Michigan Football: Offense Is Explosive But Who Will It Hurt More?

I’ve never really been one to play with explosives. Sure, I’ve lit plenty of things on fire in my day and I’ve messed around with a firework or two, but I’ve always kind of stayed clear of the heavy duty stuff. Part of it is that I’m not incredibly impressed by big explosions and shiny colors, and another part is that I’m somewhat scared of getting blown up.

I’m an anxiety-stricken person in the first place, so to be honest, losing my arm to an M-80 is not really my idea of a good time. I feel like this might be part of the reason I am not a huge fan of the Michigan Wolverine offense.

The system that Rich Rod has implemented is a lot like fireworks.

Technically, it should be categorized as a type of spread offense, but I see it more as a zone-read option. The quarterback is given the power to choose what he is going to do on any given play and generally has three options:

He can hand it off to the back, fake the handoff and run it himself or fake the handoff, potentially fake-running it and throw it to a receiver.

This year Denard Robinson has been a great example of how that offense should work. He is by far one of the most explosive quarterbacks I have seen in my lifetime, so the scheme fits him perfectly. He has the ability to freeze defenses with the option and then explode through the gap, and he actually does have a quick release when throwing the ball.

Then why has Michigan struggled enough to lose these past two games, you ask? I believe the answer goes back to explosives: they're fun and cool, they make loud noises and shiny colors but eventually they’ll come back to bite you and explode in your face.

The problem with Michigan’s offense is that it is as good as it is bad.

Let me explain that. Michigan potentially has one of the best offenses in college football, which is really good right? Well, on the same token their offense can be equally as bad. That might not make much sense to you, and in actuality I am scratching my head as well, so let’s look deeper into that statement.

Michigan’s offensive scheme depends on explosive plays. Sure they are able to dink and dunk around for a series or two, but the reality of it is that they need big-yardage plays to be successful. Against lesser defenses the scheme seems to work perfectly. They do not have the talent to stay with the quicker receivers and quarterback in this instance, so they tend to give up bigger plays.

Even if a defensive coordinator tells his guys to keep the play in front of them, we saw that a majority of the time Michigan’s skill players were much faster and were able to get behind the defense. Denard was able to make his reads in the backfield and because they were able to get chunks of yardage at a time with quick slants and screens, they were able to avoid throwing downfield most of the time.  

This is the part where the offense became equally as bad. We saw it the past three weeks, and I have a sneaking suspicion that this trend will continue for the reminder of the schedule.

State, Iowa and Penn had personnel on their defense that matched up much better against Michigan. They were much faster and quicker than the previous opponents and actually were able to execute an effective game plan against this offense. Simply, keep the ball in front of you, avoid the big play and cause turnovers.

It seemed like they were content to let Michigan get gains of five, 10 and even 15 yards, but how many times did you see Denard busting off his trademark 70-somethin’-yard touchdown runs? They kept the runner in front of them at all times and forced Michigan to throw downfield, and this is where Michigan blew their arm off.

Denard, as good as he is, is not the best at reading a defensive backfield and making a good vertical pass. Sure, he’s got a bullet of an arm, and that works really well with the slant passes and screens, but when it comes to accurately throwing it down the field, he's lacking.

Even “Tater Tot Forcier” has a problem with turnovers, so that scenario would still present itself in that situation, and it did.

Michigan was able to rack up a lot of yards, but in the end of the day, the defensive game plan prevailed. Teams have been able to avoid the big runs and forced enough pressure on the quarterback to make him throw it into coverage, and that is why Michigan’s offense failed them and will continue to do so. 

Like I said earlier, I’m not impressed with big explosions and fancy colors, and I would much rather not get my arm blown off.

Rich Rodriguez has chosen to put all of his eggs in one batch of fireworks per say, and now we are seeing the repercussions of that.

What happens when you take the explosion out of the firework? The answer to that question is nothing. It is neither flashy nor dangerous.

I think defenses have started to find ways to take the explosion out of Michigan’s offense, and we are starting to see that without it they’ve really got nothing.