Wisconsin Snowflakes - The Offense

Shea Pattersmirth is not a leader. . Watch Jake Fromm off  field. Inspirational.... that's a QB. 

If only Bell had made it to the endzone!  I think they had the Mason redzone scheme planned ahead, but were taken off guard when they had to employ it suddenly - no excuse, but yeah.  That fumble was the end.  Still, I was optimistic when we came out slingin'.  Had to match scores for any hope, but no clutch play from Shea, which had to happen for a W.

We look like a team confused. A team trying to learn a 98 page playbook before we get 6 plays down cold. 

There are and have been a multitude of CFB teams starting TRUE FRESHMEN QBs and managing to craft an offense that 1. They can execute

2. Can win games

There should be 10-12 plays that Shea can run on muscle memory. Throws on time & on target 9 out of 10 reps. Every receiver in and out of breaks on time with consistent speed. Fucking repetition is the only way to master. We look like we run 21 plays in an O session and 9 of them are shit reps, 4 are just good enough to make you move on too soon and 8 are graded as wins. That’s a recipe for the shit show we’ve been this season. That’s all on coaches. They decide when a play gets the thumbs up and we move on. 

Warriner still has no fucking clue how to deal with stunting defenses.  How many times did I see the OL double a guy that is so far out of the play that it made no sense, only to let the stunting guy wrap around into the hole and track down our QB?  Meanwhile, Shea is hopping around looking at three covered receivers while the fourth receiver is open or getting open.  Everyone is lizard brain.  We are not a smart football team and we are paying for it.

Played like ass.

Our OL and DL were the big fail. Wisconsin played smash mouth and the best Xs and Os. It happens. Happens to OSU.

This offense is OFFENSIVE! Total possession time 18:53 and 14 points. 0-10 on third down coversions, 9 carries for 40 yards, and 4 turnovers. 17-42 passing with two picks and two fumbles. Longest run by a RB was 6 yards.

#LostInSpace

Dylan McCaffrey was our leading rusher with 21 yards on 3 carries. Our QBs combined to complete just 40% of their passes. 

This offense is dysfunctional.

There is clearly something missing with JH. I'm not sure he can right the ship. And, it's a leadership thing, not an Xs and Os thing. It's about people. The team isn't playing for him. But, there's also no senior leadership either. Patterson, Bredeson, Kemp, Hill, etc are all quiet. There are no outspoken Bush, Winovich, Peppers, types. But, you can't lead if you don't produce so Ruiz can say anything. Black has been injured so he may not feel confident enough to lead. Collins and Onwenu are quiet too. So DPJ needs  to get healthy and lead this team offensively. And Hutchinson seems like a strong leader despite his age. And, we need someone who can lead at QB. Milton may not be polished, bit he's confident and will lead. The coaches need to prepare him to play. He should be good enough to beat Rutgers. That hopefully will give him enough confidence to handle Iowa. Then he gets another tune up with Illinois before the meat of the schedule.

After the first UM O play of the game...a TO after seeing all the players disorganized and raising their arms like, What now?  THAT was a coaching fuck up of massive proportions and JH/Gattis should be embarrassed and fired for that alone.  Any other Elite coach would have a play in within seconds and rammed it in next play...what a joke.  I knew we were screwed after that debacle.

The running game improved by quite a bit when McCaffrey came in, and it looked like they successfully hit one of those zone read triple option plays that Seth highlighted in Neck Sharpies a couple weeks ago. Even if McCaffrey is a worse passer, his running ability seems to make the offense move. The backs were gaining yards on regular running plays when he was in. 

Harbough needs to take the reigns of this offense stat. The season is on the brink of disaster and his job should be in jeopardy. QB Patterson, while he is a decent runner, is not a good read option QB. Need to go back to Manball with Mason as the fullback. Have him do some rollout passes.This current offense is killing our defense. If Patterson continues to struggle, then it's time for McCaffery to play.

