MGoPodcast 11.10: Fall Always Reminds Me of Monet
1 hour and 53 minutes
THE SPONSORS
We can do this because people support us. You should support them! The show is presented by UGP & The Bo Store, and if it wasn’t for Rishi and Ryan we’d be all be very sad ex-Vox employees with “real” jobs.
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[After THE JUMP: colors]
1. The Offense
starts at 1:00
Tip your Uber drivers. Bifurcation of the fanbase between people defending Shea Patterson and those blaming him for everything. Liked the called QB run and the direct snap near the goal line. McCaffrey takes are too harsh. Are we disappointed? Sorta?
2. The Defense
starts at 32:35
Another sub-200 yard day obliterated by garbage time. Shutout also obliterated by the return. Feel bad because they were running Counter and our DTs aren't doing anything on them. Buying stock in NOT Booger McFarland's kid: stiffarmed McGrone. Josh Ross dressed, did not play, so redshirt still available. Metellus was playing down, they got him on the 3rd and 1.
3. Special Teams/Game Theory
starts at 48:38
A return! Barrett buried a guy. Blocked punt on Maryland's left?-legged guy? They have a righty and a lefty. Quinn Nordin made his first attempt of the year. Hurry sneak on a 4th down that wasn't necessary because a review was about to show the spot was a full yard and a half short. Fake punt! Nice to have a former running quarterback as your upback listed as a linebacker. Flying wedge FTW! No fake punts from the spread punt except the rollout/nobody's here thing. Griese didn't prepare hard for this game. Miss Spielman.
4. Hoops & Around the Big Ten wsg Jamie Mac
starts at 1:11:22
Zavier Simpson is an important guy: we knew this. The green light goes on a lot earlier: good for Livers, fine as long as it's not an off-the-dribble two. Brandon Johns looked pretty good. Is he aggressive enough to be the fourth banana? Yes. Bajema redshirt? Nunez did not look good on D. Pick and roll coverage is now dropping the center.
Instead of double-byes, let's have Thanksgiving in peace. What a Big Ten week it was. Illinois-Rutgers! Illinois plays at an empty MSU next week! Brian wants Dantonio to circle his wagons for one more year but he's got a seven-hour deposition before they've got one running back and a Theo Day/Rocky Lombardi battle to start at quarterback—their AD is part of the Dantonio cabal so he could come back right? Didn't take long for Indiana to make fools of the Wildcat bettors. Nebraska's 400-pound guy deserved a TD. Martinez is playing bad quarterback.
MUSIC:
- "Lost Ones" - Lauryn Hill
- "On Your Face" - Earth, Wind & Fire
- "Smooth Operator" – Sade
- “Across 110th Street”
THE USUAL LINKS:
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
- Direct download link
- What's with the theme music?
They can't get that caliber of recruit anymore.
November 4th, 2019 at 7:09 AM ^
RE The Eubanks block: He did an okay job diagnosing the blitz, but that guy started with outside leverage and cut across his face with little resistance. Basic football tenet is to take care of the most dangerous guy first, but Eubanks shoves the blitzer into the play.
If Eubanks took an extra beat to push the blitzer down the line instead, then get ahead as a lead blocker, play probably is a fine gain rather than a loss. Even if Turner survived the trip, the blitz would’ve still slowed him down some and given defenders time to rally for a short gain.
Not the worst play by Eubanks, but still worth at least a half-minus. On another note, it’s weird to hear you guys call those who criticized Eubanks as “layman” of football. Just felt a little dismissive and self-aggrandizing.
I’ve loved the podcast for years and the work you do. Just an observation.
November 4th, 2019 at 7:17 AM ^
Let me get this straight. The arch YIMBY on MGoBlog doesn't tip Uber drivers? What an absolute asshole.
And I can never figure out if it's the terrible website or podbean that can't figure out how to play an entire podcast without buffering once a minute.
Seriously though. How hard is it for Brian to just listen to Seth and tie his hair back so it isn't constantly hitting the mic?
November 4th, 2019 at 8:04 AM ^
I logged in to agree - on both points. It's comically dumb, though my service/computer/whatever has been handling the buffering better lately.
