MGoPodcast 11.7: Fumble Butter
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[After THE JUMP: Big Ten blowouts]
1. The Offense
starts at 1:00
Are fumbles systemic or just really random and bad? Turner's the only fumbler we're worried about; that's why Haskins is ahead of him on the depth chart. Shea's reads are not going away—the 4th down was throw up your hands it's over. Ronnie Bell catch & runs, Eubanks shot down the field and got two blocks. Michigan's receivers may be in the BPONE; they're not getting much action.
2. The Defense
starts at 23:54
Fine until tempo, when they got illegal substitutions and weren't set. They don't tempo in practice so they're not ready for it…still. It's a program thing; Harbaugh's not going to be one of the top five coaches in the country. Michigan got got by the Michigan State OPI play. Metellus lost a ball in the sun? Just track the receiver—it's 3rd down. Too handsy in the secondary: Ambry, Khaleke. Vincent Gray needs another year to get his jams down. Glasgow tackle on Williams was awesome.
3. Special Teams/Game Theory
starts at 42:56
Ace is okay with turtling at the end of the 1st half. Mr. Weird Punts. Blocked a punt: punter got the ball back and was 1 second away from punting it again. You can punt it to a teammate behind the line and he can advance the ball or throw the ball. Transcontinental punt. Subplot where Michigan kept trying to put Illinois players on the ball.
4. Around the Big Ten wsg Jamie Mac
starts at 1:02:20
We've had 23 league games and the average margin is 21 points. Only two underdogs this year: Minnesota over Purdue, and Purdue over Maryland. Rutgers vs IU: 1 passing yard. The rare passing Rutger. Wisconsin wipes MSU 38-0, say bah to dah UP eh? Feeling better about our trip to Madison. MSU drive chart! When you are yelling at Hondo, it's over. I feel this cold in my soul. What's the name of the fake punt, the Dark Mantonio? Minnesota backs were at 9 ypc at halftime vs a Martinezless Nebraska. Nate Stanley throws 43 times vs Penn State. Replay booth overturns a TD, Tudddy Blog wanted to play this game under protest.
MUSIC:
- “On the Rocks”—The Rural Alberta Advantage
- “Wither With You”—Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
- “Mr. Big Stuff”—Jean Knight
- “Across 110th Street”
THE USUAL LINKS:
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
- Direct download link
- What's with the theme music?
You had the come to Jesus moment last year and you didn't come to Jesus.
October 14th, 2019 at 7:29 AM ^
You know it’s bad when the MGoCrew can’t even talk about Michigan football with a straight face anymore with regards to fumbles especially.
Haskins should start for PSU. Most reliable runner atm. Wouldn’t be surprised if the WRs are mailing it in even unintentionally. Hard to keep focus when you are criminally underutilized.
October 14th, 2019 at 7:59 AM ^
WR: there will be attrition at end of season. Cannot blame.
October 14th, 2019 at 8:42 AM ^
Seriously. At this point, how can it be called anything other than coaching malpractice for utterly wasting the WR talent on this roster?
And my god that second 4th down play........there was so much green space had Shea pulled it he could have river-danced into the end zone and still not get touched! I just couldn't believe it. How do you NOT pull that ball???????
October 14th, 2019 at 8:56 AM ^
Because he is not mentally capable of making that read.
October 14th, 2019 at 9:59 AM ^
Is it even a “read” at this point if 95% of those watching know you will hand it off and the defenses are now 99% likely to play the RB based on film and tendency.
He should forget about reading the play and just pull on 50% of the plays. A totally random distribution of decisions and outcomes will be 5x better than his only read, which is to just handoff. Especially considering how much we fumble anyways.
The only positive here, is that our next 2 really good opponents will be expecting a handoff 95% of the time, especially PSU being up first, so if ever there was a time to just QB pull and run, Shea can easily go for 100 yards on the ground. That said, it’s Michigan, so he will handoff with absurdly laughable open space in front of him for 25 yard runs...just to piss us off more.
October 14th, 2019 at 12:22 PM ^
I'm not sure I buy the notion Patterson is not mentally capable of that. He made those reads no problem in the second half of last year. Still sticking with the nagging injuries being the reason for the lack of pulls.
October 14th, 2019 at 3:29 PM ^
Yet last year he was.
October 14th, 2019 at 10:24 AM ^
Guys will leave. I am somewhat dubious that any of these guys save maybe Collins are on NFL radars. And not just because of "misuse", as Black has had a number of drops this year and DPJ has just...underwhelmed. I do wonder if he's still a little off from the injury this past off-season.
The passing offense isn't great by any means, but Bell has been by far their most consistent receiver all year, and Eubanks, Collins, and McKeon have all looked good this year.
October 14th, 2019 at 1:04 PM ^
I agree that Bell is a better WR than DPJ and Tarik right now.
October 14th, 2019 at 10:54 AM ^
This is the most frustrating part of this whole offense to me. And there are a lot of frustrating things.
October 14th, 2019 at 9:19 AM ^
What were they talking about with regards to Rashan Gary and an O-lineman getting into a pass set on a run play?
October 14th, 2019 at 10:02 AM ^
Oof, totally deleted that from my memory.
October 14th, 2019 at 12:30 PM ^
It's a simple case of players being out of position. That is on the players. They know better and for sure are coached about keeping your gaps and not over playing their position. If 14 stayed true and the lineman kept outside leverage it would not have happened.
