The Wolverines are off to another fantastic start going 8-0 and have themselves in a position to make another College Football Playoff run. One could argue that this is Jim Harbaugh’s most complete team that he has had in Ann Arbor.
The Michigan scoring offense is eighth in the country scoring 41 points per game. The defense is as elite as ever allowing just 11.5 points per game. There isn’t much to complain about if you’re a maize and blue fan.
Well, maybe the red zone offense.
Michigan is an efficient scoring team in the red zone. The Wolverines are 13th in the country scoring 93.1% of the time they reach the red zone. But Michigan has had an issue scoring touchdowns when it gets inside of the opponent’s 20-yard line. The Wolverines have scored a touchdown 28 out of 44 times in the red zone or 63% of the time.
But Michigan is doing everything it needs to do in order to win games. The Wolverines are out scoring their opponents this season by a total score of 328-92 points. Co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss is happy that there isn’t many problems that face the maize and blue. He acknowledges that the coaching and playing needs to be better in the red zone, so the Wolverines plan on working on just that.
“I think we’re very process focused,” said Weiss. “So we look at each drive as an individual case, look at each player as an individual case. And, yes, it’s a place we need to coach better, we need to play better. But it’s great for us to be in a situation where when we have problems, we’re winning, and being able to get a lot better along the way and fix problems while we’re winning. And it’s also great that we don’t have a long laundry list of problems, you know, where you can isolate one or two things like the red zone. Say, we need to be better here and really drill down on it. And we’re focused on that confident work group.”
But what makes it so difficult for Michigan to score more red zone touchdowns? If you choose to run the ball, it’s difficult because the defense is closer to the point of attack. If you choose to pass the ball, you can’t stretch the defense with the field being so small. Weiss said Michigan needs to have a red zone styled offense when it gets inside the 20.
“So it’s harder to run the ball,” Weiss said. “Because there’s constricted space, all the defenders are closer to the point of attack, right? It’s also harder to throw the ball, because you don’t have the ability to stretch the field vertically. So it’s harder to move the ball in general. And certainly that takes away a lot of things you can do both run game and pass game. So you need a red zone specific offense, which we’re really just talking about a couple of drives. Really, specifically, two drives inside the 10 where we needed to score touchdowns the last game, that we didn’t. Give credit to Michigan State, they did a good job. They had a good plan. But, as I said, we need to coach better, start to do that that will lead to play better.”
The Wolverines stalled twice inside the Michigan State five-yard line on Saturday and was forced to kick field goals. But Matt Weiss is confident in his groups ability to be successful in the red zone. He believes that Michigan will continue working on the area it struggles the most and that it can be fixed. Weiss thinks the recipe for success is there.
“Absolutely,” Weiss stated. “I think we have a great offense, and the recipe is there for us to be successful in every area. And so far, we’ve been successful in most areas. Obviously, in the last game, those two drives, for various reasons you go to play level. But we ended up kicking field goals, we want touchdowns. And that’s something that we’re that we’re focused on. And we’re blessed to be in a position that we don’t have many things to do, to work on. And we’re blessed to be in a position that we can fix all these things while we’re winning decisively.”
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