MGoPodcast 11.2: Early Season Issues
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[After THE JUMP: All things borked]
1. Offense
starts at 1:00
Shea and his reads: Harbaugh's job is to lie but we think Shea's definitely injured. Sometimes there was an overhang read but mostly: yeah. His passing too was probably affected by that.
Ready to buy Charbonnet as a star. We got a lot of data this week. Missed Runyan a lot—not great from Hayes, huge missed pickup by Turner. Giles Jackson has freshman slot disease: need to teach them to cut inside the blocker. VanSumeren screwed this up too. Quarterback has to play better, period. Targeting call: can't call that—have to account for a guy changing position.
2. Defense
starts at 26:38
Irrelevant to the rest of the season. Uche had a good game, Hutchinson had a good game, can't blame him for Army doubling him by having another guard slam into the guard blocking him to get a short gain. Michigan chose to go with a 3-3-5, take the dives to prevent anything big. You're going to
3. Special Teams/Game Theory
starts at 55:10
Ronnie Bell: making us miss DPJ/Peppers. Third punt was yikes, and fumbled a punt. Liked how Michigan played the 4th quarter—problem wasn't going for it; it was the playcall. Michigan got RPS'd by Army who called something to beat the arc read. How did ULSM not go for two? Michael Sessa on FG blocks. Commercials: so many in this game that Michigan ran out of their in-game frippery before the 4th quarter.
4. Around the Big Ten wsg Jamie Mac
starts at 1:20:25
Wisconsin Rutger'd CMU (hey we could have played CMU) and Quintez Cephus is back. Both teams have a bye now. Indiana had their fun. Buckeyes had their fun; Justin Fields completes 80% of his passes. Iowa found a receiver against Rutgers—not the one we gave them. Michigan State gets 51 points wearing the Mountain Dew uniforms against the Broncos (hey we could have played WMU). Penn State got outgained by Buffalo; 23 for 24 is a bad run game. Maryland what? Illinois has former Michigan guys and beat UConn, has EMU (hey we could have had a bye then played EMU) next week. Colorado-Nebraska was a Lions job. Tried to have their punter kick the OT field goal. New center is taking some time to get used to it. Two signs Nebraska is back to the Osborne years: Colorado rushes the field, and they're playing a criminal right out of jail.
MUSIC:
- “Army”—Ben Folds Five
- “Time Trap”—Built to Spill
- “Don't Leave Me THis Way”—Lee Fields
- “Across 110th Street”
THE USUAL LINKS:
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- What's with the theme music?
It was never a t-shirt. It might have been a spittle-flecked blog post.
September 9th, 2019 at 6:47 AM ^
Speak comfort to me...
September 9th, 2019 at 7:07 AM ^
Jesus. Bring on the BPONE.
September 9th, 2019 at 1:17 PM ^
I'm deep in the BPONE. I still see a light above me, but it's distant. Made more so by the crazy housings teams like Maryland, MSU and Wisconsin have been laying on cupcakes in ways never (and in MSU's case rarely) seen.
Two yards wide right from a season feeling very 7-5.
A season where it seems JH put way too much faith in Gattis when, after watching what Locksley has been doing at Maryland, it appears we might have gotten the shorter end of that stick.
Still time to turn it all around and hope springs eternal from down here, deeply rooted in the BPONE. 8-4.
September 9th, 2019 at 7:32 AM ^
If Shea is injured and is having trouble throwing and running he should not be playing.
September 9th, 2019 at 8:40 AM ^
He struggled running the ball; he was largely fine throwing it. It wasn't an amazing day, but other than that last drive in OT he was pretty on point and made a number of hey throws to keep drives going.
September 9th, 2019 at 10:48 AM ^
I think we may have been watching different games. Patterson made a few good throws but missed a lot of reads/open receivers and was inaccurate on many throws. Not to mention the fumbles. I'm hoping it's due to the injury and he can rebound. But he did have issues with decision making last year too. If it's not because of injury the QB position is a problem.
September 9th, 2019 at 1:21 PM ^
I rewatched the game and it didn't feel like a lot of guys were as open as people think. Army is good at disguising coverages and making you read through progressions, and while he bugged out at times a little early the lack of a run threat let those lbs sag into passing lanes more than they could if Patterson was running free.
I also saw a couple of non-calls on PIs that may have erased options downfield.
It wasn't some amazing game by Patterson but until this final series he was 19/26 and 6/10 or something on third down throws. He has struggled a bit but he still looks pretty good, at least to me, throwing. Running is a different story.
