A look at what various outlets and experts are saying about Michigan's 24-21, double-overtime win over Army Saturday at Michigan Stadium.
Granted, the Wolverines were still missing a couple of All-Big Ten starters in fifth-year senior left tackle Jon Runyan Jr. and junior receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones, but 340 yards total in four quarters and change isn’t what ‘speed in space’ is supposed to mean. Too often it was more like (not much) speed in (very little) space.
Of all the offensive players Saturday, running back Zach Charbonnet — a true freshman — looked the most like a veteran. That’s good for him … it’s also a concern.
“I just really felt like we had to go with and really lean on Zach today,” Harbaugh said. “[Redshirt freshman running back] Ben [Van Sumeren] fumbled and we had another missed protection [from redshirt freshman Christian Turner]. … I just felt like we had to go with Zach more than we really wanted to.
“… That’s tough, tough duty to go a whole game on a hot day, but you’ve got to give the kid a lot of credit. He rose to the occasion and had to be tired, but he did a heck of a job in my opinion.”
He is similar to former U-M back Mike Hart in that respect. He’s ahead of the curve in his pass-blocking assignments and maturity, and man … those feet. He’s going to be really good.
Harbaugh's team played one of the sloppiest games it could have against the Black Knights, fumbling the ball four times and losing three of them. The Wolverines also had nine penalties for 58 yards -- among them an offsides call in overtime that gave Army a new set of downs. Connor Slomka ran in for the go-ahead touchdown two plays later. Those are the types of mistakes that make an upset possible.
Additionally, the Wolverines were terrible offensively, averaging 2.4 per rush and twice failing to convert key fourth downs. The first failed attempt -- a fourth-and-2 at the Army 19-yard line -- could have instead been a field goal attempt that would have given them a 17-14 lead. Give credit to Army's defense, which punched above its weight against an offensive line that was supposed to be excellent. Instead, the Wolverines were unable to reliably run block.
Ironically, Michigan consistently played its best in third-and-long situations -- probably because that's where it found itself most often. The Wolverines were 9-of-16 on third downs. Michigan quarterback Shea Patterson was shaky, to be sure. He missed some wide open throws, including two likely would-be touchdowns, that could have given his team a much larger lead. Patterson wasn't all bad -- Michigan's wide receivers dropped some passes as well -- but there were enough missed opportunities to frustrate fans even further.
In the end, though, Michigan's defense came through just enough to survive and advance. In the second half, it became apparent that the Wolverines' athleticism might be the difference. While this wasn't Michigan's finest showing on either side of the ball, it did get enough big-time plays when it needed them to fend off a feisty Army team that, frankly, should be ranked regardless of the outcome.
After two games, what can we say about Michigan’s new “Speed in Space” offense?
It has been more “Fumbles and Frustration” than anything else.
This offense hasn’t produced as anticipated under new offensive coordinator Josh Gattis, and the Wolverines were flat-out lucky to beat Army, 24-21, in double overtime on Saturday in Michigan Stadium.
It feels like an old bait-and-switch.
All summer, the Wolverines talked about their high-flying up-tempo offense. They talked about scoring points, RPO plays, getting the ball to their playmakers and bringing their offense into this century.
But they needed a fake punt against Army to spark their offense, and scored just 14 points in regulation.
Instead of airing it out and utilizing their speedy wideouts, who had a distinct athletic advantage against Army’s secondary, they gave the ball 33 times to a freshman running back, Zach Charbonnet, who rushed for exactly 100 yards.
That’s Speed in Space?
It’s more like "Back to the Past" — 3 yards and a cloud of rubber pellets.
The main problem has been turnovers and penalties. It’s hard to score when you keep dropping the ball. Michigan fumbled three times Saturday and had nine penalties for 58 yards. The Wolverines have fumbled five times in two games — two more than all of last season combined.
As Harbaugh later said, the fumbles weren't the result of Michigan adjusting to a new offense. They were just bad plays.
But the Wolverines' new scheme didn't quite pass the eye test, either.
Michigan was ultra conservative in the second half, at one point running the ball 15 consecutive times. That's a solid plan, if the run game consistently is churning yards. But it wasn't. And it wasn't good enough to put points on the board.
Patterson rarely kept the ball on the zone read — if at all— which allowed the Black Knights to key on the running back. Without the threat of Patterson's legs, the Wolverines found it much harder to establish the ground game.
