I learned some things yesterday... Michigan St (and Indy)

I wasn't actually overly impressed with MSU on defense.  They were definitely the best D we have seen, but M was able to move the ball pretty easily and even our RBs were able to get good yardage.  I really felt that our problems yesterday were all execution issues: two red zone INTs and an overthrow that led to 3 instead of 7.  If we come away with 10 points instead of those picks and the seven instead of three, this is a completely different game.

This game actually seemed like the Indiana game, just with some poorer execution on the M side (and a different type of O for the opponent).  The defense played about as well as I expected and MSU played pretty much right to what all the numbers said they would.  Too many big plays given up and M just blew too many possessions in the red zone.

MSU is definitely the best defense we have faced, and I think they are clearly the second best team in the B10.  Given that, I think we did a great job and I am actually encouraged going forward.  I am on board thinking 8-4 is the worst we could do.

GO BLUE!

As sobering as this loss is I keep reminding myself that I would have given anything for an 8-4 season at the beginning of the year. Patience is a virtue...tough to achieve with Dilithium at the helm though.

(IMO), the defense is not going to get better over the 2nd half of the season.  GERG did show some signs of intelligence by bringing 4-5 players instead of the usual 3.  However, the abysmal tackling requires fundamentals that can't be taught overnight.  Ezeh will not suddenly be able to read holes and I assume there's no decent replacement for him.

On offense, we can get better.

• Shaw and Fitz are banged up.  If they are healthy, teams will have to respect the RB-handoff on the zone read.
• Denard only has 6 games of starting experience.  As with all QBs, he'll rapidly improve with more reps.  Those balls that were 6" behind the WR will turn into 6" in front of the WR.
• Based on this season's UFRs, this was not a typical day for our WRs.  I think they had a total of 2-3 flat-out drops on the season before yesterday and equaled that number against MSU.

So, I think we should expect more shoot-outs...except unlike yesterday, we'll actually score consistently.

Purdue showing once again yesterday that anything is possible in the Big Ten.  I love this team and their effort.  Better execution in finishing plays and we'll be fine. 

The offense can do way better than yesterday, MSU's overall soundness aside.

Cullen Christian was burned on a double move by a senior receiver in man coverage (w/o safety help) in his first targeted pass of his career.  I don't think the jury is out on him quite yet.

Our offense is still young and missing the Steve Slaton. Dee Hart will be here next year. Our young secondary is gaining experience and should be able to man up next season.

I wouldn't bury CC yet - it was a good move by a good WR, but that happens.  Young guys can learn.

As for the MSU defense, I really didn't see them do anything that UM wasn't prepared for, only that UM failed to take advantage of the obvious MSU mistakes.  There were 4-5 plays early on that were mere shoestring tackles away from big games, and while part of the credit should go to MSU, some of those were just mistakes by UM.  MSU was selling out on the run, and if a couple of those passes had been caught they would have gone for huge gains.  For all of the mistakes, the team was still in the game into the 4th quarter.  MSU's defense definitely deserves some credit, but UM's offense did itself no favors either.

I agree with Kovacs moving to LB.  Sure he's small, but he seemingly can tackle on running plays, and I rather have a big RB drag him a couple of yards than just run by Obi for another TD.  Sure, it would be great for David Harris to rejoin the team this year, but barring that flaunting of the NCAA rules, I rather have playmakers at MLB than a guy who clearly just cannot be better.  Nothing against Obi, but there was a reason he was rated as a RB and not a LB.

On the Cullen play he was actually at least 10 yards off the line of scrimmage. As someone has already noted he had no Safety help either. Imho, this type of setup prior to the snap is asking for trouble. This has been a consistent approach with our DB's this year. 

Question: Can we not bump the receiver at the line of scrimmage? Why give the receiver a running start and a 10 yard cushion? 

I'm very disappointed because we were moving the ball and in big games you simply cannot lose the turnover battle by 3.  I still feel like we moved the ball well, but Denard showed some inexperience by forcing some balls and didn't look completely confident yet.  That one he threw up in the 4th quarter that was just a prayer was really bad.  You cannot be that irresponsible with the football, even though that one didn't turn out to get intercepted.

I think defenses will continue to make Denard beat them with the pass and never give him the option to run on the read option.  He has the talent to do it, but just has to play better period.  We could have made this a good game.  With 10 minutes to go we had the ball.  That was a huge INT there.  

So Sparty beat us and that's all you can say.  I'm sick thinking about that, but it is what it is.  I'm already looking forward to Iowa to see how we bounce back.  That will say a lot.  We left a lot of points out there agian, so I'm hopeful we can get to 9 wins which I Never thought before the season.  I expected 6 and hoped for 7...so keep you heads up boys and let's get through this week and see what happens.  Go Blue.

I like your points, but I disagree with you about this not being their worst performance. I think this is by far the worst performance that the offense has had so far. Not only with Denard making poor throws and bad decisions in the run game, but with receivers dropping passes and missing blocks. This was a very frustrating game to watch because you could see that they had so many opportunities to score and dominate, but just couldnt take advantage of them. The good thing is that these are all correctible mistakes and this will be a great learning experience for this week against Iowa.

many of the teams we face can be winable games.  I really believe the Def. can improve overall but not as it is presently constituted.  We will need to be minus one particular indiviual who shall remain nameless.  Anyway Offensive Coordinators are licking their chops and texting their OG to be ready when we play Michigans LB. I do disagree that a certain LB " can make thumping tackles" He can't make thumping tackles with his back to the play or when he runs four yards from the play.

