Birk's Eye View: Tate Forcier wasn't alone in struggling vs. Penn State
The Big Ten hasn’t been kind to Tate Forcier.
September’s darling after leading Michigan to a 4-0 start and dramatic win over flawed Notre Dame, Forcier has struggled with accuracy and decision making as the Wolverines slumped to 1-3 in conference play in October.
The true freshman was 13-of-30 passing for 140 yards in Saturday’s 35-10 loss to Penn State, and he is completing less than 50 percent of his attempts (49-of-102) with four interceptions in Big Ten games.“I want to play the way I’m capable of playing,” Forcier said. “I want people to expect me to play the way I played in the first part of the season.”
While Michigan (5-3, 1-3) shredded the first four defenses it faced (Western Michigan, Notre Dame, Eastern Michigan, Indiana) for an average of 37.5 points, Forcier never put up huge numbers.
He has two 200-yard passing games this year, against Notre Dame and Michigan State, and he has taken a pounding running Rich Rodriguez’s spread offense. He sprained his throwing shoulder in the Indiana win and suffered a mild concussion two weeks later in a loss to Iowa.
Left tackle Mark Ortmann made waves last week when he said Forcier “needs to just understand that he doesn’t need to scramble, he can sit in the pocket and he’ll be fine.”
Forcier looked panicked at times again Saturday. He took five sacks and brought the first on himself late in the first quarter, when he didn’t give a pass play time to develop and stepped into the teeth of an oncoming rush.
But Michigan’s offensive struggles Saturday weren’t entirely his fault. After a dominating 11-play, 70-yard opening drive, the Wolverines fell out of rhythm thanks in part to injuries to starters David Molk (knee) and Martavious Odoms (ankle).
Michigan went three-and-out on its second drive, but Odoms' replacement, Kelvin Grady, dropped a would-be first down on third-and-six play. Forcier’s pass was low and he missed Grady one play earlier along the sideline, but Grady should have caught the ball.
Forcier caused his own problems on Michigan’s third drive, walking into a sack and nearly throwing an interception when he looked past a Penn State defender, but the second quarter was more of the same.
Third-string slot receiver Roy Roundtree missed a block on a designed quarterback sweep, then David Moosman, Molk’s fill-in, missed another on a Penn State sack.
Denard Robinson was intercepted on Michigan’s next series, and after two penalties left the Wolverines with third-and-16 on their own 2, Moosman snapped a ball out of the end zone for a safety when Forcier wasn’t ready.
Penn State scored a play later to take a 19-7 lead, and Michigan never recovered against the best defense in the Big Ten.
Bowl watch - Trending: Champs Sports Michigan still needs one win to become bowl eligible, and there’s a good chance the Wolverines get it this week against the Big Ten’s worst team, Illinois (though I’m worried about what Arrelious Benn will do to Michigan’s secondary).
Unless things fall apart, Iowa, Penn State and Ohio State are ticketed for the Big Ten’s Jan. 1 bowls, though it’s certainly possible both Iowa and Penn State make BCS games (Iowa to the Rose as a one-loss Big Ten champ, Penn State to the Fiesta or Sugar as an at-large).
That leaves Michigan jockeying with five-win teams Wisconsin and Northwestern and four-win Minnesota and Michigan State for bowl position.
Wisconsin has the most favorable schedule of the group and should be next in the bowl pecking order (Alamo), but Northwestern’s not winning more than six games and MSU and Minnesota play this week in Minneapolis. Purdue (3-5) also has a chance at six wins. The Boilermakers might need to beat Michigan next month to qualify for a bowl.
The Spartans are the wild card having already beaten Michigan. Both teams could conceivably finish anywhere between 6-6 and 8-4, leaving reps from the Champs Sports and Insight bowls (with a little help from Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, who abhors jumping teams in the selection process) to pick between the teams.
Don’t go making any reservations based off my gut feeling with a month to play, but the percentages say Michigan’s in line for Orlando and the Champs Sports Bowl right now.
I’ll update the bowl watch every Sunday from here out. And before you ask, if it’s not a Jan. 1 game, I’d prefer to spend late December in the Arizona desert.
