The Snowflake Thread: Offense

Submitted by LSAClassOf2000 on

Due to the nature of things, this will go up a little early - this is your thread to discuss and evaluate Michigan's performance on offense and the offensive playcalling. 

Gobgoblue

October 12th, 2013 at 9:25 PM ^

poor, tepid playcalling plus players not playing with the same heart=death.

this team doesn't look like the one I saw in the Big House vs. Notre Dame.

bluefrombirth

October 12th, 2013 at 9:27 PM ^

Maybe the line is not ready for this Frankenstein offense, so far the high point of the offense that Borges has called, is the 2011 season when they ran mostly spread, maybe they need to look at that and bring more of those plays back

Bones032

October 12th, 2013 at 9:29 PM ^

I am trying to be as rational as possible after a game like that.

But, how many negative running plays do you have to have in a season before the OL Coach or the OC has to go? I watch hundreds of college games every year, and even terrible teams do not have an many negatvie running plays as we do. Like seriously, watch some of these crappy teams next week get blownout, they still wont have that many negative plays.

 

Our special teams coach should be fired just for the simple fact that we do not use the spread punt. 95% of college teams use it and it has all but eliminated punt returns in most games. Add to that a horrible pooch punt tonight, the horrible field goal debacle tonight, the muffed punt returns, the gunners being where they are not supposed to be and costing us a fumble, etc. What does a ST coach have to do to get fired?

ChopBlock

October 12th, 2013 at 9:39 PM ^

One thing to add here: Devin's head was absolutely swimming from about the last 5 minutes of regulation onward. I wouldn't be surprised if we heard he has a concussion. Might explain all the pointless runs into the line. 

That being said, the playcalling and the game theory bit was absolutely deplorable.

swalburn

October 12th, 2013 at 9:41 PM ^

I agree the play calling was bad but the o-line was awful.  I don' t  like ragging on kids but it is the worst o-line of my lifetime.  It is brutal being in 3rd and long constantly because the interior can't block.

HollywoodHokeHogan

October 12th, 2013 at 9:41 PM ^

I blame fucking Hoke.  It's his call whether he wants to put his foot on the gas in the 4th quarter.  It's his call to not call TO and take a fucking delay of game.  It's his call to not hunker down and kneel out two overtime periods.  Borges ain't great, I'll grant that.  But this is 100% on the head coach.

reshp1

October 12th, 2013 at 9:42 PM ^

I can't think of a Michigan team that was this inept at running the ball. Once Lewan and Bryant went down, it was over. It just took PSU 2 quarters and 4 OT's to put us out of our misery

jblaze

October 12th, 2013 at 9:45 PM ^

Now, which fine. But I'm pretty sure they wil he laughing harder in like 6 weeks.



That's a battle we should have lost. Maybe a trade for Dunn?

Webber's Pimp

October 12th, 2013 at 9:52 PM ^

 

This is the worst O-LIne I've seen in my 25+ years of following Michigan football. I thought we were conservative towards the end but I have no qualms with the coaching. The punt at the end of the game was the right call. Stribling got burned deep on a fluke play. Is that on Mattison? I'm certainly not going to criticize a defense that kept us in the game all day.  

I also can't fault Gibbons for missing a 53 yard kick. The OT kick is entirely on him though.

All that being said, I think we need to take a good hard look at our offense. In a 4OT game we managed to put up 389 yards? What does that tell you? This is not an explosive offense. Fitz had 27 carries for 25 yards. What does that tell you?

There is all kinds of blame to go around including the horrible blocking, the O-Line coach, the play calling, the Offensive Coordinator etct etc etc. It also doesn't help that our WR talent is down overall. 

bluefrombirth

October 12th, 2013 at 9:54 PM ^

I know everyone likes to blame rich rod for online recruiting, but this staff has had three years to develop linemen, and I don't see the development, the best linemen are lean and schofield, after they go this year, who is your anchor next year, who has been developed as the guy to run behind when you need a first down. Since 2011 the passing game has went backwards, the running game has gone backwards, the oline has gone backwards, fitz can't find a hole even if you roll the fat in flour changes have to be made, USC pulled the trigger to save next year, maybe Brandon needs to take notes

blueschool

October 12th, 2013 at 9:56 PM ^

PSU played lights out football and took advantage of M's weaknesses. Let's take the loss like the leaders and best we are, and move on to next week when we solidly beat Indiana.

jrblue

October 12th, 2013 at 10:03 PM ^

dropped two touchdowns.  that didn't help the offensive totals.

when it became apparent we couldn't run, which was very early, why we didn't go to a shotgun 4 receiver set i don't know.  we played into penn state's hands the majority of the game.  i felt like we were playing against alabama and shaun alexander back in the day but instead of making the adjustment and letting tom brady go all pass all the time we just kept wasting downs with useless run after useless run. 

