Call Me Tenorman

Submitted by jsquigg on

The title says it all, and if you must neg me to mgohell, so be it.  If I don't vent a little bit I'm going to take it out on my kids, and they don't deserve it.

First off, I have to give Borges a little credit for calling a good Iowa game and a good first half against Ohio.  Unfortunately that's it for the positives.

Michigan football has been frustrating for the last decade at least.  Even amidst the horrid string of losses against Ohio, even Mike Debord opened up the offense and didn't seem to call anything that had a terrible chance of succeeding on a critical down.  If I felt like Ohio played better or harder, it would suck, but at least the coaches would have given us our best chance.

To run out of the I-Form between the tackles even ONCE in The Game would have been terrible, but I could live with it on an early down, even though it has not had great success ONCE this year.  To run from the I in double tight on 3rd and 3 is fucking dumb, and it's pretty much the dumbest fucking play call I have ever fucking seen.  If only Lloyd Carr had run to the sideline after that abortion of a play to smack some sense into Hoke and get the punt team out there, but alas, Hoke wastes the timeout, and Borges follows up the previous gem of a play by fooling Ohio out of their minds by putting Denard at QB and running up the middle.

I thought The Game turned at that point even though the offense had plenty of chances.  Against our biggest rival, we see no new wrinkles, no Denard and Devin combo in the backfield, but we do see plenty of stubborness.

I know, I know.  I don't know as much football as Al has forgotten.  I don't put in the time in the video room or teaching technique or instilling toughness.  What I do know is that this team's strength isn't running power from the I-Form.  Some of the worst defenses in the nation have stymied us when we try to do it.  So with all the time Borges puts in, how come he waits for the biggest game of the season and on some of the biggest plays to run what we do worst?

To me that was just as bad as watching RichRod's abortion of a defense flail about for three years because this team was good enough to win in the worst state ever for the first time in over a decade and the coaches fucked it up.

In the next week you might here the same tiring bullshit about how "we got beat in the trenches" or how "we got out toughed" or about how "we didn't execute well enough."  I'm not buying it.  It was our gameplan and scheme that threw away a game that our defense was trying to hand us on a platter.

Great coaches do well without needing "their players."  Al Borges didn't adjust well enough.  This one will sting until next year.  Hopefully Borges either does some soul searching or GTFO.  See you on TWIS.

DentalMonsterUM

November 24th, 2012 at 8:48 PM ^

All I want to know is why Denard was not in the game in the final drive.  The fact he makes the defense adjust to him when he is in the WR or RB position makes me so mad that he was not utilized in some way.  Everyone knows he will run when in the QB slot, but try to mix it up gorgeous Borges!

NOLA Wolverine

November 24th, 2012 at 8:54 PM ^

I can't believe that's how it ended for Denard. On the bench as we're trying to drive down to win the game. Everything else about the offensive gameplan today aside, I feel cheated as a fan that it went down like that. Denard won't ever say or show it,  but he should feel cheated too. After everything, he deserved a chance to help lead the team to victory. 

HartAttack20

November 24th, 2012 at 9:04 PM ^

I totally agree. The only real issue with putting Denard in the game at RB is the fact that he's not useful in pass protection, but wtf. Fans don't always agreee with the coaches on everything. That's fine. When my mom and grandma are upset with the playcalling, you know something is wrong. I hope Borges does some serious explaining/apologizing/maningthefuckup, but it doesn't matter. I can't imagine being an offensive player on this team after that game. They've dedicated years of their lives to this game and this is what they get from the coaches. This kind of shit really takes me back to some problems I had with the Lloydball of years past, but at least he knew how to open things up every once in a while. I'm just at a loss for words. I can't wait to see how the coaching staff tiptoes around questions this week. We seriously need Michigan to beat the hell out of NC State. I need something to hold on to.

Super J

November 24th, 2012 at 8:54 PM ^

This is the most frustrating Michigan football has made me since the high octane aerial assault we held back until Lloyd Carr's last game.  What that offense could have done had they opened the flood gates from the start.

Leonhall

November 24th, 2012 at 9:07 PM ^

Coaches, particularly Borges but also hoke for allowing the stupid ass playcalling. I haven't been this pissed or "jipped" about a game in a long time. Why the hell denard wasn't on the field with devin more in the second half needs to be asked. Also, why did we quit running on the edge? They could not contain, yet we went away from it. And why can't we get devin fun chess the ball more? For Christ sake its the 12th game of the year, he is no longer a freshman. Great first half but the second half was horrible and the coaches better have apologized because this game is on them. God, I hate Ohio! It's going to be a long year.

Jeff09

November 24th, 2012 at 9:08 PM ^

Last week after iowa I questioned the wisdom of revealing all these new gizmos/offensive sets with Denard the week before Ohio rather than keeping it a secret. All I got was some lousy downvotes and was told it would force Ohio to waste time preparing for lots of stuff. Is everyone glad they had a week to prepare for the diamond set now? I feel validated in my argument, obviously wish I had been wrong

Maize_Nation

November 25th, 2012 at 12:40 AM ^

Why do yo feel validated?

OSU couldn't stop Michigan when they had both Denard and DG in the backfield.

We moved on them at will, they didn't even slow them down.

