Nine Years of PJ's Offense

[Gophergrandpa]

I ran a per-game-average of PJ's offenses in the 9 years he has been here. The Tanner/Ciarocca years were pretty darn good. Our defense wasn't always up to snuff in those years, but the offense was a steady performer, with one great year (2019). In 2019, only Ohio State and Penn State had more prolific offenses in the B1G. This year's offense, and indeed the entire three year's of Harbaugh's tenure, don't really measure up. The Gophers have really regressed on offense. The interesting point for me is that PJ appears to be recruiting better than in his early years here, and he is adding talent via the portal, making the relative lack of explosive plays under Harbaugh's play calling more evident. We picked on Danny Collins and the defense this season for some notable lapses that cost us games (e.g. Northwestern). But the recent "arc" of the offense under Harbaugh--with a little bump up in Max's year--appears to be the greater obstacle by far when it come to getting back to 9 and 10 win seasons. Thoughts?

 

[mngg11]

I've seen a lot of complaints about the big play limitations of a West Coast offense, which is Harbaugh's offensive philosophy. I don't know a ton about Xs and Os but I'd look into that as being a primary factor. It might help in terms of qb development for the pros but apparently doesn't relate well to the college game and limits the running game(?). Someone who knows more can chime in

 

[Gopherchase]

Mo and a good OL I think explains it to a large degree. No fan of our current OC as even with those gifts he would probably have dampened our results. Mo ought to get a cut of PJ’s salary without him history would be a lot different IMO. ‘19 being an exception with Morgan on fire and the prolific passing attack ta boot.

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

To me it starts with the big boys up front. Without a push in the rushing game, it's difficult to have sustained drives. Sustained drives = more yardage. Just in the eyeball test, the OL in the last two seasons has not gotten consistently good pushing in the rushing attack.

Fix that, and lots of things will fall nicely into place.