Al Borges = Mike Martz
I am starting to believe that Borges thinks he is a genius (just like Mike Martz), when clearly he is not (also, like Mike Martz). His inabilaty to not use the "fritz" package is driving me crazy. This play has not worked since the Minnesota game, and even then it wasn't that great. I can see him thinking "this play is working great, now I am going to try something completely different". Touissant up the middle was working fine, and what is with all the "bombs away" shit, when a short passing game makes more sense. Denard isn't a bad passer, but he isn't a pocket passer because he has the tendency to pass off of his back foot, when pressured. Every fucking time that we had a good gain on offense, Al brought in Gardner to throw a giant bucket of crap on our momentum. I am not going to whine about the officiating, because if Al wouldn't have burried his head in his gigantic ass, we would have won easily.
I blame this guy, more than the officials ^^^
November 5th, 2011 at 7:12 PM ^
This isn't going to end well
November 5th, 2011 at 10:14 PM ^
OP = Teddy Ruxpin
November 6th, 2011 at 12:38 AM ^
Yes, we are 7-2 but we could have won the two loses. Al is failing as he is not making Denard better, and his use of Devin is is a momentum brake. However, there is another issue brewing – can Hoke make the hard decisions to fire people or demote players? I like loyalty, but he must hold players and coaches accountable.
November 5th, 2011 at 7:14 PM ^
Am I a bad person if I laughed at the last sentence?
November 5th, 2011 at 7:14 PM ^
and rich rod was Jim Colleto the man responsible for the 0-16 season for the lions at least with martz we occassionally won a game
November 5th, 2011 at 8:56 PM ^
Rich Rod have to do with this post?
November 5th, 2011 at 7:14 PM ^
while this isn't going to end well. I agree on the gardner part. its a momentum killer.
November 5th, 2011 at 7:16 PM ^
November 5th, 2011 at 7:16 PM ^
Big Al had another bad game. Let's not run him out of town too quickly now.
November 5th, 2011 at 7:25 PM ^
I think 3 years is the established timeline for excellence is it not?
November 5th, 2011 at 7:39 PM ^
I mean he DID have true sophomores didn't he? He should have been able to win multiple NCs with true sophomores. Wait, who are we talking about? Al? He had a bad game. Let's not run him out of town too early now.
/urgetokillrising
November 5th, 2011 at 8:02 PM ^
When I see Borges calling plays with this offense I visualize an award-winning, critically renowned Chinese resturant who just hired an ITALIAN chef and told him to get back in the kitchen and start whipping up some egg rolls and such.
And the chef is telling everybody "don't worry that I'm going to make the Peking Duck with pasta. It's going to taste just fine in the end."
November 5th, 2011 at 8:07 PM ^
November 5th, 2011 at 10:54 PM ^
My God this analogy is incredible.
November 5th, 2011 at 8:14 PM ^
It was disgusting. He hasn't wowed in any game but against Minnesota.
November 5th, 2011 at 7:35 PM ^
a very good coordinator but he has a tendency to overthink, far too often.
November 5th, 2011 at 8:08 PM ^
Key word, "Another".
November 5th, 2011 at 7:16 PM ^
I would start shopping the bargains for South American travel on Hotwire about now. Just saying. If you can bum such a ride, flying cargo or charter isn't a bad option either.
November 5th, 2011 at 7:16 PM ^
4 fucking plays from the 3 yard line and you dont roll out the most elusive qb one time? Ya, I know we didnt have any time outs left, but let him rollout and give him a run/pass option and let him make a play. That was unreal. In the two biggest games of the year, Borges maked some horrendous calls. The refs did not help, but damnit, it is his job to put Denard in the best position for him and the team to succeed. Now with Nebraska losing, Im even more pissed than I was before.
November 5th, 2011 at 8:17 PM ^
Yeah, the truth isn't pretty but people have to deal with it. This is the second game that we lost because of Borges. He faced these same accusations at every other place he's been and it's what got him run out of town.
November 5th, 2011 at 8:19 PM ^
A bootleg is right up there with a 7 step drop as one of the slowest developing offensive plays/concepts. When you have 16 seconds to get the ball into the endzone, the realistic mindset has to be "what can score while still leaving time for more oppurtunities if it doesn't." That sound logic accompanied by the fact that Iowa was doing absolutely incredible job on contain the whole game is why we didn't dare have Denard roll out.
November 5th, 2011 at 8:40 PM ^
Umm a bootleg is not a roll out. A roll out is not a slow developing play, especially when Denard is your qb. A bootleg occurs off a playaction, not a roll out. So not sure what your logic is.
November 5th, 2011 at 9:23 PM ^
You do realize that a rollout is a type of bootleg, right? What you just said is the equivalent of someone getting upset that I called their square a rectangle. And yes it is slow developing, because it most often consists of the quarterback ROLLING outside of the box before he even begins to make his read. I'm not sure what else about my logic doesn't make sense to you.
Look, I admittedly don't know about a lot of things in life, but I do know football and more specifically the offensive side of it. Don't go there with me.
November 5th, 2011 at 10:02 PM ^
who gives a damn how long it takes! In that final drive they rolled Denard to the left twice IIRC.
November 5th, 2011 at 11:56 PM ^
I'm curious what your background/experience is on offense? Also curious how that specifically applies to these players.
