Michigan State 27, Michigan 24
"Disconcerting signals," indeed.
That was a penalty drawn by Cam McGrone before he exited this cursed game with an injury. It fairly describes the entire contest for Michigan.
Michigan State's offense could do one thing with any consistency: chuck the ball long against press man coverage. The Wolverines had no answers in terms of personnel and seemingly didn't try to come up with any schematically. The five Spartan scoring drives featured long passes covering 30, 53, 50, 19, and 31 yards. The coaches pulled starting corner Vincent Gray for Jalen Perry in the second half; Perry managed to stay closer to MSU's receivers but couldn't do any better at playing the ball.
Michigan's offense, meanwhile, failed to come up with a downfield passing game of their own, and much of their success on the ground came outside the tackles. State piled up six tackles for loss and held M to 4.7 yards per carry (sacks removed). Joe Milton's accuracy waxed and waned as he mustered 300 scoreless yards on 51 attempts. Jalen Mayfield went down late and, while he walked off the field, he was taken into the tunnel by the cart.
The coaches will come under heavy, deserved criticism for the most surprising—and perhaps most bitterly disappointing—defeat of the Jim Harbaugh era. The Wolverines were poised to tie the game at 14 heading into halftime before Josh Gattis dialed up second and third-and-goal plays with Hassan Haskins as a wildcat quarterback; the run was stuffed, the surprise pass underthrown and tipped incomplete by Ann Arbor native Antjuan Simmons, who had a standout game at linebacker for MSU.
Don Brown rarely deviated from calling press man coverage even though the defense was getting eviscerated by the vaunted Rocky Lombardi to Ricky White connection, which tallied eight completions on ten targets for 196 yards and a touchdown. Lombardi averaged 19 yards on his 17 completions and his total was deflated by numerous flags on the Michigan secondary.
In other Big Ten games, Minnesota lost to Maryland, which got pasted last week by Northwestern, which is losing by two scores early against Iowa, which lost last week against Purdue. I guess the silver lining is that this is an incredibly stupid year.
November 1st, 2020 at 10:25 PM ^
Does it ever appear that DB enters games having spent hours dissecting the opponents’ offense and developing effective schemes like all of our opponents seem to do?
November 1st, 2020 at 3:52 PM ^
Don Brown has lost his fastball, and he only has one pitch.
October 31st, 2020 at 4:14 PM ^
Absolutely fucking horrible game plan on both sides. I saw the seeds of the defense's demise last week, but Gattis setting downs on fire by continually calling straight runs into the strength of MSU's defense was the dumbest fucking thing about this stupid fucking game. Worst loss of the Harbaugh era in a tenure that has seen many dong punches.
October 31st, 2020 at 4:35 PM ^
That was my takeaway: they had no clear game plan for either side of the ball, except run it up the middle I guess?
They repeatedly went AWAY from what was giving them success on offense. And our corner play ... wtf. The game watched like a 2 TD win by State. It never felt that close after the wildcat fiasco.
I stand by my comment to my buddies that Harbaugh’s stasis is 8 win season mode these days. I don’t see the passion from him or the players he coaches. I don’t have expectations for this season but they didn’t look like they wanted to play football today.
Correction: I have one expectation for this season: getting nuked from orbit by OSU. We’re tracking that goal well by the looks of it.
October 31st, 2020 at 5:53 PM ^
They looked deflated from the first series. If a big rivalry game cannot get you motivated, what will?
October 31st, 2020 at 8:18 PM ^
For real, they are always flat. In the first quarter - I said 'this seems like a loss', And then they didn't turn it around. SO fucking frustrating that Michigan State and Ohio State always play like the fate of the universe depends on it while Michigan treats it like it's any old game. It's fucking embarrassing.
October 31st, 2020 at 5:16 PM ^
The worst thing was not that he called it, but that he kept thinking the OL was about to win those reps!
They were not, at any point, winning the line battle!
Good thing we have that much vaunted depth on the OL finally!
Mayfield was carted off to boot!
October 31st, 2020 at 5:48 PM ^
Could it possibly be that they mailed it in? They took in all the positive reviews, believed Coach Tucker was in over his head, and decided that, 'heck we'll just work on the running game'.?
October 31st, 2020 at 6:52 PM ^
That’s probably it. Work on the running game regardless of the outcome. Think longterm.