September 9th, 2019 at 1:18 PM ^
Army sacked 4 times, and pressured enough they scored him with 8 rushes, even though I believe he only actually ran by design twice. Also he didn't have a good day passing, he wouldn't throw to wide open targets right in front of him, and his incompletions were due to badly missing open players, because of being injured and being spooked about being injured worse on top of it. Also we were missing our starting left tackle. We also have two top national recruit quarterbacks on the roster who aren't injured. I really see no incentive to play him, and every incentive to not play him against army.
September 9th, 2019 at 3:45 PM ^
Peterson missed on many throws definitely not a top tier college quarter back if that is all we can expect. If you are a Michigan fan you saw what Haskins did to Michigan the last two years that is what a top tier quarterback needs to be able to do. While he made some nice throws his consistency is not what it needs to be to win the Big 10 East much less go to the playoffs.
September 9th, 2019 at 7:51 AM ^
Colorado needs Nebraska more than the B1G needs Nebraska.
September 9th, 2019 at 7:57 AM ^
I thought Sainristil (sp?) was going to take college football by storm this year. I guess he gets the "the one player every offseason with bullshit hype" award?
September 9th, 2019 at 8:10 AM ^
Takes time to trash a freshman two games into his career, but is too lazy to google his name.
This is anonymous message board posting at its absolute finest.
September 9th, 2019 at 8:22 AM ^
Trash a freshman? Where did that happen, cupcake? We were told all year watch for that guy. Where is he? That's not an indictment of him, it's the same old thing we get every year with "watch this guy" or "watch that guy" that never happens.
September 9th, 2019 at 8:31 AM ^
2 Games in, and you know everything about a freshmen receiver’s year...?
September 9th, 2019 at 8:45 AM ^
It's two games into the season. Maybe, and stay with me now someone who thinks calling a person "cupcake" in 2019 is a worthwhile insult, we're looking at a small sample size and he could prove the coaches right as the season progresses.
September 10th, 2019 at 1:11 AM ^
Coaches say a kid is having a great camp...and every year you think that means that the kid is going to be a starter. Really?
September 9th, 2019 at 11:30 AM ^
Jim Harbaughs offense will never pass enough to make 4-5 WRs happy, let alone our fanbase. I dont care if he hires an Air Raid OC.
September 9th, 2019 at 8:10 AM ^
Did Shea piss himself or is that photoshopped?
September 9th, 2019 at 12:22 PM ^
Everything (almost) you wanted to know.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/19769575/what-do-athletes-do-to-pee-games
September 9th, 2019 at 8:22 AM ^
Somebody please enlighten me on why the fuck McCaffrey isn't playing if Shea is hurt?
September 9th, 2019 at 9:14 AM ^
Meanwhile Brandon Peters has 7 TD passes in two games compared to Shea's 3. I'm not trying to say Brandon Peters would be a better option, but that many other teams in the country can manage to put together a good passing attack. Teams I didn't even know were in the FBS average 10 yards a throw. But UM with a former NFL QB head coach and future NFL receivers fails to utilize it's talent over and over again.
September 10th, 2019 at 1:13 AM ^
Peter's did that against who? Clemson and Alabama right?
September 9th, 2019 at 9:36 AM ^
This is the biggest question of the weekend. If the coaching staff does not feel comfortable letting McCaffrey take on Army, how is it going to go when Shea's crap play mandates a halftime switch against a stouter opponent? Shea should have been pulled when he put the ball on the ground in the first quarter. The fact that he wasn't says all you need to know about the state of the QB position, and I, for one, am scared.
September 9th, 2019 at 10:45 AM ^
McCaffrey is getting the same Jedi mindfuck from Harbaugh that Peters got.
September 9th, 2019 at 8:55 AM ^
I get a little tired about th constant refrain of "why don't they just throw it up to X?" all the time. Not because I disagree that you should maximize your matchup advantages when applicable, but that guys aren't always as open or in the right spot as you think they are, and in games like Army where a big way you can lose is giving Army more drives off TOs, I get not wanting to just chuck it up into coverage. Just because a guy is tall and athletic doesn't mean he's going to win every one of those battles.
Again, I'm frustrated watching this offense. But Michigan is not going to run 4 verts every play against Army. And as we saw a couple of times this game, Army's pass defense was basically "grab this guy and yank him down", so that further complicates any plans to just chuck it and pray.
