we're not watching the same game every week because I see a TON of tinkering and structural changes on offense. Tackle over. New starters at LG, C, and RG. Slide protections. Roll-outs, QB counters. More max-protect. These are all structural and/or tinkering done by Borges and staff. Have they worked? No. And some of the blame falls on the coaches teaching techniques here because some of these concepts are quite simple. But to say the offensive staff is "unable" to adjust is just ignorant.
It seems Brian's goal is for his narrative to be THE dominant and sole POV. Brian's arrogance is quite visible in this post. "I have watched a lot of people play football...". WOW! Brian's been watching football for years. All bow to this omniscient being.
is probably the speed of the D-linemen at this level, at least for Bosch since he's a true freshman. There's a big difference in speed/athleticism/strength between 17-18 year old high school guys and 21-22 year old B1G defensivie linemen.
Colts would pull a guard on PA. This action really messed with the LBs and Safeties. Michigan can't really do that yet because they're starting a true freshman and a RS freshman at the guard spots. Pulling a guard on a pass play changes the pass blocking protection for the puller, making it more complicated/difficult. This isn't going to happen with 18 and 19 year old guards.
Addressing these 1 at a time....The team has not regressed since 2011. It's just a much younger team. Success is part talent and part experience. The 2011 team had both in the starting lineup. See Molk, Omameh, and Barnum on the interior O -line. 3 upperclassmen. See RVB, Martin, and Roh on the D-line. 3 upperclassmen. Veteran Kovacs and T-Wolf in the secondary. Veterans Hemmingway and Roundtree at WR. This team was talented and started a ton of guys who had been there for 4-5 years. The team this year is talented but they don't have the experience factor yet. A true freshman starting a LG? A walk-on RS sophomore starting at C?
This talk of the coaching staff lacking passion is complete bullshit and ignorant. Would it make you feel better if Hoke's face was purple like Brian Kelly's after Gardner gets sacked?
You say you don't question the effort of Michigan's players but then you question it. "They play like it's their Super Bowl and we play like it's just another game." Do you honestly think Lewan, Gardner, Gallon, etc. are just going through the motions? That they don't care if they beat Sparty?
Even is Sparty is a better team, what good would possibly come from Michigan's head coach admitting such? Name one positive outcome from admitting you are not as good as your rival.
You're right about the record. Because they didn't sell any season tickets after 3-9.
The conference sets the schedule. Though I'm sure you think it's Hoke/Borges' fault too.
with the possibility of 8-4 or 9-3 going into the bowl game. How many people seriously looked at this team at the beginning of the season and thought they were going to win 11 games? Or contend for the national championship with just 2 upper classmen on the o-line depth chart?
of teams have the players and resources that Michigan has and struggles to score TDs against elite Ds. 2012 Notre Dame held 9 teams to 1 or 0 TDs. Five of these, Michigan, Stanford, Miami (YTM), Okalahoma, and USC, have comparable talent and resource levels.
almost every team in the country has then against very good defenses. Almost every team struggles to score elite Ds. This is what makes the defense elite. See:
Alabama 2012 - only 2 teams scored 3 or more TDs. 8 scored 1 or 0.
MSU 2013 - only 1 team scored 3 or more TDs. 6 scored 1 or 0.
Notre Dame 2012 - 'Bama was the only team to score 3 or more TDs. 9 scored 1 or 0.
"If you have a weak OL, get the ball out quickly." - State's D takes away the quick inside routes. Plus their Double A-gap blitz takes the shortest route to the QB, thus minimizing the amount of time the QB has to make a read and get rid of the ball.
"If you have a weak OL, call more max protection." - Michigan does this to some extent. The issue with max protection is that it means there are fewer receivers running passing routes. Maxprotection also doesn't help matters if one of the lineman whiff on their block. Something that happened to Bosch a few times yesterday. And happened to Miller earlier this year. And Molk 2 years ago at State.
"If you have a QB that holds the ball too long, get the ball out quickly." - Your statement is amusing because your proposed solution (getting the ball out quickly) is mitigated by the problem (holds the ball too long). This is complicated by defensive schemes (MSU's) who take away a lot of the quick reads and try to make you beat them over the top, on longer developing plays.
