Michigan Wolverines offensive coordinator Josh Gattis met the media Wednesday to try to put U-M’s offensive woes in perspective. The Wolverines ran for only 40 yards and were stymied most of the day by Wisconsin in a 35-14 loss that — once again — produced a number of turnovers.
Michigan, in fact, is tied for last nationally in turnovers lost among teams that have played three games and tied for 118th overall nationally. It’s one of the main reasons the offense has struggled to get on track in September.
“If you went to the game, you don’t really need to look at the stats. We didn’t play great, obviously fell behind early,” Gattis said. “We missed some opportunities to capitalize on the big plays in the game that devastated the morale as an offense.
“The thing for us is responding from adversity early on. If you look at it, we had three opening drives that have all ended in fumbles. We’ve got to learn how to respond in those situations when we face adversity.”
Or — better yet — how about not put themselves in that situation?
What we’ve heard from Michigan’s players and coaches the last three weeks is what we used to hear from guys from different eras of the recent past when things weren’t going well.
“It’s always a different guy doing something wrong on a certain play.”
“If only one more guy had finished his block.”
“He missed the wide open receiver.”
What it all adds up to is an offense that’s got plenty of talent and not a whole lot to show for it.
“We ran what wanted to run … we just didn’t capitalize on the plays we had in front of us,” Gattis said. “Two first-half turnovers, 23 plays in the first half on offense. When you do that … in order to get more plays, you’ve got to capitalize on the plays you have. You’ve got to get first downs.
"We get a third-down penalty, but we immediately overreact and back ourselves up 20 yards because we overreact with a penalty. We can’t have those moments where we beat ourselves in a game.”
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The best word to describe it is one fans use too often and coaches hate to hear, but Gattis brought it up.
“Overall when you look at it, obviously we’ve got some undisciplined characteristics showing up,” Gattis said. “We’ve got to focus on being the most disciplined team that takes the field each week, maintain confidence in tough situations. That’s the thing. These kids right now need confidence and leadership.”
They also need to be on the field. Junior receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones didn’t practice last week, and redshirt sophomore Tarik Black also missed a lot of time before the game. Freshman running back Zach Charbonnet played, but carried the ball only twice.
“Zach was definitely limited, as well as a number of different players. Donovan’s first play Saturday was the first time he [played] all week long,” Gattis said. “Tarik was out last week, and we had a number of different injuries we were battling throughout the week.
“We’re managing Zach’s situation … managing him just liken we’re managing other players. At this point we’ve got a lot of guys with small little nicks and bruises they’ve got to manage. Nothing severe or nothing that can become dangerous to their health — just things we’ve got to manage to get guys to Saturday."
But they’ve also got to get them the right amount of reps to be able to play Saturday at a high level, something they haven’t been able to do, and — frankly — won’t if their guys are missing time with every little nick and bruise. The plays that worked in practice last week didn't against Wisconsin because it was often different guys running them ... guys who hadn't practiced.
“The biggest thing for us offensively is to get healthy and get guys into practice so we can get into rhythm and flow that can carry out through the game. It even goes back to spring,” Gattis said. “We’ve got to continue to get healthy, manage the players we have, and make sure we keep them healthy and get them the right amount of reps and turn them into game reps.”
So far, that’s been easier said than done.
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