Iowa Snowflakes: The Offense

The offense is not good enough to beat any team they'll face in the first round outside of FSU. It struggles running the ball, JJ is just off and we can't seem to get any big plays in the passing game or even string drives together throwing. 

Drops, poor run blocking, suspect pass pro.  Our only TDs were on extremely short fields.  I am smashing the concern button, however, there is no reason the O can't take a few strides forward with a month to practice and prepare.  Concerned but hopeful.

The team out Iowaed Iowa with defense special teams and turnovers.  The offense did what they had to do.

Subpar game but coaches new the only way they lose is to have turnovers and stupid plays. 
 

When the oline once again looked shaky on pass pro, they mailed it in knowing field goals and clock win the game easily. 
 

they just wanted to win like PSU and OSU. But I hope they realize that shit won’t cut it next game. 

We better hope that we get better on offense in the next month and whoever we play next gets rusty.

Great to get a win, but I didn't see anything that was very confidence inspiring with regards to playing anyone other than FSU in the CFP.  The O-Line play is easily the worst it's been out of the last three years, so hopefully they can work some magic.

Keep in mind every game is different. I will say the coaches need to take the lesson of TCU to heart and realize they won’t be playing Iowa in the playoffs who does not have an offense.

i believe our offense is still in there somewhere and the coaches will just have to unlock it. Let it all hang.

SP+ Defensive ranking before tonight...

1. Iowa

2. Michigan

3. OSU

4. Penn State

While after tonight M might jump to no. 1 D, Iowa really does have an elite D. 

But a team that really has a chance to win it all has to be able to find at least a couple of concepts on offense to attack even an elite D.  And Michigan found nothing that was able to get yards, force Iowa to adjust, sustain at least a few drives.   

This is such a unique team compared to '21 and '22.  The olines on those teams were clearly far better than the '23 oline.  But this year the QB position is better than McNamara and a younger JJ in '21 and '22.   

On the D side, the '23 D is better overall than the '21 and '22 editions.  But they are doing it this year with a more balanced 'great players at all three levels' and also just playing very solid fundamentals, but without having any single D player that is just a monster that dominates his position.  '21 and '22 had those types of stars (Hutchinson, for example).

Anyway, great year.  Great team.  Most playoff games are higher scoring, so JH and Moore better make some changes. 

Last time we same a game plan bristling with plays not seen all season and specifically crafted to be used against the tendencies of a particular opponent was...the '21 M v. OSU game. 

Michigan will need that sort of thing on offense to win it all this year.  The offensive play calling we used in the last three games won't get it done in the playoff.

Oline taking a lot of heat, and some of that is deserved. But I saw no imagination in the run game, and JJ refusing to get the ball out on time.

It's not the oline of years past that's going to line up against an 8 man box and still block for 3-4 yards so they've gotta find creative ways to get things going and JJ has to realize when his line got beat and just throw the ball away. 

Sherrone moore is an offensive line coach. That’s it. He’s not an offensive coordinator nor should he ever be considered as “head coach at Michigan” gtfoh

if anything, Minter should be the next head coach in line. 

Yikes. This is what happens when the OL has trouble in both phases. Loss of Zinter, Nugent clearly banged up (ankle?) and then also Persi coming it at RG presumably for Barnhart made for a rough go in both run blocking and pass pro.

I'll keep it positive and say at least we have time for Nugent to heal up and for us to rep stuff without Zinter.

Also, the passing game calls were Carr-level today. Sideline out, sideline out, repeat. The one crosser I saw that we schemed open for Loveland he dropped, and there were other drops too. One nice route combo for Wilson, but overall few and far between. 

We can't have an offense like this (~200 yards) and expect to win a game in the CFP. Those teams have actual offenses that will find ways to score on our D.

I am so hoping that they were confident they were going to win the game, so they left all creativity in the vault.  There were a number of times I thought there were things they could go back to and elect to go with the other person that was open but they didn't.   I really, really hope they were saving stuff for the next game.

The offense only had 3 drives for 9 points. Not the best showing. I'm not sure if they decided not to throw much and just try to run into a stacked line? Iowa has a good D but we have speedy WR, who should have been open. But our down field passing attack has not been good the 2nd half of the season.

Number one goal tonight was not turn the ball over, they did that.  Just enough to get the job done.  

Its correct to have worries for the CFP.

Michigan's offense hasn't looked explosive all year. Not sure why anyone would have expected that to change massively in a game vs Iowa of all teams. A team that's literally built to win games 13-10.

Michigan will need to win in the playoff like they've won all year, methodical, not giving up anything on D, eventually outlasting the opposition. If a team has success against the D like TCU did last year then this team will lose, that's just the reality of it. Michigan's D needs to hold Bama, Texas, FSU whoever it is to under 28 points I'd say for sure.

