Penn State Snowflakes: The Defense
October 19th, 2019 at 11:37 PM ^
We were totally BUTT FUCKED in this game by the officials.
October 19th, 2019 at 11:38 PM ^
We were totally BUTT FUCKED in this game by the officials.
October 19th, 2019 at 11:39 PM ^
The defense giving up big plays is the reason we lost this game! You can't give up 3 long TD bombs and expect to win. The D played better in the 2nd half but the FS man coverage is killing the team!
October 19th, 2019 at 11:39 PM ^
We were totally BUTT FUCKED in this game by the officials.
October 19th, 2019 at 11:40 PM ^
We were totally BUTT FUCKED in this game by the officials.
October 19th, 2019 at 11:40 PM ^
The defense giving up big plays is the reason we lost this game! You can't give up 3 long TD bombs and expect to win. The D played better in the 2nd half but the FS man coverage is killing the team!
October 19th, 2019 at 11:40 PM ^
We were totally BUTT FUCKED in this game by the officials.
October 19th, 2019 at 11:40 PM ^
I think Hamler's legs are faster than Don Brown's brains
October 19th, 2019 at 11:44 PM ^
They spotted PSU 21 points.
October 19th, 2019 at 11:49 PM ^
Hard to judge, I don’t think PSU is all that great really.
October 20th, 2019 at 1:36 AM ^
They play OSU in Columbus and OSU will whip them. PSU is not an elite team. That is why I thought we had a chance.
October 19th, 2019 at 11:53 PM ^
James Franklin was never going to go for the win at the end. He was always going to just call 3 running plays. Stop them and the offense would have had another shot at it with over 1:35 left and good field position. But they couldn't do it.
October 19th, 2019 at 11:54 PM ^
Don't think the players had a bad play all game. First TD was a clear push off. There were probably 4 terrible play calls that led to Hamler bombs, one of which was incomplete but still.
Edit: the most fucked up part of that first TD was the fact that Michigan got called for OPI twice. The refs were clearing emphasizing it, at least for one team...
October 20th, 2019 at 12:01 AM ^
Fastest guy on the team is on the sideline instead of covering Hamler? Openly show man coverage with a slow safety on the slot? Not selling out to stop the run on 3rd and 6 when everyone knew Frames would turtle?
Brown makes 4-5 complete head scratchers every game and it’s just a matter of the O taking advantage or not. OK outing but not a winning outing.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:02 AM ^
We give up big plays on defense and don't really try to get them on offense. Not a winning combination.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:05 AM ^
Well, I had a long, thoughtful answer, but the site crashed.
Brown let Hamler beat him. That's unforgivable.
But McGrone and Hutchinson are ballers. They're going to be unreal next year.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:51 AM ^
I totally agree. McGrone, Hutch and Dax are going to be unworldly stars. It's already happening.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:05 AM ^
Safeties (especially non-Dax safeties) single covering Hamler is just an egregious scheming error. You simply can't let their best player have such an advantage.
The play Uche made on the ball that hung up was amazing - wow, what hustle and effort. No idea why/how he was put in that position.
So frustrating we couldn't stop them at the end - would have loved one more chance to score. Damn.
On the positive side:
Brown made some nice adjustments - took too long, but defense really shut down PSU in second half. They were baffled. Defense kept getting the ball back in the offense's hands, and didn't let PSU grind down the clock.
I thought defense did a good job against the run all night, especially in containing Clifford when he tried to run. QB scrambles are so hard to stop.
It seemed like we shut off the slants that have been so effective against us.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:06 AM ^
You have PSU on their own 3, you know they are gonna run 3 straight times. . .and you give up a first down. That's losing football.
Your offense finally scrapes a TD drive together to get back in the game at 21-14, and you promptly give up an EZ td on a big play. That's losing football.
Poor defense. You were only on the field for 22 minutes, and you yield 28 points. Poor defense. Don Brown is not a top 5 coordinator.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:08 AM ^
Don Brown has to be better. There is no excuse for the mistakes he makes. If the other team has a playmaking 4.3 WR, you just can't put Metellus or Hawkins on them in man coverage. Ever. It happened last year against OSU and obviously it happened today. That can't ever happen.
