OSU Snowflakes - The Offense
November 24th, 2018 at 5:54 PM ^
Guess I was expecting to see all those secrets that were held back over the season. Guess there weren't any. No ingenuity or creativity. The one cool play Gentry dropped or allowed it to be ripped away. Could have been a TD.
November 24th, 2018 at 6:03 PM ^
We’ve got the WRs and live arms...let’s see some air raid going forward.
November 24th, 2018 at 6:03 PM ^
Ohio State doesn't have a great defense. We should have controlled the line of scrimmage.
People will see the 39 points and think that, Oh, the offense did enough to win. Well, 1 of those TDs was on a short field, 2 of them were when the game was decided. And a few other drives were aided by penalties. Offense wasn't as bad as the defense, but they were far from good.
And Patterson was bad for the most part. Missed a ton of open guys and had to be bailed out by his WRs on several catches.
November 24th, 2018 at 6:19 PM ^
What can this team do from here to change the offense? It seems abundantly clear that in today's game explosive high-powered offenses like Oklahoma's and Ohio State's are what win you games, not slow, predictable, run-up-the-middle offenses like we have. What's it going to take to transform the offense, and are the coaches even willing to try?
November 24th, 2018 at 6:39 PM ^
Get the best position coaches possible and a real OC.
Is jay the best rb coach? No. Fired.
Is Pep the best “passing game coordinator”? No. Fired
Ed stays with a raise. Shark fucker can stay or not.
November 25th, 2018 at 5:18 PM ^
They are not the issue, Harbaugh is. Until he changes his philosophy on offense, Pep’s hands are tied.
November 24th, 2018 at 6:19 PM ^
They won the time of possession which seemed to be their priority. So good job there I guess.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:10 PM ^
I felt that Harbaugh wanted to control the clock to keep their O off the field and avoid getting into a shootout. We got out shot all right.
November 25th, 2018 at 3:15 AM ^
That only works if you put the damn ball in the endzone instead of kicking fg's early in games. An annoyingly bad habit of Harbaugh's teams in big games.
November 24th, 2018 at 6:21 PM ^
I love all of your suffering
November 24th, 2018 at 6:40 PM ^
I’m sure it’s the highlight of your shit life. Enjoy.
November 24th, 2018 at 6:33 PM ^
We have 3 of the best WRs in the country and we do not use them to their fullest potential.
November 24th, 2018 at 10:32 PM ^
Says who? We have 3 good WRs, but they're not 3 of the best in the country. OSU's top 3 WRs are mile better than ours.
November 24th, 2018 at 6:34 PM ^
As long as a dinosaur offense of 1996 still is being used today this program will never take a step forward
November 24th, 2018 at 6:43 PM ^
We run nearly the same offense Alabama runs
November 24th, 2018 at 7:40 PM ^
Bama runs double right I formation on third and 9 ?
November 24th, 2018 at 8:51 PM ^
They have an elite O-line.
Also, not really.
November 24th, 2018 at 6:35 PM ^
Eat shit, go bucks!
November 24th, 2018 at 6:40 PM ^
No friends to celebrate this win with?
November 24th, 2018 at 6:42 PM ^
Eat Meth, go back to your trailer!
November 24th, 2018 at 6:46 PM ^
Let's take a quick look at the top 15 offenses in college football and the general schemes they run:
1. Oklahoma - No huddle up-tempo spread
2. Ohio State - Power spread
3. Alabama - Pro-style 2-back with spread elements mixed in
4. UCF - spread
5. Memphis - Mixed, but mostly spread
6. Houston - Spread
7. Clemson - Spread
8. West Virginia - Spread
9. Oklahoma State - Spread/Air-raid
10. Ole Miss - Spread/Air-raid
11. Utah State - Spread
12. Texas Tech - Spread/Air-raid
13. Georgia - Pro-style
14. FAU - Spread
15. Georgia State - Mixed spread
Notice a trend? The pro-style, "manball" offense only works if you have 5-star talent all over the field (but especially in the trenches) ala Georgia and Alabama. And even though Saban prefers a pro-style, he doesn't hesitate to spread it out and start throwing it all over the field if he has to. The faster Harbaugh realizes that this is what is needed to succeed in college the better. Good offense will ALWAYS beat good defense and we need an offense that can keep up with the Ohio States, Oklahomas, and Clemson's of the world. Until then, 9-3/10-2 will continue to be our ceiling.
