Saturday, September 1, 2018

Fire Warde Manuel

The last 3.5 hours is the exact reason why you don't schedule a road game in South Bend for your first game of the year.   Ask Penn State and Michigan State if they wanted to play a top 15 team on the road for the first game of the year after their week 1 performance?

Michigan played terribly but this loss is on Michigan's Athletic Director.   I don't think Michigan would have struggled the same way playing a poor Arkansas team in the Big House today.

Michigan got beat soundly tonight in every aspect of the game.  You name it, ND did it better.  Michigan fans should have recognized the offensive strategy, which I would have called Denard.   They beat Michigan with a running QB and deep 50/50 balls that Michigan didn't catch.

The first half was a comedy of errors.   It actually looked like the Michigan Defense was trying to throw the game.   They dropped 3 interceptions that were thrown right at them.  They would get a stop on 3rd down and then commit a penalty for a first down.   The Winovich penalty was a 4 point swing and Michigan's starting safety got to watch the game from the locker room.   There was times Gary and Winovich were running into each other behind Wimbush.

Follow me on this math:

Michigan loses the game by 7 points.

Patterson runs out of field goal range - Should have been 3 points
Winovich roughs the passer, ND scores on the next play +4 for ND
Holder drops the snap on a field goal, another missed 3 points.

That is a 6 points Michigan should of had and 4 ND shouldn't.   Difference in the game.

The defense finally woke up in the second half but still let ND run out the clock.   ND wasn't going to do anything to put the game in jeopardy as they felt Michigan couldn't score on their defense.

The Michigan offense was better then last year but far from great.   Shea is a better QB then Michigan has seen in a couple years and it was interesting to see McCaffrety as the second stringer.

The offense line is still bad.  Big Jon Runyan was getting run by every ND DE that he saw.

I know Michigan's defense was tired and the Michigan offense needed to get them some rest, but the offense didn't play with any urgency in the second half, being down 2 sores the entire 3rd and 4th quarters.

We saw glimpses of change but not enough for me.   I didn't like how Don Brown prepared his team for another running QB and I thought the offense was not aggressive enough at all.   Michigan got out coached and out played again.  Its damn depressing as its the same shit different season.

31 comments:

Goose said...

I dont understand why our edge rushers as good as they are continue to rush past the QBs allowing them easy running lanes. I also dont get why Don Brown on most 3rd and longs brings the house leaving 1 safety back. 2 high safety's Don. Our play calling was confusing seemed like the offense could move the ball, then in the red zone the play calling would try and get gimmicky and lose yardage.
Never really felt like Michigan had a chance to win. Team seemed unprepared for game speed O-line is simply inadequate. Patterson did play well & is a definite improvement at QB. I definitely dont see this team as a top 10 team. I only hope our rivals have gotten worse if not I may spend more time hunting than watching football this year. Really disappointed.

Tommertoffo said...

Michigan HAS to establish a running game. This is not synonymous with running Higdon 20+ times. It's running counters, traps, draws, power, FB dives, pitch outs, reverses, sweeps....with I formation running up the middle dominating. Adjust the game to what the defense gives you.
Example. 1st and goal on the 5. 1st play is an I-formation run for a gain of 3. 2nd and 2. Next play should have been a FB dive or repeat lead blocker to a different hole. Instead we pass?. Shea gets sacked. Now it's 3rd and 10.
We end up kicking a FG. We should have been down 14-7
Do we trust our line? 4 plays to gain 5 yard...the first play gains 3.

Disgusted. Game plan was terrible on both sides of the ball.

ND did better with 3rd and long than with 3rd and short. Why? Our defensive game play was far too aggressive in those situations. Wimbush just chucked the ball up high and our DBs were playing too tight of coverage. Penalty or completion was the result. I love Brown's aggressive style, but if it's all the time and on 3rd and long all the time, this is the result.

Fremont Rick said...

I have followed your blog for many years and my school has sent to Michigan;
Lytle, Gant, and Woodson. But, we were not watching the same game.
Michigan can't; block, run the ball, pass the ball, run a route to get open,
this is the same old offense. I felt i was watching a college team playing an
High School team. Lets run the jet sweep again!. Harbaugh is on the HOT SEAT.
i just think hes too stupid to know it.

