YAR - A Disagreement with the Blogmaster

It started okay, but this still just seems like mental masturbation on the part of the OP.

*Note 1 - I have seen Brian analyze a play stating that Denard is looking at the end and the LB to decide to keep or not to keep. You read the end, and that is it, expecially with a 5'10" QB.

I think that Brian is all for some good criticism, but this statement is incorrect.  Alabama runs a 3-4 defense.  The read on that defense would be the WILL or JACK linebacker (depending on which way the play is going).  Who you are reading doesn't depend on the height of the QB - it depends on how the defense is lined up.

The dislike about that sort of talk is mainly around how you can basically pre-write a story about a game and just fill in the blanks with whatever names you want.

It's hacky and insulting to imply that in a goal line situation one team wants to score more than the other team wants to deny them that score.  I'm sure you've noticed that Brian does awknowledge intangibles, whether it be Mike Martin's passion, Zach Novak's grit, or Jordan Kovacs' smarts. Some things are real and can be awknowledged.  Other statements like "Michigan wanted to win the Sugar Bowl more than Virginia Tech" are just plainly stupid.  it's hacky journalism at best and does nothing but fill column inches by doing the least amount of work possible.

Anybody who comes up with a sports and/or engineering background can probably be counted on to dislike "luck".  It is not better to be lucky than good, its best to win.  You guarantee victory by eliminating or minimizing stray variables that might hurt your chances.  Luck can explain things like recovering 75% of forced fumbles or winning a casino jackpot.  It is silly to continue to predict that such things will continue to happen.

Putting it another way, you can explain the past as being influenced to a certain degree by luck.  You should not use something that is inherently up to chance to try and predict the future.

I have no problem with you disagreeing with Brian, but this whole post is a mess.

In response to the criticism of Brian:

Brian has always been reactionary and emotional whenever something significant happens (good or bad). At this point it's almost a part of his shtick. It's one of the aspects of Brian's writing that has made this blog so endearing to thousands of Michigan fans. It's also one of the reasons Brian can become temporarily insufferable (like in the aftermath of the Hoke hiring). You have to keep in mind that Brian is one part fan, one part journalist, and one part analyst. Occasionally the fan in Brian bleeds into the analysis, usually after something extreme takes place. That's not to say that he's always, or even mostly wrong when it happens, just that you should keep that in mind when reading his analysis post Alabama (or an event of a similair magnitude). 

In response to the criticism of the game plan:

I was honestly shocked at the "rage" a lot of people displayed after the game. Not because I didn't expect people would be upset about a 27 point beatdown on national television, rather, that people genuinely believed a different outcome was possible.

Not to toot my own horn, because Zeus knows I hoped for a far different outcome, but most of the things I thought would happen, happened.

• Denard being held to under 30 rushing yards.
• Denard throwing multiple interceptions.
• Vincent Smith and Thomas Rawls being completely ineffective at tailback.
• Rushing for fewer than 100 total yards.
• Alabama's offensive line crushing our defensive line and allowing their tailbacks to run all over our defense.
• Losing by more than 3 touchdowns.

I think even the most starry eyed Denard optimist has to admit that when DRob has come up against "elite" defenses over the course of his career, the results have generally been awful. I love Denard, but I expected his ceiling for that game to be 2011 Michigan State type numbers (9-24 123 yards - 1TD-1INT - 18CAR 42 yards - 2.7YPC - 1TD), which was essentially what we got, minus 8 carries and plus a 71 yard bomb. 

Based on what I saw, giving Denard 10 or 15 more carries would have only been slightly more effective than handing it off to Vincent Smith, and probably would have resulted in Denard being more banged up than he was. 

The only real path to victory was the one Michigan was given, with Denard having to make accurate throws into the very small windows in Alabama's pass defense. Michigan also desperately needed to win the turnover battle. When neither of those things occurred, the outcome was basically a given. Denard simply wasn't going to beat Alabama with his feet.

