Zero Point Zero
Notre Dame 31, Michigan 0
Michigan had never been shut out in the history of the Michigan/Notre Dame rivalry. Michigan hadn’t been shut out in any game since Ronald Reagan’s first term. Neither of those things is true right now. In fact, nothing is true but the alcohol.
Football is strange sometimes. Michigan outgained Notre Dame 289-282. If you find comfort in this fact, I applaud your zen-like quality, or the quality of your alcohol. Devin Gardner turned the ball over four times. Matt Wile missed two field goals badly. Devin Funchess may be hurt. Raymon Taylor may be hurt. Jabrill Peppers was too hurt to play. On a day in which the Big Ten looked terrible, Michigan’s performance stands atop the flaming heap as the worst of the day.
This game will cause many questions to be asked. For now, I can provide you with only one answer.
September 6th, 2014 at 11:49 PM ^
That all of the same people who were guaranteing 20+ point victories are calling for firings post-shitstorm. I think it's been clear for at least 2 years that Hoke has to go, but we continue to be blinded by random wins. Time to get someone who gives a fuck about winning and puts on a fucking headset, This Busch league no headset bullshit is out of control. Our "head coach" needs to know what the fuck is going on out there and clearly he doesn't have a clue.
September 7th, 2014 at 12:43 AM ^
"Don't fall in love with the last second prom date"
Brady Hoke did not get the job at Michigan because he was the most qualified possible coach available that season. He got the job because Dave Brandon is a dumbass and fired Rich Rodriguez at a point in the year where there weren't many available coaches to choose from, so he ended up with Hoke, who at least desperately wanted the job and knew the school well.
Tennessee had a similar situation with Derek Dooley after Lane Kiffin bolted. Florida had the same issue after Spurrier left and it resulted in them hiring Ron Zook. None of those guys were awful hires at the time, because you get whatever you can get when you have to do a coaching hire after musical chairs has stopped.
Brady Hoke had a chance to prove that despite his pedigree he could make things work. Instead he has litany of road debacles and one horseshoe season with some other guy's players. Michigan can do better than this.
September 7th, 2014 at 4:30 AM ^
I was thinking that the issues were not being able to pressure the QB, cover the receivers, run block, pass block, pick up blitzes, check into plays that beat the blitzes, turning the ball over. All this time it's been the head coach not wearing a head set.
September 7th, 2014 at 8:47 AM ^
Thank you for the morning chuckle and little bit of levity mgoblue98... I needed that this morning!
September 6th, 2014 at 11:50 PM ^
31-0 is horrible. In 1984 michigan had Chris Zurbrugg as the starting qb losing to Iowa 0-26 in Iowa City.
Btw Virginia Tech just scored 35, Ohio 21.
September 6th, 2014 at 11:54 PM ^
This team had it's starting QB. This is much worse. This is in Year Four after a season in which UM had two similiar performances. This is part of a pattern.
Brady Hoke has to go. He has proven that he is incapable of taking Michigan to where it rightfully belongs--among the elite of college football.
September 6th, 2014 at 11:51 PM ^
September 6th, 2014 at 11:51 PM ^
atleast Ohio lost too. Sooo... the big ten's failure is complete.
September 6th, 2014 at 11:53 PM ^
September 6th, 2014 at 11:58 PM ^
September 6th, 2014 at 11:53 PM ^
September 6th, 2014 at 11:53 PM ^
Even Rice scored points on ND
September 6th, 2014 at 11:55 PM ^
September 6th, 2014 at 11:53 PM ^
September 6th, 2014 at 11:54 PM ^
September 6th, 2014 at 11:57 PM ^
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September 7th, 2014 at 12:00 AM ^
September 6th, 2014 at 11:54 PM ^
He will be head coach, will bring in a bunch of young asshole stud assistants from his time in Alabama, and we'll be fine.
September 6th, 2014 at 11:56 PM ^
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September 7th, 2014 at 1:05 AM ^
September 7th, 2014 at 2:11 AM ^
I dunno, maybe be a great OC at Washington and Alabama en route to being widely recognized as one of the best OCs in CFB?
September 7th, 2014 at 8:57 AM ^
He would have to be able to mold the team in his own image, not some ficticious version of manball that is going to save the program! There is a track record there, but I am now of the opinion that the track record needs to be Championships. Urban has credibility because he has done it somewhere else and he was good everywhere he has been.
We'll see! I honestly get no sense that the program is willing to make a change.
September 7th, 2014 at 9:55 AM ^
September 6th, 2014 at 11:55 PM ^
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September 7th, 2014 at 1:04 AM ^
Statistics lie. Except the one that says 31 - 0.
