Monday, June 23, 2008

Mailbag Question: Passing Attack

With the recent question regarding QBs, I guess I am wondering how Michigan's passing attack will look. I know that we can anticipate a wide-array of screens and shallow passes, but will we ever stretch the field and do our QBs have that capability? I know that running the ball is important and a part of Michigan's legacy, but when push came to shove, Michigan has always had the capability to throw darts all over the field. How many times do you anticipate Rodriguez throwing? Everybody always says that Rodriguez will take what the defense gives him, but with all these athletes in our backfield and that, he has recruited, will we be able to stretch the field? Does Threet have the ability to run the 4 and 5 wide receiver sets?
Thanks for answering.
Best,
Michigan Fan #1
Rob
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Thanks for the question. Depends on what you mean by stretch. Big part of any spread offense is the fade route. It is generally used any time Cornerbacks are playing press or tight coverage. Spreads also use some sort of skinny post, or safety read off the post look that will take advantage of safeties who decide to crowd the line of scrimmage.

When defenses show three deep coverage with Free Safety playing between the hashes teams like to run slots vertical to put Free Safety in a bind. All these routes are generally in the 15 to 20 yard vicinity. They are not the 50-yard bombs most of us have grown accustomed.

Even in pro style multiple Wide Receivers sets, teams that attack vertical do so with Tight End and Running Back helping in Max protection. These types of routes take time to develop and need the extra protection a Tight End and Running Back in the game provide.

As for the Quarterbacks, Threet and Feagin may not have the cannons Mallett showed, but both have more than enough arm to keep defenses honest.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think we all learned with Mallett that having a cannon for an arm isn't what makes for a good qb. Mallett hadn't quite learned the "touch" aspect of passing and with out that part, being able to rip peoples head off with a pass just isn't going to win games for a team.

GBMWolverine said...

Steve,

Well it is hard to get on Mallett (IMO) since he wasn't going to be used a lot unless the game was out of hand.

He was thrown into a situation that he wasn't ready for and then counted on guys that ended up being hurt and didn't play when he was in there.

The thing is to many people try and compare him to what Henne did his freshman year. To me that is tough to do since Henne was able to learn on the job training and was able to take EVERY SNAP that year and started every game. Then throw in whenever Henne got in trouble he would just throw the ball up to Braylon and he would just out jump the defenders.

Don't get me wrong Mallett needs to work on touch, but I think he had a lot of pressure on him because most of the time he didn't have a very good running game when he was quarterback. Hart was hurt a lot when Mallett was in the game.

It is funny how the fans can change so quickly...I remember at the Oregon game where everybody was chanting his name .... and now if you bring up the kids name you feel like you just killed a cat or something.

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