Michigan also couldn't diversify the offense when it desperately needed to. It was so different from what we saw last week, when the Wolverines attacked different areas of the field with the run and pass game. Against Army, Michigan was much more one-dimensional.
The pass game disappeared late. Nico Collins, the team's leading receiver last fall, wasn't targeted enough, and as a whole the Wolverines weren't aggressive enough.
It's easy to question Michigan's offense in hindsight. But there's no getting around what we saw Saturday:
Michigan's offense regressed.
For eight months, after Michigan hired offensive coordinator Josh Gattis, this play-calling — the repeated inside zones, perhaps thinly veiled with a read that carried no threat of a quarterback keeper — was paraded as a relic of the past. When Michigan came out and threw the ball 25 times before halftime against Middle Tennessee State last week, there was evidence to support that promise.
“Obviously, expectations, everyone tries to make it as sunshine and rainbows as possible,” senior guard Ben Bredeson said Saturday. “So this was good for us, it shows us what we need to work on as we head into the Big Ten season.”
Against Army, that all evaporated, culminating in a pair of failed 4th down attempts on consecutive fourth-quarter drives, each in Black Knight territory. Each time, Michigan faced a 4th-and-2 with a chance to right three quarters of offensive wrongs. And each time, Charbonnet was stopped, sending Army’s offense back onto the field.
After the game, the reflections remained calm, various position groups refusing to pin blame on one another. But perhaps Harbaugh, after crediting analytics with the decision to go for it, offered up the reason that reality didn’t follow suit.
“They had a better defensive call than we had a —,” he said, stopping himself mid-sentence, “than we executed our offensive play.”
It was the only time Harbaugh allowed a glimpse into Saturday’s playcalling, even if he cut himself off mid-sentence. When asked about the pass-run split that reverted back to 2018’s averages, he called the question “low-hanging fruit” — “... We could go every game with the ‘Why didn’t you pass when you ran and it didn’t work so you should’ve passed?’ We could do this for every game that’s ever played in football.”
But when an entire offseason carries the promise of a downfield passing attack and your leading receiver from a year ago — junior Nico Collins — sees three targets compared to 45 rushing attempts, these are the questions that follow.
Angelique Chengelis, The Detroit News: Michigan fake punt on tying TD leaves players flabbergasted
Michigan caught pretty much everyone off guard with its fake punt late in the first quarter, even most of the Wolverines on the sideline.
Sophomore linebacker Michael Barrett, a high school quarterback in Georgia who completed 64 percent of his passes his senior year, made his first college pass, a 25-yarder, to freshman safety Daxton Hill on a fake punt.
The Wolverines, trailing 7-0 to Army, were stalled at the Michigan 47-yard line when the punting team came out. It was assessed a 5-yard penalty for a false start, making it fourth-and-10 from the Michigan 42 when the fake was called.
“On the false start, we saw what punt coverage they were in, what punt block they were in and called the alert for the next play,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said.
Hill got Michigan to the Army 33 and with new life, the Wolverines reached the 6. A third-down pass to Nico Collins was incomplete, but Army was called for interference and that moved the ball to the 2. Freshman running back Zach Charbonnet scored from there to tie the game.
“Loved it,” guard Ben Bredeson said of the fake punt. “Didn’t know it was coming. Surprised me, too.”
Quarterback Shea Patterson had two fumbles, but in the passing game, he was better, going 19-of-29 for 207 yards, including some critical strikes to sophomore receiver Ronnie Bell.
Bell finished with team highs of seven catches for 81 yards — not eye-popping numbers by any means, but the impact was more when Bell’s catches came. Four of the receptions came on third-down plays, helping the Wolverines extend their drives, including a 9-yard catch on third-and-6 in the first overtime period that helped set up the tying score.
Michigan was a 22-point favorite and that Army stayed close the entire game was one of the big takeaways, even with defense needing to make a big play at the end to secure the victory.
“It was good for the team to handle the adversity the way we did and battle throughout the whole game,” Bell said. “We knew coming in the game was going to be tough and Army was going to come with everything they had — and that’s exactly what they did.
“The whole team responded very well and handled the adversity.”
It was something of a breakout game for Bell, who had two catches for 18 yards in the opening win over Middle Tennessee State and totaled eight receptions for 145 yards last season as a freshman.
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