"If you have a QB that makes questionable decisions, give him simple reads." - Michigan does this. They run stuff to just one side of the field and ran a number of roll-outs yesterday. They also called some slide protections. All of these are designed to simplify the process for Gardner. He's actually made a lot of progress here since the beginning of the season. But yesterday he rushed some throws and misread some plays in an effort to get the ball out faster and not get hit. The o-line issues compounded the matter by continuously making mistakes, Lewan included.
"If your RB can't block, put a TE in the backfield." - This would be a viable option if there was a TE on the roster with the size and intestinal fortitude for blocking. But the TE options are Funchess (a WR), Butt (a true freshman), and AJ Williams (hurt and largely ineffective due to technique issues."
in a biased manner for a preconceived agenda. They scored no TDs against Sparty. This is true. MSU's D has stopped 4 opponents from scoring TDs this year. And they haven't allowed a TD since October 12. Michigan State's D is outstanding. They are disciplined, experienced, and physical. This year's unit is probably the best out of the Dantonio era.
You make it sound like Michigan can't score against anyone when in fact the Michigan offense scored 145 points in the previous 3 games. How is no TDs an issue?
is designed to take away the slants and routes over the short middle. Their LBs play run first, and then inside out on pass coverage.
The holes in MSU's D are deep (especially the deep middle) and short outs. These are exactly the routes Borges called.
Play action is important, even if the running game sucks. This is especially true against a team like State where the LBs are super aggressive in their run reads. This helps keep the LBs close to the line and the Safeties up which opens up the deep passes Michigan had success with. Ignoring play action and just lining up in the gun with 5 wide every time tells the D that you're passing. This makes Gardner's job that much more difficult because now the LBs don't worry about a run read and can just play inside out and the Safeties are back 10-12 yards taking away the deep stuff.
Lewan and Schofield are really the only guys who are still here. Everyone else on the depth chart is either a freshman or sophomore. And Lewan and Schofield are, by most accounts, pretty good.
Individually, Lewan is better than most lineman and Schofield is at least an above average pass-blocker. He can still struggle in run blocking sometimes though. But the thing with O-line is that it's 5 guys functioning as a unit. The blockers must work together and all be on the same page as far as line calls, protection slides, etc. This doesn't come overnight, especially if the starters are chaning on a week-to-week basis.
A play can be blown up by one guy not hearing a protection call (ie. Clowney's hit in the bowl game last year) or one guy not releasing a combo block in time because he can't "feel" if the other blocker has control of the block.
4* and 5* O-lineman usually don't start to adequately contribute until they are at least RS Sophomores. Look at any of 'Bama's national championship O-lines. Or count how many RS frosh and sophs are on the All-America teams. It's the most technically demanding position on the team and the one which requires the largest weight/strength gains from high school. It takes time.
And this is probably the most frustrating thing for fans. Michigan has an outstanding O-line class in 2012 and 2013 but, as highly ranked as they were, they won't be serviceable contributers until their 3rd year in the system...at least. Offensive line is the toughest position to transition from high school to college. The weight/strength gains, technique refinement, PAD LEVEL, and experience all take time. Most fans are not patient enough to wait for this.
This was a 3rd down play. Michigan slid protection to the right. This should help simplify Gardner's reads on the play. Lewan screwed up the blocking by not helping Fitz on the DE. He should slide inside, look for a rush, and then help Fitz with the unblocked DE. He didn't do any of those things.
Almost everyony acknowledged that Carr left the cupboard bare for RR. Adrian Arrington, Justin Boren, Chad Henne, Mike Hart, Mario Manningham, Jake Long, Adam Kraus, andRyan Mallett all left after Carr retired.
for the B1G to adopt unless you can unequivocally demonstrate this proposal will add television sets and piles of money that rival what The Joker burned in The Dark Knight.
Recent Comments
we're not watching the same game every week because I see a TON of tinkering and structural changes on offense. Tackle over. New starters at LG, C, and RG. Slide protections. Roll-outs, QB counters. More max-protect. These are all structural and/or tinkering done by Borges and staff. Have they worked? No. And some of the blame falls on the coaches teaching techniques here because some of these concepts are quite simple. But to say the offensive staff is "unable" to adjust is just ignorant.
I'm a writer....and this isn't a shot....but you're a dick.
(This isn't a shot because I said so! Don't intrepret it any differently!)
