So what happened?
This was a strange game for Wolverines fans. Clearly, one team played well and one team played poorly. Sure, State has a better defense then Michigan but Michigan clearly beat themselves on Saturday with bad decisions and mistakes. If Michigan is going to have one of the worst defenses in the country they can not waste offense possessions.
One team had 3 turnovers, with two of them coming in the end zone and one team didn't turnover the ball at all. That is pretty much all you need to know about the game. Denard looked like a QB making his 6th start on Saturday and Cousins didn't. Denard picks in the end zone were late, bad throws where he stared down his intended target. If you show up to a shoot out and run out of bullets, you not going to do very well. That was the story for the Wolverines on Saturday.
Instead of Cheers and Jeers today. I am going to state my top concerns with the Wolverines through 6 games.
#5: Michigan was not sharp at all on Saturday - Are the practices "too physical" during the week? Wide receivers were dropping balls all over the place. This team was either too tight on Saturday or just plain too tired.
#4: Michigan 5 wins has come over poor teams. UConn lost to a pretty bad Rutgers team on Friday, Indiana got their head handed to them in Columbus, and ND barley beat Pitt.
#3: Are there 3 more wins on the schedule? Maybe. As of right now, Illinois, Penn State, and Purdue look winnable. But many Michigan fans are feeling a bit of Deja vu from the 2009 season. Where Michigan was undefeated until they lost to MSU and didn't have a win over a D1 opponent the rest of the year. Illinois and Purdue had surprising wins on Saturday.
#2: The Defense is the worst in D1 against the pass. Enough said.
#1: This team is not getting better. One of the things you look for in young teams is, are they getting better from week to week? I don't see that in the Wolverines right now. The senior linebackers are clearly not a strength on defense. Obi ran right out of his gap on Baker's 61 yard TD to start the MSU scoring. If he didn't move at the snap, Baker would have ran right into him. I see Cam Gordon playing better then week one but I'm not sure you could say that about many more Wolverines. Taylor Lewan has showed he is a good player on the offensive line.
Sub topics under this heading of "not getting any better"
- I'm also not seeing creative play calling on offense. Those option read runs on first down are killing me. Those worked on the first drive but didn't work anytime after.
- The "Denard Effect". Denard has been an incredible player this year but we have to remember he made his 6th start on Saturday and is still a very young QB. His 3 picks were all very poor decisions, that he should of thrown away or just ran with it. In the post game press conference, he said, he "just got too excited". With that said, when Michigan is down in by 3 scores in the second half, RR clearly had to throw and should of called on Tate to try to bring the team back. With the all the press Denard has been getting, "how do you pull him?" That is a coaches decision and one RR didn't make on Saturday.
- Someone please tell me why Devin Gardner is not red shirting this year? I would understand if Denard or Tate went down. But at this point, a handful of plays and some time against BGSU seems like a wasted opportunity to get him another year of eligibility.
So where do we go from here?
Michigan needs to protect against the implosion of 2009 by trying to stay focused. They are one win away from being bowl eligible and now need a win again against a team they weren't expected to beat. That opportunity is at the door with Iowa coming to the Big House next week. As it sits right now, Michigan won't be favored to win against one of the best defenses in the country.
Like I said before, there are some opportunities for wins on the schedule but there are also opportunities for a 2009 collapse. The road they take will define this team in 2010.
11 comments:
This take, not just on this game but on the season, the coaching. Let's start with the biggest concern: Michigan Defense- young, inexperience, wrong personnel, and terribl coach, Greg Robinson. I can except they are young, but i don't except having the wrong personnel with Gordon at rookie safety and Vinopal is a natural safety on the sideline. It's is better coaches that kno how to run this 3-3-5 defense, Robinson is not the one. Denard hasn't made any mistakes that; Luck, Mallett, Jacory Harris, or any other Qb has this year. When your D is piss poor you will be exposed and we were. Those to long TD's come from Ezeh, undisciplined, not reading and poor Gordon not reading and reacting. time for a personnel change with the safety and defensive coordinator. lets go back to the 4-3. look at WVU when RR was there n they gave up points also. The dcord under Hal Mumme run's the 3-3-5 percect and Rob Manchester at Georgia Military College does to. Let's tell Robinson good bye now
Great analysis. Couple points: I discovered your site via mgoblog, which essentially banished me because I stated the obvious: RR is one of the premier offensive coordinators in the game. But head coach? Of Michigan! Get serious, people. Sooner we all accept this, sooner we can nurse our great team back to health.
Year 3, not getting better? Imagine if there were no Denard. My God. We've become Notre Dame in year 2 of Bob Davie.
Re replacing Denard with Tate, that's just madness dude. For a play, yes. But because you don't believe Denard can get you a better chance? Yeah, madness. Re Devin not redshirting. An actual good RR decision. Kid has earned the right to play. He's ready to play. Lastly, a win over Illinois? More madness. But I do hope you're right. Purdue, definitely. Penn State, possibly.
