Michology 101

November 13th, 2016 at 12:16 AM ^

I just feel that we don't run enough 3 and 4 WR sets. We use a bunch of TEs to almost a fault sometimes. We need to spread defenses out on more plays and give Speight more WRs to target sometimes. The slot WR guys don't get much use at all during some of our games, other than running some sweeps every now and then. Maybe some of Iowa's coverage guys could've been exposed.

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Perkis-Size Me

November 13th, 2016 at 12:28 AM ^

What else is there to say? We'll somewhat comfortably beat IU next week and then proceed to get our asses kicked to the curb, again, by OSU.

I mean Jesus fucking Christ, if we can't beat a guy who implemented his football strategy during the Stone Age, then what makes you think we'll beat a fully motivated Urban Meyer team that is just starting to click on all cylinders?



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El Jeffe

November 13th, 2016 at 12:28 AM ^

This was tough. I obviously haven't seen the replay but it seems like those missed deep throws really hurt. If you can't consistently threaten deep then a team like IA will just keep crowding the line. DPJ and Nico Collins pls report for duty.



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BlueMk1690

November 13th, 2016 at 12:30 AM ^

Iowa scored 14 points, 2 of those off a very much avoidable safety. It really wouldn't have taken a great offensive performance to win this or even a very good one. Nobody asks Speight to carry the team, just get us 20 points and with our defense we'd be good to go most of the time.

What we got was the worst Michigan offensive performance of the Harbaugh era. Speight was subterranean, the receivers had drops, the O-Line looked completely out of sorts. With this type of offensive performance, we would have lost in East Lansing and we would have lost to Colorado and some other games would have been quite a bit closer. And if they don't play better vs Indiana next week, they could be in trouble there too.

While these types of hiccups happen, the team now would need to pull an all-world performance out of their a**es to have a shot in Columbus. And it's difficult to see it. All this talk about Bama and best team in CFB was just both hubris and hype. This team will need something of a miracle to avoid a 2nd tier Florida bowl.

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mastodon

November 13th, 2016 at 12:41 AM ^

Speight should not have been in the game after he hurt his shoulder.  That was likely behind the poor throw/INT on the play after hurting it.  I think it affected him next series also. when we just needed a fucking first down to win.  JOK's legs may have been helpful on that last series.  Don't think he'd have thrown any worse.  Should have happened.

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jackw8542

November 13th, 2016 at 12:42 AM ^

Big difference between home and away.  Against an overmatched MSU team, this team played poorly at MSU.  Against an overmatched Iowa team, this team played badly at Iowa.  Unfortunately, the next away game will not involve an overmatched opponent.

When it is clear that Speight is having a horrible game, why not put in O'Korn?

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Ron Utah

November 13th, 2016 at 1:07 AM ^

Too cute. We try to outsmart the defense every play. When you're the better team, it's okay to just beat them. More basic power, traps, and Isolation runs. Fewer trick plays.
I love Harbaugh's creativity, but sometimes it's okay to just run what you're good at.



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MGrether

November 13th, 2016 at 7:38 AM ^

Can't power if you are running into 11 man fronts. After the second missed deep ball, Iowa crowded the line and dared us to throw... We couldn't run and couldn't make them pay for it deep. Hitting any of those wide open deep balls, we not o oh score, but pull the safeties back, allowing for the run game to work.



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CoverZero

November 13th, 2016 at 1:17 AM ^

WTF is Harbaugh thinking with all of the trick formations and trick frames

WAKE UP JIM THIS TEAM DOES NOT NEED THE BULLSHIT TRICKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Every series...time for some bullshit tricks.

This loss is squarely on Jim Harbaugh.  He has done great things for this program, but this loss is on him.

Time to man up and put the tricks away and play football.

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brad

November 13th, 2016 at 1:25 AM ^

I was wondering if Harbaugh got so bored with the same stuff working over and over recently that he just can't help but try something else for his own enjoyment. Running on 1st down was picking up solid yards every time they tried, but they passed on 1st down very often.

Who knows, but let's hope speight can hit a deep ball at OSU.



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CoverZero

November 13th, 2016 at 1:20 AM ^

Anyone blaming Speight solely for this loss: Fuck You.

Speight had guys in his face all game.  Kalis played like shit.  On the flea flicker, Smiths pitch was low and he had to bend forward for it throwing off timing.

WRs had long stretches of not getting open.

Chesson fight for the fucking ball.

Speight did not play well..but this was a group effort loss.

I am retiring now from this forum.  Good bye.

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UofM626

November 13th, 2016 at 1:26 AM ^

Harbaugh - stop w all the gimmicks and get back to hard nose football, I'm getting sick of seeing us go for it all the time on 2nd and 3rd and 2, run the rock w Isaac! Wtf

Speight - looked scared tonight and very indecisive.
Dude please speed up your progressions, he looks slow and tardy on all his throws.

RB - WTF! is up w Smith and why the hell has Harbaugh turned away from Isaac when it's clear as shit he has the most talent of all the RB and the best vision and he's a thumper, Smith stops to much and 2nd guesses himself.

D Line - you guys better wake up a bit.

LB - looked slow again and can't stay w the RB's and quicker slot guys.

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I Want To Believe

November 13th, 2016 at 1:35 AM ^

You can tell there's a lot of people who have not played football commenting in this thread.


