Don't Blame Blake Thread

Submitted by jsquigg on

Ultimately, Michigan should have won this game.  I think it's alright to feel physically sick (I do), but when you feel like piling on Blake just remember no one feels worse than he does.  That play was one in a million and we had them beat, however it would have been nice to open things up more offensively when we had them down more.  This will suck forever but the Big Ten isn't settled yet and the future is bright regardless.  God must hate first year UM coaches vs Staee no matter how awesome they are.

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Ghost of Fritz…

October 17th, 2015 at 11:38 PM ^

I blame him becasue he screwed up and cost M a huge game.

If you choose to play big time ball, you can be the hero (and get the glory) or the goat (and take the blame when deserved).  Today he was the latter. 

But I don't wish him any ill, and those who do need to have their heads examined.

Joined: 10/04/2014

MGoPoints: 23880

maize-blue

October 17th, 2015 at 11:50 PM ^

Freaky play. What bothers me more is that the offense couldn't get a few yards at the end to salt the game away.

Joined: 01/10/2013

MGoPoints: 44662

Ghost of Fritz…

October 18th, 2015 at 12:06 AM ^

...but it does not bother me nearly as much as the botched punt, and then failure to at least fall on the ball so MSU could not scoop and run.

Would have been nice to get a first down so no punt necesary. 

But for the punter to botch catching the snap, then botch falling on the ball, and for MSU to scoop and score os a 1 in 20,0000 probablility.

So that bothers me more.

Joined: 10/04/2014

MGoPoints: 23880

Amaizeinblue

October 18th, 2015 at 12:20 AM ^

Anyone issuing him any death threats or calling him out on Twitter or Facebook or wherever, to take a second to quote Douchebag Dave Brandon, please go find another team to root for, we don't need you. That's about the only time I'll ever use anything that idiot said with any sincerity, but please, just go.

Joined: 01/18/2011

MGoPoints: 757

ford_428cj

October 18th, 2015 at 12:21 AM ^

Who knows who's even writing that shit to him on Twitter. Might be sparty or buckeyes doing it - just to make us look bad.

Joined: 10/28/2012

MGoPoints: 997

CoverZero

October 18th, 2015 at 12:54 AM ^

This loss is a tough one to take.  However I do not feel that Michigan deserved to win this game.  State moved the ball all day and was the better team overall.

Joined: 08/30/2014

MGoPoints: 14571

smwilliams

October 18th, 2015 at 12:56 AM ^

Anybody who says they hate Blake is an ignorant person overwhelmed by an absolute disaster. I don't hate Blake. He's a 20-something guy who punts for my favorite college football team. He's probably a nice guy. And he's the one that had to go into that locker room and look at the other guys who gave everything they had to win the game. That's his punishment. It's not some random psychopath saying kill yourself over Twitter. It's Jabrill and Willie Henry and Harbaugh and Baxter. He let us down, sure. But imagine you did something horrible. Do you care what a random person on the street thinks? Of course not. Do you care what your mother thinks? Your wife?

I won't be able to see Blake punt again w/o thinking of basically watching 100,000 people having their souls ripped from their bodies in the most grueling way possible.

That pales in comparison to what he felt right after the game.

But do I blame him? Sure, I blame him. He shouldn't care about what I think, though.



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Olaf

October 18th, 2015 at 1:27 AM ^

You're right, it's Rich Rod's.

But seriously, that whole play was fucked. We had gunners when there was no return man. Wetzel had a nice writeup about it tonight. Could have used those two extra guys to block.

Joined: 09/22/2015

MGoPoints: 5120

BlueMk1690

October 18th, 2015 at 1:36 AM ^

wouldn't have handled the snap for O'Neill either.

I am not saying they should hang O'Neill over this but it's amazing to see the mental gymnastics some people use here to avoid the obvious reality that a very basic and brutal mistake on O'Neill's part cost us the game at a point when it was won.

All this "but what put us into that position" talk is pretty silly and doesn't hold up to scrutiny. None of that other stuff lost us the game because we were winning the game up to the very point that ball bounced off O'Neill's hands. A punt like that is not an unusual or especially difficult situation.

You don't have to apologize for putting your punter into a position where he has to er punt the football. It's kinda part of the job description.

 

Joined: 02/04/2011

MGoPoints: 12939

Ernis

October 18th, 2015 at 7:50 AM ^

... I'll bite. Punting is a relatively high risk play. You long snap the ball and there is a certain probability that it will be botched. Whenever you put the ball in the air, you lose control of it. Hopefully you get it back, but it's never guaranteed, and your game plan needs to mitigate that risk in critical situations. A lot of moving parts have to come together to complete a successful punt and a certain proportion will go wrong, period. Quit trying to look for one person to point the finger at. If you understand football, you understand that "it's a team game" is not simply coach speak. That's 101. Thanks for contributing.

Joined: 09/23/2008

MGoPoints: 11480

BlueMk1690

October 18th, 2015 at 8:15 AM ^

A punt is not generally deemed a high risk play, that is not to say it is risk-free as we saw, but it is not considered risky or else it would not be a standard method to gain field position that is employed routinely without second thought across the world of football.

It is a team game, of course, but the way a team works is that everyone does their job, everyone contributes to the success of the whole. "It's a team game" does not work as a blanket protection against the accountability every player has for their own performance.

If you played a team game and "know anything about football" you know that coaches will rip into guys for their individual mistakes and yes if you make enough of them you will lose your spot. If players aren't held accountable for their mistakes, you get a culture of complacency.

O'Neill overall had done a good job up to that point, but he made a brutal mistake and one that in its consequences is extremely severe.

