message boards about Robinson’s athleticism eventually winning him the starting QB spot – I’ll be convinced when I see it on the field.

And – Who’s got the better self-promoting website?
It’s worth a look – should I say a little TMI on this site? QB Force

Offensively…

MGOMike — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:25:21 +0000

So when is the last time Michigan has had an offense that CONSISTENTLY put up at least 35 points. Michigan offenses have came into seasons heralded as top in the country, but typically the performance on the field doesn’t quite live up to the hype. Nothing against Lloyd Carr, but dynamic wasn’t exactly his favorite expression when it came to the playbook. Clumsy offensive play typically led to long third downs and too many stalled drives for the talent that was out there on the field. Now, last year’s offensive display was THE WORST I could have ever imagined – after having so much confidence and built up excitement going into the Utah game. That’s what you get when you start a quarterback that literally was incapable of moving an offense forward down the field. Seriously, think back to the Penn State game. It was 17-17 late in the third quarter and Sheridan had to relieve Threet and you just knew that the offense had literally no hope of moving forward. Anyway, enough on Sheridan and inept play at the position, I want to get at what this offense could be with the right athletes. Not only will it be exciting, we are going to see speed and depth at the skill positions like never before. An opened up playbook that will give Tate – or whatever athlete that is playing behind center – options on every play. Like Tate was quoted in saying that in this offense there should never be an incompletion. Let’s hope he can at least be around or above 60% completion.

Bottom line: when the system is working . NOBODY will want to play Michigan. And I’ve said it before, I want the Big House to be a place where teams dread coming to. It’s time to get some serious winning streaks started in the big house….