Honest and mostly Objective assessment of this Team
Coaching:
We need an offensive coordinator, and Jim needs to go out a find the best available OC this offseason. I think its time to part ways with Pep Hamilton. There is a lack of creativity in play calling and play design. We need more passing spread and overall more modern offensive game plan which would maximize Patterson's skill set. Our recruiting is headed in the right direction, but we lack explosive athletes in the slot as of right now. I think Ronnie Bell can be that guy next year (hoping).
As far as Game planning, that was a terrible job both offensively and defensively. On offensive, we did not use nearly enough motioning and shifting which OSU defense has struggled with this year in the run game. Also we failed to put their linebackers out in space covering our players outside of that TD pass to Evans.
I would love for us to stop forcing Wide receiver screens to 6'4 receivers that are not really shifty or able to break tackles. Also speaking of screens, why do we throw more TE screens than we do screens to our running backs who can be explosive in the open field.
On defense, I LOVE Don Brown but he needs to adjust to what the team does before the game starts not after giving up 21 points. Everyone knew coming in that this would be the Best QB we would face so far and the best and fastest receivers, but we continued to go man to man against there crossing routes and could not get home with the rush. I may be wrong but I did not see any hands up with our D Line against there quick passing game. We need to be more multiple and flexible on defense especially when that team has 11 games of film to game plan against our defense.
Offense:
First off all, I think we will have Patterson coming back and he will be more comfortable in the offense. The offensive line will return 4 players that will continue to get better. I think our running game could be even more explosive with a better OC. What we need is better TE play, McKeon has been a disappointment all year and Gentry was surprisingly bad today dropping two catchable balls, one that could have been a TD. We also need more explosiveness in our receivers after the catch. The receivers are rarely are wide open or breaking tackles after the catch.
Defense:
We need better play at the Safety position. Muetellus is getting better, but Kinnel as been a liability all season, and is always late to the ball in passing situations. I doubt both of our corners come back next year but this was the first time they were really tested and they immediately went after Watson all game. I think both Hill and Long played ok today from what I saw, and hope at least one of them comes back next year. Hudson made no impact plays today, and that Viper position has not looked all that special at all these season, and honestly has not looked special since Peppers (for obvious reasons). More rangy explosive Linebackers like Bush in the front seven will be needed going forward. Teams continue to put our linebackers in space against running backs and the only one that could handle that responsibility recently has been Bush.
In final, I think Jim Harbaugh has done a hell of job getting our team out of the pathetic abyss that struggled against teams like Akron, Rutgers, and Toledo; he will need to improve the offense to become championship level in the future. By improving that offense, I mean (1). An actually OC that is not Pep. (2). More modern offense that puts our athletes into space. (3). More explosive WRs, especially in the slot. (4). Better play calling and play design in the pass game.
That is my two cents.
November 24th, 2018 at 6:59 PM ^
I don’t know that offense was the issue. If we stay on schedule from the first quarter, we are walking touchdowns in by the fourth quarter. I think special teams, lack of defensive adjustments AND lack of explosiveness on O put us behind schedule. It’s strange because our D slowed OSU down the last couple years, but they got smoked today. I have no answers but I understand what Harbaugh is putting together and think it could work. Just is hard to come from behind against a juggernaut like OSU’s O.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:04 PM ^
I don't think we were ever on schedule. Slamming it into the line of scrimmage out of the gun and having 3rd and 5+ or more is in not on schedule. .... we don't have explosiveness. The scheme isn't creative enough to get guys in space. This isn't the 80s or 90s. .... I do agree with you in that this team cannot play from behind.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:17 PM ^
Time of possession in Q1 was 12:00 to 3:00. That wears a defense out over four quarters if you can maintain it. Fat face Haskins pulled 8 snaps by the first possession in the second quarter. Harbz strategy has merit. That is how we beat MSU, WIS and PSU. We just could keep OSU off the board long enough.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:21 PM ^
My god, we are going to cite time of possession? They had a fast 57 yd drive in which there was no resistance. We stalled in the red zone. Time of possession only works if your defense isn't letting the other team walk up the field with no resistance. Time of possession works if you convert in the red zone. The red zone offense is laughable. There was nothing about this plan or scheme that was working.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:37 PM ^
Yes, WE are going to cite time of possession. That is what Harbaugh’s offense is going for. I’m not saying Michigan won the game you dumb fuck. I’m explaining what the game plan has been for 10 games while you were signing Michigan’s praises before having the run pulled from under you.
