Bowling Green Snowflakes: The Offense

It’s better to have a shit game against a BGSU and adjust and correct errors than have a game like that against a B1G opponent- even Rutgers. JJ had some lackluster plays as if he thought it was too easy. He found out- time for laser focus.

It’s a W. I’ll take it.

Hopefully this was our 2021 Rutgers / 2022 Maryland game. An ugly game that you get out of the way early, because this was an ugly game. Defense played great, but this was a massive “come to Jesus” moment for JJ. 

He’s still very good, but tonight proved he’s not as good as he probably ought to be. He plays like this against anyone not named Bowling Green, and Michigan is in serious trouble.

Offense was again hit and miss.

JJ singlehandedly made this game closer than it needed to be. Michigan really lacks an identity right now on offense. They need to go back to what has got them to back to back Big Titles.

I need to stop believing that a highly-rated Hinton is going to be good here

Very rough game in all areas on the offensive side of the ball outside of Corum. Edwards is trying to be a bowling ball instead of finding a seam. JJ was way too confident from the past couple games and pushed the ball into bad spots all night. O-line looks regressed, a lot of missed assignments. I feel it will be an intense week of practice and next week we will see a heavy dose of run, Harbaugh back on the sidelines will be huge as well. 
 

at least we are saying this now instead of in the middle of B1G play. 

Michigan's offense will need to improve significantly to win the Big Ten and make the CFP. There were some question marks in all three games against quite sub-par opponents. That stretch in the 1st half could easily break your neck vs a Big Ten opponent.

I don't know if the absence of Harbaugh on game day allows some of that sloppiness to creep in, but I also suspect that this O-Line simply is not as good as the last two lines. That's a big deal because Michigan's national title designs are significantly based on the idea of having the best O-Line in college football. So far that is certainly not the case.

Harbaugh will set JJ straight. He will be fine.

Gimmicks - Edwards wildcat, Orji QB runs - were immediately followed by turnovers IIRC. There’s enough trouble getting an offense into a rhythm with all the goddamn commercials. Don’t add to it with the quirky play calls. 

I didn't think our Offensive line would be this bad.  You have Zinter and Keegan still.  Trente was decent last year in run blocking. El Hadi seems good.  Barnhart had always seemed average, but he's still solid.  Nugent is supposed to be good.  Henderson was good at ASU.  Hinton was the only one who was not good, but high potential.  So . . . That results in a bad line?  What am I missing?

JJ made some real dumb decisions tonight. That first pick it feels like he just had to wait for Wilson to clear through to another window and he didn’t see the underneath defender. The second one it seemed like Johnson quit on the route and it looked like JJ was a little frustrated walking off the field. Ball still should’ve went to Wilson. The third one needs to be throw out of bounds but that kid made a heck of a play. 
 

On a side note, this love of Barnhart is obnoxious. He’s a fine player, but just seems to be a Jim guy more than anything else.  

Learn from it and onto the next one. Brutal game to re-hash. 

Offense was offensive

JJ’s girlfriend break up with him this week? That was brutally bad.

The performance was not representative of a top 5 team playing at home against a weaker opponent.

Not really happy with CJ tonight, but at least he wore an Edmund Fitzgerald at the post-game press conference.

JJ definitely not sharp in this game. First int looked like he was trying to force it into Wilson and didn’t see that safety (LB?). He had the time, just one more beat and then throw and Wilson was wide open. The second int was maybe partly on CJ but mostly on JJ as Wilson was once again open easily. The third was just dumb luck and not enough oomph as he was trying to throw it away. 

JJ obviously struggled hard. Get it out of your system young man. 
 

I bet he was throwing on the practice field after the game.

Running game looked just fine with the starters, would have got a lot more run with Harbaugh and without excess turnovers from JJ. Can’t wait until Donovan breaks a big one 

If we’re going to win a title, we’re going to have to win a game with our offense. I don’t see anything that leads me to believe our staff has any interest in doing that. 

Not too worried.  Just need McCarthy to recommit to his shoshin.

Honestly this has been JJs worst game he's played. This isn't typical JJ but we need the offense to roll if we're thinking National Championship. You can't beat Georgia running the ball

Offense needs more work. BG played more zone pass D, which seem to confuse JJ. Running game improved but the passing game regressed. We seem to be lacking WR, where are those younger guys?

It’ll be fine 

The OL looked horrible against every blitz even the most obvious ones. I wonder if JJ blew the calls to change protections/hot routes on those plays as well. 

I give the offense a C- tonight. Let's hope next week is a sign of bigger and better things.

I give the offense a C- tonight. Let's hope next week is a sign of bigger and better things.

it had a serious “last nfl game of the exhibition season” feel.

we’re stale, and sick of beating each other up to prep for unchallenging games.

U-M had a few offensive explosions last year that got people thinking that’s who this team is. Remember also that this team had < 20 points deep into the third quarter against IU, MSU and Nebraska, all of whom finished sub-.500.

I was sitting in the first tire right behind the oline on the sideline. The Hinton sub to start the second half didn’t seem like a pre planned rotation based on conversations I saw.

 Can confirm that Gentry is a large human. 

It looked all night like JJ was trying to make the big play vs the smart place.  Even that TD by CJ, JJ underthrew the ball and CJ had to break up the INT and just stayed with the play.  JJ almost looked like freshman JJ - just trying to do too much.

I think some if it could be UM have very vanilla game plan to not put a lot on film early but still how they played last night on the offensive side of the ball was a bit worrisome. 

Probably the worst game of JJ's career at Michigan.  But he's been so on fire lately that I expected a correction in the bad direction for a game.  This was a larger step back than I would've thought possible but whatever.  It's one game.

The OL was just as bad though.  Pass pro was good in the first two games and this game they allowed JJ to be more pressured.

Massive lack of pre-drive thumping of JJ’s shoulder pads and chest pad this game. The coaching staff minus Jim H couldn’t shake the negative juju that cropped up. Maybe JJ needs to go to the medical tent and do a ten minute meditation. I dunno. 

Harb factor has been woefully missing and finally caught up with the team.  Good that he’s back next week.  A 4 game ban would have been disastrous.

I do not get why JJ's brain kept randomly shutting off to throw all those picks. 

The offense is just weird, there's a lack consistency, whether it's the run game or JJ tonight. I would hope they would be firing on all cylinders by now.