September 6th, 2014 at 11:58 PM ^
I have a very clear idea of what one would look like, for the record.
Last game.
I have no idea if this level of venting is acceptable here. But damn I be mad.
September 6th, 2014 at 11:59 PM ^
September 6th, 2014 at 11:59 PM ^
I saw this tweet from Sam Webb:
funchess ran off the field without assistance. #SmallConsolation
— Sam Webb (@SamWebb77) September 7, 2014
September 7th, 2014 at 12:01 AM ^
I had to stop watching after the third quarter.
I was watching with my father and the first thing he said when I went in after the game was over was that Funchess was taken off in a stretcher.
My father might not like me all that much.
Funchess running off is a huge consolation.
September 7th, 2014 at 12:14 AM ^
Peppers left last week's game without assistance.
September 7th, 2014 at 3:01 AM ^
Per Michigan Daily Sports Editor Max Cohen, Frank Clark's hand is wrapped up, Ray Taylor and Funchess are limping in boots.
September 7th, 2014 at 12:00 AM ^
Someone posted in a different thread that in the las 10 games, UM is 3-7 with the 3 wins being against IU, Northwestern and App St.
September 7th, 2014 at 12:39 AM ^
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September 7th, 2014 at 1:15 AM ^
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September 7th, 2014 at 2:08 AM ^
September 7th, 2014 at 12:00 AM ^
September 7th, 2014 at 12:00 AM ^
Michigan was able to move the ball. In as much as the running game sucked, ND's was even worse. Despite two completely different sets of rules for Michigan's corners vs. ND's, the defense played well down the stretch. Hold ND to under 300 yards; eh, I'll take it. The last 10 points weren't on them.
Of course, the two big black eyes (aside from the injuries because eff injuries) were Devin Gardner's play and turnovers, basically the same thing. The last INT was a desperation pass and IIRC another was tipped, but overall we got the out-of-control heroball Gardner tonight, and that ain't good.
My point in all this is that tonight doesn't strike me as a harbringer of doom for the season so much as a really sloppy game + what happened to MSU last season. Basically, the early PIs took UM's press coverage out of the game (though it's A-okay if ND bumps Darboh off his route in the end zone). Mind you sloppy's not good either, but if Gardner is maddeningly inconsistent, the upside to inconsistent is that he's never consistently bad. Unfortunately his PTSD from last season was an issue playing App. State wasn't going to reveal, and that pretty much was everything, but it's not like ND was running wild; FFS they punted more times than Michigan! This is more an object lesson in protecting the damn football. Unfortunately that's Gardner's biggest weakness and it seems he still doesn't quite understand, so it's just something we're gonna have to wait out.
Make no mistake, this does expose Michigan; the team still has a long way to go. But for what it's worth, in as much as that was EXTREMELY frustrating to watch, it struck me more as the mother of all outliers than fundamental flaws in the this year's system. Big plays drastically swung the outcome in a game where all of them went ND's way, Gardner may be broken but he's gone after this year, and ND's in serious danger of a letdown because I don't think they're as good as this victory will make them feel.
September 7th, 2014 at 12:25 AM ^
I noticed the PI by the ND defender on Darboh, provided you are referring to the play in the last half of the fourth quarter. I also thought that the throw was too far outside and a bit behind him. Despite the PI, I think a better throw might have given Darboh a chance at catching it or possibly drawn a flag.
Did Michigan stop pressing after the PI's?
September 7th, 2014 at 7:25 AM ^
The PI prevented Darboh from tracking the ball. Yeah it was behind him but Darboh couldn't make any adjustments because he kept getting bumped. If the DB played it like a jump ball (you know, legally) I liked Darboh's chances; as it is he basically just trotted into the end zone.
TV has a "follow the ball" mentality that makes plays in space difficult to view, but from what I could tell, Michigan's DBs kept playing man coverage. However, they played off a bit like they got burned by the early PIs. ND's receiver play didn't impress me all that much; it looked more like the DBs were reluctantly giving them a cushion which was all Golson needed to throw his strikes. On the flip side, ND's DBs were absolutely fearless, to the point that that asshole saw fit to level Gardner on the last play (as if a 31-0 beating followed by a pick-six wasn't enough). At that point he probably thought he would get away with it.
I don't often like to blame the refs for something, but in this case it looks like they didn't make a few key calls down the stretch as establish two different sets of rules. ND mauled Funchess like crazy and didn't get a single PI call all night (some of that was their little fists of futility against a 230-pound receiver but cumong, man). On a night when Gardner was throwing knuckleballs, the difference in coverage was key.
