Defenseive quick UFR, man was I wrong
I totally trashed the D. This was the best game since Western. In fact the D was not bad at all. This loss is on the coaches, the right side of the line, dropped passes and bad reads in the first half.
rewatching the game.....from a Michigan D and Spartan O standpoint....
First MSU Drive - Michigans D dominated, 2 runs stuff and then on third and long pressure forced INT, Michigans linebackers filled nicely and it was no blizting,
MSU Second Drive for long TD - Man MSU's o-line is getting beat on but Cousins, wow is he good. Dantonio must be a relative of Nichol. Cousins made this whole drive, seriously. I think on dedicated run plays they got about 15 yards of the total 130 with penalties. Cousins reminds me a lot of Chad Henne.
MSU third drive from 11 - forced fumbled MSU recovered luckily, Kovacs now in, they pick on walk on right away, Cousins gets the greatest spot in history, another sack, 3 man rush and MSU has all day great throw by cousins, first of that new run from winston gets 7, another forced fumble MSU gets on. Good defense other then one stinking long pass by Cousins.
MSU fourth drive - midfield start, great reverse call where Kovacs sucks inside and then is to slow to recover, good call to pick on walk on player but late hit still first down, great move by White on pitch and catch stuff (Michigan finally adjusted to this screen after this), another great throw by Cousins into the zone after two nada plays, he is the real deal, Michigan bones up and forces field goal. Half
MSU fifth drive - midfield start, another Cousins scramble on third and long after getting stuffed trying to run at Michigan, Michigan pressure forces INT in red zone.
MSU sixth drive - MSU takes over on the Michigan 12 yard line (great field position for the last 3 drives), good run up the middle for 7, then 2 then graham blew up winston to make a great sudden change D forcing a field goal.
MSU 7th drive - at 30, great pass by nichol to pick on walk on Kovacs, another great play to tight end by Nichol, this is MSU's best looking drive in 2 quarters, winston scores on the jailbreak toss (: MSU's second best drive, maybe the best with the balance.
MSU 8th drive - start at midfield, holding call, graham forces fumble, great D
MSU 9th drive - start 25, three and out, great D
MSU 10th drive - start 25, Cousins does that monster scramble thats been hashed out everywhere, they go for it on fourth and dont get it, great D for one dang play.
MSU 11 - start 32, pass on first good call for 7, stuffed the next two plays
Seriously, any MSU fan saying they dominated does not know how to watch a game. Credit goes to MSU for a solid scheme to start and man Cousins is friggen a nice player, he won the game for MSU on those scrambles. If thats the physical beat down that has been talked about I laugh.
In fact, laugh all you will but that was a step forward for the Michigan D. Offense up next.
October 5th, 2009 at 4:33 AM ^
good post... Cousins impressed me with his decision making, no so much with his arm but it is pretty good...maybe he is a weaker armed Chad Henne that can run a lot better....anyway, a lot of this loss was on a_coaching b_youth c_dumb mistakes like dropped passes and fumble etc.
Michigan beat Michigan in this game... State played hard and as well as they could...but they are not that good...
However, getting back to defense...the ILBs stink. Mouton continues to be a joke...and we wonder whether it has to do with a) lack of effort / preparation or b) inability to translate athletic ability to the football field...
Ezeh continues to be average....
The bottom line with the Defense: It will not be Good until it gets STRONG up the middle. ILBs and Safety play is critical and MUST improve or we will see the same shit we'be been seeing since about 1997.
October 5th, 2009 at 7:39 AM ^
This post will probably fly here with more level headed posters. On other boards, you'd be pasted. The boo-birds and the scapegoaters are out en force.
The defense gave up 20 points in the first 60 minutes. Any way you slice that--unless the Sparties had 52 minutes TOP--and we should have been good enough for three td's to beat them.
October 5th, 2009 at 7:58 AM ^
Nice post. It did seem to that the defense played better than the raw yardage showed. I too noticed that extremely generous spot for Cousins, and it did seem like there were more stops than it first appeared while watching the game. That said, you referenced a number of "MSU picked on the walk-on", which normally would be okay except this walk-on is going to be either a starter or see frequent field time for the rest of the season. Given some depth, I think this defense will improve. But right now, the weak links are being exposed even if the defense is finding a way to keep UM in the game.
October 5th, 2009 at 11:11 AM ^
namely outside contain, and some huge holes in the zone on defense early in passing situations, but I agree they played much better than they did against Emu, EMU and probably, Indiana (which on a down to down basis was not a horrible defensive showing - mostly the big plays killed in that game).
That being said, the linebacking is scary. Kovacs led the team in tackles which is never a good sign for the linebackers.
Keeping the spartans to 20 pts given the field position should have won the game.
October 5th, 2009 at 11:33 AM ^
When I say Henne, I mean just the way he seemed to know where to throw the ball, the touch and poise he played with, he is obviously a better athlete.
Picking on Kovacs was good coaching on their part, Kovacs did ok and remember he is a freshmen who has not played football in two years, I have no problem with him, his effort is great.
October 5th, 2009 at 12:36 PM ^
If you had told me that the Michigan defense would hold Sparty to 20 points in regulation before Saturday, I would've been jubilant because I would be certain we'd have won by 2 TDs. The defense has shown a maddening inability to get off the field this season, but they keep teams out of the end zone. This is probably as good as we can hope for given the personnel we're dealing with. This loss really lies in the laps of the offense which looked sloppy and mistake-prone for the second week in a row. Lets hope Molk's recovery time is closer to the 4 weeks rather than the 6.