Klatt's Take on the Fiesta
22 minutes, a few points:
- Credit to TCU, great game plan by a great team
- UM seemed overconfident
- UM coaching staff very good but assistants are young and underperformed in this game, they will learn from it
- UM will be good, probably better next year
- Red zone issues cost UM and OSU their games
- Got to be able to win a shootout to win in the playoffs
- Officiating, specifically replay, is totally broken
- No way UM's touchdown should have been overturned
- Definitely targeting on final play
- Nationalize officiating, not regional
Fiesta comments start at 21:10
January 2nd, 2023 at 12:46 PM ^
When Klatt talks, I listen. Best analyst in college football.
January 2nd, 2023 at 1:36 PM ^
Agree...UM lost the game, one they would probably win 8 times out of 10.
Officiating did not help the cause.
Felt very much like a loss to Sparty - where you know you are better, but just can't unlock your best and keep shooting yourself in the foot - compounded by poor coaching, losing every 50-50 play, and some bad breaks in officiating.
Extremely frustrating.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:25 PM ^
I agree with everything you said, except I think we’d win this games four out of five times.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:28 PM ^
I got the joke. I don't know if anyone else did, but I did, haha.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:58 PM ^
Four out of eight people have trouble reducing fractions. I love math humor.
January 2nd, 2023 at 8:52 PM ^
Four out of eight people have trouble reducing fractions.
Sorry, from my experience I think that is more like 98 out of 100 people have trouble reducing fractions.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:27 PM ^
But isn't it an unsung skill of teams like Sparty that somehow make you not unlock your best game? Some teams are just good at that. Remember when Sparty went into Columbus and beat a much better OSU team in the driving rain 17-14. OSU just played awful. Michigan definitely doesn't have that skill. We get everyone to play their best.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:55 PM ^
You think OSU played their best against us?
January 2nd, 2023 at 4:26 PM ^
MSU vs OSU is a bad example. OSU usually crushes MSU. It's actually pretty amazing how bad MSU plays against OSU. As if they just accept that as a loss and don't even prep for it.
So the fact sparty has won that game one time in the last what, 9 years including 7 in a row isn't exactly good for Sparty.
That said, yes, Sparty pretty systematically outperforms expectations against us.
And Michigan pretty systematically underperforms expectations in bowl games under Harbaugh. I don't know if there's something to that. Still a relatively small sample but it's def a thing.
January 2nd, 2023 at 7:08 PM ^
MSU beat OSU in 2013 to keep them out of the national title game and 2015 also. They played OSU pretty close in 2012, 2014, 2016 too, just saying. Lately they've sucked against them.
January 2nd, 2023 at 5:57 PM ^
That's the thing. Everyone saying that we gifted TCU two touchdowns is neglecting the fact that TCU's defensive gameplan keyed in in stopping the run and forcing JJ to beat them with his arm, which is where his inexperience caught up with him. Dykes said as much in his postgame interviews. I know that's what OSU tried to do and it backfired on them, but TCU was a lot smarter about it than OSU. The fact is that TCU forced us into mistakes by making us play their style ofk game, which we're not built to do. Gotta give them credit.
January 2nd, 2023 at 8:45 PM ^
I'm not sure TCU was smarter about it, per se, but they seem to have better DBs that held up a lot better. Although I guess you could OSU wasn't as smart because they shouldn't have left their DBs alone.
That said, JJ largely did smoke TCU with his arm. 13 yards per pass is insane. And he didn't throw that many passes so it's not like volume made a couple INTs inevitable.
But yeah, he made some very bad decisions to the flats and they had the speed to make plays on them. Tip the cap I guess.
As an aside and given how hard they were selling out against the run, we probably could have run multiple more flea flickers (seriously, I was like why wouldn't we keep doing that until they stop it?).
January 2nd, 2023 at 1:36 PM ^
I get so disappointed if the game has to do with Fox and he's not one of the analysts.
January 2nd, 2023 at 12:47 PM ^
At the very least the play should have stood as is, not over turned. Nationalizing the playoff replay review in particular is a good idea
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:08 PM ^
Agree. Like the NHL when they get the call from Toronto. Their video review team is excellent.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:17 PM ^
Same with MLB. It has become quite efficient and consistent
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:18 PM ^
Same with MLB. It has become quite efficient and consistent
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:29 PM ^
So efficient and consistent, it needed to be said twice, haha.
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:16 PM ^
While saying it twice is INefficient , the redundancy makes it worthwhile.
