Middle Tennessee Snowflakes: The Offense
August 31st, 2019 at 11:27 PM ^
He did that all in the first half. Did jack shit in the 2nd and got his ass benched. Even then he fumbled on the first fucking play.
Stfu and watch the game. You’re almost as bad as the people who think Gattis’ offense is the same as Pep/Harbaugh’s.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:30 PM ^
I watched the game. You seem very emotionally charged.
September 1st, 2019 at 1:09 AM ^
He was banged up after a shot in the 2nd which is when Dylan went in. When he goes in 2nd half he struggles, Dylan goes back in.
You need to calm tf down.
September 1st, 2019 at 1:41 AM ^
Did you listen to harbaighs post game presser? I'm betting no because Shea wasn't benched, he was banged up at the end of the half and Jim wanted Dylan in because they wanted to run the QB to start the second.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:37 PM ^
There are two halves to a game and he wasn't good in the second.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:45 PM ^
I understand there are two halves in football...no need for the condescension. Harbaugh said in his presser that Shea was working through a late Q2 injury at halftime - likely related to the repeated winces and feeling his ribs. Harbaugh said he wanted to not aggravate that more and give Dylan a chance to do some run plays. So, I think it was hardly a "benching" as others may believe.
My issue was with the statement made around it being incomprehensible that he was struggling so badly against MTSU. Shea looked like an absolute baller going into halftime. Got a little dinged up at it affected his play to some degree. And Harbaugh sat him to not upset it more.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:10 PM ^
Shea is limited and gets too hot headed when things don't go his way. First half offense looked promising. Second half looked like shit.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:10 PM ^
Patterson pocket presence sucks donkey balls
August 31st, 2019 at 11:11 PM ^
There were moments when I was really excited. Then there was the rest of the game.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:11 PM ^
Fix exchange issues and timing with WR and we’re looking good
August 31st, 2019 at 11:11 PM ^
Gattis just needs a better gameplan. Throughout the game it felt like he was just kind of guessing and trying things, not planning a way to attack the defense. Offense felt stale, out of rhythm, and not confident in itself.
Multiple poor throws too. Shea overthrowing receivers by several yards. Hope he can clean that up. Long season and we all saw last year's opener wasn't completely indicative of this team, but this was a concerning start. Gattis has to show more for someone who is so confident in his vision and philosophy of speed in space. Hardly saw either of those concepts tonight sadly. On to Army, hopefully this is good film for them to study and make improvements.
September 1st, 2019 at 2:18 PM ^
I get backlash every time I’ve said this but I’ll say it again. The speed is space hype is soo overdone. 1. It’s a new offense and will take time to get the timing down. 2. You don’t call speed in space plays and they magically work because it’s trendy when you don’t have the athletes to pull it off. This team was built for power. There are a couple of skill guys with speed but not close to being at the level needed to consistent exploit opposing defenses. We don’t have the receiver depth, RB depth and Patterson isn’t the gunslinger that can pull it off.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:12 PM ^
We have a lot of good skill players. I think Shea got hit pretty hard one play late first half and was a little off after that. Like our receivers and Zack Charbonnet. Dylan can move the team too.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:12 PM ^
I could go without seeing Shea and Dylan on the field at the same time for the rest of the season. Growing pains were expected, but that was very underwhelming.
Charbonnet looks the part
September 1st, 2019 at 12:51 AM ^
I wonder how much practice time they wasted on that non-sense
September 1st, 2019 at 12:02 PM ^
I kinda hope they go all-in with it, just to watch people melt down here as they develop it.
I actually think it’s okay to use people named McCaffrey as wideouts, but they need to stay with it. If it’s just an experiment that we never see again, I don’t get it.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:12 PM ^
Plays were there, they should've easily put up another 3 TDs or more, but way too many drops.
OL didn't pave them as much as I would've thought, but we did have two RS-F making their first ever starts at both OT positions.
Charbonnet looked great. Turner was solid as well, thought it was Higdon out there!
Overall felt like a let down but you can see the potential.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:44 PM ^
Turner is faster and probably on par right now with Higdon. Charbonnet is certainly better than Higdon. The RB situation was a concern a few months ago but from what I saw tonight I think it's going to be neck and neck with Collins/DPJ/Black as the strength of the offense this season.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:42 AM ^
I am aligned with your take. Receivers left some yards and points on the field. When they had the offense clicking, it looked very good. Saw some really bad mesh handoffs in the second half, especially in the red zone. Need to clean that up. It’s a first game. It was sloppy at times, but thank god, we didn’t open against A Top 25 team.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:13 PM ^
Wow, lot of angst in this thread. 450 yards of offense, lots of unforced mistakes. Tighten those up and we score sixty.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:16 PM ^
seriously, I used to come to this blog for some sanity... now every here is more batshit insane than even rival fanbases.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:23 PM ^
Snowflake threads are not the place to look for sanity. If you hang around the blog much most of the people posting in these aren’t around for really anything else.
