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Bryan Fuller/MGoBlog
21 plays. 60 yards. Zero points.
That was Michigan's second-half offensive output, after Denard Robinson averaged over 20 yards per carry and Devin Gardner a hair under ten yards per pass in the first half. The Wolverine defense held Ohio State to two field goals in that same span despite three drives starting in their own territory, but it was for naught in a 26-21 heartbreaker.
It's too easy to pin a game on a coach, but after this game it's tough to figure out who else is to blame—Al Borges's second-half playcalling is the story today. Michigan's running backs, ineffective the entire year even with a healthy Denard Robinson and Fitzgerald Toussaint, were stymied on three third down attempts in the final 30 minutes. In the end, Vincent Smith mustered just 12 yards on five carries, Thomas Rawls a mere two on his five. That enabled Ohio State to load up against Robinson, still apparently unable to throw the ball, when he entered the game as a quarterback.
There were other problems, of course. Fumbles by Robinson and Gardner prematurely ended drives in the final half; Michigan's last drive finished with a Gardner interception. While the defense put forth a heroic effort late, they were repeatedly burned early by Braxton Miller—who finished with 189 yards on 14-of-18 passing—and had trouble stopping Carlos Hyde (146 yards on 26 carries) up the middle.
This despite prospects looking good early. A 75-yard touchdown pass to Roy Roundtree answered a Hyde score on the opening Buckeye drive. The Wolverines took a 14-10 lead on a goal-line plunge by Gardner. And Michigan's 21-20 halftime edge came courtesy of a spectacular 67-yard scamper by Robinson, who shed simultaneous tackling attempts by Christian Bryant and Travis Howard and broke free from the pack for a vintage Denard touchdown.
Fuller
But the tides turned on Michigan's opening drive of the third quarter, when Brady Hoke took a timeout after initially sending out the punt team following a zero-yard Rawls run on third-and-three. It was Robinson who took the field at quarterback for fourth down; the blocking broke down inside, leaving him no crease to reach the sticks as Ryan Shazier brought him down for a two-yard loss.
From that point forward, turnovers and questionable playcalls doomed the offense. Two Drew Basil field goals represented the entire scoring output of the second half; that was all the Buckeyes needed to secure their sixth straight home victory against Michigan and an undefeated season, one which ended today thanks to a postseason bad.
Michigan will play on, but it won't be in a BCS bowl. The question before this season was whether Al Borges was the right offensive coordinator for Denard Robinson. After this game, the question might expand, to whether or not he's the right offensive coordinator for this program moving forward.
You can't win this football game by stalling drives, shifting momentum and giving the opponent the ball.
Blame Borges if you want. He deserves plenty.
But the main reason Michigan lost this game by 5 points was failing to take care of the football.
Michigan played well enough to win. It's a shame Ohio and Meyer got off the hook.
No, the reason why we lost was because we decided to emphasize our weakest link - interior offensive line - which conversely is the strongest part of Ohio's defense (interior d line). I just cannot understand why ANYONE would think that is the way to call the plan. WHY bring out all the creative stuff against Iowa when you don't need it and then go conservative against Ohio??? Why do you not put your two best offensive players out at the same time???? WHHHHHYYYYYY???????
Completely agree. Bright minds with about 380 mgopoints think alike.
Hold onto the ball (we are used to seeing DR turn the ball over) yes! Play to your teams stregnths (stretching the field with DG's arm and utilizing DR in the backfield/slot/flank). Play away from your weaknesses (interior running, especially with safties and corners cheating up to support). IMO Borges looked at DR's awesome touchdown run and became drunk with love, thinking that was how we were going to beat ohio with DR making super human plays! What that did was take DG out of game RHYTHYM and stack the box. Do not underestimate loosing game rhythym, which I feel affected DG's passing rhythym late in the game with DR inexplicably on the sideline! The Michigan players played well enough to win, the Michigan coaching staff did not coach (2nd half) well enough to win. So the main reason was shrinking the box, which causes more tackling traffic and the possibilities of the ball coming loose than when they field is stretched!
Turnovers don't in any way explain netting 9 yards in the entire 4th quarter.
True, but it's not as though it's a non-issue. Source: I watched the ND game.
is what the 2nd half play calling was. Running Denard twice in the 2nd half after exploding in the 1st half; running Smith up the gut; geez Borgus........he may have no future but Brady will be ever loyal to him and we'll have to live with this crap play calling.
