Although Michigan has greatly exceeded expectations this year, in my opinion by a lot given our wretched performances in recent years, this humiliating, RichRod-scale beatdown ends the whole season on an awfully sour note. All the more so since even Hoke managed to make the OSU game competitive. This time around, our mediocre running game and our mediocre linebacker play really came back to haunt us. These have been glaring weaknesses all season long, and against talented teams like Ohio State (esp. when they are angry after an embarrassing loss of their own), there is simply no way to conceal or overcome those weaknesses. I don't understand why Durkin didn't follow the very same defensive formula that worked so well for the Spartans last week, even granting that our LBs aren't nearly as good, since I think our D line is comparable and our secondary is better than those of MSU. (Having said that, I don't understand the nasty comments in this thread about Durkin, who has done a great job most of the year. I think we're lucky to have him.) But we definitely need to recruit some big fast LBs ASAP, and we also desperately need to recruit some bruising, shifty, speedy RBs like Elliot. As I've said before, it's embarrassing when lesser teams like Indiana, Northwestern, Minnesota, and Illinois all somehow manage to recruit better RBs than we do. (How is that even possible?) Worst of all, our wretched performance today in the greatest rivalry game in college football is probably going to deter several of our top recruiting targets from coming to Michigan. When we lay an egg in front of lots of potential recruits, it isn't going to help us land them.
Yikes! If anyone had told me four weeks ago that Rudock would throw six TD passes, including long balls, for ca. 450 yards and that the Michigan D would give up 300 yards (mostly right up the middle) to an Indiana power running attack, I'd have laughed. Sadly, it looks like we'll have to depend for the rest of the season upon other stellar performances by Rudock and his receivers to compensate for a mediocre (and seemingly worsening) running game and a collapsing run defense (albeit one that is obviously suffering now from a series of unforeseen injuries). Still, it's embarrassing to get pushed around by the Indiana O line and have (an admittedly outstanding) back running over and through Michigan NGs and LBs like a knife through butter. I was much more confident in our ability to corral Zeke Elliot and even J. T. Barrett before the Minnesota and Indiana games, but now things are looking rather grim. The O line seems to be getting worse rather than better, and our backs (other than the fullbacks and the occasional great play by Smith and Peppers) are still mind-bogglingly mediocre. Although our wide receivers have come along much better than I would have guessed given their unimpressive performances under the Hoke regime, it is a serious indictment of Hoke's eye for talent that less prestigious teams like Indiana, Illinois, and Northwestern nowadays all have much better RBs than our highly touted 5 star guys have turned out to be. Not to mention Zeke and Saquon Barkley (who will no doubt run wild this week if our run defense continues to play so poorly). Finally, if we keep playing with fire in these close games, we're going to get burned again, possibly as early as next week in Happy Valley. Perhaps the only saving grace is that both Penn State and Ohio State have also both been inconsistent in their performances this year.
This game was frankly embarrassing, and reminds me - yet again - of why I hate "bye weeks" - if you lose before a bye week, you've got two weeks to stew about it, whereas if you've been winning, it derails your forward momentum. Sure, Minnesota was really fired up because they wanted to win won for Coach Kill, and sure, Michigan hasn't been a great road team for several years. But when your #1 rated defense makes Mitch Leidner look like a top NFL prospect (over 300 yards passing!) and gives up nearly 150 yards on the ground, it has played very poorly (even accounting for lucky breaks). After all, Leidner is no Connor Cook, and Minnesota's offense has been stumbling most of the year. Plus, we still have the same problems with iffy QB play, RBs who have a hard time getting yardage against stout run defenses, and LBs who are not fast enough. I sincerely hope that this game will serve as a wakeup call, esp. for the defense. Otherwise we may give up lots of yards and points to Indiana, Penn State, and Ohio State. Also, unless there are significant improvements in the next two weeks, I think our prospects of winning those last two games are pretty slim unless the seemingly dominant Michigan team of previous weeks reappears.
BTW, I'm very concerned that Rudock's seeming inabilty to throw accurate long balls this season may come back to haunt us yet again, perhaps against PSU as well as OSU, both of whom will load the box with talented defenders to stop the run and thus force Rudock to win the game by completing passes downfield. Unfortunately, I doubt whether we will have enough offensive firepower, esp. in the passing game, to match the Buckeye's offense, which now seems to be hitting its stride with J.T. Barrett at QB. Needless to say, I hope I'm wrong and that Michigan will somehow prevail. Given how our defense is playing, if we had a quality passer like Connor Cook or Kevin Hogan at Stanford, we could conceivably have won the Big 10 championship and been in the NC playoffs in Harbaugh's first year as coach.
