That 70s Game Comment Count

Brian

10/6/2012 – Michigan 44, Purdue 13 – 3-2, 1-0 Big Ten

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Bryan Fuller

For three hours on Saturday, October 6th, 2012, a rapidly-expanding event horizon engulfed the Indiana town of West Lafayette. Inside, gold chains were cool, Playboy featured natural breasts, you could lose four-year-olds in your carpet, and mass colorblindness reigned. Hair erupted from everywhere. Do not talk to central Indianans about storm drains.

A Jed Smithson from nearby Frankfort found his balding pate mysteriously replaced with a resplendent afro. Leaping atop a teal Chevy the size of a city block, he proclaimed a quest to fornicate with every hot broad in the county. He was a half-dozen hot broads into this project when the effect dissipated as mysteriously as it had arrived; the aftermath was even more appalling than that of the average middle-aged central Indiana sexual congress. Do not talk to Frankfort residents about what you can find in storm drains.

Unfortunately, due to the remote location of the event the only video evidence of this supernatural phenomenon was a foot-ball game between the University of Michigan and Purdue University in which the former team ran on every down for six yards a carry and the latter meekly accepted its place in the college football firmament. Up eighteen points at halftime, Michigan's head coach groused about his offensive line and said "you can't win football games like that" in reference to a fumble at the end of the first half. His team won by thirty-one. They ran for 300 yards and grudgingly passed for 100.

It was the greatest three hours of Jed Smithson's life, and pretty all right for Michigan fans watching on TV.

------------------------------------------

Michigan stewed for a week after intercepting away the Notre Dame game and came back resolved to boringly suffocate opponents. Thanks to Greg Mattison's ability to turn anything more coordinated than a tube sock into a functional defensive tackle and those things on Denard Robinson that aren't arms—leargs or something—their first experiment in 1970s death football was a resounding success. There were no interceptions, and one lost fumble. Michigan won by many points.

Iowa fan Adam Jacobi crashed in the guest room en route to and from Blogs With Balls 5; at some point he complained that his job required him to actually watch that incredibly dull game from start to finish, and the two halves of my brain high-fived each other. I have taken walks to the other end of sanity where Michigan beats Illinois 67-65 or loses to Penn State 41-31 and feel like settling down with a vacuum cleaner repair manual for a while just now. There are worse things than boredom.

Call it Lloydball or MANBALL or Every Michigan Game Before 1986 or whatever. The plan was obvious, and executed, and would have resulted in a resounding victory even if Purdue hadn't thrown in a free touchdown. Lloydmanbopigball it was, and it was beautiful for being so ugly.

After Michigan's first drive, a 17-play Viking saga that ended with a one yard plunge into the endzone, I told twitter that was the second half of the Notre Dame game continued. As that expanded into the whole game it seemed like Jesus had indeed been come to by both Al Borges and Denard Robinson. Borges put his head down and rammed various players into the line; Robinson threw the ball away once and pulled the ball on the read option lots.

How long will it last? Ask again later. This was an easy game to get away from your comfort zone as a playcaller, what with the enormous lead and the instant success and the 9.8 YPC from the quarterback. When things get tight and boredom threatens to send Michigan into a grim Big Ten loss with both teams in the teens, will Borges and Denard be able to find a middle ground that does not lead to crippling interceptions? Will folks be blocked, will throws be on, will anything be anything?

We've seen these moments before, moments where Michigan dials it back for Denard. Once that works and everyone's feeling good about themselves, the playbook sets to exploring the exact contours of Denard's competency, usually with slate gray results. Trash Tornado. Iowa. Etc.

At some point this year Michigan may be forced into dropping back and throwing over and over again; let's make sure we give the leisure suit offense every chance to succeed before flinging the doors open to this modernity business. Given the state of the league there's a pretty decent chance that gold chains and chest hair are all you need to make reservations in Pasadena.

Boring, Boring Bullets

brady-hoke-epic-double-point_thumb_3Brady Hoke Epic Double Point of the week. This could go to Denard Robinson, obviously, but in the aftermath of a 213 yard performance by the opposing offense it feels more appropriate to hand it to Jake Ryan, whose sack leads this column. He picked up a second TFL, as well; more importantly he was tasked with sitting out on the perimeter against trips sets and annihilating anyone who took a step backwards in preparation for a WR screen.

