November 17th, 2018 at 8:07 PM ^
Regarding RZ: I think it was take The points and trust the defense. I remember a couple years ago where we had our frequently used creative Red Zone scores... and then with the game on the line OSU has them downloaded and was running the routes with the WRs and got the game finishing INT.
Today felt like there was a reluctance to go beyond the basics. When any creativity was used, there were huge holes or wide open guys. This felt like win with showing as little as possible.
November 17th, 2018 at 8:19 PM ^
I am expecting a bigger playbook next week. Harbaugh will be all-in
November 17th, 2018 at 8:07 PM ^
I used to joke that since Jedd left our offense wouldn't be setting records any time soon, but lo and behold
November 17th, 2018 at 8:08 PM ^
Patterson was off. But yes, he was a gamer. He needs to stay another year.
November 17th, 2018 at 8:09 PM ^
If Gentry doesn’t drop that TD and we don’t screw up right before the half, the game looks a lot different. I am actually not unhappy that we struggled today. Gives the team things to work on that should pay off next week, and probably makes their focus even more intense after all that went wrong. Oh, and fuck Indiana, played MSU-level dirty football today.
November 17th, 2018 at 8:10 PM ^
Seriously, who is the officiating crew next week? Anyone know?
November 17th, 2018 at 9:46 PM ^
I don't think we'll know until 12 noon on Saturday. They can roll Dan Capron, Bobby Sagers, and Kevin Schwarzel out there like 2016 and it's not going to matter. Doomsday is coming for ohio.
November 18th, 2018 at 7:40 AM ^
I’d love to believe you, but in reality any TD pass, any defensive sack, any positive gain on offense can all be thwarted with terrible/corrupt/biased officiating. That’s exactly what happened in 2016. If not for about 7-8 non-calls on OSU, we would have dominated that game.
November 17th, 2018 at 8:14 PM ^
Without Winovich, the hill is much steeper in Columbus.
That's two key players in three weeks sustaining broken collarbones, and I can't help but think of the skimpy-looking pads they wear these days in comparison to two decades ago.
November 17th, 2018 at 8:23 PM ^
Sam just posted on Insider about Chase. It doesn’t seem like it’s that bad from what he heard.
November 17th, 2018 at 8:32 PM ^
Hope to God that's an accurate reflection of the situation.
November 17th, 2018 at 8:14 PM ^
Was the offense very vanilla today? had to work and missed the game. I expected M to put up more points than they did.
November 18th, 2018 at 12:16 AM ^
They put a few more things on tape, a couple RPOs, wrinkle or two on the zone read, and a double pass. But, yeah, they were pretty content to be mostly vanilla.
November 17th, 2018 at 8:15 PM ^
Good but just could not finish drives. No idea why...I think partly was playcalling, and partly just one of those things.
But I also wanted to take the time to say THANK GOD FOR JAKE MOODY. Player of the game. We absolutely needed a kicker today, and even missing one of those kicks would have made it more nerve wracking at the end than it already was.
November 17th, 2018 at 8:16 PM ^
Where was JUWANN BUSHELL-BEATTY? Is he injured?
November 17th, 2018 at 8:20 PM ^
10-1 with all those hard road games.
And Edwards will probably be OK.
Not a lot of reason to be down about this team. Unless you are a typical Michigan fan and always searching.
Rather than enjoying.
November 17th, 2018 at 9:32 PM ^
This man is correct. 99.9% of us would have taken 10-1, beating MSU, going to Columbus with a chance to win the Big Ten East and playing non-Wisconsin for the title. Cherry on top is making it to the playoffs. It's been a fun season to watch and here's to beating the Buckeyes next week. Go Blue!
November 17th, 2018 at 8:20 PM ^
Fire Pep Hamilton. Terrible play calling in the red zone. Why do we run 2 times in a row inside the 10 with no timeouts. Horrible.
November 17th, 2018 at 9:53 PM ^
take a deep breath, Hailgary. Can't blame Pep for playcalling when he doesnt have the final say. Like or hate the offense, but you cant criticize anyone but Jim about it. Period.
November 17th, 2018 at 11:54 PM ^
Harbaugh calls every play. Others make suggestions.
November 17th, 2018 at 8:20 PM ^
Michigan will need to score 35 next week just to force OT
November 17th, 2018 at 9:39 PM ^
Are you in Dayton Ohio?
November 17th, 2018 at 9:55 PM ^
Probably not. But if ohio State plays their normal defense next week, Michigan will score at least 49.
November 18th, 2018 at 12:21 AM ^
Umm they have played 2 good defenses this year in PSU and MSU and didn't break 30 in either. Michigan is better than both, by a good margin.
Not to say they can't score 35 but it's not a given.
November 17th, 2018 at 8:22 PM ^
I felt like they held back on offense a little bit today. The rotation of the running backs felt more like they wanted to keep Higdon fresh for next week.
