Nebraska 17, Michigan 13 Comment Count

Ace

This was the high point, both from a football and comedic standpoint.

If this isn't rock bottom, it's damn close. Michigan faced a Nebraska rush defense that's done this...

Opponent Att Yds TD YPC
Wyoming 30 219 1 7.3
UCLA 50 216 2 4.3
South Dakota State 33 271 2 8.2
Illinois 45 211 2 4.7
Purdue 20 82 0 4.1
Minnesota 53 272 3 5.1
Northwestern 43 283 3 6.6

...and, with sacks removed, rushed for 22 yards on 29 attempts. Oh, and a combination of poor play-calling, poor line play, poor blitz pickup, and one understandably skittish quarterback allowed seven sacks that knocked the offense back 49 yards.

Brady Hoke's home winning streak is dead; that's not really the story. It wasn't hard to see this coming, not after the narrow escape against Akron, and certainly not after last week's debacle. When Drew Dileo dropped a fourth-down pass on Michigan's last-gasp drive, it felt depressingly fitting—of course the sure-handed receiver would let one slip through his grasp at precisely the wrong time, because that's just how this season has gone.



Bryan Fuller/MGoBlog

When Michigan attained a first down for the first time in the game, only three plays before the end of the first quarter, the Big House crowd erupted with the loudest Bronx cheer I've ever heard in this building. The sarcastic cheers turned to boos by the end of the first half, at which time the Wolverines, down 10-3, had 60 yards of offense on 29 plays.

Those boos only grew louder by the end of the game. Al Borges orchestrated a great drive to open the second half, featuring a big play for Fitz Toussaint on a slip screen, a slick pop-pass to Jake Butt against a heavy blitz, and a touchdown to a wide-open Devin Funchess on a post-curl-corner route combination.

Thus ended the offensive renaissance. That ten-play, 75-yard drive represented 43% of Michigan's total output on the afternoon, and Michigan resumed slamming their heads against stacked fronts and allowing wave after wave of pressure to hit home.

The defense did what they could, holding the Huskers to 273 yards—75 of which came on their game-winning drive—on just 4.1 yards per play despite two new starters at safety: Courtney Avery and Josh Furman, who replaced Jarrod Wilson and Thomas Gordon.* When Frank Clark lost contain and James Ross was late getting out on an option pitch (of sorts, since it went forwards) to Ameer Abdullah, who waltzed five yards into the end zone, there wasn't anger in Michigan Stadium—instead, apathy reigned, and a healthy number of fans streamed for the exits despite the Wolverines being down four with two minutes left and all their timeouts. Five plays later, those fans were proven—at least for today—to be justified in their actions.

"Well, we just didn't execute," said Brady Hoke after the game. That is 2013 Michigan Football's epitaph, and at some point it isn't going to be enough to save everyone's job.

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*According to Hoke in the post-game presser, Gordon had an unspecified ankle injury, while Wilson's absense from the lineup was an attempt to shake things up.

Comments

WolvinLA2

November 9th, 2013 at 8:23 PM ^

I do.  Hoke obviously has a particular philosophy he wants to stick to, but there are good ways and bad ways of running that philosophy.  Lots of teams are running it well (see Stanford, much of the SEC right now, Wisconsin for the last handful of years).  There's no reason we can't.  But our playcaller isn't doing a good job with it.  

Erik_in_Dayton

November 9th, 2013 at 7:32 PM ^

We saw nothing new today.  The offensive performance was terrible, but it was in line with what we've already seen.  I caution anyone not to be too worked up about the fact that we saw what we already knew was there, a very bad OL.  There is no reason to view the future any differently than we did four hours ago.  The problems we've seen all year were never going to be fixed in a week.  

vwolverine7239

November 9th, 2013 at 7:59 PM ^

What do we have coming back that says we will get better. The 3 offensive lineman that can't block? A quarter back that can't make proper reads? We lose our best reciever and our only two offensive lineman that can block. The future now looks poor again. We are a bottom Big Ten Team the last 6 years with no end in site. Recruits will start to fall soon and then on to a new coach again and the standard 3 to 4 years to give them a chance.  

jackw8542

November 9th, 2013 at 9:34 PM ^

If you are dissatisfied with a QB who is 18/27 for 196 with 1 TD and no picks, you are being completely unrealistic.  He would have been even better than that if Dileo hadn't dropped that last pass even though it was PERFECTLY thrown.  The offensive linemen will be fine next year after another year of weight training and film watching.  The scheming will never improve with Borges, though, and that is the problem.  An OC has to use the strengths of his players, not constantly expose their weaknesses.  Borges does not understand that or even seem to care.

Red is Blue

November 10th, 2013 at 7:36 AM ^

"An OC has to use the strengths of his players, not constantly expose their weaknesses."

Spot on.  Keeping Fitz in to bllitz pickup is crazy.  Its not like him being in represents a meaningful run threat (really not on Fitz) such that he provides a meaningful decoy. So I see absolutely no upside to having him in blitz pickup.  Either find someone who can or send him out into the flat and hope he takes a defender with him.

Erik_in_Dayton

November 9th, 2013 at 8:44 PM ^

What do you do when your OL can't pass or run block?  You can only run so many pop passes and screens.  People are going to adjust pretty fast.  

I don't mean to absolve the coaching staff of Michigan's failures, but right now Borges is like a baseball manager who has a bunch of pitchers who can't throw strikes.  That manager can scheme all he wants, but he's not going to make outs fall from the sky.