Purdue was so discombobulated by this their WR-screen-heavy offense was reduced to a series of short passes in front of JT Floyd that were unsustainable as a method for driving the field. Ryan's performing at an All Big Ten level, easy.

Honorable mention: Al Borges (running the damn ball), Brady Hoke (for establishing the tone on the first drive by going for it on fourth down and likely for sitting Borges down and saying "get the gold chains, Al, and run the damn ball"), Denard Robinson (for running the damn ball), Kenny Demens (six solo tackles including the key stuff on Purdue's first three and out), defense in general.

Epic Double Point standings.

2: Denard Robinson (Air Force, UMass), Jake Ryan (ND, Purdue)

1: Jeremy Gallon(Alabama)

I be like dang. When you only throw 16 times, your freshman tight end is not going to get a ton of looks but um guys I think he's pretty good anyway.

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Bryan Fuller

That's Funchess's third and long catch that set M up on the goal line, which was impressive on the TV and more so in that shot. Mandich watch still won't return this week—may not return until Michigan has completed the Denard era if the ground game keeps this pace up—but I'm pretty sure he'll get there even with a freshman year detour into a 1970s offense.

Funchess did get pushed out of bounds on a long wheel route later, but I'm not sure if that's on him or just excellent coverage by the Boiler safety checking him.

Shoeless Shoelace. I don't remember more than one or two incidents in Denard's career where his shoe actually came off until this year, when it seems there's a 50-50 shot that any long run will feature one of Denard's socks. Tighten up that velcro, man.

Denard given time. …makes better decisions, and he's often given time because of his legs. Your nervous "oh God is Denard going to throw an INT" sickness was finally—at long last, sir—unnecessary, as on third and long Michigan just dropped back and threw, no funny stuff. The Funchess catch above saw Denard step forward in the pocket and shoot that ball in between three defenders:

Rollouts probably can't be dumped entirely but reducing them, as they were reduced in this game, is a good idea.

If someone on the schedule can stop Michigan's offense from the Purdue game and put up enough points to win, tip your cap and say "well done." I'm not sure anyone in the Big Ten eligible for the postseason can do both.

The Fitz issue. I don't know, man. I think some of his ineffectiveness was on Denard, who gave when he should have kept a couple times. Some of it was on the line, which was not getting creases except when the veer made it easy to do so. And some of it was on Toussaint, who got impatient and started going BOUNCE BOUNCE BOUNCE BOUNCE.

There was a particularly egregious instance in the second half where the line had gotten decent push and he could have gotten three to five by running up the backs of his linemen; he decided to go backwards around a Lewan kickout and got a yard for his trouble. He is getting impatient.

I'm not sure Rawls is going to be much of a solution because the veer is Michigan's best play and a moose like that is not going to be much of a threat going laterally as that play demands the RB do. I wouldn't mind seeing Norfleet get some cracks at that, though.

As for Rawls, Michigan can fit him into the spread offense. Think Brandon Minor: a lot of plays that go right upfield. Michigan tried a couple belly plays against ND and got defeated by shifts into the 3-4; that shouldn't be a problem going forward and is a way to get a power back going straight downhill at the snap.

Where is the stuff that fits with the other stuff? The one lingering issue with the offense was a lack of play action off the plays Michigan actually runs. I count two first down passes in the entire game(!), one of them a bubble to Gallon, the other a long bomb also to Gallon that was IIRC run from under center. Michigan's other attempt to get a big gainer was a shot at Funchess down the sideline that played off the throwback screen that always works (even when it's deflected).

That was covered pretty well, and I get why. After watching Borges for a year and a half he has a tendency to iterate through different things you can do with a new (or recycled from a while back) package. He runs that fly sweep off the veer look, then runs the veer, then runs play action. He runs the throwback screen, then runs play action off that throwback screen. He runs an iso from the gun, then runs play action from iso from the gun. He runs a pitch play, then runs a halfback pass off the pitch. The pattern may be too obvious to get guys wide open downfield.

