Northwestern Snowflakes - The Offense
September 29th, 2018 at 8:18 PM ^
What the hell was that holding call against Higdon?
September 29th, 2018 at 8:19 PM ^
Patterson was clutch. We’re so fortunate to have him.
And the offensive line generally held up well.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:20 PM ^
What we learned from this game:
- Our run game is not good. Complete inability to run the ball when it mattered most, relying on broken plays and QB scrambles to bail us out.
- The only reason we won this game was Shea Patterson making something out of nothing.
In summary: This offense is NOT good. When Ackron can put up 39 points on Northwestern and we can barely just barely muster up 20, at the last possible minute, that’s bad. Also, we’re still not a good road team. Absolutely no excuse for this game to be as close as it was. Not with a defense like we have.
Don’t see how this team can beat Wiscy, Penn State, or Ohio State playing offense like this.
Also, Nebraska must be REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY bad at football. I mean, THIS offense put up 56 on em.
Not very inspiring for the meat of conference play.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:22 PM ^
It seemed in the preview that northwestern was playing man with the safeties and often in this game they played zone and dropped 7 so completely different gameplan than before
September 29th, 2018 at 8:23 PM ^
I agree but don’t underestimate the 2 weeks northwestern had to gameplan for this. They pulled out some of the throw and pray tactics that Notre Dame did. Got the calls too
September 29th, 2018 at 8:29 PM ^
That reminds me, holy undisciplined Batman! My gosh, I’d swear this team was TRYING to break the season record for penalty yardage.
I mean, we worked in our weekly bullshit ref calls, as per usual, but still....we’re what, 9th most penalized team in the country?? Coaches need to put a stop to this ASAP.
September 30th, 2018 at 9:45 AM ^
I think a lot of those are PI calls. Our corners must be coached to grab and hold when they get beat to save the TD. Problem is that they are getting beat a lot.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:26 PM ^
last I checked, Patterson plays for UM, making him part of the team in which we need playmakers of which he is one. So...we good?
how many times has a QB made a play against us on a broken play and won the game? How about just about every OSU game since ‘04.
Team came out flat and almost paid for it. Almost.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:34 PM ^
Nothing wrong with Patterson making plays, obviously. But he can’t be our entire offense. That won’t be good enough against the rest of the schedule.
September 29th, 2018 at 10:40 PM ^
Why Not? Patriots do it all the time, may be not this year. Teams do it to is where one guy wins it. I would love ride Shea's coattails if we are going to win.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:30 PM ^
"Ackron" had two pick 6s. Their O didn't score 39. But why let facts get in the way of a good narrative.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:32 PM ^
UM ran 42 times for 180 for 4.2 a clip. Two rushing TDs. Patterson had 31 with much of that coming on option runs.
Northwestern has a very good run defense.UM ran for 80 yards more than NU gives up.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:57 PM ^
Lost a bunch more yards due to penalties as well.
September 29th, 2018 at 10:07 PM ^
The 4.2 ypc is a little misleading, because several carries came on the final possession where even GERG knew a run was coming.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:35 PM ^
Dont forget NW's motivation for the newly retired RB. Emotions were very high for them. This is what I expected from, not all the penalties from us however.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:39 PM ^
Just to be clear, and this isn't an excuse for our offense, but Akron scored 39 points on NU only on account of turnovers: they had THREE defensive touchdowns. Obviously Akron should in no way be a standard, but their offense itself had fewer yards and points against NU than ours did.
EDIT: Red beat me to the punch.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:08 PM ^
Alright, that’s fair. I concede the point. I’m still not confident going into the tougher conference games though.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:41 PM ^
There were three defensive touchdowns believe it or not.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:20 PM ^
Higdon having another 100+ yard game minus the phantom holding penalty. Must have been another one of those "It's a foul in basketball" calls.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:21 PM ^
This teams gonna get wrecked by some of the better programs on the schedule, esp the away games. The only thing that looks clearly better this year is Shea. Otherwise its the same old road struggles
September 29th, 2018 at 8:39 PM ^
Take each game one at a time. M has trouble with NW on the road.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:59 PM ^
The problem is that M has problems with everyone on the road.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:22 PM ^
Tackles haven't been as big of a problem as we thought they'd be after the ND game. Shea missed a couple throws but ultimately he was the difference between Iowa in 2016 and Northwestern this year.
We outgained Northwestern 376-202. I think if D didn't get shredded first quarter and a few things had gone differently on offense - McKeon holds onto long pass, we score a TD on one more of our red zone opportunities, etc. - we'd be feeling much better about this team.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:30 PM ^
Runyan handled the Gaz very well tonight. A suprise to be sure, but a welcome one
September 29th, 2018 at 8:23 PM ^
RPO baby
September 29th, 2018 at 8:25 PM ^
I am starting a GoFundMe campaign to free Shea Patterson from terrible and unimaginative offensive game plans.
Free Patterson!!!