November 6th, 2011 at 3:58 AM ^
He calls a mean game on the xbox
November 6th, 2011 at 8:56 AM ^
I played football 8 years, all of which were on O-line as a center. Granted it was mostly spent in a west coast style offense, but we did have a dual threat qb, so the option was something we occasionally ran. This experience specifically applies to this type of play because as an offensive lineman, whenever the QB is rolling out of the box for a run/pass option, not only do you have to seal block for the most part while he gets to his read point but you have to know how long you have to hold it before you break it off and look downfield to run block if the qb takes off. Believe me, lineman are very aware of how long they have to stay on blocks, and the shorter, the better.
Is this sufficient enough experience for you?
November 5th, 2011 at 8:27 PM ^
But the last 4 plays weren't really on him. 16 seconds no timeouts and our final three plays went TD, drop, PI. I don't put that on Al.
November 6th, 2011 at 12:42 AM ^
the 8 second runoffs everytime the clock stopped because we werent ready IS on him.
we lost 24 seconds that last drive on plays that the clock was stopped and the play was stopped due to outside actions, no excuse. if you have first and goal from the 3 with 40 seconds left its a little easier...
November 6th, 2011 at 9:03 AM ^
I forgot about that part.
November 6th, 2011 at 12:25 AM ^
Nebraska lost too. Hoping Iowa and Northwestern can pull off some more of the magic against Sparty so winning out seals the deal for us.
November 6th, 2011 at 1:48 AM ^
I keep seeing people making this complaint over and over but the reality is three of those 4 plays worked.
1. hemingway catch that is obviously caught and obserdly called incomplete
2. Vincent Smith drops a very catchable ball
3. Uncalled P.I. on the last play of the game
I somewhat agree with you in that it doesn't seem to make sense not to give denard a chance to use his legs if he can but the reality is still that the play call was not the problem on three of the four.
November 6th, 2011 at 1:12 PM ^
I do wish we would have at least given Denard an option to tuck it on 4th down - probably the best chance to score on that play. But remember - he was playing hurt, and I'm guessing the coaches didn't want him to throw his body into the fray at the goal line. What if that's the call, and we score the TD but now Denard is out for the rest of the game - or for some of the upcoming games? Was it worth it?
I'm frustrated with the lack of rhythm our offense had for most of the game, but I understand wanting to protect Denard in that situation. The bigger problem is why our offense didn't look a bit more like that last possession during the rest of the game.
November 5th, 2011 at 7:16 PM ^
Oh, thank you for explaining that randyfloyd > Al Borges, Mike Martz.
November 5th, 2011 at 7:19 PM ^
but his thinking is clearly unthinkable at times (drinking makes me write in oxymoron, or some kind of moron). By the way your name fits.....
November 5th, 2011 at 7:18 PM ^
Actually, I don't think he has used the Fritz formation since Minnesota. He repeatedly calls the Denard Jet Sweep play.
Fritz was what we called the diamond formation with Devin as qb, and Robinson, Smith and Toussaint as backs. Why hasn't he brought that back?
November 5th, 2011 at 7:21 PM ^
call any play, where Denard doesn't line up as QB, "fritz". I actually liked the diamond play, more than the jet sweep.
November 5th, 2011 at 7:45 PM ^
Okay. I agree he seems to call the jet sweep too much and ignores the diamond backfield. I'd love to see that again if he insists on playing Devin. Personally I'd rather have Denard be the qb on 100% of the plays with 90% or more out of the shotgun.
I have a suspicion (maybe this has already been discussed -- I haven't seen it though) that they're trying to keep Devin happy and keep him from transferring. I think that's why they play Devin so much.
Anyway, for whatever reason they keep playing Devin but why is the Fritz Diamond gone?
November 5th, 2011 at 8:04 PM ^
My guess is that they're playing Gardner not so much to keep him happy (he's Denard's roommate, so presumably they can coexist), as to get him reps in case of an injury to Denard. Last year we had injury insurance in Forcier. When he was out there, I felt like we still could move the ball. This year a potential injury to Denard is much scarier.
The coaches probably see the "two" formation as a low-pressure way for Gardner to get his feet wet, since the presence of Denard should draw the defense over to wherever he goes and open up things for Gardner. Unfortunately, he just doesn't seem ready for prime time and the plays are becoming wasted downs.
November 6th, 2011 at 12:28 AM ^
Seeing as how Drob was pretty much the top running back in tha nation last year you'd assume he'd, ya know, run every once and a while in this offense instead of playing an elaborate decoy for an underclassman fresh off the bench.
November 5th, 2011 at 7:19 PM ^
Borges isn't doing anything right.
November 5th, 2011 at 7:22 PM ^
....then explain how we're 7-2? If it is sarcasm, then it was fairly amusing.
November 5th, 2011 at 7:42 PM ^
Against crap teams. This was supposed to be the year they beat a big boy. Defense is way better, offense is worse = same result.
November 5th, 2011 at 8:08 PM ^
November 5th, 2011 at 7:20 PM ^
The only comparison is that yes Al likes to chuck it downfield a little bit to much for my taste...at least he does now with the players he has.
I mean the only true downfiled threat is redshirted because of his own mistakes, and then you add in that our QB is woefully inaccurate outside of 10 yds, it's not a good combo at all.
November 5th, 2011 at 8:11 PM ^
Borges is definitely calling too many deep balls for my liking but I would like to see Denard hit at least ONE receiver on a deep ball in stride every one in a while. I can't believe he still has no touch on his passes.
November 5th, 2011 at 7:21 PM ^
Right now, he's all like..."HEY HEY HEYYY"
November 5th, 2011 at 7:25 PM ^
Al just needs to keep it simple, stupid.
