This is awful
October 24th, 2009 at 6:01 PM ^
I think Brandon Graham is the only one trying today, and damn he's having a hell of a game!
The rest of the guys? Not really worth watching, but somehow I can't look away. Anyone else feel that way?
October 24th, 2009 at 6:54 PM ^
Right, they're not trying. Because they work 40 hours a week (legally!) over the entire summer for something they don't care about & don't try at. Get over yourself.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:01 PM ^
At least in 2008 we had one good half. I know Tate's a fresh and everything else, but I thought we'd be a little bit more competitive at home a least.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:03 PM ^
2008 anybody????????????
October 24th, 2009 at 6:03 PM ^
Just sad. Not even competitive. And anytime they start looking competitive they turn the ball over. Frustrating as hell...
October 24th, 2009 at 6:05 PM ^
Learning not to trip over ourselves. We got guys dropping passes, fumbling the ball etc...If we're gonna mount a come back, it starts now, and it starts by making big plays, not messing up easy ones.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:05 PM ^
This is worse than awful. WR never open, dropping passes. Tate scrambling too much, getting sacked. D sucks.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:05 PM ^
The team that Rodriguez left behind--the one that all the Michigan dorks keep saying is "declining" and going nowhere under Bill Stewart?
6-1 with no Pat White.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:59 PM ^
Is there an ignore function on this board, because my life would be exponentially better if I never had to hear this guy's opinion again.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:08 PM ^
If I see another dropped ball I'm going to vomit. More vodka, please.
How about we hear the story of our All-American punter again...
October 24th, 2009 at 6:12 PM ^
Our punter is getting way too much action. Other than
Graham, did these guys practice this week?
October 24th, 2009 at 6:13 PM ^
We will be lucky finishing the season 7-5. This is pathetic. And Ezeh?? And Stevie? You gotta be kidding me. And it's not about doom and gloom, we just can't control a game unless it's against a shitty team. After 8 games I am now convinced that 7-5 is the best we can hope for.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:20 PM ^
How are we this flat? We had 2 weeks to get ready for this.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:21 PM ^
This is the first richrod game where I have actually been pissed off. This is AWFUL.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:23 PM ^
how can a white boy walk on frosh safety be starting!!! i dont get it...we dont have no one else to put in!? where is brandon smith!?
October 24th, 2009 at 6:28 PM ^
I'm counting on them to leave all this garbage on today's field when this one ends, pull it together (wouldn't want to practice with them this week), and go kick Illini ass next week.
My wife left the room at the height of my disgust but has since returned. I'll take it as a sign that its time to move on.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:33 PM ^
It's no disgrace to "lay an egg" against PSU. They were the preseason pick by many to win the Big Ten. For me, of everyone on UM's schedule, losing like this to PSU is the easiest to stomach if they are going to have a game like this. According to the crew working the game two weeks ago, 70 percent of this team is freshmen and sophomores; maybe we need to give them another year or two before jumping off of bridges or bandwagons.
If they play this badly against OSU, I might need another TV set by the time the game is over, but I'm not going to waste a lot of energy grieving this game. A loss is a loss, whether it is by one point or fifty. This is somewhere in between. I can handle it. If UM had won, it would have been considered an upset, so the fact that they lost isn't that much of a surprise.
If they take care of business against Illinois and Purdue, and spring one upset, hopefully over OSU, that will give them eight wins and a bowl opponent who can possibly be win number nine.
THAT IS NOT REMOTELY LIKE 2008!
October 24th, 2009 at 6:35 PM ^
I wouldn't care if we lost by 50 to PSU if we had not layed an egg. Having an okay team play this bad is worse than a bad team playing okay.
October 24th, 2009 at 7:02 PM ^
Best post of the day. We all got our hopes up after the ND win, but this is what we expected pre-season. This is just year two of RichRod's reign, and WAY better than '08.
October 24th, 2009 at 7:32 PM ^
While there is naturally going to be some overreaction to today's loss, there are true causes for concern. For example, this is Tate's third consecutive poor performance. Robinson is not ready, though with more playing time I think he can possibly be better. The middle of the defense was totally exposed. A blueprint has been established for beating the defense, which is go down the middle of the field. That's going to be a problem the rest of the year. There may not be many more victories on the horizon, I'm afraid, if the QB play continues to deteriorate and backups do not play much better than the current starters in the middle of the defense who surely must be replaced.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:34 PM ^
If DRob could hold onto the ball and not toss INTs, he would stay in. Tate is still bothered by something, not sure if it is worsened by the weather.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:42 PM ^
Millen actually had the best, most complete analysis of this game so far:
"No matter what else is said, Penn St's defensive front has just whipped Michigan's offensive line"
October 24th, 2009 at 7:31 PM ^
He also mentioned pad level, that almost brought a tear to my and CoachBT's eye.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:45 PM ^
Fitting end on that desperate interception.
Did anybody else just see Meadow Soprano's old boyfriend Finn Ditroglio in a Wendy's commercial?
October 24th, 2009 at 6:53 PM ^
Face it, we are merely an average team. We can defeat tomato cans, but, we are not remotely close to beating good or great teams.