Against a defense like Bama's the offense must keep them honest. Michigans offens can't do that because of the limitations in the passing game. The good news is Michigan shouldn't face another defense that can stop the run until they play Sparty. The bad news is we will lose a fifth straight game to Sparty if our defense can't stop the run. I just hope the defense keeps improving. I can't handle another loss to MSU.

Brian understands scheming better than urban Meyer , man.

They didn't run Denard a lot because they didn't want him to get murdered. They hoped his passing ability progressed enough to make Bama pay for playing the run. It didn't. He was either off target, the receiver ran a sloppy route, or they played great defense (or was able to shove receivers down when they felt like it). We've seen this before it's nothing new. That's my take anyways.

agree with your post, but I respect you for posting it..At the end of the day, this is a blog...

At this point after looking at so many posts about why this or that happened, it is getting very tiring.

The basic fact is this, we lost to a great team that we are no where close to at this point in time. Our Dline is too inexperinced, our QB is from a different system, and our WR's are an average of 5 10". With the exception of Devin. With our recruiting we will get there, it will just take a while.

So lets all do ourselves a favor, take the advice from the players and don't let the loss carry on.

We moved on from orgeon and app state, IMO this isnt as bad as those loss's.

Just think of how sweet it will be when all those MSU fans who were throwing crap at us end up losing to us. 

So please, move on and get over it. There is no point in any of it anymore.

I really don't think we were doomed to lose that game from the start. There were a LOT of plays in the first half that, had they gone our way, we would have been very competitive and perhaps even won the game.

In particular, Denard several times overthrew wide open receivers that would have at least gotten a first down. Alabama also got two trouchdowns off of two turnovers on us. Don't forget that missed facemask that, as a result of Lewan's penalty on the same play, effectively killed the drive rather than force a do-over on the down. Make a few of those receptions and take away the turnovers, and we're maybe down a touchdown at the half, if that.

Make no mistake, Alabama has the better team, and that's why the things that happened, well, happened, but even in our current state, they were in fact beatable. We just didn't execute anywhere near well enough to make it happen and it'll be a year or two before we can go toe to toe with them and be able to recover form some of the mistakes we made.

Anyone who watched Denard score on that six-and-goal knows how dangerous he can be as a runner. He had nothing to work with, he wormed his way through the pile, and he got SIX YARDS. Smith would've bounced off the back of an o-lineman. Sure, maybe they were keying on Denard, but the great thing about him is that he generally gets positive yardage because he's so elusive. I have to think if he'd had some designed runs in there (not many, but 10-15 runs for the game sounds about right), we would've had another touchdown at least.

As I stated to my Bama fans, this is a game we would have loved to play in the 90's and up until about 2007.  We were built to handle Bama and they have simply caught us in a transition period.  I mentioned that 2015 is the mark on wall for me.  That being said, I thought that their "NFL" defense did not bring near as much pressure on Denard as I anticipated nor ol SEC-loving Herby mentioned.  Denard did miss several crucial drive extending passes.  This was a type of game where a Braylon or Terrell or Manningham would have fared very well. 

Our running game did about exactly as I anticipated.  I'm okay with the lack of designed Denard runs althought I wish he would have scrambled a couple of more times.  I truly think that is where he could have caused a crisis with the Bama D. 

I, for one, cannot wait for the UFR.  I am anxious to see how PeeWee and the other freshman performed.  I am NOT so anxious to see the ratings for our linebackers.  My gut reaction was that our DL fared better than the LBs. 

I disagree with most of your points but I upvoted your post anyway. I was dreading a rant when I clicked, but I thought iyou made your points but in an even-handed way, and that's a good thing.

I don't know nor pretend to know enough about football schemes to comment on much or the OP, but a couple of things do stand out to me.

1) The whole multi-paragraph disclaimer makes you sound like a douche bag, as though you think the posters here are mindless blog fans and we need to be told to be objective; the whole disclaimer takes up nearly a 1/ 4 of your post.  If it had been a sentence or two, it wouldn't been as bad, but I found your lengthy disclaimer insulting. It made me doubt your judgment and motives from the very start.

