Cornerback talk
October 31st, 2020 at 7:45 PM ^
Recruiting, I was concerned the last 3 years when Michigan was recruiting 3 star DBs. Everyone was saying they were long and lanky and would fit Brown's defense well. Looks like these 3 stars are playing more like 2 stars.
October 31st, 2020 at 11:01 PM ^
And you were probably chastised for even mentioning it.
November 1st, 2020 at 6:38 AM ^
October 31st, 2020 at 7:47 PM ^
My issue with the corners is that they aren't good
October 31st, 2020 at 7:48 PM ^
V Gray had one of the worst days I've ever witnessed from a defensive back in terms of getting routinely picked on over and over again. I think they took him out for his own psyche and really had to switch to more zone coverage which is not our bread and butter. This will also be a blueprint for other offenses throughout the season.
Let us not forget our DLine could've really helped this group out by getting any type of pressure on a average at best MSU line and QB. One of our worst defensive days outside of OSU games. The regression is upon us.
October 31st, 2020 at 8:08 PM ^
Reminiscent of the way OSU went after Watson over and over again (two years ago, I think). Felt bad for them today - can't feel good being exploited like that play after play
October 31st, 2020 at 8:15 PM ^
As if the announcer constantly saying throw at Vincent Gray wasn’t bad enough, at one point Fox actually had an arrow on the screen pointing at him pre-snap and sure enough, the next play was his last after giving up yet another deep ball.
October 31st, 2020 at 7:48 PM ^
the biggest problem, at least in my opinion, is that they're not good
October 31st, 2020 at 8:15 PM ^
That and Lombardi had all day to throw the ball. Very little pressure from the UM d-line and LBs. MSU was basically playing 7 on 7 ball.
October 31st, 2020 at 8:45 PM ^
I say this with as much sincerity as I can muster in an internet message board but Green and Gray honestly looked like they had never practiced to eventually play a day of collegiate football in their lives.
Fellas, I’m telling you - MSU could’ve ran those sideline post routes all day. It was either a flag for PI or at least a catch. Problem is if we’re teaching this stuff now, we’re in big fuckin trouble.
October 31st, 2020 at 9:03 PM ^
Gray and Green are playing as advertised. Stop blaming the kids. Year six and zero lockdown corners to fill in the gaps.
October 31st, 2020 at 9:33 PM ^
You’re right. I don’t mean to be harsh on the guys and football is a team game first and foremost. But I think that defense left a lot to be desired today.
Let’s fix some stuff and get back on the horse next week. If we can improve and move on, I think we can still have fun this year. Just need to reset expectations from last week I guess.
October 31st, 2020 at 7:49 PM ^
If you think this is why we lost this game, you're wrong. Offensive play calling lost this game. Period
October 31st, 2020 at 8:39 PM ^
Yeah, defense, particularly the corners were far from good, but in today's college game giving up 27 is not that bad. The offense should be able to put put 28+.
October 31st, 2020 at 11:25 PM ^
I agree with you on this one. You have to go into any game these days planning and scoring at least 35. If you score in the 20s, you leave yourself open to getting beaten
October 31st, 2020 at 8:44 PM ^
O line was terrible. Complete disappointment. But MSU play calling wasn’t great either. They could have thrown it deep every play and hung 50 on us.
October 31st, 2020 at 7:49 PM ^
Why the hell did Green and Gray play 73/73 snaps against Minn? Why didn’t they try to get someone else some snaps? When you’re up 3 scores put in the fucking back ups. Why was Faustin not in? Move Dax to corner and try Perry and Turner. Do all that shit against Minn and today goes better because they don’t stick with a starter having his worst game of his career. Brown and Zordich are so terrified of letting back ups play. I don’t think we needed Charles Woodson and Champ Bailey to stop Lombardi today. He kept throwing wildly off target. All we needed was a guy in the area with some awareness, not Grabby McGrabberson who can’t get his head around.
October 31st, 2020 at 8:18 PM ^
This has been true during the Harbaugh era. The whole starting team, offense and defense, was in until less than two minutes were left against Minnesota. They had been up by 20+ most of the fourth quarter.
October 31st, 2020 at 8:37 PM ^
Because clearly they need as much practice as possible. But they're not good. I've been saying since before Thomas opted out.
You have Dax and a bunch of trash can emoji.
People here tried to argue Gray, no, he's a FS at best. He's not Jeremy Clark, he is a terrible CB.