October 14th, 2019 at 9:26 AM ^
This staff is getting Hoke level when it comes to not knowing what the fuck is going on.
October 14th, 2019 at 9:47 AM ^
Since we have a hot takes section in the podcast, here is mine:
MGoBlog needs to hire a journalist. All of the complaints Brian has about the way the program works would be great questions at a press conference.
Less hot take is that I seriously don't understand why the time stamps have no connection to reality.
October 14th, 2019 at 11:24 AM ^
Problem is they would get one week of questions at a presser, piss off Jim and the AD because HOW DARE YOU QUESTION US, and then get their access pulled
October 14th, 2019 at 1:04 PM ^
I too remember their access getting pulled when they spent months mocking Al Borges and Hoke for not knowing what a bubble screen was, asked about it all the time at pressers, and then wrote a feature about it off of an interview that Heiko did with Borges.
October 14th, 2019 at 3:37 PM ^
And then they would go into Trump world and not have pressers at all; they would just hire Kelly Anne Conway to send out positive vibes and questionable assertions from within the penumbra of the statue of Bo: "Coach Harbaugh is the greatest Coach in the history of football, of the country, the planet, perhaps the universe. He passed a tax cut for the rich and famous, which is more passing than his excellent room of QBs has accomplished. He's keeping his promises. Speed in Space. Creating a callous. Hardening an artery. Pounding the rock. Oops. that was some guy with the Lions. Anyway . . . Make Michigan Great Again!"
October 14th, 2019 at 12:43 PM ^
Tried this offseason, but there was a limited candidate pool and it didn't work out for either of them.
October 14th, 2019 at 1:06 PM ^
That's surprising. I figured more of the Daily writers would stick around SE Michigan after graduation.
October 14th, 2019 at 1:29 PM ^
It doesn't matter how good the question is, he won't answer it seriously. He'll never throw a player or coach under the bus and rarely ever gets into details or strategy. People get annoyed when he says stuff like the offense is "hitting its stride" or whatever, but he doesn't mean it. Words are coming out of his mouth, but he's not saying anything. Harbaugh won't flat out cuss out the media like a certain "dumb ass" coach, but you can tell he doesn't really care about what the media wants to know.
October 14th, 2019 at 10:05 AM ^
The first 2 minutes of the first song "On the Rocks" is great, but man, I'm not a fan of that guy repeating "duh nah" for a minute and a half along with some noise.
October 14th, 2019 at 10:11 AM ^
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever!! Highly recommend that band. Good pull, Seth!
October 14th, 2019 at 11:08 AM ^
EDIT: wrong place.
October 14th, 2019 at 11:01 AM ^
Did Nico Collins play? I did not notice him on Saturday. Michigan’s best WR IMHO.
October 14th, 2019 at 11:09 AM ^
Jim said "minor, minor injury". So he'll probably be out a while.
October 14th, 2019 at 1:10 PM ^
Nico did not make the trip to Illinois. I didn't see that Harbaugh commented on his status at the presser earlier today.
October 14th, 2019 at 1:16 PM ^
Here is what JH said in the presser this morning:
"Quarterback Dylan McCaffrey was cleared to play at Illinois last week and should be good moving forward. As far as DE Kwity Paye, CB Lavert Hill and WR Nico Collins go, he declined to comment but said that if he did comment, it would be a positive comment."
So we won't know until Saturday most likely.
October 14th, 2019 at 11:06 AM ^
Some of the best receivers we've ever had, and they're not getting much action. It is stunning to me that the sunshine-blowers comment about how posters shouldn't be negative.
This will have repercussions next year and for years down the road. All a rival recruiter has to say is "oh, you want to go play for Harbaugh and work your ass off for 20 catches a year?"
Receivers don't choose a team so they can block on running plays; they want the ball. If one of the Big 3 stays after this year, it'll be a miracle.
October 14th, 2019 at 12:45 PM ^
Underutilization is a thing but I have to say outside of Nico, they aren't really hauling in the (too few) catchable balls that come their way - WR drops are a thing, I think DPJ has really underwhelmed so far this year.
October 14th, 2019 at 1:03 PM ^
Outside of athleticism and measurables, what makes these receivers so great? Recruiting rankings? People need to wake up and realize that they aren't as good as they were hyped to be. Let's stop with the "Big 3" and "NFL receiver" nonsense. They are underachieving and it isn't solely because of Shea or Gattis or Harbaugh.
October 14th, 2019 at 9:30 PM ^
I agree that the WRs are being underutilized, but somehow an underclassman with zero recruiting profile has actually been "working his ass off" and already has 20 catches at over 18 yds. a pop.
October 14th, 2019 at 12:00 PM ^
Big Ten replay officials overturning calls they have no business overturning is just bizarre this year. Have they forgotten what the words conclusive and indisputable mean?
Also I hate to say but people are kidding themselves if they don't think the lack of targets isn't going to boil over into frustration for Black, DPJ and Collins, which may impact their effort level. The lack of targets is potentially costing them millions of dollars right now in draft positioning. I wouldn't be shocked if they all leave after the season, even if it is not for the draft and transferring instead. Wouldn't blame them either, I can only imagine how much better their numbers would be on other offenses in the country.
October 14th, 2019 at 12:45 PM ^
Unless they go to Iowa.
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