November 4th, 2019 at 9:57 AM ^
How is YIMBY related to Uber? Also, as someone who has lived outside of America for 10 years, I know you have to tip some people, namely wait staff, because they don't even get paid minimum wage, but the tipping in America is fucking stupid. Flat out. Pay your workers. This is literally how the entire rest of the world works and it works well. Uber gets to exist because they skirt a bunch of regulations and pay their workers nothing, but everyone is on here pissed at Brian instead of Uber.
Having said that, yes, why is the podcast so slow? I'm listening to it on my phone through the podcast addict app because it's literally taking an hour to download from the podbean site, and there's more buffering than audio when I listen from mgoblog. Pay your workers, except HUEL.
November 4th, 2019 at 10:05 AM ^
My experience is that the sort of person who doesn't tip because they think it will pressure a company to pay their employees better is also the exact type of person who we would call a NIMBY. So I found it ironic that Brian is a devout YIMBY, but doesn't tip people who require tips to earn a living wage.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:05 AM ^
Uber drivers have already fought back against Uber sometimes. Maybe low wages and tips actually do make them push back. I really have no idea who to tip in America anymore. I sometimes skip some services because I'm not sure if I'm supposed to give them 5 bucks extra or what. It just used to be wait staff and a bit for bartenders. Most other countries have Uber or some equivalent, and their wages aren't dependent on customers' tips.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:16 PM ^
My favorite part of not tipping in the rest of (Excluding Mexico) is how awesome the service is without tipping, said no man ever.
in the rest of the world the service providers do the bare minimum because no tips are coming (it’s human nature).
November 4th, 2019 at 10:23 AM ^
Streaming issues are known and usually go away by mid-day. Our podcasts are hosted by a third party (Podbean) who has some pretty robust servers, but even they can't always handle a massive spike of people downloading a 145MB file. This happens with a lot of popular podcasts.
Because of it I've been posting the podcasts to the feed late at night on Sunday night in hopes of getting all the automatic downloads done in the wee hours. If you set your podcast app to auto-download the MGoPodcast you should wake up on Monday morning with the file in your phone. If you go to download it on Monday morning at 8am however you're going to be competing with 7,000 other people, many of whom are streaming the podcast on their way to work.
November 4th, 2019 at 10:35 AM ^
I know you've said that before, but I don't understand why it's only a problem to stream this podcast on podbean and not any of the ones with a much larger audience that I listen to there. Is that simply because podbean allocates more bandwidth to those?
November 4th, 2019 at 10:51 AM ^
Yeah I downloaded it through podcast addict with no problem while it was going at a snail's pace on podbean.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:31 AM ^
I have zero problems with buffering through Apple Podcasts app. It plays uninterrupted all the way through every time.
I tip Lyft drivers if they're pleasant and drive safely (i.e., do not constantly take their eyes off the road to look at the map-- I've ended rides because drivers had the phone down in their lap and they won't stop looking down at it).
Otherwise I don't, and I note why in the comments so they can improve their service next time.
November 4th, 2019 at 1:10 PM ^
I drove for Uber and Lyft full-time for a year when I couldn’t find another full-time job last year. I live in a Northern California university town very similar to Ann Arbor. Tips were a significant amount of my income - about 15 to 20% (the car was a Volt, a PHEV with a lot of cool electronics, and I had water and snacks, so that helped). It was a good thing too, because the percentage of a ride cost that the driver keeps is often less than 50%.
It was not practical to keep track of who didn’t tip to try to “punish” a rider with a poor rating, because 1) Uber made the drivers evaluate the riders before allowing them to take the next ride; 2) their system will not match you with someone you rate poorly, so if a driver gave a high percentage of poor ratings, eventually the driver will run out of riders; 3) sometimes customers didn’t tip until the next day (especially inebriated ones); and 4) driving full time often meant 20-25 rides per day.
Plus, from a spiritual/morale standpoint, it was better to just have gratitude for those who did tip, rather than lamenting and punishing the times riders did not. But please consider a tip next time!
November 4th, 2019 at 3:03 PM ^
Lyft has a comment field when you’re giving the star rating— do the drivers not get to see it?
November 4th, 2019 at 7:52 AM ^
First of all, I don't believe Brian when he says he doesn't tip Uber drivers. Isn't there a rating system for drivers to evaluate customers? Wouldn't Brian be blacklisted?
Anyway, after he stalls for ten minutes before getting to the game take, he starts by pushing the "rational man's take" of, oh, this was a boring 31 point win. So foolish for anyone to complain. So foolish for silly announcer man to say that Maryland was dominating. (Okay, "dominate" was a bit much but I think we all got the point.)