2) Your claim here suggests you must not read the blog that much or you are just making shit up.

Everyone writing here seems to hate DB, or at least I never seem to see anything positive posted about him or his decisions around here.

Especially this one:

"I apologize for the rant but I just see this loss as the confirmation Brian needs that RR's offense was the tactically best in college football (not saying he wants RR as our coach, in any regard), and I think I speak for a number of people who have not voiced their opinion."

Dude, you are so off base on this comment.  I believe Brian's fondness of RR's offense is only based on the fact that Denard is the starting QB, and likely gives a Denard-led offense the best chance to be successful.  Denard is obviously more talented at running the ball than he is as a traditional QB.  I highly doubt without Denard at the helm, Brian would even be bringing this up.

"Everyone writing here seems to hate DB, or at least I never seem to see anything positive posted about him or his decisions around here." - Deep Under Cover

As late as yesterday afternoon, there was a thread where numerous people were supportive of Brandon and his scheduling of this game, as well as supportive of what he has done for the university's athletic programs in general, so this statement is not exactly true. If you search back through the site, many threads revolve around decisions driven by David Brandon, and there is a sizeable contingent of MGoBloggers that are generally supportive of his running of the department, though we may criticize individual decisions or individual aspects of those decisions.

is my Homeboy

Brian is one of many many voices here.  I am sure we have all had the thoughts you are expressing.  Once Brian gets a thought in his head, he will defend/support it well past the point of reason, and Denard being able to run on ANY defense is one of his favorites.

In general. it might be more helpful to address these topics when they come up, rather than to write one giant "Brian is so stupid" post.  You might be surprised how well your ideas are received.  There isn't a lot of censorship here. 

And as to the whole Cowboy classic experience...Bama does that to everybody.  We're just too close to the situation to recognize it.  The only team to beat 'Bama last year scored 9 points in 9 quarters.  Michigan's output against Bama would have tied them for second best last year.  Denard/Scheme/the offense wasn't the problem on Saturday.

Michigan may never see an offensive line like that again.  Thank God for that.

I think this may be the most down I have ever seen Mgoblog. I guess I wasn't reading the blog as heavily during the last Rich Rod years, but I've never seen the board as depressed as it has been since Saturday.

I think Brian and other contributors on this site have to be critical of coaching philosophy and decisions, even though they will readily admit the coaches know WAY more then they do; just as you are being critical of Brian even though he probably knows way more then you do.  As much as he has stated that he is a fan, he has an obligation to be objective.  I think coach Mattison would tell you that the all out blitzes on 3rd and long weren't necessarily the best idea in retrospect especially since Alabama had them sniffed out and called screens against them all day.  The point is even our coaches aren't perfect, they make errors and objective sports writers have an obligation to point out those errors.

I think Brian's position on the offense is that it should be predicated around Denard's running.  I don't think this is that bold of a position since our best offensive showings from last year were also his better rushing days.  I personally don't believe that our offense can be successful if we rely on Denard to beat other teams solely with his arm, which is what we tried to do on Saturday.  I understand we were playing Alabama and that they were keyed in on preventing him from running, but you can't allow a team to take away the one thing you do best.  Do you think Denard would be our starting quarterback if he had the speed of Elvis Grbac (not going to pile on Navarre)?  I don't, so how can you win with a game plan that limits  how much he runs?  I think these are legitimate questions and yes I am sure an increased workload would have exposed him to injury, but then what was the point of playing the game?   We were outmatched physically, they executed better then we did, they seemed to have better talent, and at the end of the day our coaches were probably out-coached.  I think given the final score even they would admit that there were things that they needed to do differently to give the team any sort of chance to win.  So how is anything Brian has said out of line?  

I am not certain why you care so much about another persons opinion. I could care less if Brian likes pizza. I know I like pizza. I don't want to convince him to like pizza the same way I do because that would be crazy. He is free to enjoy pizza or not enjoy pizza just as I am. He may not like olives and maybe I do. I don't want to convince him to like olives. Why would I want to do that?