MichiganMan said...

Hargarbage is known for his conservative play-calling... he does that because he is so stupid and stubborn to know that he has a bad bad offensive lineman and he thinks that he can dominate the running game he needs to wake up and understand that he has a bad offensive line and he needs to make adjustment and call some creative play calling so that it's not on the offensive line ...coming up with a creative play alleviate the pain from offensive line...

Dvzk said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dvzk said...

Harbaugh is trash, 4th year is the same as the 1st! Time to burn it down and start over.

Mike Tebbe said...

Same issues as last year

Metellus is terrible
OL is terrible
Play calling is terrible

I hope we look for a new coach next year.... I love M and am sick and tired of mediocre play... I thought Harbaugh was the answer... HE IS NOT

Stop going to Europe ... Your don't deserve it !!!!

MichiganMan said...

I have no idea why Josh metellus keep starting on safety that guy is just pure garbage Shea Patterson is a dual-threat quarterback he did not even try to run yesterday they should have half of the play calls where he runs the football.... if they would have done that they would be moving the football up and down the scoring at least field goals if not touchdown

MichiganMan said...

Damn they're so frustrating

Tommertoffo said...

Harbaugh is NOT garbage. To say so is ridiculous. He's had a fabulous career.

This team is good; but they weren't as prepared as ND was. We will find out ND is very good.

OL has to improve....reminds me of OSU after the Va Tech loss.

Unknown said...

Coach's teams seem to lack energy and competitive fire. Why is that winning energy missing?

Cormac said...

The idea to play ND was Harbaugh's idea. He called Kelly up and said let's play ball. As for playing in ND, yes that is/was Warde Manuel's fault. I agree that Michigan did NOT look ready at all to play. I thought Don Brown did a good job in adjusting in the second half.

MichiganMan said...

Sorry my man I could tell you don't watch football at all

MichiganMan said...

I bet you probably just watch one or two college football games here and there

MichiganMan said...

Michigan's offense is so predictable I think even high school team could stop us

MichiganMan said...

Every year Jim Harbaugh tries to play the power game with the garbage ass offensive line.... too thick-headed stubborn animal does not seem to understand that..... average human being would know that offensive line is garbage they would find other solution

EzmoB said...

In all honesty, do you guys really think JH is on the hot seat?

Bob I'll ask you the same question. Is JH on the hot seat of we go 8-5 or 7-6?

Cormac said...

I saw this Michigan fansite on Instagram that gave some very (overly) optimistic grades.

QB : A-
RB : B+
WR/TE : B
OL : D-
DL : B-
LB : B-
CB : B+
S : B-

I have to ask, what game were they watching?

Docholliday said...

The play calling is what gets me. I hate the 3 yards and a cloud of dust type offense. Evolve. Spread them out and use our athleticism at WR position and let Shea do his thing. Let him run the read option and move the ball. Call more plays for Chris Evan's. When we threw the ball downfield it resulted in success. Everytime we started to see momentum we ran the ball against their stout d-line, whilst being down 2 touchdowns. No urgency. It was infuriating. Harbaugh has no fire during, or after the game. I was a huge Harbaugh guy, but wow, can this get any worse? It's like his Doctor told him to calm down because he has heart issues or something, because he wasn't like this in Year 1. Give me Rich Rod's offense at this point. Saturday night was embarrassing and I was bragging them up all offseason. If we lose to rivals again this year I'm all in on #FireHarbaugh.

MichiganMan said...

There are enough coaches to win at least eight games and make way less money... after this season fire Harbaugh and bring in a younger coach with creative mind and not stick to the stubbornness

MichiganMan said...

Of course.... bringing Mike Riley from Oklahoma

Fremont Rick said...

All great comments and i agree. i just heard on espn that Harbaugh has one more win than Hoke at this time in their careers. We ran Hoke out of town.
i believe a Team takes on the personnality of their coach and Harbaugh looks
confused and indifferent and so does the team

Tommertoffo said...

Hoke after that imploded and the team fell apart. We were a disgrace under Hoke....losing to Maryland, Minnesota, Rutgers among many others. Those losses came because Maryland, Minnesota, and Rutgers were better than Michigan with Hoke at the helm. Stop this nonsense.