Kovacks continues to amaze physically overmatched he's a coaches dream dissects the play and shows up but again physically overmatched. 

Overall the Def. showed some improvment, but were not aggressive enough.  But as I stated in another thread.  This def. still lacks a certain aggression too tentative too soft as a unit.  There are players that will hit you, Mouton, Cam Gordon. Martin.  Then there are those that catch you when they tackle if they tackle.  By comparison I do watch a lot of SEC Football college in general.  Those guys play fast with real aggression and they come with bad intentions.  Fly to the ball carrier and play through the man.

Going forward the real saving grace is that these guys are young and seem really coachable with a few exceptions.  what's with the 5 star D-lineman and the other LBs that can't seem to get off the bench until junk time or spot play?  I hope it's youth and maturity not ability.  The Def back field will get better.  The Offense is okay the Xs and Os are okay c;iche time youth will be served.   no rant the ramble is over and out

In the case of CC... that we always have to move incoming corners to Safety or Linebacker?

Has anyone here ever seen us win a game where we gave up three interceptions/turnovers and the other team had none?  I have been wathching UM football for about 50 years and cannot recall a sinlge one.  We are allowing teams to score on about half their posessions so we cannot afford to give three away any where on the field especially when it cost us points in the red zone.  The two interceptions in the end zone were clearly the difference in this game. 

Denard has learned to be patient on runs and he will learn to be patient when passing and occasionally throw the ball away rather than to try force passes into double coverage.  This team is as exciting as any I have ever seen at UM in 50 yearas and I cannot wait to see the next couple years unfold with this offense and an improved defense.  Go Blue!

MSU was very good at running a lot of misdirection plays that fooled our defense often and when it didn't we were sure to not use our arms to wrap up and make the tackle.

See the Mich drive for a TD starting at 11:28

The opportunities lost were

• First endzone INT (7 points)
• Overthrow of Stonum (4 pts, kicked FG on that drive)
• Botched FG snap at end of half (????)
• Short-hopped throw to wide open Odoms prior to end zone INT (first down at MSU 3)

1. Cam Gordon would be downright funny to watch, if I weren't emotionally invested in his performance. Continuously putting himself out of play; it's like watching a kid playing soccer on the playground, just rushing straight toward the ball. Hopefully he learns quickly but I think this might be a maturity issue and won't be resolved this season.

2. We got a preview of what OSU's passing efficiency will be like against us via their drubbing of Indiana. Offense will really have to put up some numbers to keep us in that one.

3. Red zone efficiency -- it seems like Dantonio's plan was to let us get into the red zone and then come up with fairly easy stops. Their defense was good enough to knock Denard out of his comfort zone anywhere on the field, and with a shrunk field to cover they rendered our offense ineffective.

Problem is, the mistakes aren't necessarily flukes. Hopefully our skill players learn quickly, but I see us losing a lot of battles in the trenches from here on out so mistakes will continue to come up. I'm thinking 8 wins is still likely (just gotta beat Illinois, Purdue, and Penn State) but none of those wins mean would mean much. Beating good teams is what matters.

I think these six plays made the difference in the game. Two throws behind a receiver that was open. Two plays where the gap wasn't filled allowing 102 yards on the ground. One awful field goal attempt. One bad decision to punt late. Denard had the open man, for him not a difficult throw and just missed it, that will happen and he will just get better. I still would rather have our QB crew than anyone in the Big 10 and so would they. Two missed reads by a young defense that otherwise held a good running team in check. Take those two away and we held them under 4 ypc, if you told me before the game we would do that I don't think I would have believed you. We are improving and will be decent by the OSU game. With all the young players getting time we will see a big jump next year, similar to the offense this year. Coach made a bad call with the punt, he admitted that which I think is something most coaches would not do. He is a young man and I only hope he is still learning every year. A man who knows it all is a man who has only one direction to go ,down,. We still have not seen his best because he has not seen his best, onward and upward. Finally to our kicking game, I just don't know, why don't we have kickers year after year we have seemed to consider this aspect of the game as an afterthought. I know we have had some good kickers but it was never a priority, I always felt like we just got lucky once in awhile and got a good one. All in all for a loss I feel better about our defense coming out of this game than going in.

  "They have DBs that can run with our receivers "

Really?  I guess if they have developed cloaking technology then maybe that's why the receivers couldn't catch the ball yesterday.  They weren't drops they were just well defended by cloaked db's otherwise our receivers ran open all day... or did they?

Sparty certainly played a great game. They always prepare for Michigan during the off-season and spend a bit of time each week getting ready for the ONE BIG GAME on their schedule. I hate to tip my hat to them, but tip my hat I will. Sparty has had a history of over-looking the team AFTER the Michigan week. Illinois has a better stable of running backs and a solid defense, which pressures the QB. They played well and lost to Missouri and OSU. As much as MSU says they won't overlook the Illini, I see a letdown next week.

In Ann Arbor, I don't know if this team REALLY IS not a repeat of the 2009 team. Sure, the players say this is a different season. I can only hope that the leaders can learn from the loss, watch film today, then flush it down and go into the Iowa game as if we are still unbeaten. I do have faith in Calvin McGee that he will fix what broke last week and have Denard and team ready for Iowa to try the same kind of gameplan. As for GERG, well???

Mike Martin is fine.  He was dancing at Ricks last night.