3/4ths of a Game Recap: Western Michigan

Well, that was....weird.  The only game I have been involved with or seen cancelled before the end of regulation due to weather actually happened this year at a high school spring game I was at just this past May.  Same situation, lightning, and a very similar result:  Holy Crap that was close, everybody get the hell outta here!  As I said in my stream of consciousness post, I was disappointed that they didn't finish the game, but yesterday at the West Virginia - Marshall game we were reminded of why it was ultimately a good idea.  WVU and West Virginia State Police have since said that the rumor was false and that the stadium had been struck by lightning, but not a person.  Regardless if it's true or not, lightning strikes in the area are not to be messed around with.  As much as I wanted to see the rest of the game, the safety of those involved has to come first.

Let's hope the weather is better next week. [John T Greilick, Detroit News]

 Okay then, on with the show.  I am not entirely sure how I want these recaps to be formatted and what all I plan to include in here weekly, so let's just see what develops.  My intent is to keep this fairly short and general.  There will be plays/drives/situations that I will single out later on for in-depth dissection, but my intent is to not do that here.  I guess what I'm thinking is something along of the lines of:

• What worked and what didn't?
• Who stood out (good and bad)?
• Hero/Goat (if any)
• Player(s) of the game
• Look ahead to next week

More of this please...

Blitzing.  Unfortunately, this is because of something that didn't work, but we'll get to that shortly.  Whether it was A gap, twisting off the edge, overloading one side, or bringing a Safety, the blitz packages worked very well and I was pleased by them.  The best way these coaches can help out the struggling secondary is to force the QB to throw before he wants to.

Kovacs' huge play came off the edge on a blitz. [David Guralnick, Detroit News]

Turnovers...FOR?  I was bold enough in my game predictions to say that the Defense would account for at least three sacks (officially there were only two, both by Kovacs courtesy of the blitz, but there were several other times Carder rushed for one or two yards after a short scramble) and two turnovers.  Well, I had that backwards because the Defense forced THREE turnovers, while the Offense did not turn it over once.  Let me say that again.  Michigan was PLUS THREE in turnover margin in a real live football game.  Including turning it over ZERO times on Offense.  Wow.  Yes please.

Herron with the Pick Six (Note: The large man in the blue shirt in the first row, middle of the picture is BB super recruit Mitch McGary and I think that's Novak next to him.  Looks like he's enjoying himself.) [John T. Greilick, Detroit News]

O-Line wearing down the opposing D-Line.  This brought me back to the days of Carr and his predecessors.  The Michigan OL is not as big and pounding as those lines of days past, but they did start wearing the Western front out in the third quarter.  The three play drive in which both Fitz and Shaw had 40+ yard runs displayed some real manhandling up front that lead to enormous holes.  Generally speaking, the Western front got their tails whipped and there were DL that were driven 15+ yards downfield or all the way to the sideline.  This trend was continuing on a smaller scale on the next drive as U-M appeared to be on the way in to score again before the second and ultimately final weather delay.  I'm sure the Bronco defenders got an earful after those two long runs and that'll help them dig a little deeper and find a little something to hold their ground a little better, but once you are worn down by a stronger opponent there isn't really much you can do at that point.  See second half, Wisconsin vs Michigan, 2010. 

NO PENALTIES.  Okay, there was a delay of game penalty on the punt team, but that's it.  Seriously.  No turnovers and one penalty by the squad that sucked it up all day?  Who are these guys?  But seriously, lack of penalties is a product of two things:  excellent focus on the players part and great coaching.

...but I could do without this, at least until it's fixed.

Special Teams, WTF?  Seriously, WTF was that?  This drives me crazy.  Special Teams is one-third of the game and can win or lose you a contest at any time.  You must be sound in the kicking game if you are going to experience any success, just look at the last few years.  Let's recap what we saw from this unit on Saturday.  WMU averaged 31.3 yards per kickoff return, routinely starting near or beyond the 40 yard line.  There was poor lane discipline from the coverage all day long resulting in enormous holes for the returner to stroll through.  If you are going to allow the other team to start at or near the 40, you might as well just kick it out of bounds every time and remove the chance they return it all the way on you.  This is sickening.

What else?, Well Jeremy Gallon fumbled his 12,649,091st punt.  Luckily, it was covered immediately by him, but how many times do we need to see this before he's not back there anymore?  I would take Junior Hemmingway back there with the knowledge that he is not going to break a huge return over Gallon every time because I know he will field the ball cleanly and he's not going to do something stupid.  I feel like I know Gallon is going to do something stupid every time.  I just don't understand all the chances he's gotten as returner.

