Can we talk about the offensive line and what this means?
When you go through the offensive snowflakes thread you find that 90% of the discussion is around JOK's performance, understandably so. But I have to say that the largest impact this game made on me, beyond the happiness for JOK, was that it appeared to the untrained eye that our o-line is regressing, not progressing. Purdue came into the game with 1.5 sacks- against bad teams, yet there was constant pressure throughout the game. In fact only JOK's feet kept us from disaster a couple of times. If this was Iowa/PSU/OSU fine, you might say those guys are better than our inexperienced guys on the right side. But Purdue objectively has inferior talent on both sides of the ball, and yet: Ulizio continued to get owned. MO was shaky, and the rate of mental busts all over the line looked to me to be the highest so far this year.
I don't know man, not to debbie downer this win but that was concerning. You guys agree or am I too negative?
September 24th, 2017 at 10:25 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 12:22 PM ^
This is an extreme example of our OL pass coverage breakdown and encapsulates the problems this season. Purdue rushes 4 and we have 6 to block. Nearly every "mediocre" Purdue DL beats his block; Issac, Cole and Bredeson completely miss the blitzing LB and Ulizio is standing around wondering what to do.
September 24th, 2017 at 3:48 PM ^
I know Ulizio hasn't been stellar, but I can't fault him on that play. He was riding his man outside, creating a pocket for Speight to step into. The problem was that Speight was being driven backwards by the unblocked rusher. Ulizio was doing his job, pretty well, on that play.
September 24th, 2017 at 12:17 PM ^
The blitzer who blew up the play was an assignment miss by Isaac (presumably) as he double teams the guy Cole takes while the LB comes free. But the second guy in who injured Speight beat both Onwenu and Ulizio on a double team, which is pretty terrible.
September 24th, 2017 at 9:55 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 9:56 AM ^
Woof (Yes).
September 24th, 2017 at 9:56 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 9:57 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 10:41 AM ^
I think the fact UM moved the ball with O'Korn is clouding the outlook. Once O'Korn took over UM still had 13 plays that went for 1 yd or less, and that's not including incompletions. Those 13 plays are only from the time O'Korn entered until the time UM went up 28-10.
September 24th, 2017 at 11:23 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 11:33 AM ^
Yeah. O'Korn looked better overall, particularly because of his accuracy. And while he is more mobile by a lot, his happy feet tendency is going to get him out of a few situations like that crazy 3rd down pickup; but he's also going to have some plays where he moves and winds up either stepping into a backside rusher and gets hammered, or he's going to roll to the side and get hit by guys who would have otherwise rushed too far up field. Just the nature of his happy feet and in combination with our shoddy pass pro and meh running game it probably means a continuation of the negative plays going forward. Hopefully a little more accuracy in the passing game makes up for that.
September 24th, 2017 at 9:58 AM ^
Other teams are finding our weaknesses, including our QB and WR. They do not double team any WR and that allows them to blitz and bring pressure. You can bet that the next team is going to pay more attention to our TE and will not bring as much pressure.
September 24th, 2017 at 10:04 AM ^
you're getting worse. Or so the coaches say. And we trust them.
September 24th, 2017 at 10:08 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 10:25 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 2:06 PM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 9:59 AM ^
IMO the worst part of this pass offense is the RB blocking. It is absolute garbage. Karan Higdon missed so many but the most inexcusable is Ty Isaac. The guy is 6'2", 225+, and barely lays a shoulder into people. They give ZERO effort and it causes the pocket to collapse. The defense exploits this to the fullest every game and until this is fixed we will constantly see JOK scramble to buy time.
September 24th, 2017 at 10:00 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 10:00 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 10:08 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 10:21 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 10:30 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 10:13 AM ^
I looked Onwenu was back in.
September 24th, 2017 at 1:16 PM ^
Splitting time to help keep Owenu fresh.. Isaac definitely missed the blitz pick-up, like most of our current RB's seem to do more often than not. THAT is exactly where De'Veon Smith is missed the most, his pass protection and I think that's an overlooked aspect of what is going on this year. Yes, the OL play has been poor but people are forgetting how great at pass pro Smith was.