If you're running play action off stuff you run a lot, not just once, it become a lot harder to say to yourself "okay, this time they're going to fake it." As long as Michigan's staple plays don't have ways to dick with the safeties built in, there will be a lot of Epic Viking Saga drives and not much of the five-play, 80-yard stuff. That could come back to bite M against the better teams in the league.

Here's hoping that Michigan has it but decided to keep all that stuff under wraps for another week since there was no point at which Michigan needed to do anything other than choke the game out after the Taylor INT. I'm still waiting for Michigan to get a wide open dude way downfield.

Speaking of that bomb to Gallon. I'm just like man you gotta be a half-foot taller there, Jeremy Gallon. No excuse for still being 5'9" as a redshirt junior.

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Fuller

Raymon Taylor entered a "free touchdown" coupon code. The game swung from plausible matchup to laugher on the fourth and two on which TerBush throws high and the WR deflects it directly to Taylor's meh coverage for a touchdown—that's 14-7 or 14-3 versus 21-0 and kind of a big deal. Given the yardage disparity, not enough of a big deal that it could have flipped the game but it is a big swing.

Holy pants defense. Film necessary to be sure but the DL kept those linebackers clean and kept contain, which led to a lot of nice sticks in or around the LOS. Kenny Demens set the tone when he shut down an outside run that looked like it was going to pick up a first down for the Boilers; he was allowed to do so because the DTs didn't allow anyone to get to him on the second level. Funny how he looks like a better player when he's not getting cut by multiple 260 pound Air Force guys on the same play.

Purdue's rushing output in this game was awe-inspiringly terrible. Restore seventeen yards lost on two sacks and Purdue still only gets to 73 yards on the day, barely over three yards a carry.

Purdue's only other relevant datapoint comes against a Notre Dame defense that's looking elite after a 41-3 stomping of Miami. Remove sacks and Purdue averaged 4.3 yards an attempt there—point Michigan.

Illinois hasn't put up more than 14 against a BCS opponent yet and have only managed to crest 300 yards once, that thanks to an 87 yard drive at the end of the Penn State game while down 35-7, so expect another outing like the last two before the Michigan State and Nebraska games define Michigan's season.

Kickoff WTF. The wind was not a factor Saturday so why did Wile cease booting things deep into the endzone? Did he get tired? Is he inconsistent? Is Michigan doing this on purpose for some reason, like maybe forcing a turnover when a returner tries to make a tough running catch?

We saw Michigan start screwing around with kickoffs in the UMass game, put all available into the endzone against ND, put all available into the endzone against Purdue until Michigan was up 14, and then more screwing around. Tentative guess is that it's experimentation with the new rules and that wind permitting we won't see anything fancy tried against MSU or Nebraska unless they've got something in their pocket.

Media

Highlights:

A shorter version:

Bryan Fuller's full photoset can be found in a previous post.

 

 

Here

Inside The Boxscore:

Denard didn’t throw any interceptions, and actually threw a ball out of bounds. Whoo-hoo!!!

Remembering the Touchdown Rabbit.

Elsewhere

Blogfolk. HSR:

I think it was easy to believe that "Bad Denard" was going to show up because we only tend to remember the last thing we have seen.  But Denard's apology after the Notre Dame game, and all of the right things we heard from the team and the coaches during the bye week* brought me to the conclusions that this was going to be an OK day.  It didn't make me any less fearful about the game, but I had staked out my position ahead of the game on that ground.

I'm all like man how do you even get Bad Denard when he throws 16 times. It's a lot harder, at least.

Also I can't agree with this bit from Touch The Banner…

Denard Robinson zone read anger.  Twice in this game, Robinson held onto the ball too long before pulling it out of the running back's stomach.  The first time it worked okay for him because he gained a bunch of yards, even though his running back (Toussaint or Smith, I can't remember) got smoked.  The second time it was disastrous because he got Smith crushed and, oh yeah, Robinson fumbled the ball in the process.  He gains a lot of yards because he's a dynamic runner, but he's never been adept at running those plays.