There are many situations in life where that can cost you your job, regardless of what your performance level was up to the point of the mistake. There's also situations where you'll get a serious reprimand but will be allowed to keep your position. It's very rare if not unheard of that you'll be declared a bloody hero for doing your job well 95% of the time but messing up spectacularly in the end.

Joined: 02/04/2011

MGoPoints: 12939

Njia

October 18th, 2015 at 9:09 AM ^

Literally, his only one, was not falling on the ball. Failure is almost never due to a single factor. Anyone who has ever studied accidents knows that they result from a combination of things that come together in a chain. Change any one of the preceding events and failure doesn't occur. From what I have seen in the replays, this was the chain: 1. They didn't get a first down; one could argue that three straight running plays up the middle probably contributed to this, as was the decision to put in Higdon instead of Smith, the #1 back. 2. Coaches called for a rugby punt formation (apparently; some are suggesting that it was supposed to be a pass play which would have been gutsy, but seriously risky; I'm not sure they would have made that call). 3. MSU showed the block punt formation and had no one back to receive; announcers saw this, too. It should have caused the unblocked gunner to move in toward the protection; his reason for not doing it is because the play call was either a fake punt, pass play, or he was going downfield to down the punt deep. Whatever the decision to send him downfield, it was the wrong one. 4. At the snap, the 5 linemen released early to get downfield. This overloaded the three blockers protecting O'Neill by a 3-1 margin. Again, this is on the coaches and the signal caller to not recognize the obvious danger they were in before the snap and call for a drop or pooch kick. 5. The snap was low; at first, I couldn't tell if it actually hit the turf (I still think it might have). At a minimum, it contributed to Blake's mishandling of the ball. From this point, there are no good outcomes for Michigan except to make MSU take the last snap of the game with less than 10 seconds and with no time outs. In that situation with everything on the line, that was the best option; the right thing here was to fall on the ball. 6. Blake still tried to make the play. That was where he made his mistake. With all of the other factors stacked up, and particularly with no fewer than 6 Spartans in his face, he was either going to fumble or the punt was going to be blocked. 7. Michigan players caught up to the ball carrier. But rather than just try to tackle him, they went for the strip. If the ball carrier is just stopped before he crosses the goal line, Michigan still wins because by that time, the clock had run out. In the end, this was a team failure.

Joined: 09/15/2009

MGoPoints: 35773

mnblue

October 18th, 2015 at 3:36 AM ^

I feel sick for all the kids who battled all game long against a really good team and handed it away after it had seemingly been won. Feel sick for our punter who had such a great game until the last play. Feel sick that he was subjected to the disgraceful lunacy of a small unhinged minority of our fan base in the aftermath. He tried his best and made a costly mistake. Oh well, get 'em next time. Nobody will feel worse than our players and especially Blake. As fans we owe these kids our support right now. I do have confidence in Harbaugh to bring them together and turn this into a teaching moment they will grow from. Go Blue!

Joined: 04/11/2011

MGoPoints: 9

blahblahblahh

October 18th, 2015 at 5:04 AM ^

this is a drunk thought, but I would love to hear a "BLAKE O-NEILL" chant at some point this season. maybe the next time he pins an opponent within the 5 or kicks one 70+ yards? it would be awesome to hear the fans give him some love.

make it happen student section.

Joined: 03/29/2014

MGoPoints: 2947

Goose1724

October 18th, 2015 at 7:15 AM ^

You can't blame a loss on one play. Several mistakes were made on the play, but other plays had mistakes too. Blown assignments, missed blocks, bad throws. O'Neill is one of the best punters in the country. We loved him after the 80 yarder. Go Blue

Joined: 10/28/2014

MGoPoints: 1647

ontarioblue

October 18th, 2015 at 8:03 AM ^

Seriously certain elements of this fan base have to stop acting like Sparty and grow up. The kid screwed up. Like Harbaugh says move on. We are moving in the right direction.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 16574

Perkis-Size Me

October 18th, 2015 at 8:00 AM ^

What is there to say? A play like that is maybe a 10,000 to 1 chance of happening. It's like that Iron Bowl ending from a few years ago. Freak play you'll probably never see again.

Is it on Blake? Yeah it is. But I'm not upset with him, nor should any of us be. There's no one on this planet that feels worse than he does right now. It's senseless to pile on the kid when he's probably already an absolute wreck. That's when we have to remember that at the end of the day, in the grand scheme of all things, this is only a game.

Anyone who issues him death threats or anything like that should just take a page out of the DB book and go find another team.



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saveferris

October 18th, 2015 at 8:22 AM ^

The only thing about Blake O'Neill that I hate is that we only have his services for one season. We're lucky to have a player of his talent and he'll contribute far more to Michigan winning, than losing this season. Anyone who wants to bash a 22 year old college football player for one mistake should just grow the fuck up.

Joined: 07/02/2009

MGoPoints: 24841

BuckNekked

October 18th, 2015 at 8:54 AM ^

Social media is the devil. Blake ONeill shouldnt have to live his life in fear because of a physical mistake in a football game. This one play in a football game shouldnt stick with him for a lifetime. Blake was one of our best players all day. I feel bad for the kid. I hope the students show him some love on Monday. After all fans, students, alumni, players, coaches and Blake are all in this together.

Joined: 12/06/2013

MGoPoints: -1793

Dawkins

October 18th, 2015 at 3:26 PM ^

We had lots of other opportunities to put the game away but failed to do so. With that said, in most lines of work a fuckup that catostrophic would cost you your job. I'm not convinced this should be any different. 

Joined: 05/24/2015

MGoPoints: 5799