September 9th, 2019 at 9:17 AM ^
I do not understand how anybody can say the decision to go for it on the first 4th down is understandable. I feel like it is a combination of fancy stats and "go for it on 4th down GRRR" run amok. I am not seeing the voodoo-logic there. I am not hating on Harbaugh for it, and we won the game, so whatever, overall cool.
But there had been a total of 4 scores in the entire football game. Army had scored twice, once on a short field, for the entire game. Our defense was not giving up big chunk yardage. Moody is like 9 out of 10 to make from 42. All Michigan kickoffs go for touchbacks so you are making Army go like 50 yards to get into range for a field goal with a freshman kicker.
Could Army have broke out some crazy stuff and execute a huge, unlikely touchdown drive on the road against a good defense who had not given up any points in the second half? Sure. But is that really what you think was going to happen? I'll take Don Brown there all day.
September 9th, 2019 at 9:32 AM ^
I agree with you - the first one, sure if you are down 14 points then yes you need to go for it. It's 14-14 and the team you are playing can't score fast if their very lives depended on it - take the 3 points. Second time, I hate the "play for OT" thing but how can the staff on one hand be so risk averse they won't have the QB keep on a play where that is basically a required option or throw a pass in the 4th quarter...then go for it with a failure putting Army only 25-30 yards out of FG range with 3 minutes to go? That just makes no sense.
This game really broke a lot of my faith in this program under Harbaugh being able to break through the 10-3 ceiling. Sloppy games happen in CFB to all teams but the staff seems to compound this by playing as tightly as possible the second something happens outside of the game plan.
I keep telling myself PSU's offense took until game 6 to take off under Moorhead in 2016, but man we could be 3-2 by then. I don't think Harbaugh has the fortitude to fully trust a new offense if he believes it will cost us a loss he could avoid by playing Bo ball.
September 9th, 2019 at 10:16 AM ^
I think hindsight is 20/20 on this one. I remember thinking to myself as I "watched" the game on Gamecast that if we could pick up this first down we could bleed out enough clock to leave Army with no chance (assuming we put up 3 or 7). Had we kicked the FG and then given up a game-winning drive, everyone would be lamenting the fact that we couldn't pick up 2 measly yards to seal the victory.
September 9th, 2019 at 1:00 PM ^
The rationale here is pretty simple: you're in FG range already, so you can lock in 3 points, but that leaves enough time on the clock for Army to run their normal offense and score a TD. If you convert the 4th down, you get another set of downs to run more time off the clock. It's possible you can run it down enough to nearly guarantee a win - Army ain't executing a 2 minute drill - with that FG. And of course you give yourself an opportunity for a TD as well.
I liked the call, it was aggressive. But you can't run zone read when the QB can't keep.
September 9th, 2019 at 1:32 PM ^
Agreed. There are two different decisions to evaluate here: 1) The decision to go for it on 4th; and, 2) The play call.
The decision to go for it in that situation on 4th down didn't really bother me. I could see the logic behind kicking a field goal, but I like the aggressive decision.
With that in mind, the play call was absurd. Based on the performance of the running game and the line's ability to block and contain, I just didn't understand that play call. It was very frustrating.
September 9th, 2019 at 1:33 PM ^
We chronically fail at closing out teams, so maybe that flavors my perspective a bit, but everybody knows option teams keep it close by eating up as much clock as possible, limiting your chances to score. If we've turned over the ball numerous times in addition, and the football gods conspire to take away two defensive touchdowns on top of that, and you're tied late in the game at 14(!), and your qb is hurt you take whatever goddamn points you can get.
September 9th, 2019 at 9:34 AM ^
My hype for the season is pretty much killed now like alot of other people after what we have seen so far, the only thing giving me a small glimmer of hope is that last year's team also looked like shit early on as well. The ND and Northwestern games were just as ugly.
September 9th, 2019 at 10:16 AM ^
I think we need to assume every, single, thing we hear out of spring football and fall camp is a lie. Even the bad stuff. Didn't Zordich say that the defensive backfield was total ass one year. Yeah, the one that turned out to be one of the best in the country, if I recall correctly.
September 9th, 2019 at 11:57 AM ^
Not to snuff out your glimmer, but last year's team looked like shit by the end of the season as well.
September 9th, 2019 at 12:59 PM ^
They were 10-1 with a shot at the playoff before OSU which very few people thought they would be after how ugly the NW game was. I think most of us would take that same scenero in a heartbeat and hope that Don Brown is smart enough to not get blasted by the same things two years in a row by OSU.