Then he immediately follows it up with 20 minutes of how it felt bad because we didn't actually, you know, do anything on offense except for one short field drive for the first part of the game. And meanwhile Maryland was going up and down the field on a bend-but-don't-break-oh-good-they-missed-a-field-goal defense.
I think "the rational man" in the fanbase is mistaking "Maryland sucks and we will obviously eventually win" with "there's no problem here."
If we didn't start the game with a kickoff return for a TD, maybe we would have broken out scoring offense sooner. But I wouldn't mind (broken record alert) throwing the ball downfield to Nico or using the bubble screens sooner to open up the interior running.
Maryland sucks and had no chance of winning and they outplayed us for a ten minute stretch of the first half when Steve Levy made his comment. Both things can be true! Just like both Shea and Tarik Black can be at fault on the same play!
November 4th, 2019 at 8:37 AM ^
It seemed to me like this game was the coaching staff saying "we have a lot to work on" and repping some things they are still not doing all that well. They won the game by 31 and put up that many points on offense, so it's not as if they were "struggling" all day but one win vs Notre Dame in a monsoon didn't mean everything was fixed on offense, but rather that we'd dialed up a winning game plan against ND's wildly erratic linebacking corps.
I don't mean this in a "master-plan, we're saving the good stuff for OSU" consipracy-theory kind of way - we aren't because offense is still in training wheels mode. But Harbaugh has shown a proclivity to use these "should be easy wins" games to get live-fire execution on some of the stuff that isn't working that well. What we've seen since PSU is a return to some of the functional things from last year's run game and a few of the things from the pass game we were hoping for all year, but it still seems like it's about 25-30% of the way to "weaponized."
November 4th, 2019 at 9:09 AM ^
1) We're never going to throw the ball downfield as a staple of the offense this year. It's Week 10. It's not happening.
2) I don't think the defense was rolling out "stuff to work on" as Maryland drove on us twice. Maryland has proven to be terrible in short fields (despite this blog's insistence that Red Zone offense doesn't exist, which is false, it does, especially inside the 10 which might not be exactly relevant in this game).
3) I'm all for live fire reps on things we need to practice after we get up by 28.
November 4th, 2019 at 12:51 PM ^
Maryland isn't very good at scoring short FGs (they have only made 1 in the redzone). Before they played Michigan, though, they had scored TDs on 21 of 29 attempts, which is around 72% nationally and average-ish for a P5 offense.
November 4th, 2019 at 1:05 PM ^
Okay, so they're average-ish. Defense did what it had to do on those two drives, especially the interception.
November 4th, 2019 at 12:29 PM ^
It's fine to complain, but just accept that the complaints at this point are largely baked I to the cake of this team. They aren't very dynamic offensively. Patterson is a B+ QB throwing to B+ WRs. It's a top-12 team, not a top 4 one. It was still a good win against a team that didn't stand much of a chance, and the fact Maryland pieced together about 60 yards of total offense from Midway through the 2nd quarter to the start of the 4th shows that, perhaps, them "moving up and down the field" wasn't necessarily sustainable.
There is a subset of the fanbase that is DYING to be mad all the time. Ignoring that sometimes isn't necessarily wrong even if the more general "this isn't an elite team" point they hold on to as a bulwark is true.
November 4th, 2019 at 12:54 PM ^
I can't tell if you're agreeing or disagreeing with me. I think agreeing on the facts but disagreeing on acceptable reactions to the facts.
November 4th, 2019 at 1:29 PM ^
I'm agreeing with the very specific quarter that Maryland played well-ish and were moving the ball on Michigan; I'm disagreeing with the larger point that every time things don't go well that it's time to be any more concerned than fans are about a team that isn't elite. It was a 31-point win in a game that Michigan dominated for the most part; this team will not beat Alabama, LSU, Clemson, or OSU barring a ton of good luck. The fact people keep wanting to point the latter out constantly and are bothered that some of us have just internalized that distinction is the part I'm taking issue with. You point out that Michigan won't throw deep after 10 games, and I agree. But "oh man, the defense didn't look great for a couple of drives and the offense scuttled" aren't new revelations, and frankly just feels like background noise at this point.