November 24th, 2018 at 11:42 PM ^
I agree. Thanks for compiling this info. Of each of these top 15 offenses, I wonder how many have the Head Coach calling the plays vs. an Offensive Coordinator vs. a committee approach?
November 24th, 2018 at 11:45 PM ^
OSU isn't a power spread this year.
November 25th, 2018 at 3:52 AM ^
Don't need to mimic them. But you need a way to keep pace with them or catch up when you fall behind. There can be a recruiting and tactical advantage by doing something different, but you are setting yourself up for failure if you have don't have a way to get plays off and score quickly when that is needed.
November 25th, 2018 at 10:50 PM ^
Agreed. It makes me crazy that we had a spread for a bit and it was starting to work. Then we got inpatient and reverted to this manball crap. God I just hate the philosophy so much. Seeing your offense as some sort of a compliment to the defense, ball control, predictability to "soften them up." It's just so outdated and dumb.
That said, the defense was the biggest issue. I guess the offense is the most disheartening though because the ineptitude is so self-inflicted. The defense just shit the bed. The offense played handcuffed for most of the game. Just baffling.
November 24th, 2018 at 6:55 PM ^
Catch. The. Ball. Gentry
November 24th, 2018 at 7:07 PM ^
I hope that Jim has learned from this, and realizes that it's time to restructure his offensive staff and coaching hierarchy. I'm concerned about the lack of a hurry up offense, the 'debacle' from the last game, and how frequently we have to burn time outs because our offense isn't set for the plays. If I had to guess, these are all symptoms of the 'coaching by committee' where several people are pitching plays to Harbaugh and he makes the final decision. That just doesn't seem to be an efficient use of time.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:09 PM ^
Wacky random stat: Wilton Speight threw for 466 yards today.....in a loss to Stanford.
November 24th, 2018 at 11:46 PM ^
I would love to hear Speight compare the offensive approach of Chip Kelly to that of Jim Harbaugh.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:20 PM ^
The offense was ass on the big stage once again--garbage time points don't count. I'd really, really love to see Harbaugh ditch this playcalling by committee bullshit and hire a real o.c. with full responsibility for gameplanning, implementing and playcalling.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:27 PM ^
Exactly. The play calling is a mess, probably due to the committee structure. It leads to a slow offense that doesn't look to be prepared to run the plays.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:35 PM ^
I don't think our offensive philosophy was that bad this year. We played an offense conducive to our talent. Maybe I'm wrong and this would be the offense no matter what our personnel was this year, but I am choosing to believe our coach (whom has shown he will adapt at his other jobs) would have had a more open offense if it was possible. We all forget so quickly how iffy our pass protection has been when we face good teams. This was no exception. Patterson was running around back their all game, even starting bugging out early again as the game went along. We ran first all year because we didn't want to expose our offenses biggest weakness. And frankly, the offense did more than enough to win this game. We even had more opportunities for scores that we missed due to dropped passes. Who knew they would need 70 points.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:39 PM ^
Jim is out of excuses ! Run every first down for 1 yard ? What a shit show
November 24th, 2018 at 7:49 PM ^
Here are some hard truths;
Harbaugh is overrated.
His ability to recruit against TOSU, PSU and MSU has been spotty at best. His inability to run an innovative offense in the college game has been exposed time and again. Even bringing in a 5 star hired gun QB has failed to get the offense firing on all cylinders.
