Rutgers Snowflakes: The Offense

Not that this will actually help anyone's BPONE... but #4 Oklahoma just beat unranked West Virginia only 16-13, in a game they never actually led until the last-second game winning field goal. 

I went out shopping at halftime, came back and saw that Michigan had had essentially 3 first downs in the hours I had been gone. Did not see that coming, even though you could tell Rutgers was starting to key in on the run game toward the end of the 1st half. I just thought "our coaches will make adjustments too and will exploit the fact they're selling out to stop the running game". Whoops.

Harbaugh was hired as an offensive coach with a speciality in quarterbacks.  Nearly every year, his team depends on the defense to win games (or not, see last season) and the quarterback play is disappointing.  Seriously, other than last year has he ever had a team with an offense ranked higher than its defense? Harbaugh coaches as if he has the 1985 Bears defense regardless of what he has.

He’s still doing this even now in year seven with a defense that has only average overall talent and is in the midst of a wholesale reboot by a first year coordinator.  The offense that scored a whole fucking 20 points today against Rutgers is run by a junior quarterback who has had the same OC for three seasons.  The defense that held them under 14 points is coached by a host of brand new coaches.

Harbaugh hasn’t developed a college quarterback since Andrew Luck.  He has never had an elite offense.  His best seasons here were built on an elite defense.  Hell, even now the best part of the offense sure as hell isn’t the quarterback.

The only success he’s had is because he made some good hires.  The stuff he is most involved in is the worst stuff.   He is the problem. 
 

Rutgers is at least a competent defensive team.   Some of our offensive ineptness was just 2nd half missed passes and some stubborn play calling.  We really barely had the ball the 2nd half, never got any momentum going.  Hit those passes and this game was never in danger.

Great job by Corum and oline salting it away when needed.

What's frustrating is that a 9-year-old could call better plays. Seriously, don't fucking run on 3rd & 10. Don't run when there are 8 guys in the box. It's not that hard.

At this point, I don't care whether it works, I care whether it makes sense. This is Madden-level simplicity and Gattis/Harbaugh (who knows who's calling plays) just doesn't get it. It's just fucking embarrassing and I don't get how it get's fixed unless the coaches can admit their play calling is divorced from logic.

And yeah, Cade isn't cutting it. Missing easy throws, locking into the first read. What a common theme from the Harbaugh era. Shocking how a supposed QB guru can't develop a single quarterback in (*checks notes*) 7 years. Amazing how a single game can destroy the confidence built up over an entire month. At least we won. In theory, we can right the ship at Wisconsin. History suggests this isn't likely

What specifically would you change if you were Gattis/Harbaugh? What plays would you run? I’m genuinely curious, not being snarky. 
 

I think I would use Henning more often, quick slants to receivers to rebuild Cade’s confidence, roll out Cade on most running plays so that he can sell a fake more authentically when it’s pass time. Also, I’d put in more misdirection prior to the snap. 

Cade just doesn’t have it and that’s unfortunate. He’s like a pitcher who can’t find the strike zone. I know Harbaughs loyal to a fault when it comes to his qbs, but he’s coaching for his job. I’d start Cade next week and if the jitters and happy feet show up then put in McCarthy. JJ is full of confidence and arrogance and that’s a good thing right now. Keep running into brick walls like yesterday and the teams gonna quit on him like years prior. 

Here's my problem with the offense: if I'm a d-coordinator against M I call an 8-man box looking for an inside run every single play except 3rd and long until M proves it can beat it with multiple touchdowns.

Cade missing throws is what it is, but I don't understand why they can never give him anything easy. I mean, is there a screen in the playbook?

From what I witnessed yesterday, the old Michigan offense decided it wasn't ready to retire yet. 

Where is that speed in space? 

It's not that I was shocked to see it. Old habits die hard and we do know that Jim loves to do the same thing over and over and over. 

The one good thing is that Cade hasn't turned the ball over. On the flip side, Michigan's D has a hard time catching balls that have a good chance of being intercepted and tackling  in space still seems to be an issue

? ….. UM has not changed.  Bon Jovi said it best ..

“It's all the same, only the names will change
Every day, it seems we're wastin' away”

I think harbaugh should have sat Cade.  He obviously had something going on which manifested during the second half.  It’s ok to sit your starter and debrief to assess his mind.  Put JJ in and let him taste the B1G play.  Michigan is constantly tripping over it’s own feet, year after fucking year and it’s frustrating.

What surprises me is Harbaugh’s fundamental unwillingness to change even when his job is on the line. He’s gone through perhaps the most humiliating decline in college football over the last 7 years. And despite all that humiliation he still can’t change even the most basic things which every Michigan fan can tell you needs to be fixed. Strange psyche with this guy. 

After reading all these comments, my thoughts are these:

1) The problem is mostly playcalling. The 3rd-and-12 run in the third quarter in Rutgers territory said it all. And I think that "pack it in" mentality hits the players, not just the coaches, and everybody gets sluggish. As others have said, it's reminiscent of the Army game. Gattis seems to get into this turtle mindset at times.

2) I think people should understand that McNamara probably isn't making the wrong reads on option plays. There are no option plays. Every damn one of those plays is a fake read. When he kept in the fourth quarter he didn't have a read, just certain doom.

3) I get why people want it, but I just cannot say I want McCarthy in. Given the playcalling issues, I doubt it would make a lot of difference even if he did turn out to be substantially better than McNamara. He should be good. He's not Trevor Lawrence. And it's too easy to ruin young QBs. Obviously if Cade goes out against someone and just looks like he can't be a D1 quarterback, then you have to get to functional and maybe McCarthy can be that. But my preference is to stick with Cade for now.

(Copy paste from what I wrote in the offensive every snap video thread, this to me tells a huge story of offensive production in second half)

16 total plays the second half. 16!

I think 5 had real success considering down and distance, 3 others were sure first down if the ball was thrown well, 1 of those 3 was probably at least a 30 yard gainer had he hit All over the middle. 
 

4 run plays actually worked pretty well considering down and distance, another Cade should have not kept and we probably have 6-8 yards from Corum. 
 

Haskins i think made a cut to the left on one run where he should have kept going to a lane in the middle and probably gets 5 yards on either 1st or second down. 
 

I think we are going to see more story of this game was defensive confusion and not getting off the field. Again, I don’t think we can stress enough how important from a leadership, assignment and alignment perspective it was when Josh Ross isnt out there calling the defense on the field. 
And also Cade had 3 bad missed throws that were all relatively easy first downs, one a huge gainer. 
 

this is all fixable, the defense will be a major focus I think in practice, as well as Cade’s timing, and maybe feeling the heat from JJ too. 
 

and again this is all just me looking at the second half, I have no real concerns from the first minus the missed TD throw in the end zone 

i have a feeling based on sheer number of plays in second half, offensive UFR comes out better than expected overall considering the score and perception of second half offense. Defense UFR up front another story in second half.

Anyone else notice that Rutgers started 7 seniors and 4 juniors on Defense?  Interesting times with a non-counted Covid year.  They are also the no. 8 rated Scoring Defense in the country year to date.  Not saying we did not have our own issues, but I did find this interesting.