Michigan Monday up at "The Ozone."

Submitted by StephenRKass on

Michigan Monday is up at "The O-Zone" and is a nice read. Link:  http://www.theozone.net/football/2011/MSU/postgame/michiganmonday.html

A few quotes:

I never should have watched this game. It made offense look remarkably easier than it truly must be. I have been led to believe that offense is a hope and wish at best, but Michigan made it look like a reality. 

Last week I mentioned that we would soon start to see some triple option from Robinson, and we started to see the buds sprouting on that process. With split backs, Robinson ran a zone read look and would hand the ball off, but he always had the second tailback running behind him to be his pitch man. That will soon become a triple option.

I have been very impressed with the way Al Borges has brought this offense along. It's not stagnant. It's not stale. and it's clearly not finished. There is advancement going on. The players are learning new stuff every week--and they're able to execute it.

It's infuriating!

There are so many things that they can do from this formation (edit: 2 QB,) but don't be surprised if we never see it again. This was done so that every defense from here on out would have to waste practice time to prepare for.

Some people want to assume that this is the same old Michigan defense it has always been. The Wolverines started out 5-0 last year as well, after all. But I don't see it that way. I still fully believe this defense can be pillaged, but who on the schedule is going to do it?

 

 

 

BrickTop

October 4th, 2011 at 1:02 PM ^

the grim reality that there is no hero to save them. There is no knight in shining armor just waiting to leave his cushy job at ESPN to come back to coaching. Luke Fickell is in over his head and their team is leaderless. While the Godless Icemen to the north gain in strength and numbers everyday under the banner of the Bear God Hoke. To their horror, they are now realizing that this pain of theirs will not be quick, it will last years.

Needs

October 4th, 2011 at 12:37 AM ^

I liked this... 

 

One last thing to point out about the offense is that so much of it is based on misdirection, and it's successful. I hope Michigan's offensive coaches are proud of themselves for relying on deception. There's nothing sportsmanlike about that.

At least with Ohio State's offense, the defense knows what's coming. THAT's sporting! Everybody is on the same page. May the best man win, I say! The Buckeyes don't need to rely on some throwback screen to a running back for a 28-yard touchdown. Who wants to see that? That's gross! Go back to Canada.

triangle_M

October 4th, 2011 at 12:44 AM ^

My favorite quote, and excuse the block fail:

"It was like a shopping spree for the running game. Denard Robinson should have been pushing a shopping cart while he was running."

Moleskyn

October 4th, 2011 at 12:43 PM ^

If you want to use the blockquote, click "Switch to plain text editor" (just below the comment pane). If you don't know HTML, use this code:

<blockquote>

Type your text between the tags.

</blockquote>

Make sure you add a new paragraph after it, otherwise everything will show up in the blockquote:

<p>

At this point, you can either click "Switch to rich text editor" and finish typing your post like normal, or just type the rest of your post within these tags.

</p>

ClearEyesFullHart

October 4th, 2011 at 12:50 AM ^

I was with him until his statement about Michigan facing "Five Severely Inept Offenses".  San Diego State, Notre Dame, and probably even Western all have offenses that put OSU's to shame.

Logan

October 4th, 2011 at 10:14 AM ^

Is it just me or has anyone else never seen a Michigan fan look anything like this guy or the bald buckeye "superfan" who's always on tv? How can two college football fanbases playing in the same conference and so geographically close to each other be so different? It's a rhetorical question.

pharker

October 4th, 2011 at 6:36 AM ^

My favorite quote: 
"My experience with plays that are successful is that you only run them sparingly so as not to get too accustomed to offensive success. It makes you lazy."

riverrat

October 4th, 2011 at 7:46 AM ^

This view makes me think that maybe the fears I had about the return of manball (which in my mind means utterly predictable plays based on the belief that execution trumps all) was camouflage...this article's sneers at tOSU's inability to run misdirects and traps and counters makes me a little giddy at the ways that Borges has tinkered with the offense...

MI Expat NY

October 4th, 2011 at 10:29 AM ^

I think the fears were always a bit irrational.  People, including myself, were worried that Hoke's rhetoric on toughness, the power play, etc. would trump any offensive coordinator's efforts to put the offense in the best position to win.  We should have known that with most coaches, you have to take what they say to the press with a grain of salt, and thankfully, that's proven to be exceptionally true with Hoke.  

Baldbill

October 4th, 2011 at 2:06 PM ^

I have said this a few times before but I will again.

Manball is a football philosophy not an offensive scheme. It is about how you are practicing, it is about 'hearing' football, it is about establishing a physical presence on both sides of the line of scrimmage. It is not about 3yds and a cloud of dust.

 

 

oriental andrew

October 4th, 2011 at 10:10 AM ^

I'm literally laughing out loud at some of his snarky comments (many of which are already pasted above, but here are 2 new ones)...

 

Minnesota was starting a true freshman quarterback, and as everybody knows, true freshmen quarterbacks just aren't ready to complete passes every single game. Also, true freshman quarterbacks aren't taught how to check out of obvious blitzes, and most of the time the system they are running is so basic that it will generally go three and out in just two plays.

 

Which reminds me, I have been led to believe that learning new stuff on offense during the season is not allowed. Can anybody confirm this? I was under the impression that an offense had to stick to their original seven plays that they started the season with.

Blue in Yarmouth

October 4th, 2011 at 10:45 AM ^

I've never read this before and this was actually pretty entertaining. I agree with what someone said above though, the idea that we have played five teams that have no offense is insane. SDSU, ND and WMU are pretty damn good offenses and we played pretty well in those games (in the ND game it was really just playing well in spurts...but still).