Diversions?/Observations!

Submitted by thereverend on

I'm a little curious about the starting RB situation. If Rawls was the starter, why did Smith get (seemingly) 80% of the carries? Was it a diversion for the Alabama D's prep work? (BTW, I hold Smith in high regard; he is tough!)

Also, it was a little surprising that Roundtree was targeted very little. I spit a mouthful of water out unintentionally after the DG TD; my wife said, "Well at least that play finally worked!" Oh, it sure did!

I feel that Michigan played a strong game against an excellent team that will dominate its conference (and division this time?). They did not give up; they nearly outplayed Bama in the second half & they scored more points than LSU did!

OL/DL strength; guess which team walked away with the pair of sacks!

All in all, It's Still Great to Be a Michigan Wolverine!

switch26

September 2nd, 2012 at 12:09 AM ^

Devin actually beat the Bama DB's several times...  His problem was he turns the wrong way constantly when a ball is thrown at him and Denard still can't throw that accurately to wide open guys.  Other than a couple nice throws he struggled.  But most of that was cause Bama is disgusting..

 

Norfleet should be in our starting RB rotation..  sorry, but this kid is gonna be the truth in years to come.  He's an upgraded version of V. Smith.  Much faster, can juke.  Probably take one to the house this season i feel.

 

Other than that Taylor lewan is back at his old tricks of ruining drives with penalties..

 

Hope countess isn't hurt too long.  Good thing we have a few games where we prob dont need him coming up

MGoBlueNEO

September 2nd, 2012 at 12:15 AM ^

I would old off on the "old tricks" thoughts. He had a couple of penalties but at least one was a weak call. He is our best oline man and highly rated for a reason. He had a great season last year and we are on game in this year.

Otherwise I agree with many of your thoughts.

 

pkatz

September 2nd, 2012 at 12:15 AM ^

the wrong game, my friend, or perhaps you have a less than firm grasp on reality...



The Michigan game I watched tonight was a blow-out in which we had very few redeeming qualities. I believe we'll improve throughout the year, but you need to take off your maize-colored glasses.

Lumpers

September 2nd, 2012 at 12:22 AM ^

what the hell were you watching?

A total domination by a better team and a better coaching staff.  To watch Borges try and turn Shoelace into Tom Brady was a disgrace.  What was the ONE THING THAT BAMA WAS WORRIED ABOUT?  Denard's legs, and Borges did nothing, nothing to use this to his advantage...no spread option...multiple handoffs to arguably the slowest RB in the stable....at least Norfleet showed he has some wheels and i would have liked to see him carry the ball.  I guess they were worried about fumbling, so giving Smith the ball over 10 times to gain a yard or two was an acceptable compromise.

Here's the rub...we want to avoid the tomato can games, but it sure looks like it would have done team 133 some good to play easier competition in game 1.

So be it, they lost, they learn and hopefully have that cliche'd improvement from game 1 to game 2. Of course the competition next week doesn't hurt. But its the triple option, so some additional frustration will happen next week.

The topper is that injuries happen, but they are less likely to happen against inferior competition in earlier season games since most of your ones don't play the whole game.  Just unlucky for Countess and Moore to get hurt, but playing Lewan with 4 mins left in the game when its 41-14 is plain stupid. The back ups should have been in and there is no one that can reasonably argue this fact.

I find it a bit ironic that Arizona is losing to Toledo right now...could Rich Rod lose to Toledo twice in his inaugural seasons at a new program at home?

I guess the saving grace of today is that the B10 looks abosolutely awful (save OSU) and there's a lot of football to be played.  Let's hope Countess and Lewan are available for most of the conference schedule.

Go Blue! Those Who Stay Will Be Champions!

turtleboy

September 2nd, 2012 at 12:56 AM ^

They got off to a much better start than we did. Countess got injured and they jumped on that, Denards first passes were against NFL talent and they jumped on that. Wipe the shaky first quarter away and look at how we settled in to the game and we performed well. Held them to a few 3 and outs and 50+yard fg attempts. 20-14 for the last 3 quarters. They blew right by us at the beginning, though. 

BlueinLansing

September 2nd, 2012 at 1:40 AM ^

Alabama plays an entirely less perfect game in all facets and scrapes by someone like Ole Miss or Vanderbilt I'll probably be a little pissed.

 

Rawls--clearly the most overhyped RB since Grady.  Fitz is all we have

 

D-line--rateing anyone against that Oline is just unfair, I saw some good things but how would you know with 5 future NFL starters clobbering your guys all night.

 

Oline--I thought  did ok, Bama had to blitz to create pressure most of the time, the run blocking was probably better than it looked since we had no backs that were capable of getting to the hole like Fitz.

 

Roe--????????  Demens--?????????

 

Borges--overrated play caller, 3,000 yard career rushing QB runs the ball twice in the first half and despite last years Iowa game and the lessons learned after he still has Denard under center on 2nd and long.  That's just dumb or stubborn.  IN his defense, he's limited by an offense that had no RB today, and hardly any receiving threat.  But still man, Denard under center ='s death

 

Tackling--was terrible, I don't know how anyone could observe differently but the whole team did at least play with a  physical  edge, they were just outmanned pretty much everywhere.

 

Receivers--who knows what we have, Denard can't get them the ball often enough in stride.

 

Denard--just didn't look improved throwing the ball at all, and I saw little evidence he can read a defense yet.

 

The upside--  No team on the remaining schedule including a bowl opponent is even close to Alabama in talent and coaching.

 

 

WingsNWolverines

September 2nd, 2012 at 2:32 AM ^

Saban has his guys playing at a whole different level and sadly our guys weren't ready to handle their offense or defense. We were dominated in the trenches, Denards passing game was off by a mile and to make matters worse our defense reminded me of 2010 and there is work that needs to be done. Why wasn't Denard using his legs?! Borges should have had several plays where he should of ran but didn't. His throwing still worries me and its obvious without Toussaint we have no running game to take the pressure off of Denard. Im hoping Lewan is ok. We have some work to do before Air Force but I see us winning that game in a blow out. Alabama is beyond B10 level right now and they deserve to be ranked in the top 3. Learn from this loss. Move forward and make improvements. Still a long way to go! GO BLUE.

tzwolverine

September 2nd, 2012 at 10:18 AM ^

It appears that this year we will struggle with teams that are power running teams with big backs. Our D Line does not look capable of dominating and our back 7 seem intent on trying to arm tackle. If we don't improve dramatically we will be in trouble against the good B10 teams again. From what I saw last night 5 in row against the hated Sparty's is a real possibility