The team has talent at the WR position. But, why they bother to go to UM is a mystery. The offense doesn’t showcase them to any degree.
The running game is manned by RBs who could not start for half the conference.
The defense front 7 is among the best in the conference and country. But, the defensive backfield is wildly overmatched by speedy team. On the downside is overall defensive depth. Harbaugh’s inability to recruit well as left the bench bare of quality back ups. Any injury to a starter and the defense shows a marked drop off.
You are your record. 0-7 during the Meyer regime with no end in sight is what it is.
November 24th, 2018 at 9:03 PM ^
I am curious. What is Harbaugh rated and who rated him?
November 24th, 2018 at 11:20 PM ^
There is a stupid fucking take. Go away.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:55 PM ^
Picking up 1 yard on 1st down is a positive thing. Otherwise we wouldn't do it......every...…….fucking...…….time......
November 24th, 2018 at 7:59 PM ^
So many stupid hot takes. The offense wasn't the problem. They scored 39 points. They didn't play a great game, but they weren't the reason this team lost.
This scheme can win, it has been winning all season. The fact is that Shea Patterson had a bad day. He under threw receivers, he made bad decisions on a few run options when he should have pulled the ball but didn't, and he held on to the ball too long on a few plays and got sacked or got hit while trying to get rid of the ball. Those things aren't scheme problems, they are bad QB play.
Of course, Patterson wasn't alone. Gentry was garbage today, dropping catchable balls. And lastly, the offensive line reverted to it's talent level. That isn't scheme either, it's a failure of recruiting which hopefully is turning around.
Still, despite all that, they did enough things right to score enough points to win.
November 24th, 2018 at 8:00 PM ^
As much as I would like to see Michigan go 3-4 WRs sets and spread the opposition’s defense out, the scheme was not the problem. They scored 39 points and that should have been good enough except Indiana gave OSU the blueprint on how to attack our D but with much better athletes.
November 24th, 2018 at 8:08 PM ^
Every year it’s the same complaints.
Replace this coach, hire this guy, recruit these guys, feature these guys and on and one and NEXT year will be a different story.
It’s entirely possible there isn’t enough speed and talent to overtake TOSU for the foreseeable future. UM just doesn’t have the same type athletes as the Buckeyes.
This was allegedly the “best team Harbaugh has had at UM”. The team that reflected what Harbaugh envisioned when he took over. Patterson was the turbo charger for a better offense. The defense the “best in the country”.
Harbaugh’s best team got 62 points and over 500 yards of total offense hung on them. After giving up, what?, 7 TD passes all year, Haskins dropped 5 on them in 1 game?
A serious discussion has to had about the recruiting and development of players at UM. Or the beating will continue.
November 24th, 2018 at 9:07 PM ^
I bought the recent hype as much as anyone however the preseason predictions told us we lacked strength at the offensive tackles and safeties and that we have too many 3 stars compared to OSU's 4 and 5 stars. This was never the year (obvious now) but who really thought it was when the year started.
November 24th, 2018 at 11:21 PM ^
Fuck off!
November 24th, 2018 at 8:18 PM ^
So strange.
The offense seemed to be growing up to this game. More and more RPO and zone read, both of which were working. More and more shotgun and pistol, which kept getting better and more varied.
And then this happened.
The offense has the ability to be varied and difficult to defend. That did not happen today. Today, a stubborn Harbaugh wanted to wear down an OSU defense...and he almost did it. They were playing poorly in the second quarter, Michigan had developed some rhythm on offense.
The defense sucked the momentum out with poor penalties before the break and then the offense turtled up again in the third quarter. Predictable plays but also incredible missteps. Dropped passes, missed assignments on blitzes.
Harbaugh kept wanting to run because he saw how Maryland lit up these Bucks last week. Yet OSU did something totally different on defense. Rather than wait and see as their LBs did all season, they were instructed to pick a gap and hurtle themselves into them. They did and guessed right almost all day long.
