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Brian

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Comments

Moe Greene

September 27th, 2008 at 8:22 PM ^

Thankfully we will not have to witness the agony of Brian designing Emo Week redux. We need to remember games like this -- not merely because they make us proud to be fans --- but because this is going to be our season. High variance. We will jump all back on the bus, and smack will be talked. As we get deeper in the season and things get tough, we'll jump back off the bus and wonder if Coach Rod knows he's in the Big Ten.

But, make no mistake --- we're going to be a tough out. And the death butterfly is coming. And then, there will be payback for this year. Were I Weis, Dantonio, Tressel or Zook -- I'd take notes on what Bielema learned today.

And start stocking up on canned goods.

Enjoy Life

September 27th, 2008 at 8:09 PM ^

At half time, the hari-kari was out of the sheath and was being sharpened to a glistening late grey. I wandered over to the Chrisler concourse and just kind of, well, bumped into things.

I think the change in formations in the second half to force Wisky out of their 8-9 in the box may have been what saved me from a bloddy demise.

David F

September 27th, 2008 at 9:04 PM ^

Nerd.

I watched the game in a Philadelphia Philly's bar here, the same day they happened to clinch the pennant. Got some weird looks when I went crazy after John Thompson's TD, which was between innings of the baseball game.

Rejoice! 

gsimmons85

September 27th, 2008 at 8:55 PM ^

a change in formations, and schemes,  it was more like just an imporvment in execution...  my theory is at half time the coaches were not panicking, the kids werer scared and confussed,  and the coaches just said "we are ok its going to be fine,  you are in this game, and we havent played yet.  They have no idea how good we are going to be, they have no idea how to stop us, we just are going to do what we do, and prove to all these people who think we are dead, how good we can be."   You could see kids playing faster, and more confident in the second half, i have no doubt there might have  been a little bit of pixie dust thrown in there, to give the kids something they think is going to make a difference, but at the end, it was about confidence, and execution..

gsimmons85

September 27th, 2008 at 9:33 PM ^

relying on freshmen...   they werent flat, if anything, they were too jacked, have to learn to relax more,  tough to say that to a 19 year old kid with the wieght of michigan on his shoulders...  then you get the other guys trying to make up for mistakes, and you get the snowball effect...  hard to stop that with freshmen, thats why the upperclassmen were getting more touches in the 2nd half..

TitleIX

September 27th, 2008 at 9:34 PM ^

Yeah. The fans boo'd the team at the half. I mean c'mon. They are kids. WAY out of their league. And then to get all gung ho and "we're great" crap in the second half??

bugged me.

Props to the D. Props to the kids for No Quit. Props to Chocalate Milk.

No idea how we pulled out that win.....

colin

September 28th, 2008 at 12:42 AM ^

i was annoyed.  it didn't look like it was the students either.  which made it all the worse if that was the case.  the educated and sophisticated non-yelling fans finally stand up to make some noise and...they boo.  eff you too, old people.

Tacopants

September 28th, 2008 at 1:43 AM ^

So what you're saying is that positive reinforcement and cheering all around after a 5 turnover performance, including 2 awful INTs and 2 special teams fumbles was a good response?  How about the sound of silence as the entire crowd funnels out?  What were people supposed to do, cheer wildly in excitement that it was halftime and we couldn't flail uselessly on offense anymore?

Fans at a game take a "what have you done for me lately" attitude.  Don't give people crap about fickleness, I'm not exactly sure what you expect out of half drunk college students after watching the 1st half offensive performance.  Frankly, almost everybody thought that we had no shot at coming back in the second half, and I'm willing to bet that you at home didn't think we could pull it out either.  And yet, 95% of the people stayed because damnit, we will stuck with this team to the end, and were rewarded with the best half I've seen in 4 years here.

TitleIX

September 28th, 2008 at 9:19 AM ^

Absolutely I had no idea that we even had a hope of winning this game after watching the first half 'performance'. Basically I felt sorry for the kids. One "boos" the LIONS. One does not "BOO" a fourth-string QB from Adrian for gosh sakes. I was one of the folks in the stands who stayed til the clock read zeros. And then I still stayed to see the celebration in the student section/endzone. And my dedication was rewarded with one of the most amazing comebacks I've seen in 20+ years of watching Michigan football.

BUT the rain of "boos" came from ALL sections, including people from behind me-- not your  so-called 'drunken college students'. In fact, those students got their act together so well that they were able to form a blue block M within a sea of Maize. In the fourth quarter those same yahoos from all sections were chanting 'over-rated' at Wisconsin, like Michigan somehow became #1 in the AP polls.

I feel perfectly justified in calling out the fans who boo'd and who left (quit) early. Good thing the team didn't.

STW P. Brabbs

September 28th, 2008 at 11:45 AM ^

Positive reinforcement?  Are we talking about a bunch of puppies that just shit on the carpet,or, you know, fully sentient human beings?

 

I don't think the team relies on experts such as yourself to realize that performances like the first half are abysmal and to be avoided. 

 

Booing college kids sucks, unless you're booing someone for a late hit or something.  I used to try to boo the coaches when they did something unbelievably stupid (RON WHY IS THERE A LINEBACKER COVERING A SLOT RECEIVER AGAIN?), but then I realized that it would still sound like I was booing the players, so I stopped. 

Enjoy Life

September 27th, 2008 at 9:32 PM ^

I realize that RR runs a fast paced offense. BUT, there are times that either the coaches or the QB needs to look at waiting until there is ony 4-5 seconds on the clock to run the play.

