September 14th, 2013 at 5:01 PM ^
Line play is the heart of all problems. skill players have been suprisingly good IMO this year. or better than expected at least
September 14th, 2013 at 5:02 PM ^
I'd have been infuriated if they'd called flagged Michigan on anything like the PI on the pass to Butt in the endzone that was called on Akron, particularly when the officials swallowed the flag on the far, far more egregious PI on Jourdan Lewis earlier. It was a great defensive play by the Akron defender.
September 14th, 2013 at 6:18 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 7:29 PM ^
Agreed. He definitely grabbed Butt like Robin Thicke.
September 14th, 2013 at 5:04 PM ^
We really need to get Bryant and maybe some other guys a chance out there on the Oline. They have been getting beat every game outside of some garbage time against CMU. Even Lewan and Schofield looked pretty bad today.
D-line just doesn't have anyone that can win any 1 on 1s which is scary. Play after play after play I was waiting for just one guy to make a play, JUST ONE but they can't get by anyone. Heck they were more likely to run into each other and take each other out than get pressure on the QB or stuff the RB.
September 14th, 2013 at 7:29 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 5:22 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 5:25 PM ^
Everyone is forgetting the awful punting. Aside from one boomer for 54 yards there were 2 shanks and that kills you. The first Akron FG just becomes a 3 and out if the punt was not 24 yards or whatever. The punt game is going to kill us in 1-2 game in November as the change of field is horrid. You need to move the other team back 45 yards not 25 yards on change of possessions. Yes I agree on all the other issues but no one is speaking of this horrible punting performance ALL YEAR.
September 14th, 2013 at 5:51 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 6:05 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 6:14 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 7:03 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 11:12 PM ^
Still no reason they can;t put Allen in for a bit to see if the problem goes away.
September 14th, 2013 at 5:59 PM ^
2. No push from our D line. Corners had to cover too long and didn't keep the ball in front of them.
3. Offense looked good when we kept possession.
/ I'm just happy we won
September 14th, 2013 at 6:03 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 6:16 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 6:14 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 9:57 PM ^
His first real recruiting class are all RS freshmen... but yeah,,, let's run the guy out of town.
The DL has been pretty bad these last 3 years too, let's fire Hoke and Mattison while we're at it.
September 14th, 2013 at 10:11 PM ^
Our DL two years ago was one of the best in the B1G...
I just can't see why we can't block power effectively. We were wayyyy bigger than Akron's DL up front. Tons of youth leagues/high schools run power down block/pull schemes with great success. I can't believe for one second that we can't do it, especially with this OL that has two good/great tackles and semi-athletic guards with size. If you can't teach a college O lineman to down block you should lose your job. The lack of Funchess being able to block at all is partially Funk too. Ferrigno may coach the TE's a lot, but the OL coach teaches blocking techniques to TE's too when they get together for run game practice.
IMO we are running some pretty basic run plays and we can't block them effectively. Iso, Power, Inside Zone, Stretch... High schools run these plays too.
/end rant
September 14th, 2013 at 10:27 PM ^
We have three underclassmen with zero combined starts playing between our tackles, one of them is a walk on. I don't think I should have to say anything else to get my point across. The DL was a finished product when Hoke and Mattison got their hands on it on 2011. How has it looked 2012 and 2013? Right now they're worse than the OL.
September 14th, 2013 at 6:17 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 6:29 PM ^
Miller was awful and getting blown up all day, Schofield played like shit too, there should have been a PI call on Lewis that was missed, (would have gave Akron a 1st and Goal, I believe), Devin Played terrible, I do not like how he seemed to lose his confidence and I almost lost it on one of the first drives when he frantically tried to avoid a sack and carlessly threw it, reminding me of the ND pick 6, and all around the defense was poor.
Now I thought I saw a lot of faces getting a lot of time that I did not see so much last Sat especially in the back 7 - was that a coaching decision based on the Akron spread O, was it to get players PT that almost bit UM in the ass or am I wrong and just did not notice last week because a terrible ND team did not expose it like the powerful Zips?????
