SysMark

October 13th, 2013 at 1:54 AM ^

realistically...if anyone other than the owner of the blog or one of the primary "mods' had posted this most commenters would be ripping it to shreds...

...sorry but hey one of those nights

ThoseWhoStayUofM

October 13th, 2013 at 7:33 AM ^

Our defense is actually really good once we recognize that Channing Stribling should NOT be on the field and Joe Bolden just LOST the right to be on the field.



Offensively, there is abolutely NOTHING you can do with an offense that refuses to call audibles at the line of scrimage.  Bill O'Brien has a true freshman quarterback and he somehow, miraculously, devised a system where they are able to check into different plays based on pre-snap reads.  Why can we not do this with a RS Junior Devin Gardner?  Because Borges and the entire offense, on an abstract philosophical level, is f***ing terrible.  Also, Fred Jackson needs to be fired.  He's an awful RB coach.  Michigan hasn't had a good running back in six years.  SIX YEARS!!!  Are you kidding me?  Can we really not teach a running back how to block?  Is it that hard?  5'6" Vincent Smith could do it.  Why can't, literally, anybody else?



I've just got to believe we could pay some offensive coordinator to come coach at Michigan.  I want plays being checked to the sideline EVERY SNAP.  I want to audible out of plays based on pre-snap reads.  This is ridiculous!  Take what the defense is giving you!  Why are we consistently running with 8 in the box?  It's absurd!

MGlobules

October 13th, 2013 at 9:19 AM ^

Pity someone had to lose, and yes--it confirms we're not a very good team. But hey, we knew that. Not a lot of shame in losing in 5OTs. 

People will play the blame game, but there's a lot to go around. (Kicker, QB, passivity, no o line.) For me it falls on Brady but--again--we all knew what we had with him. A figurehead guy who's maybe a little passive. (You have to assume he dictated the very conservative approach at the end and--hey--it was certainly justified in the fact that Gibbons had made 16 in a row, right? If the pooch had landed PSU on the five game over, too.)

Maybe it works out long-term, maybe it doesn't. I'm not convinced super manboob--I mean ball--is the way to go, myself. 

Dollar Dave Branding's Big Bet is looking just. . . a little dicier this morning. 

dragonchild

October 13th, 2013 at 10:14 AM ^

The shame wasn't in losing.  The shame was in the coaches doing everything they could to avoid winning.  Running Fitz 27 times, even late into OT, when it was obvious that was the one thing PSU's defense was not going to let Michigan do.  Punting instead of kicking to make it a two-score game.  Going away from what worked and playing prevent defense against an offense that can't put drives together -- but the ONE weapon they had was an NFL-caliber receiver.  The kids made some mistakes but they played hard to make up for it.  To reward their effort, especially a lights-out effort by the D, the coaches played scared against a decimated PSU program.

It hurts not because we took on a good program that just flat-out outplayed us.  I saw a Michigan team play hard enough to win against a crippled program and put in a position to lose because the coaches wanted to do things their way instead of what gave the kids the best chance to win.

Getting outplayed is something I expected to happen eventually, but that didn't happen.  They got outcoached, and that is painful to witness.

MGlobules

October 13th, 2013 at 11:19 AM ^

One, DG is one sore guy this morning; they could not have run him too much more. Two, you have to keep hoping you are going to spring your RB for a run sooner or later. And even a couple of the short yards Fitz got toward the end kept the attack three-dimensional.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

dragonchild

October 13th, 2013 at 12:48 PM ^

Hoping is fine, in theory.  Problem is the classic Lloydball-o-thon on the critical drive:

1st and 10    Fitzgerald Toussaint rush for no gain.

2nd and 10    Derrick Green rush for a loss of 2 yards.

3rd and 12    PENN ST penalty 15 yard Pass Interference.

1st and 10    Derrick Green rush for no gain.

2nd and 10    Fitzgerald Toussaint rush for 3 yards.

3rd and 7    Devin Gardner rush for 10 yards.

1st and 10    Fitzgerald Toussaint rush for 1 yard.

2nd and 9    Fitzgerald Toussaint rush for no gain.

3rd and 9    MICHIGAN penalty 5 yard Delay of Game.

3rd and 14    Fitzgerald Toussaint rush for a loss of 3 yards.

4th and 17    Matt Wile punt 35 yards for a touchback.



Run run 3rd and long, pass.  Run run 3rd and long, QB run.  Run run run punt (in FG range).

If you're going to run a couple times to keep the D honest, fine.  That worked perfectly in the ND game even though Fitz was only getting a couple yards a carry.  I get that, and then it's OK to hope one breaks big.  But that was part of a gamplan to keep moving downfield and scoring.  Running seven times in nine plays when it's not working at all when even a FG puts the game away?  Even slightly worse luck and the drive is killed and eventually the drive WAS killed.  That's not hope; that's insanity.  In particular -- if you're going to punt anyway on 3rd and long, why run AGAIN?  To bleed clock?  A pass completion in any of the last three plays to get in FG range (arguably they were already in FG range) and the clock won't even matter -- you can cross the field in 30 seconds, but you can't score 10 points off a single TD.  Not to mention scoring a FG means a kickoff.  And if clock and yardage matter, putting them 15 yards back doesn't really help.  They're going to throw passes downfield for 20-30 yards and they'll either make them or they won't.  They did, but again, that wouldn't have mattered if they were down 10 or 14.