M was hiking the ball with 12-14 seconds on the clock when they had the lead in the 4th quarter and it almost cost us the game!

Same at the end of the half!

TitleIX

September 27th, 2008 at 9:43 PM ^

Greg Mathews knows better than to carry the ball in his inside arm...I mean isn't that a skill you learn in grade school??? ball in the outside arm.

that's what was so baffling to me about the first half---piss poor play vs. bad coaching? or both. 

perserverance. impressive.

gsimmons85

September 27th, 2008 at 9:46 PM ^

trying to press and do too much, making up for the poor start,  him and trent both,  trying to do too much,  change the game themsleves...   whe you press you arent thinking, and your body is not doing what your brain has taught it to do thorugh repetiton and practice, thats why you have to be calm to make plays...

gsimmons85

September 27th, 2008 at 9:57 PM ^

when you believe in what you are doing, you do it the way you were taught to do it... when you are pressing you revert to instincts of making every play yourself...   its all about confidence...   about how you get them to do it, you tell them you still have faith in them, you tell them us against the world,  you tell them that everything will be ok, then you give the freekin ball to upperclassmen who can regroup...

gsimmons85

September 27th, 2008 at 10:00 PM ^

michigan takes over at the 8.   first play ball snaped at 7 seconds....  second play snaped at 7 seconds,   third down timeout...    thats about right, if you let it go down too far, you let the defense jump the play, and possible cause a fumble.... not to rain on your negativity parade...  but they did a good job...

gsimmons85

September 27th, 2008 at 10:40 PM ^

with 8 minutes left?    that is not the time to be runnign the clock, thats the time to try to score again...   with 8 minutes left, in college football,  you know the other team is going to have at least 2 more possessions...  NOBODY tries to milk the play clock, and change your offensive philosophy with that much time left, in a 1 point game...if anything, you wnat to try to get 3 more possessions for your offense.... not to mention the fact that you havent had a real good time running the ball, which you kinda have to be able to do to work the clock game,  best bet is to keep the defense off balance ...   thus the big run by trent, 13 seconds,  second play about 3 seconds, next play about 17,  then 13, 10 etc...  great job keeping the defense off balance, and getting a big score...

Other Chris

September 27th, 2008 at 11:00 PM ^

Michigan has a ways to go before they get to that level of competence.  They have a lot bigger worries than if they leave four seconds on the clock in any given snap.  Like not snapping it over the QBs head, not passing to Tacopants, blocking 101, etc.

GCS

September 27th, 2008 at 10:51 PM ^

They have a (insert superlative here, billions, kajillions, whatever) more exprerience operating their offense than UM does. With how that offense operated in the first half, I would think you would be happy that they just made it in the end zone at the end of the drive.

gsimmons85

September 27th, 2008 at 10:55 PM ^

first of all, college game is different than pro, and of course the  play clock is differnt in the nfl,  second  this is not the colts  offense,  its RR's, its the spread option, and that is how michigan plays.  they dont have a great  oline, so they need to keep the dline off ballance....  if yont like it, please dont be a fan... im trying to help put your mind at ease, that the coaches know what they are doing, but if you want to beleive that they are idiots no matter what, thats fine, just dont waiste time trying to convince other people to be upset over a huge upset with you.... 

gsimmons85

September 27th, 2008 at 11:19 PM ^

not unrelaxed... some day maybe you can talk to RR about hurry up offense, and game tempo, and momentum, etc etc...   im done here...  enjoy the win dude, sounds like you are really excited about it, judging by your comments on ths thread..

emmekel

September 27th, 2008 at 9:52 PM ^

i watched espnews for a whole fricken hour before they even showed a highlight of the game. did you see holtz and may laughing at half time and barely said anything after the game. what a bias show. if mich would have continued to get blown out, i would have seen it every 2 minutes just like after the restore the glory game. anyways, GO BLUE!!!!!!!! hope we can do it again next week!!!!

Sommy

September 28th, 2008 at 3:03 PM ^

One of the ESPN commentators at halftime said something in passing about Michigan being down 19-0 at home and having negative-whatever yards total offense, and then said verbatim, "They STINK!" and laughed.

I mean, I guess that wasn't uncalled for, but you know his foot's in his mouth now.

jamiemac

September 28th, 2008 at 12:11 AM ^

We all saw that up in our section.

 Weak no call.....but, hey, at least the refs proved vigilant on that 2-point play.

It was a good call there, just glad they saw they saw the covered end, so I will forgive them for not seeing that clip.....but, man, it was obvious.

madvillian

September 27th, 2008 at 10:41 PM ^

With so many freshman and sophomores being put into critical situations mistakes are expected.  That's why it was so exciting to see them calm down and make some plays in the 2nd half.

 That said, the defense today was outstanding and this is the unit most of us optimists were expecting to carry the team this year, regardless of how bad the offense was.  They made critical stand after critical stand after being put in bad spots by the offfense and special teams all day. Hat's off to the defensive coaches and players.  I thought (on first glance) that the linebacker play was much improved this week.  Ezeh seemed a step quicker to get up into the hole, and the d-line was pushing the los back on most plays.

The return game is almost comically bad at this point, guys are just pressing so hard back there and forgetting basic rules of ball security.  I hope that with experience they will just "play" and stop thinking so much about trying to make a big play when a solid one will do just fine. 

madvillian

September 28th, 2008 at 2:46 PM ^

I've been avoiding SSS and all Chicago media.  It's funny, despite how comically bad they've been the past month they are still 1/2 game back and even in the loss column. 

 Minny is on the verge of being swept by KC and the Sox are on the verge of being swept by Cleveland -- what a race...