Sunday, September 1, 2013

CMU Post Game: Norfleet Till Brooklyn

David Guralnick / The Detroit News

No Sleep Till Brooklyn is/was a famous hit by the Beastie Boys in the late 80's, for me it seems like the appropriate title for what we watched on Saturday.  

My wife asked me at one point in the game, how this was still the first half?  "This is the longest game in history", she said.    When you score 59 points, I guess commercial breaks do run a little long. 

The first two things that jumped out at me on Saturday were:  1) There was a clear recruiting/talent edge on the field and 2) The Michigan coaches have a lot more work to do before next Saturday night.

The talent caused the blowout but I thought there were a few areas of concern as well:

Cheers
  • Welcome to the Big House Dymonte Thomas on his punt block!
  • Fitz seems 100% healthy and ready to have a big year
  • Congrats to Gallon & Funchees on getting Legend Numbers (which was a bit confusing to start the game).
  • It looks like the practice buzz on Stribling was accurate and he will need to see more time at CB
  • Cam Gordon was the defensive MVP, loved his speed and how quickly he got to the QB
  • Loved that the two freshman running backs got some touches in the second half
  • The defensive as expected was not going to let The Chips run.
  • Norfleet was a step away from breaking a big run every time he touched the ball.
Jeers
  • I love Devin's game and think he could be a Heisman finalist if he has a great year.  Yesterday, was probably the worst he could have played and it still wasn't that bad.   The first pick was pretty bad and a game changer against a decent team.  The deep ball to Gallon should have been thrown away.  Add in another pick from Shane Morris and the Michigan offense had 3 picks on the day.   That won't cut it next week boys.

  • With Thomas Gordon getting suspended, the Michigan Safeties were young or confused most of the day.   Wilson was the young and made a few good plays but the confused was upperclassmen Josh Furman.  If Gordon and Avery can't fix this issue in a hurry,  we are going to see everybody test this position group.

  • We all know how I feel about Big Al's first two years as a Wolverine.   Your first thought might be: Bob how can you criticize him after 59 points?  I like being aggressive, I really do.   I just don't see how you throw it twice in a row from your own  5 yard line, when you have a stable of running backs?  I also don't understand how Fitz didn't have close to a 100 yards, in fact Derrick Green out rushed him 58 to 57.

  • The Count looked a bit rusty and a guy that hadn't played a game in a year.

  • I didn't see a bunch of QB pressure from Michigan's base defensive line.  Like last year they did when they blitzed a LB.  I do remember on a 3rd down when Frank Clark got a QB hurry with a 3 man rush.

  • Too many penalties, the Taylor Lewan being more then 5 yards down field when he is riding his blocker, shouldn't have been called in my opinion.  Is that a penalty if he is engaged with a rusher?
Michigan won by 50 points and the defensive didn't give up a touchdown, even when the offensive gave CMU the ball on their own 5 yard line.  It was overall a good day.   It was the right type of first game to lead into the big game next week and the Michigan coaching staff has plenty to work on Sunday - Friday in preparation for ESPN GameDay and the Fighting Irish. 

4 comments:

Squashman said...

Know you love nor fleet but he had a really bone head play on the punt rolling past him in the first half. No excuse for him trying to pick it . We were lucky we recovered it. Two plays later Devin throws a pick .

tho0505 said...

On your point of Fitz. He ran great even though CMU was committed early on to stopping the run. Not much was opening up. That being said, Green is going be a stud, but his 30 yrd run wasn't earned it was given. Anyone would have turned that into a 15+ yard gain considering the hole that opened up. Without that one carry, Green averaged 2.8 yds a carry.

That deep INT to Gallon shouldn't have been a throw away, it was a designed deep ball, Gallon just didn't beat his man. I don't necessarily blame Devin on this one, but he should have gone to another option. But on the first one, completely agree, against any other team talk about a momentum switch.

tho0505 said...

Overall solid win and exactly the result I was hoping for. As long as our offense can get a good push in the run game, Michigan shouldn't have too much difficulty beating Notre Dame.

Bob said...

I agree Norfleet punt return mistake was a bonehead play.


My point on Fitz is he should of had about 10 more carries then he actually got. Big AL scripts plays and if he ran the plays designed to be from the 25 on the 5, that is a problem.