...and you are good Brain Play away from being an MGoBlog Contributor worth paying attention to.
unfortunately, never seemed like chesson fully recovered from the injury he sustained in our citrus bowl beatdown of florida.
Tomorrow with the LBs.
Yes, I know it's a dup. Probably so excited to be 1st that his trigger finger was shaking!
Did you see the post about silence being under-rated?
What our three losses showed was the paramount importance of quarterback play. Wilton was terrible vs. Iowa and OSU (when he was injured). I think that with a lesser overall team we may perform better this coming year if Wilton takes a major step up.
The three losses proved what happens when you have an average O-line. You can cover up a lot of other deficiencies - of which we have had very few this year - except O-line.
No QB will be perfect all game, every game, all year. Speight was very good this year, and there was only 1 Deshawn Watson in the NCAA this year. We beat Iowa and OSU with 1 first down to salt away the game.
Now the OSU game was also a complete robbery by the refs, but a better O-line and we salt that one away too.
All that said, Bama's or Clemson's D-line would have destroyed our O-line had we met either in the playoff. After watching what FSU's D-line did to us, I felt much less annoyed about not making the playoff.
We lost 3 games by a total of 4 points, but with a good to great O-line, we roll through that schedule.
Those were problems. But then, all QBs have problems. Tom Brady threw a pick six in the Super Bowl. Deshaun Watson had turnover problems all year. If Michigan had an OL that could mash good defenses this is all academic.
Completely agree .....
Here are Jalen Hurts stats vs Florida.
11-20, 138 yds.
Bama won by 40 pts.
Here are his stats vs LSU
10-19, 107 yds
Bama shutout LSU.
vs Washington 7-14, 57 yards.
Vs Clemson 13-31, 131 yards.
Some of you guys live on a different planet. Yes if UM had Watson we'd probably have won 2-3 more games - there are about 3 of those guys in CFB. That special of a QB can make up for a mediocre OL. Speight was no different than guys whose teams got to the playoffs i.e. Bama, OSU.
Did you see some of JT Barret's games late? He was a disaster. OSU still got to the playoffs.
OSU was destroyed by Clemson. UM and OSU were in the ballpark of each other. Short of a Heisman QB who was mobile, UM would have been trucked by a Bama DL. Almost any QB did. Speight was fine vs the masses of upper tier teams excluding a few future NFL guys. The OL was not fine. Nor was there a special RB to offset that OL like other teams had.
(By the way, that special RB--which is code for "Dalvin Cook"--would make plays that other guys can't make, but even Cook was stopped at the line by Michigan's defense a fair amount of the time. Consistently running for 4 or 5 yards when the team needs to run clock is an OL issue more than anything else).
if NC State doesn't choke away a FG Clemson misses the playoffs completely
#FireHarbaugh
Times are still unofficial.
Heres a link to Darboh's runs: http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-combine/0ap3000000789884/Amara-Darboh-runs-an-unofficial-4-46-40-yard-dash
EDIT: Official times just on NFL Network stream... Darboh 4.45 and Chesson 4.47
One guy said it best above. 40 times mainly matter in the skill positions like db and wr. I mean yeah they really do help at other positions but football is more of a game of angles and quickness/agility and power closer to the line of scrimmage imho. You have guys like Harvin, Deon and Moss who were unstoppable or couldn't be caught when out in the open. Then you have guys like Robert Smith and where did that speed ever really truly get him at the running back position? Not very far. He was that high knee long strider who could never get going fast enough from the strart to dominate anything. When he got in the open those 5 times he was gone but didn't see it much. That's why the studs dominate the game. Not trackstars.
Edit: Some people don't get out of that stance very good either. Show me where in any sport you start running from a stance like that. I know I cant get up to full speed very quick when I'm bent over and have a hand on the ground. Stupid.
It's just who I am, I suppose.
Great times guys. Wish they could of run Against each other. Take another .01 off AND be great competition. The Harbaugh Way.
I'll miss these seniors. Great job by them though, hopefully they all get drafted and kill it in the league.
You're right. #12 and 15 now.
LOL I thought it was going to be their GPAs...seriously
I bet Chesson lost some speed from that injury though. Just didn't seem as fast this year
Is that really the takeaway from part of a workout for 2 players without pads 3 months after the season?
doesn't matter how fast your receivers are if you can't get them the ball.
Yes. Look at Grant Perry's measurables (not great) and how productive he's been. It's one thing to be fast in a straight line. It's another to be elusive, have good hands, being able to "high point", etc.
Specifically for college football, teams are built from the inside out, the lines determine 80% of your success.
The 3 most important facets of a great team are
1) Dominant D-line - (UM 2016 ✓)
2a) Dominant O-line - (UM 2016 - Not even close)
2b) Great QB - (UM 2016 - Good, not great, couldn't compensate for an average O-line)
You can win with a meh O-line if you have Deshawn Watson or a generational QB to cover up for that deficiency - See (Cam Newton, Vince Young, Jameis Winston)
Or you can win with a solid game managing QB and a dominant O-line/running game ala Alabama over the course of their dynasty.
The NFL is a bit different as there is generally parity across the offensive and defensive lines (unless you have an elite group like Dallas O-line this year, Giants D-lines that beat the Patriots twice in the superbowl, or the elite Denver and Baltimore defenses of recent years). But for sustained success in the NFL the QB position is essentially 1a, 1b, and 1c in terms of determining team success, as it's much harder to hold on to an elite "unit" relative to the rest of the league (trades, free agency, etc) vs. holding on to an elite or near elite individual that touches the ball on every offensive play of the game (Brady, Rogers, Peyton, Brees, Roethlisberger)