The play calling may have been inexplicable, but we ran Denard 4 times in the second half compared to 6 in the first. So it's not like the Denard running plays were crazy different between the 2 halves.
It was the way we ran Denard that was the problem. Rare misdirections with Denard, didn't keep Denard and Devin in at the same time to risk the deep threat and Denard runs. Obvious calls. It felt like Denard his first year. Every time he took a snap everyone including Ohio's defense knew he was running with zero threat of pass.
I will not let go of how ridiculous it was to use all our aces of genuinely brilliant play calls last week against Iowa, not saving them for Ohio, and apparently not prepping to see if they'd work for Ohio, by coming out with duds against Ohio.
Wow.
This exactly.. it was just like his first year.. We have a pretty decent passing QB, then the 2nd half we sub Denard in to take the direct snap when he can't fucking pass.. how pathetic and predictable.. Let's just leave the best player on the field out of the game while we throw PA on 1st and 10 4 straight drives in a row.. GTFO borges
So disappointed for Denard, Vince, Roy, Jordan, Kenny and all the other seniors. This game was well within the grasp of winning yet our coach (no need to further name names), completely outsmarts himself and snatches defeat from the claws of victory. One TD in the second could have clinched it.
Way to go OSU on your perfect season, it means nothing because the coach you "honored" at halftime is a fraud.
/sour grapes rant over
To be honest, I think your mention of Kenny Demens is the first I've seen/heard of his name all day. The ILBs were just AWOL today.
Or did I miss something? Their RB's consistently got past the DL (which was bad enough) but then there was no LB. Now what would have been a 4 yard gain becomes a 8 or 9 yard gain. Time and time again.
They sure seemed absent on that last OSU drive. Giving up a 3rd and 7 on the ground in a fairly predictable running situation was very disappointing (although to be fair, at that point they were probably exhausted).
They ran the exact same carlos hyde run, with the pulling guard to seal off the MLB, like 10 times for an average of 12 yards a carry because we had no answer for it.
The decision to go for it up 21-20 in our own end on a third and not so short totally changed the game. For all the people bitching about Borges, if we put together a single drive in the 2nd half OSU fans are the ones screaming for their OC to get fired after missing so many opportunities.
Going for it when we really didn't have to and the odds weren't all that great (especially when the D knows Denard can't throw it) flipped the field and that was the story of the game as much as anything. Shitty 2nd half offense didn't stop OSU from winning the game.
I didn't really like that decision either, but didn't they only get three points out of that? We made it hard on our defense with that decision (and I did not care for the 4th down call), but I don't see it as totally changing the game.
The field position battle was tipped from there on out. When our D made a great play it held them to a field goal or got us the ball deep in our own end. When their D made a great play it set them up to score. Not to mention we were playing from behind the rest of the way.
If anything it is an actual legitimate gripe compared to people acting like they would easily have procured a win running their Tecmo Bowl offense.
I agree that field position was a problem, but that one 4th down call alone wasn't the cause. On our next possession we had a 30-yard completion to near midfield, but then fumbled on the next play. Then we fumbled again, and then threw the pick. That was four punt opportunities we missed altogether.
Now you sound like Ferentz.
/s
Did you watch Ohio State play Penn State? Same call, same field position, same result. As soon as I saw the offense come back on the field, I said to my wife ... game over. It was a monumentally stupid call.
on the 4th down call but the UM defense never really stopped OSU from moving the ball. They did a good job of getting OSU out of the endzone but OSU moved the ball fairly easy between the 20's. I don't really think there's much evidence to suggest that if UM punted OSU wouldn't have gotten a FG.
Why go for it, up the middle no less, with a lot of time left (8-ish minutes) when you have a great punter? Pin them and ask your defense to stop them in order to shorten our own field!
I couldn't believe this call. It made no sense. NO SENSE! You can say we only ended up allowing 3 points, but that same defensive stand following a punt gets us the ball back at the 50 after they punt.
It was at this time that I really lost faith in our coach's decision making.
Hoops don't fail me now!
They got off the hooked because of Borges play calling, and Hokes choice to go for it on fourth.
The coaching staff lost this game, Borges is the main problem IMO.
- The "drive" to close out the 1st half was two runs, one a TD thanks to 2 OSU guys sandwiching DRob and keeping him on his feet. Questionable play calling and clock management.
- The 4th down run of Denard up the middle...after a time out this was the best they came up with?
