Jabrill Peppers (image via Fansided)
That went about how I expected. I didn’t think Colorado would jump out to a 14-0 or 21-7 lead early in the game, but I thought their tempo and creativity would be a problem for Michigan initially. Sometimes it takes Michigan a few minutes to get used to the other team’s tempo before they settle in, and that was the case against the Buffaloes. Maybe it’s because they don’t play against tempo in practice, but it takes an adjustment period. I also think some Michigan fans were underestimating Colorado based on their last few years, but they have a lot of experience, some quality receivers, and a pretty good quarterback on offense, along with a couple good corners and a couple solid front-seven players on defense. I predicted a 31-17 win for Michigan, so this was more of a high-scoring affair, but I knew it would be a fight.
Hit the jump for more.
Thank goodness we recruited that one guy from Paramus Catholic. It’s not often that you see a linebacker returning punts and kickoffs, but Jabrill Peppers was all over the field on Saturday. On defense, he made 9 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, and 1 sack. On offense, he carried the ball 2 times for 24 yards. As a punt returner, he had 4 returns for 99 yards and a 54-yard touchdown. As a kickoff returner, he had 2 returns for 81 yards. So Michigan’s top defensive player had 204 all-purpose yards and 1 touchdown. He gave Michigan short fields when the offense wasn’t clicking, he sniffed out reverses, and he tore through the offensive line before the big linemen could get a hand on him. I know some people are talking about him as a Heisman candidate, and he’s going to have to make some plays against MSU, OSU, etc. if he wants to get to New York. But at the end of the year or in ten years, we may be talking about this game as the The Game for Peppers.
I’m officially concerned about the safeties. Michigan’s safeties got burned to a crisp on Saturday, and unfortunately, that includes Peppers (though few will remember). Delano Hill allowed a touchdown, Dymonte Thomas allowed a touchdown, and the combo of Peppers/Thomas allowed a touchdown. Colorado obviously did a good job of getting their receivers into situations where they were matched up with the safeties, and that’s one thing you can do when you spread out a defense. I mentioned before the season that I was a little bit worried about the departure of safeties coach Greg Jackson (now the defensive backs coach for the Dallas Cowboys), though we’ll never know how much of an effect that has. Mike Zordich and Jackson’s replacement, Brian Smith, are splitting corner and safety duties, and neither one is as accomplished as Jackson. I thought Thomas took a step forward during the second half of 2015, but he’s made some big errors here in the first few games.
Come back, Jourdan Lewis. I don’t know for sure what the lineup would look like against a spread offense if Lewis were healthy, but I’m mostly sure that it would be better. I would be tempted to run out a 4-2-5 nickel (or 4-1-6 dime, depending on how you view Peppers) against teams that are going to spread it out like the Buffaloes. Along with a rotating defensive line, I would look to lift Mike McCray and send out Ben Gedeon, Peppers, Lewis, Channing Stribling, Jeremy Clark, Dymonte Thomas, and Delano Hill. I might even yank a safety to put Clark out there, depending on the coverage.
This is more what I expected out of Wilton Speight before the season. I don’t want to say the first two games were a mirage, but Hawaii and Central Florida are not very good. Speight was generally throwing to wide-open receivers, and he wasn’t facing a ton of pressure. Colorado has a good defensive coordinator in Jim Leavitt, and cornerback Chidobe Awuzie basically should have been avoided. In fact, both Colorado’s corners played very well and weren’t overmatched physically like the players on Michigan’s first two opponents’ squads. Speight finished the game 16/30 for 229 yards, 1 TD, and 0 interceptions; he also had 6 total carries for -14 yards. He made a couple inexplicably poor throws that should have been intercepted, and he was inaccurate on some others. I trust Harbaugh when it comes to quarterbacks, but this game was reminiscent of Jake Rudock in the early going of 2015. Speight is going to have to improve, because this defense was more like the defenses he’s going to see in the Big Ten over the next nine games. Also, I don’t know what Speight was thinking when he kept the ball on a boot, gained a few yards, and then slowed down/lowered his shoulder against Colorado outside linebacker Jimmie Gilbert, who promptly blasted Speight off the sideline and knocked his helmet half-off. Good for Gilbert. Dumb for Speight.
