What happened to fumbles?
To say that this team had some fumble problems early in the season would be an under-statment. Most on this board were going apocalyptic over those fumbles, and were calling for many firings/changes. I did not worry about it, since they are mostly random, figured we would regress to norms.
What do those who thought fumbles were systematic, think about it now? Do you still believe it? Then what changed to reduce fumbles? I really don't see anything they are doing differently.
November 18th, 2019 at 11:14 AM ^
Shhhhh!!!!! If you bring them up, they might come back!
November 18th, 2019 at 11:19 AM ^
It’s like the shanks, shit, now I’ve done it!!!
November 18th, 2019 at 11:39 AM ^
Great, can't play golf for a month now.
November 18th, 2019 at 11:26 AM ^
OP as a kid:
Scene: *End of class bell rings on a Friday. Teacher has forgotten to collect essay homework assignment due that day. As students begin to pack up their books, OP waives his essay in the air & loudly exclaims:
“Teacher, teacher!!! Aren’t you going to collect our essays?!?!?”
November 18th, 2019 at 11:45 AM ^
How long had you been waiting to break out that scenario?
November 18th, 2019 at 12:25 PM ^
I've got a better one:
"Hey there, hypothetical pitcher. I know it's only the 8th inning, but did you know you're throwing a no hitter?"
November 18th, 2019 at 12:59 PM ^
Three minutes later, in the hallway, Scut Farkus confronts young Sheldon...
November 18th, 2019 at 2:47 PM ^
I was going to post the exact same thing...Shhh!-Don't tell anyone.
Shouldn't have happened in the first place. The team's getting better every week, that's what matters.
November 18th, 2019 at 7:52 PM ^
After trying fumbling for awhile...Michigan decided to abandon them because they are indeed not beneficial.
November 18th, 2019 at 11:16 AM ^
Christian Turner isn't getting many carries.
November 18th, 2019 at 11:17 AM ^
Shea leads the team.
November 18th, 2019 at 12:33 PM ^
and he fumbled again. it just happened to roll out of bounds.
November 19th, 2019 at 1:41 AM ^
It looked suspiciously like putting the ball out of bounds on purpose. I was worried about a penalty on that one.
November 18th, 2019 at 11:18 AM ^
Couldn't you wait 2 weeks for this?
November 18th, 2019 at 11:19 AM ^
Lmao you really want to jinx us, don’t you? If we fumble in a critical moment I think you should be banned from the blog.
November 18th, 2019 at 11:19 AM ^
Son of a... why?????!!!!!
November 18th, 2019 at 11:19 AM ^
reversion to the mean. bad luck, mostly.
November 18th, 2019 at 11:19 AM ^
They're mostly random. But it's also pretty lame to start a thread couched with a question when your real intent was to say, "I made this (really obvious) observation about something before, and it turns out I was RIGHT!"
November 18th, 2019 at 11:20 AM ^
What’s interesting is when the fumbles were happening it was UNACCEPTABLE COACHING MALFEASANCE FIRE JAY HARBAUGH! But, when they’ve stopped, there’s no comment about the coaches doing a good job of correcting the issues.
November 18th, 2019 at 1:12 PM ^
I'll comment...
Jackson was a better coach, always will be! I don't think our RB showing this week was anything but lackluster (other team's D actually showed up to stop the run).
I'll take Jackson any day of the week over nepotism. Running game was UNIMPRESSIVE to say the least! So thank you for making my point for me!
November 18th, 2019 at 2:42 PM ^
The UNIMPRESSIVE run performance was directly correlated with Patterson throwing for 384 yards on 33 attempts. MSU's linebackers sell out against the run and leave the DBs to fend for themselves.
November 18th, 2019 at 11:20 AM ^
I mean, Michigan still fumbled twice on Saturday lol.
November 18th, 2019 at 1:14 PM ^
I thought it was only ONCE?... but yeah, 2x too many.
Thanks to the OP for being an idiot.
November 18th, 2019 at 11:21 AM ^
Delete ...
November 18th, 2019 at 11:23 AM ^
Stop it.
November 18th, 2019 at 11:23 AM ^
You better knock on wood all day long
November 18th, 2019 at 11:29 AM ^
If fumbles really are mostly luck, then it doesn't make sense to get emotionally invested in this sport. Hard to care too much about an outcome that is so dependent on chance.
November 18th, 2019 at 12:21 PM ^
Were any of our 10 games actually decided by fumbling?
November 18th, 2019 at 12:33 PM ^
I don't know that the opening fumble "decided" the game against Wisconsin. But it drastically decreased our win percentage and intangibly deflated the entire team to the point where the game was all but over.
The fumbles also contributed to a lot of the offense's lack of confidence and definitely slowed the transition to fully integrating the new offense.