Defense played hard, coaches let them down.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:10 AM ^
With Harbaugh we are the Iowa of the East now. We have better players than them but not for much longer. Underperforming year after year is beginning to turn off the recruits. The window is closing fast.
Harbaugh is just an okay coach, as is Brown. Having a safety on an island with Hamler multiple times is inexcusable. In football you can't be a great coach by making the right play call 90% of the time if 10% of your calls are atrocious! That's a recipe for disaster. Your bad calls need to lead to first downs not TD's. Brown biggest weakness may be in identifying talent as he still coaches as if he has Bama's players.
Thought Harbaugg would be great but he's just okay. That sucks!
October 20th, 2019 at 12:15 AM ^
Harbaugh did not drop the passes tonight, did not tell the refs to not call OPI when the PSU TE pushed off on Hudson, did not tell the refs to not call PI against PSU when they mugged Black on the 4th down play, did not tell the refs to make the ridiculous OPI call against Collins, etc. Harbaugh is a great coach and a credit to our program. I like all the players on our team and believe Harbaugh teaches them how to be good students and good and successful people after football is over.
October 20th, 2019 at 1:12 AM ^
Perhaps LifeCoach® would be a better job for him then, because he's pretty fucking average as a football coach.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:12 AM ^
Thought that was also a bad PI call on Hill on that 3rd down and long play. On the replay, it looked like the receiver ran right into him and they both fell down.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:21 AM ^
No disagreement, but the refs don't have the luxury of slow motion and they make that call the time.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:19 AM ^
Defense played well most of the game. Metellus should be on the bench. Dax Hill should be out there. I can not figure out why the coaches don’t see it.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:21 AM ^
Metellus is good, he shouldn't be on the bench. But he shouldn't be covering Hamler, that's for sure.
October 20th, 2019 at 1:31 AM ^
Metellus is not good, I don’t know why everyone thinks that. He misses tons of tackles and can’t cover. I don’t remember him ever making a legitimately good play. The pick in the Iowa game was just him doing his job. That’s the bare minimum like showing up to work on time and should not be celebrated.Seriously prove me wrong. I don’t care about plays against overmatched opponents. Legit plays against legit teams. Pretty sure he has none of those and a lot of negative plays
October 20th, 2019 at 1:43 AM ^
He's solid. He knows his assignments and doesn't make a lot of mistakes. He just has some limitations and Brown needs to work within those limitations. I've seen a lot worse safeties here at Michigan.
October 20th, 2019 at 10:10 AM ^
His limitations are he can’t tackle and can’t cover. Those are two pretty big things you need in Brown’s scheme. Actually you need to do those in all schemes
October 20th, 2019 at 2:32 AM ^
He graded very highly last year against the pass. That TD on Hamler is absolutely not his fault, he had no shot on that play, I can't imagine many safeties in the country would.
October 20th, 2019 at 10:09 AM ^
Graded by who? Those losers PFF and Chris Collinsworth? If he graded so well why do good teams still throw at him?
October 20th, 2019 at 10:26 AM ^
Watch the replay. He was 7-8 yds deep at the snap lined up on him. He had one job, don't let him get deep on you, give him underneath, once he got ahead he stopped running, play was over and he didn't look like he wanted to be seen on the field as a part of the highlight. Give it your all or sit on the bench.
October 20th, 2019 at 9:46 AM ^
We as fans tend to overestimate the abilities of a back up player. But there are a couple curious instances where we as fans clamor for a back up to replace an upperclassman who is starting, only to see that player graduate, and the back up we wanted to see you so badly come in and perform better the next year (Kinnel, McCray, O’Korn, etc.) Was it another year of growth and development? Or were we right and those players legitimately better?
October 20th, 2019 at 10:53 AM ^
Well it’s not hard to be better than Metellus
October 20th, 2019 at 12:27 AM ^
I don't know, defense was OK but those big plays killed us. The bomb to Hamler to make it 28-14 turned out to be the difference. If you are trying to prove you are a legitimate B1G title contender you simply cannot allow that breakdown to happen. I thought the offense acquitted itself really well in the second half only to be let down by the defense. Then on 3rd and 8 with 2 minutes left they let Hamler squirm for the first down. That play should've been stopped and PSU should've been punting giving us another chance at the tie. Fuck it, I'm drained.
