O Line...

[wrestler_149]

Im new to the board and have been reading for years and finally made an account. I feel like the oline issues are numbers issues more than anything. If you watch the negative yard plays we are blocking with 4 or 5 and they are sending 5 or 6 on run downs.

I also notice that we are throwing more on 1st down to keep them off balance. Anyhow our run game has been a little vanilla with the exception of the Iowa game where JoeMo have Barkley on the edge alot. Whereas he is not in the other games.

This leads me to believe that we are holding more back for the opportune time. Thoughts?

 

[BisbeeMike]

Im new to the board and have been reading for years and finally made an account. I feel like the oline issues are numbers issues more than anything. If you watch the negative yard plays we are blocking with 4 or 5 and they are sending 5 or 6 on run downs.

I also notice that we are throwing more on 1st down to keep them off balance. Anyhow our run game has been a little vanilla with the exception of the Iowa game where JoeMo have Barkley on the edge alot. Whereas he is not in the other games.

This leads me to believe that we are holding more back for the opportune time. Thoughts?

We will have a wrinkle or two, at the very most, in the second half of the season. At this point what you see is what you get. They'll do what they have been doing and most likely it won't be what anyone hopes or wants to see, haha. The job will be to find a way to win, warts and all.

 

[sluggo72]

Im new to the board and have been reading for years and finally made an account. I feel like the oline issues are numbers issues more than anything. If you watch the negative yard plays we are blocking with 4 or 5 and they are sending 5 or 6 on run downs.

I also notice that we are throwing more on 1st down to keep them off balance. Anyhow our run game has been a little vanilla with the exception of the Iowa game where JoeMo have Barkley on the edge alot. Whereas he is not in the other games.

This leads me to believe that we are holding more back for the opportune time. Thoughts?

IMO we need a way to counter act the DE crashing to the mesh point. Shovel pass? perhaps, bring the OT over and trap him? perhaps I think opponents are coaching the DE to the TE side, that if the TE goes away (pulls), attack the mesh point. We have to have a key breaker for this.

 

[djr4rebs]

Unblocked DEs that are going straight to the mesh point to tackle Barkley are going to be a problem until Trace pulls it out and starts burning defenses for 7+ yard gains. DCs are not afraid of this. They see that sometimes we are slow processing this play and that Trace isn't pulling it out to run much. Is this by design against what our coaching staff recognized as inferior competition and they plan to lull Michigan into employing the same strategy? We'll find out in 11 days.

The other linemen missing blocks doesn't help. It's obvious that if they had a guy they could plug in and correct the issue, they would. Unlike the injury plagued '16, we aren't forced to fill spots out of necessity. We got lucky that we didn't have numerous breakdowns. And I think it spoiled us.

 

[BisbeeMike]

Unblocked DEs that are going straight to the mesh point to tackle Barkley are going to be a problem until Trace pulls it out and starts burning defenses for 7+ yard gains. DCs are not afraid of this. They see that sometimes we are slow processing this play and that Trace isn't pulling it out to run much. Is this by design against what our coaching staff recognized as inferior competition and they plan to lull Michigan into employing the same strategy? We'll find out in 11 days.

The other linemen missing blocks doesn't help. It's obvious that if they had a guy they could plug in and correct the issue, they would. Unlike the injury plagued '16, we aren't forced to fill spots out of necessity. We got lucky that we didn't have numerous breakdowns. And I think it spoiled us.

We DID have breakdowns in 16. We trailed Michigan State at halftime, we only had 16 points vs Rutgers at halftime, we went nowhere vs Wisconsin. We had some big plays passing the football that helped us win those games. I think at this point, there isn't anything the staff can do. Coach em up and pray that somehow we can find a way to keep them out of our backfield.

 

[djr4rebs]

Maybe I should change the word "breakdown" to "meltdown".

Every team has breakdowns. Ours last season, post-Michigan, didn't contribute to us dropping two or three games because of OL play. Thus, we didn't have any meltdowns.

Perhaps last year gave the illusion that because we made some big plays in the second half, our offense didn't struggle as much as it did. At least by the constant outrage, it seems so. Has the line evolved into pure dominance? No, but who has?

I'd rather this team start clicking against Michigan than look like the world beaters of the late 90s that wilted once the so called "varsity" schedule was reached. '97, '99, I'm looking at you.

 

[BisbeeMike]

Maybe I should change the word "breakdown" to "meltdown".

Every team has breakdowns. Ours last season, post-Michigan, didn't contribute to us dropping two or three games because of OL play. Thus, we didn't have any meltdowns.

Perhaps last year gave the illusion that because we made some big plays in the second half, our offense didn't struggle as much as it did. At least by the constant outrage, it seems so. Has the line evolved into pure dominance? No, but who has?

I'd rather this team start clicking against Michigan than look like the world beaters of the late 90s that wilted once the so called "varsity" schedule was reached. '97, '99, I'm looking at you.

While those teams had great talent, they didn't have the soul that this team has.