Kansas State 31, Michigan 14
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Shane Morris had a solid debut as a starting quarterback.
He also led Michigan in rushing. By 29 yards. Over Devin Funchess.
The defense, meanwhile, couldn't put together a real stop until the second half. KSU receiver Tyler Lockett's three first-half touchdown receptions were more than enough to defeat the Wolverines on their own, as the offense fared no better, failing to reach 300 yards of total offense for the 11th time under Al Borges.
The 2013 season is mercifully over. Michigan finishes at 7-6, blown out by a mediocre Big 12 team. It's 1:30 in the morning. Goodnight, and here's to a better tomorrow.
December 29th, 2013 at 12:18 PM ^
If the offense could have found the end zone on the first two drives they might have had something going. Once Morris had to throw downfield, the gig was up. The offense had a plan that made sense--perimeter run game, short passes, and screens.
What was the defense's plan? 8 meaningful drives in the game and KState goes TD, TD, TD, Missed FG, Turnover (after drop in EZ), FG, Punt, TD (short field). The Michigan D has forced one meaningful punt in the last 6 quarters (start of the 2nd half versus OSU) and has ONE 3-and-out in the last 2 games.
December 29th, 2013 at 2:31 AM ^
It's not just that Michigan is losing, it's that they're losing but they think they're just one play away from being national champions, which is entirely untrue. Michigan is lucky they've got seven wins this season. This arrogance that's passed down from Hoke and company that says, "We're Michigan, so we'll expect to win even when we don't prepare well enough," is truly pathetic. With Rodriguez, at least he was always fired up when the team was down in a game. You always knew adjustments would be made in the second half to try and mix things up. Not with Hoke. If you only looked at Hoke's staff throughout the game, you wouldn't know if they were winning or losing. I'm just so depressed about the future of Michigan football right now.
December 29th, 2013 at 2:35 AM ^
It's easy to be overly pessimistic in the wake of such a bad loss, but we might be seeing a long term shift to a consistently mediocre team that will show an occasional recrudesence of past greatness some seasons when conditions are just right. I hope I'm wrong.
December 29th, 2013 at 2:42 AM ^
since about the middle 2000s, we have had more non double digit win seasons than not.
8 of the last 10 years we have NOT reached 10 wins
December 29th, 2013 at 5:12 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 1:31 PM ^
it's fan perception catching up with the reality of what our program now is. Teams that used to expect to lose, now come into the Big House expecting to win... because they do.
December 30th, 2013 at 1:11 PM ^
+1 for recrudescence; -1 for spelling.
Go Blue:(
December 29th, 2013 at 2:45 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 2:54 AM ^
The moment that sticks out for me is when we ran the jet sweep or whatever the fuck you call it for the 23rd time with about 3min left in the 3rd quarter and the entire K-State team knew exactly what was going on. Every single player on that team ran to the ball, Morris came out of the hand off and had 70yds of open field in front of him because not a single player for K-state was fooled by what we were doing. Pretty much summed up the game.
The K-State quarterback looked like he had memorized our defensive playbook, he made checks almost every play. I wanted to jump off the upper deck after watching him throw a 34yd pass on 1st and 24. I just don't know anymore...........
December 29th, 2013 at 5:54 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 8:19 AM ^
This is classic Borges. Every game starts with at least 10 totally new plays, half of which are silly tricks that work once and fail twice, but the team never gets better at bread-and-butter plays. He doesn't seem to understand that learning how to execute needs perfect understanding of a few basic plays and all the new ones confuse our offense more than the opponents' d.
December 29th, 2013 at 8:52 AM ^
You run the oddball plays because the o-line can't block. Once the oddball plays stop working, after the other team adjusts, you're stuck. It all starts up front.
December 29th, 2013 at 9:42 AM ^
Agreed, but part (god knows not all) of why the line can't block is they're constantly missing assignments. Part (clearly not all) of why they're missing assignments is that they're half-learning new plays and never fully perfecting the basics.
