Why did our offense look so good today?

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lars3212

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Let's just get it out of the way: time management at the end of the game was an absolute disaster, and that's on the coaches.

That being said, our offense actually looked really good against one of the best defenses in the nation. Is that on the coaches too?
 

Today was the one time in a long time that I wasn't confident about what plays they were going to call... It does seem like they opened up the offense more. Don't forget Michigan is the #1 defense in all of College football also. But that last drive baffled me. They played safe for the most part, but got some good plays when they needed to. Like I said, it seemed like Claeys was confused at if he wanted to play for the tie or the win... but as they got big plays, he eventually wanted to go for the win.

Until 19 seconds left...
 

To be honest it looked great for 99% of the game because the conservative micromanager was gone. I appreciate what Jerry did but this much is clear to me.
 

RolGnav said:
Today was the one time in a long time that I wasn't confident about what plays they were going to call... It does seem like they opened up the offense more. Don't forget Michigan is the #1 defense in all of College football also. But that last drive baffled me. They played safe for the most part, but got some good plays when they needed to. Like I said, it seemed like Claeys was confused at if he wanted to play for the tie or the win... but as they got big plays, he eventually wanted to go for the win.

Until 19 seconds left...
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This (bold). They weren't predictable, for a change. Well, until the very last play of the game, when the D lined up four guys offsides, all over the ball, and everyone, everywhere watching that game knew exactly the play that was coming.
 

I thought the play calling was much more aggressive than any other time this year. We knew we would have to throw the ball to win.

We were also lucky. We had the tipped ball to Lingen, the pick 6 that #5 dropped, the TD to Still was a bad throw to which Still made a great adjustment. Leidner also threw into double coverage on more than one occasion was lucky not to have it intercepted.

We also could have done better. The pass interference that was not called against Brooks could have been a TD if Leidner did not under throw him. There was a pass his the first half (I think our 2nd FG) where Leidner tried to throw to Maye who was covered, and he looked right over Lingen in the flat who was WIDE open and could have possibly gotten a TD.

Anyway, once the game went on and the breaks were going our way, Leidner became more confident than I've ever seen him and he made some great throws. The Running game clicked, and I thought the Leidner runs were at the perfect time. The pump fake and throw to Wolitarsky was perfect. There is definitely a lot to build on here.
 


Agreed, the fact that we opened the playbook and showed Michigan we weren't scared to pass (for once) really opened things up for us. I liked what I saw.
 



Sparlimb said:
Yeah that made a big difference. Thank goodness their dbacks can't catch.
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Their DB's definitely dropped some easy picks. The long ball to Lingen should have been picked and Peppers had a Pick 6 on the beautiful read he made. That said the offense did a good job in not being predictable for a change. They went against tendencies and mixed things up far better then they have to this point. Now the question is was this a flash in the pan for the offense or the start of something better.
 



Play calling was better during the stretch kill was out 2 years ago too.


I think sometimes it is better to have one voice calling plays instead of two.
 

The offense played very well. Our receivers made plays like we have seen other teams like OSU and TCU make against us. Leidner made great decisions and passed well.
Was it on the last drive where Leidner kept the read option and just got tripped up with about 35 open yards between him and the end zone?
 

Could have looked even better had they run Mitch sooner. Could have made bigger difference in first half.


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MaxyJR1 said:
Could have looked even better had they run Mitch sooner. Could have made bigger difference in first half.


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Could have, but maybe not. The gameplan was clearly to come in throwing deep off play action in order to soften Mich up...get a guy out of the box and get LB's and Safeties stepping backwards. Perhaps that worked, which is why zone read worked in the 2nd half. As we've seen in other games, just coming out running zone in the 1st half hasn't been super successful this year.

Bottomline, the gameplan last night was genius on both sides of the ball. Sucks that many of us nearly cried ourselves to sleep last night, lol...we should be celebrating!
 




MNVCGUY said:
Now the question is was this a flash in the pan for the offense or the start of something better.
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Indeed, that is the question. A win in next week's game would appear to be outside the realm of realistic possibility. The best we could probably do is keep the game close. The real test will be the last 3 games. If we can play like this we have a realistic chance against both Iowa and Wisconsin. If Claeys & Company can win two of the last three, then I'm sold.
 

goldengophers said:
To be honest it looked great for 99% of the game because the conservative micromanager was gone. I appreciate what Jerry did but this much is clear to me.
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Yes. The coaches actually trusted the players and played to win instead of not to lose.


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Teams will now game plan for the TE. This may open up something else. Every week is a different game.


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MGGopher said:
Could have, but maybe not. The gameplan was clearly to come in throwing deep off play action in order to soften Mich up...get a guy out of the box and get LB's and Safeties stepping backwards. Perhaps that worked, which is why zone read worked in the 2nd half. As we've seen in other games, just coming out running zone in the 1st half hasn't been super successful this year.

Bottomline, the gameplan last night was genius on both sides of the ball. Sucks that many of us nearly cried ourselves to sleep last night, lol...we should be celebrating!
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Gameplan was great and the execution of it was very good. Performances like this make games like Kent State even more frustrating. How can a team that could only manage 10 points against Kent State roll up over 400 yards against one of the best defenses in the country?
 

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