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In all seriousness, WTF has happened to this offense

The loss of the WR coach to Alabama was obviously huge, and his replacement has not gotten it done with the way #84 is playing. Franklin perhaps made a mistake in who he promoted to take over the offense.

Also, the OL coach is clearly not good. I remember the days when Andersen and Kenney could only produce a good OL once every four years. The current coach does not seem able to even do that.
It's his 2nd year as OL coach.
 
One thing I couldn’t help notice so far this season is that we don’t have WR’s who can get 50:50 balls.
I don't think people recognize how well Josh Gattis developed our WRs. This new guy's resume is underwhelming as is the development of our WRs. True fresh without coaching are doing better than veterans. That tells me there's a problem that Franklin's hugs aren't going to fix. Our WRs have made McSorley look good in the past, now they're poorly prepared. Just 1 observation.
 
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With two weeks to prepare we did not see one new offensive wrinkle in scheme. The play calling was pedestrian and not at all imaginative. We totally abandoned any attempt at outside runs or a single jet sweep. MSU played like a team that had to win while our coaches played a game they wanted to win. The players had effort but poor game plan. MSU jammed the middle run lanes taking that away from McSorley and as the game progressed that frustrated him significantly.
 
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I don't think people recognize how well Josh Gattis developed our WRs. This new guy's resume is underwhelming as is the development of our WRs. True fresh without coaching are doing better than veterans. That tells me there's a problem that Franklin's hugs aren't going to fix. Our WRs have made McSorley look good in the past, now they're poorly prepared. Just 1 observation.
If true freshman who have only been coached by Corley are doing better , than isn’t that more of a indictment of the previous coach?

FWIW... I just think it’s been brain farts by the players
 
Rahne has been fine until tonight. He was bad tonight. But It’s the QB. He’s been less than good and it’s hard to put the game in his hands when he struggled like he did tonight.

And yet he still did put it in traces hands on the last play and he made the ultimate bonehead play
What bonehead play?
 
We attacked the number one rush defense with a running game while throwing too seldom against a weak pass defense. Maybe I am missing something but who does that?
This is exactly what I was thinking from the beginning of the game.
 
He was God-awful vs OSU as well.

It was masked to the average casual fan due to the super-hero work of McSorley.

Rahne has shown - repeatedly now - he has no answer for ANYTHING that an opposing defense might do. He simply is not a competent OC. He may - truly - be no more qualified than JVP Jr.

His offensive schemes do NOTHING to cause angst to an opposing DC..... quite frankly, the schemes and strategies are both boring and inept (in addition to being ineffective)..... And have managed to take an incredibly talented and experienced offensive squad and turn it into a Sominex Offense any time they simple can’t overwhelm the opposition with talent.


I will be shocked and disappointed if CJF does not make a change after the season.
Then I guess you're going to be shocked and disappointed. Ain't gonna happen.
 
Our WRs that returned just aren’t playmakers:
Johnson 1 TD last year, 1 TD this year
Thompkins 3 TD last year, 1 this year
Hamler has 5 TD
Sanders no receiving TDs this year, last year Barkley had 3
Gesicki and Hamilton both had 9 TDs each last year
Too much production was lost and the guys out there now just ain’t it. We do not have the same explosiveness and scoring threats we had before, so no surprise with the current results. We have problems in moving the sticks this year. Biggest losses were Hamilton and Gesicki IMO and it shows. Barkley is a huge loss too but I think the decline in WR production is a bigger issue with this year’s team. Why don’t we throw more vertical passes? Maybe because most of our WR can’t stretch the field.
 
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It’s an offense designed to take what the defense gives them. Penn state lost due to poor execution at critical times on both sides of the ball — and they were out-hustled on special teams. I didn’t see much of a game-day coaching problem, except maybe on the fake punt. That play wasn’t obvious in the moment but anybody not watching for it v dantonio at this point in his career isn’t fully prepared.
Lots of easy plays were there for the taking...mostly on Trace...but we did not take advantage...would have liked to have seen more running plays to edge and throws on 1st down
 
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Lots of easy plays were there for the taking...mostly on Trace...but we did not take advantage...would have liked to have seen more running plays to edge and throws on 1st down
I would have like liked to have seen the exact same runs, passes, etc. with guys protecting the ball, making catches they're on the field to make (O and D), running routes they practiced and not giving up stupid penalties.

There really isn't too much analysis required for this game. The team just didn't play well.
 
JJ is the biggest issue with the offense. Trace doesn’t have a reliable possession receiver. That was supposed to be jj
 
We attacked the number one rush defense with a running game while throwing too seldom against a weak pass defense. Maybe I am missing something but who does that?
A team whose WR room has run out of stickum.
 
When are you board posters going to face the music? We aren't Alabama! Our players are young, inexperienced and have about the same talent level as Ohio State, MSU, and Michigan. We beat 4 stiffs and everyone thought we were the Patriots. Now we are playing teams with lots of talent and are playing them even.

The truth is on a scale of 1 - 10 (comparing us with other elite programs), our OL is about a 6, our DL is about a 5, our DBs are about a 6, our linebackers are about a 5, our RBs are about a 7, our QB is an 8, and our receivers are about a 6.

We will be better next year. We will finish 8-4 this year with some luck. It is a rebuilding year. You can't lose players like Barkley, Hamilton, and Gesicki and expect to be as good. Relax. We will end up playing in a Peach Bowl type post season game. Next year will be better.
 
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You are being generous with our LBs and WRs compared to elite teams. Probably a 4 on both
 
Rahne is essentially playing with Moorhead's book. The book has been on the shelf for all to see now, without any enhancements. This is the largest factor.

