GBMW: Coach’s Corner — Michigan Offense vs. Ohio State Defense
GBMW: Coach’s Corner — Michigan Offense vs. Ohio State Defense
Well Saturday was a repeat of the last eight weeks, not that this conclusion is surprising.
Michigan has gone 1-7 over the final eight weeks because of losing the weekly turnover battle. Michigan finished in last place (along with Indiana) in the Big Ten conference with a 1-7 record, and until some of these turnover mistakes are corrected, Michigan will be in trouble and have a hard time getting back to the Big Ten Championship. The coaches must correct this shortcoming and it is correctable.
Saturday’s five turnovers basically took Michigan out of the game. Michigan will continue to have problems beating good teams until they fix the turnover problem. Michigan gave up, or the offense gave up seven quick points to Ohio State. This is like giving a defense rich coach like Tressel an Ace out of your own hole cards in a poker game. Michigan’s offense had several opportunities to score more points, but mistakes cost Michigan the opportunities for more points and the game.
Quarterbacks:
The more we watch Tate Forcier the more convinced we become that he is not the ideal fit for this offense.
There was a good reason Tate Forcier was not Michigan’s top choice, or even second choice, as the quarterback for the 2009 class.
He is slow with his reads, not confident in the pocket, and continues to make poor decisions.
What stood out to us was the lack of swagger in Forcier’s game. Early in the season Forcier had a confidence that the rest of the team used as fuel. There was no sign of this effect Saturday against the Buckeyes.
We continue to not understand why Denard Robinson was not given more of a chance at quarterback. It was obvious T. Forcier was rattled and struggling, but the staff kept him in the game, when at times D. Robinson was moving the team. Obvious to the entire universe is the need to let D. Robinson have more plays at his disposal than just running the ball left, run the ball right, and run the ball up the middle. You could really tell the Ohio State defense was keying entirely on the running game and this one offensive variation when Denard was at quarterback. When was the last time Denard passed the ball more than once in a game?
Running Backs:
The team definitely missed Brandon Minor’s strong and physical running style. Still, no fumbles was a good thing. Vincent Smith continued to play well and Michael Shaw also showed some skills.
Where Minor was really missed was in pass protection. The other running Backs did not do a very good job at protecting.
Offensive Line:
Eighty yards rushing is not good enough to win in this offense. The Ohio State defensive front was consistently winning the battle at the line of scrimmage, this was telling. This particularly hurt Michigan in the red zone. Michigan had to settle for a missed field goal attempt and Forcier threw interceptions in part because Michigan could not run the ball.
Split Ends / Slot Receivers / Tight Ends:
The lack of a true speed guy really hurt here. Ohio State was able to crowd the line of scrimmage and Michigan was not able to either make Ohio State pay or back them out. The blocking on the edge was solid and Michigan did not have any of those annoying dropped passes.
Offensive coaching:
Give the staff credit for changing gears and using the passing game more. We also liked that Denard Robinson got more meaningful reps, we wish the number was even greater, but we will take what we can get. We believe Denard needed to be used as a decoy once in awhile as well because every time he was in the game, he was being keyed on. What we question is why was D. Robinson pulled when he was moving the team with a couple of first down and then T. Forcier comes in and throws another interception? Why such a limited package with D. Robinson, why did Michigan keep throwing the slot swing into the rolled up cornerback?
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Written by CoachBt
