There are times when I wonder if we don't utilize passing progressions or if Whitmer just gets determined on what he believes the best route will be at the snap and looks only there but on the interception he stared down the pattern from when he got the ball. Unfortunately, this is not the first time he has done this.
Gee whiz man. You really think that we are that inept in the coaching staff that we're not even trying to teach QB's to go through a progression of reads on the defense? I think maybe just take a step back from your feelings on the coaching staff for a moment. Shane Day was handpicked by Mike Martz to coach QB's in the NFL. There is no doubt in my mind, that they are being taught to make pre snap reads and then have progressions on a live ball. You seem to know football. This is not a basic skill set, progressions are an advanced skill, especially the ability to be "looking off" a linebacker or safety that's dropping into a zone defense, or might be part of some kind of man-coverage shell.
Whitmer needs to take the next step in development and be able to unlock from his pre-snap reads, and he also needs to be able to adapt during a game to what a defense is going to do, to defend things that have been working, and that - to me - is more of what happened against Michigan.
I do think he's missing that middle step I think, but that's a skill that is not easy to develop, and takes time, and he's still a soph, really, that's on his second OC. He appears to me - to go through a pre-snap read, (and I think from media reports, is also involved or responsible for blocking calls pre-snap - which his something that we seemed to apparently disregard in the past - actually adjusting blocking schemes pre-snap based on defensive fronts - a DL would jump or shift in the past, and it screw our entire offensive line up, and players would come through unblocked) but I digress.....I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure he's got pre-snap blocking reads and calls responsibility......
but after the pre-snap look, he appears to either lock on to the first option on the pre-snap read, or some kind of clock goes off, that puts him into desperation heave and throw, or scramble mode, (Which he's got plenty of reason to be hitting that clock in his head early rather than focusing on second, third options). No middle step. Whether or not he can develop it, is a good question.
But in a situation like the INT against Michigan, that's got nothing to with what happened. it looks to me like a clear learning situation, where he can't make that kind of mistake again - have to learn from it. We had just run a 4 wideout shotgun set with the back on the right, handoff to delorenzo for a first down over LG. We ran it against a 4-3 front seven, single deep safety look, with the OLB's playing inside leverage left and outside leverage right. We had a success with same running play early in the game going left. We looked like we used to look running the ball. We came out on first down with same formation except mccombs back in. Michigan countered on the down, by bringing 5 men to the LOS, overloading the left side, and setting up a middle field open zone coverage shell. (I'm guessing on that, but it's what it looked like to me)
It clearly caused some kind of problem on the left side of our formation, because Bennett false started. If we had gotten the play off, and been able to get it blocked, we had the opportunity to throw down field against a soft zone, with no eeep coverage shell. Huge big play possibility. We didn't. Big risk on Michigan D part, and it paid off.
We come back with another 4 wide set, but this time QB under center and single back set deep directly behind QB.
Michigan goes back to their 4-3 front, inside left outside right OLB leverage, and single deep safety (middle field closed) shell.
What changed here for the defense, is our QB under center single deep back. The inside leverage left OLB doesn't need to crash down to fill right off the snap on the run out of the backfield that we had just given to Delorenzo for a first down. The hash route, seam route that we had success with through the game, is not going to be a good first option against this formation, it can still be open, but with our offensive set, the OLBs have the time to make the read on the run first, and then drop into their zone coverages, rather than playing run first at the snap. THe entire Michigan defense keyed on that route, and whitmer's head. If you watch the play, Foxx had run a short drag pattern to the left flat, and then turned into a wheel route up the left sideline, and had Whitmer been able to unlock from what was working, and thrown a deep ball over the seam route down the sideline (which would have been part of the progession somehow) - Foxx had the step and the opening to go to the house if the pass was on target and caught. In my book, the route to Foxx should have been the first read, and not the progression, but none of us knows the playbook or what's being taught.
If he at least recognizes he's throwing into tight coverage on the hash, and freezes the linebackers for a split second by looking right with his drop back and footwork, he might fit the ball in to the seam on a well covered route that had some space, but as it was, the LB keyed on the QB, Whitmer ended up throwing into the coverage, and the LB dropping into the lane made the athletic grab to snatch it out of the air.
Against that D set, with our offensive formation, the outside route away from the safety, should have been the first read - I think - no way to know for sure.
All that said, it's not so hard for me, with more years experience around this game than Whitmer ahs been alive, and not being in the middle of things on the field, to see waht's happening, and react to it.
Whitmer has plenty room to improve, the only question is can he? none of us knows that.
I would prefer a freshmen making freshmen mistakes, rather than an upperclassmen though, so that needs to get sorted out, and this play is certainly something that should not be repeated as a mistake, if he is able to improve.