- The play before 3rd and 3 dive right with Rawls
- Early 4th qtr run the option with Denard pitching to Smith. Denard is not an option QB. Go back and look at this play, they ran it about 4 times all year and it did not work. What happened to getting Gardner outside on the bootleg. He scored how many TD's the last 3 games on this play? at least 3.
- Taking Gardner out tells the OSU defense its a run, no threat of pass - 11 guys to the football. Speilman was all over this!
- 6mins left 2nd and 2, Denard up the middle - no gain
- next play 3rd and 1 Vinson Smith up the middle no gain. We have not been able to run up the middle all year out of the I. The QB sneak was there as no one over the center. Borges needs to give Devin the option to look for this.
- late 4th Q 1st down Smith run up the middle no gain.
- They took Denard out of the game the last 2 series completely went 4 wide and threw on every down, you lose one whole element the Def needs to be aware of with Denard out. Again Speilman all over this, advantage defense.
- Borges got conservative and more stupid as the 2nd half unfolded.
- Brady finally puts a headset on with 2 mins left in game, he needs to be aware of the offensive play calls sooner and halt the absurdity.
There needs to be accountability here from Hoke/Borge.
Not to mention losing momentum at the end of the half w/ a squib kick and letting Miller loose to put them in position for a FG to cut it to 1.
I do agree that Borges cost us a game that was otherwise falling into our laps. If Denard can't throw, he can't play QB. Ohio had no reason to respect the pass when Shoelace was out there. Hoke needs to get more involved with the offense, and shouldn't be affraid to over-rule the OC for some play call and personel decisions.
This is the big problem I had. Getting Denard the ball is fine, but why did he need to be in at QB? Why telegraph to the defense before the snap that it's a run?
I'm afraid that that late TD before halftime convinced the staff that Denard at QB was a viable option even if he couldn't throw. That play may have succeeded in part because of the situation (1:00 to go in the first half) - Ohio may not have expected us to run there.
* Hoke points to self *
Let's see, you defer to the 2nd half so you can eschew field position by Not punting, wasting a timeout and struggling to reach midfield for the remainder of the game. Sheesh.
Borges, Borges, Borges
I am speechless, LOL
Sometimes there is no justice in this world!
I think your analysis was spot on. Although I may be consoling myself I have to think that number one we were not playing for the Big Ten championship game. Number two we made of been playing for a possible BCS bowl game but by no way was this an assured thing. The bottom line is yes Borges had a terrible playcalling in the second half. And yes I was screaming for him to get fired at the end of the game in my living room. However on second thought people have bad games it happens. But the offensive line has not been blocking well at all this year. You can really see a difference between David Molk and Mealer this year. There's a reason that Fitz got 1000 yards last year and wrap roughly a third of that this year. It's frustrating but life will go on and we will still be in the decent bowl game because we have a great Fanbase
It wasn't just this game.
Don't forget that we scored no touchdowns against ND, MSU, and NU. Borges destroyed our season.
The O- line couldn't block power between the tackles all season and Vincent Smith is not a big back or shifty enough to shoot the gaps. Al got spooked on the Devin plus Denard backfield after the play where Denard demonstrated he can't block and Devin got sacked. The two of them weren't on the field at the same time after that. Over thought things and just didn't stick with what the offense has done well all season. With Denard unable to pass, everyone knew what was coming. Add in 4 turnovers and some OSU drives in the first half and it adds up to a loss.
We need a stud running back. We need some run blocking to give the backs a chance. A fast receiver that can create separation on their own would be good, too. The talent will make the play calling work a lot better. So, Santa, please bring us Green, Treadwell, and early maturity for our redshirt freshman that will be staring on the O-line next year.
I don't buy that. We had the players to win today and the coaches blew it. Simple. People have won with less than we've had. Shit Cal and Purdue came closer to beating OSU than we did.
So the kids are paying their hearts out and the coaches are screwing it up? (I miss John L Smith)
Problems with Michigan's offense include:
1. Al Borges
2. Russell Bellomy
3. Al Borges
biggest problem in this game, run-wise as it was all year. The failure of Borges to realize that in the second half was our demise.
I was pretty disppointed in the DL. It seemed like they were blown back 2-3 yards on every play, even if there was no hole.
After Floyd got burned early we dropped the safeties back and were at a disadvantage numbers wise, thats why all those runs went right up the gut.
to drop the safeties into coverage. Rolling the safeties up was needed to cover for the DL not being good up. Rolling them back was needed to cover for Floyd.
Ohio State played 9 men in the box when Denard was under center. Try blocking a good D with nine men in the box ... when they know you're not going to pass.