December 29th, 2013 at 3:46 AM ^
Why?
I don't know.
December 29th, 2013 at 7:39 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 4:12 AM ^
Borges just plain didn't care and Hoke was too stupid to do anything about it! If Hoke cared at all he would have gone up to the press box and choked that fat idiot! We know that he is too dumb to manage the clock, change plays, or change tempo.
Brandon picked up the fat girl at 2:30 after all of the pretty ones were gone........most of us know that they aren't "keepers"!......chew your arm off and get out of there!......move on!
Even if M hired the best OC in the biz someone who knows what the hell is going on is needed on the side line! No passion, No drive, No heart!!! Bo would puke! Woody would have killed the water boy!!!
GO GREEN
GO WHITE
I'm glad you guys care!!! Represent our state well!!!
December 29th, 2013 at 10:27 AM ^
NOW I AM GOING TO TYPE IN ALL CAPS!!!
ARGH!!!!!!!
FAT BALD PEOPLE CAN'T BE COACHES!!!!
I hope State wins, but I doubt I will watch the game. And I'm not going to be all in for them.
State fans (other than my buddies) have been dicks to me all season. Arrogant and loudmouthed, even when I've been positive for their team. Ironic when you consider the root of the word laconic.
I want goodness for the B1G and my Spartan buddies but I'm not going to send any emotional involvement that way.
December 29th, 2013 at 5:29 AM ^
I get some of the Boges hate, just not all of it. The D was the bigger issue Saturday night.
Last 2 games the D has given up 420 and like 520 yards.
December 29th, 2013 at 6:38 AM ^
It's arguable whether the O or D was the bigger issue, but you can't give Borges a pass when the O fails to get 300 yards (and worse, I think they were hanging around 150 yards before garbage time stat boosts.)
December 29th, 2013 at 7:41 AM ^
There was a collapse on all 3 phases.
The O obviously could have been better but you would have thought the D would give them the ball a few more times.....maybe forcing a punt even.
Bad way to look at it I guess but I atleast expect the O to struggle but I guess I'm further down on the D because I wasn't expecting that garbage.
I don't think anyone should get a pass for that performance
December 29th, 2013 at 9:38 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 10:09 AM ^
Agreed. I too was more disappointed by the D because I had higher expectations on that side of the field. But at least the D had some stature from which to be disspointed; the O's looked like crap all season, and thus the Borges hate. Ironically, I think Borges called one of his better games; not particularly good, but much better than the asleep-on-the-manball-button that we've come to know and hate all season. I guess misdirection and constraint plays were finally allowed since we were no longer saving them all for OSU <rolls eyes>.
December 29th, 2013 at 11:25 AM ^
you can't give Borges a pass when the O fails to get 300 yardsIf Gardner had been playing, I'd agree. But with Morris making his career debut, I think the goalposts have to be shifted. Anytime you have a new QB you're going to use a limited playbook, and moreover, KSU is not that bad of a defensive team. When our drives did fail, it was often due to pretty simple execution errors. Our first drive should have ended in a TD, but Morris threw it too hard to Gallon on 2nd down, and then Funchess mistimed his jump on the next play. Later, Shane threw a perfect pass to Funchess on 3rd and 15 that he dropped. Gallon had a big 3rd-down drop as well. Given that the offense was obviously shorthanded by the QB change, I think we needed the D to carry the load. It utterly failed. It forced one punt all day (into our end zone) and its only takeaway was deep in our territory. It's not that easy to ask your frosh QB to march 80 yards all the time.
December 29th, 2013 at 5:50 PM ^
God, you are insufferable.
Like you weren't making other excuses after the four other sub 300 yard games (and really 5 if we're being honest about the Northwestern game).
You ever notice how other teams drop passes, turn the ball over, etc. and somehow that doesn't define their entire game? Iowa's QB throws three picks, somehow they still score 24 points. The fact that Michigan can't overcome their miscues like other teams is again on the coaches.
