November 2nd, 2013 at 7:12 PM ^
that put us in 2nd/long or 3rd/long all damn day. Throwing downfield was working in the first quarter, so we STOPPED.
Borges set Devin up for failure, IMO.
November 2nd, 2013 at 7:49 PM ^
They also started bringing the house against our shitty OLine, and got there. You don't know what the play calls were, and unless you were at the game you don't know what the routes were because you can't see them on tv, and Borges doesn't tell Gardner to throw it to one specific guy. The QB needs more than half a second to throw the ball deep, because the WRs can't get very far in that time. Borges didn't set Devin up for failure, the OL did. You must have missed the part where the announcers talked about Devin lighting into the Oline in the 3rd quarter after getting sacked for the millionth time. He didn't yell into the headset.
November 2nd, 2013 at 7:53 PM ^
Michigan dropped back to pass a lot. Do you ever think maybe the D adjusted? Also, that's EXACTLY what The Only Colors blogger talked about. State usually allows a little bit early on and then shuts it down.
November 2nd, 2013 at 7:21 PM ^
everything you said he already knows, how many games ago? You are right, the O line is atrocious and it would be a challenge for any OC to have success here but Coach Borgess has not made enough changes in the offense KNOWING what he knows of it. He hasn't added enough plays to take advantages of Devin's strengths while in game his adjustments were poor. Cases in point the play action when there is no chance of 'faking' the defense into thinking it's a run. Also, plays needing the RB to pass protect and having Toussaint in there to do the job...he can't possibly be the best pass blocker, can he? There were more but I've said enough to support my thoughts.
November 2nd, 2013 at 7:30 PM ^
A lot of what you're suggesting though is akin to telling a boxing coach to tell his fighter to use more of his tools or to tailor the game plan to his specific strengths and weaknesses, when the boxer has no arms.
November 2nd, 2013 at 9:24 PM ^
November 3rd, 2013 at 11:22 AM ^
November 3rd, 2013 at 1:35 PM ^
Where are all of the upperclassmen interior offensive linemen? The JRs, (RS) Jrs, SRs, and (RS) SRs who should be starting in place of freshman?
Why is your 2nd question so terrible?
When Hoke came in he looked at the upcoming depth based on the catastrophes that were our OLine recruiting classes from 09-11, and started packing classes full of guys. So I'm pretty sure he recognized the problem.
Why did you miss that?
Why don't you ask the AD that question, because Michigan rarely ever seeks out JUCO or transfer players? It seems to be a program policy type thing, because football has only accepted something like 4 or 5 transfer players in the last 20+ years.
Also, why don't you prefer that we develop our own talent?
Where have all the cowboys gone?
November 2nd, 2013 at 7:30 PM ^
November 2nd, 2013 at 7:37 PM ^
I say "built to have" because the players are recruited and coached to a certain philosophy. The defense is built to a certain philosophy, too, and the coaching staff has made it clear that these two units depend upon each other, particularly in areas like time of possession.
I have not shied away from assigning responsibility to the staff. Since the PSU game, and really even before, I have been fairly consistent in my stance that Borges has made some mistakes, but that the reason his offenses have looked bad have been largely a consequence of a bad offensive line--and that the responsibility for that probably lies with Funk and also trickles up to Hoke.
I actually posted a thread a couple weeks ago suggesting semi-seriously (because, rather than trolling, I thought it would actually be a good idea, but never expected the staff to actually do it) that Michigan hire Mike Tice as a consultant to get an outside perspective on the offensive line.
And since I try not to repeat myself ad nauseum, I haven't felt like rehashing all of this. It's not like the board needs another person yelling "FIRE FUNK! FIRE BORGES!" Insomuch as their is rational discussion to be had, I try to keep mine to original ideas.
November 2nd, 2013 at 8:53 PM ^
November 2nd, 2013 at 9:38 PM ^
"teams that approach M's level of performance with far humbler resources; the example of Akron comes to mind."
Are you seriously suggesting that Akron's season so far is comparable to Michigan's? With all due respect to what Bowden and his staff are doing there, they've won three games, against an FCS school and two of the worst teams in the MAC. They took a 40-point pasting at home against Ohio U. Is that where you think Michigan is?
November 2nd, 2013 at 8:10 PM ^
November 2nd, 2013 at 9:36 PM ^
The problem is that they are not built to be a prostyle, power offense. Borges might like to think so, and he is most comfortable with that kind of offense, but they are definitely not built that way. They will be eventually, but Borges might not be around to see it at this point.
We can't blame Borges for today when he had two weeks to prepare, 7 games worth of data to identify how poorly his offensive line is playing, full knowledge of the hyper-aggressive defense MSU plays, and they came away with no gameplan to attempt to attack it? Sure, the offensive line is bad, but Borges doesn't seem to have any ideas about what to do to minimize the damage they call.
Look at today. The first drive was somewhat successful. MSU adjusted to what we wanted to do, and we never adjusted to what they did. That is definitely on Borges.
November 2nd, 2013 at 10:16 PM ^
You are full of shit. So if you are "building" your team to do things it can't, it isn't your fault. It's not Borges' fault that Devin has so little time to throw? A lot of the sacks were because Michigan again tried to throw downfield and again Devin has to eat it. Almost a non-existent intermediate to short passing game other than the few screens and the running game is a tire fire, but I guess player execution has nothing to do with coaches. After all, like Borges says, he doesn't hit anybody or throw passes or catch passes or run the ball. The players have to execute. It's just a shame the four and five star lineman can't learn right. What a joke.