January 2nd, 2023 at 12:48 PM ^
He missed the pick 6s and Edwards being caught from behind on first play from scrimmage.
Everything else checks.
January 2nd, 2023 at 12:52 PM ^
Both teams had 3 turnovers, which led to two TDs for the opposition. In the end it was basically a wash.
On Edwards’ run, the safety had an angle. We ultimately got a first and goal on that drive anyway. We should have scored.
January 2nd, 2023 at 12:58 PM ^
Not sure I am seeing that in the replay wrt angle, the TCU safety has burners for sure (Bud Clark has 4.5 speed per recruiting - 3 fakes out of 5??). The tackle is from behind and his pursuit angle wasn't an issue.
Pick 6 is not a turnover, it is spotting points.
January 2nd, 2023 at 1:11 PM ^
It's not like Edwards has never been caught from behind before. He was by Purdue in the BTCG. Asking the guy to score every single time he gets in the clear is a lot. He still got "only" 53 yards for us on that play.
If the argument is that he needed to score there because we're bad in the redzone, well, a national championship team shouldn't be bad in the redzone.
Yeah, a pick-six is worse than a regular turnover, but ultimately TCU's three turnovers cost them as much as ours did. Turning it over on your own 49, 45 and 27 is bad, too. That really wasn't the difference in the game.
January 2nd, 2023 at 1:22 PM ^
Agree here for the most part. Purdue was not an angle either.
Pick 6s and arm punts don't match up... but no arguments here. Still processing the game. Too early to post ... maybe March or April. Pick 6s from McCarthy are not common events.
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:12 PM ^
I agree, the difference was scoring only three total points on three drives inside the 5 yard line and giving up two back-breaking big plays in the second half.
And it's a shame because the refs / replay cost Michigan seven points on one of those drives that wasn't their fault (yeah, yeah, you still need to score from the 1 but you also shouldn't be expected to beat the other team and the refs).
January 2nd, 2023 at 1:21 PM ^
Person running with a ball < Same person running without the ball
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:30 PM ^
Tyrone Wheatley would disagree.
January 2nd, 2023 at 1:21 PM ^
Person running with a ball < Same person running without the ball
January 2nd, 2023 at 1:58 PM ^
Ball running without the person > person running without the ball
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:30 PM ^
I didn’t see this before but that non-call on the hold by TCU #1 on their long run at the end of the third quarter is almost worse than the over turned touchdown just because of how obvious and how easy it was for any official to see.
January 2nd, 2023 at 1:04 PM ^
Getting a 7-0 lead on that first drive might have changed a few things later as the football gods might been kinder. One will never know. As Alex Drain wrote yesterday that there wasn't any singular thing that made the difference between winning and losing that game.
January 2nd, 2023 at 1:26 PM ^
A field goal might have changed things there. Certainly a FG was the Michigan strategy all season long.
It was a good game regardless. Michigan never gave up.
January 2nd, 2023 at 1:47 PM ^
The false start on 2nd and goal there was a low-key big deal. Really didn't need to lose five yards right then.
January 2nd, 2023 at 1:41 PM ^
I see what you are saying but pick 6s are sooo much more impactful in those moments. The poster above is right, we spotted them 14 pts. Yes we scored off their TOs but they made us work for them and eat clock.
One pick six is savable , two ….naw. After the second, to me, we had less than 5% winning at that time.
the targeting thing was just all nothing burger to me. I knew it wasn’t going to get overturned by those sec refs.
January 2nd, 2023 at 1:51 PM ^
This is feelingsball. A pick-six is worse as an individual play, but in the overall context of the game, is no more significant than any other turnover that leads to a TD.
When the TCU back fumbled at their 27, and we scored two plays later, that was just as impactful on the outcome as a pick-six. Ditto for Duggan's second INT (which bounced right off their WR's hands), which led to a Michigan TD two plays later.
The pick-sixes would only be more impactful if you think TCU was a bad offensive team that needed defensive scores to stay in the game. Clearly, that wasn't the case. Our D had its hands full stopping them all game.
Klatt is right: we were never great in the redzone and losing Corum/Schoon probably didn't help things. That was the elephant in the room all season, and it finally cost us.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:24 PM ^
Edwards should've just run out of bounds like normal!
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:14 PM ^
Bigger deal to me that he got basically half his yards on one carry - score or not. Would never have imagined that after that first carry. Running game was pretty much shut down thereafter. Obviously most of that falls on O line who don’t need anymore Joe Moore Awards. Fucking meaningless when you get paved in the two games after winning it.
