MGoPodcast 14.1: Brazilian Dave
2 hours and 7 minutes
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1. Offense vs Colorado State
starts at 1:00
Should JJ McCarthy be the God Emperor of Michigan Football? Ok maybe, but let's Devil's Advocate it first. We were told that Cade made a major step-up in the offseason and he didn't... look like it. It feels like JJ time but then also why was the QB battle 50/50? Alan Bowman looked fine? CAT ORJI. Injuries on the offensive line, backups have some things that can get fixed. Not much to say about the wide receivers since they all only caught one pass but the blocking was really nice. Roman Wilson's touchdown run happened because of Ronnie Bell's block. No procedural penalties and also they were checking the sidelines with plenty of time on the play clock.
[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]
2. Defense vs Colorado State
starts at 35:52
The headline is... edge rushers?? Might be several weeks before we can tell just how good they actually are but they did everything we could ask them to do. Derrick Moore was recruited as speed off the edge and if he ever learns a move, watch out -- it looks like he might've learned a move. There were plural 4th down sacks... Braiden McGregor was not as effective. Offseason concern was that nobody was separating themselves at edge rusher and now maybe that was because there was actually depth. Everyone has passed the Taylor Upshaw line. Defensive tackle looked dominant and did things that were encouragingly independent of the opponent. Brian is the Mazi Smith Guy. Junior Colson seemed to play almost every snap. Kalel Mullings is a weird case of playing a lot of snaps on both sides of the ball - if you really need him to fill linebacker depth why are you risking him at running back? Cornerbacks, not much action other than Will Johnson got beat over the top. Good job, Rod Moore, for catching a ball that landed right in your chest. Michigan had a plan for tempo!
3. Hot Takes, Special Teams, and Game Theory
starts at 1:07:57
Takes so hot that they're several hundred degrees cooler than Brian was at noon in the stands at the game and he had a pop and he spilled it and AGH. Not a whole lot to talk about, Michigan's special teams players are from around 1860 and they're all great. AJ Henning punt return decision discourse. That poor Colorado State punter. Brad Robbins kicks the ball insanely high. BRAD ROBBINS MUSTACHE. Only one kick return, Brian wants the old kickoff rules back.
4. Around the Big Ten With Jamie Mac
starts at 1:33:05
Iowa 7, South Dakota State 3 in a game with NO TOUCHDOWNS. 21 punts, 16 first downs! 166 total yards against an FCS team! Spencer Petras has scored the lowest QB Rating in a win since 2013 at 1.1. Penn State cannot run the ball (they have not had a 100 yard rusher in 17 games). Sean Clifford took a pretty bad hit to the knee. Rutgers finally gets a victory over Boston College in 11 tries. They have an ok running game, they do not have a passing game. Rutgers had 1st and goal at the 9 and ended up punting on 4th and goal from the 43 (but hey they pinned it down to the 1). You would be SHOCKED to hear that a Scott Frost team blew an 11 point lead (in BOTH halves). Nebraska gave up 527 yards to Northwestern. Now the Irish think Northwestern is an offensive powerhouse. Michigan State might miss Kenneth Walker this year. Western Michigan even had the ball down 8 at one point in the 4th quarter. CJ Stroud looked surprisingly shaky, the offensive line didn't look like the greatest.
MUSIC:
- "The Great Suburban Showdown"--Billy Joel
- "Car Wash"--Rose Royce
- "The Good Stuff"--Ben Lee
- “Across 110th Street”
THE USUAL LINKS:
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
- Direct download link
- What's with the theme music?
"You don't want your quarterback to get thundersacked by a Colorado State player."
September 6th, 2022 at 8:14 AM ^
The summary of Around The Big Ten would lead one to believe we're gonna walk through it without a problem, lol
September 6th, 2022 at 8:50 AM ^
Lol indeed. Some of these opponents are going to improve a lot. Here’s hoping Michigan beats them anyway.
September 6th, 2022 at 12:00 PM ^
Iowa in particular. I personally think Ferentz intentionally sandbags some of these early season games to lull B1G opponents into a false sense of security.
September 8th, 2022 at 12:39 PM ^
This-and Michigan is going to digress into oblivion. We will be lucky to win any of the remaining games.
September 6th, 2022 at 8:17 AM ^
After Seth's post about not laboring on Labor Day, I didn't expect anything so it was a very nice surprise to see this ready to go for the drive in this morning! I was able to get through the Hot Take section and just have to say this to Dave - lighten the hell up and do the voice. The intro shtick 'I'm Dave' is great, but not even trying to do the hot take voice is lame, maybe try to have some fun?