That was a good PI call against Akron on Butt, hand was wrapped and riding - ref was in good position.
I am so very disappointed in the performance but they did live to fight another day had they lost it definitely would have been the death of me.
One thing I will say and no one can change my mind on this, is that if that completely terrible, Bullshit, insanely bad, holding penalty is NOT called on Butt in the 2nd Qtr where Fitz ran it down to inside the 2 yd line, a couple plays before Devin turned over the ball on the option, UM goes up 14 -3 most likely, Devin probably does not start the TO fest, and everyone on here including me is not losing thier Shit because they win rather easily. Butt came off the ball, turned the defender with a good punch to his outside shoulder then after the zip turned his back rammed him into the ground, the call was BULLSHIT. However, I do not care how many bullshit calls there are, you overcome those and still win easily and not like this, when you are Michigan and they are Akron.
But Thank Goodness they were able to win it, next week if UCONN does not get blasted then Michigan is truly not ready, nor that good, but if they come out and smack them then we can maybe start to believe today just was not thier day and write it off as a fluke, Oh how I hope a fluke is the case.
- Go Blue ][\/][
September 14th, 2013 at 7:11 PM ^
So, the definition of winning ugly pretty much follows the stats for this particular game. Consider the following:
- We actually lost the battle of first downs. The differential for Michigan was -2 (Akron had 21 to our 19)
- Third down differential for Michigan was actually -20% for the game. Akron was 50% (9 for 18) and Michigan was 3 for 10 on third downs.
- Yardage differentials: +7 for total yardage for Michigan (425 to 418), and +1.56 for yards per play (we advanced 6.85 yards per snap on average while allowing 5.29).
- Akron ran 79 plays on offense to our 62 plays, which is significant.
- 4 turnovers to their 2
- We also lost the time of possession battle, having the ball about 6 minutes less than Akron
The result was a win by 4, but we did it despite being on the short end of several stats.
September 14th, 2013 at 10:01 PM ^
most of the stats you point out are pretty useless as a performance indicator unless you have two manball teams playing each other... which today was certainly not the case.
September 14th, 2013 at 7:14 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 7:54 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 8:01 PM ^
And here I though I saw them win.....guess not.
September 14th, 2013 at 8:51 PM ^
/endrant
September 14th, 2013 at 10:03 PM ^
Welcome to the sane Michigan fan club. You'll love your team while hating 80% of the people who root for them.
September 14th, 2013 at 8:01 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 8:15 PM ^
Funk needs to go. I'm sorry but there are multiple teams every year with much worse talent than we have, or less experience than we have and they absolutely make it work. Something has to change. Has to.
September 14th, 2013 at 10:07 PM ^
Funk's first recruiting class are all RS freshmen and RR left a huge crater behind him as far as OL depth is concerned. Don't let your stupidity stop you from whining and calling for people's jobs after a win though. This coaching staff has remained undefeated at home for three seasons and has given us more success than we've had in over a decade. I wish this section of our fanbase simply didn't exist. You all should have gone to State.
September 14th, 2013 at 11:23 PM ^
I took the same stance you are a while back during the spring game, and Magnus responded saying he had some doubts about Funk's ability to coach OL. Now I'm not too sure about Funk too. Borges and Hoke have proven their worth and I don't doubt them in the slightest. I just have a hard time dealing with the lack of a run game. Pass blocking is going to be hard for young OL to pick up. With seeing blitz packages and having to know where you're supposed to be depending on what pass protection is called, it's difficult. Our run game should be more effective than it is, especially when Gardner has been able to throw a little bit.
September 14th, 2013 at 8:57 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 9:12 PM ^
EDIT: By the way - long time fan of this site. After reading for years and looking forward to updates every day at work, I decided to participate. Please forgive me if my first post isn't even-keeled.
I was as angry, disgusted, and raging as any miserable bastard... I mean fan would be.
