Let's hear it for Coach Rod
September 15th, 2008 at 12:41 AM ^
September 15th, 2008 at 12:46 AM ^
September 15th, 2008 at 12:59 AM ^
September 15th, 2008 at 1:27 AM ^
Overall, I'd say I took more positives away from this game than negatives. McGuffie had his breakout game, and I'm surprised nobody has said anything yet about that douche Mitch Albom even writing an entire column on Sam's performance.
The only major negative for me was our DL's seeming lack of ability to put pressure on Clausen. I'm looking forward to the UFR for this game to help explain why this was or if I was just seeing things.
September 15th, 2008 at 1:45 AM ^
OS, I stopped reading Album a while back. His style is irritating. He picks out some little catch phrase and repeat it several times in the course of the article. HE got busted for writing a story about the former Spartan basketball players being at an NCAA Tournament game, that they actually didn't attend.
Regarding the DL. ND seemed to go max protect when they threw downfield and the rest of their passes came out quick, minimizing our pass rush. A generally well conceived passing game plan.
September 15th, 2008 at 1:45 AM ^
September 15th, 2008 at 8:37 AM ^
... except for the score part. Truthfully, if I was an ND fan, I could see that. ND had one drive. That's all they actually "earned"(as the announcers put it).
O line looked good, McGuffie is a gumby-like stud, and besides a safety who's name I won't say, the secondary looked serviceable.
I have the ultimate faith in RR and crew.
September 17th, 2008 at 4:09 PM ^
September 17th, 2008 at 6:18 PM ^
September 15th, 2008 at 8:59 AM ^
September 15th, 2008 at 12:17 PM ^
as long as the other team has just about as many.
It really sucks. We lost to a bad ND team when we outplayed them. 3 fumbles led to ND TDs!! And 1 fumble and 1 INT were within the ND 10. 388 yards! The numbers are encouraging, but unfortunately we have to keep in mind that this was against a very bad ND team that got really lucky. For example, on Guff's 40 yd TD reception, the ND defense was pathetic. Nevertheless, he did a great job of reading blocks IMO, Threet was great minus the fumbling, and this game definitely showed much progress on offense. Coverage on defense possibly needs to improve and I am worried about defending those outside runs, but they'll do better hopefully. We needed to win this one though. In this year of transition, Michigan cannot afford to lose the easy ones at all.
September 15th, 2008 at 2:54 PM ^
September 15th, 2008 at 6:10 PM ^
agree, I bet the UFR confirms how outschemed we had ND on almost every stinking play.
The best thing I hope that comes out of this game is that Threet has the confidence that he can throw it down the field, becuse I had none going in.
September 16th, 2008 at 4:30 PM ^
I agree, and I think this also applies for most of the Miami game. I'm impressed with how well the offense has picked up the spread, although the "O" line and quarterback lack the talent to execute it consistently. With Miami, the problem was inaccurate passing. With Notre Shame, it was fumbles. But even when it's not working that well, it has looked in sync to me. And it seems like our skill players are all they are cracked up to be.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:06 PM ^
September 16th, 2008 at 10:34 PM ^
Honestly I watch this scheme and I dont know how its stopped, I guess with great linebacker and safety play, maybe great man to man defense. Watching the video that Brian provided from the Miami game,
first play in a 3 wide base, first option is a hand to mcguffie which is there but the linebacker-Nichol back crashes hard to the whole, leaving odoms, hemmingway blocking and a safety 18 yards away, cant stop that with a good pass.
later in the quarter, four wide two backs, shaw takes it up the middle on a triple option, this time the linebacker goes up the field and Threet hands it off for one on one with the safety, good luck with that against shaw.
We got derailed in the Miami game with some poorly executed first or second down plays and because we could not throw it very well never could over come it, this happened in quarters 2 and 3. At ND even in poor down and distance we were completing passes, in this offense if you do that you will score alot of points, minus 7 fumbles of course.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:27 AM ^
are we really going to call him "Coach Rod"? is that what his players call him?
September 17th, 2008 at 6:39 PM ^
MichMan -- Unfortunately, Grady can't be trusted with the ball, and Minor is entering the same realm in terms of fumbles.
Having someone with the ability to get wide, such as McGuffie will be important with our poor guard and center play on this o-line. We have shown ability to create some running room outside, but the middle has generally been clogged. Thinking that we can count in the less swift Minor and Grady to get outside of the tackles is a bit of a stretch. And this is ignoring the fumbling issue.