Postgame Presser Notes: Michigan State Comment Count

Tim

Rich RodriguezIMG_20100904_191744.jpg

Tae Odoms may have a broken foot. "I don't know what's up with Mike" Martin. James Rogers cramped severely. [I saw Rogers leaving the stadium, and he seemed to be walking fine, for what it's worth].

"I don't look at margin of defeat. I'm just disapointed we didn't play better. Our guys played hard, but we didn't play well." Too many mistakes to win against a good team. A little off in both the pass and run game on offense. Dropped passes, missed protections. "I don't want to say it wasn't our best effort, but it certainly wasn't our best technique-wise and the things we needed to do."

Need to make big plays to counter the opponents' big plays "None of those things occurred today." Can't diagnose what went wrong on the big plays until watching film. "We didn't tackle well." Maybe accountable to going after the ball a bit too much.

Ineffectiveness in the red zone made a difference. Denard needs to "live for another play" or take off and run instead of making bad passes which can turn into turnovers.

Denard not as sharp as he has been. He's still young, but he's competitive and going through the film they'll see what happened. "This is just his sixth game. I'm told everybody all along that he's a first-year starter." Denard wasbhesitant at times, but there weren't a lot of creases. "We had some more things planned."

Guys were close to making some plays, but didn't close the gap on defense.

On MSU containing Denard: "They just played well, got off blocks. And we didn't play as well I don't think."

Low kick led to the blocked field goal - there wasn't penetration up front that caused it.

Punting with 6 minutes left was the wrong decision. RR was trying to get the players' attention and change the call. He wouldn't punt it again in the same situation.

Iowa has had an open week to get ready, and Michigan has a big game against them next week.

Denard Robinson

Mood in the locker room was what you'd expect from losing the game.

MSU had a couple blitzes, stunts. That wasn't the main issue on offense though, Michigan just made a couple bad reads. "We made bad mistakes, and we've gotta capitalize on a few things." Made bad reads, bad plays, some mistakes.

MSU didn't try to take Denard specifically out of the offense: "Not really. We've got weapons everywhere. I'm not the only weapon on offense." Denard hesitated a lot, which prevented him making the long runs. "Just bad reads, bad reads."

Rivalry games are always exciting, maybe Denard played a little too excited. Got too excited on the bad throw to Hemingway.

MSU is fast - "they're a Big Ten team." MSU more physical? "It's just like the rest of those games." Dirty play at all? "It's Michigan State vs. Michigan. That's all I've got to say."

Greg Jones wasn't the reason Denard made mistakes today. "I didn't pay attention to one player. I paid attention to everybody."

Team wasn't worried when they went down 2 scores. With a high-powered offense, they should be able to come back from that. Knew they could come back, just needed to keep playing hard and keep focused.

No one person is to blame for the poor performance, time to move on. "Refocus and get back in there. It's mid-season now. Time to crank it back up."

Roy Roundtree

"Yeaaah, I just lost focus" on the first drop. Got into the endzone and realized he didn't have the ball (jokingly).

"I felt like it was a lot of mistakes in the redzone." Have to score when you get down there, and not doing so hurt the team.

Denard "he was keeping poised all through the game." Not getting frustrated by throwing interceptions, and was pumping the team up.

MSU always plays physical, just like everyone else in the Big Ten will against Michigan. MSU isn't necessarily the best defense M has played, there were a lot of mistakes on the Michigan side that helped them.

"This is a tough loss, you know. We just have to go in there Monday and learn from our mistakes and prepare for Iowa."

Ryan Van Bergen

MSU better than other teams played? "They have some better players at some positions than teams we've seen." They took care of the ball, moved it with the run, and smart passes. "They executed better than we did."

A couple miscommunications on gap responsibility led to the long runs. "We weren't in the right one twice. Same play." Will figure that out. "I thought we were prepared for it. Unfortunately they just gashed us on a couple plays."

"I think they got called for an illegal chop on Mike. I think he'll be fine." He wants to get it evaluated before risking further injury.

"If I'm going to be a leader on the defense, I have to set an example. Obviously we didn't win today, I didn't play well enough." Everybody has to push, we haven't seen Michigan play as well as they can yet.

Cousins' bootleg wasn't that effective - the defense against that was improved. "It was kind of easy getting back there to him."

