Tate Mistakes

He's trying to do too much, which is a classic freshman problem. The team played hard today, which gives me hope for next year.

EDIT: Also: holy crap Roundtree. four years of Forcier throwing to him is not looking so bad.

Sad to say, but it's true.

I look forward to an open QB competition between Tate, Denard, and Gardner. Regardless who wins, our QB situation will be better next year.

went from unflappable early in the season to in a shell by the end of this game. He'll have a lot to think about this offseason, not a great taste to have in your mouth going into a nine-month offseason. Hopefully he can rebound; the DG position battle will be legit next fall.

Well, agreed - the D did way better than expected.

Tate on the other hand .... he thought his worst day ever happened a week and a half ago ....

Ah well, close down on the recruits Rich -- we want a full class of great players!

The gameplan was awesome, the D played lights out, but Tate had way too many mistakes and turnovers to come out with the W...Most, if not all of those turnovers were on him and him only. But hey, he's a true frosh and i'm still proud of our guys. Go Blue!

They did not give up today. The defense played inspired. The offense moved the ball on this good Ohio State defense. They did not quit. This was our game and we gave it away. Again.

Forcier made freshman mistakes. Guys do that. They can have a competition next year, but unless Forcier just craps the bed or Robinson makes huge strides, this team will be much better with him leading the charge than anyone else. He played poorly against one of the best defenses in the country. I'll take that as a true freshman.

And unfortunately did freshman things against by far the best defense he faced. True freshman without great pass blocking against the best defensive line in the nation = death.

Hopefully as he matures he'll be able to throw off mistakes a bit better.

Ohio State's offense has really been pretty lackluster this year. I'm wondering if part of the reason UM's defense looked so good is simply because OSU's offense is that bad.

I don't mean to sound like a debbie downer here, but I'm not getting too optimistic about the defense simply from today's game. But, I do hope that through the off season they can progress...our lack of depth is well documented. :(

overall for a game with 5 turnovers.

The fumble early leads to an OSU TD: +7 OSU.
The INT late when we were inside OSU 10 yard line and likely would have scored: - 7 M.

That's a 14 point swing right there just off those 2 mistakes.

He had 3 MORE INTs than that, which, in and of itself is a bad day, but take away just those 2 plays and we win the game.

The D played well and we were so, so close. And on the plays he wasn't throwing picks, Forcier actually had a good performance today.

Turnovers, freshman mistakes by Forcier killed us.

But, compared to previous weeks, excellent play by the D. And we did what we did on O today with 2 freshman QBs and without our 2 senior tailbacks.

That should give us hope for next year, even though the loss sucks. Things are headed in the right direction, hopefully RR will still be around to finish the job he's started.

Tate is not the long term solution at QB. Denard has a long way to go with the playbook, but he will now have an entire offseason and even slow progress means he'll be the QB next year IMO. Tate can't run the spread option because he's not fast enough and can't run between tackles. It is abundantly clear that RR's system is far superior with a read option and he's not going to get that with Tate. We must hope that Denard becomes a functioning pocket passer so his speed can be utilized. That way, there will be a true read option.

I should also note the friction between RR and Tate. With all the prior training, Tate has already maxed his potential, which is littered with mistakes and sloppy play interspersed with an occasional big play. So if Denard improves his passing in the offseason and wins the job, expect a transfer.

Probably has a lot to do with his age but all the facebook crap and him logging into a friends account and posting on a Michigan Fan site (allegedly) makes me think he is mentally fragile. His "confidence" seems to be more of a cover, I hope he grows up. So, let's all thank him for gift wrapping a victory for Terrell Pryor and the Buckeyes.

And, thanks for making me look like a jackass to my Buckeye friends, too. I made the argument that he was more equipped to win big games right now (not more talented, mind you) than Pryor is. Every game since that argument, Michigan has lost and Forcier has looked lost and confused.

noting:

"I love the way Tate can play, but he is a freshman and he has made some big mistakes late in the season"

I also like how Tate plays and he made mistakes that would be reasonable for any freshman in such a big game. If GERG can scheme the D like that next year and more pieces for RichRod's system one can see how things can work out. I like the idea of so much QB competition and Roy Roundtree, sir you are a revelation.

Well that was painful to watch, but it could have been a lot worse. The team played very hard and kept it closer than it should have been. The defense held an I-A opponent to under 30 for the first time since MSU, the offense was moving the ball, just not into the endzone, progress, but only a little bit at a time.

At some point when most of our players aren't freshmen and sophomores, our team is going to come out on top. And maybe we won't turn the ball over 4-5 times a game. Tate had a bad day against a great defense. No surprise there. The line wasn't strong enough to get the running game going, Tate had to throw, he couldn't do it. IMO with time on the field and in the weight room, Tate will become a guy that wins a lot of games for Michigan. I hope that his bad experiences don't affect him down the road. I think that he's a great player and so they will not.

