There are plenty of them out there. Mgoblog featured an astonishing parade of entitled fans last night, glorying in their right to feel personally affronted that their team didn’t win by 50. That’ll be it over there for me.
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Game shouldn’t have been close. The offense is so sloppy right now. Killed ourselves with turnovers.
I’m a bit concerned that Shea can’t read zone D very well. Doesn’t seem to get past the 1st read and breaks out of a clean pocket too often. This offense is supposed to be tailor made for his strengths, but he doesn’t look any better than last year so far. That can always change, but there is concern.
Throw Nico the god damn ball.
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I did myself a great disservice yesterday by watching several games featuring teams with highly competent offensive play. I was upset with myself for having done so. It couldn’t go unpunished. To properly self-flagellate, I re-watched the Michigan game late last night just before bed. Penance served, and I’ll go into the week with a clean slate.
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One of the biggest disappointments for me so far during the Harbaugh tenure, is how consistently we’ve looked overmatched by our opponents in game preparation.
We averaged 2.4 yds a rush against Army. Rice went for 181 yds on just 30 attempts. Rice!!
Zone read was nothing more than give it to Charbonnet every time against an 8 man box that knew it was coming.
Thinking we were getting an innovative offensive mastermind with the Harbaugh hire is pure fantasy. Those two fourth down play calls were just pitiful.
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Eh, I disagree. I can only think of a couple games where I felt we didn’t prepare properly (FYI, I don’t look at positives or negatives from bowl games because I think unless you’re in the playoffs, they don’t matter. They produce whacky results because of a ton of different factors - motivation of team, players sitting out, location, one month to prepare and/or add to your playbook etc etc. so I pretty much ignore Florida x2, SC and FSU games): OSU last year, PSU & Indiana In 2017, Iowa in 2016. Could be a few others, but those are the only ones where I flat out wondered what we did in preparation for those games.
I don’t think we underprepared for Army. Defense was fine. Around 200 yards in regulation given up. About as good as you can ask for IMO. Offense wasn’t unprepared, they just made stupid mistakes in the first half. Shea loose with the ball, Turner misses a blitz pickup right in front of him, BVS just dropping the ball, penalties - those aren’t mistakes in preparation IMO. Those are just a lack of focus.
I think the coaching staff panicked in the second half with their play calling. I don’t know what that was. I think Shea is being told to hand off on the read no matter what - injuries, keeping it in the back pocket for Wisconsin? Idk - because there’s no reason he shouldn’t have pulled it and scampered on those zone read plays. And it’s not a matter of a new offense because he was awesome at choosing when to hand off and when to keep on those last year.
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In fairness, Locksley made the opening salvo, Gattis replied, then Locksley replied, and that was the end. I would characterize it far more as Locksley throwing shade on Gattis than the reverse.
That said, if there wasn’t an ulterior motive to yesterday’s decisions (e.g. Shea’s too hurt to keep or they are keeping something in the tank for later), then I’m far more concerned about Gattis this week than I was last week.
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Is Gattis really 100% of this offense? If so, I want a redo on the hire.
I would argue that lack of focus is an indictment of the preparation. Maybe the focus is now so much on beating OSU/winning the B1G East, that the team can’t fully actuate for this nonconference. I guess that’s my hail mary attempt at explaining these first two games.
Amazing how LSU has turned around their passing offense. 9 passing TDS in two games. With Joe Burrow.
What a novel concept, targeting talented playmakers to make plays.
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If it really was an injury thing, I’m not sure why you dont just put McCaffrey in. You could run the same offense, but the QB would actually be a threat to keep. Even if they thought Injured Shea throwing > McCaffrey throwing, the throwing was such a small part of the offense compared to the read-based run game where there was no reading.
Disclaimer: I am not team Dylan > Shea as a whole, just in this specific injury-driven instance
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The odd thing is the regression from W1 to W2. Week 1 we passed a lot. Tried to use the playmakers. Then this week we just ran into 8 man box, and Shea not keeping whether by design or not made sure that wouldn’t work
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Those are all individual mental mistakes. Turner was right there to pick up the blitz, he just picked the wrong person. False starts by your veteran OL? Loose ball handling.
