The Film Room: Christine Michael as impressive as advertised

Another Sam Gold breakdown. This time on C-Mike... Be sure to check out the article too.

http://www.fieldgulls.com/2016/8/16/124 ... -preseason

[youtube]v6vNAdhOwIw[/youtube]

I like how he highlights the good blocking by Britt and Glowinski on the long runs, as well as Michael's emphasis on ball protection.

The ball protection is a new feature for Michael and bodes well as he continues to improve his craft.

Threedee":hfck2r2e said:

I like how he highlights the good blocking by Britt and Glowinski on the long runs, as well as Michael's emphasis on ball protection.

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Glo got knocked down on the first run, actually. Michael barely avoided getting buried by his falling body.

MontanaHawk05":236nq2z0 said:

Threedee":236nq2z0 said:

I like how he highlights the good blocking by Britt and Glowinski on the long runs, as well as Michael's emphasis on ball protection.

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Glo got knocked down on the first run, actually. Michael barely avoided getting buried by his falling body.

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True....that was a "split second" play!

"christeeeeen michael" lol oh brother, I just cant

A running back should ideally have good ball security without needing a second arm on the ball all that often. Having a free arm increases the runners balance, feel, and allows him to stiff arm for extra yardage.

Michael has been pretty good in his second stint with us, but I think the praise for his ball security is misplaced - any Joe Schmoe can put two hands on a football, it's a handicap not a skill. Several of his runs could have been longer if he had an arm free to stiff arm or to retain his balance at the end of his runs. While it's nice to see that Michael is obsessed with protecting the football, he still needs to learn how to protect the ball without needing both arms.

Once he learns how to do that, he will be an even more effective runner than he is now.

You are quite right but I'm glad that he doesn't take the chance to end the drive and emphasizes ball security
But yeah , it may cost a td but it will keep a drive alive and I bet the coaches have been preaching ball security all camp long to him

I'd agree Kearly. He does a good job of securing the ball, but it seems like he sometimes leaves yards on the field to do so. He also looks very natural, right up until he gets tackled, then he's all about protecting the ball.

Heck, I see progress and I'm happy about it. Hell, he even carried the ball in his left hand. He's getting there.

He's always been a good runner. The real difference now is that he's become far more aggressive at attacking the primary read as opposed to looking for cutbacks. In other words, he's basically morphed himself into a Robert Turbin style of runner, but with better tools and balance. He'll never be a true star with this kind of mentality, especially if he's always grabbing the ball with both hands, but he has the tools to be an above average back even with a fairly unimaginative running style.

Or as my brother perfectly put it, Christine Michael is running "like a Denver Broncos kind of RB" right now.

I'm about as big of a Christine Michael fanboy as it gets, but to me Rawls is a far better and more complete runner as things currently stand.

I have played a lot of sports in my life, when you change something your now thinking more and it effects how you perform, until you naturally can play and not focus on the coaching of changing something you are putting barriers on your ability. Larry Brown, Ahman Green, Tiki Barber are three off the top of my head that were called fumblers early in their careers, all were coached in some way to change how they carried the ball and there was a drop off for a time, as they adjusted they started to produce at a high level naturally again as the change became a more normal feeling and they were not thinking about it anymore.

Former Seahawks fullback Michael Robinson, now an analyst for the NFL Network, watched the run and called it “staying in the funnel.”

“He has developed his pro eyes,” Robinson said. “He sees the second level now, so he understands where to puncture the defense.

“He would have bounced it in previous years looking for the home run. Instead, he’s trusting the integrity of the play. Again, pro eyes vs. rook eyes.”

http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/seah ... -pro-eyes/

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Good stuff.

Thanks HN, that was a good read.

I'm just a guy on the couch with an armchair opinion that could be totally wrong, but I'm pretty sure that C-Mike's falling out with the coaching staff a year ago had much more to do with his lack of discipline in the scheme than it did with him holding the ball in the wrong hand sometimes. The latter was something that the local media and bloggers fixated on way more than the coaches probably did, IMO.

chris98251":2ko0mud8 said:

I have played a lot of sports in my life, when you change something your now thinking more and it effects how you perform, until you naturally can play and not focus on the coaching of changing something you are putting barriers on your ability. Larry Brown, Ahman Green, Tiki Barber are three off the top of my head that were called fumblers early in their careers, all were coached in some way to change how they carried the ball and there was a drop off for a time, as they adjusted they started to produce at a high level naturally again as the change became a more normal feeling and they were not thinking about it anymore.

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I couldn't agree more :2thumbs: , repetition, while working on speeding up the thought process, and he will take it to another level.
I believe he is tooled up physically, now let's see if he can turn the corner mentally.