October 31st, 2020 at 4:14 PM ^
I'm just speechless. The defense was terrible, the offense was bad, the fanbase who couldn't shut up about how we were gonna blow them out despite knowing that MSU comes to play. Our DL is terrible. Paye and Hutchinson are the most overrated DE duo in CFB. So much hype and so little production. DL continue to get zero pressure inside. Our CBs are bad. Poorly coached and athletically outmatched. Don Brown doesn't seem to understand that you can't play your man scheme when the DL gets zero pressure. Gattis decided to go against what was working for us and kept thinking the run game would work. The refs were terrible as well but weren't the reason we lost. Harbaugh officially on the hot seat imo and I expect decommits. Benny might go MSU now
October 31st, 2020 at 4:29 PM ^
Where was the pass rush? You either rush the QB or cover the receivers. If you do neither you lose.
October 31st, 2020 at 4:32 PM ^
There was no pass rush. We did neither. Salt and Pepper continue to be bland
October 31st, 2020 at 4:36 PM ^
It is hard to rush the passer when there are obvious 1 v 1 spots and the QB has the ball out after a 2 step drop throwing a sideline fade.
October 31st, 2020 at 10:56 PM ^
411 - we did neither. As usual in the big games Harbaugh and his teams play as though they are ** while the other team’s ** & *** play like *****. Out coached (again) by a guy who just arrived and out played in every facet of the game. Harbaugh makes covid seem like fun.
October 31st, 2020 at 11:10 PM ^
We need a head coach and not a PR analyst. Jim, are you listening? Either get with it or get out.
November 1st, 2020 at 6:43 PM ^
We were blitzing but every blitz is coming from 5 yards off the line.
They are 2 steps late every time. Its scheme and coaching.
October 31st, 2020 at 4:34 PM ^
Donovan Edwards is reconsidering Mel Tucker.
October 31st, 2020 at 7:03 PM ^
I don't think Gattis kept thinking the run game would work. There's a lot of evidence to the contrary. After the Haskins wildcat series, they basically abandoned running the ball. Here's the series after that:
Punt - 6 passes / 0 runs
Punt - 3 passes / 0 runs
TD -- 7 passes / 4 runs
Punt - 5 passes / 3 runs
Punt - 6 passes / 2 runs
TD - 12 passes / 2 runs / 4 Milton scrambles
That's 39 passes, 11 runs to the RBs, and 4 Milton runs/scrambles during the final drive.
October 31st, 2020 at 8:04 PM ^
Those stats don't show it, but the timing of runs were momentum and drive killers. We'd get 3-4 yards on a short pass then Gattis would call an inside run for no gain. Then all of the sudden it's 3rd and long. That happened multiple drives
October 31st, 2020 at 4:14 PM ^
Our coaching staff is a mess and it all starts with the man on top, Harbaugh. Not sure what we are going to do but it’s clear it’s time to move on. The players deserve better than this, as do the fans.
October 31st, 2020 at 6:10 PM ^
I can tell to the problem. The team takes on the personality of the coach to a big extent...and he is wilting under the parental pressure of having father Jack nearby, and having an elder like Brown that he cannot fire.
October 31st, 2020 at 8:05 PM ^
Who are we going to hire instead of Harbaugh? Anyone besides Dabo, Saban, or Urban would be a downgrade, and there is absolutely no way we hire any of those three.
October 31st, 2020 at 9:32 PM ^
Anyone else would be a downgrade?? Really?? So you’re saying it takes a really talented HC to go out and look like shit against a GARBAGE MSU team and first year HC who just got embarrassed by Rutgers last week?
I’m sorry but GTFO with that bullshit
November 1st, 2020 at 1:53 AM ^
So who then? Asking for a friend...
October 31st, 2020 at 4:15 PM ^
This is it? This is the extent of the commentary? I mean I realize taking a flamethrower to people isn’t that productive, but it’s be nice to have a bit more recognition of the incompetence.
October 31st, 2020 at 4:18 PM ^
He probably has more to say on Twitter. I wouldn't know though. I'm one of the legions blocked by him for having the audacity to express a differing opinion.
October 31st, 2020 at 5:57 PM ^
Couldn’t say it better. I’m one of the legion too. Lol.
October 31st, 2020 at 7:05 PM ^
LOL. I muted him a while ago. Forgot about it until just now.
October 31st, 2020 at 4:16 PM ^
I have yet to read anything about trying the onside kick w/ all three TOs left. That's coaching malpractice. It was the cherry on top of a shit sandwich game plan, coaching effort, and inability to adjust all the way around. Michigan got its lunch money taken from a 24-point underdog. At home. I honestly don't know how this staff comes back from this one. I'd imagine Mayfield, Hutchinson, and Paye opt out tomorrow. Couldn't blame them if they did.
October 31st, 2020 at 4:19 PM ^
I was OK with it. It gave us two chances at the ball - from the kick itself, and failing that, if we got a defensive stop.
Really disappointed that we could not get that stop after.
