Sunday Bye Week Snowflakes

Had zero turnovers this week!

Our coaching staff is still intact!

So Uconn got destroyed by Buffalo 41-12. Not exactly confidence inspiring.

I was wondering why we don't have a Qb coach. Whatever I guess life goes on.

and there is some real likelihood that we are only a middle-rank team within it. The D will continue to come on, keep us in some games. A great deal now depends on whether Devin remains grounded in upcoming games, on whether the O line comes together.

We're very lucky to be playing Minny at home, in a very winnable game, next Saturday. Win comfortably and the kids will not need to have to look over their shoulders at everyone else's scores. Squeak another one out and everyone's dissapointment and diminished expectations will start to tell on play, too.

Let's see how it goes. 

Minnesota looked pretty bad. Nelson showed some flashes, but overall the offense looked inept. Our DL should have a good game. 

On defense, they're middle linebacker was impressive. Hagerman was good when he was on the field, which was surprisingly not the often. Iowa did well by doubling him and/or running away from him.  We would be wise to do the same. There a couple plays where he flat out threw the center out of the way on his way to a TFL. Miller will not be able to handle him one on one. 

Some snowflakes:

• Cooked up a brisket on Saturday as I watched other games; it was delicious
• The Georgia - LSU game was terrific
• Notre Dame lost ... and not by some stroke of luck by OU ... yea!
• Tucson weather has cooled off and the dog days of summer are behind us
• Looking forward to watching Michigan play a solid, mistake-free game against Minnesota and win by a nice boring score of 35-6.

Dennard did not get away with it against ND. There were at least 5 flags for holding/PI against Dennard and others in the MSU secondary in that game. So much so that Dantonio had a closed-door complaint session with the B1G. As for Roby, I haven't seen enough of him to judge, other than the fact that he is a Buckeye and is probably cheating.

The first half was awful, but after watching the second half, I feel better about Devin.  I felt like he needed to spend the bye week getting his confidence back.  I was surprised to watch the second half and watch a poised Gardner play pretty well.  He threw 1 bad pass and other than that looked pretty good. 

I also noticed on the long Touissant TD run, Gardner saw the LBs gearing up to blitz up the middle and audibled to the speed option that went for a TD.  Borges also had a couple other calls geared to deal with LBs blitzing up the middle that went well.  The LB blitzes confusing our interior OL has been a big worry for me, so I was glad to see we had adapted in the second half.

Anyway, if you want to feel better about the team, rewatch the U-conn game, but start right after the second half fumble.  I actually think it says good things about Devin that he was able to pull it together at halftime.

I also wonder why we don't have a dedicated QB coach.  I watch Braxton Miller's passing progression, fairly good, and see Devin regress in two weeks ... well, small sample size I guess.  All is not lost, but still, why don't we have a dedicated QB coach?

The thing I took from the UW-OSU game was how the Buckeyes seemed to take advantage of every Wisconsin mistake.  The combination of their talent and scheme makes it so important to not make mistakes and take advantage of theirs, because they will do so on yours.  I know it's not exactly rocket science but their offense seemed to jump all over any second opportunity they were provided last night.

There's no way in hell you can put any bad QB mechanics on Borges.  Denard just was not a naturally pretty passer, and Devin showed incredible mechanics and ability in the first two games this season, he just ad a stroke in the quarterbacking region of his brain after the ND game.  That's not on Borges.

There was some surprise on the board last year when Kentucky scored some decent recruits out of the Cincinnati area. I think it's mostly assumed that for football interest OSU>>Kentucky everywhere, and at the very least everywhere in Ohio.

Last night I was driving from Springfield to Cincinnati and listening to the Wisconsin/OSU game and starting about 20 miles south of Dayton, when I lost reception for WING (Dayton station)...

...it wasn't on! In disbelief I tried every am frequency. I found three different stations carrying Kentucky, two carrying Louisville, one carrying Dayton v. Marist, no end of bigger stations carrying faraway games, but there was not a single station broadcasting Ohio State football with a signal that could carry all the way to Cincinnati.

Their local contract is with a station that goes low-power at night. 300 watts. At one point I was about three miles from their antenna and I still couldn't get a signal.

Just a data point. Thought somebody might be interested.

You're completely wrong on the mechanics...Denard didn't regress in his mechanics at all. He just went from an offense that was 1 or 2 reads then run...to an offense that was NFL progressions.

He wasn't asked to have ANY mechanics under Rich Rod and it was fine...he was running a read-option offense that got WRs wide open. How many times was he asked to drop back and go through his progressions, step up in the pocket and throw a lazer to his target like his name was Brady or Manning? Rarely.

Denard had to do that under Borges and struggled. He also got hurt which limited him as a passer.

How has Devin regressed? He's started what...8 games? He was lights out vs. ND this year, his best game of his career. So he's had 2 bad games. Is that mechanics or is that poor decisions on his part? Turnovers on his part?

He hasn't forgotten how to throw the ball. However, he's always had that "superman" in him. Last year vs. Minnesota he makes that play to Dileo and it works. First game of this year he does the same and finds Dileo and it works. Against ND he does that SAME and makes the worst play in the history of organized sport. That's not mechanics. 

Borges can do A LOT of things better, and he's not the best QB coach. But to say these QBs have regressed in their mechanics is a poor argument.

Borges is a MASTER play/formation designer. He's probably one of the best 5 OCs in the country in designing a play. He's not a very good play CALLER. None of that has to do with mechanics though.

1. Thank GOD for a Bye Week..I really just think that this team needed to hit the reset button. We needed to get healthy, we needed to catch our breath, we needed to have time to make a few personnel changes. I think we come out and hammer Minnesota and a lot of people are eating crow and looking like idiots.

2. We're trying to do TOO much. Borges calls plays like he's got Peyton Manning at QB. And I know..."it's the level of the position." But eventually you have to understand that you don't have Peyton, you don't have the Cowboys OL of the 1990s. You have to play to your strengths.

---Stop running stretch plays to the right
---Give Devin easy throws to build his confidence and get him a rhythm
---Focus on getting first downs in the 1st quarter and just maintaining drives
---Install some easier reads in the offense (1st read, checkdown, RUN type plays) vs. 4-receiver progression plays
---Run behind Lewan more
---Use Dileo more
---Easy on all the play-action...I love it, but he uses it FAR too much. Allow Gardner to just drop back, survey the field and make the throw.

3. Keep disguising the defense (something we didn't do vs. Akron)...when we confuse the OL and/or the QB it helps our DL more than anything else we could do

4. Countess doesn't always have to play NB, he can shadow the other teams best WR like Roby did last night.

5. Give Kenny Allen a shot at punter if Wile continues to struggle.

I know it is a penalty for a defensive player to mimic the snap count to throw off the OL.  Does Braxton's clap to initiate the count from the center count as part of the count?  In other words, would it be a penalty for defensive players playing against OSU to start clapping randomly while they are lined up?

How come everyone gets on Borges (and many times rightfully so)...but no one ever says anything about Fred Jackson?

I love the man, he's a Michigan Man to the core. No question. All-time greatest RB coach in school history.

But our RBs haven't been much of anything since Mike Hart left.

I'd love to see a Tyrone Wheatley there, if not, that same Mike Hart.

Fire everybody!

Another guy with the "regression" meme.



Awesome.

seriously what the fuck is the point of this thread. I am about done with the board. You are just here to piss and cry about nothing.