There's no point analyzing this to death. PSU is a LOT better than Michigan.
October 24th, 2009 at 7:01 PM ^
We are not good enough to beat teams when we lay an egg like today, but I do think we can beat them. PSU is better, but we don't really know how much simply bc we repeatedly shot ourselves in the foot.
Now if we play like this and lose to Ill next week...
October 24th, 2009 at 9:47 PM ^
This team beat ND, and played Iowa and MSU well enough on the road. Today was just not their day. Play this game in warm weather/without rain and it probably would have gone differently. Yes yes, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts [...] but laying one juge (and when I say juge I mean JUGE) egg is only one, juge egg.
And PSU is not "a lot better." They just clicked today, and Michigan did not. Simple as that.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:49 PM ^
that was the most disgusting piece of shit game ive ever seen...
other than the first drive, there was absolutely nothing good about that game...
tate hasnt played a good game since notre dame besides one drive in indiana and one drive against msu... that was absolutely embarassing
October 24th, 2009 at 6:51 PM ^
At the start of the year the general consensus was that we'd probably be a 7-5 team, win one or two we shouldn't, drop one or two we shouldn't and be overmatched against against PSU and OSU.
Yeah it sucks to lose one this badly, but we're right about where most people thought we would be.
October 24th, 2009 at 7:25 PM ^
True, but this game was a huge step back. Turnovers, dropped passes, guys running into each other. We have a right to be upset. That was embarrassing. We are good enough to compete with Penn State in the big house. We almost took out Iowa at Kinnick.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:52 PM ^
rememeber when we used to beat penn state and goto rose bowls? oh wait lloyd carr left the cupboard bare that's why I went to 3 rose bowls in 4 years
October 24th, 2009 at 7:08 PM ^
neg bang the truth mofos
October 24th, 2009 at 7:27 PM ^
We lost all three of those Rose Bowls. And then we lost to App State at home. Let's not re-write history here.
October 24th, 2009 at 7:33 PM ^
we lost to USC which has beaten everyyy team in the big ten since 1933 in the rose bowl and we lost to teaxas and vince young who won the natl champipnship. we also were #2 at osu during this stretch. goddddd we were bad.
October 24th, 2009 at 7:48 PM ^
I personally am not happy with just making it to the Rose Bowl and getting blown out. If those are your standards for a Michigan football team, cool. I would like to BE the team that blows everyone else out. I want to compete for the National Championship. That was not happening under Carr. The game passed him by, just like the game is passing Tressel by.
Again, let's not re-write history. We lost to App State. Got DESTROYED by Oregon. Both at home. It was time.
October 24th, 2009 at 9:44 PM ^
You mean blown out, in playing USC closer than anyone in two of those Rose Bowls, except for Texas who was National Champs who, oh, we lost by an extended finger on a last second FG the year before?
Yeah, I think everyone would like to be the team that blows everyone out. But do you think 8-11 is getting us closer? Right now we're the team that's getting BLOWN OUT. We're YEARS away from being that team. Not happening in 2010. Don't see how a defense is going to magically appear by 2011 either. Were we closer to a national championship in 2006, or now?
One thing L.B. didn't mention that we used to do...beat Penn State. 9 straight times over 11 years. Now it'll be 2014 before Rich Rod can have a winning record against PSU (being optimistic).
I love how history is getting rewritten when we DID go to Rose Bowls, but we were "DESTROYED" by Oregon...after our 4 year starting QB got injured and went out or the rest of the game (which was close at that point). We were looking at a shootout, but we were going to score. But everyone seems to excuse injuries (how can we possibly stay close without our CENTER?!?!?) and freshman QBs (Mallett wasn't getting ANY reps as a true backup, not a starter), but all our previous losses were inexcusable.
You give App State, I raise you Toledo...a team that would have lost by 4 touchdowns to App State. And in any regard, I'd rather be the team that gets upset by one bad team, but goes on to have a good season, rather than the bad team that upsets one good team, and loses to everyone else.
Would we all like to be Florida, USC, or the current flavor (Nebraska, FSU, Miami all before them)? Of course we would. But what makes you think we're going in that direction?
People have to stop worrying about what past coaches did, who is saying what, and start worrying about winning on the football field. Stop cursing an era where 8-4 was settling, rather than praising one where that's a high point goal.
Edit: And how was Oregon any worse than today?? All the people who say everyone was settling for being good every year seem to be settling for a lot now and willing to move on after every loss like it doesn't matter.
October 25th, 2009 at 1:40 PM ^
Why was the Oregon loss worse than today? Are you serious? The 2007 team was ranked #5 pre-season. We had Henne, Hart, Manningham and Long, all future NFL-ers. We were stacked. It was arguably one of the most talented teams in the history of the program.
2006 and 2007 was the best Lloyd Carr could do. We had all the talent in the world, and we couldn't even win the Big Ten. Yeah, we beat PSU and MSU all the time. So wooooo, bragging rights. Again, I would like to set my goals higher than that.