November 4th, 2019 at 5:17 PM ^
The fact people keep wanting to point the latter out constantly and are bothered that some of us have just internalized that distinction is the part I'm taking issue with.
I am bothered that you are bothered that I am bothered.
November 4th, 2019 at 2:39 PM ^
The Uber tipping system doesn't work that way. The driver has to rate the rider IMMEDIATELY or else they can't get the next rider so most drivers just do 5 stars automatically unless the rider was just way too rude...those ratings are unchangeable. Riders aren't required to tip or not tip right away and there's no popup saying..."that rider didn't tip you...". If a driver really wanted to, they could check later to see if a rider tipped but most drivers can't remember one rider from another...they're just a mishmash by later on.
November 4th, 2019 at 5:13 PM ^
Interesting. I am surprised to learn Brian hasn’t been rated 1 star due to rudeness. ?
November 4th, 2019 at 8:32 AM ^
Livers averaged 3.5 3 point attempts per game and shot 42.6% on those shots last year. Doubling that number while staying in the same neighborhood in terms of efficiency (40%ish) would be huge for our offense.
November 4th, 2019 at 9:20 AM ^
Tip your Uber drivers people!!
November 4th, 2019 at 9:21 AM ^
I had never really noticed the stuff where people say that Brian Griese goes out of his way to be hard on Michigan, but he was a dick on Saturday. To the extent that I questioned if there is some form of animosity between him and the Michigan athletic department. The announcing for that game was weird, it felt like flat out anti-Michigan. Michigan won the game by 31 points and I am not sure I heard more than one positive statement made about the team.
November 4th, 2019 at 9:53 AM ^
The pass to Black that was short of the first down. Correct me if I am wrong but that is a comeback route. Which means Black runs past the sticks and comes back for the football. When Black reaches the top of his route, the defender is basically standing in his shoes with him. So, Black comes back for the ball and is short of the first down. I don't see how that is on Shea. The route is not run to the sticks and stop and turn around. That pass would not have been complete. Shea threw him open.
Collins is very good with the deep ball. Everyone can see that. But what Black or DPJ have done to warrant continued belief in their recruiting hype is beyond me. They have had opportunities and they've been just guys. DPJ had a nice catch against ND and that is all I can think of for the entire season that either WR has done that was more that just average. Not terrible but not amazing.
Bell, OTOH, has had the same chances as the rest of the WR and has made lots of plays.
That's what it appears Shea is working with.
November 4th, 2019 at 9:57 AM ^
I think that DPJ was greatly hindered by starting the season injured. He was awesome last year.
November 4th, 2019 at 10:03 AM ^
I'm sorry you've missed DPJ's career at Michigan. It's been fun to watch.
Tarik Black has not yet distinguished himself. He's not bad but he has yet to meet the hype.
November 4th, 2019 at 10:45 AM ^
Last year, DPJ had 47 receptions for 612 yards. This year, he is 21/214--which prorates to less production than last year.
I'm glad you are enjoying yourself but those stats are outside the top 100 for WR.
November 4th, 2019 at 10:52 AM ^
If this offense threw the ball 50 times (as maybe it should) and we only had one good WR, his numbers would be better.
He also returns punts.
November 4th, 2019 at 12:46 PM ^
Yeah, I don't know what DPJ career you've watched, but other than a nice punt return and a run-and-catch against MSU I'm not sure he's been notably fun.
November 4th, 2019 at 12:50 PM ^
Okay. His highlights are on the Internet. You can check them out sometime if you wish. He's a great athlete who has made some great plays. I wish we got the ball to him more. I wish we got the ball to Nico more. But I don't think he has failed to live up to his recruiting ranking. He's legitimately good.
November 4th, 2019 at 1:41 PM ^
I've watched his highlights. Ronnie Bell's highlights are equally fun; it's why they're called highlight reels. But unfortunately, he's had 0 games in his career with over 100 yards receiving and only 2 above 80; Ronnie Bell hasn't cracked 100 yards yet but has 4 games above 80. One was the #1 receiver in the country the year he committed; the other was a guy outside the top 1000 who was a basketball player. I like DPJ, but for a guy touted to be an elite athlete he really hasn't shown it going on 3 years now except a couple of times (and he's had a number of drops this season that were unexpected).
And maybe that's just the curse of that recruiting class; the top 10 from that year is full of a lot of misses save for Jeudy.
