Thoughts on the Rewatch: Army

And that last loss before us was Oklahoma in OT.  It was a "good loss"

Army barely beat Rice. At home.

We’ve turned it over enough these first two games to average it out lol

The fact that we didn't turn it over much last year, with this same quarterback, would logically suggest that we shouldn't continue to do so this year.  The alternative would be to believe that Shea has regressed in ball security, which would be uncommon for a veteran QB.

When I watched McCaffrey’s interview this past week he seemed noticeably frustrated in his answers and body language.  He answered questions maturely and didn’t say anything to insinuate any frustration, but that’s not surprising in a formal setting.  I’m not calling for a QB change at this point by any means, and I don’t think Patterson has played that poorly.  However, I don’t know how often I’ve seen a QB turnover the ball as often as Patterson has the first two games without a backup of McCaffrey’s caliber at least getting a full drive at QB.

Here’s the interview in case anyone missed it.  Draw your own conclusions...

I've noticed it at times the last couple seasons. A defense gets frustrated when it's doing its job and the offense is crapping the bed and vice versa. The 2017 team every time O'Korn did something ridiculous comes to mind.

I think we saw it too in the bowl game. Once it was apparent that the offense wasn't doing anything, the defensive players followed their leaders and seemingly went, "eff it" and the game was over.

Two years ago, Harbaugh finally pulled the plug when he realized Peters was the better option than O'Korn. Too late? Possibly. But Harbaugh's done it before.

I don't know enough nor have I seen enough of McCaffrey to confidently say he should be starting over Patterson. What I do know is that Harbaugh and Gattis need to coach better and Patterson needs to play better.

I've noticed that whenever people think something isn't going well they try to deduce a million tiny body language cues, and the vast majority of them are meaningless.  

The All-B1G left tackle has missed two games for injury.  When a run was needed last year, it mostly went behind the left side - Runyan and Bredeson.  Hayes doesn't have nearly the push Runyan has, nor any of the experience.  It took Runyan several games to fit in, and he was already at full strength physically.  Hayes is not.

I think that is a huge thing we're missing.  Hopefully, Runyan will get back to where he left off, and we can see what Gattis' offense is supposed to look like...  You know, without Harbaugh forcing a 27 for 27 in turtle time.

It's absolutely impossible to tell when you keep running into a stacked box and there is no threat to the perimeter that was promised all summer.  They did precisely what they said they wouldn't. Lucky to win.

I thought the game was lost when they marched down the field in the 3rd quarter right after we had derped a 3-and-out on the first drive (side note: what the actual f was that "drive"???). A two-score hole against Army feels insurmountable with their style of play.

And then they inexplicably called a pass play. They should have won the game and they got too cute. That let M back in the game. Gave the defense renewed life - and the D played their asses off the rest of the half. 

It was the same thing against Oklahoma. They burned 10 out of 12 minutes of clock marching down the field in the 4th quarter, and then they flinched on 2nd and 12 and dropped back to throw. It got intercepted. They could have kept running and scored a walk off touchdown or field goal to win.

Their securing of a first down was not a given.  Quite a few times Michigan held them to no gain or even drove them back.  They only had about 200 yds in regulation; that's not very much.

That 4th down call...  Nobody on this blog had better laugh at Frames Janklin's 4th & 5 last year against OSU.  Not anymore.  We've got our own to deal with.

Do you think there's a chance the coaches were telling him to hand it off (no keeps)?

I actually don't know what's worse - because why would the coaches handicap their own plays in a contentious game? Surely they knew Army was no pushover.

But if Shea is missing these reads...yikes. Some of them were so obvious too. And it's weird because he demonstrated an ability to make the read last year, even if he was too conservative at times.

Maddening yet perfectly in line with the rest of whatever was going on...I mean sure, why not have arguably our best player on defense inexplicably line up a full yard offsides with the game on the line ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Agree completely on playcalling, completely obvious Gattis did not call the second half. It was too Borgessian which means Harbaugh was calling plays again....oof.

Go Blue, sometimes you have to win ugly.