Opening up the playbook against Iowa had nothing to do with it, because those some plays and formations worked against OSU.

Borges just stopped calling them for no logical reason.

Leonhall

November 24th, 2012 at 9:17 PM ^

I hope Deveon smith is a stud and plays next year. Who knows with touissaint, Rawls looks like a fullback, drake Johnson??? We need a rb to step up big time...

switch26

November 24th, 2012 at 10:05 PM ^

Umm no, we need  an offensive line that can block... Our OLINE sucks fucking balls..  Same with our D-line..  Can't wait for next year when we are 100th in the nation in Sacks again.. pathetic

SEAL Fan

November 24th, 2012 at 9:19 PM ^

Things more productive than the second half against OSU:

 

-  Slamming my fist in a drawer.

-  Walking into oncoming traffic.

-  Eating cat poop.

mGrowOld

November 24th, 2012 at 9:39 PM ^

My wife baked cookies for the game.  I threw on in the area of my TV after the Vincent Smith run up the middle that got stuffed (again).  I never did that before.

Princetonwolverine

November 24th, 2012 at 9:48 PM ^

Why do we have head coaches that only know one side of the ball. RR didn't know defense and Hoke seems to be totally unaware of offense. You would think someone that played defensive line and has coached defensive line would have some clue about how to get our offensive lineman to block for some rushes. 

OSU ran up the middle all day. We haven't been able to do it all year. 

jmblue

November 24th, 2012 at 9:57 PM ^

This...

 

Even amidst the horrid string of losses against Ohio, even Mike Debord opened up the offense and didn't seem to call anything that had a terrible chance of succeeding on a critical down.

...is not how I remember it.  Certainly not anytime we were tied or ahead.

 

squashman

November 24th, 2012 at 10:02 PM ^

We got our asses kicked in the trenches. big al called a great game last year against Ohio so he doesn't totally suck. Big al didn't have a holding penalty to negate a key first down and set up a 1st and 20. Big Al didn't tell devin to throw a ball to a covered receiver when he could have run for 15 yards. Having said all that, some of those play calls in the second half were terrible. Our offensive wasn't very good this year. That is the foundation you build an efficient, consistent offense from and a necessity as we move forward. We will be moving forward. I can't wait until next year!

RDMB2003

November 24th, 2012 at 10:51 PM ^

I don't care what position or whether he got the ball or not. Bottom line when he is in the game, the defense has to adjust and most eyes are on him. It worked so well in the first half. I just can't wrap my mind around this. Thank you for posting.

WolverineFanatic6

November 24th, 2012 at 11:06 PM ^

It looked to me as if Ohio made adjustments for the second half and AL clearly did not. I don't know if Al thought he didn't need to make any adjustments, but the fact that he didn't adjust to ohios adjustments was I thought a terrible injustice on the teams behalf.



I understand Brady and Al believe we should be able to run the ball on anyone for 1-2 yards but when the results all year in those situations are negative it really bothered me to see us routinely do it, and do it with the wrong personnel. We have one of the fastest qbs in the history of college football. If you're going to run it with him at least let him have the option of a zone or outside type run where he dominated all first half. The 4th and 3 call was the worst I've seen in some time. I would have went 5 wide and run the spacing concept with a qb draw built in. I'm no genius but I've studied offenses for 20 years so witnessing the kind of piss poor play calling we ran today hurts worse then if I weren't familiar with play calling 101.



Devin was amazing when rolling out. His ability to scramble creates a hi / low read and has a high probability of success. The roundtree td was perfect example of this. Why in the second half we didn't execute this or throw any throwback screens to take advantage of ohios over pursuit is beyond me.



Obviously al didnt turn it over at crucial points and didnt committ costly penalties but he's gotta be one of the goats from today.



I'm obviously excited for the future and to see what the offense is like next year and beyond. However for me his lack of risk taking and very predictable play calling is something he needs to change. I can see if we were 11-0 and were playing for a title but we were 8-3 and trying to blemish our arch rivals perfect season.



Thank god they're not eligible for a bowl game. Ohio and Nd would make me sick to my stomach.

steve sharik

November 24th, 2012 at 11:09 PM ^

...that Butthurt in South Bend isn't a mod anymore, or you just would've been sent to Bolivia.  You wouldn't have deserved it, but it would've happened nonetheless.

Bill

November 24th, 2012 at 11:12 PM ^

I don't know what you wanted him to do in the second half:

  • The interior offensive line was horrible.
  • The running backs were horrible.
  • Denard was a fumble risk everytime he touched it because of the injury, but Borges still found him some plays.
  • Devin isn't completely ready yet as most of his throws were late.
  • Our average receivers were not getting enough separation

In terms of third and short, Borges tried the following (at least):

  • I-form run
  • Denard up the middle
  • Denard sprint option outside

We just need to admit that we were outgunned severely in the running game on both sides of the ball and needed to either win the turnover battle or get one or two more deep balls to win. 

WolverineFanatic6

November 24th, 2012 at 11:20 PM ^

But I certainly understand your point and it is definitely painfully obvious. I think the incoming freshmen olineman as well as the underclassmen maulers we have should fix the OL. The WR's may still be an issue but I think it's safe to say we're set at TE and QB.



What do you anticipate our record to be next year?