Anyway, not much to add other than that's its fun to listen to football talk when real games are involved. Even if those 'real' games are about some football substance called a CSU. Seth's caveat's about Cade having first game jitters and being Cade I don't get. My take is that the guy has started an entire season that included the biggest OSU game Michigan has seen since 2006, the B1G Championship Game, and a legit College Football Playoff game - he's no longer allowed to have 'first game jitters' when cupcakes like CSU are the opponent. Let's hope JJ doesn't have some jitters, I guess?
September 6th, 2022 at 9:21 AM ^
Hey, VA,
You always make so much sense yet, strangely, you and I seem not to be agreeing lately.
BUT I'm not a fan of The Voice. At least not the original The Voice. The gravel voice is fine and fun but originally it was falsetto screechy, which just scrapes the ear. (Also, it's not a fully committed sound but forced.)
Fortunately, the screechy falsetto is fading. Maybe not consciously, but the guys' bodies seem to sense they're making an awkward sound that hurts the voice, not to mention hurts the ear.
September 6th, 2022 at 9:26 AM ^
"...you and I seem not to be agreeing lately."
That's because you've been wrong lately. But anyway, it's not the sound so much as the segment itself just being fun. Dave needs to embrace the fun. As it is, he sounds like he's the nerd astrophysicist at a party and just doesn't know how to relax...
September 6th, 2022 at 9:47 AM ^
I honestly never thought I would be "the nerd" at MGo...haha
September 6th, 2022 at 9:58 AM ^
Well. I'm here.
September 6th, 2022 at 10:00 AM ^
Don’t do the voice Dave.
I like Brian’s intro. But after the segment is introduced just talk normally. that way I don’t have to hit 15 second repeat 3 times to figure out what the person just said in their take.
September 6th, 2022 at 10:15 AM ^
I've been known to be wrong once or twice in the past.
But we almost agree? The segment is fun, the sound sucks.
Or rather the original screech sucks and the gravely, old-prospector voice is also fun.
September 6th, 2022 at 9:36 AM ^
I mean, CJ Stroud also didn’t look great and he’s almost certainly going to be in New York at the end of the season. Is he also “not allowed” to have a less than perfect performance? Better tell Ryan Day to fire him. The first live game after 8 months off is often not the best performance.
One way this QB competition could go south is if they play super tight because they know every tiny mistake is going to get dissected to death and have Twitter screaming for their replacement. We should probably tone down the UNACCEPTABLE takes.
September 6th, 2022 at 9:48 AM ^
I don't disagree with your point about the possibility that the QBs may be tight/nervous for a variety of reasons (including layoff), but comparing Cade's performance to Stroud's when the latter played against a top-5 team with a legitimately excellent defense (ND's offense is terrible) is silly.
September 6th, 2022 at 10:05 AM ^
I saw CJ Stroud run for his life with eyes down field and throw darts into windows at the sideline. He converted at least two 3rd and longs on pure superior athleticism. I’m sure he struggled at other things but he made some plays that kept scoring drives alive.
September 6th, 2022 at 10:51 AM ^
You seriously think Stroud looked as poorly as Cade did? Okay...
Also, nothing I said screamed 'UNACCEPTABLE'. I mean, have you even listened to the podcast? Seth said Cade looked jittery in a first game, which is what I commented on - and I'll stand by that comment. Being a little rusty is very different from being jittery or nervous. Maybe Cade will come in next week at the same point JJ did, so we can make direct comparisons?
September 6th, 2022 at 10:41 AM ^
I hate the hot take voice so much I always fast forward beyond that section when listening to the podcast.
September 6th, 2022 at 10:45 AM ^
Everyone is allowed "first game jitters", unless we're also going to ding Erick All for tripping, for Cornelius Johnson multiple times short-arming balls and failing to get out of his breaks properly, or Ronnie Bell for dropping a ball that smacked him in the hands, or Edwards for missing a blitz pickup and trying to bounce too many times, or any other mistakes we want to focus on. Honestly, my biggest takeaway is that Johnson seems to have a little DPJ in him in which he tries to catch the ball with his body too much and is going to be frustrating as a guy who should be better at WR than he actually shows.
Players are allowed to have "off" games, especially early in a season, and the fact they played pretty well 8 months ago doesn't mitigate that possibility.
September 6th, 2022 at 11:02 AM ^
I think there's a difference about being nervous about playing, and being a little 'rusty' in the first game. Seth's comment was that Cade was jittery in a way that sounded like he was nervous. And no, I do not expect a B1G Champion, OSU whoopin', playoff game experienced QB to be nervous about playing CSU.
