No More James...Thank You Lightning
The only plus is that I was not subjected to anymore of Craig James "insights". For him to put that little prep work in is embarrasing. Watching Mayock on the Notre Dame game is like night and day. He gives you nice insight and not a bunch of MSM bs propaganda.
Here are some nuggets from James and Patrick
1. Made it seem we never went under center last year(Does he work for the Freep)
2. Koger didn't play much because he was a TE in the pansy spread.( I think we had a TE on the field for about 90% of our plays last year)
3. Said Borges was a Power I OC that likes to work the power and then come to play action. (Uh no he grew up as a West Cost guy and has done about everything.)
4. James said that now they were getting back to a "power" running game after Shaw's TD. Which came after 2 consecutive spread runs with zone blocking for about 80yds.
I know I know. I knew it was coming, but it was still ridiculous. It was like Dave Brandon fed them 5 key phrases to keep saying during the broadcast despite what was happening on the field.
It was only 1 game against a mediocre team so we won't know much, but if anyone can tell a difference between this team and any of RR's they are full of it. We played better/tougher against UConn last year. It was the same old same old.
-Horrid Special teams
-disorganized/soft defense
-nice looking offense
After the disaster of the 1st 2 defensive series when multiple players couldn't even get lined up much less know their assignment. The only tangible difference was the dialing up of the amount of blitz calls.
Do your homework James and then give us an objective opinion about what is happening on the field. We can do our own infomercials.
September 3rd, 2011 at 8:40 PM ^
After Denard had a couple incompletions on a third and out he said, "I don't think he's going to be very happy with that".
For reals player?
September 3rd, 2011 at 8:41 PM ^
Why post this shit? Enjoy the victory, let the dead bury the dead.
September 3rd, 2011 at 8:41 PM ^
personally i like mike patrick and enjoyed watching the game. wouldve preferred frank beckmann and jim brandstatter though
September 3rd, 2011 at 11:04 PM ^
he kept calling Fitz, Shaw... repeatedly, after his long run.
September 3rd, 2011 at 8:41 PM ^
I noticed a BIG difference.
September 3rd, 2011 at 8:49 PM ^
You mean B1G...right?
September 3rd, 2011 at 8:56 PM ^
I noticed a B1G difference, I'm pumped for the games ahead hopefully we can build off today and especially Kovaks, who was impressive today.
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:21 PM ^
Our defense is by no means where it needs to be, but they actually... you know... made plays. So to say the defense is soft is not only stupid, but it's insanely stupid.
I loved the effort and hustle we showed. It seemed pretty vanilla on the defensive side and I am sure that was by design.
Let's make the big step forward next week.
September 3rd, 2011 at 8:44 PM ^
personally i like mike patrick and enjoyed watching the game. wouldve preferred frank beckmann and jim brandstatter though
September 3rd, 2011 at 8:46 PM ^
I'll take football with crappy commentary over no football. The college football season is so short as it is. It sucks that we lost a full quarter of action.
September 3rd, 2011 at 8:45 PM ^
Why does the Michigan public? He was alright, as far as I'm concerned. Give him a break for god's sake! Who the fuck are we?
September 3rd, 2011 at 11:15 PM ^
This is why...
September 3rd, 2011 at 8:46 PM ^
James is an idiot, but what do you expect? When you are spending most of your day being inexpliccably pampered by ESPN brass and ordering the firings of people you disagree with, you don't have much time to watch game tape.
September 3rd, 2011 at 8:47 PM ^
Considering that this was uttered two years ago on the BTN:
"Man, Michigan sure is going with a lot of no-huddle here. They haven't done much of this at all this year."
...I'm not that worried about it.
September 3rd, 2011 at 8:49 PM ^
a. mute
b. turn on the radio guys. they rock. they were pretty well synced with my feed.
September 3rd, 2011 at 8:49 PM ^
I did like how they went on and on about how Denard would carry the ball less and how much the coaches were worried about getting him hurt. Then Denard had four designed runs out of the gun on the first drive that looked basically identical to last year's offense.