…when yanking the ball from his running back was something he did three times for huge gains on the veer. Michigan stayed away from a lot of reads when he was a sophomore and then de-emphasized them when Borges came in; we haven't been given a chance to see what would happen if he is put in a situation where he's doing it all the time. Probably too late now, but declaring anger after ten yards a carry against a DL featuring a first round pick that held ND to like 50 yards rushing… uh.

Sap's Decals:

JAKE RYAN – After watching #47 do his thing again, one word came to mind – MANSTER.  In the late ‘70s, Bob Ufer recalled how UM D-Tackle Chris Godfrey was called “manster” by fellow wolverine Ron Simpkins.  Why manster? He was half man, half monster. Jake Ryan – ‘nuff said!

Maize n Brew:

Michigan came out and did exactly what I hoped it would do: run, run, run. In my preview post for this game, I predicted (hoped, really) that Borges would call a run-heavy game, something to the tune of a 65:35 run-pass split. The Gorgeous One blew that figure away, with Michigan running it 51 times (not including the kneel downs) and passing only 16 times, good for a 76:24 run-pass split. It was the perfect gameplan for a team like Purdue: good tackles and good corners (with good playmaking ability) but not much else, particularly at linebacker, is basically a flashing neon sign saying RUN DENARD.

BWS:

This game was also another building block in the not-so-straw house of Michigan's defense. This Boilermaker offense, while not prolific, is still the most recent team to score an offensive touchdown on Notre Dame and had properly rolled the cupcakes you would expect from a good offense (48 against Eastern Kentucky, 54 against Eastern Michigan, and 51 against Marshall). Putting aside Raymon Taylor's gift pick-six* Michigan held Purdue to just 56 yards on 26 carries (2.2 YPC) and only 157 yards through the air on 23/35. Perhaps the most promising stat of the game is that Michigan's top four tacklers were all front-seven guys (Kenny Demens, Jake Ryan, Desmond Morgan, and Craig Roh). Michigan was controlling the line of scrimmage and hitting Purdue ball carriers at the point of attack. When Jordan Kovacs only makes one tackle in a dominating defensive performance, you know things are looking up.

Linking this just for the bizarre headline:

Pur"don’t": A Gravy Train With Biscuit Wheels

iseewhatyoudidthere.jpg AND lolwutpear.jpg in the same headline: well done.

Purdue POV. As you might imagine, the Purdue folk are not taking Saturday well. Purdue: Saturday :: Michigan : Alabama game.

Jumbo Heroes:

From the opening drive by Michigan yesterday Purdue was simply outmanned, outclassed, and quite frankly outcoached.  Purdue looked lost on offense for much of the game and seemed completely baffled that Denard Robinson was running with the ball.  Everyone knew coming in that Robinson was THE GUY that Purdue needed to stop in order to defeat Michigan.  Purdue failed miserably to do that.  Robinson ran for 235 yards in the game.  That’s more yardage than Purdue had on offense.  Wrap your head around that. 

Boiled Sports:

That was an embarrassing display in Ross-Ade Stadium this afternoon. Truly shameful. There's simply no way Michigan is that much better than Purdue. And to lose like that at home? In the first conference game of the season? When there are high hopes and getting off to a good start could quite possibly catapult you into the Big Ten title game? Much more easily than in most years? To come out like that and just stink up the joint so disgracefully?

Aaand Boiled Sports:

If you didn't watch it, congratulations.  Those hours that you spent coaching your children, watching better football, gardening, painting, napping or hunting for the perfect pumpkin were hours well-spent.  But the three hours that I spent in one of my favorite places in the world, I'll never get back. 

Postgame thread from Hammer And Rails:

Wasted money

I love Purdue football and basketball like a battered spouse loves their abuser, which is why I continue to spend my hard earned money to watch games like Saturday’s debacle. I am more disappointed for the program and students than anything. This was a chance to get some fans back. This was an opportunity to win some hearts and minds. No such luck. The fact the game wasn’t sold out was sad. The michigan fans sitting behind me were semi-mocking the stadium and number of fans and I could say nothing because they were right. …

by Scotty A on Oct 7, 2012 6:24 AM PDT

I don't know why some of you guys have to hit the special ed kid in the face. BE NICE.