November 18th, 2019 at 12:39 PM ^
A turnover in the middle of the first quarter shouldn't decrease your chance of winning all that much. It cost us 3-7 points, yes, but also pinned UW inside its own 5-yard line.
I actually thought the momentum-changer was on the next possession, when Bell's big catch got overturned on replay. We then punted and UW scored to go up 14-0.
November 18th, 2019 at 1:16 PM ^
Why don't you give me one of your paychecks once per quarter, and lets see if that substantially decreases your ability to pay bills and save for retirement.
I'd be happy to do any documentation that's necessary and speak with you about your "emotions" on the matter as we progress.
Thanks,
Mr. Ocean Front Property in Nevada
November 18th, 2019 at 1:20 PM ^
This argument only works if you assume fumbles are more frequent than they in fact are. Something can be random and still infrequent enough not to ruin the game.
November 18th, 2019 at 11:29 AM ^
I was speaking with my dad on the phone last night, and it seemed like Shea has had some problems under center this year a few times early, and I wonder if that is part of the reason they are moving to the wildcat on the goal line. Since they are almost exclusively in shotgun now, I am sure they don't practice as much under center.
I never thought it was systematic, just wondered if maybe that was the reason for the wildcat recently on the goal line.
November 18th, 2019 at 12:22 PM ^
If you are going to run anyways and don't care that they know it, might as well run wildcat. Gives you an extra blocker. Wouldn't want to see it on a non short yardage play though.
November 18th, 2019 at 11:30 AM ^
Shea finally addressed his "chronic and aggressive masturbation" problem, and his forearms aren't as tired as they once were?
November 18th, 2019 at 11:32 AM ^
My opinion hasn't changed.
Not all fumbles are created equal. Some are caused by bad technique and some are caused by good defense. The only "bad luck" ones are caused by weather.
Fumble recoveries are more about bounces and luck.
To more directly answer the OP, Shea looks like he's less careless when he runs with it.
Also he's not getting hit on the blindside.
Also we've had fumbles that we've recovered plus the one DPJ lost on Saturday.
November 18th, 2019 at 12:24 PM ^
Recently I've noticed several players holding on to the ball for dear life, with both hands, when they're going down. Shea especially.
November 18th, 2019 at 11:37 AM ^
I think it's a combination of some issues on offense with guys not always being on the same page and also dumb luck. Everyone who rants about ball security being taught and, I guess, forgotten at times never really see how weird an argument that is. Michigan will likely finish the year about even in turnovers, and the fumbles are down because guys tend not to fumble the ball. Last year they were unsustainably good at holding onto it; this year early on they were historically bad at it. Somewhere in the middle feels right
November 18th, 2019 at 11:43 AM ^
Sometimes we score 44 points and sometimes we score 10 points. But I guess there's nothing to do with skill or coaching or the other team, just pure luck like flipping a coin.
November 18th, 2019 at 11:37 AM ^
Most on this board were going apocalyptic over those fumbles, and were calling for many firings/changes. I did not worry about it,
College football has virtue signaling now?
November 18th, 2019 at 11:38 AM ^
They are no longer being recovered by the other team at an alarming rate. They are still fumbling the ball way too much. Think there were 2 fumbles Saturday, putting them at well over 20 fumbles this season.
Fumbles by Game this Season - Total/Lost
MTSU - 4/2
Army - 4/3
@Wisconsin - 3/2
Rutgers - 1/0
Iowa - 2/0
@Illinois - 3/2
@Penn State - 0/0
Notre Dame - 3/0
@Maryland - 0/0
MSU - 2/1
November 18th, 2019 at 12:20 PM ^
So in our last three non-monsoon games, we have two fumbles, and one was in garbage time of a blowout. That's OK.
November 18th, 2019 at 11:41 AM ^
Fumbles are a bad trend when a specific running back is fumbling over and over. We haven't had that. Our fumbles have been rather random except for Shea. Shea has limited his fumbling by not taking hits at the end of his runs (sliding or going out of bounds) and by our protection preventing the blind-side hits he was taking earlier in the year.
November 18th, 2019 at 11:51 AM ^
it was bad luck. what you are seeing is regression to the mean.
November 18th, 2019 at 11:53 AM ^
Random is random.
Turnovers went to the same place Sparty’s wins went - In The Weeds
November 18th, 2019 at 12:20 PM ^
Clearly the coaching staff reads this board and cleaned things up after our suggestion not to fumble.
November 18th, 2019 at 12:22 PM ^
Grammar police: It's "apoplectic" and not apocalyptic.
November 18th, 2019 at 12:53 PM ^
Remind me not to invite you to hang out when there’s a no-hitter in progress.
November 18th, 2019 at 12:53 PM ^
Well, it was a good run while it lasted.