So, what DO you think the issue is?

This is the important question.  If Patterson is limited you have to put Dylan in and see what he's got.  He is your #2-put him in.

That’s my biggest puzzlement. The only thing I can think of is:

1) McCaffrey isn’t that good, or

2) Is somehow being punished for something, or

(Most likely IMO)

3) Milton is terrible, they plan to run the shit out of the QBs during bigger games,  & they are terrified of going into those bigger games with effectively 1 healthy QB able to run with zero competent backups.

As a result, they’re keeping both Shea & McCaffrey from running the ball until Shea gets closer to 100% healthy. And since the schedule doesn’t present a challenging Big Ten East opponent for several weeks, they’re willing to risk limiting the offense for several of these games to boost the odds of a fully healthy Shea & McCaffrey for the bigger games. 

I got bombed in the other thread for saying it, but look at how the schedule sets up in terms of resting guys who are injured. We now have a bye week & then admittedly though Wisconsin. They may risk opening it up against them, but the week immediately after is Rutgers (basically a bye week). Then Iowa (who may or may not be good), then Illinois. 

So bottom line is, I think a huge % of this problem is injuries & turnovers—with injuries being at least directly responsible for some of the turnovers. And because the schedule sets up the way it does, I think the offensive play calling is being significantly impacted in many of these non marquee games by an effort to maximize the health of Shea & to preserve the health of McCaffrey for many of the tougher match ups. 

Maybe it was a close game and they felt like they needed the veteran QB over the younger guy? Just a thought ...

Then why play him when Coach said QBs were neck and neck out of camp? 

I want to believe that too. I want to believe that there is a super-dynamic offense that will melt Wisconsin in 2 weeks like so much cheese.

But I just can't. 

I think Jim Harbaugh has convinced himself that if all conditions aren't perfect, he's just not going to let Gattis let it rip. And that's just sad.

Why would you hold something back when you're spending virtually an entire game behind to a service academy?

You can’t be serious. REALLY?? Why on earth would we suddenly be holding back when we’ve never done so in the past? Or why would the coaches risk a loss to Army in week two just for the sake of saving all the good stuff for later?

I mean honestly guys, how long are we going to keep pretending that the emperor has clothes on? Something is clearly wrong with the offense and it isn’t because we’re keeping all the good plays a secret.

Any coach, and I hope this includes our coaches, knows you can’t choose when/if injuries happen. The idea that they are saving Shea/DMac to avoid injuries is flat wrong. Coaches don’t keep quality players on the sideline holding a rabbits foot. They play their best. 

More real is probably this.

1. Practice this week was all Shea and based on Army. This means a very vanilla package so as to leave Wisconsin in the dark. 

2. The offense is still “new” enough that reps can’t be split as they might under normal times. This means DMac is not being prepared like he needs to be in order to be an improvement over Shea.

3. With the above still being true, coaches may be having Dylan prepare for Wisconsin while Shea was prepping army. Knowing that the battle was as close as was noted, and seeing Shea be..who he is and had been, they left this game to him alone with the belief that vanilla would pull us thru while they focused the next level O stuff on Dylan. Hoping his ceiling is higher than Shea’s.