Michigan @ Purdue, Saturday, 9/23, 4p Eastern, FOX/Stream FSGo

[whodean]

Purdue Game

[Hannibal]

Welp, I came home on Saturday night after some FFS and eagerly turned on my TV and started up the game on DVR. And I got a "Sorry, this channel isn't on DirecTV anymore because the owner of this channel is demanding more money to fund the sports bubble". Well, that's not exactly what it said, but I think that you get the idea. Anyhow, I didnt get to watch the game until it went up on youtube.

On to the game...

With every coach -- assistant or otherwise, you have that game. You know, that game where you realize that they suck and you can never again trust them. With RichRod, it was the '09 Penn State game. With Brady Hoke, it was the '13 Penn State game. With Jim Hermann, it was the 2000 NW game. With Ron English, it was the '06 OSU game. With our offensive staff, it was Saturday.

On offense, I have seen enough. Somebody needs to be fired. Since our coaching staff arrangement is weird I don't know whose fault this train wreck is, but somebody needs to go. I have officially lost trust. But since assistants often reflect who they work for, maybe that wouldn't do any good. And it's not going to happen so I'm not going to waste emotions on it. On offense, we are witnessing coaching malpractice that easily rivals anything that we ever saw from Mike Debord or Al Borges. Purdue came into this game with one sack. On Saturday, they got four because they did nothing but blitz, blitz, blitz, and blitz some more, with absolutely no fear whatsoever that they would have to pay for it. It took us four sacks and about a dozen QB knockdowns before we finally ran our first screen pass of the game (and maybe the year?). I'm getting really sick of watching teams blitz our offense without anything to counter it. It's obvious that we have none. I'm getting really sick of watching us run into 10-man boxes and expecting to gain any yards. Do we have audibles? Hot routes?

Our base offense is failure. Did we run a few constraint plays? Yeah, we ran a few. After setting pretty much the first 35 minutes of the game on fire. We have arguably the best athlete in the Big Ten in Donovan Peoples-Jones and we get him the football about once a game. We have yet to get Eddie McDoom involved in the offense with anything but predictable end-arounds. Our tailbacks have a paltry five catches this year despite the fact that our WRs are struggling. Instead of throwing to them, we keep them in to pass block and they fuck it up constantly. These guys aren't freshmen. It seems like our fullbacks and tight ends fuck up constantly too. What's the point of even having them in there? Our "counter" to everything that defenses do to (easily) shut us down is to count on the OL and the RBs to execute 100% perfectly on every play. That's the Brady Hoke/Mike Debord school of offense. I have little doubt that the mgoblog UFR will torch the OL and the RBs for tons of missed blitz pickups. And there were a shit ton of those. But that's three years now with shit running game and shit pass protection with absolutely no hope of improvement in sight.

Without O'Korn improvising a bunch of plays, this would have been a 14-10 game, at best. Maybe a 10-7 loss. I doubt that we had more than about 150 yards of offense that we actually gained within the framework of the offense. Against Purdue. And speaking of O'Korn, let him start for the rest of the year. Our only hope to have a decent offense will be for him to do his Superman thing a bunch of times. Sink or swim with O'Korn. I have little down that there will be some "sink" in there a few times and that we'll be frustrated, but there will be upside too. That Speight was starting over him after how badly he sucked since late last year is another baffling move that should make anyone nervous.

So we're back to the Lloyd Carr era, basically, except that the coaches at MSU, PSU, and OSU are harder to beat than John L. Smith or Joe Paterno in his diaper days. We rely on brute force execution and superior athletes to find success on offense. That's our strategy. When we don't have those, we lose. I have no doubt that the usual suspects will chime in here with a laundry list of excuses. There is an excuse almost every year that we don't have ten fifth year senior returning starters. Except for about two magic seasons every decade, when we actually have a legitimately good or maybe even great offense. That is the pattern that we are in. The only question is whether our defense will consistently be good to keep holding after the offense gets stuffed by anyone with a pulse (and sometimes teams without a pulse). Fortunately, things look promising there. Don Brown looks to be a much better coach than either Jim Hermann or Ron English, the guys that Carr mistakenly relied on time after time. The defense is probably good enough to win us at least four more games without the offense showing up.