October 31st, 2020 at 4:24 PM ^
Fair enough. It never happened, obv, but I'd just rather have the ball back at our 35 w/ 20 seconds left than our 5.
October 31st, 2020 at 4:16 PM ^
Fire Don Brown today, tomorrow and the next day. He was outcoached by fucking Mel Tucker and outplayed by Rocky Lombardi in his 5th year as DC here. We have no secondary but continue to play man-to-man. No interior tackles somehow. It's utterly head scratching that Jim has axed coaches on offense who don't perform, but Don Brown is about to head in his 3rd straight annihilation vs Ohio State and no sign of him heading for the door
October 31st, 2020 at 4:25 PM ^
Don Brown's scheme is great when we have DEs that get to the QB and CBs that can play man long enough for them to get to the QB, but we have neither and have had neither for a few years
October 31st, 2020 at 4:36 PM ^
We had solid defensive talent the last two years. A lot of those guys are in the pros or will be (Hutch, Paye, McGrone). If you need more than that as a DC, you're not bringing enough to the table.
October 31st, 2020 at 5:18 PM ^
The talk of Paye and Hutchinson being pros is laughable to me. What are people seeing in them beside not being able to get to the QB against a shitty MSU OL? People talk about them being good but they don't produce
Edit: Lol at these downvotes. No one can tell me how Paye or Hutchinson are actually good. They have been invisible so far this year despite 2 sacks from Paye in garbage time against Minnesota
October 31st, 2020 at 5:45 PM ^
It's only great when we're playing bottom tier shit teams. Against capable offenses that can hold off our rush we get gashed. And it pains me to think MSU is in the "capable" category that ended up exposing our weak ass defensive backs.
October 31st, 2020 at 5:56 PM ^
We heavily committed to recruiting SDE to play DT while recruiting next to no true DTs. We also spent a couple cycles recruiting taller safety like CBs to be grabby physical CBs instead of recruiting true athletic CBs. Now DT and CB are major weaknesses due to this failed strategy.
October 31st, 2020 at 6:12 PM ^
It's because Jim cannot handle elders. Too respectful.
October 31st, 2020 at 4:16 PM ^
After watching this team for 30+ years, I am over it. Totally outplayed on every level. Nationally embarrassed again. This is just how U of M(mediocre) rolls.
October 31st, 2020 at 4:24 PM ^
I suspect you won't be alone. I more or less checked out a couple of years ago, not simply because Michigan seemed to be crab-walking sideways, but also because all the things I used to love about the college game have been overshadowed by the money and quest for the playoffs.
October 31st, 2020 at 5:18 PM ^
This is the first year I didnt spend the offseason pumped for CFB. And this is the 3rd game I've turned off mid game but the first one that it was actually close. Last 2 were OSU the last two years.
Why turn this one off? I already know the season is over. This team is NOT going to be OSU, and will at best struggle with the remainder of the schedule.
Just isn't fun anymore watching 4 hours of commercials and harbaugh fumble-fuck his way to 9-4 seasons that end in an osu blowout and a bowl game loss.
October 31st, 2020 at 8:15 PM ^
I’m right there with you. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
October 31st, 2020 at 10:23 PM ^
This.
October 31st, 2020 at 4:27 PM ^
I'm at 45+. Tired... Going back to the Lions.
October 31st, 2020 at 7:43 PM ^
I turned the game off and walked away too. We know how the season ends and I could really care less about any other games. Harbaugh is a national laughingstock. Good news is I won’t need to waste anymore saturdays and could care less if the season gets cancelled.
October 31st, 2020 at 10:16 PM ^
Could you care less though?
November 1st, 2020 at 2:00 AM ^
He wouldn't be posting here if he couldn't...
October 31st, 2020 at 4:16 PM ^
Meh, gonna get like 4 games in anyway. More concerned about what this says about the corners for next year.
October 31st, 2020 at 5:16 PM ^
4 games? You're a masochist. I just looked at the remaining schedule and Maryland is the only team left that I feel pretty confident we will beat. And we could lose that one too. If we could lose to this crappy MSU team, we can lose to anyone.
Which is amazing, considering there is clearly talent on this roster being wasted. You don't put that many guys into the NFL year after year without getting close to winning even a conference championship, unless there's poor coaching going on.
I wonder if Day has cooled off, because that team is very capable of hanging 100 on this defense.
I'm at the point where waiting until next year isn't an option. Hope is not a plan.
From what you have seen, do you seriously think that next year under Harbaugh will be any better? Two years from now?
I hope that Manuel is putting together a list. No further contract extension please. It hurts to say it, because Harbaugh seems like he would be the perfect guy for the program. But he isn't going to win a conference championship.
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