Magnum P.I.

November 17th, 2013 at 12:37 AM ^

Dude is dropping f-bombs all over people in defense of a coach that he himself was blasting like crazy after the Nebraska game.

I'm positive when there are things to be positive about. Haven't been many positives with this team since Notre Dame, which is too bad. Not sure why people tear themselves up trying to see otherwise.

GMHW

November 16th, 2013 at 9:12 PM ^

Shit some of us just see a few weeks down the road... and it doesn't like so hot. I am very proud of our boys today. But its bittersweet because I've watched this offense every week. I see the questionable decisions from the top-down.

Brady has a decision to make at the end of the year and I have a terrifying feeling he will choose wrong. When you see a gap developing between you and your most hated rivals with a feeling that it may get worse, sorry if I'm not praising Jesus these days.

wolverine1987

November 16th, 2013 at 8:54 PM ^

Game management includes play calling, and that lost the game for us, Gibbons aside.

I'm not bitching about tonight, I thought kick for the tie was the way to go, but we did win so Hoke gets a psss on that. And Hoke should still be the coach for two more years. However Borges once again was bad, but pulled it out in OT.

JD_UofM_90

November 16th, 2013 at 8:18 PM ^

to go for it was the right call.  Running Devin to the short side of the field without a run pass option, wasn't that great of a call.  We need to spread the field out more with a minimum of two WR's.  The worse thinge is when we go 3 or 4 wide and they are about 5 feet from the tackles.  OK, Al, let's make it even easier for them to blitz us and stack the box....

Cope

November 16th, 2013 at 8:29 PM ^

You all would have been complaining that we don't play to win if we'd gotten the field goal and Northwestern had marched down and kicked a field goal. We give up a lot of end game drives on defense.

I love the call. I actually wanted to win more badly for Hoke because it was such an awesome call to go for the win and keep it in our hands. It made me want to keep him as a coach.

kevin holt

November 17th, 2013 at 5:46 AM ^

You're overlooking the difference between them having the ball on the 2 vs them having the ball after a kickoff following the FG. Even with a great kick by Wile and a modest return, they only have to drive about 50 yards to get in FG range for the win, running the clock down in the process. The kickoff is the problem there. Our D was playing well, but easier to trust them to get the ball back from deep than from kickoff return territory.

If we kick, they have a good chance to win. Fact is we won anyway so fuck off regardless.

squashman

November 16th, 2013 at 9:25 PM ^

You need to have a pulse of what your team is capable of... He had no business going for that. Kick the field goal. Stop them on the next kick off as they go into the wind then kick the game winning field goal with the wind at your back. The probably of this offense getting 2 yards based on this game as well as what we have seen this season was probably less than 5 percent. I think he is clueless if he actually thought they were going to get the touchdown. His inept grasp of this team should have cost him the game

nickb

November 16th, 2013 at 7:39 PM ^

decision of all time. To not tie the game with four minutes left and having a howling wind to your back is insane. But for NW choke proclivities this game should be considered a loss. NW dropped how many easy INT's? 

This is a badly coached team and anyone thinking this win changes anything needs to take off the blinders. FWIW, I thought it was interesting that Glen Mason was criticizing play calling. He rarely if ever does that.

CompleteLunacy

November 16th, 2013 at 11:38 PM ^

He got heat for being too conservative against Penn State.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. 

It wasn't a reckless decision. It wasn't necessarily the right decision either. But damnit, it's still nice to see Hoke have the guts and confidence to make an aggressive call in that spot.

It's easy to criticize the decision after the fact, knowing it didn't work. 

umchicago

November 17th, 2013 at 9:54 AM ^

you seem to ignore the previous 55 min of the game.  we had ZERO aggressiveness the other times we had the ball at the NW 10 yd line.  we threw just ONE pass in the endzone the entire game with all those chances in the red zone.  we kept settling for FG.  now, the one time when you should kick, we go for it, run a horrible play, and fail.

if the score is 9-9 or 9-6, you have to kick.  any other score, i don't have a problem with going for it. 

Muttley

November 16th, 2013 at 8:53 PM ^

I would have kicked the FG there, but the trade off is a nearly-sure FG versus a chance for a TD if successful, and likely getting the ball back in near FG range if unsuccessful.  I don't think one decision versus the other is a no-brainer.

I'm also going to defend Borge's play calling today.  Unlike against PSU, MSU, and Nebraska, we didn't see ~20 down-wasters.  I also liked the acknowledgement that we have a poor O-Line, hence we need to play the big backs over the senior Fitz.  We just aren't very good if Devin's not carrying us with his legs and a good passing outing.  Where did you go, the Devin that played against Notre Dame?  Today, he easily could have suffered six-ten interceptions.  I lost count of the NW INT drops.

