Michigan Football: 3 things the Wolverines need to improve after Rutgers

The playcalling

Michigan’s playcalling has been incredibly stale. Saturday, I found myself calling out the plays before they happened. I really don’t understand many of the plays. For example, why do we run the ball the majority of the time on 2nd & 10? Against a better defense *cough Ohio State cough*, the Wolverines likely won’t be getting 5+ yards every time.

Side by side with that, there needs to be more red-zone creativity. Inside the 10-yard line, everyone and their mom knows that Blake Corum is going straight up the middle. That philosophy led to two 4th & Goals from the one-yard line on Saturday. Against Rutgers.

I understand not showing your hand against a lesser opponent, but it would be refreshing to at least know that Michigan has something besides up-the-middle runs for the red zone.

Along with this, JJ is clearly in his head when it comes to deep balls. We all know he can hit them perfectly- it seemed like every deep ball he threw last year was perfectly in stride. Weiss and Moore need to call more deep balls and give JJ a chance to get out of his slump.

It’s like in basketball when a shooter is ice cold, sometimes all it takes is a made free throw to get back into the rhythm. I’ve got a feeling that once JJ hits a deep ball in stride, he’ll feel much more comfortable and could drastically improve his performance.

We know what this offense can do. The Wolverines have a legitimate Heisman contender at running back and have extremely talented receivers. The offensive line is yet again the best in the nation. It’s up to the play-callers to fully utilize this talent.