September 24th, 2017 at 10:01 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 10:01 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 10:07 AM ^
with limited raw talent, you might have a point. But that's not the case. It's not the fourth game of the season, it's the third year of Harbaugh's tenure here. He has brought zero improvement to the Oline in that time.
September 24th, 2017 at 10:27 AM ^
For both OL and WR, this team has few upperclassman available. JH inherited underperforming but decent upperclassmen and turned the program around. They are now gone, and he has to play many OL & WR 1st and 2nd year players before they would nromally see the field. Look at the depth chart, the future's bright http://mgoblog.com/content/michigan-depth-chart-class-0
September 24th, 2017 at 10:42 AM ^
None of them are second year. Neither is Bushel-Beatty, who can't even get near the field. And it's not too much to expect better performance from supposedly talented true sophomores than we're getting from Onwenu and Bredeson. Lots of teams do.
September 24th, 2017 at 10:44 AM ^
How quickly we forget the whirling tornado of suck that was the O-line for the last three years of Hoke's tenure. The O-line is much better than those units were. This is a mostly young line with a right side that is basically being thrown into the fire, let's give it some more time to improve before hitting the panic button is all I'm saying, O-lines take time to gel and improve, we're all frustrated with the O-line and have been for years now, unfortunately with the disaster that was the 2013 O-Line class and the trailing off of recruiting in Hoke's last years there just isn't a base of experienced talent to rely on. We're all sick of waiting for it to get better, but unfortunately thats what we're in for. May as well grit our teeth and wait a little longer to see what happens.
September 24th, 2017 at 10:09 AM ^
Purdue had 1 sack in its previous 3 games. They got to the QB 5 times yesterday against Michigan. I think you describing concerns as "running around and screaming" is wrong, there are strong reasons to have doubts about this O-line and its coaching around that position group.
September 24th, 2017 at 10:42 AM ^
When is the appropriate time?
Honest question. Week 6? 8? After a loss?
...I'm just wondering because this feels a lot like people who (basically) say "we're undefeated so you can't complain or panic about anything."
We have areas for improvement and the OL is definitely one of those areas...I don't see what's wrong with talking about it. If they don't get better we're not going to beat teams that are better than the teams we've played.
September 24th, 2017 at 10:48 AM ^
I just think the O-line needs time to gel and four games is a little too soon is all, I can't give you a timeline as I don't know but I do know that there's no magic bullet here. I'm concerned, too, but I want to see if things get better through the season as I think there's a good chance that they do. If it starts getting through the season and the same errors keep happening I'll be right in line with everyone else at Ann Arbor Torch and Pitchfork, I just don't think panicking now is wise or fair.
September 24th, 2017 at 11:03 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 12:29 PM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 11:59 AM ^
That's what Speight apologists have been saying for over a year. He's fine and will improve. No he has never been fine and has never improved. The oline is also not fine. It's shaky and there has to be scrutiny on Drevno and Frey if there is no improvement. I think Ulizio is a poor choice and they need to go with Runyan or some other option. The kid is a MAC level talent.
September 24th, 2017 at 10:01 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 10:19 AM ^
came when we kept TE's on the line for extra blocking
September 24th, 2017 at 10:38 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 10:03 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 10:04 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 10:09 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 10:12 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 10:06 AM ^
If Jim Harbaugh can let D.J Durkin walk after a poor defensive performance against OSU, and go out and hire the best DC in Don Brown, why can't harbaugh cut the ties with Tim Drevno, who has clearly underperformed in his job as OL coach/OC?
September 24th, 2017 at 10:09 AM ^
I see better Oline coaching all over the place, and with talent at least one notch below what we appear to have. It shouldn't be that hard to find someone who can get it done on the field here.
September 24th, 2017 at 10:33 AM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 10:35 AM ^
Harbaugh didn't cut ties with Durkin.
Durkin LEFT for a better opportunity.
I don't see a Maryland type team calling trying to get Drevno to be their head coach.
September 24th, 2017 at 5:09 PM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 12:49 PM ^
September 24th, 2017 at 10:08 AM ^
I think our OL ranked ~100th in experience/youth. For this season, it might mean JH needs to do something he hates--be a pass 1st offense. Also, in Brian's UFR, the running problems have not all been on OL, w/ a fair amt of RPS and missed cuts in there. I do think we need two of our talented freshman tackles to be ready to start next season.