Oddly enough, Gerry DiNardo made some useful points on BTN re that shocking punt block, namely, that there had been some bad snaps and missed blocking assignments on earlier UM punts in that MSU game. BTN showed the actual footage, and he was right. So I do think that it is fair to point out that certain UM coaches (Baxter?) should have made an effort to correct those earlier mistakes, as well as to warn Blake to fall on the ball if things went south. Also, other people have commented on the gunner on the left side, who was blocking no one and running downfield even though there was no Spartan returner. Also, the blocking of certain linemen on that play was very poor - apart from one major missed block, it seems as if some linemen were shedding their blocks early in order to run downfield (as they would normally do) instead of holding their blocks longer, with the result that lots of Spartan defenders were in the backfield within seconds. Even so, the Spartans were lucky to be able to snag the ball in the air and run it back to our endzone. But mistakes were definitely made on that play apart from the bobbling of the ball. As for MSU fans, many of them are bad sports and, thus, insensitive bullies when they win, as is typical of immature people with inferiority complexes. Nothing new there. Finally, I know that many UM fans profess to hate the Buckeyes (and vice versa), but as a UM alum and longtime Wolverines football fan, I don't feel that way at all. I actually want Ohio State to beat most other teams, esp. outside of the Big 10 - as long as they lose to us in the last game of the regular season. After all, the UM-OSU game has much more significance when both teams are really good. IMHO, the optimal scenario is when both teams enter that game 11-0 and when we then win the game.
After watching the BYU-UCLA game, I feel that our game with BYU next week will be kind of a bellweather game for this entire season. BYU has an accurate QB who can move well in the pocket and run if necessary, very tall receivers who are difficult to cover, a tough RB who can bounce outside, and an aggressive defense with confusing blitz schemes. Our defense will have to play extremely well, our OL will have to block better, our RBs will have to find holes, and Rudock will have be accurate and TO-free for us to win. If BYU beats up on us next week, that will not bode well for our toughest conference games. My main concern is that once we start playing talented teams that load the box to stop the run, we will be in real trouble because our QB cannot seem to hit passes over 20 yards. I have faith in Harbaugh, since our team is playing much tougher this year, but it will take time and some top recruiting classes before we return to glory.
Recent Comments
Although Michigan has greatly exceeded expectations this year, in my opinion by a lot given our wretched performances in recent years, this humiliating, RichRod-scale beatdown ends the whole season on an awfully sour note. All the more so since even Hoke managed to make the OSU game competitive. This time around, our mediocre running game and our mediocre linebacker play really came back to haunt us. These have been glaring weaknesses all season long, and against talented teams like Ohio State (esp. when they are angry after an embarrassing loss of their own), there is simply no way to conceal or overcome those weaknesses. I don't understand why Durkin didn't follow the very same defensive formula that worked so well for the Spartans last week, even granting that our LBs aren't nearly as good, since I think our D line is comparable and our secondary is better than those of MSU. (Having said that, I don't understand the nasty comments in this thread about Durkin, who has done a great job most of the year. I think we're lucky to have him.) But we definitely need to recruit some big fast LBs ASAP, and we also desperately need to recruit some bruising, shifty, speedy RBs like Elliot. As I've said before, it's embarrassing when lesser teams like Indiana, Northwestern, Minnesota, and Illinois all somehow manage to recruit better RBs than we do. (How is that even possible?) Worst of all, our wretched performance today in the greatest rivalry game in college football is probably going to deter several of our top recruiting targets from coming to Michigan. When we lay an egg in front of lots of potential recruits, it isn't going to help us land them.
Yikes! If anyone had told me four weeks ago that Rudock would throw six TD passes, including long balls, for ca. 450 yards and that the Michigan D would give up 300 yards (mostly right up the middle) to an Indiana power running attack, I'd have laughed. Sadly, it looks like we'll have to depend for the rest of the season upon other stellar performances by Rudock and his receivers to compensate for a mediocre (and seemingly worsening) running game and a collapsing run defense (albeit one that is obviously suffering now from a series of unforeseen injuries). Still, it's embarrassing to get pushed around by the Indiana O line and have (an admittedly outstanding) back running over and through Michigan NGs and LBs like a knife through butter. I was much more confident in our ability to corral Zeke Elliot and even J. T. Barrett before the Minnesota and Indiana games, but now things are looking rather grim. The O line seems to be getting worse rather than better, and our backs (other than the fullbacks and the occasional great play by Smith and Peppers) are still mind-bogglingly mediocre. Although our wide receivers have come along much better than I would have guessed given their unimpressive performances under the Hoke regime, it is a serious indictment of Hoke's eye for talent that less prestigious teams like Indiana, Illinois, and Northwestern nowadays all have much better RBs than our highly touted 5 star guys have turned out to be. Not to mention Zeke and Saquon Barkley (who will no doubt run wild this week if our run defense continues to play so poorly). Finally, if we keep playing with fire in these close games, we're going to get burned again, possibly as early as next week in Happy Valley. Perhaps the only saving grace is that both Penn State and Ohio State have also both been inconsistent in their performances this year.
