Michigan football O-Line improved at PSU, needs to be better in one area
Michigan football improved to 9-1 with a huge, 21-17 win at Penn State, led by Hassan Haskins and the running game. The offensive line spent all week working one area after a win over Indiana, and it paid off.
At the same time, the pass protection was leaky, especially on the left side of the line. Tackle Ryan Hayes struggled with the edge rush and was afforded help late in the game, Haskins aiding him at time in pass pro.
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“Specifically with Hayes, he gave up two big sacks — a bad set on the first, bad technique on the second one,” former Michigan lineman and current analyst Doug Skene said. “It’s not like they’re dramatic fixes. They’ll focus on the little things, and I’m sure [coach] Sherrone Moore was breaking down film.
“Hayes has played enough football to say, ‘yep. I screwed it up. I took a bad set.’ But it’s an easy fix so you don’t do it again.”
The line can probably get away with lapses like that against Maryland, but they’ll need to be better against Ohio State in 11 days. The good news — they take coaching well, and Moore has their undivided attention.
After the 29-7 win over Indiana, one in which stunts, twists and linebacker Micah McFadden gave them fits, Moore and Co. went back to the drawing board.
“Credit to them. They did a heck of a job defensively,” Moore said on Monday night’s Inside Michigan Football segment with Jon Jansen. “[McFadden] is a really good player, and we knew he was a good player. We’ve seen it all year — against every single team, he’s caused issues. They just did a really good job with their twists, their games, different little pick stunts. They did a really good job, and we didn’t do a great job passing them off.
“It’s something we worked on throughout the week, and we definitely progressed going into this past game. It really started the day after the game. Guys went and watched film themselves, did the studying, then when they came back on Monday — that’s really a day when the guys that played, they’re not in pads, but they still wanted to work on those twists. Every single day we did different things to help them with the twists and the movement, and it really paid off in the game.”
It was evident on film, Skene said. It started early in the game with PSU testing them early, but the left side was up to the task.
“There was one end tackle twist with an outside blitz, and [guard Trevor] Keegan and [center] Andrew Vastardis did a nice job passing it off. I thought they made an improvement, and they had to, because they’ll see it again,” he said. “But the blitz Indiana ran where McFadden got home … you didn’t see Penn State run that exact style, but what Penn State did when they did twist, Michigan did a better job.”
In short, they learned, and they took it upon themselves to improve. There’s movement in the defensive front seven on just about every snap nowadays, he noted, and every drill they do, everything they practice involves it.
But there’s never any complaining. There’s a lot of ‘want to’ among this unit, Moore said, and he’s excited to see how much better they can get.
“It’s a great group to be around,” he said. “The thing I love about them is they love football, love being around each other. They are getting better in the process. They love the grind of practice, film; they just love everything
“It’s a special group of kids to be around every day.”
