Maizenbrew quantifies the failures of our offense

Submitted by dnak438 on

The article is here (LINK):

In short:

  • ZERO red zone appearances for our offense against ND and Utah
  • "from 1997 to 2013, there were zero games in which Michigan was unable to reach the opponent's 20-yard line"
  • Against ND and Utah, "Not once in either game did Michigan's offense start a drive in opposing territory"
  • "Wolverines registered at least one first down on 20 of their 24 drives in these two games and were kicked off the field on a three-and-out or four-and-out only thrice"
  • M "crossed midfield on 12 of its 24 drives"
  • "the odds of Michigan crossing midfield 12 times and failing to score or reach the red zone 11 times are 0.002 percent."

Ugly.

Here's the full URL:  http://www.maizenbrew.com/2014/9/25/6837131/2014-michigan-wolverines-fo…

UPDATE: it looks like 1967 was the last time Michigan didn't make it into the red zone:

Likely last time U-M didn't reach RZ before 2014. MT @rwinter2: http://t.co/SNRRW67l8Y Looks like 1967 at MSU. Got to MSU 26 in a 34-0 loss.

— Drew Hallett (@DrewCHallett) September 25, 2014

 

trustBlue

September 25th, 2014 at 8:35 PM ^

Does Funk coach QBs?  RBs? TEs?  We've got a 5th year senior QB who looks completely broken, a backup QB who looks worse, WRs who struggle to get separation, RBs who lack vision, and TEs who cant block - before we even start talking about the failures of the OL.

I'm baffled at how we are sitting here talking about Funk and Hoke (we all know does not coach the offense) while the elephant in the room is that this is Nussmeier's offense.  I understand that yes, he inherited many of these problems, but regardless of that - the metric is supposed to be improvement - and we definitely are not seeing it.

And I honestly have no idea what our offensive gameplan is supposed to be.  As best as I can figure it, its to run a small set of predictable plays for short gain that will eventually turn into points if we manage to get 10-12 consecutive plays with no mistakes and the defense somehow chooses never to blitz.  Oh and to run play action on 3rd and long even when the running game is barely working.  But hey, at least we got bubble screens this year!  I thought our offense was supposed to be great once started throwing bubble screens??  

Several poster have made comments like "Fire Hoke and promoting Nuss to HC." What planet are you on? The offense is a complete cluster**** and you want to promote the OC?  Guess what, Hoke doesnt call plays and he didnt design this offense. Neither did Funk. Not to say that those guys shouldnt bear a heavy dose of critism, but as far as I am concerned, Nussmeier's honeymoon is definitely over.  

J.Madrox

September 25th, 2014 at 8:49 PM ^

You are right, Nuss deserves blame for the sad state of Michigan's current offense, but he has still only coached four games here at Michigan. Funk has been here for Hoke's entire tenure, and like the offense in general, the offensive lines have gotten progressively worse.

Part of the reason Gardner is broken is because he spent all of last year getting hammered by arguably the worst offensive line in the history of Michigan football. Does Borges deserve blame for last years line struggles, sure. Does Nuss deserve blame for this years line struggles, sure, but you know what the one constant is, Funk.

All of this supposed talent Michigan has brought in, they have two RS JRs, 2 RS SOs and a FR up front, and they are terrible. They just got man-handled by a small and not overly talented Utah defensive line.

There is plenty of blame to go around, Borges deserved plenty and Nuss deserves plenty now, but Funk deserves as much blame as anyone, because the position group he coaches has been awful. If Nuss's "honeymoon" is over after 4 games, when in the world did Funk's end, because it has been far more than four games with little to no development from his position group.

a2_electricboogaloo

September 25th, 2014 at 9:36 PM ^

Neutral milk hotel is one of my favorite bands (and ITAOTS is one of my too 5 albums too). But yeah, they're definitely a grower band. Like I wasn't huge on them at first, but as I listened to them more and a bit closer I really liked their stuff. Great lyrics, great instrumentation, really awesome overall feel. But they definitely can be devisive, Mangum's voice can be a bit grating too. I'd definitely recommend giving it another chance if you've only listened to it once or twice though, you might find you like it a lot more.

sammylittle

September 26th, 2014 at 10:49 AM ^

I grew up in Northville and moved to Athens as a 20 something with a useless degree in psychology. My brother played bass with a band called Kincaid. He worked the door at the 40 watt club so I got into all the shows for free. His bandmates later formed the Kindercore label. Of Montreal was probably the biggest name band they produced. One of my roommates was the band The Hermetic Order of Obadiah Strange which was my favorite Athens product. He did all of his recording at home with a 4 track recorder. Here is a sample. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL5bHXjVrzI

It was a fun four years. There was such a vibrant music scene. Then it was on to graduate school, career, and family. Now I am nostolgic.

go16blue

September 25th, 2014 at 6:23 PM ^

 

"the odds of Michigan crossing midfield 12 times and failing to score or reach the red zone 11 times are 0.002 percent."

