VIDEO: Michigan Defense vs. Alabama Every Snap
The loss of our pride boiled down to the 12 most miserable minutes. Enjoy!
September 4th, 2012 at 2:09 AM ^
Can someone who knows more about football than me explain how McCarron's throw-away on the third play of the game isn't intentional grounding? He's pressured. He's inside the tackles. He blindly chucks it out of bounds. No Alabama player is within 20 yards. This happened multiple times during the game.
September 4th, 2012 at 4:34 AM ^
Thought the same thing initially during the game. Then upon the replay they show right afterward, we can easily see a reciever running an deep-out/flag route-type pattern (I'd guess it to be ~12-15 yards up and toward the sideline). The way McCarron chucks it off of his back foot due to the pressure in his face, I'm guessing the refs assumed he was throwing toward said receiver; my thinking is the refs thought it was a legitimate attempt at throwing to him even though he definitely didn't get enough ummmph on it to get it even near him.
So yea, I guess that's my take on it. I could be completely wrong and the refs just gave Bama their typical benefit of the doubt. Honestly, to me, it could very well be flagged as Intentional Grounding.
September 4th, 2012 at 5:18 PM ^
I had the same thought when it happened - it looked pretty obvious
September 4th, 2012 at 5:33 AM ^
It certainly looked like grounding to me.
September 4th, 2012 at 11:10 AM ^
Ummm...yeah.
I didn't watch the game at all (and only watched the first 5 minutes of this video) but I saw two BLATANT intentional groundings that were not called. Have they loosened up the rules in a continuing effort to protect QB's?
McCarron just chucks the ball away twice when he has a guy right in his face (still inside the tackles) and the ball isn't within 10 yards of a receiver. It's a miracle UM got any sacks at all given the loose interpretation of intentional grounding rules Bama was getting.
Again, as always, no significant outcome on the game, but jeez....
September 4th, 2012 at 1:20 PM ^
...intentional grounding.
September 4th, 2012 at 2:32 AM ^
They never stopped playing hard.
How was 11:45 a block in the back?
There are a lot of questionable penalties, but it's pretty clear that Alabama was much more physical.
September 4th, 2012 at 2:37 AM ^
For my own edification, the takedown at 5:57.....isn't that holding?
Edit: Man they blew us off the ball a lot :( That NT was incredible.
September 4th, 2012 at 2:53 AM ^
yes and it was called
September 4th, 2012 at 3:20 AM ^
a lot of frosh got there saturday night made some plays. inside michigan football episode 2 was last night with hoke looking forward to that clip as well? thanks for clips..
September 4th, 2012 at 3:31 AM ^
As of now, I'm waiting for the Germans who were up north to turn on the TiVo PC so I can remote desktop in and grab it. If there are any Germans who were up north reading this, PLEASE TURN ON THE TIVO PC. I'm not making this up. If anyone else has a more solid Inside Michigan Football connection, let me know.
September 4th, 2012 at 8:13 AM ^
ahhh... I still appreciate all your work. I saw its coming on Thursday on FSD.
September 4th, 2012 at 3:26 AM ^
That first throw away is the exact definition of intentional grounding
September 4th, 2012 at 8:24 AM ^
But from the replay view, you could see there was at least a receiver running downfield on that side.
September 4th, 2012 at 8:37 AM ^
That has nothing to do with it. He didn't throw it anywhere near that guy, and it was clear that the ball wasn't tipped in any fashion. Just because you throw it to the same side of the field as a receiver doesn't negate the grounding call. Or, well, it shouldn't.
September 4th, 2012 at 9:34 AM ^
September 4th, 2012 at 4:02 AM ^
As I have under 100 points, I cannot create my own thread. I should have worked harder to get up to 100 before this point, but it's too late now. Anyways, I'm leaving to go on a NOLS course in New Zealand for a semester on friday. Sadly, it ends three days after the OSU game. Thus, I'm going to miss the entire season, with no hope of finding out how Michigan is doing until Nov. 27th. This is heart breaking, but I wanted to ask the community if you had any ideas on the best way to look up their record and such. One idea I had is to have a friend send me the highlights of each game in an embeded video. That way I could watch each game unfold, and still get a glimmer of the season's suspense. Any other ideas? Sorry for the highjack
September 4th, 2012 at 4:40 AM ^
Have your friend send you the every snap videos that are inevitably posted on this site. Miss nothing.