You know Michigan scored quickly under Rich Rod, right? That didn’t work for us then, buddy, but damn, UM should have hired you, ya fucking genius.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:41 PM ^
Whoa that is intense with the "dumb fuck". The whole TOP thing worked for 10 games against inferior opponents. I certainly wasn't singing praise while we were beating up on terrible teams. Nor did I say we should be scoring lightning fast. The point is when you are trying to grind out a game against an opponent who is superior to you upfront it simply won't work. Slamming the ball into the line out of the gun and setting up 3rd and 5 or more never works against good teams.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:45 PM ^
Let me also add this ... ask yourself when was the last time Michigan... or lets be more specific... this harbaugh version of michigan beat a team they were not supposed to? .... exactly. they haven't done that. At some point you have to be honest with yourself and realize that when you are playing equals or superior opponents you need to have an edge in scheme.
November 24th, 2018 at 9:21 PM ^
Fla twice
November 24th, 2018 at 11:32 PM ^
Defense slowed OSU down the last couple of years. True but this was a different OSU offense. With Barrett they heavily favored the running game. OSU's running wan't that effective until late today. When Haskins came into the game last year, OSU hurt UM's defense in the same way - lots of crossing routes. OSU's offense last year vs Michigan was more effective with Haskins at QB then it was with Barrett.
November 24th, 2018 at 6:59 PM ^
Fire Pep and ask Jedd Fisch if he wants to come back as OC
November 24th, 2018 at 7:05 PM ^
by ask you mean beg?
November 24th, 2018 at 7:53 PM ^
If that’s what Harbaugh has to do then yes. The offense was a lot better with him around
November 24th, 2018 at 7:05 PM ^
Even Auburn knocks off Alabama from time to time. Just saying.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:11 PM ^
we aren't auburn. not close.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:07 PM ^
The problems with the O-line came back in a big way today. Everybody including me thought we were past that but they outplayed us badly. I hate to see what would have happened if they would have had Bosa.
November 24th, 2018 at 8:11 PM ^
Okay, but his point about lack of creativity played a role in this. No disruptive shifts, hardly any RPO, just straight at em. That made their bad linebackers look very good, which is saying something.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:08 PM ^
I'm watching Rutgers and MSU paw each other like new born puppies right now, reflecting back on the teams we played, and I think it's possible that the B1G is just not terribly strong. May have inflated the perception of M's prowess a little bit.
But OSU, we'd all admit, was a team with a whole lot of talent just waiting to put it together. And today they did. They might have prevailed anyway, but we did not have a good plan going in. I worried that the players looked tense in the warm-ups, while OSU was really charged up.
Nobody's firing a coach who's won ten games in three of four years anyway. I agree that the play-calling is not only incredibly uninspired at times, but it also contains more than a little arrogance. So far, hope to or not, we aren't running the ball down people's throats. The combination of conventional sets and spread concepts remains really intriguing. But I do think maybe they need an inspired play-caller to carry this thing forward.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:15 PM ^
I would add to this, we are flat out soft..... like butter soft. We don't make big plays in big games. See gentry... pass dropped in ND in a big situation .... today same thing. And it wasn't just him. Nobody was making game changing type plays.
November 24th, 2018 at 8:22 PM ^
Wrong. DPJ, Black, and Nico all made big time plays. The coaches where just too fucking stupid to give them a sufficient number of targets.
The only way we win that game is in need a shootout. We could have gone air raid and scored. OSU’s offense was on fire, but their defense was getting gashed in the air.
November 24th, 2018 at 9:50 PM ^
I was trying to tell people this and get them to calm down about all this revenge tour bullshit.
MSU and UW are fucking garbage this season. If it wasn’t for their 2 non con cream puffs they played and Rutgers neither of them would even be bowl eligible.
PSU was above average, but hardly great and Franklin fucking sucks as a coach especially in the big games.
Throw in a near loss to a middling NW and a hard game against IU and there is no reason why this team and its fans should have come in so cock sure they were just going to dust aside OSU without breaking a sweat. Especially given that history of the last 18 years in the rivalry.
God I’m so fucking pissed. We’re going to be hearing “revenge tour” said by mocking Buckeye fans from now until hell freezes over.
November 25th, 2018 at 8:03 AM ^
Agree with all of the above. If OSU can keep it together and make the playoff, they have the potential to win it all this year.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:09 PM ^
I don't know. Since the 3rd quarter, I've given it a bit of thought...
Since Tressell arrived at OSU, Michigan has had different head coaches, different coordinators, assistants, different schemes... but the same result in the game. Michigan has a systematic disadvantage to Ohio State. We split the state of Michigan with MSU whereas Ohio State has a better recruiting ground all to themselves. Michigan is also not going to get into the more unseemly aspects of recruiting and academics.
Michigan is Ohio State's top rival, Michigan State's top rival, Notre Dame's top rival. Michigan gets just about everyone's top effort.
Michigan doesn't have the talent to devote a ton of time each week to Ohio State and still beat that week's opponent with ease. Every year it seems Michigan sees an entirely different OSU team than what is on film the prior 11 games. They have 2 game plans; one for the first 11 opponents, and 1 for Michigan. Michigan just can't do that without losing 2-3 other games (and they would still probably lose to OSU). Ohio State can.
