[TWIS] "Big Ten’s ref conspiracy..." + [Michigan Monday]
Obviously, neither articles are very favorable towards Michigan this week, but usually people enjoying commenting on these weekly pieces, so the sake of continuity...
The last time Michigan’s defensive line drew a holding penalty was two weeks ago against Michigan State. But I want to encourage this kind of thinking, so I’ll note Brady Hoke’s Michigan teams all finished in the Big Ten’s top three at avoiding penalties, while 2017’s is second-worst.
- Positives:
The Wolverines managed just 103 yards rushing. They actually gained 152 yards, but lost 49 yards to seven sacks. Karan Higdon rushed for 45 yards, Ty Isaac managed 36 yards, and Chris Evans chipped in 17 yards. That’s 98 yards rushing on 25 carries by Michigan’s running backs. None of those 25 carries went for a loss
October 24th, 2017 at 2:22 PM ^
I don’t pretend to be an expert, but I do know there is more to PA than faking out the defense. It often has to do with timing as well. It’s not like playing pickup in the yard with your friends. You don’t call in a play and then throw in an extra signal that says ditch the PA because it’s 3rd and long. It just doesn’t work like that.
People latch onto things like this that are completely irrelevant.
October 24th, 2017 at 2:35 PM ^
No. This is bullshit. Calling a play action out of I formation on 4th and 11 is stupid. It in fact IS about disguising what you are going to do. Any notion otherwise is absurd and doesn't pass a common sense test.
October 24th, 2017 at 4:33 PM ^
Get out of here with that. It is not only about deception. You’re wrong. You can think whatever you want but you’re wrong.
October 24th, 2017 at 4:50 PM ^
I didn't call them morons but apparently you just like to make shit up. I said the call was stupid. And it was.
A play-action pass (also known as a play fake or simply "play-action") is a football play. The play action starts with what appears to be a running play, but turns out to be a pass play; in this way, it can be considered the opposite of a draw play. Play-action passes are often used against defenses that are focused on stopping the run. By initially simulating a running play, the offense attempts to deceive the defense into acting on the fake run and being out of position in their pass coverage, giving receivers more time and room to be free to receive passes behind the linebackers.
October 24th, 2017 at 5:08 PM ^
You’re completely missing the point. Just because the play includes a run fake does not make it a stupid call on 4th and 11. It’s not that simple.
Again, you’d rather believe that Harbaugh and Co were stupid (in that moment) then to understand that there is more to PA than just the fake.
When you watch football from now on, I want you to pay special attention to passing downs when PA makes no sense (according to you). And I guarantee you’ll still see it quite a bit, from lots of teams and lots of coaches. Some of them great coaches. They’re not all just making stupid decisions as you seem to believe.
October 24th, 2017 at 5:27 PM ^
Yes. I absolutely copy and pasted this. It's not a complicated thing. The play action pass is pretty consistently the same definitionally no matter where you pull it from.
And no I didn't say Harbaugh and Co. are stupid. I said that call was stupid. Harbaugh probably didn't make the call. And I am not some outlier for saying it was dumb.
Not arguing with you about this anymore. You are wrong and most everyone here knows it.
October 24th, 2017 at 6:23 PM ^
What’s wrong with running PA and having your RB and FB immediately transition to pass pro, while 2 or 3 other options get open downfield? It’s 4th and 11, not 4th and 25. Hell, a RB leaking out of the backfield late can pick up 11 as the defense drops out. There is nothing inherently wrong with that play, which is all I’m really trying to say.
Again, you’re latching onto the PA and can’t see past it. It may have been a bad call but that’s NOT necessarily because of the PA.
October 24th, 2017 at 7:12 PM ^
No. I don't want to argue because guys like you seem to be the Harbaugh Police, only interested in MGO Circle Jerk instead of welcoming diverse opinion. You think any criticism is an attack on everything you hold sacred. It's pointless sometimes.
Aww, Hell with it. One more time. Why not
And I get what you're trying to say abuot the leaking out of a RB. But here's the thing. You are in a game where you have gotten sacked SEVEN times and you're going to take a 4th and 11 play where your QB takes the snap from under center, turns around to fake to a back, has to turn back around and get a visual on the receivers and then make a decision. This is all happening with a guy who has shown little to no ability to go through progressions with any success. You're going to do that instead of working out of the shotgun where there is little dropback and more time to read and survey the routes, a situation where you can still have RBs pass protect if need be, still leak out, etc. This all happens on a down when the entire world knows you have to pass in a game where the pressure up front has been an issue to begin with.
IT WAS A STUPID CALL AND WE ALL KNOW IT.
October 24th, 2017 at 7:53 PM ^
Good day sir.
October 24th, 2017 at 8:07 PM ^
October 24th, 2017 at 2:23 PM ^
October 24th, 2017 at 7:11 PM ^
There's lots of valid criticisms about the Ohio State football factory, and I'm certain there are recruiting violations to be found, along with players who don't put in much effort to the "student" side of being a scholar-athlete.
That being said, the QB who made that comment was Cardale Jones, and at the time that he made it, he was a pretty good student-- above 3.0 GPA. He continued to be a good student up until he graduated. He was young and immatue and frustrated and said something stupid on twitter, but his actions thankfully did not match his words.