September 4th, 2012 at 5:07 AM ^
else i dont understand yo problem
September 4th, 2012 at 9:04 AM ^
There is, but Sauron and his evil minons have relegated everyone else to dial-up speeds through their never ending pirating of Three's Company episodes.
September 4th, 2012 at 7:28 AM ^
Our LBs get cut way too easily and often. I didn't get too far into the video, but from one I saw of the first few drives, our DL was alright but our LBs were not. Gotta get that fixed.
September 4th, 2012 at 7:43 AM ^
September 4th, 2012 at 8:06 AM ^
I don't think it really matters because he was good enough to kick Michigan's butt. The game wasn't on his shoulders like it was Denard's. And Michigan returned every starter from the back seven from last season, while Alabama didn't; of course, Countess left early, but that was still 6/7 guys who were starting at the same spots last season. Michigan's coverage is going to be pretty good whenever the corners aren't slipping and falling to the ground.
September 4th, 2012 at 4:04 PM ^
What was the deal with the field? It seemed like a lot of guys were slipping . . . more than you usually see on a Fieldturf field.
September 4th, 2012 at 7:54 AM ^
but if you focus on Roh you can see the dude got absolutely mauled in this game and was sealed on just about every play. I feel bad for the guy, he works hard, but just didn't have the weight/strength to take on Bama lineman and looked very small out there comparatively.
September 4th, 2012 at 8:07 AM ^
Fluker and Kouandjio might be the two best (and biggest) tackles Michigan plays against all season. That was somewhat expected.
September 4th, 2012 at 11:20 AM ^
Wow are you being rational for once? Going from saying that we had an "awful performance for the whole team" to realizing we're not playing the likes of a Wisconsin or Michigan State here.
The Alabama offensive line is simply incredible... perfect technique, perfect blocking, perfect size, perfect chemistry. Just perfect. Our front seven was mauled by them. In fact, I think our defense is going to be one of the best in the Big 10 simply because we did a pretty good job against Lacy, Fowler, and Hart. That Yeldon kid, though.... wow!
September 4th, 2012 at 11:43 AM ^
Huh? When did I say it was an awful performance for the whole team?
September 4th, 2012 at 3:12 PM ^
Incorrect recollection, you said it was an awful performance for the whole defense, despite the secondary playing pretty well and the D-line mostly doing their job (they should have held the blocks longer, but Bama's O-line is just too good).
Thread: "Changes in the Lineup Next Week"
Post #: 28
September 4th, 2012 at 7:57 AM ^
September 4th, 2012 at 9:20 AM ^
Stopped after the 3rd play. We look good!
September 4th, 2012 at 9:33 AM ^
September 4th, 2012 at 10:38 AM ^
I'm not masochistic enough for to sit through this again, even if the pain is boiled down to 12 minutes instead of prolonged over 3.5 hours.
God bless you if you can stomach it though.
September 4th, 2012 at 10:44 AM ^
Anyone else notice Thomas Gordan's tackling? He seemed to miss a lot of open field tackles, and some of his angles took him completely out of the play. Other than that, I'm pretty impressed with the pressure we were able to get on the Alabama O-Line, needed some help offensively for sure.
September 4th, 2012 at 11:10 AM ^
September 4th, 2012 at 11:16 AM ^
Ya, but ultimately this is for fun for me. I take it too seriously to be sure, but it is supposed to be for fun. I'll leave the coaching staff to examine the team as a whole. I get paid to do plenty of unpleasent things, but this isn't one of them.
September 4th, 2012 at 11:39 AM ^
September 4th, 2012 at 11:46 AM ^
It was sad to see so many poor attempts at tackles -- there were several instances where another step puts the helmet across the body, and turns a missed arm tackle into a successful stop. The encouraging thing is that THAT problem is very fixable. I'm curious to see the DL UFR scores. I think some (definitely not all) performed okay against a really tough OL.
September 4th, 2012 at 11:53 AM ^
To be honest, I thought Michigan's defensive backs were very wary of stepping in front of those 220-ish lb. running backs. The tackling technique doesn't need to be fixed, really. Letting those running backs get a free run at sub-200 lb. defensive backs is the problem. They need to be slowed down by defensive linemen and linebackers before they get there.