It seems Brian's goal is for his narrative to be THE dominant and sole POV. Brian's arrogance is quite visible in this post. "I have watched a lot of people play football...". WOW! Brian's been watching football for years. All bow to this omniscient being.
is probably the speed of the D-linemen at this level, at least for Bosch since he's a true freshman. There's a big difference in speed/athleticism/strength between 17-18 year old high school guys and 21-22 year old B1G defensivie linemen.
constraints are not tipped pre-snap. Wheel routes, throwback screens, QB counter, etc. None of these are tipped by formation or personel.
defense not in a position to be fooled? Because Michigan wasn't running the ball very effectively?
Colts would pull a guard on PA. This action really messed with the LBs and Safeties. Michigan can't really do that yet because they're starting a true freshman and a RS freshman at the guard spots. Pulling a guard on a pass play changes the pass blocking protection for the puller, making it more complicated/difficult. This isn't going to happen with 18 and 19 year old guards.
the TE pop pass a few times this year. The Funchess TD against Akron was a pop pass, though I don't remember if it was off of PA.
Addressing these 1 at a time....The team has not regressed since 2011. It's just a much younger team. Success is part talent and part experience. The 2011 team had both in the starting lineup. See Molk, Omameh, and Barnum on the interior O -line. 3 upperclassmen. See RVB, Martin, and Roh on the D-line. 3 upperclassmen. Veteran Kovacs and T-Wolf in the secondary. Veterans Hemmingway and Roundtree at WR. This team was talented and started a ton of guys who had been there for 4-5 years. The team this year is talented but they don't have the experience factor yet. A true freshman starting a LG? A walk-on RS sophomore starting at C?
This talk of the coaching staff lacking passion is complete bullshit and ignorant. Would it make you feel better if Hoke's face was purple like Brian Kelly's after Gardner gets sacked?
You say you don't question the effort of Michigan's players but then you question it. "They play like it's their Super Bowl and we play like it's just another game." Do you honestly think Lewan, Gardner, Gallon, etc. are just going through the motions? That they don't care if they beat Sparty?
Even is Sparty is a better team, what good would possibly come from Michigan's head coach admitting such? Name one positive outcome from admitting you are not as good as your rival.
You're right about the record. Because they didn't sell any season tickets after 3-9.
The conference sets the schedule. Though I'm sure you think it's Hoke/Borges' fault too.
with the possibility of 8-4 or 9-3 going into the bowl game. How many people seriously looked at this team at the beginning of the season and thought they were going to win 11 games? Or contend for the national championship with just 2 upper classmen on the o-line depth chart?
of teams have the players and resources that Michigan has and struggles to score TDs against elite Ds. 2012 Notre Dame held 9 teams to 1 or 0 TDs. Five of these, Michigan, Stanford, Miami (YTM), Okalahoma, and USC, have comparable talent and resource levels.
almost every team in the country has then against very good defenses. Almost every team struggles to score elite Ds. This is what makes the defense elite. See:
Alabama 2012 - only 2 teams scored 3 or more TDs. 8 scored 1 or 0.
MSU 2013 - only 1 team scored 3 or more TDs. 6 scored 1 or 0.
Notre Dame 2012 - 'Bama was the only team to score 3 or more TDs. 9 scored 1 or 0.
These are just 3 examples.
"If you have a weak OL, get the ball out quickly." - State's D takes away the quick inside routes. Plus their Double A-gap blitz takes the shortest route to the QB, thus minimizing the amount of time the QB has to make a read and get rid of the ball.
"If you have a weak OL, call more max protection." - Michigan does this to some extent. The issue with max protection is that it means there are fewer receivers running passing routes. Maxprotection also doesn't help matters if one of the lineman whiff on their block. Something that happened to Bosch a few times yesterday. And happened to Miller earlier this year. And Molk 2 years ago at State.
"If you have a QB that holds the ball too long, get the ball out quickly." - Your statement is amusing because your proposed solution (getting the ball out quickly) is mitigated by the problem (holds the ball too long). This is complicated by defensive schemes (MSU's) who take away a lot of the quick reads and try to make you beat them over the top, on longer developing plays.
"If you have a QB that makes questionable decisions, give him simple reads." - Michigan does this. They run stuff to just one side of the field and ran a number of roll-outs yesterday. They also called some slide protections. All of these are designed to simplify the process for Gardner. He's actually made a lot of progress here since the beginning of the season. But yesterday he rushed some throws and misread some plays in an effort to get the ball out faster and not get hit. The o-line issues compounded the matter by continuously making mistakes, Lewan included.