I don't even know how to read this stat. This is really why I'm so confused that we're so bad on offense - it doesn't ever seem like we can't get off the ground, but every drive finds some way to fall apart before we put points up. Bizzare.

UMMAN83

September 25th, 2014 at 6:38 PM ^

I'm sure the implosion here has nothing to do with it ... and a fanbase that only supports the team when they are winning. 

See you at the tailgate ... probably not.  Guess you will watch it on the computer and complain all damn week.  Sad and more gloom.  Bring it on.  There are some people that are born whiners. Never thought they attended Michigan.

mGrowOld

September 25th, 2014 at 6:48 PM ^

So it's your esteemed opinion that the reason we havent had any commit announcements lately is NOT due to the fact we're in season where coaches are singularly involved in gameplanning & practice instead of recruiting or even the repeated failures on the field which any recruit with a pair of eyes can readily see but rather due to negative posting on football blogs like this one?  Got it - makes all the sense in the world.

Might I suggest sir you visit literally ANY blog like this one for ANY college and you will see the exact same things written about their team after a loss or during a tough season.  So unless the tender sensabilities of recruits are only influenced by our respective rants and not those by every other fanbase of every other team in the freaking county I think we're gonna be OK recruiting-wise.

J.Madrox

September 25th, 2014 at 7:44 PM ^

God forbid a website full of die-hard Michigan fans get upset and complain about the historic futility of the teams offense this year. Also doesn't complaining about everyone on this blog make you the very type of whiner that you just got done criticizing?

You are free to start a sunshine and rainbows thread if you would like, talking about all the positives this year from the App State and Miami of Ohio game. Most other fans are rightfully upset about the fact that this years Michigan football team has accomplished something that I would have told you is impossible. What did you expect when you clicked on the thread title? If you don't like it, don't click on it.

SysMark

September 25th, 2014 at 7:30 PM ^

Let's just say this week's performance better be really good, or Hoke & Co. will be pining for the good old days...of this week.

This is what makes each game interesting and worthwhile, even in a rubbernecking kind of way.

Asquaredroot

September 25th, 2014 at 10:02 PM ^

We have no big plays. Our only big play threat is Funchess.
If we make one mistake, we are unable to recover.
We have a lot of plays - including Gardner scrambles - that are good for short gains.
We have almost as many plays that are prone to short losses.

The result is an offense that causes defenses to bend without breaking.

Borges offense had volatility which by nature includes the positive extremes.
The Nuss offense is flatline mixed with vanilla that takes few chances and we're not good enough to play his brand of boring smashmouth yet.

This offense was built to do exactly what it's doing.

KodiakGT

September 25th, 2014 at 11:15 PM ^

I was just thinking about this the other day.  We brought Nuss in to run the same offense he ran at Alabama, which is basically to have a game manager at QB, and out execute/talent your opposition.  We don't have nearly the experience or talent advantage that they have, let alone a consistent game manager QB.  The result is blegh.

Even though Borges had no coherent offense whatsoever, one "positive" of his system (and I use that term loosely) was that when one of his bag of tricks plays actually worked it could result in a big play and RPS+.  Obviously the terrible performance that could result when none of his tricks worked wasn't good, which is why we made a change, but introducing a cohesive system like the one Nuss is trying to run takes time.

 

Cake Or Death

September 25th, 2014 at 10:56 PM ^

You know, until the 90's when offenses really took off (generally receivers for us), it was really a rarity when records were broken or matched to ones going back 50 years.  Since 2008, we've had so many go (both positive and negative), you'd think it would be more interesting.  Unfortunately it just sucks.

 

It would be so nice right now to deal with an underachiving Carr team right now, and complain about a boring game, or losing an easy one, while winning a huge one.  Sigh.