This game, like many others (except last year) wasn't Michigan playing poorly; it was OSU playing really well. A totally different team that played Maryland, Nebraska, and Purdue. This seems to happen almost every year, and it has to be the way they are able to approach the game.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:14 PM ^
Wait a second..... we are chalking up a complete dud against the two best teams on our schedule to the fact that we are rivals with a bunch of teams? That is the biggest bunch of nonsense I have ever heard. 60+ points!!! and the game was michigan playing poorly... as a matter of fact, flat out terrible. Maybe when you started thinking about this you also started drinking and LSD.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:59 PM ^
It isn't just this game. Michigan plays poorly in the game most years since the millennium. And when they don't, they lose anyway.
This game was just more of the same, only more so. No point having a temper tantrum over it.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:11 PM ^
Eliminate I formation with 2 man routes against Nickle coverage is a start ! What a joke with this run on first down for 1 yard shit
November 24th, 2018 at 7:14 PM ^
Can we also add... eliminate routes in which two guys end up almost right next to each other?
November 24th, 2018 at 7:14 PM ^
One thing this team needs next year is an attitude adjustment of not buying into the hype until the job is finished.
I hated this “Revenge Tour” crap from the very start. It was juvenile and stupid and not something you see schools like Alabama and Ohio State bother to engage in because they do their talking on the field.
But the main reason I hated it was because it set them up for exactly what happened today. Beating MSU, PSU and UW wasn’t some amazing accomplishment given the fact that all 3 squads were well below what they were in 2017. Yet, after every win, the legend of the REVENGE TOUR just kept growing as if they were predestined to vanquish all who stood in their way.
All week everyone acted like it was a foregone conclusion that UM was just going to waltz into Ohio Stadium and easily handle a Buckeyes squad that had struggled but still has tons of NFL level players and is coached by a guy that, scumbag he may be, is one of the best in the business.
I’m sure no one on the team would admit now that they believed their own press clippings and thought they were just going to dust OSU aside as the crowning achievement of their season, but they sure as hell played like they believed that today.
OSU was hungrier and tougher from the opening kickoff to the final whistle and I can guarantee you some of that is because of the fact they were sick of hearing all the talk about how they were going to be the final victim of the revenge tour.
I hope Harbaugh lays down the law next that you earn the right to talk that kind of shit, it’s not just something you say in press conferences and print some shirts for and expect that a team like Ohio State is going to cower in fear from and not even bother to show up on game day.
For all the fun the team and fans had with it this season, now it’s just a big goddamned embarrassment given that the biggest prize of the Revenge Tour just completely obliterated us in what might be the most humiliating loss in the program’s history.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:18 PM ^
Couldn't agree more. Attitude adjustment. Right now it is a program and a team full of hype. Lets take a country club like off season approach in which we tour the world. The amount of money that is sunk in this program is embarrassing for the result. Period.
We come out soft as butter without anyone capable of making game changing plays. Talk a big game, and just have no edge on the field. It is truly embarrassing.
OSU probably laughed all season at the revenge tour nonsense.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:37 PM ^
Even though he didnt really engage in it personally, I’m very disappointed that Harbaugh didn’t do more to snuff out this revenge tour nonsense before it really took hold.
The man played QB in the NFL for 14 years, he better than anyone knows that it’s what happens on the field that determines the winner and arrogant proclamations of your supposed preordained revenge against your rivals do nothing but possibly add to your opponents’ motivation to prove you wrong and make you look like chumps when you fail to back it up.
November 29th, 2018 at 12:26 AM ^
Chase Winovich tweeted “Man, what a run” after the game... I’m probably reading too much into it but I’d say that falls in line with the all talk no walk mantra. What a run? They won 10 games against mediocre teams. It was nice but it’s chopped liver against OSU’s yearly filet mignon. The basketball team knows what an actual run is, the football team doesn’t know what one looks like since they haven’t seen one in over 20 years.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:17 PM ^
It's simple, recruit better. Recruiting rankings matter. Who were the weak spots out there today? It was Gil, Metellus, our 3 star DT's, Runyan, and Stueber. See a pattern here?
Enough with taking so many damn 3 stars. Give me a roster full of 4 and 5 star recruits. Done trusting the coaches. I'll trust the recruiting rankings because 99% of the time they are right.
And for the love of god Don Brown stop playing so much press man single high coverage.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:41 PM ^
What do you mean taking so many 3*? I don’t think the coaches chose so many 3* because they’re better than the 5*. They can’t get any 5*(Rashan excluded).
