Does a Winning Out Make Jim Harbaugh’s Third Season an Improvement?

Submitted by OaklandInPlay on
Alright, we’ve all seen the tie-breaker scenarios and it’s unlikely that we’re going to Indy. However, if we win out and OSU beats sparty, we would win a share of the Big Ten East. Would this season be an improvement over years 1 and 2?
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PapabearBlue

November 5th, 2017 at 12:39 PM ^

Remember when the SEC was going this and they all still sat at pretty high rankings because "its a tough division and they are just beating each other up". The espn headline today was basically B1G losing to B1G proves B1G sucks.

Joined: 07/19/2011

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Cali's Goin' Blue

November 5th, 2017 at 5:10 PM ^

1st off: Obvious statement is obvious. 

Secondly, and this is actually not in response to you romment but multiple before yours, I don't see how this is "Obvious" one way or another. I think it is a legitimate question. Last year we had 2 losses in regular season play (by 6? total points) and dominated a team that made it to the Rose Bowl, versus this year we have already lost two games by significantly more than last year and one of them was at home. If you are basing it strictly on talent/experience, than this year's team is outperforming last years team, which had 11 players drafted. But just strictly in terms of performance, if we win out then Harbaugh has not achieved any more than last year, and on top of that, the offense has looked pretty damn bad this year(excluding the running game the last two games). 

 

Idk, I thought it was a reasonable question. The answer is probably yes, especially if you factor in the youth and turnover of this year's squad compared to last year's, but last year's team was also a dissapointment at the end considering all the talent that fit the coachign staff. 

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SeattleWolverine

November 5th, 2017 at 1:49 PM ^

The fact that OSU and MSU both lost convincingly at home to Notre Dame and Oklahoma lends a lot of credence to the position that the top B1G teams lag the other top programs this year. And then PSU in turn lost to both of those teams, while we lost at home to MSU and were not competitive with PSU. 

 

And honestly, when the SEC West has won 6 of the last 10 national championships between 3 different programs in the division, with Florida having another so 7 of 10 for the SEC, they've earned the fawning from the media. It's annoying, but pretty well earned. 

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SouthOfHeaven

November 5th, 2017 at 7:52 PM ^

To be fair, scoring zero points in the playoffs for two straight years doesn't really help the B1G's case. 

 

Perhaps instead of continuing to screw Michigan over, they should simply send their best? Having the officials hand our rivals their games against us then sending them off to slaughter haasn't worked out so well. 

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FrankMurphy

November 5th, 2017 at 12:56 PM ^

Why do you assume that the QB decision was "fumbled"? Is it possible that maybe, just maybe, Peters wasn't ready at the outset? Maybe, just maybe, Peters is a mideason late bloomer and got the nod when the coaches deemed him ready, not solely because O'Korn was ineffective? Given Harbaugh's track record with developing QBs (and given how little we threw the ball yesterday, indicating that Peters still has a ways to go), I'm more inclined to give Harbaugh the benefit of the doubt on the timing of settling on Peters as the starter. 

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1VaBlue1

November 5th, 2017 at 1:49 PM ^

WTF???  Do you people not pay any attention to what Harbaugh says?  Last week, after Rutgers, Harbaugh answered the question with finality by saying "...he wasn't ready until a couple of weeks ago..."

At the time, 'a couple of weeks ago' was the Indiana game.  No reason to put him into that game, and do you play him at PSU for any reason aside from injury?  No.  It's fucking stupid to keep questioning this.

HARBAUGH HIMSELF SAID PETERS WASN"T READY UNTIL SOMEWHERE AROUND THE INDIANA GAME!

If you're going to comment, pay attention to the program, for crissakes.

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wolverine1987

November 5th, 2017 at 2:10 PM ^

First, you have no idea what practice looked like therefore no one can comment on who was better in practice. Second, did you watch last night's game? Clearly, the training wheels were bolted to Peters and he got no opportunities to throw down the field. Why do you think that was so? Because in addition to the running game, they don't trust him yet. They don't trust him because they see him every day. End of debate.

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Squash34

November 5th, 2017 at 4:16 PM ^

I'm with you on the first part. I see the second differently, though. They called a few deep shots verse Rutgers. He missed DJP and checked down to poggi after the defense dropped to take away the deep ball. It is hard to tell if they called deep routes on the sacks, but I don't think you can look at this game and say " they did not try a deep shot so they don't trust him yet". It was simply never needed. They had 3 rushish td over 50, 2 of which was over 65, and they had another 47 yarder that did not score. Add in the fact that Minny was trying to shorten the game as well by running and you really don't have much of a reason to throw much. Especially after Ruiz have up that crushing sack. I think they don't fully trust him with all of the play book yet. But don't think they avoiding deep shots.

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MGoBender

November 5th, 2017 at 3:27 PM ^

Meh.  It's possible Harbaugh was wrong... that was the point of Brian's article about all the coaches that were "wrong" about guys that ended up tearing it up once they got in.  It's not an indictment on Harbaugh. Sometimes weird things turn out to be the case and all the practice evidence turns out to be crappy data.  Unfortunately, you end up making decisions on what turns out to be crappy data, which might be the only data you have.

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teldar

November 5th, 2017 at 3:56 PM ^

 I just don't agree with it.

Harbaugh has said repeatedly that Peters was not commanding enough in the huddle to get where Harbaugh wanted him to be, the vocal leader of the offense. I am not saying he did not have command of enough of the offense, which is pretty obvious if you watch the games. It was a no-win situation to put Peters in there when he was about ready. I'm not really sure he's ready now. But he's still probably better than O Korn.

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Squash34

November 5th, 2017 at 4:05 PM ^

The guy is a redshirt freshman, him not being ready to handle a harbaugh offense before midseason does not even qualify as being a late bloomer. It actually means he is ahead of schedule in my eyes. I mean, Andrew Luck is an extremely talented QB when healthy and is know for being extremely intelligent with a very high football iq. Yet, he had to red shirt his freshman year despite being physical better than what Stanford had his true freshman year. It simply takes time for young guys to get a complex offense down. The problem is we see so many redshirt and true freshman looking pretty good for other teams that run a much more simplistic Offense that usually has the QB surrounded by older wr, RB and lineman, and think others like Jackson are doing it at VT, or Fromm is doing it at Georgia, or Hurts at bama and think Peter's should be able to do that here in week one or 3 or 5. It is almost impossible to ask a redshirt to command an offense full of young guys trying to learn on the go and making many young guy type mistakes.

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mgobleu

November 5th, 2017 at 1:00 PM ^

I don't think you can say the qb decision was fumbled. Peters played well against Rutgers, but he didn't exactly light it up last night. And it's not as if the situation wasn't a little bit nuanced. There were a lot of good reasons to give JOK the nod until it became clear he wasn't going to get it done.

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jdemille9

November 5th, 2017 at 2:00 PM ^

QB decision was fumbled?! Ever consider the fact that Peters was just not ready until midway through the year? Not everyone can be Chad Henne, Jake Fromm or Jalen Hurts and come in start day 1. 

Just because Peters has looked good, so far, doesn't mean he was this good in the fall. Harbaugh has played this position in both college and the pros, pretty sure he knows far more than you and he clearly felt Peters wasn't ready to go until he played him. When can we stop with this ridiculous narrative?

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blueblueblue

November 5th, 2017 at 12:28 PM ^

Undoubtedly given the youth and injuries. Yet it doesn't mean that Harbaugh should not make some coaching personnel changes in the offseason. The season would be an improvement, but the level of improvement could be greater. 

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