October 20th, 2019 at 2:33 AM ^
It was 3rd and 3 on the Hamler run
October 20th, 2019 at 12:40 AM ^
They did have the best player on the field who burned us just twice in the 2nd half. Defense responded well to the first half hole. Showed character. Came up a 2 plays short. Hopefully the scars will heal before ND strolls into town.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:44 AM ^
I blame Don Brown for the loss, yes because of his coverage decisions, but mainly because he teaches his DBs to grab and hold ON EVERY FUCKING PLAY. That PI on 3rd and 10 coat us the game, if that doesn't happen then the TD doesn't either.
Fuck Don Brown.
Football in the state of Michigan is cursed.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:48 AM ^
I am going to call out Lavert Hill. The holding call on the third down stop before PSU aired it out to Hamler for the TD to go up 28-14 was.......fucking AWFUL. That dude needs to study the fucking film and get better because quite honestly that was freshman level shit. Inexcusable for a guy with so much experience. It was one of a less than a handful of plays that ended up costing us the game.
October 20th, 2019 at 1:31 AM ^
Hill has regressed.
Fire Don Brown.
October 20th, 2019 at 1:45 AM ^
He didn't really hold him. The guy was falling down and Hill kinda got tangled up. If the guy doesn't fall, there probably is no flag there. He does need to be more careful there though.
October 20th, 2019 at 2:07 AM ^
My eyes told me he grabbed him first. The PSU player was smart to immediately fall to the ground like he was shot. Don't give the B1G flag happy refs something to throw a flag at.
October 20th, 2019 at 10:08 AM ^
That was a really cheap call. The receiver ran right into Hill. Im not sure how you avoid that call without simply let the receiver go by you.
If a Michigan receiver had done that, it probably would have gotten called for OPI.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:54 AM ^
Penn State has 1 dangerous offensive player. We couldn’t stop him though. ND has more weapons and a better O Line than ND.
October 20th, 2019 at 1:48 AM ^
Everyone realizes that the same coverage their bitching about is the reason we are hammering the qb so much right? I get it. I hate seeing big plays against not ideal guys, but, I’d take perfect passes like the TE one and hamlers first all day over the alternatives. No easy throw crosses tonight. No safe long drives where our offense probably never sees the field enough to get any rhythm. I have to believe the last td was some type of bust or miscommunication. Which, happens a lot more then people realize, just doesn’t get exposed every time to notice. Both ways. We held them under 300 yards, had to deal with our turnover, had to deal with drive extenders in black and white stripes. I’ll take it. PSU is lucky as hell to walk out with 28 and I think that’s their optimal possible score if you run it back 10 times over.
October 20th, 2019 at 1:50 AM ^
I'm old enough to remember when Don Brown had Mike McCray covering Saquon on a wheel route. That ended just like the two times Hawkins & Metellus "tried" to cover Hamler in the slot tonight.
So, for all the good aggression may solve for Don, it appears that aggression is just as stupid when speed in space is utilized against him, which has been often enough to derive a trend.
BTW, Lovie Smith now has as many top 10 wins as the Golden Boy
October 20th, 2019 at 2:10 AM ^
Do you think we remotely come close to pressuring the qb without the coverage we run? And I get it’s frustrating seeing Hamler hit a big play. But at least once it took a perfect pass and the other looks like a bust to me. I also would love to have an ideal guy covering him every time. But you sacrifice that for making sure you are lined up right. It’s very Monday morning qb to say what matchup you want. If they came out and said “fade to kJ” you have more of a point.
October 20th, 2019 at 8:16 AM ^
not true about lovie having as many top 10 wins...get your facts straight.
October 20th, 2019 at 2:25 AM ^
Defense played well for the most part, except on the 4-5 plays they got caught in a bad matchup/playcall. And I don't put that on the players, that has to go on Brown, the players were not put in a position to succeed on those plays. A safety trying to cover Hamler one on one in the middle of the field just can't happen, the safety has no shot.