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Reflections, Rilings & Digestion
It’s like Chipolte’s hot salsa. It’s like BW3′s blazin’ wing sauce. It goes though your body in like a day, day and a half maybe, and it isn’t pleasant coming out on the other end. Digestion is rough and sometimes might take a day or three, depending on how many beers you had before and after. But once it’s over and out of your system, well, that’s that.
So I’ve finally managed to digest Michigan’s loss to Michigan State. But, damn, that stung on it’s way out – one of those losses that seems to hurt more than others, but takes the majority of the following week to get it out of your system. It was one of those games that, if Michigan executes like they have been all season long, would have went down to the wire. The offensive missteps have been well documented by the Michigan community since Sunday. This from Mgoblog user Kylemac is a rather thorough example…
With a breakdown of all of our offensive mistakes organized by time left in each respective quarter (there’s a lot of ‘em):
1) 14:09 in the first quarter, 3rd play of the game (1st drive), Omameh just barely missed sealing off his man, resulting in the DT stepping on DRs foot. Like Chait said, Robinson only had the field side safety to beat.
2) 12:42 in the first quarter, 7th play of the game (1st drive, 16 yard line), Robinson hands off on the zone read when he should have gone out to uncovered wide receiver Roundtree on the read option throw. Would have been at least a first down, if not a touchdown.
3) 11:40 in the first quarter, 9th play of the game (1st drive), Robinson has tons of time to throw, he has roundtree open, but throws way behind him. In the alternative, Robinson had 2 defenders and 4 offensive linemen to his left, he could have followed a convoy into the endzone. An older/more experienced Robinson makes this throw for 7 points.
4) 3:42 in the first quarter, Robinson overthrows a wide open Darryl Stonum in the endzone. We’ve now lost 11 offensive points.
5) 2:00 in the first quarter – this play looks like a designed run, but WOW is Vincent Smith wide open on the field side.
6) 14:05 in the 2nd quarter, Robinson had to keep this one on the read option, he had to know that the weakside linebacker was going to be blocked, and we missed out on a LOT of yards here. Honestly, this could have gone for an 87 yard touchdown.
7) 10:02 in the 2nd quarter – roundtree drops a perfect seam pass from DR.
10:18 in the 3rd quarter at MSU’s 12 – Robinson skips a pass into Odoms, he also had roundtree wide open on an out route. Now we’re upto 18 points left on the field.
9) 10:15 in the 3rd quarter – Robinson just needs to throw this pass away and take the field goal. He would have needed to throw an absolute laser to get this to Hemingway – live and learn.
10) 4:20 in the 3rd quarter – Molk and Schilling flat out miss their blocks, allowing two DTs to get in the backfield on a designed QB run.
11) :41 in 3rd quarter – Roundtree drops an option out pass.
12) :36 in 3rd quarter – Hemingway dropped out pass.
13) :32 in 3rd quarter – it would have been a tough grab, but Stonum drops a hitch.
14) 12:29 in 4th quarter – two mistakes on one play, Robinson should have hit a WIDE OPEN Darryl Stonum on a play that would have gone for at least 30 yards. But he tries to go deep for Grady, and Grady has a step on his defender, but Robinson throws the ball over the wrong shoulder allowing Rucker to get back over and make the pick. If Robinson throws this ball to the middle of the field over Grady’s right shoulder, its a touchdown. Now we’ve left 25 points on the field.
15) 6:26 in the 4th quarter, Robinson has Roundtree open WAY down field, but throws on the run and well short, this was more of a desperation play, but if he somehow had hit Roundtree in stride, this goes the distance. Too tough of a play to execute to say we should have gotten points for missing it though.
So there you have it 15 major offensive mistakes that MSU’s defense had very little to do with that resulted in us leaving 25 points on the field (and that’s not counting the 50 yard field goal that was blocked at the half – can’t expect us to make that one at this point). With those points you’re looking at us having 42. At that point, State could have scored another TD and we still would have won 42-41.