You are correct that the o-line is the biggest problem. I think people don't understand how it translates to play calling though. Ohio runs a 4-3 and our interior line cannot single block both of their DT's, this means we need to doulbe atlease one of them.
That is huge win for them, they have now "changed the math". Ideally on offense you want to block each defender with one guy, because you are already at a numerical disadvantage due to the fact that your ball carrier cannot block and unless you run the single wing or an option scheme your quarterback does not block (it is considered a block by the quarterback if someone accounts for him on an option play in which he gives or pitches it) So assuming single blocks in a pro style offense you have nine guys accounting for eleven. Now you add in a double and it is eight vs eleven (This is why teams often run bootlegs to keep a couple of guys honest so you don't need to block them) Now if we have to doulbe both of the DT's it becomes a bigger problem. Add in a missed block and oh boy it gets ugly.
Their lack of respect for our interior run game, combined with their talent on the line means they can play the inside run game with the two DT's and the MLB. They can now widen out their ends and OLB's to control the outside run game. Add in the safeties because of the lack of a deep passing created by the pressure or who is playing QB and you have a recipe for a really bad offense. They now have three guys committed to the outside on each side, plus a MLB who is going to look for the cutbacks. Now you cannot run the ball at all, but if you just give up on it they will simply pin their ears back. This also makes the middle look pretty open, which it is, if you have the guys to do it. We do not have those guys. I would guess this was part of the adjustment that they made at halftime and the only thing Al could do was attack the middle, which is like hunting a bear with a BB gun.
The Borges lizard brain came out in the second half.
not turnovers. Michigan had 4 turnovers, but OSU had two, plus an array of stupid penalties that gifted Michigan numerous first downs.
Borges should not escape criticism. He was the primary reason Michigan lost. Denard was the only good runner we had. Devin was the only good passer we had. Why weren't they both on the field at the same time the entire game? The entire offense should have been Devin under center with Denard somewhere else on the field as a threat to get the ball. Once OSU figured out Denard couldn't throw, they teed off on the run, which should have ended Denard being at QB for the rest of the game since it was just a wasted down. Yet, Borges persisted and killed off a bunch of drives with stupid playcalling. And was he the only one who didn't know that Michigan couldn't open a lane up the middle? Why all the dives in the A gap? WTF?
BTW, Devin didn't take off and run nearly as much as he should have. Does Borges beat it into the heads of his QBs to never run? Devin could have picked up a bunch of first downs if he just tucked it and ran, yet he didn't. He did it the last three games, but not today. Why?
There was only one opportunity for Devin to take off he didn't take that I remember. Which was the 1st and 20. I think down and distance got in his head and he was pressing after the awful half for the offense so he made a bad decision.
from what I saw OSU did a great job of keeping someone in the middle of the field to spy Gardner. Boren's sack looked like he was just sitting there waiting to see what Devin was going to do and they decided to attack instead of just sit back - maybe a delayed blitz but it was a long delay.
I think that was a called blitz. You don't normally send a spy upfield.
Exactly. Borges fucked this game for some reason. So frustrating
Borges should be under investigation ... he can't be that stupid.
I will say that the Michigan defence kept Michigan in the game during the second half, but the number of turnovers for Michigan kept the defence on the field way too long.
The offensive line blocking had too many breakdowns, which allowed OSU to pressure the QB during pass attempts, stuff the run or create turnovers. Whether that is a breakdown of Michigan players or OSU outplaying them, I would leave for Brians review. We will see if the freshman next year can help correct the situation.
Some people may doubt the criticism of Al Borges, but his play calling seems inconsistent in big games. Denard Robinson was used sparingly and in situations that seemed to telegraph the play. There was nothing unexpected about the plays when Denard was on the field, and denard did create a TD by shrugging off simultaneous tackle attempts from either side, displaying sheer guts.
Devinn Gardner was the better passer, but he alot to learning about creating opportunities, when he is under pressure or out of the pocket. The other problem was the lack of an effective running attack other than Robinson.
Furthermore, the special teams, especially punt return team, allowed OSU to put Michigan in poor field position.
I feel sorry for this senior members of the team, because they started their careers under Rich Rodriguez for two years with consistently mediocre defense performance. Under Brady Hoke last year, they help created one of the most memorable seasons in my memory. This year seem anticlimatic, with performances against Alabama, Notre Dame, Nebraska, and OSU that were tragic in outcome. I hope they can enjoy a victory in their bowl game to reward their persistance.