Also, I hope that the environment and the hard effort by this team will make a favorable impression on the visiting recruits.

His mistakes were not entirely on him alone. Having ANY semblance of a running game or being able to pass w/o having to fear for his life whould have gone a long way to helping out a FRESHMAN trying to beat the best D in the B10.

I thought D'Rob played pretty well early on and I wish we would have seen a little more of him coming on and off for change of pace.

Whatever - the future is bright. Rich Rod will get this thing turned around once we get 1 or 2 more classes under the fold.

GO BLUE!

It will be a long off-season for that kid. And he is just a kid. Hopefully he's got a short memory.

And for the record, here are Tate's stats for the game:

23/38 226 5.9 1-4

Outside of the INTs, he was really good considering he had no running game to speak of. He made some mistakes, but he also moved this team up and down the field. I have faith that he'll be even better next year.

EDIT:

And for the record, here is Henne's first OSU game (on the road, but also with a much better team):

27/54 328 6.1 2-2

So Tate with a better completion %, nearly the same number of yards/pass, and no Mike Hart to keep the defense honest.

Giving up on Tate now is just insane.

i think that maybe we could have done a little better on offense if the wide recievers helped a little bit. When tate scrambled they just stood thier and watched as thier QB was scrambling for his life. they need to stop sitting on the fucking route and try to get open. adn tate needs to learn how to either throw the ball away or learn to not hold the ball away from his body toward the ground and this isnt high school just cause he ran circles around defense with the same speed kovaks doesnt mean he can do it in college the coaches need to beat that into his brain

that is all

Anyone else believe Tate would be more effective in an Air Raid type offense, instead of the spread n' shred?

look, tate had a bad day. anyone with half a brain already knows that. it comes down to this - look at his body of work this season and then make a judgement about him. hes come in as a true freshman, dealt with a line that's often been on par with swiss cheese, and not had his best RBs with him the backfield. his receivers have consistently had a case of the dropsies. he's only just found his go-to guy in roundtree. he's done a great job this season. he can only get better.

Let's all not forget that Tate had a slightly separated shoulder (AC joint sprain) in the Indiana game and really hasn't been the same ever since (with the exception of the second half of the Michigan State game.

Clearly he made a ton of mistakes in this game, but he is still the future at QB. You can reasonably assume that his shoulder will heal and his decision making will improve in the offseason. It is not a reasonable assumption that Denard will somehow transform into a competent passer.

Just pray that we get some answers at LB and in the secondary, that our RBs can stay healthy and be competent next year, and we should be pretty decent next year.

but at the same time, I feel that we wouldn't even have been in this game if it weren't for Tate. Smith had some pretty good runs here and there, but overall the run game was absolutely shut down. He made a lot of good plays and converted some big third downs. How about that 23-yarder to Mathews on 3rd and long?

He's a freshman, and I feel like he really did seem to come on strong again at the end of the year. He made some big mistakes this year, but he also did it against the defense who more than anyone in the country makes QBs pay for mistakes. To think that he won't be the starter going into next year is asinine. More than anyone, Tate gives us the chance to win.

Furthermore, to think that DG won't be redshirting is also ridiculous. Tate has what it takes to be successful here and wasting a year of eligibility for DG rather than getting a year of separation between he and Tate/Robinson would be foolish. We're not bringing in Terrelle Pryor for Todd Boeckman, here, people. With our talent at QB, DG will be able to redshirt.

Tate finished the year with a 58.7% completion rate, 2050 yards, and TD/INT ratio of 13/10 (with this being his only multi-INT game). I'll take that from a true freshman starter anyday.

Tate, rough finish, but thanks for what you did this year. Minus a few rough games (Iowa, Penn State, Ohio State), you were pretty much as much as I could've expected.

Also, two of those picks were essentially punts. The long INTs on 3rd down were more or less a wash. Obviosuly completing those would've been great, but they didn't hurt us in field position. The unforced fumble and red zone pick were killers, but he was a Freshman trying to be a hero. I think we will be just fine in his hands.

True freshman starting
Early wins raise hopes of bowl
Punched in the soul dong

This is what you get with Tate. If Tate does not do his improvisation deal then he would not make many of the plays that put everybody in awe against the non-Big Ten opponents early on, and the Vincent Smith TD today. But, with that, you get many balls knocked out in the pocket, and foolish decisions with the passing game. I'm glad to hear there is an open competition at QB, because I think Gardner is the real deal. When your coach tells you "Throw where the play is designed," something is not right. When we eliminate the read portion of the zone read something is not right. Maybe it is freshman mistakes, and he grows out of it, but I don't see it (Not to the extent we need). The way he plays is the same way he did in HS.