December 29th, 2013 at 5:34 AM ^
from all you so called M fans forever blah blah blah.. Funny, most of you are under 100 pts on here telling us how bad UM sucks. I will agree that was an unexceptable performance but to call Hoke fat and stupid wow. Same ole fire Borges line, he's fat too and bald, he must not know a thing about football. Go Green, Go White, in caps no less WTF screw them I could not care less if or when they fall on their faces in their bowl game. I bet your MSU fans forever will not call their coach a primodonna or a sour puss. What a bunch of effing trolls. whats wrong you need a UM fan to tell you where to party tonight? Nothing better to do with your jet lag in LA than to stomp on Michigan when they are down. :Pathetic, truely pathetic. Just go walk the beach you fucking homers be sure to bring a jacket LA is not that warm at night this time of year. I am sure you had no idea seeing as you go to the Rose less than Illinois, fucking johnny come lately wanna be's. Enjoy your moment in the sun it will soon be over. Thats why you never win anything the college world can't stand the Spartans acting like its theirs.
December 29th, 2013 at 6:01 AM ^
Before the Texans do...
December 29th, 2013 at 8:47 AM ^
I can't believe I stayed up till the wee hours to watch this team embarrass itself and its fanbase. At this point, I see no reason for optimism. Under Hoke and his minions, this program will flirt with that level that sits just above average but will never achieve anything more. At one point I had thought we would be able to pin our hopes on the D, but now that looks like a goner.
What hurts even worse is that making a coaching change now would blow up the program. So for the next few years we're stuck with mediocrity and unfulfilled expectations.
December 29th, 2013 at 8:57 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 9:07 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 9:12 AM ^
I thought Borges did a pretty good job of avoiding our weakness last night (aside from a couple straight ahead runs he just couldn't resist on our first two drives).
Player development is a D- for this staff.
December 29th, 2013 at 10:56 AM ^
I though Morris looked great? But the o and D lines and secindary were just.. Okay. Or dropped off from OSU
December 29th, 2013 at 9:14 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 9:16 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 9:55 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 8:56 PM ^
They ran Green one time for 5 yards. I am not quite sure why he only got one carry.
December 30th, 2013 at 8:28 AM ^
Smith had 4 for 7. That's not awful, and only 1 of Smith's went backwards from what I can tell.
It doesn't matter if they're not getting positive yards, running those 2 guys a total of 5 times when Morris had 4 carries (could be scrambles) doesn't make any sense at all.
21-6 is only two scores and no reason at all to abandon the run.
December 30th, 2013 at 11:51 AM ^
As put in as pass plays because the QB isn't handing the ball off (instead dropping it forward). So they didn't completely abandon the run, they were essentially utilizing the WRs to attack the edge of the defense.
Though I do think they should have had more interior run threat in the game, if only to keep the defense more honest (but then people would complain about lighting downs on fire, etc).
December 29th, 2013 at 1:40 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 9:27 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 9:38 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 9:38 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 9:47 AM ^
Why can't we atleast call some running plays out of shotgun where just hand it off quick???? No we have to run this side to side crap that hasn't worked all year.
December 29th, 2013 at 9:48 AM ^
are important.
they give some sense of trajectory.
ours, alas, is downwards.
can't wait until all the apologists come out and tell us it's just about o-line execution. that group is seeming more and more clueless (much like our coaching staff).
December 29th, 2013 at 10:12 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 10:50 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 10:51 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 10:15 AM ^
We got Bane'd.
December 29th, 2013 at 10:23 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 10:38 AM ^
I thought Shane looked good last night, which was a positive and the O-line held up fairly well in pass protection. But the play calling was as predictable and repetitive as it has been all year. I'm personally don't like calling for coaches to be fired, but Borges isn't the offensive coordinator to get this program scoring points. If Hoke and Brandon are serious about rebuilding Michigan into an elite program, then they need to find an OC who will adjust with what he's being given. I don't like the guy personally, but Lane Kiffin may be the shot in the arm on offense we need.
December 29th, 2013 at 11:20 AM ^
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