Al Borges is a very fine fellow, and called a great game.

Submitted by TheLastHarbaugh on

Good job with offensive play calling. Everyone gave maximum effort.  Thank you, seniors.

Magnus

January 1st, 2013 at 4:50 PM ^

That game was predictable? Damn, I thought I saw some new screens, a Statue of Liberty play, and Denard running from the I-formation (which he hasn't done before).  I guess I was wrong.

Gardner missed a lot of wide open receivers and held onto the ball too long.  That doesn't mean Borges called a bad game.  We just don't have a lot of talent.  That's not on him.

End-Around

January 1st, 2013 at 5:19 PM ^

Agreed.  Only thing I would have liked to see is Denard throwing the ball.  I used to love those sucker plays where Denard would get the snap in the shotgun and run up as if to run the zone and shoot a pass right past oncoming defenders to a usually wide open receiver....Alas, we could have won this one!

hart20

January 1st, 2013 at 5:00 PM ^

We simply don't have the talent to execute even the most simple of plays. However, any direct snap to Denard was very predictable and ended up with a minimal gain, at best. The play call on the second two point conversion was inexcusable in my opinion.

CJK5H

January 1st, 2013 at 5:37 PM ^

I thought he called an amazing game, and I thought he introduced a lot of great new plays and I was so happy to see a coaching staff that was in it to win it, rather than just not lose.  However, do you really agree with ever putting someone in at QB who can't throw the ball?

jsquigg

January 1st, 2013 at 6:24 PM ^

While I don't think Borges called a horrible game, his play calls with Denard at QB were predictable and running from under center lessons haven't been learned.  Also I find it funny how we don't have the talent on offense now even though with a different offensive framework we were putting up great numbers.  I'm sorry, but the "we don't have the talent" excuse is bullshit.  We might be alright in the long run but Borges and Hoke have failed miserably this year in adjusting the offense to their talent and they did at times last year as well.

snarling wolverine

January 1st, 2013 at 5:43 PM ^

I get the sense that you watched this game with some preconceived ideas about Borges as a playcaller, looking for negatives.  I don't think every playcall was great, but overall we scored 28 points against a team giving up 17.4 on the season, and we did that with Gardner at QB and Toussaint out of the game.  And we could have scored more - Gardner was off on a lot of makeable passes.  I think overall, Borges did a solid job and was done in by inconsistent execution and uncharacteristically bad defense.

 

Cope

January 1st, 2013 at 7:04 PM ^

I watched this game with preconceived notions of Borges as a play caller. After the painful debacle at Ohio, I was convinced we'd lose bc he'd run the same predictable Denard qb run/Devin qb pass packages. I was wrong. He called a phenomenal, extremely creative game, and I am really excited about the future. Disappointing to lose, but his play calling and the offensive play overall was enough to mitigate the loss. Borges has earned my two bit respect!

TheLastHarbaugh

January 1st, 2013 at 5:32 PM ^

Denard looked mighty good with Devin handing him the ball from the running back spot.

What do you want to see? Denard and Devin lined in a sort of split QB formation, throwing the ball back and forth to each other? How many times have you seen that sort of offense work? Because we tried it last year and it went quite horribly.

Aequitas

January 2nd, 2013 at 1:31 PM ^

"I suppose you're not happy unless your QB and RB combine for a 300-200 day?"

I don't know a single Michigan fan, personally, that is 'happy' after the bowl game.  But to address your comments, I'm always going to prefer that all players are used to their maximum potential.  If you're happy with the offensive output, and feel that's their cap, I respect your opinion.

I think we've had better offensive numbers in the past and haven't been overwhelmed by our coaching staff in general this year.

I thought the team played extremely hard, and was proud of the players.

panthera leo fututio

January 1st, 2013 at 7:23 PM ^

I'm no Borges apologist, nor do I think that 8-5 makes for a very satisfying season. But I also think that the offense outperformed expectations today, and Borges deserves a lot of credit for that. I don't know how you could watch today's game and not see a lot of productive creativity in what he drew up.

WolvinLA2

January 1st, 2013 at 9:05 PM ^

Seriously.  We scored 28 points on one of the top defenses in the country, and were one bad throw away from winning.  I hated the playcalling against OSU, but that was not the issue today.  We had a good gameplan, we just didn't get quite enough execution to win.  Hell, if our defense gets one sack on that last drive, we'd all be psyched because we'd have won.  

Blarvey

January 1st, 2013 at 4:57 PM ^

I think it was fine in the sense that we didn't have a true TB yet still rushed for over 120 yards. Denard got more touches and the passing was better than against OSU only DG had some bad passes and made some bad decisions. It sucks that we lost but it was the deep middle coverage that cost us the game.