Was it fate? Did they know so much about Warriner's blocking schemes that they knew how to attack them? Maybe.
The offense scored 39 points, yes. Of those only 19 were not in garbage time, 6 came on the gift kickoff muff. The offense struggled mightily today and had very little of the creativity that it has shown all year.
...and given the issues OSU has had all year, why we did not go shotgun with quick passes to protect a first-time starter at RT, I will never know...OSU cannot guard the pass unless they blitz heavily...quick passes are the answer and that was NEVER in our gameplan
By throwing LBs into gaps, OSU had a defense set against run or pass if it was in the Ace or pistol set. Dash into run gaps or cause adaptations in the pass pro, either way would hurt a slow-developing playset.
We adapted once it was too late.
Yet...
imagine a 27-19 game in the third quarter, (another) Gentry drop is caught instead...
no blocked punt TD
no Shea panic INT
two plays to me that really changed the game were going for 2 in the 2nd quarter - momentum swing back to OSU and kickstarted that FG drive and that Gentry drop before the blocked punt
I hear a lot about offensive philosophy or our athletes aren't good enough
We lost because we were ARROGANT. Our staff thought we could just line up and beat OSU. The reason other lesser teams played the Bucks tough is that they had special gameplans for them. They attacked OSU's defensive weaknesses.
We were content to run a vanilla gameplan and think we could overpower them. Not going to happen.
We have the athletes we did not have 3 or 4 years ago. They were let down by the scheme.
You must treat this game like The Game. Harbaugh and company did not.
this is therapy for me so it doesn't matter if you agree
November 24th, 2018 at 9:27 PM ^
The word stubborn does come to mind (for our coaching, not our defense.)
November 24th, 2018 at 9:53 PM ^
Good take FB
November 24th, 2018 at 11:55 PM ^
I agree. The question is will Harbaugh adapt moving forward?
November 25th, 2018 at 12:07 AM ^
Never have I witnessed a staff get less out of the talent they have at their disposal then this crew. Even Hoke played the buckeyes better than this. He only got blown out once and it was the last year he was here. And after today you can’t even call that a blowout. Not even close to the shit show this was.
Unreal performance for the ages today.
For those saying “it takes time” and “we’re on track”... I beg the question.. “How much better of a team will Harbaugh have than this one?” You have nfl draft picks on defense.. two of which are sure first rounders, 4 and 5 star players on offense, including the qb.
It’s year 4. These are Jim’s guys. These are Jim’s hand picked coaches.
How can you show up in the biggest game of your coaching career since the super bowl and show the world the WORST performance in the history of this rivalry??
OSU fans are calling for Meyers head this year after the loss to Purdue and he’s only lost 9 times in 7 years and had a national title under his belt. Oh and he hasn’t lost to his rival yet!
But here we are letting Harbaugh off the hook time after time.
The excuses are over. This was worse than year 1 when OSU has Zeke! Hold this man accountable Warde. This is nonsense.
November 25th, 2018 at 10:56 AM ^
We lack a creative, quick passing game. Instead we use old school principles of WCO that take time to develop and are predictable.
When we do run mesh, we use our TEs who aren’t as fast or likely to pick up YAC.
With Barrett, Jackson, GJIII, Sainristil, and our current WR corps, we have all the talent we need and more to use our skill players in space. Not to mention Evans—he proved again that he should be targeted 5 times or so in the passing game.
I do not agree with some that believe McElwain is the answer. Air Raid concepts from the Rams, Chiefs, or OSU are more what I’d hope for than another pro style passing attack like McElwains.
November 24th, 2018 at 9:04 PM ^
We lost a lot of position battles. When we needed to make a play the ball was dropped. It’s pretty easy to say if you win the majority of battles you usually win.
OSU definitely wanted the win more.
November 24th, 2018 at 9:11 PM ^
Our offense was very vanilla. We thought our oline was a strength but it clearly wasn't.