Stop worrying about DT. CB is AWFUL.
It's no wonder we were trying Dax there and Paige at safety.
It's crazy because the perfect defense against the offense is what the D also does. Jam, be physical and force you to throw deep. Milton should be WAY better there.
But anyway, the CBs are trash...the end. NG
October 31st, 2020 at 7:50 PM ^
Our corners just aren't at that stage of their development where they can be put on islands. And Don Brown refusing to make adjustments, whether safety help over the top, or mixing in zone, definitely didn't help their cause.
October 31st, 2020 at 10:03 PM ^
This, all day long. We’ve seen it over and over that Brown will not alter his gameplan to fit the players. Yes, they should recruit better players ideally, but at some point you have to adjust to what you’ve got. Others have mentioned too that help from the D-line would’ve made a difference. A bunch of people were on the hype train that we have 2 All-American ends...Guess we know now that we don’t, if they were they would’ve made an impact in this game.
October 31st, 2020 at 7:51 PM ^
Not their fault. They aren't NFL talents but Don Brown is running schemes as if we have Deion and Woodson out there.
Don Brown, Don Brown, Don Brown is to blame.
Both for schemes and shit recruiting at the position. While it would have been mitigated if Ambry came back, Brown is still garbage. You work with the tools at your disposal. Should have been running a ton of zone coverage today.
October 31st, 2020 at 8:31 PM ^
This is the answer. Our corners aren't great, but our coaches do nothing to help them out.
What makes this bad is that this isn't new. OSU lit us up two years in a row and we aren't doing anything else different.
October 31st, 2020 at 7:51 PM ^
There is a 5 star recruit in state Will Johnson. But Harbaugh can’t keep them in state. It looks like osu is leading his recruitment. Just another problem with Harbaugh.
October 31st, 2020 at 7:51 PM ^
I remember when Maizen called out recruiting, and I made jokes about signing 3* unathletic tall CBs. Boy oh boy.
October 31st, 2020 at 7:52 PM ^
Why didnt they have safety help or try to play zone ? They had zero sacks, didnt look like they even pressured Lombardi much .
October 31st, 2020 at 7:53 PM ^
They honestly looked like kindergarteners out there. The way they ran and tried to tackle, not good.
October 31st, 2020 at 7:55 PM ^
I don't want to be rude but these are the worst corners I've ever seen play for us. I'm sure Ambry would have helped but it would not have mattered if he played this year. Green and Gray have been so bad that no matter which one started alongside Ambry they'd just get picked on the whole game. Green I have some hope for as it looked like a lot of his problems were coachable. Gray simply got burned by subpar athletes all night and was routinely beaten even after holding on for dear life. This was Olave vs Watson all night.
October 31st, 2020 at 8:06 PM ^
and the coaches thought both Green and Gray were good when they were scouting them. smh
October 31st, 2020 at 8:55 PM ^
With Ambry back you could move Dax to cb and have 2 lockdown studs on islands then live with Paige at safety.
November 1st, 2020 at 10:00 AM ^
Dax does not want to play CB.
October 31st, 2020 at 8:59 PM ^
Nailor and Reed are both fast as hell. I give props there. If Gray/Green can just run with them, the least we could do is make the catch harder to get in. You can’t just grab guys jerseys or back arms and get away with it anymore. Also look back for the ball once in a while? Lombardi left a few balls prime for the plucking if we just look back.
October 31st, 2020 at 7:55 PM ^
need to play zone with these CB's
October 31st, 2020 at 7:56 PM ^
Well first, our NFL DE's barely touched Rocky all game long, zero push from our 5 star DT and I witnessed Carlo Kemp get blown out of position almost repeatedly. When those things happen and you rely on some scrubs at corner this is what will happen everytime.
Our Safetys actually arent that bad, or are they? It's kinda hard to tell. They function well against the run but dont guard well m2m. I heard announcers mention it but is Dax Hill really good? Like for real, is he? I havent seen it yet, just his shiny recruiting profile.
