WTKA Roundtable 10/26/2017: You Can’t Get What You Want ‘Till You Know What You Want
[Eric Upchurch]
Things discussed:
- Penn State played a very good game; Michigan played an uncharacteristically bad one.
- Michigan was expecting the Barkley at QB thing; Gary just got too far upfield.
- Playing safeties at 15 yards is asking for run-pass-options in your face
- PSU hit their bombs; why can’t we chuck it to the 6’8” guy?
- Trace McSorley has been lucky previously; he was flat-out good in this one.
- Don’t put McCray on Dudes. Guys? Fine. Not dudes.
- Cornerbacks not tested after Long’s pick; played entire game in slots.
- Uncharacteristically Michigan lost one-on-one battles on the DL in this one
- Brian calls Craig Ed. Ed-Craig likens running quarterbacks to guerilla warfare. Ed-Craig listens to punk rock and opera. Joe Jackson narrowly edges out the 5th century BCE’s Caíndelbáin al Óengusa of the Cholmain clan of the southern Ui Niall as the greatest musician in Ed-Craig’s 3,001 years on this planet.
- Devin Bush had a bad game.
- Brian is taller than Grant Perry.
- Can’t live without a passing game—safeties are 8 yards off the line of scrimmage.
- Peters won’t start but this is the game to get him on the field
- Jose says the defense has performed poorly in 10 of their 7 games.
- Personnel issues, not coaching issues.
- McCaffrey vs. Peters: Brandon has the golden arm, McCaffrey has to grow physically but has an edge as a runner and natural swagger.
- One-minute hoops takes.
You can catch the entire episode on Michigan Insider's podcast stream on Audioboom.
Segment two is here. Segment three is here.
THE USUAL LINKS
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
- Direct download link
- What's with the theme music?
October 27th, 2017 at 8:43 AM ^
An uncharacteristically bad game at night and on the road?
Seems to be a pattern.
Might be time to switch the analysis to Michigan held serve and played as one would expect during a road night game.
October 27th, 2017 at 11:06 AM ^
October 27th, 2017 at 10:00 AM ^
They're a weakness but I don't see how moving them around changes the outcome. Play 'em close and they'll get hit over the top. Play 'em back and that opens things underneath. And if they suck at tackling it kind of doesn't matter where they are. I think the main takeaway from the PSU game -- aside from our offense sucks -- is that when all's said and done, a good college offense firing on all cylinders cannot be stopped.
A good defense like ours can dominate any flawed offense by forcing it to do things it's bad at. But PSU's OC has good pieces, and does good things with them. They have a really good RB and a good QB and ents running downfield, and that day, they rolled out a month's worth of frippery and their QB was hitting with inch-perfect bombs. What do you do about that?
Not that the defense was perfect, but PSU was hot. Not even perfect execution would've held them down completely, and if they try the same tricks again they're probably not going to fare anywhere near as well against OSU.
October 27th, 2017 at 8:49 AM ^
You guys ought to dig in on this piece for more details. This sounds wreckless and incompetent at best.
Apparently Speight had HORRIFIC medical care at Purdue.
October 27th, 2017 at 9:22 AM ^
I know most don't care for "Caller Jose", but to say that he said, "the defense has been bad in 10 out of 7 games" was misquoted and misleading. Sam asked Jose, "How many games has UM's defense been bad in" and Jose wanted to say they've been bad on numerous occasions (not games)...when Sam pressed him on the number of games, Jose responded with 10 (meaning occasions, not games)
A few examples...the blown coverage against Air Force, the few big plays against MSU, the multiple big plays by PSU, etc.
I'm not in the business of sticking up for callers like Jose, but to poke fun at Jose is simply not warranted in this particular case.
October 27th, 2017 at 9:49 AM ^
I was listening when it aired on the radio- Caller Jose was asked, how many games has the defense played poorly. His response? 10. In a season where we've played 7 games.
At that point, we are all dumber for having heard him.
He deserves to be mocked more severely.
October 27th, 2017 at 9:54 AM ^
What rational human gets upset that a college defense gives up 10 plays over 7 games? Because that is exactly Jose's point.
If you're going to be stupid about college football, you deserve to be mocked for it.
October 27th, 2017 at 10:15 AM ^
Is, firstly, that's not what was asked of him. Secondly, how many "occasions" were there in these games? There's no way to deem whether 10 is significant or not. It's not a stat, the number has no meaning since we don't know what number is good or bad.
October 27th, 2017 at 6:01 PM ^
October 27th, 2017 at 9:37 AM ^
October 27th, 2017 at 9:41 AM ^
Caller Jose sounded like a guy who had been accidentally watching Rutgers this year. Soemone needs to teach that guy how to use the channel guide properly. BTN doesn't equal Michigan football game...
October 27th, 2017 at 10:11 AM ^
Besides the defense playing lights out for much of the year and maybe Nordin or Highdon, I'd say bad is a fair description of the players and coaches performance thus far.
October 27th, 2017 at 10:30 AM ^
October 27th, 2017 at 10:35 AM ^
October 27th, 2017 at 10:59 AM ^
I'm disappointed that Brian doesn't know who Joe Jackson is.
October 27th, 2017 at 11:14 AM ^
...You're The Man.
October 27th, 2017 at 11:16 AM ^
Think about how pissed Craig must be that he's the only man on earth to have heard the heavenly stylings of Caíndelbáin al Óengusa?
October 27th, 2017 at 4:23 PM ^
just after his/her/its last concert/duel/road race/poetry slam.
So, uh, no idea.
CR
October 27th, 2017 at 11:28 AM ^
October 27th, 2017 at 11:56 AM ^
Falls on the fans who just want to stick up for everything the coaching staff is doing. Again I feel like I have to say again I love having Harbaugh here and do not want another coach, but he has made mistakes in a few games, offense should be clicking better, etc. I'm sure you agree with that as well.
October 27th, 2017 at 12:05 PM ^
October 27th, 2017 at 2:26 PM ^
Yes the coaches got outcoached, but the players were also outplayed. D-line got whipped too often, LBs ran themselves into bad spots and angles, safeties were atrocious, offense was... the offense.
October 27th, 2017 at 1:27 PM ^
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