Offense was ok but a bit disjointed. Obviously more drops than I’d like to see but sometimes they happen. Thought OL played ok, seemed like MTSU brought a lot of guys and threw a lot of LB’s at the LOS, inability to punish them for this was either poorly planned or they didn’t want to show it...maybe both.
It’s like, whatever man. Don’t take too much away from one game.
September 1st, 2019 at 11:57 AM ^
It isn't just snowflake threads. This place has been majority mouth breathing, knuckle dragging idiots for some time now. It used to be different, people here used to have measured, thoughtful conversations. Not anymore.
Loud noises.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:30 PM ^
If you seriously think a 40-21 home-win against MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE is good, you are not the sane one.
September 1st, 2019 at 3:17 PM ^
MTSU is not the push over they're being made to be. The offense was obviously trying out some things that either need to be polished or the coaches wanted "out there." I'm withholding judgement given the context. People need to chill.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:37 PM ^
Generally speaking, the response hasn't been batshit. That was a very sloppy, lackluster performance against a third-rate opponent.
September 1st, 2019 at 9:28 AM ^
I can't even read the game threads anymore. Just garbage in there. I go over to reddit during the game. Some posters on here are just pure garbage.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:20 PM ^
Always woulda shoulda coulda every fucking year. If only we didn't do this 8 things and did do 17 otherthings, THEN we'd be good
August 31st, 2019 at 11:20 PM ^
Yes. The only reason this was a game early was the two turnovers. Without those, and also punch it in from the 1...
September 1st, 2019 at 2:14 AM ^
Yeah, that's mostly what I saw as well. There was some good play designs and many well executed plays, but they also shot themselves in the foot with too many mistakes - fumbles, drops, underthrown balls, delay of game penalties, spiked balls, etc. I don't know if was Game 1 rustiness or just needing more reps with the new offense, but you can see the potential of what the offense could become if they manage to cut down on the mental mistakes.
If I had one major dissapointment with the play calling it is that they never really figured out a way to make MTSU pay for blitzing on nearly every play. The protection held up ok given the amount of blitzes they faced, and Shea managed to avoid eating many sacks, but he faced a ton of hurries and pressure and I didnt really see any adjustments made to counter the blitzing before Dylan came in.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:13 PM ^
They had to many drops today and minor miscues. I feel like they ran the same plays over and over but im fine with it in this game.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:14 PM ^
Lots of unlucky injuries per usual. Patterson is mediocre. Heismen hype is a joke. Mcaffrey has higher ceiling, but is mediocre bright now. Charbonnet is promising. Dax Hill is not a day one starter, just a good athlete. Hill is not our best corner. Offense line cant run block, is decent enough though. Defense has no stars. Good solid players that might be good enough to be a top 3 or 4 unit in the big ten. Offense is gimmicky and Gattis will need to run more meat and potato plays instead of gadget stuff. We will lose to Wisconsin. We make too many mistakes and are undisciplined. Thats on the coaches. We'll be good, but lose 3-4 games and play Florida in the Krispey Kreme Turbo Tax Outback bowl again.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:18 PM ^
Hill is our third best corner based on today's game, and it's not even close.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:01 AM ^
If you’re just trying to formulate hot takes then this is fine. However if you’re legitimately concluding all of this from one game against Middle Tennessee State (which I don’t think you are), then I don’t know what to say
September 1st, 2019 at 12:10 AM ^
Every year we have a game that's shitty and the non-bitchers say hey it's only one game aww shucks were gonna be great. Then we get fucked in the A by OSU for the 20th straight year. So yea I'm legitimately concluding that were not that great.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:29 AM ^
You say getting fucked in the A like it's a bad thing.
September 1st, 2019 at 9:48 AM ^
This is probably the best take on our opener. I'm so disheartened. I couldn't even watch the whole game and felt just as deflated as the OSU game last year. Nobody is going to be afraid of us and unless this unit pulls it the fuck together, we're looking at 5 or more losses this year, starting with Army.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:14 PM ^
I will say, win aside, I still felt like I didn't see Speed In Space. I am still very interested in what that looks like, even though I did like the playcalls on offense a bit more than last year.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:19 PM ^
I saw a few nice downfield RPOs at times, but I agree with this take.