247Hinsdale

November 9th, 2013 at 10:10 PM ^

I'm not really sure what to make of the scheme vs. execution argument. Actually, both seem to be broken, and there are two plays I will use to make my point.
The first play was, I believe, in the first half. Shotgun formation, dropped but promptly picked up snap. We had 5 OL and a RB (I think Fitz) in pass protection against 4 DL. 5 OL block 3 DL, leaving the RB 1 on 1 with a DE. I can understand expecting a RB being able to pick up a blitzing LB or DB. I cannot understand expecting your RB to be your offensive tackle.
The second play happened later. Blitzed ran right by Schofield and Fitz. I mean, it looked like they were trying to get out of his way. I don't know how you gameplan around that.
As for the running game, there were several times where Nebraska ran the ball and only got back to the line of scrimmage and I felt jealous.

maizenbluenc

November 9th, 2013 at 10:22 PM ^

people had softened on Borges, but today's playcalling was dumb.

Brians preview basically said we will not be able to run up the middle our weakness against their strength and we will not have a lot of time to pass because they blitz.

And Borges played right to Nebraska's strengths.

Borges gets no more chances from me. He needs to go.

MMB 82

November 9th, 2013 at 7:33 PM ^

so why not do something other than fucking run right at it???

I have learned my lesson for this season- I watch all games on DVR, in fast forward. The pain would be over quicker anyway, but now I am just numb. Execute Borges.

bluenbama

November 9th, 2013 at 7:37 PM ^

Wife and kids were gone... So, I just played the new call of duty. Now, I am awaiting my wife and her sisters(plus their significant others and kids) to watch Bama.. I'm. So. Excited.

San Diego Mick

November 9th, 2013 at 7:38 PM ^

I just hope Morris gets a fair chance at winning the QB job next year

I hope Hoke hire a QB coach, fergodsakes

I hope Hoke quits giving me excuses after losing 3 of last 4 games

I hope we don't see a bunch of players transfering, sitting Wilson, if I was him I'd be pissed off as fuck, he's not the problem, stupid decisions like that ain't helping, especially when Furman's PI was so bad, all he had to do was step in front of the WR, way to shake things up Hoke.

Hoke is becoming a joke and I'm not laughing

Franz Schubert

November 9th, 2013 at 7:41 PM ^

Is that the 1 touchdown Michigan has scored in 18 quarters against MSU, Neb and OSU was built on quick and short passes which worked against the blitz. Why in the world did Borges go back to running into the stacked box and blitzes?

Ann Arbor Cardinal

November 9th, 2013 at 7:50 PM ^

Has anyone asked this yet of any coach? Have they given any kind of defensible explanation? I'm starting to wonder if all UM has are plays designed for 2nd and long; if they get something like a 2nd and 7, they don't know what to do. That's the best explanation I have for what has to be close to a record for average distance to go on 2nd down.

BlueTuesday

November 9th, 2013 at 7:42 PM ^

Man. I'm getting pretty tired of hearing the old "we just didn't execute" excuse from Hoke. I really believed Michigan was headed in the right direction. Clearly, that's not the case. They've digressed, and at a alarming rate.

I still have faith(a little) in Hoke. He needs to make some difficult choices in the offseason in regards to his coaching staff.

MGoBlue24

November 9th, 2013 at 7:47 PM ^

We give opposing quarterbacks the opportunities to have the games of their lives, and we give opposing defensive coaches easy preparation. Watching the game on TV tonight, my wife started counting Nebraska defenders filling the box and asked me why there were so many of them so close to the line of scrimmage.

bluenectarine

November 9th, 2013 at 7:50 PM ^

I guess I am the only one who noticed how slow/hurt devin is....devin cannot get around a D tackle now when he was magical earlier in the year.....I hate spreads because your QB gets hurt and the offense sucks.....I wanna be stanford please!

freejs

November 9th, 2013 at 7:55 PM ^

How, after everything you have seen, did you not all understand that our line/playcalling/rushing offense is that bad that it didn't matter?

How is this a surprise?

Talk about overthinking things. You would take 10,000 words to describe something brown and displeasing in odor, instead of just realizing you are addressing a TURD.

Goodness.

 

 

Mpfnfu Ford

November 9th, 2013 at 7:56 PM ^

Of Hoke constantly blaming the players for every loss. Even when it's true (and after weeks of these failings against sorry teams, that's pretty hard to believe), it's still not what a leader does. You put it on you and your coaches. That's why you get paid.

Mpfnfu Ford

November 9th, 2013 at 8:17 PM ^

"I liked the plays that were called.....I liked the gameplan......We just didn't execute."

That is not putting it on the coaches. You can't say the play calls were good with one sentence and be somehow putting blame on the coaching staff as a whole. Constantly blaming execution is blaming the players. This is not difficult to understand.

D.C.Blue

November 9th, 2013 at 9:13 PM ^

The skill players have shown at times that they can be good.  The issue is after fall camp and 8 games, why isnt the play more consistent.  That is due to the coaches.  I'm not sure if we should be getting rid of all 3 (Hoke, Borges & Mattison) or some combination of Borges, Funk and Mallory etc.  I do give Mattison some blame when its 4th and 2 and our DBs are 6 - 8 off the ball.  I also give Hoke and Mattison some blame for having a D line that cant get any penetration with 4.  By now, you should be able to have coached a skilled but raw athlete how to get some pressure on a consistent basis.