The Arrogance of the Defensive Gameplan
How many fucking times are you going to put McCray on an explosive RB in man coverage? How many times are you going to put Kinnel in man coverage on PSU's best receiver? How many times are you going to put a two-star safety on an island on 3rd down?
Don Brown is great, but we need to stop acting like every one of our players is capable of executing every assignment. Tonight's gameplan was a product of massive arrogance, and it failed miserably.
October 21st, 2017 at 11:46 PM ^
should bave covered Barkley the whole game. I knew McCray would be exposed in space.
Surprised Brown didn't see that...very disappointed in him.
October 22nd, 2017 at 12:06 AM ^
October 22nd, 2017 at 12:06 AM ^
October 21st, 2017 at 11:46 PM ^
How does this person keep getting to make threads
October 21st, 2017 at 11:46 PM ^
October 21st, 2017 at 11:46 PM ^
How many different threads are you going to start tonight?
October 21st, 2017 at 11:48 PM ^
Depends on how many breaks your mom wants to take.
October 21st, 2017 at 11:49 PM ^
Penalty, high school freshman humor, 20 yards, automatic first down
October 21st, 2017 at 11:52 PM ^
chicken tenders and tater tots!
October 22nd, 2017 at 12:23 AM ^
Then the call is I will have nachos.
October 22nd, 2017 at 3:19 AM ^
Too bad my mom won't be visiting you during your stay in Bolivia
October 21st, 2017 at 11:47 PM ^
October 21st, 2017 at 11:48 PM ^
October 21st, 2017 at 11:48 PM ^
October 21st, 2017 at 11:48 PM ^
Ohh, look - its Internet Tough of the Night, again!!
October 21st, 2017 at 11:49 PM ^
You get presnap motion is a thing right? This isn’t just a vague epistemological concept but a real thing that happens a lot. He didn’t get much help. No one else clocked the mismatch and hauled ass to help him when it happened.
October 21st, 2017 at 11:53 PM ^
"presnap motion: not a vague epistemological concept"
Y'all THIS is michigan
October 21st, 2017 at 11:49 PM ^
October 21st, 2017 at 11:50 PM ^
Make one positive post ever.....
Replacing 18 starters with a backup qb is hard.. who knew?
October 21st, 2017 at 11:51 PM ^
October 21st, 2017 at 11:55 PM ^
I agree. ..... PSU showed us how to use a bye week. And we got killed It gets better.
October 21st, 2017 at 11:58 PM ^
October 22nd, 2017 at 12:01 AM ^
You win.
You are right.
October 22nd, 2017 at 12:14 AM ^
right?
October 21st, 2017 at 11:50 PM ^
October 22nd, 2017 at 1:38 AM ^
or is it Siri ? One of my pet peves.
October 22nd, 2017 at 8:28 AM ^
October 21st, 2017 at 11:51 PM ^
October 21st, 2017 at 11:51 PM ^
Barkely will play on Sundays, would be hard for anyone to cover him out of the backfield. I don't know why other teams can just throw the ball up in the air and their receivers always catch it and why it's so hard for us to complete a pass downfield. That I truly can't explain. I do hope we have someone that can throw the ball next year. If we do, next year will be a great year.
GO BLUE!!
October 22nd, 2017 at 12:08 AM ^
I think we are seeing what happens when a GA is coaching your wide receivers. It was a good idea to try but it clearly isn't working. Harbaugh needs to hire a real wide receiver coach to coach these guys. There is way too much young talent at the position to let it go to waste because he doesn't want to hire a coach for wide receivers.
October 22nd, 2017 at 1:27 AM ^
are faster and taller. Probably should have went zone instead of man to man coverage.
October 21st, 2017 at 11:52 PM ^
This was definitely not his best performance tonight.
October 21st, 2017 at 11:53 PM ^
October 22nd, 2017 at 12:20 AM ^
October 21st, 2017 at 11:53 PM ^
October 22nd, 2017 at 6:52 AM ^
October 21st, 2017 at 11:55 PM ^
October 22nd, 2017 at 12:06 AM ^
On Barkley's 2nd run, he seemed to have little interest in making that tackle. And he had a real rough night in coverage. When the talk over the spring/summer was of Hudson being Peppers' replacement, I figured we'd see little of Metellus.
I guess I was wrong. But who are you going to put at S with Kinnel then? Brad Hawkins? Jordan Glasgow?
October 21st, 2017 at 11:56 PM ^
Like I should listen to guy who finished last in his class at West Point.
October 21st, 2017 at 11:58 PM ^
October 21st, 2017 at 11:57 PM ^
PSU has a really good veteran offense. They are going to do this to a few other teams coming up. Up and down the line up, upperclassmen with talent. That's what quality veterans with an extra week of prep do to a defense loaded with teenagers.
Those plays they made in the passing game over and over again: those are the plays veteran offenses make. The same ones our young offense with a middling back up quarterback are not making.
The calculus of what happened out there tonight is obvious. Many of us don't want to face it.
Now let's see this game next year when Franklin is in the spot Jim is in this year: plugging in young players all over the place on both sides of the ball.
The reality is it will take time and continuity to get to a point in the program where it won't take any predictable dips based on graduation attrition.
We're trying to win with remnant leftovers from two bad recruiting classes from the previous coach and a hybrid class we had a month to cobble together. The team is mostly young kids. Both sides of the ball.
And before anyone throws out the "Sparty is winning with young players....", ask yourself if you watched them today and felt confident they'd DEFINITELY beat anyone left on their schedule besides Rutgers?
Play lots of young players together at one time, get ready to struggle in games like tonight.
October 22nd, 2017 at 12:02 AM ^
It will be interesting to see PSU's offense next year, especially if Moorhead leaves. They have good recruiting, but you can't assume you'll have a Barkley and McSorley combo every year.
The MSU comparisons drive me insane. That was a game where Michigan did everything wrong you could and barely lost. And if it was any other team, nobody would care. But because it's MSU, all of a sudden it's a referendum on Michigan's coaching staff and their identity. And when Michigan wins next year at MSU, those same people are going to be crowing.
October 22nd, 2017 at 12:14 AM ^
Great points. Especially about MSU and how that created a very skewed outlook on the direction of our program.
We have good recruitng too. But unless you have a veteran quality offensive line to create a foundation, forget winning games like tonight with a back up quarterback and young receivers. I don't see a dominant offensive line emerging at PSU. They were average tonight. Good enough to accomodate their many weapons.
I think we should be talking about the obvious improvement in our running game and passing game tonight. The line is playing better. Noticeably.
A lesser team is down 28-0 middle of the second quarter in that environment. We had a real chance to go into half down a point. PSU's drive to back up 8 had two amazing pass and catches. Plays make by talented veterans.
October 22nd, 2017 at 12:46 AM ^
October 23rd, 2017 at 11:06 AM ^
I think Penn State is set up at the QB position for a while. McSorley has another year left. During the summer, the BTN crew visited all the schools for fall camp, and kept insisting that backup Tommy Stevens would be a starter at some B1G schools already. He's probably going to be pretty good. He's a redshirt soph. They likely won't experience the same dip Michigan is experiencing now because they have better depth than Hoke left Michigan at QB
October 21st, 2017 at 11:58 PM ^
I will give PSU credit; they drew those plays up to get Barkley on McCray. At some point on defense, you can only respond so much to what the offense dictates. And at some point, your weakness are going to be exploited no matter what you try to do.
October 21st, 2017 at 11:58 PM ^
October 22nd, 2017 at 12:00 AM ^
October 22nd, 2017 at 12:01 AM ^