Never mind, I still am. I tried to post a "hang in there, blah, etc.."
I think we'll still win 8 games, but we have 2 critical problems we must fix (YES, I know this is redundant, but it somehow makes me feel better to just say it).
1. Except for the vetrans, the offensive line is failing EVERY play to get to the secnd level. You CANNOT have a successful run game with free linebackers.
2. We must find a way to generate a pash rush with 4 guys. If that means we put Black and Pipkens at DE every 4 plays and they just bullrush, so be it. Find a way.
Devin will be okay. He was due a terrible game. Thank God in heaven we got a win when he decided to have his melt-down. I can almost guarantee that he gets right back on the horse next week. But, either way, enough with the Shane Morris starting comments. That's ridiculous.
Our defense isn't going to be great. That's just the way it is. The kids are trying their hearts out, they are just either too young, or not talented enough and we need time for the youngsters to grow up. But, we better get a couple elite D-linemen for a few years in a row.
Our O-Line can be fixed. They have talent, especially Kalis is just stronger that almost everyone he's going up against. But, they are going to need time to learn to get to the next level so Fitz can run wild except to the outside on occasion. Everyone saying Fitz isn't the same, wake up. He's doing everything by himself.
September 14th, 2013 at 10:07 PM ^
Good first post. Glad to have you here. I don't think we should hold out much hope for the OL this year. I think Kalis has been outplayed by Glasgow by a wide margin so far this year despite having far better physical attributes. Both lines have been subpar, but unlike Hoke and Mattison I don't think Funk has demonstrated enough in years past that he should be given the benefit of the doubt.
September 14th, 2013 at 9:19 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 9:38 PM ^
falling and we will be just fine.......Go Blue
September 15th, 2013 at 8:38 AM ^
Since arrival, Hoke has made all the right moves. I am curious to see what changes or improvements, if any, the staff can get accomplished this week. UConn might be on par with Akron so if we don't see any improvements this week, there will be plenty of anxiety on this board.
September 15th, 2013 at 8:43 AM ^
we are who we thought we were. we knew the o-line was going to take sometime to develop, entering 3 new starters can be difficult, especially early in the season. we do not know the status of Bryant, maybe he's hurt, maybe he'll get a shot. hoke talks a lot about competing, maybe there will be some shake up on the oline this week. seems as if schofield's best was when he played guard...if braden is more suitable as a tackle, maybe he could move in as a starter...it seems as if all of our runs that are successful are to the edge, i still think fitz is too jumpy. lets see how they look next week before we settle on the whole season being bad.
September 15th, 2013 at 9:19 AM ^
I'll reserve the right to make more long term judgements after the UConn game. That being said, here are some things I'll be looking for: 1) Can our DLine learn some new techniques. I watche Beyer rush down after down with the same exact rush move every time. He was stone-walled. I then watched Purdue blow up ND line on several pass rush situations while only bringing four. 2) Will GMat stubbornly try to earn the right to rush four in the first half and then resort to blitzing in the second? How about mixing it up from the get-go? The defense should be more unpredictable IMHO. 3) Will Jame Ross III just intercept the damn ball already? Enough with those oh-so-close-could-of-made-a-game-changing-play. That is three or four in two weeks now. 4) Devin: work out your internal clock damnit. Sometimes it is okay to check down or throw it away. Play every play with a killer mentality...efficient yet aggressive. Sometimes he has a "what, me worry" persona back there. 5)OLine: If we don't get an interior push next week it is time to look at another player or two (Bryant...or Glasgow to C and Bryant in at LG). Hell, try it for a series or two to evaluate. 6) DB: on the two big plays...we were right there. THis unit is still trending up and is still very young. Wilson bailed us out once; however, there are still plays he needs to make (dropped interceptions). Rotate #2 RB (Green or whoever) in a bit more. I watched Fitz rip a long run and then he was gassed as on the very next play he half-heartedly attempted to bounce outside and lost a yard. We can't just give away plays. Kid was gassed...take it out for a play.