MSM stuff. Michigan is ranked in the AP poll. I'm not sure where but probably first. Air Force and getting pounded by Alabama still distorting Michigan's pass D stats. Michigan had lots of time of possession, so therefore they outgained Purdue 2-1. I'm pretty sure that's the direction it goes.

Hoke is grumbling about penalties in the manner of an affronted walrus:

"We had some bad penalties, really three dumb penalties," Hoke said. "We don't want to play football that way."

This is a good sign when you have four penalties all game.

Grades of A for everyone! Except you, Fitz. Angelique suggests that maybe the defense is okay. Denard ties Ron Dayne for most B10 offensive player of the week awards.  M-MSU won't have a set gametime until October 20th. Also Joe Rexrode should explore the "rotate" option in his friendly local paint program.

ESPN predicts M to the Rose Bowl.

Comments

mGrowOld

October 8th, 2012 at 12:40 PM ^

I was there, live and in person for the 70's.  Pontiac Trans Am's, $5 fine for possession of less than two ounces of unrolled pot and coeds who were enjoying their starring role in the sexual revolution.  Oh yes - and Michigan stomping the living shit out of virtually everything and everybody in their path by running the ball almost exclusively and only passing when absolutely necessary or as a "constraint play" for our deadly rushing attack.

Trust me.....if we are heading back there it's really not that bad.

CalifExile

October 8th, 2012 at 2:32 PM ^

This was nothing like it. The "6 yards per carry" is very misleading.

Yesterday the QB ran for 235 yards on 24 carries, a 9.8 average. The rest of the backs ran for 63 yards on 27 carries, a 2.3 average.

In 1975, Freshman QB Rick Leach ran for 68 on 8 carries. Sophomore FB Rob Lytle carried 15 times for 66. Junior Gordon Bell and Freshman Harlan Huckleby combined for 28 carries for 162 yards in a 28-0 win over Purdue.

The key to teams in the 70s was depth and balance. This team is one injury away from disaster.

Galapula

October 8th, 2012 at 12:58 PM ^

It'll be after the October 13th games though but hopefully more than a few days before the 20th. Espn is using one of their two 6-day picks to decide.

As for me, I have a wedding ceremony that I was planning on missing (because I'm going to the game) and catching the reception after the game in GR. I'm screwed if it's 3:30.

Here's hoping it's noon'

NFG

October 8th, 2012 at 12:52 PM ^

As impressive as Funchess receiving abilities have been thus far, watching the Purdue game I take away that he is a very good down the field blocker and hustles down to extend the play and help his teammates. This freshman years from now might just turn into a very special player if he keeps it up.

FreddieMercuryHayes

October 8th, 2012 at 12:54 PM ^

I hope that we still don't whip out anything crazy offensively until MSU and Neb.  I want to do the same damn thing over and over and over again and grind it out against Illinois like we did Purdue.  It would be nice to finally surprise MSU with some play-action after their defense freaks out against the run because that's all we've done the past few weeks.  

Also, I have to disagree that ANY team bowl eligable or not can both stop our offense and move the ball on the defense.  (Obviously, the big caveat is Denard turning the ball over - multiple tunover games against the better teams will kill us).  Maxwell can probably test our corners, but the WR have to actually catch the ball, and their OL might night give him enough time anyway.  And their run game is looking less formitable by the week.  And Ohio?  Hell, Purude has a better defense.  Their offense is explosive for sure, but the only defense they've faced that's in the same ball-park as UM was MSU.  Where they still moved the ball, but only scored 17 as MSU was still able to force some mistakes.  The B1G is terrible.

And for Taylor is coverage, no he's not elite at this point, but this is college football we're talking about.  The important thing is that he's even in position to make another team pay for their mistakes.  Eventually the 'elite' will be recruited and developed, but for the time being, the current level of play is not bad.  And after he got destroyed in the AF game, I'm becoming more impressed with his run support.

matty blue

October 8th, 2012 at 12:55 PM ^

...may have been in the third, when he planted his face mask between the '1' and the '9' on on terbush's jersey just as he threw.  he didn't make a play the rest of the way, and indeed didn't even play much after that.  it was clean and it had to hurt.

plaidflannel

October 8th, 2012 at 12:56 PM ^

I disagree with the statement that wind was not a factor.  There was a pretty steady breeze from north to south.  It was the reason Gibbons hit the crossbar on his missed field goal.