January 2nd, 2023 at 12:49 PM ^
Boy, did he call it in his preview. Said that TCU needed to get out in front and make Michigan play from behind, that this would force Michigan to play a different game than they wanted to. I wonder if he has any stock tips or other life advice. I’m listening if he does
January 2nd, 2023 at 1:09 PM ^
That’s why the TD stolen from Roman was so momentous. That was pretty early in the game and it would have had Michigan still trailing, but only by 4 points, in a game where the on-field play felt even to somewhat favoring Michigan (TCUs lead being at that point a pick 6 and a long drive, but Michigan had a long drive of their own that came up just short and had just bombed TCU for a long TD).
You could feel it in the stands. The game was tilted to Michigan at that point and it flipped right back with the fumble (and touchback no less)
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:17 PM ^
The replay officials should be obligated to explain their reasoning. If there is some other angle they saw that we didn’t, they should show what they saw so we could all stop complaining.
If they can’t defend their decision…
January 2nd, 2023 at 4:14 PM ^
I agree and there was no other angle. I'm not sure if there ever is one in any game these days, but given the zillion cameras for a game of this magnitude, the officials definitely didn't have some secret hi-def video that ESPN didn't have or show. Besides the best view was the one that showed Roman bobbling the ball as he bounced off his butt into the endzone.
January 3rd, 2023 at 1:23 PM ^
The problem is these replay officials have created a new job priority for themselves that doesnt exist.
"Find any and all angles where possibly its 51% or more in favor of an over turn (MSU and TCU)"
Now all of us simpletons know the real function of replay but somehow they do not.
"Wow that is obviously the wrong call lets go ahead and overturn this"
If you have spent 4 minutes watching 8 second replays you are doing your goddamn job wrong.
January 2nd, 2023 at 12:50 PM ^
Listening to Joel, who obviously knows infinitely more about the Xs and Os than I do, talk about Michigan's offensive game plan being vanilla (more specifically the running game), makes me sick to my stomach. How can the coaching staff allow that to happen on the biggest stage? It makes no sense to me. Everything about the game on Saturday has been so frustrating. Such a sour ending to a really good season.
January 2nd, 2023 at 12:59 PM ^
Besides his first year against Florida. Jim Harbaugh is very tight in games like this when he has too much time to prepare. It's in his DNA and it's likely never to change. If Michigan has to play from behind against a equal opponent there in deep s***
January 2nd, 2023 at 1:13 PM ^
Most succinct comment I've seen about Michigan's "bowl" issues under Harbaugh. He coaches tight, nervous, and it filters down to the players. Jim has done a great job in evolving and getting past his issues that showed 2015-2019 -- it's why I'm on his side now -- but he needs to continue to evolve if Michigan is going to take the next step. Admittedly, it's a big step, but it would put us at the top.
January 2nd, 2023 at 2:10 PM ^
The most interesting part of games like this aren't the individual plays -- if this guy had only done this, things would have gone differently, etc.. It's the mental part. Preparation, confidence, and focus and how those things can affect an entire team and game. And it's not just Harbaugh, it's the players, too. How did they view TCU? Were they overconfident? Did they let down a little after the Ohio State win? That was such a huge win on the biggest stage in college football this year (had the most viewers of any college game in 2022). How do you rebound after that? And then yeah, Harbaugh sets the tone. Does his demeanor change for the bowl? Lots of questions that probably won't get answered unless you're inside the program and saw it first hand.
January 2nd, 2023 at 7:06 PM ^
Umm, they played the B1G CG right after the OSU game. No let down there.
January 2nd, 2023 at 3:00 PM ^
It reminded me a lot of the gameplan for the OSU game in 2018, it seemed like they felt they could do all the same things they had done all year, and that just wasnt the case, and by the time they figured that out they were already down 3 scores.
January 2nd, 2023 at 12:51 PM ^
The more I’ve digested Saturday, the better I feel
Michigan was a better team this year in every way than the year before. Better record, better performance against a better osu team on the road, looked like they belonged in the playoffs.
tough pill to swallow, but if they can take one more step, it’s all there for the taking next year
January 2nd, 2023 at 12:57 PM ^
The thing that is most frustrating is it was all there for the taking THIS YEAR. If we don’t make so many mistakes (or even get a good replay call), we win. Ohio showed Georgia is beatable. We stood a good chance in the title game. Very frustrating. You can never assume all will go well and you get another chance next year.