I want to know, honestly, how this happens.
How? How does our defense almost dominate in the first quarter, shut them out, force three and outs on the first two drives, and then just lay a complete egg in the second quarter, and allow 24 points in the second quarter?
How does our offense drive inside the OSU 30 on the first two drives, inside the ten on the second, and not have any points to show for it? How does this dominant offense have 7 points at halftime while out gaining OSU with 260 yards?
I'd honestly rather we were playing poorly than showing so much promise and just absolutely blowing it. I don't know what to say. I would think conditioning for the defense, because they are strong in the first and weak in the second, strongish in the 3rd and weak in the 4th. But Barwis is awesome, so it makes no sense.
I don't even know what to think about our offense. It's not that we can't move the ball, because jesus we moved the ball better than Ohio State did in the first half, but somehow we get in the red zone and turn into an inept, turnover prone shell of an offense. I don't get it.
I'm not ripping on any individual player, not any individual coach, I just want your opinion on why this happens. Every single game it's the same tired re-run of a game, where it looks promising after the first quarter if our offense gets going, then our offense doesn't get going and the defense falls flat and it's out of reach by the time the offense starts scoring.
Why does this happen?
EDIT: And now our offense, the only good part of our team, is looking like it'll finish the day with seven points. Sheer torture. I'm on the fence, leaning towards one more year for RichRod, but when the only above-average facet of this abysmal team lays an egg and scores seven points in 60 minutes.. This is the first time I've considered the fact that he might actually get fired. I don't want it to happen, but this one's tough to ignore.
November 27th, 2010 at 1:47 PM ^
I think it's because players are really hyped up and focused at the beginning of the game and their intensity wanes over the course of the game.
November 27th, 2010 at 4:09 PM ^
It's because of the Offense, period.
Every loss we've had the Offense disappears. WTF?
This was not a defensive problem, it was the offense.
November 27th, 2010 at 1:47 PM ^
The good news is Auburn and Nevada came back from similar deficits to win
If Mich somehow did the same...
November 27th, 2010 at 1:51 PM ^
The BAD news is that Auburn and Nevada have a combined one loss between them and are actually good.
November 27th, 2010 at 1:47 PM ^
The defense allowed 17 points. Seven came on a kick return.
November 27th, 2010 at 1:48 PM ^
Coaching, field position (LOL 18 YARD PUNT!), depth...
/wrists
November 27th, 2010 at 1:48 PM ^
but I'm really tired of him saying "we just have to execute a little better" every time he is interviewed. Just have the team show it for once. Reminds me of Carr's "both teams played hard" comment.
November 27th, 2010 at 1:49 PM ^
November 27th, 2010 at 1:51 PM ^
his team go out and execute well for once. We haven't seen good execution since the Big Ten games started.
November 27th, 2010 at 1:52 PM ^
There is evidence of poor coaching in every aspect of this team. You Dick Rod apologists fail to admit that a team takes on the personality of it's coach and this undisciplined sporadic team looks just like their coach
November 27th, 2010 at 1:57 PM ^
You're an asshole. Have your opinion, let people know about it, but calling our coach "DickRod"? Go fuck yourself. I'm sure there's a tailgate in East Lansing that would welcome you with open arms.
November 27th, 2010 at 2:12 PM ^
If you use "Dick Rod" in any statement, your argument is automatically invalid.
November 27th, 2010 at 2:26 PM ^
Godwin's Law of Michigan Football.
November 27th, 2010 at 2:57 PM ^
At least it is not as bad as my dad yelling, "Rich Dick" after every bad play. I have to fight the urge to go on a 5-minute rage fueled rant on everything that is wrong with that.
Rich should stay but bring in a new DC that knows the 3-3-5 or let someone run the system they want.
Well, I'm off to explain to my dad the flaws of "give 3/4 of your 50 scholarships to your defense." Go Blue and stay positive.
November 27th, 2010 at 4:16 PM ^
and they have the mental capacity of the 13 yr old.
November 27th, 2010 at 1:55 PM ^
rasheed carr?
November 27th, 2010 at 1:50 PM ^
same as always..drops are killing us. Penalties against us, and penalties not called for us, fumbles. When smith fumbled that I wanted RR to tell him to go to the locker room and not come back. That one hurt and was IMO not a big hit..i looks like some of the players just don't have the drive to be the best.
November 27th, 2010 at 1:50 PM ^
Doesn't help our best receiver has dropped over half the balls thrown to him..
November 27th, 2010 at 2:41 PM ^
I know most people would call Roundtree the best receiver, and he has made the most plays, but he's also had the most opportunities. Personally, I'm not convinced he's more talented than Stonum or Hemingway.
November 27th, 2010 at 3:04 PM ^
To be fair, he gets opportunities because he's good--he gets open often and the QBs trust him. This has been a disasterous game for him, though. His worst that I can remember by far.
November 27th, 2010 at 3:30 PM ^
Reliability no he hasn't been our best receiver, but in terms of big plays etc.. Roundtree has been the guy.
Add in that he has been thrown to a lot and that helps, but still. How do you drop that many passes regardless. They couldn't help denard in any way.
November 27th, 2010 at 3:36 PM ^
It's possible that he has a hand injury or something. Plus a lot of those balls were slightly overthrown and/or contact with the DB prior to the ball getting there.
November 27th, 2010 at 1:50 PM ^
Really did a decent job.
One TD drive came on a long drive. The other 10 points came on short fields. Yeah, they could have totally shut down OSU, but realistically?
The offense gave up a bunch of points on the two drives, and has made every big mistake possible.
