Indy Pete - Go Blue

July 22nd, 2018 at 4:06 PM ^

Cannot say that I am on the edge of my seat to see who wins the P spot!  Nevertheless, I read everyone of these articles because thinking about the season brings me great joy.  UMCB11, we treasure your activity on the blog. 

Fezzik

July 23rd, 2018 at 2:29 AM ^

I am not understanding your reading comprehension. I said until that point he played quite well and never suggested anything about someone else punting. But since you brought it up, Kenny Allen was his back up and was also really good.

O'Neill averaged 41.3 yards per punt for us. Allen averaged 43.3 his senior year, an impressive 2 full yards average better than Blake. O'Neill's average yards per punt that msu game was 44.6.

Again, we did not almost win that game because of our punter.

DrMantisToboggan

July 22nd, 2018 at 7:53 PM ^

The only reason we should have won that game was because of our domination on special teams - part Jabrill’s returns, and part O’Neill flipping the field all night. Our offense wasn’t finding a lot of room, and O’Neill was crucial in setting our defense up to get the ball back.

blue in dc

July 23rd, 2018 at 7:15 AM ^

I think everyone agrees that the muffed punt was bad, but I think you are still having reading comprehension problems.    The assertion, which is not totally unreasonable is that without his strong punter earlier in the game, we may have given up more points, ergo we already would have been losing without the field position advantage punting was critical too.

 

Fezzik

July 26th, 2018 at 11:34 AM ^

I was referring to the user to who made it sound like I implied O'Neill should have been the back up with not understanding what he was comprehending. 

I understand your assertion but it is a very far out on a limb assertion. He had one huge bomb that game that MAYBE helped prevent points. But that is still a reach to confidently say. Other than one giant punt that game he had a standard good game. To say he punted so amazing he directly caused us to score points while preventing them from scoring with field position is pretty crazy.Would Kenny Allen of played much, if any, worse than Blake if he played that game? The fact of the matter is handed 6 points to the opponent and there is no way you can say that was worth it to have all his other punts that day.

Beilein 4 Life

July 22nd, 2018 at 10:46 PM ^

That wasn’t Lloyd ball. That was putting your team in position to win. Up 2, at midfield, punting with 10 seconds to go. That is exactly where we wanted that game. I’m not sure if your suggestion would be to pass the ball at any point at the end of the game, but asking the punter to catch and punt the ball is what 99% of football coaches would do because that is how you would win that game. Anyone who thinks trying anything other than running the ball into the stacked box doesn’t watch sports and is using amazing hindsight in deciding what to do

JonnyHintz

July 23rd, 2018 at 9:17 AM ^

A lot of you are really misconstruing my point here. This isn’t an attack on O’Neill at all. He’s a very good punter and was near All-American caliber for us.

My point is to highlight the importance of the punter position. Where yes, we lost a game specifically due to the punter dropping the snap. 

He catches it, we win. He drops it, it’s returned for a TD, and we lose. There’s really no debate about that. In that sense, everything that led up to that point is just noise. It ultimately came down to one play, that rested on the shoulders of a punter. 

Just to highlight how critical the punter is to determining the outcome of games.

Barn Animal

July 22nd, 2018 at 4:13 PM ^

Hopefully Hudson can make a move because JBB at LT is not a good sign. I won’t believe that JBB has seriously improved his pass pro until I see it. 

DrMantisToboggan

July 22nd, 2018 at 4:24 PM ^

Hudson at LT presents its own negatives, like a RS Freshman starting his first ever game on the road at Notre Dame. I am more in the mindset of "Trust that who Warriner puts out there is adequate until proven otherwise, no matter who it is." If they get beat to shit against ND, then maybe I'll worry about a long season, but I'm going to trust that Warriner will develop them until then.

mgowill

July 23rd, 2018 at 12:06 PM ^

We have a tough first game and then some breathing room to get the line developed.  Per Bill Connelly preseason rankings (away games in italics top 25 match up in bold)-

  • #7 Notre Dame
  • #87 Western Michigan
  • #74 SMU
  • #60 Nebraska
  • #38 Northwestern
  • #80 Maryland
  • #12 Wisconsin
  • #11 Michigan State
  • #8 Penn State
  • #84 Rutgers
  • #58 Indiana
  • #1 Ohio State

Survive Notre Dame and you get the soft jelly filling of our schedule.  Then three really tough games but two of them are at home.  There will be time to develop the offensive line.

Barn Animal

July 22nd, 2018 at 5:33 PM ^

Possible... but unlikely. I trust Warinner to eliminate our stunt problems but thinking JBB will be an adequate pass protector seems like wistful offseason thinking. 

And based on the fact that he hasn’t had any offseason chatter his results from last season are the most solid thing to base an opinion on. Especially given the fact that he is a Senior.

Barn Animal

July 22nd, 2018 at 7:21 PM ^

Sure I don’t KNOW that JBB will be bad but based on a large sample size of his previous performances I have significant doubts.

And as to hype, last year the offensive line was called the most improved unit... look how that turned out. I’d pay more attention to the specific player hype that Ruiz, Bredeson, and Runyan have received

For the record I do think that the offensive line has improved, the sheer about of quotes praising Warriner prove that. But those refer to the simplification of blocking schemes and should ensure Michigan doesn’t have any free running defensive lineman coming to kill the qb this year. But my doubts about JBB are about his ability to successfully block a WDE 1 v 1.

Barn Animal

July 22nd, 2018 at 4:19 PM ^

If Runyan has a solid hold on RT already (indicating that he may be the best tackle) why wouldn’t he get a shot at LT?

But if he isn’t the best tackle then why wouldn’t the loser of the LT battle challenge him?