Michigan Football, Team 139, 2018 Season

[Jeff Buchanan]

Froot, I've been pretty open about the holes in M's offense from around mid-season. I didn't like the pound them mentality with Harbaugh's strategy to out last the opponent with a punishing ground game and just enough passing and RO to back the Ss out a bit. Watching games like that against over-matched opponents was frustrating and the risk of an opponent with a good passing attack pantsing Don Brown and his aggressive scheme should have been obvious. It was to me. After two straight seasons of IU with a similar offense to osu's, just not as talented, taking M to the wire should have said something to the coaches. Clearly it didn't or there would have been a plan B.

There's no one, including me, that hasn't spoken about the lack of a Plan B when ufm went air-raid and M couldn't get pressure on haskins. So, no, I didn't care too much for watching Harbaugh's offense against the weak BIG knowing, in the back of my mind, M wasn't going to compete against teams with elite talent that put it all together like osu finally did.

[froot loops]

Gotcha, to me I do not like those type of blitzing schemes all the time. Its like a sugar rush.

[hack]

Watching games like that against over-matched opponents was frustrating and the risk of an opponent with a good passing attack pantsing Don Brown and his aggressive scheme should have been obvious. It was to me.

It was obvious to absolutely nobody. I was telling you to pump the brakes on your optimism during the game week. Then again, I bet all my AA money on Michigan, so I'm not absolving myself either. It wasn't obvious to anybody -- not to talent or the talking heads or Vegas or anybody. Hindsight makes it look so clear -- OSU excelled at the one thing a Brown defense was prone to. But it wasn't said in advance in a particularly clear way. Gerdeman at Ozone mentioned it on Michigan Monday before the game. Only place I saw something like that.

[THE_WIZARD_]

idiot

[froot loops]

It was obvious to absolutely nobody. I was telling you to pump the brakes on your optimism during the game week. Then again, I bet all my AA money on Michigan, so I'm not absolving myself either. It wasn't obvious to anybody -- not to talent or the talking heads or Vegas or anybody. Hindsight makes it look so clear -- OSU excelled at the one thing a Brown defense was prone to. But it wasn't said in advance in a particularly clear way. Gerdeman at Ozone mentioned it on Michigan Monday before the game. Only place I saw something like that.

That was what the straight man was saying on that superfan podcast. He thought before the game OSU was dangerous. The Superfan was saying nobody was talking about the superior athletes on OSU before the game.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Where were those "superior athletes" during the Maryland, Nebraska and much of the MSU game?

[Jeff Buchanan]

This is a post and a good response to it from mgoboard. There are still those out there defending what Harbaugh does with his offense and suggesting tweaks to it (the first post). It's been going on for all four seasons he's been here. I've been guilty of defending him but what he does at a strategic level is no longer defensible if he claims he wants to win championships. I won't defend him and his approach any longer.

Original post made in response to the question, why aren't 5* QBs lining up to play for M (this in response to a recent offer to a 3*, 2020 prospect after losing out to M QB target, Harrison Baily to Tennessee):

He will have to open up the offense for that. Throwing 18 times a game isnt going to cut it. QBs want to QB not game manage.

The response:

People keep rolling this argument out and it STILL makes no sense at all.

Patterson was, at the very worst, the third best QB in the Big Ten. I would put him at second best, because he is a better passer than McSorley.

Yet it is claimed that Patterson was not good enough to allow Harbaugh to do what he supposedly really wants to do--"open up the offense."

If this reasoning were correct, then until Harbaugh has a Heisman finalist, he will have to self-limit the offense, run a predicatible runs on 70% of on 1st and 2nd down, totally under utilize one of the best receiver groups in the nation, play offense with one hand tied behind his back, blah, blah, blah.

If you cannot run the offense that you really want to run with the second best QB in conference, then you are only going to run that offense two or three years per decade.

Personnel limitations are NOT the reason Michigan was bad in the red zone most of the season, has a terrible offensive game plan against OSU (and stuck too it until it was too late), and targeted DPJ an average of only 3 times per game, etc., etc.

The real reason is that Pep and/or JH misplayed their cards. The offense was good enough to win 10 games and score a good amount on several pretty good teams. But it was NOT an offense on the level of most teams that have made the playoffs. If you really want to make the playoffs, you have to develop an offense that can match playoff teams. They did not do that.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Today's football at all levels is going to the same thing...it's more pronounced in the NFL because of the rule changes to help offenses but it's trickling down to NCAA and NFHS...you are going to have to have a dynamic offense to keep up. Plain and simple.