None of my defense of Al's play-calling today covers for his miserable outings against PSU, MSU, and Nebraska.  He's a Jekyl-and-Hyde, and the team shouldn't be limited by which Al shows up.

TheJuiceman

November 16th, 2013 at 7:50 PM ^

One of the worst calls in his time here. Not to mention the poor clock management at the end of the first half. I know everyone is now on the "Fire Borges" train, but Hoke is not the man for the job. This should be clear after that.  Unfortunately, it will take absolute armageddon for most people to see this. Sad ass day coaching- wise.

CompleteLunacy

November 16th, 2013 at 11:48 PM ^

Yup, he's clearly over his head by going for it on 4th and 2 from the 5, going for a TD instead of a tie.

Yup, clearly over his head when he coaches the team to a triple overtime victory.

Yup, clearly over his head when he had his team prepared to execute the quick field goal play to perfection as time expired.

Hoke just DOESNT GET IT you guys! Let's wallow  in 5 more years of transitional mediocrity and FIRE HOKE NOW!!!! YEAH! I'm sure Nick Urban Sabanmeyer is ready to coach for us!!!

BigBlue02

November 17th, 2013 at 12:17 AM ^

To be fair, Northwestern is probably not going to be bowl eligible and doesn't have a Big 10 win. I don't think Hoke should be fired, but to act like a triple overtime win against one of the worst teams in probably the worst BCS conference isn't a good thing no matter how you slice it.

And going for it on 4th and 2 is a lot different than going for it on 4th an inches. Especially when, at that time, we had scored exactly 1 touchdown in the past 12 quarters. Kick the field goal. If you are going to trust your defense (which is basically what Hoke was doing by going for it on 4th down inside the 10), trust them to stop NW from driving down the field after you tie it up.

snarling wolverine

November 16th, 2013 at 9:04 PM ^

If you're this upset after a win like this, something is wrong with you.

This team was in disarray after the last two weeks.  Its confidence was probably shaken.  It was a 3-point underdog, and many, many people here predicted we'd lose.  It fought hard for four quarters and 3 OTs and finally was rewarded.  Suspend your cynicism already - this is a nice win for the team.

JamieH

November 16th, 2013 at 9:33 PM ^

Northwestern choked this game away just as much as Michigan won it.  How many easy interceptions did they drop?  3?  4?  5?   I lost count.  They had one on the last drive that I think I could have made.  Plus they could have recovered the Funchess fumble.

Michigan lucked out.  Hoke gambled and lost, and then ended up getting unbelievably lucky.  Sure, kudos to everyone on the FG unit for getting their butts in position and set and getting that FG up.  That is the BEST execution of a quick FG you will probably ever see and that was excellect preparation and coaching, no doubt.  Hats off to everyone for that.

But that doesn't mean that everything that came before that (except the defense, which was really good) wasn't pathetic.  Hoke's decision to go for it on 4th down late was really bad.  Michigan was, what, 0 for 13 on 3rd and 4th down at that point in the game?  He was basically throwing the game away.  Kick the damn FG, play defense, use your timeouts, get the ball back, and then drive for the WINNING FG, not the tying one.  Really dumb decision by a guy who usually doesn't make dumb decisions like that.

CompleteLunacy

November 16th, 2013 at 11:53 PM ^

People sure love to wallow in self-pity around here.

If it's that bad, I implore you (and others who feel the same way) to STOP WATCHING. Please. Stop ruining this for the rest of us. Good Lord.

They won in triple OT on the road, with adverse weather conditions, against a team with pretty good talent that has underachieved this year immensely due to some late game collapses. 

It wasn't pretty. No shit. But damnit, I still am happy they won. 

 

JamieH

November 17th, 2013 at 12:25 PM ^

If my post on a message board is "ruining" Michigan football for you, then you have serious problems.

Of course I'm glad that Michigan won.   But winning games due to some rather dumb luck (i.e. the dropped INT on the last drive and happening to have just the right number of milliseconds to pull off that FG, when you should have just kicked it 4 minutes ago) at the end of the game isn't what you build for the future on, sorry. 

Pretending everything is hunky dory after a craptacular game like that is a head-in-the-sand mentality.  Michigan didn't really play much better this week than they did last week against Nebraska.  They just played a terrible team this week and got lucky.

The Crootin' Crouton

November 16th, 2013 at 7:29 PM ^

I thought the play calling was better than the past two weeks.  They had the guys prepared for the field goal, though there were a lot of execution problems.  Devin needs to be sure in the pocket and make better decisions, the D has to make those INT's, and the line has to continue to improve.  I thought our guys, you know, the running backs ran well and ran hard.  We just need to execute a little better, you know.