The most distressing thing is that I really don't see Borges learning from this game.  It still took some lucky breaks for PSU to score, so he'll just shrug this off as a fluke and not consider that Michigan was in a position to eliminate luck from the equation entirely.

UMgradMSUdad

October 13th, 2013 at 1:45 PM ^

We don't know and probably never will know if it was Borges or Hoke behind the play calling at the end of the game.  Going into the half, when Hoke was interviewed, he said something to the effect "we have to establish the run."  That's all well and good, but then against even mediocre defenses, Michigan is almost always going to be looking at 3rd and long.  Michigan has the potential to have a very good offense, but not if there is this continual fixation of having to establish the run up the middle.

snarling wolverine

October 13th, 2013 at 3:18 PM ^

But you are acting like it was absolutely necessary to score on that drive.  It wasn't.  Sure it would have helped, but burning clock was also desirable, and that's what all those runs did.  We burned almost five minutes and made them use up all their timeouts.  What if we'd thrown an incompletion on one of those early downs?

 

jmblue

October 13th, 2013 at 6:49 PM ^

You're evaluating that drive based on what happened after, which isn't fair.  It wasn't exactly apparent at the time that PSU would drive 80 yards in 25 seconds.  They hadn't scored a touchdown in the entire second half, and now they had no timeouts  Having to drive nearly the length of the field in under a minute is normally extremely difficult.*  The fact that PSU managed to pull off a couple of circus catches and score does not necessarily mean it was poor strategy to try to use up clock.  Anyhow, an incomplete pass is hardly the worst thing that can happen when your QB drops back to pass, especially given our OL and our propensity for turnovers.

*Speaking of which, are we giving Mattison a free pass for that 25-second TD drive?  It seems to be the elephant in the room.

 

 

 

Indiana Blue

October 13th, 2013 at 7:57 PM ^

because PSU was 10 -12 yards off our 2 wide outs every play at the end of the game AND in man coverage.  A quick pass to  Gallan could have picked up 5 yards 100% of the time.  And one time we put the 2 wide outs on the same side and PSU only had ONE DEFENDER for 2 receivers !   It was PATHETIC.  

We had every chance to go up by 2 scores with less than 2 minutes remaining and this coaching staff CHOKED ON APPLESAUCE. 

ThoseWhoStayUofM

October 17th, 2013 at 12:35 AM ^

No, you will not try to justify what the coaches were doing with hope that eventually it will work.  Guess what?  It's not about hope.  It's about numbers.  It's not complicated.  When there are 8 in the box and you have 6 blockers, I don't care how many times you try to run the ball.  It's not going to work.  You are going to get stopped in the backfield every single time.



Just get out of here with your uneducated comentary.  This isn't complicated.

User -not THAT user

October 13th, 2013 at 11:19 AM ^

It is Lloydball all over again.  Not late '90's Lloydball, still reaping the benefits of National Championship-caliber recruiting...but mid-2000's Lloydball, recruiting 21st Century athletes to play 1960's era football against 21st Century programs.  The Lloydball that allowed App State to happen, and then pissed you off even more when they showed you what they could do against Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow in a bowl game after you'd long stopped caring about the season.

You have to be smart to graduate from Michigan, but not necessarily to coach there.  Brandon looked for the first guy he could find on the street with a cardboard sign reading "WILL COACH FOR FOOD" and hired him.  The karmic debt owed for the 2011 season is mind-blowing.

Hockey season's off to a good start for the first time in awhile...that's good news at least.

MichiganAggie

October 13th, 2013 at 10:15 AM ^

Even if we had somehow won in 5 or 6 OTs, I would've walked away disgusted with the game.  It was as if the team (specifically the coaches) were doing everything in their power to NOT WIN the game.  Yes, OT makes for close games.  However, that doesn't necessarily make for good games.

w2j2

October 13th, 2013 at 9:28 AM ^

I was at the UM overtime win against Penn State in 2002.  That was one of the best games I have ever attended.  I will never forget it.

So yesterday you have Penn State...a proud old program with great fans...humiliated by the scandal and loaded down with drastically limited scholarships and a bowl ban for years to come. 

Despite all that, they packed their stadium with 108,000 loyal fans.  The team played their hearts out, and their freshman quarterback played well.  And in a 4 overtime circus, they won.  This game will be the highlight of their season, and those fans will never forget it.  Good for them and good for their program.

I hate the loss. 

Michigan did not deserve to win. 

M-Dog

October 13th, 2013 at 12:17 PM ^

Don't be so patronizing.

That program is a sleeping giant.  It was shackled by a decade of Paterno sleep walking through his job.  They have the same advantages Ohio State has . . . the sole elite program in a talent-rich state.

Our job is to gain critical mass while they are down so that we have a stong established recruiting presence in their backyard before they become a monster.  To a recruit, it now looks like they have their act together and we don't, despite the (temporary, don't forget) sanctions.

That program-defining win for them just knocked five years off our head start.  You think we won't have a tougher time getting a kid like Peppers after this?

 

 

EnoughAlready

October 13th, 2013 at 9:58 AM ^

But last night was awful.  Of course, Funk (and Jackson) both seem awful.  Timid running; terrible blocking.  But, hey, when you can't run and your QB is an INT maching, what can you do?  At the end of the day, however, the buck stops with the head coach.  All along, I've "bought into" the coaching staff.  After six games this season, I no longer do.