Also think this was a better performance than against UCONN. Carder and White played pretty well. UCONN repeatedly shit their pants when they had opportunities to make big plays.
September 3rd, 2011 at 8:50 PM ^
I have to disagree with the d being soft. I haven't seen the defense hit that hard in a long time. The offense was def more consistent as well. When was the last game we had 0 turnovers and 1 penalty though the 3rd quater?
September 3rd, 2011 at 8:56 PM ^
In the opener. No turnovers, one penalty the entire game. That was the only game I looked at, and that was with 83 snaps on offense rather than 39.
September 3rd, 2011 at 8:56 PM ^
haha owned i guess
September 3rd, 2011 at 8:58 PM ^
I agree with you about the defense. Thought they played very well, especially considering two starters basically didn't play at all (Gordon and Woolfolk).
September 3rd, 2011 at 9:40 PM ^
The front 7 really picked it up after the 1st quarter. I am worried about the secondary (especially after TWolf went out). They never seemed to turn their heads around on passes and Kovac looked much better when pressuring then covering. I trust the coaches will get some of this fixed next week. Great Win, nice to see the D create some turnovers!
September 3rd, 2011 at 9:56 PM ^
If a quarterback can throw on time to a receiver (and both guys are pretty good) in single coverage, they are going to complete the pass most of the time. People always seem to be way harsher on DBs than is reasonable. If you are there to force a good throw, don't get beat deep or vacate your zone, and immediately make a tackle, you are doing a really good job.
White was the only guy who did any damage against us (next leading receiver had 22 yards) and their longest pass play was 20 yards. They completed three passes over 15 yards (and it isn't like they were missing open guys or dropping balls). I'm guessing the UFR will look very kindly on how our corners played.
Pretty good without your top corner (now if you want to talk about that dumbass decision...)
September 4th, 2011 at 12:47 AM ^
Not great (but better) for the 2011 defensive expectations, but great for the long term defensive expectations of the Michigan program.
Mostly, the same kids were on the field as last year. You can't expect Mattison to turn them magically into a lock-down cover machine (against a passing QB that might be as good as any we'll see this year, albeit without the surrounding cast).
What I think we saw was a little better execution and the players being in a little better position. (Especially the execution of the blitzes...gotta believe those are better taught by Mattison.) Most plays, this slight average edge per play doesn't show. But by moving the normal curve of play outcomes in the Michigan direction, we got two huge plays for us and an absence of big plays against us. That, I think, is the Mattison difference.
September 3rd, 2011 at 8:59 PM ^
We didn't get much offense at all. The defense held the game, so big props to them. I loved the performance. Go Blue.... and they are going to surprise us!
September 3rd, 2011 at 9:02 PM ^
alcohol involved...sorry for the double post
September 3rd, 2011 at 9:13 PM ^
Justice strikes...but not really, because it's a truly awful rumor that CRAIG JAMES KILLED FIVE HOOKERS WHILE AT SMU.
September 3rd, 2011 at 9:54 PM ^
After today, he is officially Cliche James in my book. I have never heard a professional announcer give as many stale, trite, and incorrect "observations" as James did today. He reminds me of music "reviewers" who attend concerts and have the review written before they walk in the door.
September 3rd, 2011 at 10:05 PM ^
i liked how we were in shotgun >50% of the time but then whenever we went under center they made sure to say "THIS is what michigan is going to run all the time!" before we went back to shotgun 3 more times
September 4th, 2011 at 12:52 AM ^
when he said that we'd be in the shotgun only 30% of the time.
I'm guessing, that had we had the game in hand earlier, DRob would have been under center perhaps near 70%, only to reveal the optimal percentage vs Notre Dame.
But with Carder moving the ball, the game wasn't in comfortable control until we went up 34-10.
September 4th, 2011 at 3:23 AM ^
is it me or does brandon take every opportunity for face time. i think hoke could have handled the suspension discussion by himself. can you think of an AD who has been on TV so much, ever? and the guy has barely been here very long. on the flip side, does anyone even know what hollis from msu looks like. or even know most of the other BIG ADs?