In a way, this is liberating. I will no longer experience the frustration of misplaced hope.

[iam416]

Harbaugh IS the offensive braintrust. As much as UFM is at OSU. You can change coordinators and do whatever, but at the end of the day you're going to run HIS offense.

Harbaugh may have to adapt a bit. But basically, that take summarized 1000 OSU message board posts after the OU shitfest. You're an early adopter when it comes to falling skies, Hanni, but you've proven weirdly portentous. So, I've gained a bit of confidence for November from that.

[Hannibal]

Urban Meyer has that one weird-ass turd a year where he decides not to hand the ball off to his best player. Fortunately for you guys, the 2017 event is in the rear view mirror.

[iam416]

HAND THE BALL OFF!!!!!!!

Jebus, JK Dobbins is good.

[froot loops]

I think the issue with Harbaugh is he was one of your best QBs, he has been successful everywhere he went and you are predisposed to thinking he is going to produce some kind of offensive juggernaut. The reality is that he is producing a defensive juggernaut and if you blow teams out it will be a direct result of the defense, whether it be by producing turnovers or wearing down the opponents' defense with constant 3 and outs.

If you get some great QB, all bets are off, but I think getting a great QB is kind of random than getting some great defensive player. Really what he is doing is better for a national championship prospects than some whiz bang offensive scheme.

[paul daugherity]

Brian echoes Hannibal. From MGoBlog today:

The problem. It's now time to ring the alarm bells about Michigan's offensive line. The sheer number of Purdue guys pouring through it unblocked, on run or pass, was dispiriting. It should not be so in year three. Michigan is young, but not that young. I can live with Nolan Ulizio getting run over for a sack?that's a guy you didn't want to play. I have a harder time getting over the fact that Michigan seemingly can't block a slant or twist to save their lives.

The worst part is that improvement has not been forthcoming. Michigan looks just as out of sync as they did in week one. More out of sync, actually: Bredeson was excellent in week one and has since been out of position with alarming frequency.

We'll see what happens after the bye week. Without a significant step forward we're going to be looking back at this unit as the reason Michigan topped out as a good, not great team despite a punishing defense.

[Rocky Bleier]

From Bo to Mo to Carr you could count on the offensive line being solid - until USC would pummel them in the Rose Bowl. Rodriguez and Hoke had the benefit of Denard's legs to cover up any deficiencies. Hoke left about nine O-linemen on scholarship. I fully expected Harbaugh and Drevno to continue the success they had at Stanford and San Francisco. To quote Hillary Clinton, "What Happened?"

[Mainevent]

Was talking to a friend of mine who's an OC about the problems with the OL. He said the thing that's always been so impressive about Harbaugh over the years is that he's always been able to run so much stuff out of 21/22/23 formations, being creative/complex out of very base sets and getting guys to execute it. For whatever reason, they are not able to get this group of OL to execute it, and when they try to do the more creative stuff it looks that much worse when they blow it.

But not sure what that means moving forward. Do they need to dumb it down a bit with the OL? Or are they forced to do this because they don't have the physical talent? My guess is they'll keep trying "coach'em up" but it certainly hasn't worked the past couple of years.

[froot loops]

The line maybe has some communication problems, but to me it seems like it is more like a problem in the skill positions. A lot of jags on offense so far where that's not the case on defense. The defense has produced some scary players, who on offense has put the fear into defensive coordinators. Some of these guys should be surfacing by now.

[whodean]

Peppers, Butt, Darboh and Chesson.

Oh, wait

[Mainevent]

The RBs are solid, but no game breakers. I actually like Higdon the best but you can't put the ball on the ground. Give them some decent blocking and they can make it work but none of them look like they are special players.

The WRs are young, so hopefully they continue to improve and they learn how to get some better separation. Why can't they get DPJ involved on the offense?

The TE breakthrough was big on Saturday and hopefully that continues.

[WingsFan]

JOK could easily had one or more taunting penalties showing up his old coach on the Purdue sideline with the DX - Suck It! sign. Harbaugh really let him have it after the Ty Isaac TD.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I understand Hanni's frustration. I also realize that when he sounds alarm bells, he is frighteningly correct.