Harbaugh was successful EVERYWHERE he's coached.
He has had some misfortune (MSU,OSU) - games that were absolute fluke losses. He's won HUGE games against Wisconsin, Penn State (2), and Florida (one in a bowl).

We brought him here to PLAY MANBALL...and that's the game we need to play. The OL isn't there based on the ND game - but ND's front 7 I believe is elite. With our new OL coach, Ed Warinner - who, BTW, was the OSU OL coach who changed things after Ohio State got beat bad by VaTech in Columbus. OSU went on to win the NC that year with a 3rd string QB and developing OL that improved significantly by Warninner as the season progressed.

Stop this crazy anti-Harbaugh talk. We'll be back.

Goose said...

I remember watching michigan vs uconn and wondering how michigan can struggle with uconn. Under hoke .Michigan could not pass the eye test they looked really bad against really bad teams. Harbaugh has Michigan playing competitive football against good teams and dismantling the bad ones. It is very frustrating watching this team and being a michigan fan in general for the past 10 years, but we're still here supporting the young men work tirelessly to improve. They will get better probably not ready to compete nationally but still better. Saturday was definitely not our best game or our best playcalling offensively or defensively, but I guarantee the team feels worse than we do about it.

Tommertoffo said...

Amen, Goose. I was in Hartford, CT then too. It was a joke. That was after almost losing to Akron at home.

I watched a lot of football this weekend. ND looks very good.

Good teams destroy bad teams. UConn and Akron were omens. The ND loss is not. If I'm right, then Michigan and ND will destroy WMU and Ball State next week.

MichiganMan said...

My man you are just like all the uneducated fans out there you have no idea

MichiganMan said...

You're too stupid to even realize that this is his fourth year same old bulshit offense with weak offensive line and a weak conservative play calls

Tommertoffo said...

Unknowns: I have and doctorate degree from the University of Illinois and a Bachelors degree from U of M where I graduated with high distinction.
I coached and instructed football for years.

But, you two think I'm stupid because of your hatred for Jim Harbaugh.

Thoughtless comments of football fans when they lose are: "Too conservative play calling", "No imagination", "they played not to lose", "3 yards and a cloud of dust".....blah blah blah.

I can understand why you are "unknown".

David LaFleur said...

Arkansas beat the hell out of Michigan too. Wanna be big time play the big teams. We are not good at all.

Docholliday said...

I think the idea that comments are thoughtless because "3 yards and a cloud of dust" is very off base for what is going on here. He does run a traditional offense and runs a very old school pound the rock type play calling. He does need to evolve. He is conservative, that's why they were huddling up with 3 minutes left in the game, still running the ball, down 2 touchdowns. If you can't see that I don't know which game you were watching. Let's run some more on 2nd and 14 and see where that gets us. Look at the teams who can score points and see which types of offenses they are running. We scored 1 touchdown on offense when Notre Dame had gone into a prevent defense basically. I've said from the beginning I love Harbaugh and I love the hire and the fire he brings.. but it's not there right now. Will it change? Maybe, and that's why I'm still on board until I see how he does against Wisconsin, MSU, OSU.

Tommertoffo said...

Fair enough. Good post. Though I disagree with you on football philosophy, your points have merit especially the seeming lack of urgency to the 4th Q regarding the offensive game plan. I think that has more to do with game prep than pure play calling, however. To me, if that's true, that's more inexcusable.

Tarik Black gets separation from DBs. DPJ does not. Collins we shall see. One great downfield reception. We need much better play from our WRs. BTW, where were the fade patterns that Patterson was supposed to be so great at completing? Perfect calls for an OL that can't hold the rush.

The fact is there just wasn't enough time for Patterson/McCaffrey and that may be more due to ND's D than our offense. We'll soon find out.

The big play of the game was Wimbush's 43 yard TD pass that could have been as easily intercepted by Michigan. Had Michigan intercepted that one pass, Michigan would have likely won the game. That was the play above all others that determined the outcome of the game.

Interestingly, that crucial play had nothing to do with anything we are debating, however. Had we intercepted it and won, my guess is the football discussion would be, "Michigan can win the B1G and make the playoffs but they'll have to improve their pass protection."