Comments

Buzz

October 10th, 2010 at 11:15 AM ^

Hey guys - I am a long time reader of mgoblog; this is my first post.  I'm actually typing this totally prone on my couch.  I didn't get much sleep last night, thanks to the game.  I decided to get up way early and do some much needed yard work, and promptly pulled a muscle in my lower back.  Great weekend, huh?

I am a 4th generation Detroiter, and a forth generation Wolverine fan.  It's in my blood.  I live, breath, and die Michigan sports.  And being 40 years old, I've been through a lot with Michigan football, starting with the first Michigan game I clearly remember being pissed off about: the '78 Rose Bowl.  In the past, when things have gone wrong with the team, there was always the hope the team would set things straight and get back on track.  But i have to be honest - I just haven't been feeling it during the Rodriguez era.  I am starting to get the sinking feeling that while Rodriguez seems pretty adept at beating crappy teams, he seems to have hit a roadblock with everyone else.  I don't know - we can all point to players leaving the program and injuries and whatnot, but in the end, I don't have much confidence in the coaching staff to make decent decisions about, well, most anything.  They also seem to have a problem rallying the team when it matters most.  

My hope is that Robinson bounces back next week and beats Iowa, for himself and the program.  Because I'm afraid that a loss within the conference at home at this point will just lead to a repeat of last year.

Buzz

ESNY

October 10th, 2010 at 12:58 PM ^

Our defense will continue to struggle immensely as long as Ezeh is out there.  It was his complete gaff on the 70 yd TD run where it looks like he actively ran out of the gap.  Plus he missed a few open field tackles on 3rd down where he had the guy stopped but couldn't take him down which allowed MSU to get the first down or be close enough to go for it on 4th down.   Is he really the best we have?  Can Moundros be much worse because I dont think its possible.  I hate to say it but he really shouldn't be allowed on the field.  I dont think i saw him make one good play.

CountBluecula

October 10th, 2010 at 4:32 PM ^

I'd like to see something set up where Denard Robinson can play as a pure runningback.  Most of this year he's been incredible both running and passing.  Yesterday he had a bad day passing.

Quarterback is probably our best position depthwise.  If someone is throwing picks, there's no reason to have him be the one throwing the ball.  However, with our productivity at RB, Denard is not only by far, by far our best passer, but there seems to be a howling wind through a desert canyon behind him.  

There's a single point of failure at the Denard position.  It would be great (I think) if the team could get someting together so they wouldn't have to think about benching their best runner if he starts throwing picks.  He could just move over a step, be awesome running, and let someone else throw the ball.  

It would also be good to get the runningbacks together in case Denard eats some bad clams on a Friday night.  

CountBluecula

October 10th, 2010 at 6:01 PM ^

The opposing defense doesn't have to worry about Smith or Shaw throwing the ball either.  I think Denard is a better runner than both.  I wouldn't want Denard taking the same hits that an RB would blocking, especially so wanting him to come back as QB the next week.  

Just trying to think of a way to keep Denard on the field and not have to just grin and bear a bad day passing. 

 

Indiana Blue

October 10th, 2010 at 5:19 PM ^

listening to their fans .... (its hard looking in the mirror  ... like when we would win away games).  Congrats to them - they won the game.

Bottom line to me  -  Turnovers  3 to zero.  This team will not win any game losing the TO margin by 3.  sparty zero turnovers ....  (when the last time that happened ???) 

Also its not just 3 TO's ... its the opening drive of the game - INT in the endzone ... AND the opening drive of 2nd half - INT in the endzone.  Possibly the 2 worst TO's in terms of when and where this team can have.  You know it affected Denard ... it had to (would anyone).

Of these 2 home game i always thought we had a better chance against Iowa .. guess we'll find out.

Go Blue !

RHUESTIS

October 10th, 2010 at 6:50 PM ^

Where is this awesome next year coming from? Both linebackers are gone and while we all know how Ezeh has played , we have no one on the bench to replace him So what are we going to do start two freshmen. Secondary will be the same OR more freshmen.  Furthermore Martin could leave early. Where is the light at the end of the tunnel for the defense?

sum1valiant

October 10th, 2010 at 10:40 PM ^

The secondary will be the same plus one year experience, minus one Rogers, plus one Woolfolk.  i'm confident we'll see a much improved secondary next year.

Edit:  I guess it would have been easier to just +1 below...