It looked to me like what a Harbaugh 11 personnel, QB in the gun offense would look like--treat the TE as a fullback type to create different run looks, run play action, etc.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:39 PM ^
Yes, the number of sideline passes that travel twenty yards in the air and gain the offense six yards was Too Damn High. Hopefully that's just a product of keeping better things under lock.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:47 PM ^
Totally agree. I get the idea of not revealing everything on tape in Week 1 but this hardly felt like we utilized our speed and athleticism. Sainristil, Jackson, Bell hardly doing much as our slot waterbug types. After hearing so much about how Gattis uses those quick slot guys to shred defenses, it was pretty underwhelming to see us return to some of the same slow developing pass routes. We had to settle for that first FG instead of a TD because that route took too long to develop and then Bell made a poor play. Frustrating play but remain hopeful Gattis can open this thing up like a Ferrari on the Autobahn.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:14 PM ^
450 yards and 40 points on offense. Did that in 3 games last year (WMU, Nebraska, Rutgers).
Shea had 200 yards and 3 TDs in the first half on 67% completion and 8.2 YPA. That's with big chunk drops by Collins, McKeon, Bell (x2) and Sainristil (one of the Bell ones and the Sainristil one weren't drops but catch-able balls that weren't).
This was all without Runyan, DPJ and Wilson for the most part.
There were some ugly parts and improvements need to be made. Drops, by WRs and by Shea on runs/handoffs/snaps, need to be fixed. But this is game 1 in a new offense with 3 projected depth chart starters not playing.
This wasn't perfect but everyone freaking out is insane. It's game 1. There are going to be growing pains. But on a disappointing day for the offense we hit one of our best 3 performances from last year. Let this group get healthy and give them more real game reps in this offense and there will be rapid improvement.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:24 PM ^
This this this.
Anyone questioning the offensive scheme is ridiculous. Question the Qb play in the second half.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:28 PM ^
Agree with most of this.
However, the nature of Ronnie Bell's drops makes me understand why he wasn't a bigger WR recruit. Looked like a bad case of concrete hands, which is hard to cure. Hope I'm wrong.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:02 AM ^
I can agree with this. On an individual level Bell was most disappointing.
That being said CJ looked good on his two catches.
September 1st, 2019 at 3:39 AM ^
I love Cornelius. He's probably not a first-round talent but is as sure to succeed at the Power 5 level as any receiver. He's legit.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:26 AM ^
This wasn't perfect but everyone freaking out is insane.
I don't think there's a lot of freaking out in here. There's a lot of fans in here wondering that in year 5, does Michigan have what it takes to beat ohio state. Legit stuff is being said... like:
- MTSU ran ohio state's game plan from last year and Brown still is a one trick man coverage pony.
- Where was the speed in space? It's just another gimmick that the passionate fanbase bought into and got burned.
- Clock management is STILL a problem for JH and staff.
- Too many mistakes. ohio state didn't look this bad. Neither did Bama. Nor Clemson a couple of nights ago.
Let this group get healthy
Healthy? It's week fucking one. How the heck can this team be so beat up already? Or conversely, so out of shape that cramps are an issue?
September 1st, 2019 at 1:09 AM ^
Your post is freaking out. Point by point:
As I posted in the defense thread, ignoring the 59 yard TD pass at the end, MTSU didn't have a TD on the first team D that wasn't a short field after a turnover. They averaged 2.4 YPC and 4.4 YPA passing. That's with multiple DTs, our weakest position, out. MTSU's slot receiver who has the most catches of active NCAA players only had 4. Thinking that's a loss is BPONE freaking out.
Speed in space wasn't fully there but we had a limited play book. That being said we saw multiple speed options, RB swings, RPOs, etc. If you're pissed because there's no "speed in space" while ignoring the clear changes and modernization of the offense, I don't know what to say.
Time management didn't look great but it was 1 drive.
That's just flat out bullshit. OSU went 33+ minutes of gametime scoreless against FAU at home. They were outscored 21-17 after the first 9 minutes of the game. JK Dobbins averaged 4.3 YPC against FAU. Bama was only up 14-3 at the half against Duke. Trevor Lawrence threw for 160 yards on 7 YPA and 2 INTs against a year 0 GT.
Bama and Clemson were better for sure. So yes, sorry our game 1 offense wasn't as polished as Bama/Clemson.
Freaking out.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:14 PM ^
Thank God for Josh Gattis. If we had the same offensive approach as last year we probably only score about 24 points and wouldn't have the opportunity to let so many backups play.
August 31st, 2019 at 11:14 PM ^
Looked like the same offense as last year, just more uptempo. I saw pretty much ZERO "speed in space" type plays. Those were only run by MTSU's offense. We're going to feed Charbonnet the ball a lot more in big games...at least we should.
Both sides of the ball seem pretty good, just not good enough to be a top 5 team. First game though. We'll see how they develop.