Speaking of QBs, what was up with Morris and O’Korn early? In case you missed it, Shane Morris came in early to be a lead blocker on a toss sweep, and John O’Korn came in to hand off the ball. I think those plays were designed to be successful as stand-alone plays, but they were also designed to mess with the heads of future opponents. Now Penn State, Wisconsin, etc. have to look at those packages, spend time in practice or in the film room, and say, “What do we do with this Shane Morris when he’s in the game?” or “How do we defend John O’Korn when he’s out there in a package with Jabrill Peppers and Eddie McDoom?” And as a team or a staff, you have to decide how much time to devote to those things; whatever time you devote, you’re not spending on defending Speight, De’Veon Smith, Jehu Chesson, Amara Darboh, Jake Butt, etc.
It’s frustrating that jet sweeps are a base part of the run game out of necessity. Jehu Chesson, Eddie McDoom, and Jabrill Peppers combined for 7 jet sweeps and 59 yards. That’s a pretty good rushing average, and Chesson scored a 17-yard touchdown, but Michigan used to be able to run right at a team like Colorado and have success. Jet sweeps won’t be quite as successful against the better teams in the Big Ten, and Michigan’s going to have to get better up front if they want to run the ball traditionally. Another thing is that Michigan still doesn’t have that guy in the backfield who’s a do-everything back with speed, strength, vision, etc. The Wolverines are muddling along with guys who can do one thing or another, but not everything on one given play.
Thank goodness we recruited that other guy from Paramus Catholic. Rashan Gary had 4 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, and 2 quarterback hurries while relieving Chase Winovich at weakside end. Gary’s already a solid player three games into his freshman year. Winovich gets pushed around because he’s only 245 lbs., and that’s going to be more apparent as the schedule improves and teams have offensive tackles who can deal with his quickness a little better. He can still be a pest and play situationally once Taco Charlton comes back from injury, but it’s nice to have a guy like Gary, who can play some weakside end in a pinch.
Thank goodness we let that guy from Novi walk on to the team. Congratulations to Michael Jocz, the walk-on tight end who blocked a punt with his face and allowed Grant Perry to pick it up for a touchdown. Maybe I underrated him when I ranked him at #69 in this year’s countdown.
Michigan: Destroyer of Quarterbacks? In all three games this year, Michigan has forced teams to go to at least two quarterbacks, if not three. Hawaii seemingly chose to go to Dru Brown because of underperformance, but injuries have knocked out the starters for Central Florida and Colorado the past two weeks. It was especially unfortunate for Colorado, though, whose Sefo Liufau was 16/25 for 246 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 0 picks, including a 70-yard touchdown bomb on an ankle that was clearly hurting. Liufau eventually went to get X-rayed and ended the game standing on the sideline under his own power, so I’m guessing it was some sort of sprain. But I really liked his toughness and attitude post-injury, not to mention a high level of play before the injury. If he’s healthy, Colorado is a dangerous team. They had a chance to win this game before backup Steven Montez came in to go 0/7 with 2 sacks.
The redshirt blowtorch continues. Freshman defensive end Carlo Kemp saw his first game action in this game, so here’s the short list of redshirting players from the 26 signees remaining from the 2016 class:
- WR Nate Johnson
- DE Ron Johnson
- LB Elysee Mbem-Bosse
- K Quin Nordin
- QB Brandon Peters
- OG Stephen Spanellis
- RB Kareem Walker
What does all this mean for the long-term? It means Michigan still doesn’t have a great offensive line or running backs, but we’ve known that for years. Tim Drevno’s not a miracle-worker with the OL. It is what it is, and Michigan will continue to have to manufacture yards on the ground by scheming misdirection, jet sweeps, etc. Michigan’s defense is prone to allowing big plays, especially without its All-American corner. And it means Wilton Speight is far from a finished product at the quarterback position; the jury’s still out on whether he’s capable of carrying this team. I’ve said it before, but I think this is a good team, but it’s flawed. I predicted 11-1 before the season with a loss to Ohio State, and I’d be more inclined to say 10-2 or 9-3 before picking a 12-0 season.