Now, on to the blocked PAT.  So many things are wrong here it's scary.  First and foremost, every FG/PAT must start with a good snap.  This snap is very bad and the holder actually does a great job just to get it down.  IIRC, the snap would have gone behind the holders head, that's how high and to the left it was.  Gibbons actually does a decent job of not letting the bad snap and scrambling hold interrupt his rhythm entirely and actually kicks the ball.  After the snap and hold, the next most important thing is that the line must block down so as to not allow any interior penetration.  This obviously doesn't happen as there is immediate penetration right up the middle.  Obviously, the kick is blocked, but here is the part that bothers me the most.  After the kick is blocked, no one except Kevin Koger goes after the football.  They are all standing there, watching it roll towards Western's sideline.  Once they see Koger hustling after the ball some of them react and follow, but if he isn't there to make the play then it's probably too late for anyone else to catch him.  Okay, I get it.  It's only two points and it wouldn't have made a difference in the outcome, but this is a lack of hustle #1 and #2 it seemed like they didn't know what to do in that situation.  That alarms me the most.  Maybe it was just a situation of the guys being slow to react, I don't know.

The reason this all bothers me so much is it appears to me that the coaches have not spent much time on Special Teams during camp/practice.  Special Teams has been such a glaring weakness of this program for years and I would have thought that it would have been thoroughly addressed at this point.  I hope/expect it will be a huge focus this week.

Soft Corners.  Over and over again, especially early on, Western's receivers were given 10+ yard cushions on either or both the outside and the slot.  I hate this with a passion.  I understand that you have to give your younger/slower/less experienced guys more room so they don't get burned, but giving all that cushion is just handing the other team 5-10 or more yards on every snap.  Any time I see this, I tell my QB to read the coverage and identify the off player.  If he is over the outside receiver, we will just run a hitch or a tunnel screen.  If the off defender is over the slot receiver, we will throw the bubble.  Over and over until they adjust.  I won't call another play because if they are going to give me that, I'll take it until they aren't willing to give it to me anymore.  It's that simple and that's exactly what Carder did on Saturday.  Mattison did adjust and there was some tighter coverage later on but I just can't stand when the defense says here you go, you can have this.

Yeah, it's raining.  So?

Third Down Defense.  The Defense has got to do a better job of getting off the field.  Western was 6-11 on third down and 1-1 (with a TD) on fourth down.  Too many times the defense went to a soft zone and Carder had all day to sit in the pocket and wait for his receiver to find the soft spot in the zone.  I much prefer the later strategy employed by Mattison in which WMU got into the Red Zone and he came with three straight house blitzes.  Obviously when you do that you are putting your corners on an island and you will get burned on that from time to time, but I will take that over sitting back and waiting to get picked apart every time.

Pressure on the QB without blitzing.  This was non-existent.  The first snap of the game, Martin came flying over the line and hit Carder almost before he got the snap (doing a pretty good Troy Polamalu impression for a 300 pounder) but that is the only time I recall the front line getting a hit on the QB without the benefit of the blitz.  Those guys have to be able to get pressure on their own or this could be another long season for this defense.

The weather.  Uh, yeah.  Let's not do that again.  I wasn't even there and it was annoying.  Although I understand it felt really good when it started raining because it was such a heat relief.  Again, yes it was necessary for the safety of all involved but it somehow didn't seem fair for Hoke's first game to go down like that and for all of us that had been waiting with such anticipation to only get to see a little bit.  Just a little tease really.

Standouts

The Good - Offense:

Lewan - No penalties = good
Koger - Nothing spectacular, but a couple of solid grabs and his presence was felt.
Molk - Made some devastating blocks on the long runs.
Fitz - I am excited about what this guy can do if he can stay healthy.
Schofield - Nice job filling in, and out of position too.

The Not So Good - Offense:

Roundtree - 2 balls for 13 yards?  I expect more out of him.
Denard - There were several times I felt he should have pulled the ball down and taken off, particularly on the 3rd and 3 that he tried to go deep to Koger.  Just get the 1st down man.
I'm disappointed we didn't see either of the freshman backs or Odoms, but then again we didn't get to see much since the O only ran 39 snaps.

The Good - Defense:

Herron - Duh.
Kovacs - Maybe the best game I've seen him play.
Ryan - Hello, and welcome young man.
Avery - Made a couple of good plays and looks bigger and stronger
Demens - Doesn't really know how to blitz effectively yet, but got some good pressure and played pretty well overall.

The Not So Good - Defense:

The D-Line - Must get more pressure, must lead this defense if it's going to go anywhere.  Where in the world was Roh?
C. Johnson - Whoa.  Let's hope that was an aberration.
Beyer - Tough spot for a rookie, made rookie mistakes (quite a few)
Corners on downfield throws - They have got to work on turning around and finding the ball.  Not only are you more likely to avoid the flag, but make a play on the ball!

Player of the Game

Mother Nature.  Once she showed up, she dominated every aspect of this game.  Seriously though, Herron is the easy choice and I don't mean to downplay what he did, but he was kind of the beneficiary of being in the right place at the right time.  Now there's something to be said for that for sure, but my player of the game is going to a guy that just flat out makes plays.  He really impressed me and does the little things as well as the big plays.  My player of the game:  Jordan Kovacs.

Next Week

If you don't know what's happening next week, I have no use for you.  Begone.  Seriously.  Beat the Irish.