"If your RB can't block, put a TE in the backfield." - This would be a viable option if there was a TE on the roster with the size and intestinal fortitude for blocking. But the TE options are Funchess (a WR), Butt (a true freshman), and AJ Williams (hurt and largely ineffective due to technique issues."
in a biased manner for a preconceived agenda. They scored no TDs against Sparty. This is true. MSU's D has stopped 4 opponents from scoring TDs this year. And they haven't allowed a TD since October 12. Michigan State's D is outstanding. They are disciplined, experienced, and physical. This year's unit is probably the best out of the Dantonio era.
You make it sound like Michigan can't score against anyone when in fact the Michigan offense scored 145 points in the previous 3 games. How is no TDs an issue?
most of the board so quickly ignores. Thanks for posting and having reasonable expectations!.
is designed to take away the slants and routes over the short middle. Their LBs play run first, and then inside out on pass coverage.
The holes in MSU's D are deep (especially the deep middle) and short outs. These are exactly the routes Borges called.
Play action is important, even if the running game sucks. This is especially true against a team like State where the LBs are super aggressive in their run reads. This helps keep the LBs close to the line and the Safeties up which opens up the deep passes Michigan had success with. Ignoring play action and just lining up in the gun with 5 wide every time tells the D that you're passing. This makes Gardner's job that much more difficult because now the LBs don't worry about a run read and can just play inside out and the Safeties are back 10-12 yards taking away the deep stuff.
Lewan and Schofield are really the only guys who are still here. Everyone else on the depth chart is either a freshman or sophomore. And Lewan and Schofield are, by most accounts, pretty good.
"Can this performance really be blamed on simply youth...?"
Glasgow is a sophomore and a walk-on.
Kalis is a RS Frosh. Yes, he's a 5* but still a RS Frosh. Even 'Bama tries not to start RS Frosh.
Bryant is a sophomore.
Bars is a freshman.
Bosch is a freshman.
Magnuson is a freshman.
Miller is a sophomore.
Every lineman you mentioned outside of the tackles, suffers from youth/inexperience.
You've been following Michigan football for over 30 years!! Now if only you knew anything about play-calling or game-planning.....
Individually, Lewan is better than most lineman and Schofield is at least an above average pass-blocker. He can still struggle in run blocking sometimes though. But the thing with O-line is that it's 5 guys functioning as a unit. The blockers must work together and all be on the same page as far as line calls, protection slides, etc. This doesn't come overnight, especially if the starters are chaning on a week-to-week basis.
A play can be blown up by one guy not hearing a protection call (ie. Clowney's hit in the bowl game last year) or one guy not releasing a combo block in time because he can't "feel" if the other blocker has control of the block.
4* and 5* O-lineman usually don't start to adequately contribute until they are at least RS Sophomores. Look at any of 'Bama's national championship O-lines. Or count how many RS frosh and sophs are on the All-America teams. It's the most technically demanding position on the team and the one which requires the largest weight/strength gains from high school. It takes time.
Lewan is not a top 5 NFL draft pick. He wasn't last year either, depsite what Brian likes to say. Sorry.
.
And this is probably the most frustrating thing for fans. Michigan has an outstanding O-line class in 2012 and 2013 but, as highly ranked as they were, they won't be serviceable contributers until their 3rd year in the system...at least. Offensive line is the toughest position to transition from high school to college. The weight/strength gains, technique refinement, PAD LEVEL, and experience all take time. Most fans are not patient enough to wait for this.
This was a 3rd down play. Michigan slid protection to the right. This should help simplify Gardner's reads on the play. Lewan screwed up the blocking by not helping Fitz on the DE. He should slide inside, look for a rush, and then help Fitz with the unblocked DE. He didn't do any of those things.
This is a logical and realistic opinion. Thank you for being a sane Michigan fan.
Almost everyony acknowledged that Carr left the cupboard bare for RR. Adrian Arrington, Justin Boren, Chad Henne, Mike Hart, Mario Manningham, Jake Long, Adam Kraus, andRyan Mallett all left after Carr retired.
for the B1G to adopt unless you can unequivocally demonstrate this proposal will add television sets and piles of money that rival what The Joker burned in The Dark Knight.
Otherwise, it is fantastically awesome.