November 2nd, 2013 at 6:52 PM ^
November 2nd, 2013 at 6:58 PM ^
that Devin changed the protection at the line on that play. I'm not sure that's on the play-calling.
November 2nd, 2013 at 6:53 PM ^
November 2nd, 2013 at 7:01 PM ^
Borges has the option of dropping play action.
The run isnt a threat anyway, so why run PA passes most of the damn time, when all it does is force DG to take the extra time and attention to devote to the fake? The last drive, they moved the ball, with no PA passes and pressure wasnt as bad.
November 2nd, 2013 at 7:07 PM ^
Are you kidding? They ran play action at least three times on that last drive, when running really wasn't reasonable at all. The plays worked, too.
That's why these discussions are so pointless. People see what they want to see and fail to see anything else. Yes, the play-action pass on second down after the interception was a poor call, but the way MSU was blitzing (would have happened regardless of the offensive playcall) there was nothing Borges could have called on that drive that would have worked.
Borges did have a lot of short passes in the plan, particularly that reasonably good pistol-play-action-stick route that was designed to get 7 yards. Sometimes it worked, sometimes the receivers dropped the ball. Sometimes MSU made a play. There were inventive plays, plays that worked with the system that took advantage of MSU's aggressiveness, and counters for misdirection.
But there was never, ever any room to move. Because the OL is historically bad.
November 2nd, 2013 at 7:15 PM ^
Do you actually believe the PA is effective? Do you really think Michigan States secondary was being influenced by those fakes?? This is unbelievable.
November 2nd, 2013 at 7:25 PM ^
Play-action fakes frequently do not affect secondaries because they aren't necessarily supposed to; they are, particularly in the case of the pistol fakes, designed to freeze the linebackers.
And Gardner had windows to make short passes to receivers. They were open pretty much every time they ran the play; unfortunately, it wasn't always executed and it was only worth 5-7 yards anyway, so it wasn't something Michigan could use to control the entire game.
November 2nd, 2013 at 7:24 PM ^
November 2nd, 2013 at 7:29 PM ^
the offense is effective, particularly when the run is a danger. This was not the case tonight, it was MSU's defense that was calling the shots. They were dictating what was best for us to run and it wasn't play action. And to run it with a 'historically bad' OL, that's desperation at most.
November 2nd, 2013 at 10:15 PM ^
but this is a fail:
"there was nothing Borges could have called on that drive that would have worked."
if that's true, MSU should just have called those plays all day.
November 2nd, 2013 at 7:14 PM ^
coach needs to be fired along with the o-line coach. So thats the usual suspects isn't it.
November 2nd, 2013 at 7:24 PM ^
so......borges?
November 2nd, 2013 at 7:22 PM ^
Oline coach doesn't coach the interior?
November 2nd, 2013 at 10:30 PM ^
How about not running a play action pass or deep route as the only two passing options? Or working with your QB to look at receivers not named Gallon. Or work in some quick hitters in the passing game. He's close to the worst offensive coach I've ever seen and the fact that he's been here three years makes me seriously question Hoke's judgement.
November 2nd, 2013 at 6:43 PM ^
November 2nd, 2013 at 6:58 PM ^
Next season is a make it or break it season for Hoke. In year four, you've got no excuses. At the very least, he needs to make a change on the OL, and perhaps hire a QB coach. The offense needs all the help and coaching it can get.
November 2nd, 2013 at 9:34 PM ^
November 2nd, 2013 at 7:02 PM ^
Nope, he's 2-3, at least according to those that threw around the 0-6 stat for RichRod.
November 2nd, 2013 at 7:51 PM ^
and winless against our rivals on the road. . .
November 2nd, 2013 at 6:42 PM ^
November 2nd, 2013 at 6:43 PM ^
no quality games and no quality coaching. This team has not been prepared to play in any game since ND. They are soft. I decided to give up my season tickets after ND.
November 2nd, 2013 at 6:44 PM ^
November 2nd, 2013 at 6:59 PM ^
November 2nd, 2013 at 7:05 PM ^
App State, the Oregon debacle, 3-9, GERG's defenses...there have been several coaching performances worse than this one.
Hell, most of this I put on the offensive line. They were just terrible. No amount of scheming or play calling will save you from that sort of performance from the O-Line against that defense.
November 2nd, 2013 at 7:28 PM ^
"We didn't execute."
November 2nd, 2013 at 9:35 PM ^
November 2nd, 2013 at 9:42 PM ^
Great, he'll take blame on himself. "We didn't have our guys ready" or "We need to prepare better." And that's just it. Not prepared or ready after a bye week. And I usually don't buy into "emotion" and "swagger," but this team has looked passive the whole year.
November 2nd, 2013 at 8:02 PM ^
As a fan, I don't go to the games to cheer-on and motivate the coaches. It's for the players. I wouldn't consider getting rid of my tickets unless the players stopped putting forth their best effort.
November 2nd, 2013 at 6:43 PM ^
November 2nd, 2013 at 6:47 PM ^
Please tell me you don't honestly believe the problem with the run game is Fitz... The Spartan linebackers spent more time in our backfield today than they did in their own.
November 2nd, 2013 at 6:54 PM ^
November 2nd, 2013 at 7:23 PM ^
Actually, most shooters shoot their way out of slumps...