Indiana Snowflakes: The Offense

More plays worked, our OL blocked better (particularly in the run game) against a reasonable D, and suddenly the play calling looks better. The bright spot is that if we can sustain better blocking, the offense can improve. The dark spot is that unless we can keep people honest, it's going to be hard to win our three remaining major games. The black hole is that we need better QB play and that simply doesn't look likely.

but we get blown out next weekend. Then beat Rutgers, probably 20-0 or something. Minnesota is probably a victory like today, by the skin of our teeth, 20-17. At Maryland is probably a tough loss. At Wisconsin will probably be a decent game, but I don't see us winning. Then we'll get blown out again by OSU. Probably looking at 7 wins; 8 would be the best case, unless O'Korn magically gets better or Peters is inserted and good...

The running game is picking up a little momentum.  Nice outing.  But it really is unbelievable how the passing game seems to be stuck or even going backwards, if that is even possible considering how bad it's been.  I don't think Perry caught a single pass.  Screen plays were blown up with consistency.  The play action in the first quarter to DPJ was a thing of beauty only to be spoiled by a JOK overthrow.  JOK missed at least two wide open check downs that would've been big gainers.  JOK is finding new ways to shoot the offense in the foot.

Heaven help this offense next weekend.  We need to empty the trick play book because it's obvious we won't move the ball through the air.  PSU will load the box and dare JOK to throw.  We need an intervention on offense.

going to lose a few more, 2-4 more with okorn. QB is the problem, it was a minor problem with Speight but now its worse. I'd take a dumbed down playbook and a back over this.

When a QB has a wide open 6'12 TE and chooses to throw into double coverage instead, there's nothing a coach can do about that. You can fix brain dead. 

The offense needs to be run three times and punt, and occasionally throw on 1st down when the defense isn't ready for pass. Anything else is malpractice at this point. Their best QB option right now is a freshman, or a guy in O'Korn who has the brain of a HS player. 

Are now halfway through the regular season. It’s safe to say that our offense is what it is. I know many of you are like me: you get your hopes up every week that M will come out and O’Korn will recapture his magic against Purdue and look like a heisman contender. Now that we’ve seen him in action for 4 games dating back to last season, you can see why there is this hidden potential in him (Purdue), but mostly just this lost kid type of reaction on the field (MSU, IU 2016 and 2017). He is what he is.

To be fair, it’s not all on him. Our receivers are not confidence building receivers and the Oline has felt like a soft, Swiss cheese for the majority of the season.

I now realize that I cannot continue hoping for some drastic improvement this season. I’m not super confident we’ll make strides into next season unless Peters or McAffrey start next year.

Looked fine in the first half, they were running nice simple plays to get consecutive first downs, just couldn't keep doing that in the red zone. Then, the second half happened and the worst of our offense sprung to energetic life.

QB Performance

John O'Korn is a limited QB, who is just plain not good. We need to make it easy on him by not running any harder plays than 15 yard passes with a reciever running across the field. Brandon Peters doesn't seem like an option for me. Let's not throw a redshirt freshmen QB into the most important game of our season. JOK has gotten a game of experience under that spotlight, and he's gonna have adesire to prove himself all week leading up to this game, and especially on the field Saturday Night.

RB Performance

Karan Higdon was the story today, gave our offense lots of lucky breaks. He is the clear starter in the white storm next week. Our RBs need to step up, as they need to give JOK as little work to do as possible.

Offensive Line

Surprisingly, this OLine showed significant improvement today IMO. Hopefgully this trend continues, Indiana is not what Penn State will be, so this could be a flase alarm. Improvement will be more than necessary, even considering their good outing.

Recieving 

Eh, they looked okay. I wish I had a better judgement of them, but JOK couldn't get the ball to them even close to consistently in that horrific second half.