Wisconsin was usually my 2nd team root not any more. There is enough sample size to claim Wisconsin be a dirty team when they play us. Check back the game we lost our starting LT a few years ago. That was a legal cut block by their cb. Newsome nearly lost his leg. The past game, two targeting to our QB. 

That said, that was not to whine. The way to deal with dirty team is out physical them. But this team play soft, both side of the balls. No leadership on the field, less so off the field as well. I have been rooting for McCaffrey to start since last year. I was hoping Patterson to declare. He has no upside at that point late in the season as a junior. Too short with no vision, don’t know how to read defense as a junior. I was hoping he would improve under new scheme. But he doesn’t look comfortable at all in the new offense. He was over by the 1st drive in the army game to me. Back to back 1st drive fumble by a senior quarterback. Then this game more turnovers. He is done at Michigan. If Harbaugh still start him, he won’t be in my rooting list. The whole problem started from him as a HC. Game plan too conservative and overthinking every where throughout every season except for the first season. That led to less game time for our pretty good backup QBs with way meaningful playing time. In many game, just a few snaps to run off the clock, useless. When our starting QBs are not competent or injured. The backup QB as talent as they are. They are not prepared. Peters played good but destroyed by Wisconsin. McCaffery as well. If he have more active game time, this stupid run decision could have been avoided for injuries by correcting it in the previous game. Most time McCaffrey was on the field, in the first two games, he run more than he pass, when he got an incomplete, he never got a chance to build the confidence by another passing complete. Instead, the coach would call for running play. They never trust him, when most fans see him as a better passer with much better touch. Instead, the talent But inexperience QBs are put into the fire. It is a shame. The saving plays for next game strategy from the media with strong Michigan tie never make sense to me. I would prefer the way osu play, blow out weak opponents, then let the team build the confidence and let the backups play more meaningful snaps. This is all on the HC.

if McCaffrey cannot play next game, it is time to start Milton or even mcmarana. Those true freshman and redshirt are more ready than 20 years ago. If this is a true case competition as Harbaugh claim when he joined Michigan, let them compete on the field, start our rebuilding processs now, and win the team spirit back. This is all on the coaches and the leadership of the team now.

It almost seems like we're headed towards a complete meltdown from top to bottom.  Someone on this team needs to step up and take control. This game, for me, was the make-or-break for Shea.  He has to be benched and benched right now, for good.  He is far too inconsistent for this new scheme.  We need to be settling in with Dylan or any of the other weapons we have at QB.  I had to walk away from this weekend's game due to potential for a blowout. I went for a ride around town on my moto and was pleased to come back and read that we had put something on the board.  35-14 doesn't read so bad if you don't watch all of the failures that led to that.

Got to get him the ball there. 

Coach Ed needs to gain control of this offense. Gattis is out of his league.  I would put Gattis back on the field coaching and put Coach Ed in the booth with Harbaugh calling the plays.  Gattis is not ready for the big time.  

This marriage doesn’t work, and Harbaugh’s OC has to be someone who is able to add creative flair and touches to a physical tight end heavy offense, not someone who wants to go in a drastically different direction. Harbaugh screwed this hire up badly, because he’s not really willing to do what the guy he hired to be his OC wants to do. 

Maybe Gattis is a guy with a pumped up resume who ain’t got what he claimed to have, but I haven’t seen a guy renege on an offense like this since that insane Tony Franklin year at Auburn where they hired Franklin to turn Auburn into an air raid team and Tuberville just said nope after like one week and they just turned into this goddawful smash mouth but with no tight ends offense.

This won’t work, because they haven’t committed to a direction. Harbaugh’s offenses have never looked at Michigan what they looked like when he had Greg Roman, so maybe we all oversold his offensive genius all along.

And yeah, Shea isn’t any good. But Ole Miss fans all told us he was a lemon when he transferred and Michigan just assumed it was sour grapes. Turns out, the fans who saw him play for two years knew better than Michigan fans. Oh well. Sometimes a guy doesn’t pan out. But the next Harbaugh recruited QB who puts up big numbers will be the first at Michigan, and that stinks.