We get 24 hours, then we've gotta get ready for Iowa. And we've got A LOT of work to do to get ready for Iowa. Yesterday's performance was abysmal. There were many different factors that played into the loss yesterday; so lets take a calm, collected, rational approach to what caused us to take a shit on one of the biggest games against MSU in a long time.
The offense seemed to be playing with a tight playbook. I can't understand why it takes until the last 10 minutes to see an some explosiveness. Why don't we play with that urgency the entire game? This isn't just a plea for victories, its for my personal health. I can't put up with this for four years. One of these days the wife is going to come home and find me stroked out with replays of Tate Forcier on the TV.
My feelings aren't quite as reserved for the offense as they are for the D. Just thinking about it pisses me off again...but Coach Rod says I've got 24 hours, so lets get at it. While I think the offense needs to find a spark when the D doesn't hold up their end of he deal, I put this loss on the D....and Zoltan Mesko.
Its 3rd and Long, and the play relayed in is all coverage. Why? We don't have the D-Lineman to get a formidable pass rush. If we could get a decent pass rush with just three than we're fine, but WE DON'T. Not only did we not have this yesterday, we haven't been able to do it all YEAR. That's 5 games now, and our coaching staff has decided that they're going to just stick it out. Mike Martin is a smaller even more useless DT than Gabe Watson. I can't complain much about Brandon Graham, who played up to snuff in the 4th quarter. But where was he in the first half? On the other end Ryan Van Bergen is touch and go, but he's too young to expect a dominant performance. I think these guys are the start of the problem but they sure as shit aren't the only problem.
Obi Ezeh had the stat line that made you think he was everywhere yesterday. He wasn't, he was nowhere to be found on a couple receptions by the TE and just didn't play "Up to the moment" to quote that annoying Chris Martin of BTN. Jonas Mouton...wow...I would rather watch a 12 hour loop of Scott McClintock highlights that watch Jonas Mouton play another 7 games. He played out of position and on the long 3rd down scramble he looked like he'd rather be somewhere else. I can't tell you how disappointed I am in this position, should be leaders and best by now but they're nowhere near the caliber LBs they should be. The young guys played well and Craig Roh's pass breakup should be shown in the Secondary's meeting room all fucking year, it was that good and they're that bad...speaking of the secondary...
Pathetic. Absolutely a joke. Old Man Gate and I had a rousing discussion about the use of Boubicar Cissoko, or the lack of use. This is a regime based upon the idea of get the best athletes on the field. And I watched one of our best guys sit the entire day on the bench. I feel like his benching is a witch hunt. He's not the cover corner that Donovan Warren is and that's why he gets picked on. JT Floyd didn't play horrendous, but I wasn't impressed. Kovacs is another point father and I discussed. Sure its a great story, but come on...he's in the wrong position. He should be Stevie Brown's backup. His run support is fantastic but his coverage is that of the previously mentioned McClintock. This secondary is a joke and its not a very funny one.
This defense is part of the offense. This offense is very different from the Pro Style in that effect. When the defense gave up that 13 minute drive in the first quarter it just threw the offense off. Tate and the team spent a half an hour just twiddling their thumbs waiting for a chance to get back on the field after the first Field Goal. They never got into a rhythm and after 3 and out it just got worse and worse. You could see at the end of the game when the D was able to get off the field the offense was able to get into this rhythm and get something going. (If you're looking at his and saying, "Man, he just stole this off the Coach Rod post game conference, I had it first. Stefan the D can attest to this."
So where do we go from here? In this writers opinion, we've gotta say the hell with it. We need to line our D up with the best athletes we have in the secondary. Move Cissoko to the free safety position shaded over Floyd. Then we need to look at the opponents and say "We're coming, I don't care if you see it, I'm giving you 4 seconds to get rid of that ball, or you're on your ass." Will it give up some big plays? Yup. Will it get us some big plays? Yup. Will our offense be on the field more? Yup. And when our offense is on the field they'll find that rhythm and we'll punish teams for their mistakes. The New York Jets have become one of the best teams in the NFL with one corner and a bunch of mediocre athletes on the rest of their defense, blitzing more than 80% of snaps. I'm willing to bet we'd generate more big plays for our D than we'd give up...BigTen QBs are easily rattled, and they make mistakes, look at the two picks our D had yesterday, with big time pressure.
We're all disappointed, but all our goals are still ahead of us. The BigTen title is still out there to be won. Could we still win the National Title? Probably not, but its still possible. Things keep looking better and better with this team and you can see that its moving in the right direction. Yesterday the Defense looked worse than last years Offense. Time to move on...Beat IOWA!!
I said it would be long...
P.S. Zoltan, for one moment you were an idiot. Why would you ever think you could beat someone of the snap? That play worked last year, with ND in a return, not a block...next time just kick the damn ball!!
Let the Gate Swing Freely
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A couple things,
ReplyDelete1) I didn't think our defense was totally to blame for that loss. At times, they kept us in it. When they needed to at the end of the game, they got stops. Coming into the year, we knew what this defense was. It is undersized, lacking depth, and in it's 3rd scheme in 3 years. Are there things lacking? Absolutely. Will they all get fixed this year? Probably not. The only way Michigan is going to return to having an elite defense is to RECRUIT, RECRUIT, RECRUIT. The true freshman this year are a start, but they are still just that - freshman. We know what Obi Ezeh and Jonas Mouton are - decidely average. But it is wrong to expect a true freshman to come in and have the ability to perform at a high level. Not everyone is Tate Forcier.
2) I saw some serious missed opportunities left on the field by the offense. Koger had a few drops, Kelv. Grady had a drop, Stonum had a drop and a key fumble. These are all drive killers. Not too mention the two huge plays that I saw evaporate right before my eyes as Mark Huyge and Brandon Minor both missed blocks on two different plays. I will point them out in a post as Brian at mgoblog does his weekly Upon Further Review. The offense had a chance to get in a rythym, it just did not execute when it got that chance. Again - Youth, Youth, Youth. It will get better with experience, especially as Tate grows more and more comfortable in the offense.
3) I'm with you on the third and long pressure, but then again I can look at another way. A constant gripe from any fan is that the team's secondary is playing too far off to allow easy completions. I saw Michigan being to play a lot more man-press coverage with the linebackers manned up underneath in this game. With this aggressive coverage comes risk. That risk is leaving the middle of the field vulnerable to a scramble by the QB. What I saw was the defensive line getting pushed out of it's rushing lanes - particularly Craig Roh - allowing Cousins to have an easy pocket to step into. Again, this can be corrected but it needs patience and time. Something fans have very little room for.
So what does it all mean? Holding Michigan State to 20 points in regulation should mean a win. While many will put the blame on this one on the defense, I put it on everyone. Special teams were not outstanding, coaching was not outstanding, offense was not outstanding, and defense was not outstanding. What it takes to win is one or two of those phases to be OUTSTANDING. Michigan simply did not do enough to win in regulation. Once we got to overtime, that is a different story. Then it comes down to making plays. In the end, their guys made the plays and our's didn't. Time to move on.
Beat Iowa.
Tate is such a special player. There is clearly a lack of experience and a lack of big playmakers on both sides of the ball. But, what I take away from this loss is that we have a Freshman quarterback who led a game tying drive in his first collegiate away game, in Lansing, in the rain! That kind of leadership doesn't come along every season.
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