Wilton Speight is in his 10th start (1st road start at night vs a team with a pulse). Prior to tonight this Michigan passing attack was a highly regarded unit top ten in some important categories. With the exception of tonight, Wilton's rougher performances have come against very good defensive teams (Colorado, Wisconsin). I've seen Wilton make NFL throws with my own eyes. I've seen the improvement in him from his first start.

I thought the play calling was the worst I've ever seen from Harbaugh, and was reminiscent of the Hoke era. Speight, was certainly not helped out in this game by the play calling.

There was no set up plays. There were no new plays. All year long Michigan has been innovative offensively by installing new schemes for specific teams. Not today. Evans was the only back getting consistent yardage, so obviously he only got 7 carries bc Harbaugh never lets a RB get into a groove.

Speight had several balls that were either dropped, or an inch away from being a big play. The td that was called back was a dime of a throw that not many QB's make. Wilton gets tight in close games bc he is still raw as a starter, and he wants to be sure he doesn't make a mistake that would cost us the game.

Wilton Speight had a bad game. It happens. The team looked slow, were unprepared, out coached in several situations, and had every possible bounce go the other way.

If you seen the press conference after the game Harbaugh said he thought Wilton played fine and that guys need to make plays. But what does Harbaugh know? He's only the best QB coach in world history.

So let's take the word of a bunch of armchair QB's who have never played a meaningful snap of football in their lives. Sounds reasonable.

The saddest thing about this game was that Jim Harbaugh and this Michigan team lost to a Brady Hoke coached Iowa team.



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I Want To Believe

November 13th, 2016 at 2:06 AM ^

Again, dumbass, he had a bad game. It's his 10th start. I'm sure you never had a bad game.

Speight played tighter as the game went on bc his in game confidence was ruined by a terrible game plan, with awful situational play calling.

I'll also take Harbaugh's word for it regarding Wilton Speight over some dude like you bc his football IQ is a billion times what yours is, which speaks for itself.


Sweet argument though bro, bc missing 3 deep balls in a big road game makes every first year starter average at best.



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MaizeAndBlueWahoo

November 13th, 2016 at 8:36 AM ^

I love it when some know-it-all says "well you must not have played if you disagree with what I saw."  It's like half a step above "bro did you even go to school there?"  And then you add the "coach said he played fine so that's the final word" as if you think Harbaugh would ever get up to the mic and say Speight stunk it up in front of every reporter in the Midwest.  Hard to believe a wise and experienced former football player and all-knowing guru such as yourself would actually think Harbaugh would give a brutally honest public assessment of his quarterback, if said quarterback really did play a horrible game.

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RobM_24

November 13th, 2016 at 1:36 AM ^

I think Brian was hoping for 11 YPA from Speight ... we didn't even get 4 YPA. Chesson didn't do him any favors either. Bad night from virtually everyone -- even (normally) reliable guys like Hill and Peppers sucked.

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funkywolve

November 13th, 2016 at 1:44 AM ^

the Pepcat seems to have run it's course.  As soon as teams see Peppers lined up to get the snap they totally crash the line.

End around/jet sweep seems to have run its course.  Run it once, maybe twice, a game to keep teams off balance... sure.  Run it 4-5 times a game and teams figure out it.  

What was up with the pitch to Higdon late in the game?  3rd and 1 and you do a pitch to Higdon.  That play was dead before Higdon even got the ball.

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AmayzNblue

November 13th, 2016 at 7:56 AM ^

Agree about the Higdon pitch. You have to trust your blockers to throw the ball backwards and tip off the defense which direction your RB is running. It also showed so little confidence from our coaches in our Oline. A QB sneak could have resulted in a positive yard



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uminks

November 13th, 2016 at 2:36 AM ^

Poor play overall. The OL did an OK job at pass blocking but seem to be trying to block up to the second level while IA FS and LB came in to swallow  up our RB. The worse game of the season for Wilton but he's still a young QB. I think Butt needed some more 10-15 yard pass attempts. I remember on some of the long throws, Butt was wide open waiving his hands. Teams already know about the wildcat and it is not working like it did early the year. Harbaugh will need to design a great game plan to beat OSU. At this time it does not look good we may be facing a rematch with Florida in the Citrus bowl.

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funkywolve

November 13th, 2016 at 12:43 PM ^

We're anything but special. Other than Allen's fg and one punt return by Peppers I thought it was a rough game for the special teams. Hill fumbles a kickoff. Allen spanked his first punt and his last punt was really bad - even without the face mask penalty it was probably at best a net of 30 yds. Iowa downed a punt at the 2 which led to the safety and there was at least one, if not more punts where Iowa pinned Michigan instead the 15.

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MGrether

November 13th, 2016 at 7:35 AM ^

Hard to run when you can't beat them deep. If we connect on those wide open throws, we win handily, and open up the Defense.

My only MAJOR complaint was not putting in O'Korn at the end. Speight at the end was clearly injured and favoring his arm, on the sidelines struggling to throw. His last throw was a rainbow, from a guy hurting too much to put zip on the ball. For as much QB rotating as we have done this year, this one we rode the wounded a little too long.



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HarBooYa

November 15th, 2016 at 12:13 PM ^

Pepper should have handed it off on both runs. Alright missed 4-5 deep balls. Chessin dropped two and butt dropped one. Hill fumbled a fucking kickoff return he could have easily flipped back to pepp or not fumble w two hands on the ball. The coaches failed to establish run when it was largely working. Bad penalties. To me, this one is most poor performances and looking past an opponent manifested in cocky play call and sloppy execution. Good news is that it happens. We are still very good and can bounce back. I think these guys are made of something different and will use this to finish strong.



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