Scott Shafer
Although they were able to keep them out of the endzone, it seemed UT was able to put together some good drives all day (about 260 passing yards, 330 total...thats Toledo). Illinois scored 45 points against UM, 20 against Minnesota. Whats the deal? Is it the players, the time on the field or does Scott Shafer just suck dong?
October 12th, 2008 at 12:54 PM ^
October 12th, 2008 at 7:14 PM ^
October 12th, 2008 at 12:55 PM ^
What about an offense that continues to get the ball at mid field and can't even get a first down? The offense gave up more points than the defense did. Yeah the defense gave up some yardage but when they needed a stop they got it and also some luck with bad passing to open WRs.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:56 PM ^
October 12th, 2008 at 1:09 PM ^
October 12th, 2008 at 1:28 PM ^
October 12th, 2008 at 3:09 PM ^
No it's not stupid. The defense yesterday was abysmal. They got picked apart all day long by a team that had just gotten shut out by Ball State. Toledo had gone six quarters without scoring a point up utnil yesterday. Remember that the QB for Toledo helped us out by missing lots of open receivers. Toledo's QB sucks. A good one would have shredded the hell out of us yesterday. Twice the punting team pinned them inside their own four yard line, and the defense couldn't force a three and out Both times, Toledo drove out to midfield before punting. Has anyone else noticed that we are in the midst of squandering our best punting game since 1997? Every time that our punter comes up big and forces the other team inside their own five, our defense goes soft and lets the other team out to midfield.
The "D" was especially attrocious on third down. Whoever was calling the plays for Toledo made a total jackass out of Shafer yesterday.
October 12th, 2008 at 1:31 PM ^
October 12th, 2008 at 1:34 PM ^
October 12th, 2008 at 1:38 PM ^
October 12th, 2008 at 7:43 PM ^
October 12th, 2008 at 1:48 PM ^
October 12th, 2008 at 4:20 PM ^
http://michigan.rivals.com/barrier_noentry.asp?ReturnTo=&sid=&script=co…
This analysis is excellent. Shafer really doesn't seem to know what to do. The reason why is the dearth of talent at the LB and S positions. John Thompson has been a disaster. He can't get to the QB in time on blitzs and is consistently beat in coverage. He also misses too many tackles. Evans and Panter have no business playing for a BCS team, perhaps not even a D1 team. They're atrocious in every aspect of the game. The only bright spot is Mouton, who has shown flashes and seems to have developed consistency. I expect him to improve. Stevie Brown has been as bad as advertised. He has great physical skills but he can't read even basic plays. He looks lost and is constantly late in coverage. Harrison seems to have regressed from last year. Trent and Warren are okay but show little week to week improvment. The fact that there's no improvement at the S position should be the direct responsiblity of Gibson, who was a dubious hire to begin with.
Since we really have nothing to lose right now, you might as well play freshman. Cissoko should replace Brown on 3 wide sets and could potentially play a safety-like position or maybe even as a third corner when they're doubling. Just get Brown out of the game. There really can't be anyone worse than John Thompson right now so give Fitzgerald a shot (he's been playing special teams so I don't think he's redshirted). The Evans/Panter position is a continued disaster. Witherspoon had a clearinghouse issue and is gone and Hill is apparently gone. That leaves only Demens, who hasn't played.
With the new guys, you might as well be aggressive. See if they can get to the QB in time, becuase the three man rushes have not worked. This secondary has proven that if a QB gets time, they will find someone, so you might as well attack.
October 12th, 2008 at 4:30 PM ^
Gibson got Ryan Mundy drafted. Read that again, an NFL team drafted Ryan Mundy. Now, once more, RYAN MUNDY WAS DRAFTED BY THE NFL.
I will withhold all judgement on Gibson's skills as a result.
October 12th, 2008 at 8:18 PM ^
but did anyone find it odd that most of the time we were using only 3 members from our d-line, arguably our best position on defense, and we were playing 3 members from the safety corps, arguably our worst?
Having Charles Stewart on the field at the same time as Stevie Brown is just begging the other team to have success with the pass. After seeing Charles Stewart get some playing time at safety, i can see why Stevie Brown kept his job.