September 29th, 2018 at 8:26 PM ^
Yeah overall the offense lacked imagination other than that one formation they broke out late in the game. Too easy to defend.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:36 PM ^
I’ve heard rumors floating around the corners or the dark web...there’s this revolutionary new concept creeping into football. It’s called an...”Offensive Coordinator”. Shhh, you didn’t hear it from me.
September 30th, 2018 at 1:05 AM ^
I kind of like Michigan's stone age offense. Must be in tribute to former coach Fred Flintstone.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:25 PM ^
I liked that 4 WR to one side formation. Finally something creative. Got two of the biggest runs of the game out of it.
Patterson wasn’t good throwing the ball. Made some nice game saving plays with his feet.
Offensive line took a step back. Not as bad as they were against ND but for most the game, they were below average.
Cant figure out why the WRs don’t get open more. Collins has been their best WR Target this season. He has terrible awareness but good hands and is always an option due to his length.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:33 PM ^
Offensive line was good. I have no idea what you were looking at. Ran well, pass blocked well.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:39 PM ^
Will have to re-watch, but o-line was decent today.
OTOH, there did seem to be several plays where either a pulling guard or a TE whiffed on their block because NW D players were getting to their spots/filling gaps before the M blocker even arrived.
Blockers (pulling G and/or TE) were too slow to get where they were supposed to be on several plays
September 29th, 2018 at 8:51 PM ^
Based on reading stuff on twitter (I am bad at Xs and Os), they were attacking Down G really aggressively to get to the gap before the puller. Which is what Brian was saying the problem is with that play, if you don't fool them, they've got an extra guy. I think that's what was happening a lot.
Also the plays where we seemingly intentionally didn't block Gaziano. That is a bad plan.
September 29th, 2018 at 10:31 PM ^
I don't think that's usually on the puller. A pulling blocker is not going to run a 4.3 on his way into the hole. It is possible for LBs who are really determined to beat the beefy guys to the hole; the way to combat that is to burn them with play-action or disrupt their keys, not hope that your guards and FBs will suddenly turn into Jabrill Peppers.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:02 PM ^
I was sure they were going to call us for an illegal formation on Higdon's TD run. Either it was good or they just missed it. Same with Shea's read option on that final 1st down.
September 29th, 2018 at 10:18 PM ^
I think the outside WR must have been considered on the line. Looking at the TD highlight, he was a half yard back from the WR on the line, and half yard in front of the inside WR.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:25 PM ^
I'm actually really encouraged by our OL. That's a legit D and our OL was good in pass pro. Generally fine in run blocking, the issues mostly seemed to be play calling to me. OL was blocking fine but can't run up the middle to 7/8 in the box.
Patterson was up and down. Playcalling, penalties and receivers were all concerning to me. Receivers dropped a few and it seemed like we were struggling to get seperation.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:42 PM ^
Some of the lack of separation by receivers was the kind D NW decided to play. On many plays its was all about keeping M receivers in front of them.
I thought that left lots of potential shorter quick passes that M could have exploited. But JH almost never tried to take what NW D was structured to give...Seems like short quick passing game is not really part of the offense.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:01 PM ^
Playcalling definitely seemed stubborn. We came in determined to throw, and when it wasnt working we repeated for most of the first half. Glad we finally adjusted, it was almost too late.
Gentry is a dude.
Why did Patterson zig right towards the defenders in his 3Q scramble when the left looked WIDE open. It was a footrace between him and a LB, but instead he ran into a pile.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:25 PM ^
They need a more modern offense. The constant runs up the middle kill me.
September 29th, 2018 at 11:46 PM ^
I don't think "modern" or not has anything to do with that. That's just play calling suck.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:26 PM ^
Nico Collins looked rough throughout the game.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:41 PM ^
Ya he seems like a great deep threat but given his size and speed I thought he's be better at picking up yardage in the open field. A couple drives could've been extended if he could've put on a move or grind out a few more yards. Also poor foot placement on one play on the sidelines, but not sure if that'll be a consistent issue.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:05 PM ^
He was still their best WR - 6 catches for 73 yards.
September 29th, 2018 at 10:01 PM ^
Two third downs where he needed to put his head down and get 2 yards instead of trying to shake a tackle for more yardage.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:27 PM ^
We cannot run trap plays on the end/OLB with Onwenu being the pulling guard. He just cannot get there quick enough and either Higdon gets tackled by the guy intended to be trapped, or the play slows down and the backside guy makes the play
September 29th, 2018 at 8:44 PM ^
Yup Onwenu is definitely a weak link in the run game.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:29 PM ^
That phantom holding call almost made me punch a hole in my wall. All these emotions over NW made me feel bad inside.
But, a comeback win is a win.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:35 PM ^
An offense this uncreative and piss-poor in the straight-up run game won't win any road game against a team with a pulse. 7-5 or 8-4, you flip a coin.
Why a run-focused team with proven ability to put OL into the NFL can't recruit big-time OL is beyond me.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:38 PM ^
God shut the fuck up. NW's front seven has a pulse. The offensive line played well. The runs set up play-action which won the fucking game. Also set up Patterson's keeper.