Saturday, November 24, 2012

Conclusions

I am damn proud how the defense played during this game.    Turning the ball over 4 times, you don't deserve to win and they didn't. 

Here are my conclusions on the game/season:

  • Brady Hoke and Greg Mattison can coach the heck out of some defense.
  • Brady Hoke has no idea what the hell is going on with the offensive unit.
  • Big Al Borges did about the worst possible job he could have in the second half.  Those play calls were absolutely terrible.   He would not have a job on my team if I was the head coach.
  • When did Big AL start thinking, Michigan could run from the tailback position and the Michigan offensive line could run block?  That great strategy must of come to him at half-time.
  • The Wolverines gave this game away with 4 turnovers.
  • OSU is a decent team but they are not as good as their record would indicate
  • Frank Clark had a huge day.
  • Can someone explain to me why they didn't kick the ball deep after Denard scored on his long run in the first half?  Just mark that down as another stupid coaching decision.
  • The 4th down at mid-field on the first drive of the second half was another stupid decision.  It cost Michigan a time out and you run it into the strongest part of OSU's defense.   Your not playing freaking Iowa!  It also turned the momentum in the game.   Well done, guys.

All is not lost, these Wolverines will have one more game in Florida, most likely the Capital One Bowl in Orlando.   OSU will be home for the holiday because of the coach they carried off the field in the first half.  

It's hard not to think that some real bad coaching decisions cost Michigan a place in Indy next week.   I think it's time for Michigan fans to stop giving Brady Hoke a pass for being the guy after Rich Rod.   We would be calling for Lloyd's head with a 4 loss season. 

16 comments:

maize n blue blood said...

I tell you this much blame hoke(in lower case cause he doesn't deserve caps) and ab(in lower case cause he doesn't deserve caps), because they went away from were we dominated in the 1st half.

hoke doesn't like to pull the trigger , f%$k playing it close. he made a bunch of dumb calls. the 2 dumba$$e$ should have ran what we ran in the 1st half.

bullsh*t lackeyes was not better than us. tell hoke and ab to go to ohio and coach, cause that sh*t they pulled today was piss poor.

GREG MATTISON(in caps for a great job and much respect) i'm sorry you had to coach against hoke and ab more than urban and his staff.

PISS POOR bye hoke and ab, thanks for letting us down.

I'm starting to regret bringing hoke in. i don't see the grind in him or ab like i see in MATTISON.

He was happy :( to hug saban in that loss, he didn't step in the ND game on the play calling as well as putting DEVIN Gardner in the nebraska game. And here he did it again by letting this game go to a bs team.

i would give that team credit if they were better than us, but they wasn't and hoke let them have it.

Lionman said...

Amen. The nightmare is over...what a sad season for such high expectations. GO Blue...can't take much more of this frickin play calling, seems they were more worried about Denards records than the win..oh we'll.

David LaFleur said...

Need to re-tool this offensive approach what was hoke & borges thinking you got the D playing lights out all game and then the O is just stuck in cement the whole second half its unreal both of them gave this game to Ohio St.

maize n blue blood said...

you might see me on here for a while trying to vent.

This is to hoke, you don't have the grind for games like this. you are to passive. you say this is MICHIGAN, but you coach like you are at michigan tech. now MATTISON has that grind and thats why he's successful. maybe you and ab can learn that grind from mattison. you may never or might not deserve coach in the BIG championship or NC with that passive coaching style.

This is to the fans: don't show up to any thing that hoke has in the offseason nor the bowl game. he has to understand that this is MICHIGAN. He needs to understand that we don't support that kind of mentality when it comes to coaching.

Squashman said...

I thought the defense played poorly in the first half and really got blown off the ball most of the game. This game was won and lost in the trenches on both sides of the ball. The offensive line has been poor at blocking the run all year so I agree the sudden change of strategy in the 2nd half made absolutely no sense. I am opttimistic moving forward. Did you really think this team would win more than 8 games at the beginning of the year?

DoubtyMustafa said...

Squashman, I respectfully disagree. Al Borges and the offense did everything possible to give the game away and Ohio couldn't capitalize. Why? Because of our defense holding their ground. Not their best game of the year, but they definitely showed up today and kept us in it until the end. If not for the defense, Ohio would've have 2-3 more touchdowns. I know there are plenty of happy Buckeyes out there today, but there's also plenty who are upset that they couldn't capitalize off of 4 turnovers and their quarterback needed help getting off the turf all day.

DoubtyMustafa said...

This will probably upset a lot of people, but I'm ready to wish Denard good luck and move forward with Devin. I love Denard, as most people. But for all the electrifying plays he makes, there's so many more that lose yardage or result in turnovers, especially at the most inopportune times. Brian at mgoblog was right: Denard has taken this team as far as it will go, through the toughest time in program history. Unfortunately, how far he brought us is not nearly good enough as this team has much further to go before it reaches it's full potential. Best of luck to Denard. You are a great person and we're lucky to have had you represent our University for the last 4 years.

dude1984 said...

First and foremost, great game from the defense and the special teams. They looked solid throughout the year and will hopefully be good next season.