This game was frankly embarrassing, and reminds me - yet again - of why I hate "bye weeks" - if you lose before a bye week, you've got two weeks to stew about it, whereas if you've been winning, it derails your forward momentum. Sure, Minnesota was really fired up because they wanted to win won for Coach Kill, and sure, Michigan hasn't been a great road team for several years. But when your #1 rated defense makes Mitch Leidner look like a top NFL prospect (over 300 yards passing!) and gives up nearly 150 yards on the ground, it has played very poorly (even accounting for lucky breaks). After all, Leidner is no Connor Cook, and Minnesota's offense has been stumbling most of the year. Plus, we still have the same problems with iffy QB play, RBs who have a hard time getting yardage against stout run defenses, and LBs who are not fast enough. I sincerely hope that this game will serve as a wakeup call, esp. for the defense. Otherwise we may give up lots of yards and points to Indiana, Penn State, and Ohio State. Also, unless there are significant improvements in the next two weeks, I think our prospects of winning those last two games are pretty slim unless the seemingly dominant Michigan team of previous weeks reappears.
BTW, I'm very concerned that Rudock's seeming inabilty to throw accurate long balls this season may come back to haunt us yet again, perhaps against PSU as well as OSU, both of whom will load the box with talented defenders to stop the run and thus force Rudock to win the game by completing passes downfield. Unfortunately, I doubt whether we will have enough offensive firepower, esp. in the passing game, to match the Buckeye's offense, which now seems to be hitting its stride with J.T. Barrett at QB. Needless to say, I hope I'm wrong and that Michigan will somehow prevail. Given how our defense is playing, if we had a quality passer like Connor Cook or Kevin Hogan at Stanford, we could conceivably have won the Big 10 championship and been in the NC playoffs in Harbaugh's first year as coach.
Oddly enough, Gerry DiNardo made some useful points on BTN re that shocking punt block, namely, that there had been some bad snaps and missed blocking assignments on earlier UM punts in that MSU game. BTN showed the actual footage, and he was right. So I do think that it is fair to point out that certain UM coaches (Baxter?) should have made an effort to correct those earlier mistakes, as well as to warn Blake to fall on the ball if things went south. Also, other people have commented on the gunner on the left side, who was blocking no one and running downfield even though there was no Spartan returner. Also, the blocking of certain linemen on that play was very poor - apart from one major missed block, it seems as if some linemen were shedding their blocks early in order to run downfield (as they would normally do) instead of holding their blocks longer, with the result that lots of Spartan defenders were in the backfield within seconds. Even so, the Spartans were lucky to be able to snag the ball in the air and run it back to our endzone. But mistakes were definitely made on that play apart from the bobbling of the ball. As for MSU fans, many of them are bad sports and, thus, insensitive bullies when they win, as is typical of immature people with inferiority complexes. Nothing new there. Finally, I know that many UM fans profess to hate the Buckeyes (and vice versa), but as a UM alum and longtime Wolverines football fan, I don't feel that way at all. I actually want Ohio State to beat most other teams, esp. outside of the Big 10 - as long as they lose to us in the last game of the regular season. After all, the UM-OSU game has much more significance when both teams are really good. IMHO, the optimal scenario is when both teams enter that game 11-0 and when we then win the game.
After watching the BYU-UCLA game, I feel that our game with BYU next week will be kind of a bellweather game for this entire season. BYU has an accurate QB who can move well in the pocket and run if necessary, very tall receivers who are difficult to cover, a tough RB who can bounce outside, and an aggressive defense with confusing blitz schemes. Our defense will have to play extremely well, our OL will have to block better, our RBs will have to find holes, and Rudock will have be accurate and TO-free for us to win. If BYU beats up on us next week, that will not bode well for our toughest conference games. My main concern is that once we start playing talented teams that load the box to stop the run, we will be in real trouble because our QB cannot seem to hit passes over 20 yards. I have faith in Harbaugh, since our team is playing much tougher this year, but it will take time and some top recruiting classes before we return to glory.