I hate Captain Obvious too

Submitted by wile_e8 on

EDSBS has posted a fine rebuttal to the question every Captain Obvious has asked: "You know, Denard Robinson is gonna get hurt, and then where will Michigan be?"

The question applies so universally that it has no specific value. Plug it in with any player: "What if Terrelle Pryor gets hurt?" (Answer: "They'll play the next incarnation of Todd Boeckman behind him.")  "What if John Brantley gets hurt, and then where will Florida be?" (Answer: "We'll just give up on the pass game entirely and bypass those frustrating drops on four yard hitches called on 3rd and 5," that's what we'll do.) "What if Jordan Jefferson gets hurt?" Well, LSU will probably play Jarrett Lee, and then really spectacular things start happening.

Yes, Michigan might be in trouble if Denard goes down.  Just like every other team would be in trouble if they lost their best player.

Jeff

September 29th, 2010 at 3:23 PM ^

If Devin gets hurt then Jack Kennedy leads us to a national championship!  I've always been arguing that we should fire RichRod because he won't play our clear #1 QB.

With the bloodlines of a Kennedy how could he be anything but the best?  Plus he's a physics major, so he knows the proper trajectory of a deep ball.

Space Coyote

September 29th, 2010 at 4:26 PM ^

What if Grady got hurt?  We don't have that kind of depth at QB!  Then we'd have to move Gallon back to his back to his original position and then what?!  Move Odoms back inside to Slot!  We don't have that kind of depth at slot!  We don't have that kind of depth at WR!  When will you people learn...

CRex

September 29th, 2010 at 3:12 PM ^

Considering the improvements in WR play I'd imagine Tate could function as a very effective player.  Assuming the run game could get consistent and our RBs kick out a 120 or yards a game, coupled with an effective passing attack and our offense would hum along nicely.  

We'd lose the explosiveness Denard brings and I'd imagine we'd become death by a thousand cuts (quick passes, running plays, Tate scrambles in the 6-10 yard range as opposed to 40 yard runs) but I don't think we'd have to panic.  

Or we bring in Devin and that gliding evasion he has, coupled with that deep ball and focus on big plays via deep routes.

Zone Left

September 29th, 2010 at 3:24 PM ^

Be honest, there would be some panic.  I modded the BGSU game, and there was plenty 'o panic. 

Forcier would be fine, but the offense would instantly drop from world beater to somewhere around 4th in the Big 10.  Combine that with the looming possibility of disaster on defense and there'd be plenty of understandable hand wringing.

Jeff

September 29th, 2010 at 3:27 PM ^

I hope he does.  On the Friday night before the Notre Dame game I was talking to a Notre Dame fan.  He said he thought the defense's strategy should be to hit Denard as hard as possible in order to injure him and knock him out of the game.  I told the Notre Dame fan that I thought it would be a much better strategy for Michigan since Notre Dame's backups are terrible while I was pretty confident in Michigan's backups.

We all know how it turned out but I haven't gone back and rubbed my sage prediction in his face yet.

Erik_in_Dayton

September 29th, 2010 at 3:26 PM ^

Forcier is a hell of a lot more ready for prime time than Montana or that freshman kid. 

As to the original post, I would happily take a wager in which Michigan plays OSU with both starting quarterbacks out.  The drop-off from Robinson to Forcier is nowhere near as big as the drop-off from Pryor to Bauserman (though Bauserman is not a stiff). 

griesecheeks

September 29th, 2010 at 3:31 PM ^

Yeah, it's kind of a silly thing to consider. it could happen to anybody. the answer for oregon when Dixon went down was "fail". For us, this year, it would mean a tailback or 2 would really have to step up, but we'd be fine. If Denard remains completely healthy the rest of the year, I could see him leading us to 10 wins, singlehandedly. If he gets injured, I would be confident in the Tate/Devin combo to win more games than we lose. We definitely lose the instant-impact side of Denard, but we potentially replace it with clock-eating, steady drives with Tate at the helm.

joegeo

September 29th, 2010 at 4:27 PM ^

Half of the point of a person making this comment is that DRob is the linchpin of the offense.  The rebuttal rebuts that part of their point, as it makes clear that the qb is the linchpin of a great many offenses.

However, the other part of the point of a person making that  comment is that Robinson takes more hits and so an injury to him is a more likely scenario than an injury to qbs with less of a workload.

This may actually be the truth, but here's how one would have to analyze it.  How many hits do other qbs take in a game.  Statistically, what are the odds of a football player being injured in a contact situation.  From those two statistics, one should be able to obtain the likelyhood of any given qb getting injured during a season and compare.

Pocket qbs take hits as well; RR claims that in a lot of ways, they're more dangerous hits (blindside, defenseless). 

My gut tells me that DRob is no more likely to get injured, but is more likely to get hurt or dinged.  My differentiation being that an injury keeps you out for a week or more, a ding keeps you out for a drive or two.

wlvrine

September 29th, 2010 at 11:25 PM ^

if Brian went down with carpal tunnel?   Would MgoBlog fall apart at the seams?  I don't think so.  Magnus would take control of this blog so fast it would make your head spin.