Saturday, November 1, 2014

Drake Started From The Bottom (Of The Depth Chart) and Now He's Here

Drake Johnson had a day after DeVeon went down with an ankle injury.  Drake had two touchdowns and ran for over 100 yards on a cold homecoming day.  Which is a bit funny since Drake is from Ann Arbor and a Pioneer grad.  His mom coaches the Wolverine cheer leading squad.

Gardner showed some better decision making but did make a few head scratching throws.   I did like that he seemed to be looking for his first two reads and then run.   Darboh had a nice day with over 100 yards receiving as well.  I also like for the most part, DG threw with better velocity.

Michigan Defense played very well against a team that hardly tried to pass at all.   I think they finished with 24 yards total passing.   This Michigan defense can stop the run, when all you do is run.  

Michigan beat a very beatable team today but a win is a win and right now we will take all we can get.  Michigan travels to Chicago next week to play a similar up and down Northwestern team, as the Wolverines fight for their bowl game life.  

Cheers:

  • No need for the Fire DB shirts. (would have been pretty cold to wear them anyway)
  • Drake Johnson showing some burst
  • Justice Hayes did a really nice job in blitz pick up
  • Bolden and Ryan for stopping the run
  • Darboh on his 100 yard day
  • Winning the turnover battle!
Jeers:
  • Butt for getting suspended
  • DG missing Funchess by 20 yards for an INT on a what looked like a long TD pass
  • Injury to Norfleett - was taken to the locker room
  • Ankle to Smith but he did come in for another snap
  • I think I saw James Ross come off with a shoulder injury (don't know how serious)
  • Gardner's ankle is nowhere near a 100%
  • It was embarrassing what Wisconsin did today to Rutgers in NJ


Another win against a team that wasn't very good with out their starting QB.  Michigan got some turnovers and only had a couple mental mistakes on offense.  

2 more wins = The Gator Bowl

4 comments:

Big35Hurt said...

1st of all, with this young of a team it's pretty important to get those 2 wins and make the bowl game so that they get the additional 15 practices. that really helps a program.

Watching Gardner play the QB position is just laughable. There's no way in hell Shane could be this bad if he was playing regularly. Hoke's tenure has been taken down by Funk's inability to develop 4 & 5 star linemen and also Gardner's ineptness and lack of development. Coaching is NOT to blame for Gardner's uselessness. You can't turn water into wine.

Drake Johnson is the ONLY current RB (Green included) that has any burst whatsoever. It's been painful watching how slow our backs are to get started once given the ball. I've seen all that I need to see. The other RB's on this team shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath with Drake as a runner.

Jake Ryan.....THANK YOU. That's all I need to say there. It's a pleasure to watch you play the game young man.

Peppers should redshirt. Why not? I'm also starting to think that he may be better suited at WR.

Funchess is nothing special. Needs more speed, especially in & out of his cuts. By the way, I think the coaching staff should re-watch the Ohio St game from last year because I can't believe we haven't thrown him the jump ball fade again this year.

The Michigan Asst Coaches are making a lot of dough. I wonder if we finish strong if Hoke gets another year. That's a lot of coin to eat. If so, we absolutely cannot have another year of Funk.

Do not be surprised if this team runs the table here. Northwestern and Maryland are no better than we are and Ohio isn't much better. Look at last week (@ home) whereby they almost lost to Penn St (who we beat). They haven't played a ranked team all year. I can't believe how bad their schedule has been.

uncle ron said...

Big35hurt...I guess we have to stop and think about the fact that this is the first game that a certain AD has not had his freakin nose involved in daily practices and film sessions. Just imagine how that must have felt to the coaches as well as the kids. Could you really be yourself if your boss was involved in every single thing you did in your office...I'll answer that for you ....NO. I saw a lot more swagger from the whole team yesterday, more than I've seen all year.
I think it's going to be very interesting for the rest of the year...I agree with you.

M go Clean said...

Feeling sorry for Nus....

Poor Nus came into a situation that was far less than desirable. He had a head coach that wanted / mandated a "down hill" 70's style running game. But, the table certainly wasn't set for him. He had an S&C coach, an Offensive line coach, and a running backs coach, none of which, I'm sure,are top 50 in their roles. And, of course, no QB coach. He should have been allowed to chose his own staff instead of being stuck with Hoke's irrational loyalties, and an antique. I like his play calling in general, other than what I'm sure are some required "down hill running" plays without the tools....Did work against IN though thanks to Drake! Since Drake's mother wears a headset perhaps she could make game decisions for the football team along with the cheer leading team!

It's sad that others will have to go due to Hoke's irrational loyalties and not delegating responsibilities where he is not proficient.

Big35Hurt said...

M go Clean, I agree with you 1000% that Nuss should have been allowed to pick his own guys. How the hell Funk kept his job just blew my mind.

I think that the whole headset thing gets overblown. Hoke is involved with the playcalling. You can see it pretty frequently (if you look for it like I do) when they show sideline shots.

Hoke's offensive vision is to be "Alabama". Run it, play great D. That will work in the B10 for sure. Key point though is being ABLE to run it effectively. I think that getting a new OLine coach and also using Drake and Isaac more next year will really make a big difference. Watching Derrick Green run the ball just frustrates the hell out of me. He has limited burst. He gets tackled way too easily by defensive backs. His balance is very poor. I was literally tickled to death watching Drake run yesterday.