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Harbaugh claimed Colorado to have 20 kids who have started games in previous seasons. My Buffalo buddy in Denver told me the number was 26. Regardless, that’s a lot of guys with combat experience who are probably thinking, “It’s our turn now”. Give them Liufau for the entire game and this is a one score football game and the fear around here is palpable. I hope that kid just got a glorified owwy and get’s his senior season, I think he’s a real good college QB. I also think that this is another team that will have enjoyed a significantly better 2016 than they did their 2015 season.
I thought Speight’s post game field interview was outstanding and revealing of the kid. Here’s the link, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d35QNDDyiQ. His interview starts at about 2:15. He comes out saying that he didn’t play well the whole game, which we all know, but I’m giving the kid points for owning it on TV. Then Speight confesses to the biggest hit he’s ever taken, which impressed me. Then whatshername tells him that his feet were so big in this game. I start giggling, because frankly, that kid’s feet have been big in every game he’s ever played and I’m wondering what she’s really thinking.
But the part I really liked was right at the end where he’s explaining how he’s always been able to move around in the pocket and dunk it out there under pressure. Catch his head at about 3:20. Guys with shake can never explain it because it’s from God himself. They always have to show you with their head and shoulders. Our boy Wilton has some shake.
I like this kid even better after a game where he kind of sucks than I did before. I think some pretentious draft guru is gonna tell us how he reminds him of Big Ben after it’s all said and done. Big Ben would be real ok with me.
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Some good points here I think, even if it’s feelingsball stuff. You can see character in the kid. The question is if there will be enough of it against OSU & MSU to overcome some of his physical limitations.
We need progress from our QB. I suspect a tough game like this will help.
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My take aways:
– offensive play calling at the beginning of the game was bizarre, with those weird packages and high tempo, luckily coaches came to their senses and reverted to the ball control offence
– to me a Don Brown defense is far more high risk/high reward than Mattison’s or Durkin’s… I still think we should have hired Leavitt but he has a major black mark on his resume
– the team’s inability to consistently run power is killing the offence and I am not sure sure when it will be fixed, it took Stanford 4 years under Harbaugh to have a dominating Oline, who knows how long with will take at Michigan
– Ohio St will crush us in Columbus, we won’t come within 20 of them. The rest of the games are actually winnable if the injured players come back
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yes the run game is flawed and much has to do with the OL and TEs blocking but its also on the RBs. theyll run power and smith or isaac or whoever will have a 6 yard lane open to the backside and they either dont see or know they cant get to it and through it quick enough but either way, they just run into the backs of linemen or into the chests of defenders for 3 yards almost every time.
they dont have a dominant OL right now but a decent portion of that could be offset if evans or higdon or maybe even isaac prove theyre consistently capable of reading D’s and blocking, finding lanes, accelerating to the open grass and running thru an arm tackle or 2 – if not, theyll have to pass to run and manufacture yards in the run game as theyve been forced to do almost every game past few years. its frustrating to watch but im sure its even worse in the film room
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How much of the defenses struggles are because the new defense is complicated and it’s a lot of new reads/responsibilities for the safeties? Brown’s defenses have tended to tread water in the first year while giving up a bunch of big plays, before he clamps down on that going into years 2&3. Obviously much different talent level and experience at Michigan, but considering how we’ve heard about confusion from opposing OCs, wouldn’t be surprised if the Michigan secondary is still learning it all.