I don't think there is any argument that the OL has not been good and is the heart of M's offensive offense, Wilton's woes and a host of other things. Moreover, it's not a one season or even a one game thing. It's been bad for a long, long time.

What is debatable are the causes: coaching v. talent/skills/brains v. the outcomes that have resulted to date. I can't escape the reality that teams having offensive lines with equal or less potential have better OLs than M. I also can't get by the reality that Greg Frey who is coaching these guys has suddenly gone from one of the best OL coaches in CFB to fireable for incompetence. Same for Drevno, Hamilton and Jay Harbaugh.

Lastly, M is undefeated in 4 games. That's not because of a dominant offense; it is undeniably because of Don Brown's defense and how well the players execute it. One must remember, football is played by three units: offense, defense and special teams. To win games, you don't have to obtain wins by all three units. Usually two units performing well and without any critical mistakes will do it.

Getting into the nitty gritty ...... the OL's successes and problems are going to escape explanation by average fans, like us, so I'm hesitant to wade into the technical aspects of great v. shitty OL play. I'm not even sure Brian has the complete picture. His analysis of OL play in the UFRs seems impressive but is it really accurate? Accurate to the point that we can make quantitative evaluations of each player's performance.

TBF, the last two defenses M has faced, AF and Purdue, were incredibly aggressive. Except in obvious passing situations, and sometimes even then, it wasn't unusual to see 9 guys inside the box with one cover corner in man and a S who was essentially the 10th guy when a run play was assured (or the D thought it was assured). Under those circumstances you are automatically outnumbered in the run game. Certainly, Speight's lack of a credible passing game has hurt the offense badly. We can't be sure what impact that has on what casual observers, fans, think is shitty OL play.

I think it is correct to criticize the play calling when it appears that the offense is running right into the teeth of a loaded box. As Hannibal notes, the only way a big run play occurs is if the blocking into that loaded box for an IZ run play is perfect or if it's going OZ, the blocking is solid enough that it creates a path towards the boundary that the RB can get to.

It does happen though, not a lot, but it doesn't take but one or two of these plays to work to produce a big play that scores a TD and increases the point spread between M and it's opponent. Given M's defense, right now the coaches don't have to score a lot. It appears that regardless of the quality of the opponent's offense, this defense can hold the best of them going forward under 24, maybe 20.

I said this two weeks ago. We're going to get frustrated and we're going to gnash our teeth during games because things aren't going to look good. Getting up 35-3 in the first half isn't going to happen and it's not likely that many points are going to be scored over an entire game.

So, M is 4-0. Not a single game has failed to produce a degree of control of the opponent that wasn't pretty complete. The offense is doing enough if not frustratingly so. It feels uncomfortable because it's different. That is not to say that the coaches like what's going down right now. I can't imagine they do or are somehow scheming to play like they are playing. I think whatever happens with the QB situation, the offensive coaches are going to call more intermediate and short passing plays to the slots and TEs, more crossing routes to the WRs over the heads of LBs crowding the LOS, regardless of down and distance when defenses do what they have been doing.

I don't think ranting about it is necessary at this point, mainly because I have no doubt that JH and his staff are going to keep honing unit skills ..... QBs, RBs, TEs, WRs, AND THE OFFENSIVE LINE. That's just who Harbaugh is and frankly, I don't think his coaching tenure at M is his Waterloo. He's been too successful everywhere he has been to think that it is.

[Hannibal]

Purdue hadn't been very aggressive in their previous games, but they probably saw on film that our OL and RBs can't identify blitzers and pick up stunts. As I said above, the OL and RBs will no doubt grade out horrible in pass protection, but how much is reasonable to expect there for a college team with weekly practice limits and only a few years to pick up a scheme? You've got to scheme around these limitations. Keeping the defense honest by throwing the ball to the backs out of the backfield might help -- and you've got nothing to lose if they can't block guys anyways. Having a mobile QB helps tremendously too. I wonder whether O'Korn's legs will cause defenses to adjust and start dropping 7 or 8 into coverage to avoid being burned by his legs and try to force him to make mistakes.