We heard about Joe Milton’s arm for so long that it was easy to forget he can change a game with his legs.
In his debut as a starter on Saturday night, the junior quarterback was Michigan’s leading ball carrier, with eight rushes for 52 yards. And that might just be more important to the success of Josh Gattis’s offense than anything Milton did in the air.
One of the biggest issues with the Wolverines’ offense in 2019 was the lack of a running threat from quarterback Shea Patterson. Early in the year, when Michigan tried to run zone reads for Patterson, he consistently missed obvious keep reads.
The unblocked defensive end here crashes toward the running back. That means Patterson should be keeping the ball. He doesn’t. An offense predicated on putting players in conflict can’t work if one of the options is ignored before the play even starts.
On Saturday, Milton kept the ball on those reads — and Gattis called a number of run plays designed specifically for him.
This is essentially a straight up quarterback counter — three guys block down, center Andrew Vastardis and right tackle Jalen Mayfield pull. Also notice running back Hassan Haskins going the other way and taking a linebacker out of the play in doing so. Milton reads his blocks, hits the hole and breaks an arm tackle in the open field.
Milton is 6-foot-5, 243 pounds. That shows you why his frame is an asset.
Same thing here: QB counter with Mayfield and guard Andrew Stueber pulling. Milton makes his read, bounces, then goes for nine yards before stepping out of bounds.
Where this really matters for Michigan, though, is in what it can set up. Remember, Gattis’ offense is about putting players in conflict. That means predicating their offense on forcing linebackers and defensive ends into decisions where they can’t choose right. Running Milton on power or counter is great. But using those runs to lull a linebacker to sleep is where they can really pay off.
Before the snap, it looks like a run. It’s first-and-10, and Michigan lines up in 12 personnel, with one back and two tight ends — similar to how the Wolverines lined up on that last Milton run, just a minute ago in game time. The main difference is that Milton is in an empty set in the earlier play, with running back Blake Corum lined up outside; here, Corum is next to him in the backfield.
After the ball is snapped, Stueber pulls. Minnesota’s linebackers treat that like a run key, since Stueber had pulled on gap runs for Milton before. Milton does a great job selling the fake, too. He shuffles his feet toward where Stueber is pulling and uses his eyes to manipulate the linebacker, putting his head down and looking toward where the hole would be if this was a run play.
By the time Stueber gets in a pass-blocking set and Milton sets his feet to throw, it’s over. All three of Minnesta’s linebackers step up to defend the run. Nobody is paying attention to sophomore tight end Erick All, who runs into open grass.
All drops the pass, one of few big mistakes Michigan’s offense made all game, but had he held on, it would have been an easy touchdown. For our purposes, the drop is almost beside the point.
This is what strong game-planning looks like. When the defense doesn’t account for every player and every possibility, make them pay. Gattis designed this so Minnesota’s keys would work against it, and it worked to a T.
The ability to do that means Gattis can run the offense he wants to run. It’s not about attacking a vulnerability of Minnesota’s, and it’s not something that needs to change based on what Michigan State or Wisconsin runs. Putting players in conflict successfully means the offense can dictate. That’s something Michigan did at times last year, but never with consistency — at the beginning of the season, it was still learning the offense and by the end, it was hamstrung by Patterson’s limitations.
And for all the hype around Milton’s arm strength, the biggest thing we learned in week one might be that he doesn’t have the same constraints.
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