My game analysis (Helps me vent)

Submitted by UMxWolverines on

As I'm watching the ND-Sparty game (go ND), I just thought I'd post this to vent my feelings. First off, glad we won, but it sure didn't feel like a win after the game and my family didn't think so either as we left Ann Arbor.

Second, whoever is in charge of teaching this team how to tackle needs to be fired immediately. I don't know if it was just ND win hangover or we didn't prepare well enough or what, but the defense did not look good. There were plays where it didn't seem like they were even trying! They were constantly just waiting for the player with the ball to run instead of charging at them low, and the result would be them getting beat. No defensive pressure, the QB could have made lunch a few times. The right side of the field was open almost all the time and the linebackers did pretty much nothing. What happened to the Mouton with 12 tackles?!

And as we all know, special teams sucked too. Gallon trying to field that bouncing punt, not letting the ball go out on the kickoff instead fielding it at the 30, someone took a FAIR CATCH one of the times? Field goals are not Gibbons' thing obviously, but we all knew that. It's pretty much official after today.

That being said, rickiew04, you're an idiot. Rich's offense is going to be a machine. Greg Robinson on the other hand, I'm not so sure. It may be too early to tell, but whoever prepared the defense did an awful job. I saw Kovacs and Gordon look at each other after the last UMass touchdown and Kovacs put his arms as to say something like: "I didn't know what to do".

Offense, pretty good job. Denard, you're still a beast. We still don't really have a breakout back, but Shaw did play well. And I thought we were going to see Toussaint?

There was a funny moment after the game though. A guy I was walking by was walking with a limp. Another guy with a limp starts limping faster to catch up to him. The guy that caught up says "Vietman 1968". The guy he caught to says "Dog shit two blocks ago".

michiganfanforlife

September 18th, 2010 at 11:10 PM ^

Offense - A

Defense - F

Complete lack of adjustments in the second half by the defense. They just don't seem to care that they are being burnt like toast on simple plays. GERG has no clue, and I'm sick of watching the pathetic excuse for whatever you call his D.  Blitzing on every play would be better than just sitting back and letting the offense do whatever they want.

Evil Monkey

September 18th, 2010 at 11:11 PM ^

I feel you man, I have talked about the game to about 10 people. And your right, we got out with a win. That could have easily been a huge upset and a road to another awful season. But we got out alive and still have time to work on things (aka: special teams, and defense). Also decision making looks poor at times on each side of the ball including special teams. Hopefully Greg can work with the d which is my biggest concern and we look better next week and on the road against IU.

bobbyhill57

September 18th, 2010 at 11:21 PM ^

If any one would have said five months ago we would be 3-0 with a convincing win against UConn and last minute 72 yard drive against Notre Dame I would have been giddy as a fat kid in a candy store.

I do agree, the lack of fundamentals e.g. outside containment and tackling is frustrating; however, we knew our defense would make "freshmen" mistakes. Hopefully this was our one let down game and we will be o.k. to solid on D the rest of the way.

 

Here's to the glass being half full.

MaizenBlueBP

September 18th, 2010 at 11:21 PM ^

I agree that at the end of the season we have to take some time and interview some other defensive coordinators because GERG is not getting the job done.  We should see some kind of improvement from year one to year two.  The defense is holding this team back from being an elite squad.  Recruits look at our defense and probably laugh at how poorly it is run and coached. somehing has to be done.

Kyrie_Smith

September 18th, 2010 at 11:24 PM ^

We have a crappy D.
<br>We had a crappy D last year.
<br>Everyone in the world suspected we would have a crappy D this year.
<br>Everyone was right.
<br>
<br>No big secret there.

gujd

September 18th, 2010 at 11:34 PM ^

the offense just started playing to win late in the first half. The defense never stopped playing not to lose. As MichiganFanForLife said earlier, we should start blitzing more. Sitting back and hoping the other team screws up is not a defensive strategy. Give UMASS some credit, they executed extremely well (better than UCONN or ND) IMHO.

michbenn

September 18th, 2010 at 11:42 PM ^

I thought making the fair catch at the 30 instead of letting the ball go out of bounds was a fantastic play. You don't know that the ball would've bounced out, it was clearly going to land in bounds, and if it bounced back toward the middle of the field, and heaven forbid UMass recovered it, that would've been a disaster.

The guys (multiple) that fair caught those balls were not the kinds of players I wanted to see returning kicks, and I was perfectly happy to see them take the decent field position and HOLD ONTO THE DAMN BALL and let the coaching staff adjust where we lined up so that Stonum caught the later ones.

Gallon on the other hand should not see another punt this year.

mackbrune

September 19th, 2010 at 12:02 AM ^

You need to ask yourself how any d-coach could get by with such a thin, raw, and largely star-free cast of players. The problem is that we don't have (nearly) enough talent on that side of the ball. Blame Richrod for that. Sure, we've had some injuries. Not anyone's fault. But all those defections and transfers are on the head guy.