November 24th, 2018 at 7:52 PM ^
They passed on Milton Wright and David Bell for Quintel Kent and George Johnson. They whiffed on Logan Brown, Lance Dixon, and Devontae Dobbs in-state. They are taking commitments from guys with now power 5 offers like Woods, Velazquez, Pesek Hickson, and Kent.
Not a way to compete with OSU, Bama, Clemson, etc.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:21 PM ^
TL:DR
Put it in a snowflake thread.
November 24th, 2018 at 9:16 PM ^
My take is the following:
1). Both lines are not there yet - quality of competition hid those problems and offensive line is much closer to what we need. But if you don’t have AT LEAST the 2016 Michigan interior line then your DEs will get doubled such as the last two games.
2). All three linebackers and both safeties need to be fast - not just Devin Bush. This is how you snuff out edges and have the flexibility to switch man to zone.
Overall? Speed kills and covers for a LOT of mistakes. My fear with this game was that where OSU was weak was in covering explosive plays. We are not an explosive offense. They were going to get points and if we played man they were going to tear us up. We won’t just become a quarters defense overnight. So this was going to be a point for point game and our offense isn’t a point for point offense. The offense needs an infusion of spread concepts infused in and the defense needs the athletes in the middle of the field where you can play zone. I’m perplexed about why we didn’t RPO and zone stretch more than we did. We didn’t hit them with anything new and our offensive game plan was not as creative as last year. But the offense isn’t why we lost this game.
This is hard and feels futile. Placatives like it’s just a game don’t work right now as the abyss of another off season stare us in the face. But when this season started NONE of us expected a season even this remotely good. We got completely subsumed by recency bias and OSU came to play. They had more talent when the year began and they had more talent when the year ended. This will get better. You don’t have to stay for it - that is your prerogative. But as a guy who watched every atrocious shot Manny Harris would put up from mid range knowing something better would come. This too will pass...
November 24th, 2018 at 9:38 PM ^
Great post. Good ideas.
Dax Hill will help with speed from the safety position.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:26 PM ^
“It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not weakness, that is life.”
― Jean-Luc Picard
Yes, lots of mistakes were made by injured players, healthy players, and the coaches but do you really expect to win every game?
We may have faced the best college quarterback of all time on his home field with injured lineman on offense and defense. OSU capitalized on every mistake and every weakness, made the most of field position and turnovers (boy did they.) That said, I think Harbaugh called a terrible game.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:29 PM ^
The best college QB of all time? Are you serious?
November 24th, 2018 at 7:30 PM ^
He cannot be serious. He is likely on drugs.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:31 PM ^
this is the problem with our fanbase though.... there is always an excuse.... oh shit this haskins must be the goat. LMAO.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:48 PM ^
Our fan base is delusional. They have no idea what it takes to compete with the Bama's and OSU's of the world. It ain't signing a bunch of 3 stars every year and shouting "trust the coaches" I can tell you that much.
November 25th, 2018 at 3:50 AM ^
Marcus Ray, is that you?
November 24th, 2018 at 7:38 PM ^
Pretty good assessment. I don't think there are as many problems with the personnel as you do. Yes, it would be great to have a lightning fast RB, but we've seen many teams do just fine with decent running backs and GOOD playcalling. Harbaugh can get recruits (though our competition will simply point out that we can't win the big one), but he has to dial back his ego or stubbornness or whatever it is that won't allow the team to maximize the talent he's recruiting.
Pep seems like a great guy. He should be cheering as a fan like the rest of us. He can't coach. Next year, we will have a lot of talent again even with Rashan and Chase moving on and potentially a few others. But if Harbaugh thinks he can just try harder to motivate the players and hype everything without making a fundamental change in the offense, we will likely be back here discussing the same crap again.
We will have a great QB next season and one of the top defenses again. I'm tired of seeing much weaker teams call plays on offense and wish we'd try some of those. Isn't this MICHIGAN??!!!
November 24th, 2018 at 8:48 PM ^
Enough talk about guys leaving early. Bush is the only nfl ready player. Maybe that’s part in parcel that some guys are looking at the nfl where the job was not done in college.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:39 PM ^
I'll try and keep it short....
OVERRATED
November 24th, 2018 at 7:41 PM ^
Ugh. That is all.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:46 PM ^
Hire Jeff Brohm. He knows how to beat OSU.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:46 PM ^
All season long it seems like the offense has problems getting set. Takes way too much time to get the play off and often (in multiple games) blow timeouts because of it. Seems like something that should be resolved after first weeks of a season.
November 24th, 2018 at 7:50 PM ^
After a great win against PSU, we definitely saw some cracks in the armor against Rutgers and IU. The concern that IU presented a blue print of how OSU could beat Michigan turned out to be justified.
Harbaugh has definitely pulled UM out of the abyss and back to our historical win %. The question is how do make the jump from good to great where we beat OSU, win the B1G, make the CFP and contend for championships.