Back to the offense for a minute: I admit that earlier in the season I was one of the idiots bitching about the boring offense (especially during Northwestern and MSU). In fact I think my dad was getting a bit annoyed by my comments and may have “politely” and possibly correctly asked me to shut up*. And while I would still like to see more down field attempts and some creativity… Here was the key difference in our mindsets. He wanted to win. I wanted to win by 50. I was wrong. I used to argue that Lloyd Carr was the best coach Michigan has ever had** Lloyd ball isn’t fancy. It doesn’t put up 40 points in the first half against good teams. But here’s what I forgot about in the 10 years since Lloyd has been gone. Lloyd ball looks boring. Lloyd ball often looks bad in the first half. Lloyd ball doesn’t usually lose games. Lloyd ball usually improves in the second half after you’ve sufficiently beaten the shit out of the other teams defensive line. Lloyd ball is why defense wins championships. I, and apparently the rest of college football, had forgotten how a good beat the shit out of you offense can work. Rich Rod’s defenses were so bad that the Offense had to be a flashy and try to score 600 points a game. Hoke’s defense was good but the offense was too terrible to be smashy wear you down or flashy 600 points. Harbaugh’s team has had arguably the best defense in the country for 3 years. Harbaugh’s offense is now good enough so that even if everyone in the country knows they’re gonna run the ball up the middle 40 times a game and throw 15 times they’re still going to score 21+ and have the ball for 35 minutes a game against good defenses. I also think the offense has the ability to throw in read options and RPOs and QB/WR talent to try to score 40+ a game. The problem is: you go in to half time down 2. By the time you realize that your defense can’t adjust to an offense for the first time in… ever… and now you have to score 40+ points… your on your backup backup backup True Freshman QB and your star TE is derping passes all over the place and your special teams just gave up 7 more points on a punt… what is your offense supposed to do?
Give me 39 points and Don Brown against OSU every year and I’ll take it. Michigan will be fine***
Is there any good news this season? Well other than double digit wins and victory over MSU.. Yes. and no. Jim McElwain has left the University of Michigan to be the head coach of the Central Michigan Chippewa’s.. So on the plus side the probability of a NCAA violation involving inappropriate contact with aquatic animals has significantly decreased. On the down side, my plans for the comic series “The Adventures of Jim McElwain” are now like a George R Martin book trying to catch up to the TV adaptation.
* Although in my defense he said this because of the completed deep route to DPJ which is what I was bitching at the TV for in the first place…
** After recent news this is further supported by the fact that Lloyd Carr’s undefeated record against Urban Meyer includes a winning percentage that is infinitely higher than any other Michigan coach.
*** Counter point: Defense will be worse next year and what’s with all the transfers and I’m not allowed to have nice things so it’s only a matter of time before flip 180 on all of these opinions.