The play that seems to hurt the defense the most is the slant. Is it because the LBs aren’t dropping into coverage and are being used to blitz? What’s the answer to that? Are they limiting the playbook on defense the way they were on offense?
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I think the more complex defense is a good-sized chunk of it. It doesn’t explain everything, but it’s part of it. Some of it is just poor play. For example, the touchdown on the corner route over Dymonte Thomas was just poor technique by Thomas. The post route that beat Peppers/Thomas, in my opinion, is partly due to Peppers playing so many different positions. It’s tough to play down at the line of scrimmage 80% of the time and then move back to a MOF safety.
Slants are going to be an issue on the inside if you’re going to blitz linebackers a lot. You end up playing man coverage, and it’s tough to jam slot receivers at the LOS because they have so much room to run outside if they want to run an out, a wheel, a seam, a corner, etc. So you end up playing off and allowing those slants, and they’re tough to defend when you have linebackers there instead of corners or safeties. Part of that can be fixed with personnel. Part can be fixed with play calls (running more zone coverage). Part of it can be fixed with individual technique. It hurts, but then again, every team chooses to give up something in exchange for something else. In this case, those slants didn’t turn into big plays for Colorado, and Michigan was able to come up and tackle. I think that’s something you’re willing to give up against teams who don’t have truly elite slot receivers with the ball in their hands. Jabrill Peppers catching that slant is a huge problem for most safeties. Devin Ross? Not to take anything away from a guy who played a very good game, but he’s not an elite guy with the ball in his hands.
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I am with everyone on concern. Other sites seem to think M came around and took care of business. I don’t think it is that simple. If Lifau stays in it is 50/50 on winning this game. It was not just the safeties, they figured out the holes in the secondary and could move the ball consistently. Hopefully M can tighten up, but concerning.
Agree on O-line. Plus the pipeline does not look great. Other than Brederson and especially Owennu, no road graders. M really needs to get a helluva Oline haul this year.
Next year looks like a good year for M, but with a slight rebuild on the DL and a major rebuild on the OL. It may be awhile before we beat OSU. I still think MSU is a win this year. My guess is 10 – 2 finish for M.
Thunder question on O line. Do you see a potentially dominant line with Newsome, Brederson, Owennu and any other recruits? I Just don’t see the type of lineman to impose their will on the defense in the program right now.
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It was 17-0 in the 2dQ with their starting QB still healthy. They only mustered about 30+ yards in that quarter…
I’m not brushing third game off, look around the national landscape: we took a knockdown punch to the face and responded really well
Are we ready for ohio? Probably not, but I don’t think anyone called for that road win preseason, and they look MUCH better, MUCH sooner than expected
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Sure…but then in the third quarter, Liufau threw a 70-yard bomb for a TD on a bum ankle, and Colorado was up 28-24 after that.
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Yes sir… like you said, we’re going to give up a big play. ONE big play after the 1st Q… Their QB started taking (hard) hits in the 2d Qtr, and we beat up their OL consistently after the 1st. He was on his way out sooner or later, and probably escaped without serious injury
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Then they took the lead back in the third quarter, and dropped what would have been a TD pass from their backup after that, so if their starting QB hadn’t gotten hurt, it’s a pretty good bet that the game would have been in doubt right down to the end.
After three games, expectations going forward definitely have to be downgraded. OSU is a definite loss, and MSU is a 50-50 shot for us at best. Iowa and Wisconsin did not look very formidable yesterday, but we also looked much more like a team that could lose games they shouldn’t. We certainly haven’t given the impression of being a team that can beat quality competition.
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Calling OSU a “definite loss” is ridiculous at this point, about 2 months before the game is played. Michigan has enough talent to hang with OSU, and a lot can change in 2 months.