September 9th, 2019 at 10:10 AM ^
Brian is in my camp: I think Shea is who he is now. Don't expect him to turn into Rudddoccck. Which means all the season's hype is gone now. I expect loss to OSU, probably wiscy and PSU. Also Michigan probably forever will be offensive on offense like LSU was with stud receivers just doing blocking.
I need some space. Forget speed in space.
September 9th, 2019 at 12:38 PM ^
Remember when people thought Shea was a one and done? HA!
I wasn't that excited about him but I still thought he'd be an NFL QB after this year, oops.
September 9th, 2019 at 10:12 AM ^
Fans: Stop fumbling the ball!
(Harbaugh throws a bunch of players in the doghouse for fumbling, including Shea-on-the-run)
Fans: Stop playing so conservatively!
Army feasts on turnovers and we'd already shown that. Arm-punts and runs to the edge with a butter-fingered QB weren't happening. Meanwhile, we got folks grumbling that Army [linebackers] both sat back in a zone AND blitzed like crazy all game. Do they have 14 guys on defense?
It's OK to vent but let's not gaslight ourselves.
September 9th, 2019 at 10:18 AM ^
It’s now painfully clear that this is still 100% Harbaugh’s offense, and he is still playing Boball from the 80’s.
It’s also painfully clear that “speed in space” was a con job to make Gattis appear exciting and innovative. He is neither. There is no use of speed in this offense, and no ability or scheme to get players open in space, even if there were. Along that same line, it’s also very clear that the coaching hype about Sainristil “winning” the starting job at “slot” receiver was bogus as well, probably just part of the sales job for “speed in space”. He has no touches in two games, has not started, and barely been noticeable.
The last painfully clear thing is that Harbaugh is a failure at developing quarterbacks here. His starter is hurt and can’t run the offense worth a darn, but his junior backup still, apparently, isn’t ready to take over.
September 9th, 2019 at 10:39 AM ^
I think you should spend some time today researching the difference between opinion and fact.
September 9th, 2019 at 10:41 AM ^
This is painfully clear.
September 9th, 2019 at 10:43 AM ^
Most everything posted on this board is opinion. Feel free to dispute my “opinion” with your “facts”.
September 9th, 2019 at 10:59 AM ^
The OT vs Alabama was the 2000 orange bowl. New Year’s Day 2000. I was a senior and sitting in the end zone under the goal posts when he missed it.
September 9th, 2019 at 11:33 AM ^
I guess my lingering 3 questions were your lingering 3 questions, so they won't get answered: If we have the best wrs in the country why don't we target them more than 8 times a game combined, if we have a charbonnet why does it take injuries and fumbles to make him the feature back instead of just by default, since Shea was hurt, couldn't run, and could barely throw, why wasn't McCaffrey playing?
September 9th, 2019 at 11:56 AM ^
A. We don’t have the best wide receivers in the country, and even if we did, we don’t have a coach that would know how to use them to their full potential.
B. Harbaugh will always favor the guy who has been around longer over someone more talented.
C. See B. And because McCaffrey just isn’t that good, Harbaugh’s alleged skill as a quarterback whisperer notwithstanding.
September 9th, 2019 at 12:25 PM ^
Forgot how good that Ben Folds Five song is, haven't heard it in years.
September 9th, 2019 at 12:43 PM ^
I don't think there is much of a question that Shea was hurt. It was just a question of:
a. how hurt
b. what Harbaugh told him he would be allowed to do - i.e. run on the RPO, rollout for passes, sliding if you were forced to run, etc, etc.
c. what confidence Harbaugh (not Gattis - doubt that matters) has in Dylan.
Whether Shea was hurt quite a bit or Harbaugh was protecting a minor injury - not having Shea run on RPOs or roll-out and improvise, took a ton out of the offense. Plus, Shea missed on a few key throws
I think it may be too that Harbaugh doesn't have a ton of confidence at this time in Dylan as a passer.
September 9th, 2019 at 6:06 PM ^
Shea's stats looked alot better then what it looked like watching it on TV. I believe he's an average QB and I'd like to see the other QB's in a real spot already
September 9th, 2019 at 12:55 PM ^
1) I had not heard the radio version of Army by Ben Folds before. Or at least haven't heard it in 20 years or whatever. It threw me off.
2) Didn't Shea have a designed QB run at some point with an empty backfield or did I make that up? If it really happened, and he really is hurt which is why he didn't keep on any "reads"...well, I am just really confused.
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