Improvement between 1st and 2nd Game?
Coaching adage thrown around for a while, but I'm not sure how much merit there is to it.
First question - Do you agree with it? Why or why not?
Second question - What improvement(s) do you expect against ND?
Although a higher caliber opponent, I expect better OL play (I think they played well against WMU).
More than any other group the change to work together against a non Michigan D will help with coordination and timing. Had to be a bit of a challenge for them to adjust to the different styles of the QB's and RB's.
Timing between QB and receivers another possibility
Discuss...
September 6th, 2009 at 8:29 AM ^
I'm hoping for more Tate, fewer penalties.
September 6th, 2009 at 8:43 AM ^
I think they'll come out extremely fired up for ND. Hopefully we can get a good running game going with Minor being healthy (crosses fingers). The secondary is going to be tested next week, because of Floyd, Tate, and Rudolph, not because of Jimmah IME. I liked what I saw from the D yesterday, flying to the ball, wrapping up, and pressuring the QB.
September 6th, 2009 at 8:46 AM ^
Turner to get some PT as the 3rd cornerback in. Floyd would be very scary against some of ND's receivers.
September 6th, 2009 at 9:35 AM ^
Floyd look very lost yesterday. Turner might too. Hope BC is health and can go the entire game.
Let's hope Floyd can make that big jump btw games 1 and 2. I think we will be forced to see him on the field.
September 6th, 2009 at 9:14 AM ^
Concerning: Coaching adage thrown around for a while, but I'm not sure how much merit there is to it.
a) Definitely agree; there is a big difference between playing practice against your own teammates than playing against another team in front of 110,000, and now that they've had that experience they will be better for it.
b) Believe it or not, I expect Tate to have more confidence running the offense. As stated in "a)", he hadn't done this before and now he has and he succeeded and the experience will make him better. Actually the whole team will be more confident.
That said, our men will need this improvement; however we felt about the Domers before this year, after 4 years it does appear they are finally 'getting it'. I don't think it's fair that they have been working on things for four years while we have been working on our things for just one, and yet we meet on the same field for all the marbles of a 2-0 season, but life isn't fair, is it?
GO BLUE!!!
September 6th, 2009 at 9:16 AM ^
I'm looking to see Brandon Minor run for 200 yards. I'm looking to seee Tate Forcier-the best thing since sliced bread-run the whole game and throw for 4 touchdowns. I think he's that good. You watch that game and think Tate isn't head and shoulders above the other three qb's you are on crack. Denard is not going to be effective until he learns the offense. That bit of tag Denard played on the fumble play was nice, but it isn't going to fly against a big ten defense. At the moment we have one real quarterback option. And he's a good one.
September 6th, 2009 at 9:37 AM ^
Let's hope Warren plays a lot better.
September 6th, 2009 at 9:40 AM ^
He didn't play that bad. He just had a few penalties called against him, including one that was a bad call (and a penalty on top of that for letting the refs know it). He had the inside position on the WR and would have had a pick if it hadn't been for the noncall of offensive PI.
EDIT: Let's hope he keeps his mouth shut to the refs though.
September 6th, 2009 at 10:46 AM ^
Warren was actually pretty great yesterday in his coverage, at getting to the ball, and at tackling. Like FA said, as long as he doesn't get anymore non-coverage penalties, I'll take a BS interference call if it means he is covering so well. Especially next week against ND's receivers. There is often a fine line between great coverage and pass interference.
September 6th, 2009 at 10:38 AM ^
amount of pressure on the qb next week. After watching highlights on tv, there was more than I thought, but I'd love to see Clausen get pasted so much that he has a bad game.
September 6th, 2009 at 11:05 AM ^
I guess I agree with the adage somewhat. The first game allows you to test the waters and see what you've got. But I don't think it's so important that you can go from god awful to world beaters in just one game. It's a nice little advantage to have a game under your belt, nothing more.
I'd obviously love to see Tate play more against ND. It would also be nice to see the defense play a full good game.
I'm hoping the players can be as fired up as they were yesterday but they probably won't. They're young, they already have a game under their belt and I think it's going to be hard to match that intensity for the second straight week. I hope I'm wrong though.
ND week sucks. It's too long and it gives me too much time to think about how much I despise them and how I'll want to kill the world if we lose to them.
September 6th, 2009 at 11:41 AM ^
I think we will see more of the offense next week, not that anything was wrong with yesterday's gameplanning. The coaches didn't want to show everything, and Minor will improve the running game, assuming he plays. I'm sure he will though.
September 6th, 2009 at 11:50 AM ^
#72 and #71 were missing blocks at the 2nd level in the run game. Molk and Schilling were hitting all theirs though, especially Steve...he mauled a few guys. The number 1 thing I would look for is can our tackles play in space.
September 6th, 2009 at 12:11 PM ^
I think that once we had the game in hand, RR pulled bakc the riegns. I think that we are going to see more misdirection and big plays. GERG is also going to blitz the hell out of surfer boy and put him on his a*s a few times. That should make him a little gun shy and keep him further away from the big play.