I don't care that he missed some passes, or that All tripped, or that Bell dropped an inconsequential pass. But if you QB is too nervous to look downfield, or is spooked into rushing things for no apparent reasons (as it appeared he was), that's a bad sign.
We all know Cade didn't play his best, and we all know he didn't appear to get a full game of opportunity to prove he should be #1. But we all also saw - and felt - the difference in offense when JJ came in. Maybe Cade can reproduce that same feeling next week?
September 6th, 2022 at 11:25 AM ^
Again, Seth's read on McNamara's play felt a bit biased; his portrayal of that pass to Corum that the rest of the hosts pointed out grossly exaggerated the severity of that misstep stood out. I don't think Cade was "nervous" and feels the "body language" talk that fans engage in because its easy to read into it whatever you want. I saw a guy who was trying to play within the offense and make the "right" play because his coach created a weird competition in with he already announced that he'd be losing his starting job in a week and there's no assurance that he'd get the splits that JJ got coming into the game. And the offensive line absolutely underwhelmed me in pass blocking; that was the real distressing part of the game and further made it hard to evaluate how well he'd do in a more realistic game.
You'd hope the latter but I sure hope that when McCarthy misses a throw or someone drops a ball we also wonder if he's got "nerves" or if the moment is too big for him.
I agree the offense looked better with McCarthy but that was mostly on the ground; throwing the ball didn't feel demonstrably different. So again, if the goal is to be run-heavy with your QB then by all means keep McCarthy in, but then I'm surprised we've even gone through this competition.
September 6th, 2022 at 9:15 AM ^
You used my favorite Billy Joel deep track from the most underrated Billy Joel album. Well, well played. Bless you
September 6th, 2022 at 9:33 AM ^
Our kicking game, punting and FG's, is the best in the nation!! Period!!
September 6th, 2022 at 9:37 AM ^
I am feeling much better about making this trip to Iowa.
#
September 6th, 2022 at 10:52 AM ^
Is that Ron Swanson? Wouldn't Ron Swansons favorite team have to be Iowa football?
Why did this never occur to me before?
September 6th, 2022 at 10:00 AM ^
I'm suddenly getting fearful of the "2nd year starter" Harbaugh curse. If McNamara just had a case of the yips, fine, but remember how badly Speight and Patterson regressed?
September 6th, 2022 at 10:39 AM ^
Speight got hurt relatively early on in that second season (and yes, he struggled against Florida but was trending upwards a bit before Purdue took him down) and struggled behind a bad offensive line and mediocre running game, and as we saw when he went to UCLA he wasn't all that good so perhaps Harbaugh got as much out of him as could be expected. Patterson was an overrated QB coming out of Ole Miss who had a pretty good year but then got hurt in the first game of the following season and never seemed to really get it all back together.
I think Cade is better than either of them - he's certainly performed better than either in meaningful games - but I guess we'll see. But if it's true that Harbaugh ruins his 2nd-year starters then it would behoove UM to keep Cade in for the year and save McCarthy for next season's run.
September 6th, 2022 at 10:04 AM ^
Was it snowing by CJ
September 6th, 2022 at 10:11 AM ^
I was super confused when Brian was defending Nebraska’s onside kick against Northwestern saying NW got the ball on their 31.
Didnt realize that they attempted another onside, trick kick against North Dakota! Lol
September 6th, 2022 at 10:17 AM ^
Turns out he was super confused too.
September 6th, 2022 at 10:18 AM ^
What a relief! The defense was set before the snap on virtually every play in contrast to last year when the defense was frequently not set at the snap, even in the Georgia game. McDonald needed to be called out for that but wasn't.
September 6th, 2022 at 10:27 AM ^
Cade played badly. When he does that it looks like McCarthy time. If it continues, the competition is over. But we've got a whole season of good Cade. A season as the Big Ten champion. Until we've seen McCarthy throw a bunch of passes, we don't know anything we didn't already know. The running is exciting but Michigan can't base their offense on QB runs and read options. We've seen that before. Looks unstoppable against bad teams but good teams can stop it (and it gets your QB battered.) At some point, the QB will need to complete hard passes without throwing INTs. We've seen Cade do it. We haven't seen McCarthy do it yet.
September 6th, 2022 at 11:09 AM ^
The season of good Cade was only about half good. He got better late in the season but we leaned very heavily on Haskins. Even our paving of OSU was largely on the ground.
Cade’s being given a chance to prove “B1G Champion QB” means something but he didn’t do well last week.
The season’s already started. McNamara needs to understand the time to win the job is now, so not doing well last week is forgivable, but it still means something.
September 6th, 2022 at 10:37 AM ^
Based on the method and sample size people are using, ORJI should probably be our full time starter moving forward. He is clearly Vince Young based on what I saw against CSU, you really can't argue that.