November 27th, 2010 at 1:51 PM ^
In regards to our offense I often think we forget Denard is a true soph and so are a lot of our skill position players. Young players make mistakes.
I don't want to trash Denard, but he seems to play favorites at WR. Repeatedly throwing to the same guy. I'm not sure if this is Denard's fault or the game plan is designed to focus on one WR. I'd like to see a halftime adjustment though where Denard gets reminded he can throw to Stonum since Roundtree is having some drops problems.
Also big shout out to the defense. Only gave up 17 in a half. If our offense was scoring my dogs might not be cowering in the basement right now.
November 27th, 2010 at 1:56 PM ^
Players asked to execute plays they can't execute with regularity make mistakes. Younger players are more mistake prone with a larger portion of the playbook than more experienced players.
November 27th, 2010 at 1:51 PM ^
Michigan BLANK Football Hating God.
November 27th, 2010 at 1:52 PM ^
I just don't get it...you know you suck, if I were in his shoes, I would kick for 10 hrs a day to get better. That 18 yard punt was just ridiculous
November 27th, 2010 at 1:55 PM ^
To be fair the guy likely had no idea he was punting until last night or this morning.
November 27th, 2010 at 1:58 PM ^
Seth is a horrible place kicker but I'll give him a pass on the punt. Honestly, how much practice do you think he's had? Very little.
November 27th, 2010 at 2:49 PM ^
But he's still a kicker.
And Forcier - our backup QB - just gave us our best punt of the day.
Just sad and painful that our kicker can't punt better than our backup QB. That should not happen. Yes, punting and placekicking are different, but they're still both kicking.
November 27th, 2010 at 2:52 PM ^
Dude's a walk-on, and the reason he's playing is because the starter fucked up and got suspended.
He's just about the last person who deserves blame for today's ugly display.
November 27th, 2010 at 3:26 PM ^
Yep, agreed, though as McDonough said, Broek was shanking them in warm-ups too. Honestly, the coach that was watching those warm-ups and decided he would be the #1 punter today, that's about as dumb as they come.
November 27th, 2010 at 5:13 PM ^
Options are limited. You've got Broekhuizen, Gibbons, Pauloski, and...uhh...Forcier.
There's a reason you only give one punter a scholarship; they typically don't get hurt, and they're usually not stupid enough to get suspended.
November 27th, 2010 at 2:28 PM ^
Maybe instead of bashing Broekhuizen, you should bash Will Hagerup for fucking up and getting suspended.
November 27th, 2010 at 2:43 PM ^
Yep. Hagerup should be listed as one of the goats in this week's UFR. (If it happens.)
November 27th, 2010 at 1:53 PM ^
Defense does a decent job in the 1st half and the offense brings the suck. But don't worry, UM will get lots of yards and keep their top 5 ranking in yards, points and general awesomeness...and lose by 20.
I'm beating that yards horse good today. I can't let up and I don't know how to stop. YARDZ! YARDZ! OMG LOTS OF THEM!
November 27th, 2010 at 1:53 PM ^
Easily the most frustrating thing right now. It's not that we don't have the talent, it's our poor execution that is KILLING us. We should have a MINIMUM of 21 points right now if not for turnovers, dropped passes, and timely penalties.
I just have to vent right now, so I can't really tell you where the true problem lies, but I'm about to go on a spree and break everything in my path. We should not be playing this poorly. Especially when our Defense is playing their hearts out.
November 27th, 2010 at 1:54 PM ^
The defense is holding their own... offense isn't scoring, turnovers, and special teams are the difference right now. Let's see if we can make some adjustments in the second half for a change!
November 27th, 2010 at 1:54 PM ^
A lot of this, IMO, comes down to lack of experience.
Not finishing drives, fumbles, penalties... This is still a young team. What's killing us is lack of consistently executing, which, in large part comes down to lack of experience.
Just my opinion, please don't crucify.
November 27th, 2010 at 1:58 PM ^
You definately have a point. The bad part is we have been saying that for three years now and I becoming tired of using that as an excuse.
November 27th, 2010 at 1:54 PM ^
combined with poor tackling, inability to get off blocks, lack of defensive talent, 18 yard punt. etc. etc.
November 27th, 2010 at 1:57 PM ^
I'm sad, not mad. But it's the same drops, same bad penalties, same fumbles, Denard somehow not listening to coaches and putting the ball in his outside arm and fumbling. 3 years in a row of horrendous turnover margins. In the biggest game of the year. A game that because of better defense could be competitive, but it's not. I just don't know anymore.
November 27th, 2010 at 3:06 PM ^
The offense is infallible. Check out the FEI, bro.
November 27th, 2010 at 1:58 PM ^
D steps up but O sputters. O steps up but D sputters. No kicking game what so ever. Special Teams wouldn't even qualify for the Special Olympics. With out consistency you have crap. And UM is crap right now. Now other way to state the obvious. Heck, RR might not get fired but he might just leave to escape the UM black hole that exists right now.
November 27th, 2010 at 3:04 PM ^
I see the promise. I see progress. But it never comes together. It just doesn't. My heart fucking bleeds for these kids, they're busting their asses, but it just doesn't swing our way.
We have athletes, we have playmakers, we have all the freaking tools to make it happen. But it isn't happening.
At this point, it wouldn't bother me to see a change.
November 27th, 2010 at 3:08 PM ^
we have the athletes on defense to be honest. An abundance of two (Vinopal) and three star defensive players with "upside" aren't going to cut it.
November 27th, 2010 at 3:12 PM ^
I got negged hardcore a few weeks ago when I said I thought Vinopal wasn't a long term answer. On solid D's he and Kovacs would be great backups.