As for the offense, Borges leaves me speechless and it isn’t a good speechless like when you see a really beautiful woman. I am speechless because I am in a state of massive confusion and fear from the real possibly that my head might explode from the stupidity I witnessed. Even a few hours afterwards I am wondering how a person can go from calling plays that exploit a defense’s weaknesses to playing in to their strengths…

As God awful as Borges is, it all comes down to Hoke. As the leader of the team, he needs to be more pro-active overseeing the O play calling when they stall. If he cannot or will not do that, he needs to fire Borges and hire a competent OC.

Good luck to the team in Florida…I probably won’t be watching because I will be on vacation. I’ll be arriving in Argentina earlier that day…

JQP said...

Hoke should forget about his trademark shirtsleeves look and put on a jacket -- maybe he'd focus more on the game -- and put on a set of headsets and focus on taking control of the whole team. It's quaint if we win, but gimmicky when we lose.

Borges gets too caught up with the notion that he's some sort of offensive wizard with all his "napkin" plays. What we needed was Devin at QB the whole game and Denard somewhere in the backfield AT THE SAME TIME.

This was another game we should've won. Hoke and Broges have to get serious here and stop the cutesy crap.

Lionman said...

We lost to Bama, ND, OSU and Nebraska...suppose that's respectable, but they were all due to turnovers and bad play calling. Two of the teams will probably play for the NC, one is ineligible but could be playing for the NC, and one will surely win the BIG 10 Championship. For what it's worth, we can take pride in that fact.
Going forward, I see our team getting much better on offense with Devin at QB and those monster linemen waiting to play...we need some speed on the outside to help Funchess and Rawls, then they'll be rolling.
Defense willremain great, and we'll have Countess back next year so hold on for better days ahead. Finally, let's not get ahead of ourselves with predicting wins before the season starts...injuries will occur which can destroy us..I.e. 2012 and Denard, and the media can hype a team beyond capability.
In conclusion, I said this after Lloyd Carr was forced into retirement for losing one game per year "Be careful what you wish for!" Imagine what could have been if we kept Ryan Mallet or Terrell Pryor in AA, perhaps a NC????? We'll get ours - just be patient! GO BLUE!

Justin V said...

I was thrilled with the play calling in the 1st half, but completely dumbfounded in the 2nd. Our only good play in the 2nd half was the 30 yd pass to Gallon which was right before the terrible 4th and 3. I can't wrap my head around what borges was thinking running up the middle. Also taking Devin out every play. We beat ourselves terribly and it was so hard to watch. I just don't get it. Why do you go away from whats working?? All that I form crap?? Borges is a joke.. we gift wrapped that game for them.

Voice of Reason said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Voice of Reason said...

I missed the game because I had a funeral. I'm always disappointed when we lose especially to osu. However, instead of burying the coaches for trying to win with calling and using what they know, I believe it is safe to say that big Al is not as good with coaching players outside of his preferred pro style profile as coach Mattison is. That is important because it takes us to the next point with reality. Hoke and company are still playing with a large portion of Rich Rod's players. That means at least two things:
1)Outside of a handful of the most obvious players, DR, DG, etc., Hoke and company would not have signed most of the guys on the current roster because they fit into another scheme while other players should have never been offered a scholarship because they were MAC players at best. Therefore, big Al is calling plays that are best suited for players that they don’t have, and he doesn’t know how to adjust as well as some other coaches.

2)The quality of the players on the roster is important more so than the system because Urban Meyer has better quality players who are adjusting to his new system and his coaches are able to make the adjustment on both sides of the ball.

I believe that Michigan is on the right track and will be a force in the very near future. We should see more of the Hoke system in year three, and that should help big Al as well assuming he can get his players in here. If the truth be told, Al is not suited to coach a DR, FT, this anemic offensive line and (affectionately) our smurf WR’s. And yes I agree, he probably could have done a better job of play calling this year I’m sure because at time the play calling just seemed to flat out suck, but that is with every coach. So let us judge the man after he’s gone hunting with his own bullets. IMO

maize n blue blood said...

With a piss poor running game i'm wondering if hoke as the ba11$ to replace Funk and find someone else. maybe Cameron Norcross (fresno state), o-line coach. by doing my research on him he is great at what he does and was in the top 3 o-line coaches behind lsu & notre dame o-line coaches. With that being said hoke should give him a look.

Also with Scott Loeffler being out of a job we should bring him in the QB coach.

Now mind you hoke is stubborn and may feel changes are not needed and that the team is fine. To be competitive he must make the proper changes to be a top tier team and get these top recruits.

Time will tell if hoke is really the right coach for the job.

uncle ron said...

Please bring in Scott Loeffler.....He's a Michigan man.

JQP said...

Let's not forget that the best offensive players Michigan has had in Hoke's era -- Denard and Devin -- are RR players and both turned out to be pretty darn good, and both have been under, or poorly, utilized. That's on Hoke. Not having Devin ready as back-up cost us the Nebraska game and is still inexcusable. Hoke is beginning to look like any dumb schmuck too stupid to put on a jacket in the freezing cold.

Great coaches manage to get results pretty fast. Nobody expected OSU to go undefeated, nor ND. Though they aren't my favorite coaches by a long shot, you've got to admire the results -- and begin questioning whether our coach is of the same caliber.