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I think it’s potentially dominant, yes. I’m very high on Newsome and Bredeson. Onwenu has potential, but he needs to get off the ball better. Cole can be very good if we’re talking about 2017 and he hasn’t left yet. I liked what I saw out of Runyan and Ulizio in the spring. It’s not clear how the 2017 recruiting class will shake out, and I think Kai-Leon Herbert was a big loss. We’ll see what happens with Tedarrell Slaton, Isaiah Wilson, Alex Leatherwood, Chuck Filiaga, etc.
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Did Kai-Leon decommit? I had not seen anything about it.
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Well…not officially. Yet.
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Gotcha
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I’m worried about the safety play too. But I’m not sure why we’re not putting the blame on Brown. Jackson’s profile has been overstated in the Michigan blogosphere for years – he’s not significantly more qualified than either Dawkins or Zordich — all were assistants to NFL position coaches before coming to Michigan. None of them are former DCs (like Mattison). Meanwhile Durkin was a proven commodity as a high level DC (though people want to discount what he did at Florida) while Brown’s reputation was mostly built at lower levels (a la Rodriguez).
Jarrod Wilson almost never made mistakes – that was before Jackson and with him. That was also part of the design of the defense. Brown’s approach to safeties was touted (before the season even started) as a major difference between he and Durkin. Now we’re seeing some downside to that difference but (because of the all hype?) Brown seems to be above reproach.
Dial back the Jackson hype, dial back the Durkin scape-goating. Different assumptions will lead to different questions.
2 weeks in a row Michigan has been gashed by big plays from a spread offense. Brown was supposed to be the anti-spread guru, but it’s not playing out that way thusfar. It’s not as though it will be any easier against Indiana and Ohio State…
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I don’t know why I said Dawkins. I meant Smith.
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I think Brown’s taking a load of blame, especially from fans. (IMO) the busted Safety plays boil down to player mistakes, and from players who are seniors with a ton of experience
*Thunder is correct that JP shares blame on that first TD, which traces back to Brown having him play everywhere
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It’s the job of coaches to minimize player “mistakes”. Lapses on defense that result in big plays (of which we’ve suffered far too many to this point) are on the coaches, too.
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Isn’t that happening? Against CFU we gave up big runs, and lost discipline in pass rush, leading to big plays on the ground. We shut down the run on what many consider to be a fast & efficient offense yesterday
We blew a number of plays in the air yesterday, which I’m pretty sure gets cleaned up (at least until ohio)
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I happen to think Jackson has a better resume, not only as a coach (he helped coach up multiple All-Pro players at San Francisco, was part of a good defensive staff at Wisconsin) but as a player (long NFL career, All-American at LSU). NFL teams must think he’s more accomplished, too, or else they wouldn’t have hired Jackson to coach the Cowboys secondary while Smith took a co-secondary coaching job at Michigan. If you disagree, that’s your prerogative.
Wilson did indeed have some struggles early in his career. He improved with age, as many safeties do, but his first couple seasons were not very good, and I thought he was better in 2015 than in 2014. Obviously, the jury’s still out on Smith (and Zordich is partially responsible for the safeties this year), but we shouldn’t be seeing Colorado beat Michigan’s safeties deep for three touchdowns. If that improves throughout the season, then hooray. If it’s still a problem in week 8 or week 11, then I will remain unimpressed.
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Zordich was a college all-american, captain, and had a 12 year NFL career. I’m not sure where that gives Jackson an edge.
When you are on a staff/team it’s difficult to allocate credit. Jackson worked with some very good coaches at SF. Both worked with some very good coaches (and players) at UM. Clark, Stribling, and Lewis have all improved and the coaches deserve credit for that. I don’t think we have any clue about if that’s Jackson, Zordich, Durkin or some of their predecessors.
Jackson seems like a fine coach and I was bummed to see him go but if that is making an impact on the safeties this year or not is impossible to say right now, especially with the (supposedly) big changes Brown was bringing in.
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Again I agree about the concern. I just don’t see why it isn’t being focused on Brown.
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a) Brown isn’t the safeties coach.
b) It’s not a scheme issue. It’s a player performance issue. So either the kids are screwing up over and over again, or they’re not being coached properly. If it’s the latter, it’s more on the position coach.