I have no way of being certain, but I find it highly unlikely that any Big10 school, including Ohio State, actually employ bagmen, or anything close to it. There may be discounts and loaners and hundred dollar handshakes, and the amount of that probably varies from school to school. If you claimed you had evidence that Ohio State was among the worst offenders in the conference, I guess I wouldn't be shocked. But there is a long, long way from those sorts of recruiting violations and what goes on in SEC country, where instead of an alumnus stepping out of line and spreading some cash around, you have assistant coaches arranging for donors to give thens of thousans of dollars to a recruit's family, literally paying him to come play at the school.
I'd also be at least a little careful about throwing stones in glass houses. Although it was 'legal', hiring Rashan Gary's high school coach during his recruitment seems ethically as shady as any confirmed recruiting violation I can remember in the Big 10. Michigan fans hailed it as a brilliant maneuver, but if Meyer had done it, those very same people would have been morally indignant and completely outraged.
October 25th, 2017 at 3:28 PM ^
LOL, Pryor was an honor student which tells you all you need to know about GPAs for football players at OSU.
October 24th, 2017 at 4:32 PM ^
October 25th, 2017 at 1:59 AM ^
i printed this out and framed it
October 25th, 2017 at 7:34 AM ^
go pat some more of your team's butts.
Go Blue!
October 24th, 2017 at 2:16 PM ^
Was he trying to do a Bill Clinton impersonation, or does every in Arkansas (except Bert) sound like that?
October 24th, 2017 at 2:29 PM ^
There's definitely an officiating bias against Harbaugh that I didn't sense when Hoke was the coach. Not much we can do about it I suppose. Refs are going to punish the kids because they don't like Harbaugh. Even if that means Jake Rudock has to get hit in the head multiple times with no calls or Wilton has to suffer a broken back (also with no call), that's just the price we pay I guess.
October 24th, 2017 at 2:46 PM ^
Tinfoil hat: Engaged.
October 24th, 2017 at 3:07 PM ^
What Does It All Mean?
It means that Michigan didn’t end up wasting a national championship-caliber defense because of a bad offense this year after all, because this was no championship-caliber defense.
Whoo Hoo. I feel better now.
October 24th, 2017 at 3:31 PM ^
I have posted this before, but for those that missed it, you should read this 2015 study regarding referee bias that analyzed game data from 2005-12. Michigan (in conference only) was the second most favorably treated team by referees (out of all power 5 teams in the country). Penn State was the most favorably treated. FSU was the least favorably treated. The team effects chart is about 1/3 of the way in; full chart is appendix D at the end.
October 24th, 2017 at 3:43 PM ^
No matter the game, the team, the sport, whenever the team I am rooting for is losing the refs are always making bad calls against them. Definitely happens for Michigan football. And it has to be true, because my friends and colleagues who root for other teams always expereince the same thing when their teams are losing.
October 24th, 2017 at 5:21 PM ^
As a fan of the Buckeyes, Bengals, Dayton Flyers and Cavs, I can confirm that those teams always get screwed by the officials when they lose. I do not understand what the refs have against my Flyers, in particular.
October 24th, 2017 at 5:18 PM ^
October 24th, 2017 at 5:52 PM ^
October 24th, 2017 at 6:51 PM ^
October 24th, 2017 at 8:39 PM ^
October 24th, 2017 at 8:01 PM ^
October 24th, 2017 at 11:48 PM ^
From then to the present, it was only when Bo started winning that Michigan football began to suffer referee bias. Yeah I know purely anecdotal. Blaa blaa blaa.
So I want to ask the greater mgoblog community a honest question. Where do the B1G officials come from? I have no idea, but I suspect that the officials come from men who were involved in big ten sports when they were in college. Over 55 years, seven of which I was at UofM during the ten year war, I've lived with the negative emotions of other big ten schools towards Michigan. In some cases hatred would not be to strong to describe those emotions.
So everything aside I want to ask all of you a question. Despite Michigan's recent stumbles, it remains the winningest program in the history of college football, and from 1969 to 2007 was the most dominate football program in the big ten. Four decades. If big ten officials were involved in big ten sports in college how can they not carry a bias? I sat in Michigan stadium and watched Archie Griffin snatch victory from our guys grasp. Hell. That was 40 odd years ago and I still taste the bitterness of that game. Not just taste it, but when I think of it in my mind's eye I can see and feel that loss. So, how can we expect anyone who was in college sports or in the big ten in the last forty years to view Michigan as just another team?
I have little doubt that if we looked at the other major conferences we could find similar historical pressures on officials. Maybe I'm right, but right or wrong there is nothing that can be done about it. When I was a student at Michigan we put it this way. For Michigan to field a championship team, they must beat the other team, the crowd, and the refs.
So I say bring it on. While we won't achieve dominance this season, I can clearly see it on the horizon. Go Blue
October 24th, 2017 at 11:50 PM ^
I want to dislike him for the snark but he writes like someone who respects Michigan.
He maintains the same tone week in week out which makes me think he's genuine.
Of course, after a loss, his fan base finally starts to chime in.
It takes strength to be loyal, jumping on a bandwagon is easy and weak