Please begin a Dear Jim Harbaugh petition on your site. And keep up the great work!
RR is a good O coord. he has his qb's that fit his system along with wr, and rb( who can't stay healthy). I have bought into it. i don't like it cause it doesn't put our players in the league like the pro-style offense does. that's my only doubt of the spread.
All my attention diverts to GREG ROBINSON, aka MR. PISS POOR, who can't coach this defense or any in my opinion. the numbers don't lie. replace gordon with vinoal and hole's get filled and more int's are made like the one he had in the Bowling Green game. now that is a man with safety instinct and coach piss poor doesn't see that. Ezeh is terrible, look at him in the next game. he, ezeh is no threat on defense to be a 3yr starter. its time to bring in Demens.
Here is something to think about. Why would we lose all those players in the secondary that should be starting? My opinion: they see something wrong with the DC. i would have done the same thing. we won't get great defensive players until we make that change.
Now i do have a question? Why don't we look at the JUCO players? when i look at scout.com under njcaa and see the LB
and see LB'S, DB's, QB'S, RB'S, well pretty all positions. why aren't we making a play for them.
Haters keep hating when we lose. This team is young and undisciplined on defense and we already know that the offense needs to play near perfect if we are going to win even against mediocre teams. We saw this against ND, UMass, and Indiana.
We can continue to blame the coaches, but really who cares. Until we have good players we're gonna continue to be exposed. Do you remember '07? We got lit up by any average to good offense. And the talent on that team was loads better than anything on this unit. If there's anything to point at it's the lack of recruiting blue chip talent on the Defense over the past 3 years.
I think it's too quick to say that we aren't getting any better. The defense is not going to get much better and that's that, we don't have the personnel to keep up with anyone. Sorry as it is, we just need to accept that. In fact I thought we turned in a more solid performance but got exposed by a very balanced and well executed offense. Offensively, the opportunities were there. The coaches set the players up for success and the execution just wasn't solid. Chalk it up as an off day for now. Many more games to be played.
Nothing new came out of this game except that now I know that some haters don't know the difference between "except" and "accept". Sad sad story. Just remember how negative you were at this point in the year when we look back in November and say "hey 8-4 or 7-5 is right where we expected to be"
negative is not what i am. realist is what i am. greg robinson is piss poor and u know it. he took graham and moved him to the inside thank god graham was good enough to handle it. warren bailed cause he saw the writing on the wall.
you don't need blue chip players to win, u need to blue chip coach to make blue chip players. look at the history of 5* players from high school to college to the nfl, not a whole lot make it. it's about the system they are put into or should i say the system that they commit to. if i was a lb and i knew michigan was putting LB in the league i'm going to michigan. why would i go to duke as a LB. The coaches make the players better and PISS POOR greg robinson is terrible. i would not want to play up under him if he was goin to be my DC
What are you talking about? BG played end all year. Go back and check the video.
Also studies have shown that 5* are much more likely to make it to the NFL. Check again.
Once we have some experience and some LBs who can actually read a play then you can make judgments about GR. I'm not a huge supporter of him but you gotta give the man a chance with the right personnel.
chances are lost. 3 yrs and it's only getting worse.
say you were a 3* LB and you got college offers and your plans are to hopefully make it to the next level, would you go to Michigan at this point with GR being the DC? And please be honest.
Patrick Willis was a 3* star LB coming out of high school, went to Ole Miss, 1st round draft pick, and of the best, if not the best LB in the the NFL. My point is that it's the coaches and the system, but the RIGHT coach can make the system work.
Look Alexman07 do your research on coaches check their bio and most cases it will tell you what type of coach you have. when you get the chance look at Nick Saban coaching staff and read their history. Here some more research for you: look at the Cleveland Browns QB coach and read his bio and then look at the qb's he's coached and tell me if he should be the qb coach at cleveland. Open ya eyes AM07 GR is piss poor and if RR doesn't fire him then they will both be in the unemployment line together.
last but not least: mike vick is a better qb because of the OC at philly. do ya research on the oc at philly and look at all the qb's he's had and AM07 he didn't have to have them 3yrs. like GR to develop them. look up Joe Lee Dunn and tell me who u think is best suited to run this 3-5
we want get those big time recruits until there is a coaching change on the defense. GR has proved if you want to go to the next level the don't come to MICHIGAN, cause he can't get you there.
GR has been doing this to long and still is failing.
AM07 ck this site out. hopefully you will get and understanding of just because you are a blue chip doesn't mean u will be great.http://cfn.scout.com/2/726003.html
AM07 ck this site out. hopefully you will get and understanding of just because you are a blue chip doesn't mean u will be great.http://cfn.scout.com/2/726003.html
AM07 ck this site out. hopefully you will get and understanding of just because you are a blue chip doesn't mean u will be great.http://cfn.scout.com/2/726003.html
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