All jokes aside, I usually read the game recap at Touch the Banner for a different perspective on the QB analysis: https://touch-the-banner.com/michigan-51-colorado-state-7/
September 6th, 2022 at 10:48 AM ^
Responding to Brian's assertion in the podcast: "Cat Orji" is not optimal. "Wild Orji" seems like a better name for the play.
September 6th, 2022 at 11:09 AM ^
Whaa??? Why are people hedging on this? Why not just own it? It should just following the naming convection we've had for all other wildcat sets, the
OrjiCat...
September 8th, 2022 at 6:53 AM ^
I also vote Orjicat because then I spin into a reverie trying imagine how a feline that is into orjies would dress, walk, act, and meow.
September 6th, 2022 at 10:44 AM ^
It *seems* like JJ will become the guy when the dust settles on this in-season competition, but I'm not letting 4 bad throws at the start of the season taint my judgement of Cade. He's still the same guy who led the team to the title last year. He's a worthy quarterback and could lead this team to a title again this year. But the people on the internet ragging on Cade can eat a giant bag of spotted dick.
September 6th, 2022 at 10:48 AM ^
Really enjoyed the podcast. I got annoyed with the hyperbole around McNamara's performance but at some point the narrative is what it is and no amount of context will change that. McCarthy is likely to "win" the job for the next couple of weeks until he, say, struggles against Iowa and McNamara comes in and then we'll start this cycle all over again.
I agree that the defense overwhelmed a bad team but they did so to a degree that at least points to them being better than we expected on the pass rush and at least as good as we expected in the backfield.
September 6th, 2022 at 11:19 AM ^
CSU is coming off a banger of a year at 3-9, 2-6 in conference, and a 2nd to last place finish in their division in the MWC. I would wait for a better sample to decide if the UM DL is going to be a hanging out in opponents backfield much.
September 6th, 2022 at 12:10 PM ^
Sure, but Michigan has faced worse offensive lines than CSU over the years and failed to get this level of disruption. I'm not saying they're a remake of last year's line but they're decidedly better at tackle and if they can rotate through 2-3 Edge rushers that's something.
September 6th, 2022 at 1:00 PM ^
Agree with you on the defense. I think they deserve overall more credit than given in this podcast, even the easy Moore interception was a guy who was in great position and fully aware of what’s going on; that’s more than I can say for all of Brad Hawkins int drops last year (and I loved Brad Hawkins). Then DJ turner has the amazing heads up too.
Obviously the defensive line overwhelmed what was a patchwork line getting their first starts as a unit, but it was still impressive that so many guys got through the way they did. It was probably the most dominating overall line performance I’ve seen since 2007 vs Notre Dame and just ruining Jimmy Clausen’s life for an afternoon. If they keep any semblance of this up, they have a chance to be the best overall Dline since 2016, and that would be impressive.
Linebackers still have a lot to prove as there wasn’t much for them this game in the middle and Hill Green was out.
September 6th, 2022 at 11:09 AM ^
Top Story was the 'stache. THE 'STACHE!! Outstanding.
September 6th, 2022 at 11:26 AM ^
Shouldn't you spell your name 'All-buh-nyBlue'?
September 6th, 2022 at 12:28 PM ^
I would, if I had to listen to people say "Al-bany" versus "Ahl-bany" or "Aul-bany" (how Upstaters generally say it) very often.
Baylor played UAlbany this past weekend and someone on espn ganked the pronunciation of Albany, sounding just like a Midwesterner. To be fair, I screwed it up for about the first month I was out there. I also said "pop" a lot -- now I'm back here and can say it again.
September 6th, 2022 at 11:40 AM ^
I'm much more concerned with what Cade said afterwards than how he played in this game. Isn't it time for him to channel his inner Tom Brady and deal maturely with the fact that he is competing with a five-star trying to take over his job. Someone might want to ask old Tom how that impacted his career.
September 6th, 2022 at 1:28 PM ^
Enjoyed the podcast. Brian sounds like he's doing better.
September 8th, 2022 at 6:55 AM ^
Agree with that, and also think that having Alex and Dave on added a lot! Variety of minds is good. Alex and Dave are smart and have good insights, and don't have the same ones as Seth and Brian so I am appreciative they were on this one. Hope it continues.
September 6th, 2022 at 1:48 PM ^
I actually watched most of that Iowa game and that was the best punting performance I've ever seen. Iowa fans joke that 'punting is winning' and it won on Saturday. They have to count their lucky stars they have an incredible punter because otherwise they're 0-1. Iowa's defense and special teams are as good as the offense is bad.
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