Mike420GoBlue

October 12th, 2013 at 10:03 PM ^

I wish for a few things. One, when Morris came in, everyone knew it was a handoff. Why not a bootleg rollout pass? Two, Fitz should have his backfield dance card revoked. Third, I would like to see this so called Manball shit move somebody off of the ball, at least every once in a while,

ND Sux

October 13th, 2013 at 9:32 AM ^

The whole world including my dead grandma knew we wouldn't let Morris throw. 

Devin was ROLLING at that point.  Call a damn TO and he doesn't have to sit one play.  That was beyond stupid.

SDCran

October 12th, 2013 at 10:05 PM ^

I want to pile on with all of you, but I can't. The offense put us I'm position to try 3 game ending FGs. They would have had first and goal with a PI call on the last drive.



Sure the running game ( from the RB position) was terrible, especially after this poor running team lost 2 starters. Yes they got conservative, but they were in position to win after another terrible start.



I'm struggling to pile on.



Oh, for all the complaining before the last 3 plays from 2:30 down to 1:00 in regulation. They sure got 2-3 first downs to almost run out the clock.

Sten Carlson

October 12th, 2013 at 10:31 PM ^

I agree 100%!

For all the belly aching about play calling, Michigan turned the ball over three times in the 1st half and handed PSU 14 points.  Yet, they came back and had the game well in hand coming down the home stretch.  One more snap, a FG, and it was over.  Even a punt, after the 3rd down snap and they leave PSU under 30 seconds and no TO's.  They had 3 chances to win in OT.

Blue in Yarmouth

October 13th, 2013 at 8:35 AM ^

The offence did no such thing. It was the defence that put us in position for three field goals to win the game. I'm not sure, but I'd be surprised if our offence gained more than 2 yards per drive (not per play) in OT. I know lots of people just can't bring themselves to criticize anyone on this staff, but this loss can be placed squarely at the feet of Al and Brady in my opinion.



For Hokes part he blew calling a timeout that led to a delay of game and pushed us out of field goal range and then wasted a timeout after he just had the equivalent of one in the form of a video replay, leaving us no timeouts on the final drive.



I just feel terrible for the players after this one. Their coaches let them down.

True Blue Grit

October 12th, 2013 at 10:05 PM ^

For the program.  It was also damaging to the confidence ofthe team.  The gutless play calling screams "we don't trust the offense, so we're just going to try and burn the clock and take our chances with our kicker".  They played not to lose and failed at that too.  

CLord

October 12th, 2013 at 10:12 PM ^

The loss to PSU is bad enough, but what's worse is realizing we are back where we started when RR was hired, with only one silver lining.  Hoke is similar to RR, except reversed.  Coaches strong to one side of the ball and develops a semi-elite level there, but totally ignores the other side of the ball where an incompetent coordinator autonomously produces a laughable product.

The only silver lining is Hoke recruits at a level far superior to RR.

LSAClassOf2000

October 12th, 2013 at 10:13 PM ^

Interesting stats regarding offense:

We ran 83 plays - helped by 4 overtimes, of course - but still, we managed 389 yards of offense over the course of the game, which is good for 4.69 yards per offensive snap. The criticism on offense might be rightly placed on run blocking - we managed 149 yards of rushing on 54 attempts, which is 2.8 yards per carry. Yeah. 

Sten Carlson

October 12th, 2013 at 10:25 PM ^

Look, once again we gifted a less talented team 14 points.  Not only that, but we likely would have scored on some of those drives, so there it nets out as nearly a 20 point swing.  You're not going to win many games gifting the opposition that many points.

What really befuddles me is the OL play.  It's like they're not even there.  From the moment the ball is snapped they're completely blown up over and over again.  Add to that the fact that Fitz seems to NEVER be moving FORWARD, and it's bound to be bad.

I know people want to hang it all on Borges and Funk, but someone has to have a reseasonble idea why Michigan's OL cannot block ANYONE.

Mgodiscgolfer

October 12th, 2013 at 11:09 PM ^

in overtime after handing PSU 14 in the 1st half? Oh ok stop blaming the OC its team game. another away loss yeah it hurts like a kick in the nuts but again this team is young  like way young. All this belly-aching I had to check the score again. We were not going to play Alabama in the NTG anyway. Lets chalk it up to another learning lesson and move on. The end of the season we can evaluate whether coaches need to be released or demoted and what players need to sit more than play. GO BLUE!