Michigan 34, Nebraska 3, Post Game Discussion.

[Mike]

I put a lot of that on the WRs too. They don’t get separation and there’s been some ill-timed jumps when they could have run under the ball.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Here's what Brian Cook had to say about this issue in his game write up today:

Just one please. Deep shots are officially Grim. The above went through Cornelius Johnson's hands, and maybe he was running inside the numbers when he should have been running outside the numbers, and maybe that goes through his hands and he should grab it, etc. Apportioning blame is not where Michigan wants to be one game before Ohio State. ........

I don't really know what to do with this. Michigan is 96th in 30+ yard pass plays. A year ago they were 24th. Cade McNamara didn't have a whole lot of trouble hitting guys downfield even without Ronnie Bell; all the complaining about Johnson this year was pretty muted last year when he was torching OSU DBs.......

'm not sure I buy the "Josh Gattis is that good as a WR coach" theory since around these parts we talk about the Wile E Coyote year where you don't drop off immediately after the linchpin coach leaves, but a year after that. The WRs are basically the same as they were last year; they didn't suddenly forget all their stuff. Also… I mean… Miami. Not good at offense.

At this point there's enough sample size to believe that this is not good, but also not enough to confirm it. We just have to hope that some of this is randomness and Lady Luck is in Michigan's favor down the road.........

Things that aren't Lady Luck, though. McCarthy does not appear to be making the correct throws much of the time. The above is an attempted fade to Bell where Bell appears to be looking for the back shoulder since his guy is in phase or over the top. The shot at Anthony was a reasonable decision since the underneath guys were covered, but the throw was an attempt to be perfect instead of going for the Jane Coaston All PI Offense approach: punt it up and let your guy go get it.

We've talked about this on the podcast the last couple weeks; it seems like Michigan is philosophically opposed to punting it up. In general, I agree with this—we've seen what building your offense around jump balls looks like for much of this season. But if you've got the ball and you're throwing it deep and there's not a lot of separation the right thing to do is punt it up and let your guy go get it; instead we've got a distinct tendency to try to throw the DO +5 ball instead of letting your WR moss someone.

I think its pretty clear that Brain Cook has an idea what the problem with the deep ball is (in red) ...... its a game strategy thing that the coaches are responsible for and it's probably not being practiced/repped. Having your QB "punt it up and let your receive moss it" has risks. Johnson, Wilson and Anthony, probably not Ronnie Bell, are capable of making a play on a contested jump ball. They aren't being given the chance and that is pretty consistent with the JH low risk game theory stuff he embraces.

Do we need the long ball? Not against the Illini and JJ's passing game is OK with the short and intermediate throws that move the chains and complement the run game. But to get to the CCG M needs it to beat osu and the likelihood that crd is going to go air raid and challenge M to keep up. That's what he's got on offense and he's going to use it .... duhhh. He does not want a rock fight and I don't think Harbaugh can force that on crd unless the weather dictates it. If the wx is decent, M cannot keep up with the kind of game osu will undoubtedly run in c-bus. Trying to play keep away from stroud and his receivers with 12 play drives that may or may not end up with TDs isn't going to hack it. osu can score the first, second, third and so forth time they receive a KO in 1-3 plays with osu's receivers doing inhuman athletic things to make impossible catches.

[iam416]

The NFL and the best CFB offenses complete deep balls in tight coverage. It’s not a punt if you’re good. It wasn’t s a punt if you’re not good. If a WR has a step, man, you got be able to hit that on occasion.

[Hannibal]

There is more to M's underachieving passing game issues than McCarthy overthrowing the deep balls. He has been missing too many of the short to medium passes too. His receivers rarely help him out by grabbing a contested ball, and they've had some drops in there too. The passing game has rarely looked in sync this year. When was the last time that you said to yourself "man, JJ's really in a rhythm today". The 2nd half against Indiana? Even in that game in the first half our passing game didn't do much.

For a team that only has to pass 20 times a game, we should be a lot more efficient at it.

[THE_WIZARD_]

shaddup

[WM Wolverine]

Unless a defensive back makes a mistake, our receivers are no threat to get open deep and even then, McCarthy can't get the ball to them. He's supposedly able to make these throws in practice, so

[shaddup]

shaddup

Me

[THE_WIZARD_]

Don't make me bring STFU in here...

[STFU]

me

[THE_WIZARD_]

Oh shit...

[Dr. Strangelove]

Expel Nebraska. See if Kansas State is interested.

[edindetroit]

Expel Michigan State

[Mike]

Or at least put their players on electronic monitoring.