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Kirk Herbstreit on Michigan’s offensive woes: Defenses don’t fear anything down the field
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After watching Michigan’s offense live and in-person last Saturday in Happy Valley, ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit has offered a reason behind the offensive struggles.
During his spot on College Football Live on Tuesday, Herbstreit said that the Wolverines’ aren’t just struggling at the quarterback position. He said that Michigan’s lack of a deep threat is a huge reason the offense is lagging behind this season.
“In college football today, balance to me is the ability to have answers if teams are going to put nine guys at the line of scrimmage, because when they don’t respect your passing game, you have to have an ability to make them pay,” Herbstreit said. “It’s not just quarterback play. They’re so young on the perimeter. The Tarik Black injury really set them back as far as a guy who can take the top off a defense.”
Michigan hasn’t connected on many deep passes this season. The Wolverines rank 11th in the B1G in passing offense, averaging 187.7 yards per game through the air. They’ve also lacked a deep threat since Black’s injury and have only converted on three pass plays of 40 yards or more, one of the lowest totals in the B1G.
Last week against Penn State, Michigan had just 166 passing yards.
“Defenses right now don’t fear anything down field,” Herbstreit continued. “You can take your chances and squeeze that offense and running game and short passing game and that’s where Michigan is kind of living right now. Against some teams it won’t matter, but against equal or better talent, it’s a handful.”
Michigan has a few weeks to try and develop an attack down the field. The next three weeks, the Wolverines have Rutgers, Minnesota and Maryland on the schedule before playing No. 5 Wisconsin and No. 6 Ohio State.
Herbstreit’s right, if Michigan can’t develop some sort of deep passing threat in the next month, those two games at the end of the season could be just as lopsided as the contest in Happy Valley.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB