Sunday, September 10, 2017

How Good Is Your Bad?

Cincinnati quarterback Hayden Moore is sacked by Michigan
Det News - David Guarlnick
There is saying in golf, "it's not how good your good shots are, it's how good your bad shots are".


Michigan's bad yesterday was pretty bad but good enough to beat the Bearcats.  This game looked more like the first game of the year then the second.    It seemed every time Michigan did something good, they combined it with a mental error.  

Cheers:
  • Ty Isaac has clearly become the #1 RB with 133 yards on the ground.
  • DPJ had a nice 44 yard gain on the ground
  • The Michigan defense scored two TDs (3 in 2 games!)
  • Grant Perry is becoming Michigan's #1 WR
Jeers:
  • I'm pretty sure the Michigan offensive line had two solo tackles on Michigan RB's
  • Wilton has no rhythm on offense and missing 5 yard crossing routes
  • The offensive line struggled to run and pass block
  • So we can't punt now? 
  • The defense even struggled at times to stop the Bearcats big plays
  • 7 penalties for 68 yards
  • Wheatly has one catch on the year and Bunting has 0
  • Bad mistakes at bad times for example:
-Punt hits Michigan defender when it looks like its about to be a blowout.
-Hill gets an interference call to set up the Bearcats first TD.
-Isaac breaks a long run to be called back for a WR holding call.
-Wilton fumbles in the red zone to stop a TD drive.
-Wilton and Crawford miss on a sweep handoff and turn the ball over.
-Bad call on Grant Perry's scoop catch.
-Wilton making multiple over throws or missed passes to end drives.
-Gary had a questionable call on a late hit to the QB
-The Bearcats missed some open throws or had game changing drops.


All of these things happened at the wrong time and all but the bad call on Perry's catch was mental mistakes by the Wolverines.   If you don't watch this game you might have thought the Wolverines had an easy time with the Bearcats, which just isn't true.   The Wolverines played some ugly football on Saturday which kept Cincinnati in the game for 3+ quarters.   The coaches have plenty of things to work on and maybe a decision on who takes snaps for the Wolverines under center.   Wilton is struggling with his accuracy, hand offs and to my eye leadership on offense.    I wish we had more data on O'Korn or Peters in real game action.


Side Note:  Love a night where both ND and OSU lose! 

6 comments:

In Harbaugh we trust said...

First off I agree mornings are nice when buckeyes and Irish lose...and at home..Now regarding yesterday I'm just hoping it's jitters due to a young team playing at home for the first time..Or had their eye on triple option Air Force next week..I love Michigan, but to boo them in the home opener is just stupid..any fan knows this team will have growing pains..it's clear we really played a poor Florida team and too many fans thought the season would be so easy...my eye test says D needs some fine tuning..as for the offense, I WILL BEVER SECOND GUESS JIMMY..And neither should any of u..in his press conference Harbaugh said team needs more confidence...FINALLY, I'd worry less about Ohio state and more about Penn State..just watch that crowd..That's home field advantage...GO BLUE from Toronto

ScottyDoggs said...

Having Notre Dame lose and Ohio State, was equivalent to having a candle lite dinner with one of the Victoria secret models.
Notre Dame got a taste of their own medicine losing in the final minutes...Oklahoma bullied Ohio State.

ESPN program "final call" (I think that's the title), spoke quite a bit about Speight (must see)... I look at it as 50/50 .... Speight improves and loses the jitters, or 50% chance that's it, you get what you see...
I'm sure it happens; the best quarterback in practice is not the best on game day... some suffer from game-day anxiety. An off day for Speight would get mighty ugly at Penn State.
All in all A good day, let's look for improvement At QB position.

Victor in AA said...

I would rather have Ohio State win with glaring un-fixable flaws that play to U-M's strengths. It will be better when we beat them.
I wanted Georgia to win in a real stinker- where the winning team was by gross default. We are needing to recruit against Georgia too.

Scott K said...

My view from the cheap seats:

We won, so that's good. It probably felt much worse than it actually was.

As bad as Wilt played, his stats are pretty solid, 145 qb rating, 58% completions, a couple nice deep balls, no picks. Being the QB for Michigan, the Lions or the goalie for the Red Wings are easily the most scrutinized positions in the state of MI. I hope he improves and works out a few wrinkles, but if he does, we're going to be fine at QB.

The O'line is still a problem. Rushing stats look good two games in, but I don't recall any production between the tackles. We need to be able to open holes in the line and gain yards north & south.

Agreeing with posty55, I don't doubt Jim Harbaugh. I'm betting he knows better than all the blow-hards calling for Peters, O'Korn, etc etc...

The secondary got burned badly a couple times, thankfully they were incomplete passes. Both would have been TD's, one badly over thrown and one perfectly thrown ball just dropped!

DPJ did everything he said he needed to not do... There's probably a fine line between the guy who believes he can take it all the way on each return, and the guy who can, but also realizes that some punts cannot and should not be returned. We really need the return game to help the offense out, I hope this issues gets resolved more sooner than later.

Fleetwood Diner's hippy hash is all that. Having tickets next to a large lady with a really bad attitude, who is also a season ticket holder, does affect the Big House experience. Parking in the public parking garage for $5 and a 1 mile walk was well worth it.

limit osu's running game and they are very beatable.....
urban is 1-2 in his last three games, both ranked opponents put up 31 pts on his defense (wasn't schiano a defensive genius, they gave up 25+ pts a game), both coordinators were head coaches and they were schooled by a 34 year old head coach in his second game...... another loss or two and the fan base will get vicious.... health concerns might start creeping up on urban.

GO BLUE!

Scott K said...

For some reason, our WR's were not getting a lot of separation either. I'm not trying to make excuses for Wilt, he missed some very wide open receivers, then he made some really nice passes in tight windows...
He didn't look down the field and see guys wide open as much as expected he would have.

Voice of Reason said...

I think it's clear that we still have a very young team. Coach Harbaugh has been saying the same thing repeatedly since Saturday in different ways but there is no getting around it, we are likely to have these hick ups until our youngsters get their feet under them so please do not boo them...they are still kids not pros.

One would think that Speights would have been better by now, but he's still growing and is apparently being effected by nerves. I still believe he will settle down and that this team is getting better as the season progresses. It may be slow but as long as we see progress (and win) and I think we will.

Air Force is very interesting on paper. They've lost 15 starters from last year's team, and brings back only five starters on offense and one on defense. They are smaller at the line of scrimmage and have players with no real experience but they as a team are very disciplined. They apparently like to cut block a lot (I HATE THAT!!!) but we have to learn how to deal with that going in. I pray no one gets hurt.

Air Force has had all summer and fall to plan for Michigan which is the biggest game of the year for them. Yes, they played VMI but VMI has won something like two games a year going back at least the last five years so AF has not really had to prepare for them but they will be prepared for Michigan. If things go well for Michigan it should be a lopsided game, if not there will be a lot of handwringing going on. IMHO!!!