MSU found the blueprint for stopping Michigan all right – just pray that Denard plays a terrible game. Otherwise, I like our chances against Iowa.
I’m certainly not going to freak out over what I saw last Saturday. We’ll see how the rest of the year plays out for Michigan State. I think they will be challenged this week by Illinois, but still pull out the dub. Michigan wasn’t dominated in this game – just add up the mistakes. Two redzone interceptions and a missed field goal equals 17 points. Point being, Michigan for the first time this season, didn’t perform well in the redzone and it cost them.
My seat was in Section 13 – which is in the South end zone – so my vantage point wasn’t great. As I walked out of Michigan Stadium – disgusted, beat up, and damn near hungover – I wondered why I put so much energy into a team that can let me down in such a big way. It’s too easy to let your initial expectations (…sure I’ll take a 5-1 record going into week 6…yeah I just want to see improvement – I’ll take 8-4 all day long…) fly out the window and be replaced by ridiculous expectations that this team simply isn’t capable of at this point. After re-watching the game and taking in the magnitude of plays that didn’t go in Michigan’s favor, I still think this is a different and better Michigan team than we saw a year ago.
I understand the sentiment and general anxiety a double-digit, home loss to MSU gives fans, but some just freak out beyond any measure of relevant sense. People actually wanted Rich Rod to take out Denard and put in Tate. Really? To those I ask – why would you take out the most dynamic player in the country through five weeks because of a couple errant throws in the redzone? And, I think it’s obvious that Denard is becoming a legitimate leader on this team, so you have you let your budding, Heisman-esque leader take his lumps and play the rest of the game.
Take in an article from Jonathan Chait over at Rivals. In an attempt to relax Michigan fans and show that Michigan really shot themselves in the foot against Michigan State – Chait goes here…
This was not a one-sided game. This was a game where a handful of key plays went the wrong way and turned an even matchup into an easy Spartan win.
and…
Now, what about this notion that MSU displayed the blueprint to stop Michigan’s offense? Nonsense. MSU did somewhat hold Robinson in check on the ground, though future defenses can hardly count on stepping on his foot to prevent a 60-yard touchdown run. But even that aside – and that play would have put Robinson over 150 yards rushing — Michigan’s tailbacks had a strong outing, and its receivers were wide open all game long. If the Spartan defensive formula was to focus on Robinson’s running, let the tailbacks run wild, leave receivers open and hope Robinson throws a bunch of interceptions, well, let’s hope future opponents repeat the formula.
Dave Brandon on WTKA this morning…
DB talking with Sam and Ira this morning had a few things to say about the 2012 Alabama match up, his routine on gamedays, new scoreboards, etc. Notes courtesy of MVictors and Michigan Insider on Twitter…
@MVictors: Brandon on new scoreboards, “working on it diligently” and he had people on campus to review
@MVictors: Brandon, on the lights, the day after the final football game, they start construction to get them ready for the Big Chill
@michiganinsider: DB: Had been discussions about the new Meadowlands stadium; ESPN contacted UofM; Jerry Jones had the opening
@MVictors: Brandon says he’s open to any coach, any team, to assist with recruiting of athletes. To share his experiences, etc.
@ MVictors: On Notre Dame scheduling longterm, Brandon says they’re “working on a program that has some flexibility built into it”
@ MVictors: Brandon, early on asked his staff about possibility of playing big games on neutral sites. ESPN contacted Brandon and Jerry Jones
@ MVictors: Dave Brandon on WTKA discussing Alabama: worked hard to make sure there were plenty of tickets for Michigan fans
I’m such a good photog with my iPhone…
Michigan Stadium from waaay up top…
EXTRA EXTRA…
An article from the Wall Street Journal talks about the lack of success Big Ten teams have coming off of a bye week. Michigan is officially playing Alabama in Arlington, TX for the 2010 season opener.
