Sunday, September 17, 2017

These Mistakes Will Cost Michigan A Game

Michigan's Rashan Gary (3) holds on as he tackles Air
Gary Flying by Todd McInturf from DetNews


Michigan for the second week in a row played a football game that was tough to describe.   ESPN called it sluggish, I lean more to non-disciplined.    Seven penalties for 79 yards and another turnover. Dumb mistakes at dumb times.   Every time Ty Isaac breaks a long run, I'm now waiting for a penalty to call it back.   That poor kid is playing great and keeps having touchdowns called back.  Now there is a injury concern for Michigan's leading rusher, which I'm sure we won't hear about from the Michigan staff this week.


The offense needs to be taking Don Brown and the defense out to a nice dinner.   That unit is winning games for the Wolverines right now.    They better add one more unit to that dinner and its the Michigan Special Teams- DPJ with a TD on a punt return and 5 fields from Nordin.    The offense has it's head in the sand again and honestly looks a bit lost out there.    The list of offensive problems, in a word is offensive.  


-Can't score TD's in the Red Zone
-Continues to turn the ball over
-Dropped balls
-Poor play calling
-Poor 3rd down conversions (5-14)
-Ian Bunting has zero catches on the year
-Wheatly has 1 catch
-Wilton is inconsistent and was 14-23 for 169 yards
-Penalties that kill drives or call back TD's


Is this the Jedd effect?  Does Michigan miss his play calling?    Which I thought was way too conservative and vanilla yesterday.   Is this Wilton not playing like a senior should be?  Is this young WR's not getting open?  The line not protecting?  I think it could be all of the above.   Everyone in the stadium knew the Air Force defense was going to blitz on 3rd down and Michigan didn't seem to have a hot route or Wilton just didn't throw it.   I felt like Michigan ran the same 6 or 7 plays all day.  Do we have a screen in the play book?  Where is the west coast offense we were hearing about during camp?


I know young teams makes young mistakes, but if this team believes in talent over experience then they better start playing more disciplined football.   If they want an example of that, look at the other sideline on Saturday. 


Let's go to the Cheers and Jeers before I get too depressed.




Cheers:
  • Nordin going 5-5 on field goals
  • DPJ Punt returned for a TD
  • Ty Isaac for another good day
  • Higdon for his run late and playing well
  • Michigan's Defense!
  • Michigan's Special Teams (minus one unit)
  • Bush had 11 tackles and 1 sack
  • McCray had 11 and 2 TFL
  • Winovich 9 with 1.5 sacks and 2 TFL
Jeers:
  • Chris Evans had 30 yards and one fumble that looked like he just dropped the ball.
  • Can we try a different punter please?
  • Crawford had a bad drop
  • Does Crawford look like he is running on kick off returns?
  • Penalties are killing this team!
  • This game was close and scary for 3.5 quarters
  • Wilton is struggling with accuracy and had a very bad fumble
  • Tarik Black and Ty Isaac both could have injuries
  • No Red Zone touchdowns
  • One offensive TD by the Wolverines


I didn't see the game but Purdue is going to be the talk of the Big Ten this weekend.   Michigan all of sudden has to travel to a team that is playing well that many thought would be a pretty easy win for the Wolverines.   Purdue beat an SEC team in their home stadium yesterday 35-3.    The Wolverines are going to have their handful next weekend against a hot team on the road.   If Michigan's plays like they did the last two weeks, they will struggle to win this game. 




Side Note:  Please don't schedule the Air Force again!  The ghost of David Brandon keeps haunting this program.   

4 comments:

Voice of Reason said...

Yes, Michigan's offense didn't play that dominating brand of football that we expected again this week. And, if we know Harbaugh, he's not going to throw Speight under the bus and crush his confidence. The arguments from the experts are that he is the "best" QB that we have at the moment and to change now would be foolish. However, what do you do when your "best" QB is making foolish mistakes and killing birds in flight? Can you set him down like Evans or some of your other positions? No? Maybe he is still hurt or maybe when he was hurt last season (like some pitchers) his injury changed his mechanics and is contributing to some bad habits and now he has to relearn the basics again?

I still believe the coaches are hoping that he'll come around like Jake Rudock did. I would have liked to see more of the development of their run game but maybe the coaches wanted to develop Speight's passing game for the B1G season.

I don't believe we should be too surprised at the efforts made by Cincinnati and Air Force, because without a doubt Michigan was the best team on their schedule this year and early enough in their schedules where they could spend their Spring, Summer and Fall camps preparing for their "Super bowl" game.

In spite of the media panic, I am not quite ready to press the panic button just yet. I think things will be fine if we continue to see progress. IMHO!!!

ScottyDoggs said...

You took the words out of my mouth (vanilla offense), is Jim dumbing down the offense to Speight level of confidence?

A tale of two cities: lost of fans would be tickled to death to have their team 3-0! Are we thoughtless and arrogant?

So far no one has said it(I think); but Purdue scares the hell out of me... might as well include Ohio State, Penn State, and Wisconsin ( forgot who we play)

The games are so tight we do not get to see other players (QB's)

We could easily drop 2 to 4 games...

Jim the rock star is great!, but I am with you Bob ... what is going on?

Everyone says that Speight is the best, but how bad can the others be that Bad???? I am still mad that Carr used an injured quarter back against Ohio State when he could have used Mallet, Lloyd has some mental issues and probably wears pussy pads. Mallet would have given us a fighting chance, a chance at victory vs. certain defeat!!!!

So Speight is a senior? Any eligibility left... develop the young players Peters... how come these other school throw out a freshman and they lite up the field, and ours need years, and hand fed for 2 years before they see light of day! GREAT TALK FROM AN ARM Chair GENERAL!! General ScottyDoggs

Scott K said...

how the hell are we not getting mismatches using our friggin' towering TE's in the redzone? Throw a high ball to Gentry, Bunting, Wheatly.... for fuck's sake!

I do have confidence in JH, but damn.... it sure would feel good to see a well called, well executed offensive game.

GO BLUE

Bob said...

I agree with the TE's they are walking mismatches and should have triple the catches they have this year. I thought Bunting could be one of the best TE in the country and he has zero catches on the year! How does that happen? Love that Gentry has played well, but lets get the ball to those guys!