Michigan Football: Is Jim Harbaugh delusional about Wolverines offense?

Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh said he thought his offense was hitting its stride, despite not scoring in the final three quarters vs Iowa.

Sometimes, when Michigan football head coach Jim Harbaugh talks, he confuses people. One of those instances was when he started talking about milk steak.

Another came Saturday, after his team’s 10-3 win over Iowa, when the coach said that his offense was “hitting its stride.” That was curious and it made you think, was he watching the same game?

Here’s the full quote Harbaugh gave about Michigan football’s offense Saturday via the Michigan Insider ($): 

“I thought Shea (Patterson) in particular took what was there and at times there wasn’t anything there … he managed the game extremely well and I thought our offensive line played really good, really physical.”

The offensive line did do a better job against the Hawkeyes and the 120 rushing yards picked up by Zach Charbonnet, Tru Wilson and others were important. Yet, beating 14th-ranked Iowa, as important as it was, isn’t going to move the needle.

Huge games loom against Penn State, Notre Dame, Michigan State and Ohio State and with the way the offense is playing right now, you have to wonder if UM can win any of them?

Certainly, the Wolverines have the talent, it’s just a matter of putting it all together. Maybe, Harbaugh is right and that’s just around the corner. After all, it was always going to take time to adjust to the offensive system of Josh Gattis.

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The comment by Harbaugh, that the offense was hitting its stride drew tons of criticism. But it reminded me of what he said after the Notre Dame loss last season. He said basically that the team was a work in progress and good things were ahead.

People ridiculed him then too because Michigan looked awful at Notre Dame. No one expected 10 straight wins, however, that’s exactly what happened.

No one is expecting Michigan football to finally figure things out offensively, but maybe it will happen. Maybe Harbaugh knows what he’s talking about.

This week will be a big test. Playing at Illinois, the offense has to get going — has to get some confidence. The next week, the Wolverines play at Penn State and with the way the Nittany Lions are rolling, you want to go in there with confidence, not another week of struggling to score 20.

The Illinois game will also mean a little more with Brandon Peters as the other starting quarterback. You can bet Shea Patterson will want to prove he belongs and for that matter, so will Josh Gattis.

At this point, there is little evidence the offense will suddenly get it. But, there was little evidence that last year’s team was going to run off 10 straight wins.

Sometimes, Harbaugh knows of what he speaks and hopefully, in terms of the offense, this is one of those times.