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9/7/2019 – Michigan 24, Army 21 (2OT) – 2-0

Welcome, BPONE sufferers! A double-overtime game against Army has everyone back in the pit, and even in the cold light of day 48 hours later it's hard to argue. A week after it felt like Michigan had added a bunch to the arc read package that saved their running game last year, Michigan QBs kept once and Zach Charbonnet trundled towards a very 1982 line: 33 carries, 100 yards.

Back in 1995 the shotgun was understood as an offensive gambit limited to passing downs because attempting to run out of it sucked. It would continue to suck until Rich Rodriguez accidentally invented the zone read when his QB at Glenville State screwed up. Once the option made spreading the field a run-game advantage instead of a disadvantage… [gestures at college football].

Michigan took the portal back to 1995 this weekend, and now we're back to crabbing about Michigan's offensive system while Lloyd Carr's on the field. RIP Speed In Space, 8/31/2019-9/7/2019. Cue the spittle, and the condescending media columns about how spittle is unbecoming.

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In the aftermath Harbaugh was asked about the lack of reads from his quarterback and made some assertions that I hope are not true:

On Shea Patterson potentially being dinged up and not running on option plays

He ran a couple. He was better. He was able to work through what he had and felt 100 percent for the game.

The read was not there for the quarterback to pull it.

If this is a 100% Shea Patterson, Michigan isn't doing anything this year. And it probably isn't. Patterson's lone called run of the game went four yards; Patterson was not hit but dove forward onto the ground. There he stayed. Dylan McCaffrey came in for the next two plays. Patterson returned for OT, hitting a couple of short throws across the middle in Michigan's first drive before three consecutive bad misses in OT2.

That certainly feels like a QB who Michigan is attempting to protect, because as soon as they stop doing that he goes out of the game briefly and then airmails all his passes of any length. (The OT1 throws were inside the hashes; the OT2 throws were on the sideline.)

The frustrating thing is that Army's approach never got tested. Michigan's rock paper scissors wins in this game were close to nonexistent. Army swallowed a fourth and two play with two guys in the backfield. Patterson's lone zone read keep ate a corner blitz. Michigan ran out of ideas late and kept returning to a no-read power play. This wasn't a return to the sometimes clunky early Harbaugh days—those had tons of different run plays and regularly popped guys through big holes by misdirecting linebackers. This was a near-total abdication of the idea of coordinating a run game.

So, like, what the hell? Why did game two of Josh Gattis become a debacle on par with Let's Put Denard Under Center? If Patterson is hurt why isn't Dylan McCaffrey playing? If Army is messing with Michigan's reads in basic scrape exchange ways, why don't you have a plan for that?

Like the title says: no good answers.

There's a lot of people extrapolating from not enough data and deciding to jump out of a plane; it's too early for that, but getting approximately zero coordinator wins in a tight game against Army while both quarterbacks get their offseason hype blown up is cause for concern.

Football's weird and Michigan has a bye week to get healthy and figure some things out. They'll have to.

[After THE JUMP: slomka, slomka, slomka, egg, and slomka]