November 17th, 2018 at 8:50 PM ^
I’m not sure about that. He got over 100 yards.
November 17th, 2018 at 9:56 PM ^
Michigan did not hold back today. Shea had a bunch of pulls on the read and they ran quite a few RPO's.
November 18th, 2018 at 12:24 AM ^
They put a few things on tape for next week. But if you think they had the same game plan for this game as they did verse Wisconsin, MSU and PSU, I don't know what to tell you.
They held back with the clear goal of getting to the game with as many guys healthy as possible.
November 17th, 2018 at 8:23 PM ^
Redzone playcalling was terrible. If we don't finish drives next week, we'll lose. It was worrying seeing how many times we stalled down there.
November 17th, 2018 at 9:59 PM ^
It was not terrible. There were quite a few calls that should have been TD's, eg, the toss to Gentry. Great call but Shea threw way too late.
November 17th, 2018 at 8:24 PM ^
If we want to win next week it probably can't be with FGs. Improve the Red Zone offense.
November 17th, 2018 at 8:31 PM ^
It looks like Simon Stepaniak was trying to put on a how to be a dirtbag clinic for MSU. Never thought of Indiana as a dirty team before this game.
November 17th, 2018 at 8:55 PM ^
He's from Hamilton, Ohio. Might be something there.
November 17th, 2018 at 8:35 PM ^
I hope everyone is healthy. I don’t think this offensive performance against Indiana has any relevance whatsoever to what we will see next week.
Go Blue
November 17th, 2018 at 8:36 PM ^
Bright spot for the O - Jake x 6. That's about all that can be mustered up - way too many times settling for 3s. Thankfully later in the game Shea was like 'F this' and tried to push the ball on his own.
November 17th, 2018 at 8:38 PM ^
Jake Moody!
November 17th, 2018 at 8:40 PM ^
clock managment at the end of the half was terrible - yes the ref should’ve thrown a flag on the kick but we basically did that to ourselves
also not sure why we insist on running evans up the middle all the time. he’s good in space but not very effective as a ‘traditional’ running back. rather tru get those snaps and get evans some stuff outside, screens, flares, reverses, etc.
on the other hand, this team plays smart and hard, and doesn’t crumble when things go wrong -so the coaches deserve credit for that
November 17th, 2018 at 8:48 PM ^
It was an ugly game, the entire team had an off day, and we wasted tons of opportunities - and still won by two scores.
This was a good team on a bad day. I'll gladly take the W.
On to Cesspool-umbus!
November 17th, 2018 at 8:56 PM ^
Shea ran the ball much more than I was comfortable with. Happy we will have a healthy QB heading into the Toilet Bowl.
November 17th, 2018 at 9:00 PM ^
Did the announcers say anything about the Indiana asshole kicking the ball away from the ref at the end of the half? They showed a replay in the stadium and it was obvious. Should have been a delay of game.
November 17th, 2018 at 9:44 PM ^
Yes, they did at the start of the second. It was flagrant; how the refs didn't call delay I can't understand.
November 17th, 2018 at 10:02 PM ^
Yeah, but it's O'Neill's crew so you know they are going to sheboink it.
McKeon nerfed it by not handing it to the ref in the first place. Even if he had, I am not sure if they would have been able to clock it.
November 18th, 2018 at 8:23 AM ^
Oh fuck it was O’Neill? No wonder why.
November 17th, 2018 at 9:01 PM ^
Higdon was great, Shea was very good in second half, no turnovers. Tight ends were wide open. Wish DPJ was more involved but maybe they save some new plays to him for next week.
November 17th, 2018 at 9:08 PM ^
actually, he did throw an INT in the third quarter after we recovered a fumble
November 17th, 2018 at 10:03 PM ^
We'll...yeah there was that...but other than the pick he didn't turn it over.
November 17th, 2018 at 9:13 PM ^
Felt like we pretty much drove at will, just for whatever reason couldn’t punch the ball in.
November 17th, 2018 at 9:14 PM ^
It seemed to me like most of the problems in the red zone came as a result of us not getting much on first down. Lots of second and third and longs. I’d put that on player execution more than the coaches. Getting yards on first down has been a strength all year and we didn’t do it in the red zone today, at least in the first half.
November 17th, 2018 at 9:34 PM ^
Based on how we dealt with the QB, we absolutely cannot let Haskins find his ryhthm. Ramsey could even run a bit too which again, can give us trouble in Haskins if he finds rhythm and decides to switch it up to dagger a drive for the unsuspected TD. Oan, I think we hold our ranking because we DID display a new and dominant kicking game.
November 17th, 2018 at 9:45 PM ^
Seems like Black could have dove for that one deep pass.? Only seen from one tv angle though. Thoughts?