Gentleman Squirrels

September 10th, 2019 at 11:11 PM ^

The defense wasn't the issue in that game. It was the offense. The defense has rarely been the issue under Harbaugh and Brown. From the offensive standpoint it was a disappointing game plan, execution, and coaching decisions, especially since this entire offseason has been hyped up as #speedinspace.

That being said, I see no reason that Michigan can't fix their mistakes in the next 2 weeks and completely change the narrative against Wisconsin. I'm eager to see what the coaches can do in this bye week.

Sopwith

September 10th, 2019 at 11:35 PM ^

Aw, isn't that nice. Yes, also "excited to stop turning it over." Which is basically saying "I'm so excited, in advance, for when we eventually become good enough to play better." 

TheRonimal

September 10th, 2019 at 11:36 PM ^

I think most people agree that so far this season we can't really complain about the defense. I'm worried about the interior DL overall for the season, but so far the defense is fine. Offensively, I'm just waiting to see what Gattis can correct and improve on. A lot of the issues so far seem to be more of the consistency variety that I think can be corrected. They've shown flashes, but I'm really wondering what's up with the whole read option situation. I can't wait for the Wisconsin game because that will really show what's going on with the offense. I think we either win a tight game where the offense looks pretty good, or we lose by a good margin. There's a lot of time to figure some things out with the bye week. 

1VaBlue1

September 11th, 2019 at 8:37 AM ^

Funny thing about the defense, though, is that a LOT of people have complained about it.  Especially after the MTSU game...

Offensively, putting the ball on the ground is careless and simply needs to resolve itself.  The first half against MTSU was pretty nice.  Not sure what the hell that second half was supposed to be, though.  Seemed like they wanted to get DM some game time, and experimented with a bunch of one-off junk that we'll (hopefully) never see again.  Against Army, we saw some good stuff that doesn't get remembered because of the 7 drops and the fumbles.  Certainly going all Army by beating Army at Army's game was not what anyone wanted to see, and it was closer than anyone thought it might be.  But I'm not sure that wasn't part of the game plan to begin with.  Yeah, you need to back up and look at everything to see it, and it takes some faith.  But consider: Patterson's oblique injury (in a flack jacket last week, sailing passes, not running); Gattis' explanation that some reads were missed, and some were correct; good mixes of run/pass on several drives, until the 4th quarter clock killers; early fumbles turning possession into life or death issues against a team that lives for that...

I think a lot of things have conspired to hamper #SpeedinSpace.  Yeah, it takes some faith to look at a broad view.  But I choose to be positive - so fuck off, BPONE.

Mgoczar

September 10th, 2019 at 11:41 PM ^

Speaking of tweet, I remember someone posting back and forth between Locksley and Gattis...so what's the verdict. 

Whatever. I hope we can get this offense together. For once it'd be nice to "get lucky," ala Penn State and light the world on fire. 

Defense has been good. How much does it have to shoulder the burden of winning games ?? Sad just thinking about it. 

HailHail47

September 10th, 2019 at 11:43 PM ^

The defense did well, but did not dominate them. They nearly lost the game in the third quarter until Army decided to pass on third and goal. The offense is my main concern. We made too many mistakes and did not have much rhythm. The decision making could use work from the coaches and the QB. Hopefully we play a good game at UW. 

NeverPunt

September 11th, 2019 at 8:53 AM ^

Also they were awful in 2015 going 2-10 so doing so against a solid army team is better than it sounds. They went 8-5, 10-3, and 11-2 in the years between. All three of those army teams were the best teams army has had since they went 10-2 in 1996.  Some people seem to forget that this is not a complete pushover of a non-Con opponent. I thought we’d be at them more easily and holding them to 14 in regulation was about what I expected. Just figured we’d score ya know more than that.