September 7th, 2014 at 11:29 AM ^
Maybe the throw to Darboh was a back shoulder throw that he couldn't adjust to because of the obvious PI? I don't know.
Given what little I saw, it did look like Michigan was still mostly man but with a cushion as you noted.
September 7th, 2014 at 12:28 AM ^
Well said. Thanks for that perspective. I appreciate it.
September 7th, 2014 at 12:33 AM ^
September 7th, 2014 at 2:10 AM ^
für Scheiße
September 7th, 2014 at 1:03 AM ^
Amongst screams of "FIRE" in th theater (or stadium).
This game felt odd to me- very little rhythm, went by quickly, and it just didn't seem like we got out-played by the magnitude of the score. Outplayed, yes, but not by 31/38 points.
Hopefully it's an outier for the season and not a harbinger of things to come.
The officiating stunk and was characteristically skewed toward ND, especially on PI and that AWFUL OOB reception that replay called good.
September 7th, 2014 at 1:25 AM ^
Not the same one I was.
This is a game where the statistics say absolutely NOTHING about what happened during the game. I could care less how many yards Michigan gained, or gave up to ND . . . I know that every damn time the defense needed to make a play they didn't. And every time the offense needed to make a play--any play--they didn't. The outcome of this game was never in doubt.
Kudos to ND for playing a smart game, but please don't try to sugar-coat this debacle by pointing to statistics that flatter Michigan. They stunk up the joint on every level.
September 7th, 2014 at 7:53 AM ^
The stats had no bearing on the final score, no. And 31-0 is always embarrassing. The two years Michigan blew out ND 38-0, ND went on to lose most of their games. But this one feels different. It just felt like a really, really bad game, not a bad team getting annihilated. The difference in the outcome is nil, but I'm trying to get a feel for the rest of the season here. I think it's worse than we thought after App. State, OK. But "we got dominated by a crappy team missing a bunch of starters" doesn't sound merely like an overreaction; it sounds downright inaccurate.
Michigan's game went about as well as grenade in a septic tank. Michigan's drives just wouldn't sustain. The PI calls forced the DBs to soften their coverage (and led to ND's first TD). Wile missed two FGs. Gardner had a horrible night topped off by heroball down the stretch. Basically anything that could've gone wrong, did. It felt like one of those games in Tecmo Super Bowl where the AI just decides you've won too many games so it's going to read your every play, make every key pass and if you get into FG range it's time for a turnover because LOLOL. That's what made it so damn exasperating.
What I didn't see was fundamental helplessness except for perhaps Gardner falling back to old habits. Michigan got 18 first downs. Smith averaged 4.3ypc (though FFS someone please tell me why Green got more carries; he was running into traffic all night). Notre Dame averaged 1.7ypc. Michigan clearly didn't play well enough to win, but here's the kicker -- as bad as the score was, Michigan didn't even feel like the inferior team. It's not like the plays fundamentally didn't work, or that the defense couldn't slow down ND. Except for Gardner and Wile I really didn't think they played horribly overall and ND didn't look all that impressive.
That was a really crappy game, but don't fire the chef just yet because the sploded septic tank turned everything to shit.
September 7th, 2014 at 9:07 AM ^
September 7th, 2014 at 11:02 AM ^
There were worse games because the team flat-out stunk instead of got some sort of curse. This one was just really, REALLY frustrating because the team wasn't playing terribly but getting terrible results. Without that I feel the score should be more like 21-13 (even with the PI nonsense) with a last-gasp chance to tie since much of the second half debacle could be chalked up to Gardner repeatedly gambling and losing.
People are indeed reacting to the score, and I myself kept wondering, "Why the hell is the score so lopsided?" Neither side was making huge positive plays. I think the longest play of the game went for less than 30 yards. ND only had one good sustained drive, if that, where they got the best of the defense without help.
I really don't think the O-line was that bad; just inconsistent and it swung the worst way. It wasn't TD/3-and-out/TD/3-and-out; it seemed almost every drive Michigan did something but couldn't get any momentum going. ND's line wasn't great either; their run game was non-existent. It feels like we didn't get much pressure but the first priority with a mobile QB is containment and I feel the defense did that pretty well overall.
September 7th, 2014 at 9:09 AM ^
I am surprised at the total lack of playmakers that Michigan has on both sides of the ball. That is about recruiting as well. As bad as RR teams were, the guy new how to find talent at the skill positions. I am not sure outside of Peppers and Funchess we have much.
Understand this is not an excuse because the recruiting is on this staff too! You either bring in studs or you develop them. Darboh and Chesson seemed totally non-existent to me! Smith and Green were OK, not really game changers in any way!
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