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The job that Jackson was promoted to was the job Zordich had 4 years ago. Even though he has coached for 6 seasons longer, Jackson isn’t any more accomplished than Zordich, but he got a hell of a lot more hype.
Smith is less experienced now, than Jackson is now, but a year ago Jackson came to AA as an NFL assistant position coach, same as Smith. Smith has less experience (especially in the secondary) but this isn’t a massive dropoff. Smith could be in the NFL next year too for all we know.
I think putting all the credit/blame on position coaches without considering context (personnel, scheme) is extremely simplistic. It’s something you see a lot of in the NFL though (basically any coach who has worked with Brees, Manning, or Brady ends up getting promoted).
It seems clear to me that Brown’s safeties are asked to do a lot more than Durkin’s. At every other stop Brown has made that has translated into big plays given up in year 1. We heard again and again this offseason that Brown’s scheme requires good experienced DBs. Experience is a tough thing to get at when you change scheme.
In that context, putting things on the position coaches exclusively seems foolhardy.
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I’m not blaming any position coach exclusively. In fact, I indicated elsewhere in the post that I think Lewis’s injury is hurting the secondary, and here was my specific comment about Jackson/Smith/Zordich:
“I mentioned before the season that I was a little bit worried about the departure of safeties coach Greg Jackson (now the defensive backs coach for the Dallas Cowboys), though we’ll never know how much of an effect that has. Mike Zordich and Jackson’s replacement, Brian Smith, are splitting corner and safety duties, and neither one is as accomplished as Jackson. I thought Thomas took a step forward during the second half of 2015, but he’s made some big errors here in the first few games.”
I guess in your world, “We’ll never know how much of an effect that has” equals “I’m blaming this person exclusively.”
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The jet sweep stuff is nothing new. I thought the OL actually showed some improvement in run-blocking. Maybe I was wrong but to me there seemed to be more big holes consistently for Smith than there have been in a few years against a legit opponent. Smith’s big run was indicative of that but so was the consistency with which Michigan got 4 or 5 yard runs. Well, except for Isaac, who seems to have gotten most of his blocking luck last year and this year is pay-back from from the run-blocking Gods.
Michigan rushed for well over 4 ypc when you takeaway the Speights sacks. They had a whole bunch of redzone carries too, as they clearly wanted to pound the ball in. This is progress against a real opponent.
I came away encouraged by the run game, but discouraged about Speight.
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No, the jet sweeps aren’t new, but the number of them is. I don’t remember Michigan running seven jet sweeps in one game before.
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I guess I can’t point to a specific game but it was essentially a base part of the offense last year. This is Michigan’s way of spreading the field horizontally to keep defenses honest against the base run game. It was a staple all year but especially before Rudock got on-track (1st half of the year).
Maybe it was because Speight was ineffective yesterday and it was their only way to get Chesson going. Or maybe it was because they want McDoom to have the ball.
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Chesson was the go-to guy for jet sweeps last year, and his maximum number of carries was 2 in any game last year (that came against Northwestern). He had 3 in this game alone. It’s fine if you need it to win, but the concern is that you need it to win.
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1. We won 10 games last year when we needed it to win.
2. They ran the ball pretty well yesterday outside of those plays, at least compared to last year.
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They ran it 2 times a game last year (if that). They ran it 7 times yesterday.
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You say that like it’s a bad thing. If running jet sweeps more often gets the rest of the run game going then they should do it.
You’re assuming it’s because of bad run game, but the numbers don’t back it up. It’s not “out of necessity” anymore than in years past.
You need balance in your offense. How you get there doesn’t matter much. With a base power offense Michigan’s counter punch may be play action, spread passing or horizontal runs.
Yesterday the pass game wasn’t working as a counter punch so they tried the outside run stuff. It’s more an indictment of the pass game then the run game – which has been unreliable since 2011.