October 31st, 2020 at 10:00 PM ^
Did you watch the game? They went at Daxton Hill ONE time in man coverage. He was stride for stride and also turned to look for the ball, putting his arm up and was also able to take his guy out of bounds without drawing a penalty. It was textbook coverage and exactly what Charles was talking about at halftime. Apparently turning to look for the ball as a corner is a special talent that some can't grasp? Because if Green or Grey were aware at all where the ball was thrown, they wouldn't be clutching/grabbing while the ball sails 10 feet over the guys head. MSU knows if they spread Michigan out, they can't use safeties over the top....Not that Donnie would do that anyway. Daxton Hill's skills are being wasted basically. He is not impacting the game as much as he could on the outside as a corner. Or let him follow around the opponents best WR...and try the other scrubs as slot corners. Hell, throw Seldon in as the starting slot corner. It's not like Grey and Green were getting beat by Jerry Rice, the kid for MSU was a freshman....So how much worse could Seldon or Green-Warren be? I bet they both can turn and look for the ball at the very least, oh and also catch it. Gemon Green might have the worst hands i've ever seen play at CB. He's dropped about 4 interceptions in 2 games.
November 1st, 2020 at 1:39 AM ^
Dax is excellent. He's aware. The rest aren't, especially Hawkins.
October 31st, 2020 at 7:59 PM ^
What in the hell are our corners doing. 323 yards for Rocky Lombardi.
Our #1 CB opted out. He was a top 100 recruit. St. Juste, Simms, & Green transferred. Gray & Faustin are just not that great. The other Green seems solid. Perry appears like a recruiting miss. Turner probably just is what he is...not a high level recruit. And, the rest of the guys are true freshman. The only real disappointment to me is the high transfer rate, Perry, and Thomas deciding to opt out. If Thomas was here I'd bee fine about Thomas & Green with Gray as the #3.
October 31st, 2020 at 8:15 PM ^
Wasn't one Green a medical? Could be wrong.
October 31st, 2020 at 8:37 PM ^
German Green is on the team.
October 31st, 2020 at 8:03 PM ^
Same thing with DTs. Michigan hasn't recruited the position well at all and it is going to get Harbaugh fired. There is no help coming in the 2021 class.
November 1st, 2020 at 1:19 AM ^
I don't understand why we can't recruit DTs like we recruit LBs or 3 star CBs. Take 3 guys every class, let attrition figure out the numbers.
October 31st, 2020 at 8:04 PM ^
The talent is not there.
Dax would be more helpful at corner but he doesn’t want to move there. Not mad at him about it but it’s just the truth.
November 1st, 2020 at 1:18 AM ^
And replace him with whom? Paige? That didn't work out well at all against Minnesota.
October 31st, 2020 at 8:11 PM ^
recruiting has been weak. they signed a solid pair in thomas and st juste but both left early and they failed to stack class on class. fingers crossed seldon and dennis have the speed, hips and instincts bc im not sure the older guys do.
DBs obviously work in concert with DL pressure. look at harbaughs DT recruiting from 2015-20...its disturbing. not much else to say on that topic
October 31st, 2020 at 8:14 PM ^
Lombardi is getting a lot of hate on this blog, but he threw about 10 deep balls today that were probably better than any deep ball I've ever seen Milton or Patterson throw.
I'm as disappointed with the pass rush as I am with the CBs. And most of all, Brown. He was generating no pressure while simultaneously providing no help for his corners over the top. It felt like we were playing with 4 DL and 3 CBs in man coverage. What the hell were the other 4 guys on the field doing while we weren't getting to the QB or providing safety coverage over the top?
October 31st, 2020 at 8:27 PM ^
The other four people were making sure to stop the run, because this is 1980 still and you must stop the run to win the game of course! Teams only use the forward pass as a trick.
October 31st, 2020 at 8:20 PM ^
Here is the thing. Scheme and the personnel up front will negatively impact the CBs. Now, a coaching adjustment should have been implement to limit your exposure. Thought would be to force them to run, more of a dime coverage. When an inferior team is exploiting a weakness, don’t let them. Sounds simple but that’s how sparty beat us
keep it simple. That we don’t at times
October 31st, 2020 at 8:20 PM ^
Here is the thing. Scheme and the personnel up front will negatively impact the CBs. Now, a coaching adjustment should have been implement to limit your exposure. Thought would be to force them to run, more of a dime coverage. When an inferior team is exploiting a weakness, don’t let them. Sounds simple but that’s how sparty beat us
keep it simple. That we don’t at times
October 31st, 2020 at 8:20 PM ^
Ambry as the veteran All B1G CB opting out killed us. Tough to replace him with no Spring ball or Fall camp.
October 31st, 2020 at 8:31 PM ^
At a program like Michigan losing one CB should not submarine the season. QB maybe, but certainly not a position like DB where there should always be a stable of athletes ready to step in.