I think they need to learn to call plays for an OL that isn't the best in the country. Throw screens, run to the edge, throw the ball to Edwards, run JJ etc. Running up the gut every play until 4th down isn't going to cut it in the next two games.

Michigan ground it out when they needed to, and they did go right down the field on the first drive.  I suspect they go for it on the 4th and 1 if Nugent didn't get hurt right before, but I think they were trying to get him some time before he had to go back in.  He did return on the next drive and played the rest of the way.

There are some areas for improvement (and fans will obsess about them), so here's mine.

The throw right to the Iowa LB was worrisome.  Just not sure what happened there, and that pass won't get dropped every time.

The sacks don't worry me as much, since JJ had all day in the pocket on multiple occasions.  The one shot they had of downfield coverage on a sack showed four receivers, none of whom had any real separation.  Maybe all their playoff opponents can do that too, but I doubt it; Iowa's D is legit.  Might be the best defense we played all year.

Not sure if JJ is still hobbled or the field was just slick.  A month to heal up will definitely help.

Zinter's injury may still doom them, but they've got it all to play for, and nobody's got it better than us!

I’m glad it looked as bad on tv as it was actually being there. Wtf Michigan. I get it we’ve had a brutal 6 weeks. But that in no way looked like a top 5 team let alone #1. 

Not good at all - won’t pass the semi if it’s played like this.

The way some of you guys are talking you'd think we lost or at least failed to cover the spread. Of course I'd always like to score more points but if you haven't noticed, the coaches seem to keep winning games. 

This is not the 2022 Wolverine OL.  Now, without Zinter, it is a mess.  Iowa wrecked the OL all night, stopping our run schemes and sacking JJ.  We have a month to get the back-ups playing like starters.

Did what we needed to do.

It is concerning.  Hope the next month gets JJ right healthwise. And watch a lot more film on zone coverage which seems to vex him.  Thankfully he was dialed in vs OSU and made 3 throws you just saw nothing like in the other 2 games sandwiched around it.  Iowa got a lot of push on the OL as well.  We will go as far as JJ takes us - he plays like OSU game we have a chance to get it all.  If not, we won't.

Much of the offensive hand wringing in this thread seems relevant, given our past two attempts at the post-season and the slog last night.  Perhaps drives like a hurry up Orji drive with many passes has been loaded as a 2nd or 3rd quarter offensive catalyst and we’ll pull out all the stops for the first playoff game. Not sure what we do if we make it to the second game, though. Hopefully, moderate health issues are the main problem and those will solve themselves within the next month.

“xyz isn’t going to cut it in the playoffs” is a meaningless bromide. you can pick out literally any aspect of a game and say that.  “two turnovers won’t cut it.” “3 yards per carry won’t cut it.” ”213 yards and 12 first downs won’t cut it against iowa.” “338 yards and 18 first downs won’t cut it against ohio state.”

the fact is, it was already clear that iowa wasn’t going to comeback from 10-0 unless we made a massive mistake and put our defense in a bad spot.  multiple bad spots.  ultra-conservative was exactly the right approach against that team.

unless we turned it over, punting was winning.

Hopefully JH and Moore can put together something like Carr did for the 2008 bowl game against Florida.  I know we don't really have a Manningham, but that offensive game plan was chefs kiss.  They came out looking like a different team than they had during the regular season.  

I'm not a coach but I think with a month of practice the best oline would involve trente Jones and Miles Hinton on the right side.  I just don't see what Barnhart brings that those guys can't? Barnhart is not the most agile or most powerful.  

Thank the lord for turnovers. Our longest touchdown drive was 6 yards. That’s scary. 
One catch for Roman Wilson. What is going on there?

I just don’t understand the complete lack of deep shots all season.  I’m not talking about the scramble and throw for 20-30 yards. I mean a few times a game you get Wilson/Loveland/Edwards with a 1 on 1 google straight down the field and JJ just cocks back and bombs it.  You see Ewers/Penix/ Daniels do this all the time. I’m rewatching the game right now. Oline was not great but JJ is holding the ball on a lot of these sacks/pressures.  He’s a great talent and I’m so grateful he’s Michigans QB. I don’t just say this for selfish reasons but he is still very young and needs to work on processing things a lot quicker. He needs another year. The stats back this up very few are truly ready after a 3 year college career

Also adding this. Those auto comebacks against off coverage is what got him pick 6’d against TCU’s very good corners and Bama/ FSU corners will be all over baiting those 

There was plays called last night that had a chance to be an explosive play ( some for TD) JJ was locking into one option and holding onto the ball to long