Now I like Lloyd. I was there in 97 when we won it all. But I really believe it was time for a change. If Carr was still around, we would have Mallett and maybe go, what, 9-3? Probably lose to Tressel again, and another random heartbreaker? Go to a Florida bowl and maybe beat the third best SEC team? I will take 2-3 rebuilding years and a shot at national prominence over that. Again, that's just me. Some people liked where we were in the 2000s and that's fine.
October 25th, 2009 at 6:07 PM ^
Yes, two of the big name players you mention that were not healthy for the game. But that had no factor, I'm sure. And "2006 is all Lloyd could do?!?!" Are you serious? We lost to OSU barely, down at their place....how long do you think it's going to be before we can do that? We can't beat MSU at their place, no more OSU.
You didn't seem to want to read the post, so I'll say it again- what makes you think that in "2-3 rebuilding years" we will have a shot at "national prominence"? Whatever that means...like there was anything in college football more prominent in 2006...I guess you mean winning national championships... So what makes you think our program is more on line to win multiple championships, since that's seems what you crave. Because, there really aren't that many coaches who have won more than one...or even one.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:55 PM ^
PSU is clearly better than Michigan but not 25 points better. The frustrating thing for me today and in the other 2 losses is the inability to get offensive momentum. Dropped balls and QB's running for their lives on 1st and 2nd downs are the big problem. First drive, we go right down and score because we got big chunks on first down. After that, it was awful. This offense is not built to play in long yardage situations and the 3 good defenses we have faced have exposed that.
35 points may have a lot of people questioning the defense, but it was the offense who lost this game for Michigan. "3 and outs" and the usual 3+ turnovers put the defense in sudden change too often and din't give them a fighting chance.
Have our TE's caught a wide-open pass in the past month (outside of Delaware State)?
I hope this motivates the team and doesn't bring them down for Illinois. GO Blue! Let's get back on track next week.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:56 PM ^
Please explain to me why some of you are still thinking we might beat Ohio this year? It kills me to say this, but after what I've seen today, I cannot imagine us winning anymore games.
I hope I'm wrong...
Go Blue, Beat Illinois!!
October 24th, 2009 at 7:05 PM ^
Probably because we won't drop as many balls we catch and be -3 in turnovers every game. Let's not go jumping off of cliffs bc they played a bad game against a good team.
October 24th, 2009 at 7:09 PM ^
I think we'd have a pretty good shot against the Bobcats. :)
October 24th, 2009 at 7:03 PM ^
If Tate was not hurt today, his inaccurate throws signify that he is not the answer at QB. We will have to turn elsewhere. His throws were off stride and inaccurate. His reads were even worse. There were some catchable balls out there but a lot of bad throws and reads. Tate's inability to run up the middle was again exposed today, along with his lack of true speed. Defenses have learned to adjust. This is his third consecutive poor performance. If he continues to play poorly, I'm almost thinking Robinson should be thrown out there more just to get playing time. The backs are still good, so why not run the ball 75% of the time now?
October 24th, 2009 at 7:09 PM ^
I think you're jumping the gun a bit, he's still a true freshman on a very young team
October 24th, 2009 at 7:16 PM ^
he had 2 turnovers today.
October 24th, 2009 at 7:08 PM ^
I'm just really not sold on tate... sorry boys... i just feel like for every good thing he does, he makes up with it with 3 bad things... im sick of the run around in circles and get caught from behind bullshit too.. THROW THE BALL AWAY
October 24th, 2009 at 7:13 PM ^
He is a freshmen. Calm down. Everyone knew we were not a great team. I thought we would play better but come on. 70% freshmen and sophmores.
October 24th, 2009 at 10:53 PM ^
Yes, he's much worse than Denard "the turnover machine". I think Denard is one of the most gifted players we have, but the kid turns the ball over like it's going out of style. Perhaps Sheridan is the answer? Tell me, what would your solution be?
October 24th, 2009 at 7:12 PM ^
Moving on to the Big 10 matchup in East Lansing, I'm again astounded by the lack of quality in BTN announcers. "Cousins is the consumate leader and plays like a surgeon". WHAT?
That's it for me. Night boys.
October 24th, 2009 at 7:52 PM ^
For the love of god - we made Daryll fucking Clark look like the second coming of Johnny Unitas today. Absolutely terrible, hideous 2008-esque performance.
I sat through four quarters of shitty weather, and I kept hoping that we'd manage to actually, you know, get a first down. Apparently I waited too long - I was one of about 10 people left in the Big House when this abomination finally ended.
And as much as I blame the defense for giving up all those points, it's the offense that deserves to run extra in practice this week. The O-Line looked awful - so it's possible that the return of Molk mixed things up. After several weeks of Moosman, the line seemed to adjust to their new circumstances, so it could just be that they weren't used to having Molk back at center.
Tate did not look good today. I don't know if this is temporary, or if he just isn't as good as I thought he was, but if it's the latter, then I don't know if he keeps his job once Gardner gets on campus.
The worst part of this game? When we blocked the punt, and then promptly fumbled the ball away in the red zone. It was like I was watching a bad parody of 2008 or something right there.