September 4th, 2012 at 1:22 PM ^
I think I mostly agree with your take. There weren't as many instances as I recalled, but a few examples: I believe it is Floyd at the 3:05 mark who came up in run support, and needed to get across the guy. Gordon has a coupe of instances, one at 3:15 and one at the 6:15, in which a poor angle results in missed arm tackes, and a guy running free to the outside. It was probably just my frustration that amplified in my mind the number of those plays that occurred. It certainly wasn't the difference in the game.
September 4th, 2012 at 11:52 AM ^
Will Campbell was by no means a savior, but in relation to some others on that D, he didn't play half bad. I tweeted that and got some backlash, but there are only a couple plays in there where he looks like he got really abused.
September 4th, 2012 at 12:55 PM ^
I haven't studied the film, but my impression: Campbell had some nice flashes, and was usually on the backside of the bigger plays.
September 4th, 2012 at 12:42 PM ^
Oddly, I feel a lot better about our defense after watching this video than I did after sitting through the game at Jerry World. I'm not so sure I'll feel the same way after I watch the offensive snaps video, though.
September 4th, 2012 at 2:00 PM ^
the same way. watching live (and drunk) it seemed much, much worse.
the first denard INT after that long touchdown seemed to deflate the defense alot. having to defend bama against that short field seemed to really put the nail in the coffin. it was demoralizing.
September 4th, 2012 at 1:10 PM ^
I guess I didn't realize it went from 0-0 at 7:00 left in the 1st quarter to 21-0 with 1:29 left in the quarter. That is 3 touchdowns in 5-1/2 minutes! Man take that stretch out and its not such a horrible game.
Yes, I maintain my glass is half full.
September 4th, 2012 at 1:58 PM ^
Our 2nd level run defense was absolutely horrid. Watching that, the DL was not so bad. LBs, safeties, and corners need a lot of work vs. the run.
September 4th, 2012 at 9:34 PM ^
My own personal thoughts. I am not a footbal expert but I enjoy trying to analyze the game.
DLine:
They all got pushed around for much of the game, but overall it wasn't as bad as I originally thought. BWC I thought was the best overall performer, he didn't get completely blown up by double teams and got some nice push into the backfield one on one. Still had a few plays where his technique broke down and flopped. Doubt he will ever live up to the recruiting hype but I think there is a very noticeable improvement over last year and I think he will hold up very well in the big ten.
Roh I thought was the worst performer of the starters. He consistently got thrown to the ground one on one. He just doesn't look strong enough or have the mass to hold up. None of the backups did any better at that spot. Jake Ryan got pushed badly as well when he was on the line, but he was also by far our most dangerous pass rusher.
Linebacker:
This is the position group that is going to get the biggest beating in the UFR, imo. Biggest disappointment of all players for me was Kenny Demens (relative to expectations, just to be clear). He got handled by anyone who got into position to block him. Granted a number of times a guard or center got a free release and had position on him, but there were numerous instances where he had the opportunity to make a play but didn't have the athleticism to pull it off. Check out the plays starting at 1:20, 2:16, and 5:38.
He was pulled in favor of Ross in the first half, who ended up playing just as bad or worse. Ross' speed and decisiveness was on display, but he commonly overran plays or was out of position. I expect he will remain a primary back up and could possibly replace Demens as a starter by the end of the year as he gains experience.
Morgan was more of a sure tackler and is clearly stronger than Demens, but he isn't particularly quick which limits his playmaking ability.
Safeties:
Kovacs definitely struggled on the day. He made a few trademark Kovacs plays (start at 5:12, love it) but also missed a few tackles and even lost outside contain which seems so rare for him. Still one of our best defenders even on an off day.
Gordon missed a few really key tackles. Didn't get a chance to see much of the backups.
Corners:
With the exception of the big Avery gaff on the long touchdown, I thought the corners had a pretty good day. Alabama didn't throw much, so they weren't commonly tested. I thought they had pretty tight coverage, though. Most of bama's passing yards came off of screens and short throws and the one long touchdown.
Ramon Taylor looked pretty good and was decent in run support. Floyd is still bad at run support, but didn't make any huge mistakes.
Anyway, just my thoughts after watching the video a few times. Feel free to critcize since I obviously don't have a strong football background.