JeepinBen

October 8th, 2012 at 12:57 PM ^

Denard ran smarter for most of the game. He avoided the big hits. He avoided contact when he could. When he needed to get 2 yards on 3rd and 2 he wasn't afraid to stick his nose in and battle for yards, but when he was in the open field he "lived to fight another day". Looked like a senior running the ball.

Also he looked disappointed that when he did break one he couldn't house it. Also also, I'm glad we trolled Hope a bit with Bellomy getting in the game. Hope's a tool.

robpollard

October 8th, 2012 at 2:00 PM ^

This is a small quibble, but it's interesting when Denard runs for the 7th most rushing yards in the long history of Michigan football, against a team that was a (mildly) sexy upset pick by certain media types (and even those who picked Michigan, usually did by a only a TD or so), it seems that the reaction to Denard's game was, "Nice job being basically the whole offense in a huge blowout. Ho hum."



Denard made it look simple on Saturday, esp. compared to Fitz's completely horrible game. Denard broke multiple huge runs to set up easy scores AND got the tough yards on the 3rd and 2 type plays, as mentioned above. He also did a solid job in the passing game.

I agree Jake Ryan and the rest of the defense played very well, but Denard was awesome yesterday.  I think he's being damned with faint praise and deserved the Hoke "double point."

Ali G Bomaye

October 8th, 2012 at 1:02 PM ^

After this past weekend, I'm questioning whether Michigan might be underranked at #25.  Alabama is destroying small neutral planets just for the hell of it, and we came within a touchdown and several freaky turnovers of defeating the #7 team in the country on the road.  We've appeared pretty good ourselves in the other three games, other than an inability to stop flexbone option plays on 3rd-and-6, which doesn't seem like it will be a huge problem going forward.

For instance, I don't see why we would be considered 10+ spots worse than Clemson, Texas, Georgia, or Oklahoma, all of whom have lost to the only ranked team they've played and have struggled against a few mid-range teams.  And I think our resume is clearly more impressive than Boise State, Texas A&M, Mississippi State, and Rutgers, all of whom are ranked above us.

Of course, it's probably unrealistic to expect AP or Coaches' poll voters to make their decisions based on anything other than W/L record and their preseason guesses.

GoWings2008

October 8th, 2012 at 1:24 PM ^

Don't get too wrapped up in the rankings at this point, not assuming that you are, but...  They will work themselves out in the end provided everything goes according to plan (insert diabolical laugh here).  I don't put a ton of stock into first half season rankings, but I'll save it for the end of the season before I start complaining about them.

NCBlue22

October 8th, 2012 at 1:03 PM ^

I didn't see this mentioned but I think it's time to give props to Gibbons (and Hoke for the psychological turnaround) again.  He was dead-center on every kick...the one he missed was 44 into the wind...which clearly his range his mid-upper 40's with no wind, so can't really ding him there. 

I still can't believe this is the same guy that shanked about every kick his Freshman year. 

M-Wolverine

October 8th, 2012 at 1:03 PM ^

 

Playboy featured natural breasts

 

Followed by this-

 

you could lose four-year-olds in your carpet

Then this-

 

Hair erupted from everywhere

Was intentional or not....

Marvin

October 8th, 2012 at 1:04 PM ^

To me the weirdest part of the game was how enthusiastic Purdue's fans seems throughout the game, even when it was clear that they couldn't stop Michigan, couldn't effectively move the ball, and were obviously going to lose. They just kept happily cheering, the cameras would periodically display their cheerleaders (not making a sexist comment here on how they looked) going through their motions etc. What a bizarre thing is this Purdue.

The other thing that sort of disturbed me was when they showed last year's footage of Fitz Toussaint against Purdue. He looked way more decisive and fast. I hope he gets his moxy back.