The second factor appears to be that Rahne is just making a call from that book and hoping it works without really taking what the defense gives. It may be that, since defenses already have the book, he doesn't have many good choices. But really, anyone can see that his choices on some of the critical downs have been low percentage, so it almost seems like he is in a guessing game with the defense. The head-scratcher is that we are at home with a 5th year starting quarterback and he isn't free to audible, or am I missing something? Perhaps the "audible" is the booth relaying a sign to the sideline with a relay to the QB.

The third factor is the way we block at the offensive line. It doesn't seem capable of picking up stunts and handling the blitz. Along these lines, Menet and McGovern tend to struggle. When they get pushed back or beat with defensive ends playing contain, the play is blown up. The RPO does not lead to aggressive blocking with big linemen. Our linemen engage and try to clear rather than drive forward, hence the short yardage, ball control problems. Their size is neutralized by design.

Fourth factor is the inconsistency of our receivers, and their inability to make plays at the same level as their predecessors. We have receivers at the extremes, but no one in that Chris Godwin type of size range.

The fifth factor is Trace's size. Sorry about this one, but it is what it is. He's not going to do well inside of a collapsing pocket with average receivers trying to catch throws a little off target. Moorhead's offense doesn't get him outside the pocket where he needs to be. In fact, it doesn't look like the offense gets a running back outside for an outlet, swing or screen. The entire defensive front can simply collapse onto the pocket. We rely on the back for blocking as a result of deficiencies in our blocking with linemen. I will grant that Trace's size also enables some sneaky quickness, but if spied by equal quickness close to the line, he can be neutralized. OSU spies were too deep and Trace was able to get into the open field. MSU got it right.

The sixth factor, in this game for whatever reason, were the referines. If I had to guess a few of them within this crew want to set up a big game between OSU and Michigan. This is their dream game.

This offense looks really good when it plays against teams who cannot run with some of our skill players. But without leaping receivers making big league plays, it is rather pedestrian, even with super star running backs. Our OOC games should be no basis for predictive statistics, yet that is what people tend to cite over and over again this time of year.

I think he also ripped some pages from Joe Mo's book.
Where is the downfield passing attack?
Where are the passes to the RB's?
Great he fixed the "mesh" point.
 
He was God-awful vs OSU as well.

It was masked to the average casual fan due to the super-hero work of McSorley.

Rahne has shown - repeatedly now - he has no answer for ANYTHING that an opposing defense might do. He simply is not a competent OC. He may - truly - be no more qualified than JVP Jr.

His offensive schemes do NOTHING to cause angst to an opposing DC..... quite frankly, the schemes and strategies are both boring and inept (in addition to being ineffective)..... And have managed to take an incredibly talented and experienced offensive squad and turn it into a Sominex Offense any time they simple can’t overwhelm the opposition with talent.


I will be shocked and disappointed if CJF does not make a change after the season.

He also has not shown the ability to make any kind of in game or halftime adjustments. That is very concerning.
 
It's surprising with 8 starters returning but we don't have anybody to replace Gesicki or Hamilton. The WRs are terrible except for Hamler and he's not a big target. It's not just the dropped balls. They aren't physical. JJ gets checked at the LOS by much smaller defenders.

I think one of the answers might be at TE. I think we have to pick one and give him more reps. Freirmuth makes a great catch, then drops one, then gets replaced by Holland or Bowers. None of them get enough reps to build momentum.

Hamilton is the biggest loss. Apparently he took a ton of pressure off Thompkins and JJ.
I really like Pat F. and think he's, right now, a better overall TE than Mike G.
 
Hamilton is the biggest loss. Apparently he took a ton of pressure off Thompkins and JJ.
I really like Pat F. and think he's, right now, a better overall TE than Mike G.

As a blocker, lights out better.

As a receiver, he's much better than FR Gesicki, but not on the level of nfl drafted Gesicki. He dropped a pass in the end zone Gesicki would have spectacularly caught in my book. Not a knock; just reality.
 
It’s an offense designed to take what the defense gives them. Penn state lost due to poor execution at critical times on both sides of the ball — and they were out-hustled on special teams. I didn’t see much of a game-day coaching problem, except maybe on the fake punt. That play wasn’t obvious in the moment but anybody not watching for it v dantonio at this point in his career isn’t fully prepared.

Well if its an offense that takes what the defense gives them then I should have seen a lot more passes downfield. I didn't.
So I will disagree and say that I saw a big problem in coaching from an offensive standpoint.
They had the 122nd rated pass defense in the country. NW the week before provided a blueprint.
But we chose to ignore it and instead forced Trace to try and run, run run.
 
Well if its an offense that takes what the defense gives them then I should have seen a lot more passes downfield. I didn't.
So I will disagree and say that I saw a big problem in coaching from an offensive standpoint.
They had the 122nd rated pass defense in the country. NW the week before provided a blueprint.
But we chose to ignore it and instead forced Trace to try and run, run run.
Here's the serious part: Pass to what reliable ball catcher? Can only go to Freirmuth and Hamler so many times.

Not so serious part: Maybe Franklin got on the Rivals McAndrew Board and learned Trace should have run it at the end of the OSU game. It was the key. ;-)
 
Here's the serious part: Pass to what reliable ball catcher? Can only go to Freirmuth and Hamler so many times.

Not so serious part: Maybe Franklin got on the Rivals McAndrew Board and learned Trace should have run it at the end of the OSU game. It was the key. ;-)

IDK. Polk, maybe one of the 5 FR WR's or hell even Thompkins. Perhaps a RB slipping out of the backfield?...
 
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