[hack]

Looks that way. I agree. And whilst there was a superior athlete or two on OSU's offense, or maybe an inferior one or two on M's defense, I agree that you can't chalk it up to that.

[THE_WIZARD_]

^{Yep. UNL was able to keep up with OSU's offense somewhat...of course we couldn't stop shit but they had their hands full with our O and with Maryland's so those games became shootouts...more so the Terp game...and OSU-MSU...MSU had a good enough defense to make it a shitshow for awhile. Looked to me like HARBAUGH!!! panicked because he felt the game was getting out of control and your offense simply couldn't keep up. Snowballed from there. I hate that the game is going to this but the BIG 12 type offenses are here to stay I'm afraid. Every once in a while you'll see an elite defense step up and gash an elite offense but it's becoming the exception clearly.}

[THE_WIZARD_]

I think OU actually has a shot at beating Bama because of this. Gonna be a track meet.

[Jeff Buchanan]

It was obvious to absolutely nobody. I was telling you to pump the brakes on your optimism during the game week. Then again, I bet all my AA money on Michigan, so I'm not absolving myself either. It wasn't obvious to anybody -- not to talent or the talking heads or Vegas or anybody. Hindsight makes it look so clear -- OSU excelled at the one thing a Brown defense was prone to. But it wasn't said in advance in a particularly clear way. Gerdeman at Ozone mentioned it on Michigan Monday before the game. Only place I saw something like that.

Incorrect. I'm not going to dredge up my post game comments from the season. I defended Harbaugh's strategic approach but with caveats. The exact one I pointed out above. Maybe you don't read my posts and probably many don't because they are too long. That does not mean they are not accurate. I know what I wrote throughout the season. This isn't some kind of clarity based on hind sight.

talent did, indeed, comment pre-game on what kind of game osu might be able to win. A shootout, optimizing what haskins and his talented receivers could do well and forgetting the rest of it. Maybe you missed it. I actually think osu's coaches were amazed at how poorly M defended the air-raid and they just kept it coming because M couldn't stop it.

Wiz, where was the talent in those games you mention? Disinterested - shit was going on in the locker room for all we know but they sure as shit didn't play up to potential .......until ufm gave them the famous locker room speech, "win one for the gipper" when he told them this was his last game v. Michigan; that got their attention, along with the fact that osu and those that play for osu when they play Michigan put everything into that game in contrast to M that simply plays it as another game. Exactly what they did and got ass-railed. If that wasn't the case, M would not be 1-14 against those fuckers.

[froot loops]

The conference was not strong with good QBs this year due injuries and just lack of talent. Patterson may have been the second best QB in the conference but he is not that threatening as a passer. If you want to get to the playoffs, you should have some players threatening to win a Heisman.

[WingsFan]

We needed Patterson to run the play nobody could stop the second half of the year - the RO rush. For some reason the coaching staff decided they didn't need it for the biggest game of the year. I would be angry if I thought it would have mattered.

[hack]

Incorrect. I'm not going to dredge up my post game comments from the season. I defended Harbaugh's strategic approach but with caveats. The exact one I pointed out above. Maybe you don't read my posts and probably many don't because they are too long. That does not mean they are not accurate. I know what I wrote throughout the season. This isn't some kind of clarity based on hind sight.

talent did, indeed, comment pre-game on what kind of game osu might be able to win. A shootout, optimizing what haskins and his talented receivers could do well and forgetting the rest of it. Maybe you missed it. I actually think osu's coaches were amazed at how poorly M defended the air-raid and they just kept it coming because M couldn't stop it.

Wiz, where was the talent in those games you mention? Disinterested - shit was going on in the locker room for all we know but they sure as shit didn't play up to potential .......until ufm gave them the famous locker room speech, "win one for the gipper" when he told them this was his last game v. Michigan; that got their attention, along with the fact that osu and those that play for osu when they play Michigan put everything into that game in contrast to M that simply plays it as another game. Exactly what they did and got ass-railed. If that wasn't the case, M would not be 1-14 against those fuckers.

You did both. You questioned the scheme but also expected a victory in Columbus. Expected is probably took weak a word. Talent commented to that end, and so did a few others, like Gerdeman. But none of those people -- you, me, talent, Gerdeman, etc -- expected OSU to win. All expected OSU to lose.