I don’t think we’ve played great at all in the first two games. But all our mistakes, IMO, are fixable. Will they get fixed is a different question. Play calling in the first half of both games I’ve been pretty happy with. Second half playing calling has been atrocious. MTSU, I think they just wanted to get out of there with the win and didn’t really care about what they were and weren’t doing. Not sure why we weren’t passing more in the second half yesterday. Other than the two Shea fumbles, nothing really wrong with the passing game. I’ve liked how we’ve looked in the passing game. Running game is leaving me wanting - other than how Charbonnet and Turner run the ball - as the OL doesn’t seem to have it quite down yet. OL play improved drastically throughout the season last year, so it might just be a case of time. Glad we have a bye week though.
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Preparation includes focus and production.
As well as ability to adjust designed game plan.
If you adhere to Harbaugh being good at this during his tenure, I would respectfully disagree.
We’ve typically been a better second half team under JH, so what is it? Good or bad at adjusting game plan?
Last week, they barely opened the playbook in the second half because the game was under control. I can’t explain second half play calling yesterday other than panicking due to the nature of the game. Teams like Army, you’ve gotta get ahead of them before they get ahead of you because then you’re playing catchup against an opponent that limits your possessions. I think they got nervous and were afraid of more turnovers in a tight game with few possessions. It was very weird to watch. I don’t think it was due to preparation, however.
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I don’t think there’s a logical explanation otherwise. He was very effective at it last season. And it’s been open a ton the past two weeks and he’s handed them off practically 100% of the time. I don’t know why they’re blocking it like a read play though. If Shea is going to hand it off, just run a straight up run play.
It literally comes down to the OSU game. 4-0 and we’ve got probable conference titles, CFP appearances, talking about being just behind Bama and Clemson. But we’re 0-4. Can’t accomplish our goals unless we beat OSU.
I agree with a lot of this. But I also feel like the nature of the fixable mistakes varies from week to week, and rarely is there a week where they play most or all of a game mistake-free. They fix one kind of mistake and then suffer from another next time out. This team is like a cat that never lands on its feet.
I agree that Harbaugh’s tenure is two very unlikely outcomes (MSU 15, OSU 16) away from looking significantly different, and that in neither case was there something he could have changed. But I also watch from week to week and rarely do I see a team that doesn’t shoot itself in the foot and rarely do I see a real effort to get the playmakers in a position to make plays. So, I really don’t know what to think.
Michael Spath analysis:
• That said, keep in mind that Army was coming off the edge A LOT in this game - in addition to the 14 cornerback blitzes against the run and pass, the Black Knights had eight more edge attacks from linebackers or safeties, meaning Michigan got attacked on the outside on 22 of 76 offensive plays (28.9 percent). Still, the Wolverines had no counter to this and looked completely unprepared for Army’s game plan.
• The Wolverines could have benefited from far more RPO reads, allowing Patterson to read the cornerback, hold onto the ball instead of handing off and hit his receivers on quick slants. They didn’t do this. Nor did the coaches adapt at halftime by putting slant patterns into the rotation. Again, it was a game plan that didn’t seem to have a counter to what Army was doing and, initially, wasn’t ready for the Knights’ approach.
• The downfield passing game was MIA. Michigan completed three passes of 20 yards or more, but only one of those traveled 20 yards in the air (a 22-yard connection to senior tight end Sean McKeon). Overall, Patterson attempted just four downfield throws - the overthrow to sophomore Ronnie Bell, a pass down the sideline to junior Nico Collins that drew a pass interference, the McKeon completion and a 25-yard out of the back of the end zone to Collins on the first play of the second overtime.
Army had 6-0 and 5-8 cornerbacks, and a 5-10 safety, and Michigan completely ignored the height advantage it had at receiver. Again, it was an offensive philosophy that didn’t make sense, something we said after Week 1 also.
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I don’t think people thought the offensive philosophy didn’t make sense after week 1. Second half the team shelled up because the game was over and didn’t want to risk Shea at all due to the first half injury.
Spath’s analysis isn’t wrong. The lack of deep passes is a result of Army blitzing and our tackle having a bad game. Only deep passes you can really throw on a blitz are jump balls, which are low percentage plays regardless of who is at cornerback. But the lack of shorter routes does not make sense. Nor does it make sense that we barely threw the ball at all in the second half. Only thing I can think is that the coaches got nervous for whatever reason. Didn’t run a lot of RPOs last week either. Only reason I can think is they’re trying to save it for Wisconsin, like the lack of Shea keepers on read option plays. But I don’t think a tight game against a clock eating opponent like Army is a time to eat plays that we know will work.
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