I also love the way Gibbons sizes up a kick. He looks like a satisfied alderman leaning back and admiring his leg of mutton before he gets busy on it.

Indiana Blue

October 8th, 2012 at 1:48 PM ^

about 1/3 of their fans decided that they needed to go mow their yards before it got dark.  So around 6pm the staduim began to empty (especially that Gold colored EXPENSIVE section right in front of the press box).  We were in the south end zone, which was about 60/40 Purdue fans about 1/2 way through the 3rd quarter.   By the time, Rawls had run over 2 defenders & then into the endzone, my entire area was nothing but Maize and Blue ... it was beautiful !

Go Blue!

NateVolk

October 8th, 2012 at 1:13 PM ^

While listening to Hoke's post game interview with Brando, I had to double check with my cousin that Michigan did in fact win. Keeping with the 70's theme, it was Bo redux. Classic.

Magnus

October 8th, 2012 at 1:26 PM ^

It's odd that you criticize my take on Denard's poor zone read decisions, and then you turn around and blame him (in part) for Toussaint's lack of production because Denard makes the wrong read.

So...Denard is making decisions that prevent our running back from gaining yards and he turned over the ball by making a read too slowly, but you don't agree that his poor zone read skills are detrimental?  Hmmm...

Magnus

October 8th, 2012 at 1:35 PM ^

That would be great if all 235 of those yards were on zone reads.  But they weren't.

You (and possibly Brian) are talking about his overall production.  I'm talking about a certain play/set of plays.

That's like someone saying a quarterback sucks at throwing out routes, and someone else countering with "Yeah, but you're wrong because he's good at throwing hitches and screens and posts."

Blue2000

October 8th, 2012 at 1:47 PM ^

That would be great if all 235 of those yards were on zone reads.  But they weren't.

But some of them were.  Ha...Denard probably had 100 yards alone on 3 carries in which he had the option of handing off or keeping it and decided to keep it.  He definitely made some poor decisions, but he also made some very good ones.  You can't criticize the bad decisions he made without also acknowledging the success he had running that "certain play/set of plays."  Can Denard run that play better overall, especially in terms of his decision to hand the ball off?  Certainly.  Is running those plays a "detriment" to the team,as you suggest, because he's not better at making those decisions?  Given his production even with those errors, absolutely not. 

FreddieMercuryHayes

October 8th, 2012 at 2:06 PM ^

On that particular zone read, was the guy who blew up the play the person Denard was supposed to read though?  It seemed to me that he had his eyes up field, and then another player just came in unblocked off th edge and blew it up.  If Denard is supposed to read that guy, then yeah, it's on him.  But if it wasn't, then isn't that just kind of a RPS-3 play?

Magnus

October 8th, 2012 at 2:40 PM ^

The play is at 2:19 of the first video posted above.  He was an edge defender and the only unblocked guy.  If Denard didn't see him or if he was "unaccounted for," then that's still on the quarterback.  The guy was lined up outside the RT for the entire time.  

wile_e8

October 8th, 2012 at 3:06 PM ^

Maybe a miscommunication on the line call? I'm specifically thinking of the HB pass versus ND, where the board spent a few days blaming Borges for trying to have Smith throw a pass with an LB in his face until it turned out a blown line call left that guy unblocked. There are a few variables you are ignoring if you think it has to be his fault for not optioning off that unblocked guy.

Magnus

October 8th, 2012 at 8:03 PM ^

There are things that people are ignoring if they think Denard did it correctly.

It might have been a blown assignment on someone else's part, but Denard is turnover prone and hasn't been very good at the zone read for much of his career.  That one might not have been his fault, but past history suggests that it shouldn't be a surprise if it was.

Magnus

October 8th, 2012 at 8:03 PM ^

There are things that people are ignoring if they think Denard did it correctly.

It might have been a blown assignment on someone else's part, but Denard is turnover prone and hasn't been very good at the zone read for much of his career.  That one might not have been his fault, but past history suggests that it shouldn't be a surprise if it was.

MGlobules

October 8th, 2012 at 2:39 PM ^

the way Ryan threw up his arms and completely obscured the terrain before consuming Terbush was epic, and reminded me of some kind of raptor.