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We’re not saying totally different things. I think it’s bad that we NEED to run jet sweeps to open up the running game, because we should be able to run straight ahead at this point. But I also said that you have to do what you have to do to win. It’s fine if you need it to win, but it means a) we aren’t running the ball consistently up the middle and b) those jet sweeps probably aren’t going to work against Michigan State, Ohio State, etc.
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Agreed that the base run game isn’t where we want it to be (duh). The OL hasn’t progressed as far as I had hoped. It has progressed though, IMO.
The jet sweep stuff is what it is. It’s a good constraint/counter to the base offense. I don’t see using it more often as a symptom of something bad or new with the base run game. We ‘need’ it because neither the base run game nor the pass game are where they should be. The run game being behind is nothing new. The pass game being ineffective is news.
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The biggest head-scratcher to me was why they tried so hard to exploit the Darboh matchup. He must have had 10 targets that first half and the only one that worked was screen pass. He was covered every play, but Speight kept forcing it to him.
I don’t get it. To my eyes Chesson is clearly the better player, and I’m starting to think Perry might be too. Darboh is a solid player but against high level competition he just doesn’t get open very often.
The second half they eased up off the Darboh-centric approach and the ball finally started moving the right way.
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Last year Rudock-to-Chesson was the hot connection, and I heard even before the season that Speight and Darboh had developed a good relationship. I think it was a matter of a young quarterback trying to throw to his favorite receiver, rather than throwing to the open guy. Not because he’s selfish, but because that’s what he’s comfortable doing.
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Chesson was hurt. Time to adjust.
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He was?
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yeah
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The pass game was so Darboh-centric the first half that I think it has to have been on the coaches as well. I think what you’re saying is a part of it, but Harbaugh’s words indicates he was thinking the same way.
If Speight and the coaches see Darboh as their #1 pass threat they are making a big mistake IMO.
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Does anyone have thoughts on Brown’s use of safeties to defend slot WRs? This tweet is an example (and that person has a dozen other screencaps showing Brown’s alignments, which he criticizes):
https://twitter.com/ShawnLMartin/status/777624188618215424
I don’t know enough to evaluate. What is Brown thinking with this approach? Thanks.
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It seems dumb. Durkin was very very underrated. But nobody will care what happens to this defense until MSU and OSU.
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I went through that guy’s feed and I’m…unimpressed. But Michigan is in a certain coverage there where they’ve got Jeremy Clark on the tight end. The tweeter laments that it’s a two-man route, but there’s no way to know pre-snap whether the TE will release or not. Regardless, every team is going to have its safeties lined up on slot receivers sometimes. If you don’t do that, then it means you’re playing a dime defense all the time, or it means you never blitz. Safeties have to cover slot receivers, period.
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Isn’t it the same issue Brian Cook brought up? Michigan’s DBs seem at a numerical disadvantage by alignment. Brian implied this was something to clean up, but this twitter dude is arguing it’s inherent to the scheme (per BC last year).
And I think there’s something to it. Brown seems OK with selling out to stop the run and letting big plays rain down. Last year he handled the Clemson run game just fine, but Watson threw for 420 yards and 3 TDs. That’s Clemson and they were BC but Brown has a long track record of getting bombed through the air.
Given Big Ten QBs that’s a strategy that might make sense (including OSU here, as Barrett hasn’t always been consistent). But Brown’s resume isn’t bullet-proof enough to be above question. 2015 was his only elite D and even they got scored on consistently in a way that M’s 2015 D did not.
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I think we’re talking about two different things. Yes, there are some numerical disadvantages (such as 2 Michigan DBs covering 3 Colorado WRs to one side of the field). I’m talking about things like the touchdown to Shay Fields where he ran a post route and beat Dymonte Thomas/Jabrill Peppers. That’s not an alignment issue or a problem with the call. That’s pretty much on Peppers (mostly) and Thomas (some), because the defense should have been sound if executed properly.
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