Army Snowflakes - The Offense
September 8th, 2019 at 1:54 PM ^
If that was the game plan, there is no hope, because that's a criminal level of incompetence.
Army does everything in their power to shorten the game, because they are the underdog. The underdog wants as few plays as possible, because on every play, the better team is more likely to have a successful outcome. If they could make the game 5 minutes long, they'd take it, and they'd beat a lot of great teams: win the coin toss, drive down the field, kick a field goal, game over.
If you're the favorite, the strategy is the opposite: you have a positive expected value from every play, you want as many plays as possible. If you could have a 3 hour game (setting aside injury considerations), you'd take it every time. Instead of going into overtime yesterday, the game would have only been 1/3 of the way over, and Michigan could literally have re-evaluated their entire strategy and tried, say, throwing jump balls to tall receivers for a few series, see how that went.
Cooperating with Army to make the game shorter and run fewer total plays would be a glaring, obvious, inexusable mistake. I honestly don't believe that could have been what was going on-- but if it was, yikes.
September 8th, 2019 at 1:58 PM ^
Exactly. At worst, play fast to get up a couple TDs, then throttle down knowing Army can’t come back.
September 8th, 2019 at 12:08 PM ^
I'm amazed at all of the "Shea just needs to do this or that better and we'll be fine" comments. Hope is not a good strategy. Fans (and coaches?) continue to buy the "great product" marketing wrapped around an "average product". You can't win big games or championships at this level without an exceptional QB leader. I don't wish any ill on Shea but he's not that...he's a panicked passer with limited field vision and subpar accuracy. Move on. Make a decision.
September 8th, 2019 at 12:36 PM ^
Look - we all got what we and the admin wanted. Stability. Harbaugh will be here as long as he wants.
We are Wisconsin. Expect 10 win seasons as the norm. Always ending around #12 in the polls.
Just enough to keep fans in seats.
We will only beat OSU if they sink to our level, which is possible. The admin isn't going to hire a loose cannon to make that final leap to top 5 and look the other way while recruiting violations and other suspect activities occur to land and keep more 5 stars.
September 8th, 2019 at 10:50 PM ^
Did you hear the boos at halftime? If this year goes like that you can forget about stability.
September 8th, 2019 at 11:30 PM ^
Exactly. Unfortunately the Michigan brand is too large for donors to accept mediocrity