Al Borges is a very fine fellow, and called a great game.

I have been as critical of Borges as anyone on this blog (maybe not outwardly because I try not to bag on our team too much) but I actually came away pretty impressed with the way the game was called. I thought he could have maybe got Denard in a little more and involved in a couple of more ways, but I really thought he did a fine job.

I am going to be honest here and likely feel the wrath of the board because of it. There was a part of me that prior to the game would have traded a loss in the outback bowl for Borges being let go so we could get a bright new offensive mind. I look back at that notion now and realise how stupid it is and can admit I made a mistake. We lost, but honestly, for the first time in a long time I felt like that loss could easily be placed at the feet of the defense, because our offense played pretty damn good. 

Al, I know you don't read this blog but I apologize for my doubting you and admit many of my opinions of your abilities were proved wrong during this game. Please keep up the good work. 

no michigan lost because south carolina was the better team

You trollin', you hatin'. 

In fact, he called a pretty mediocre one, which, combined with Gardner's horrible play and Mattison's overaggresiveness, cost Michigan the game.

So if our offensive coaching was bad, our defensive coaching was bad, and our QB "horrible," how on Earth were we leading a game against a top 10 team with 17 seconds remaining?

Sometimes you can do your best and just get beat. I think today was one of those days.

The Great Oz has spoken!

Move along nothing to see here, just you're standard GofY displaying his grossly overinflated expectations for Michigan football. Everything sucks, the players are all small, slow, and poorly coached.

You must be a real joy to live/work around.

isn't a horrible outing/poorly called offensive game.

But for the big plays

    * 56 yd TD Shaw to Byrd
    * 63 yd TD punt return
    * 70 yd TD-setup Thompson to Jones
    * Not blocking Clowney on his fumble force
    * 31 yd TD Shaw to Sanders
    * 32 yd TD Thompson to Ellington

we played them very well.

That was not an "all out blitz" and you don't know what you're talking about. 

Yea I don't like exposing our secondary on that last play, but we had two chances to sack them on 3rd down on that last drive and tackled poorly. We get either one of those and the game is potentially over.

I agree.  I was saying, "Don't blitz, don't blitz" over and over before that play.  Just give them 10 yards over their last few plays and take your chances with their shitty kicker.  Kovacs had the worst game of his career today, and I can't think of any other game that was even close to this bad.  Getting burned for the go ahead touchdown is a disappointing end to a great career (not to mention giving up other long completions all day).  The secondary as a whole was a big liability, just as expected.  The blitz was a very bad call in that situation.  

Disagree. Would you rather rush three and let them pick up some easy yards to vastly increase the odds of a FG. I think a strategy of "gee hope they miss a FG" is not a good way to win a game. The game was decided earlier on the drive with missed tackles and a short completion on 4th down.

He sent one LB and ripped a DE. You men there was no reason that Kovacs should have let his man run by him in route to the EZ? Not to mention Wilson late in getting over.

Yea this loss doesn't hurt much. We lost countess against bama and didn't have Floyd. They only won because they constantly threw deep. There is a very good reason this was the only game michigan gave up over 200 yards passing all year.
Highlights I got excited about. Michigan stringing back to back 3 and outs and almost getting a third. Borges getting 75 percent efficiency on 4th down. Wow. Blocked field goal. Feels so good.
Hoke and co. Still don't have their guys in place yet and that changes next year. Our oline was average except for lewan today but that changes because our top ranked oline class that came in 2012 all redshirted which is huge. Our secondary should be better with our current guys getting more experience, countess coming back, and demonte potentially filling a roll in the secondary his first year. Devin should be better next year and we get a stud 5 star that hopefully red shirts but gives us more depth back ther just in case. IMO our biggest hole remaining is running back. How about two stud rbs next year in green and deveon smith? Oh yes please.
Sure there are some aspects like wr and on the d line (I think) that are losing depth but overall next year our team will have more talent and depth as a whole.
Next year starts the true hoke era and he has still managed to beat Ohio, win a bcs bowl game, stay undefeated at home, shut up sparty, manage a 19-7 record, deal with depth and attrition issues, and did it all with rich rods guys. So yea...this loss doesn't hurt much at all my friend :)

How did you want him to use Denard?  He can't throw, can't pass protect and hasn't shown any ability to catch.  We got him like 20 touches anyway.

He used Denard brilliantly. How else would you have used him?

He put together a couple of packages where Denard lined up at the runningback position, from scratch, during the middle of the season, and it was highly effective against a great defense.