November 4th, 2019 at 5:09 PM ^
I am not a recriutnik so maybe I misspoke and he didn’t technically live up to top of the class uber elite. But he’s certainly shown his elite athleticism and Route running and pass catching downfield and circus catches and speed. It’s not featured enough in the offense. You can see it in the highlights. Ronnie Bell is good but he’s not the complete WR DPJ is. But even if Ronnie wins the Heisman this year it doesn’t take away from DPJ. You seem intent on making this comparison.
November 4th, 2019 at 10:53 AM ^
It was rumored all offseason that DPJ wasn't going to be healthy this year and his play validates that. I kind of think healthy Sainristril > 80 percent DPJ. I'd like a base of Bell, Sainristril and Collins on the field. I'm of the opinion that the passing offense needs another quick twitch wide receiver to break through.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:33 AM ^
Griese was right, it was more on Black than Patterson. That said, Patterson is just half a beat off on getting the ball out, but I don't know that Black was his first read.
November 4th, 2019 at 10:02 AM ^
It must be said that Brian's pronunciation of "foible" @3:11 is a pretty hilarious foible.
For the record, FOY-bull.
"Fo-BEE-lay? It must be Italian!" - the Dad from Christmas Story
November 4th, 2019 at 10:04 AM ^
I'm mostly disappointed that Ace didn't correct his pronunciation.
November 4th, 2019 at 8:48 PM ^
Ace had trouble with "Schadenfreude" (that final "e" should not be silent).
November 4th, 2019 at 10:55 AM ^
I had to go back and listen. Then I did and remembered that I didn't even know what word he was trying to say so I just didn't think about it. FO-bile. First I've heard that one. Funny how people have their weak points. Brian is obviously a smart guy with a good vocabulary, he has the best words, but his pronunciation skills are severely lacking sometimes.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:41 AM ^
I know plenty of highly educated, high-IQ people like this, particularly if they have STEM backgrounds. They're often super well-read, but if you don't spend your life in actual verbal conversations (instead of emails and Slack) with other highly educated folks you don't actually hear all the words you know pronounced.
Then there's the opposite: folks who spend their entire lives in articulate conversations, but don't read proportionately. Their pronunciation is impeccable. Their spelling sucks.
November 4th, 2019 at 10:17 AM ^
I very much enjoyed the Fuego Box Hot Take segment this week, particularly Brian's lead in. And then he dropped the almost but not quite equal to Ace's Rutger take saying that he like's watching Northwestern football. Had to turn the heater off in my car as that take made it sweltering in there. Mas takes de caliente, por favor!!
November 4th, 2019 at 11:38 AM ^
Regarding the taking 5-10 minutes to get to the content complaint: I listen to the podcast while on my 15-minute commute, so it is a bit annoying. But then again that is what the FF button is for...
November 4th, 2019 at 11:47 AM ^
A few minutes of banter is fine with me. It humanizes the experience, plus I like Brian and Co, after this many years it's like listening to old friends. But there have been episodes when it's 10+ minutes before the game is discussed, and I do get grumpy.
MGoPodcast still compares favorably with podcasts like The Solid Verbal, which routinely takes 10 minutes of filler to get to the games, and Shutdown Fullcast, which sometimes runs over an hour and the games get maybe 2 minutes of discussion while the rest is like listening to the random weed-addled musings of stoner dudes at the skate park.
November 4th, 2019 at 12:30 PM ^
Come on man, tip people. If you hate the system fix it, but don't screw the people forced to labor under it.
November 4th, 2019 at 12:55 PM ^
I'd like to add that "this WR corp has underwhelmed" is true for 2/3 of the top guys; DPJ and Black have not been particularly consistent or spectacular. Collins has been as good ad advertised. But this constant drumbeat of "NFL WRs" is based on recruiting rankings and SPARQ scores at this point. Black may just be feeling the cumulative effects of his injuries and DPJ is still maybe having some issues from the offseason, but Ronnie Bell is 5 to 7 yards per catch better than either of those guys on similar number of receptions, and at some point that's not because of "opportunities."
November 4th, 2019 at 1:21 PM ^
Ronnie Bell could average 150 yards per catch and that would have no impact on the skill and talent of the other WRs.
November 4th, 2019 at 10:56 PM ^
The Sponsors plug just below the title reminds me of Count De Money
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