Notes, quotes and leftovers • Don’t discount how big it was for Penn State to answer Michigan’s opening drive with a touchdown of its own. The Nittany Lions needed just four plays to go 63 yards, tie the game at 7 and wrest momentum away from the Wolverines.
“That hurt,” defensive end Brandon Graham said. “You want to take their spirit right away, and it just didn’t happen that way.”
• Graham, by the way, gets better every time I see him. He blocked and recovered a punt Saturday, had a half sack (though he should have got credit for the full one) and 3 1/2 tackles for loss. In four October games, he has 5 1/2 sacks, 23 tackles, a forced fumble and a touchdown on a blocked punt return, amazing production for one of the country’s best defensive ends.
• A penalty should have negated Robinson’s second-quarter interception. Replays showed that a 12th Penn State defender was trotting off the field just as Michigan snapped the ball. It doesn’t excuse the poor read, but officials missed the call.
• Rodriguez worried aloud about Penn State defensive tackle Jared Odrick all week, and for good reason.
Odrick single-handedly caused Michigan’s safety in the second quarter. He blew up a running play on first down (when Ortmann was called for a hold that was declined); got Ortmann to false start on second down, then blew by him as Forcier was forced to throw a pass away; and on third down, Moosman’s quick snap came as he rushed to block down on the 6-foot-5, 296-pound senior.
• Final word from Rodriguez, on Michigan losing three straight Big Ten games: “We don’t talk about it as three straight, we talk about it as this one. And this one should hurt for a day, and then after Monday we watch the film and we move on to the next one. Nobody will point fingers and nobody will go sideways or anything in the program. We’ll all keep plugging forward. We just got a lot of work to do, starting with the coaching staff, and move on from there.”
Dave Birkett covers University of Michigan football for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by phone at 734-623-2552 or by e-mail at davidbirkett@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
Comments
OSUbeBetter
Tue, Oct 27, 2009 : 3:30 a.m.
Tate has got a Ton of talent, and hes got those "It" factors that are common with all great Quarter backs. but the one thing he has that can't be overlooked or dismissed are those Ladies size small hands. Tiny little hands like that guy in the Burger king Commercial who was agraid of his friends laughing at him while eating a Whopper. Thats the reason tate has such an issue with the ball every time its cold out or theres moisture in the air. But hey if you were thinking of a gift to get Tate this Xmas, im sure hed appreciate a new pair of Isotoner Gloves. Size Ladies Small.
Jaxon5
Mon, Oct 26, 2009 : 6:09 p.m.
Sunset - Thank you for the well-articulated counter to the "cupboard was bare" argument that is frequently offered up as an explanation for the poor record in 2008. Player turnover is part of the game - every college must deal with it - players come and players go - every 4 years in fact. UM recruiting classes were among the nation's best. It's telling that we never hear OSU fans or USC or Florida fans talking about how the "cupboard is bare" at their programs. The 2008 record had a lot more to do with terminating all the coaches and changing out all the systems, than it had to do with the level of talent.
Lemansblue
Mon, Oct 26, 2009 : 5:31 p.m.
All college teams have young inexperienced players. Henne and Hart started as true freshman. One day you will run out of excuses for poor coaching.
Lemansblue
Mon, Oct 26, 2009 : 5:27 p.m.
Sunset, Very well said...Sunset gets it!!!
rightmind250
Mon, Oct 26, 2009 : 5:21 p.m.
Its not just 18/19 year olds. Moosman is a grad student. The dude cost um 9 points in less than 1-minute. I wonder what kind of grad studies this kid is doing. He is going to need it.
jeremy
Mon, Oct 26, 2009 : 5:06 p.m.
with how horrible ezeh has played i wouldnt be surprised if he was one of the guys complaining about practices. The kid cant cover and he has a hard time getting to the ball. He has really never evolved past his spohomore year. its a shame cause i thought he would have been all american or 2nd team at least
CapitalX
Mon, Oct 26, 2009 : 1:47 p.m.
Ezeh has been very disappointing!!
wolver4ever
Mon, Oct 26, 2009 : 12:44 p.m.
You Rod haters need to take a break. When you sat down at the begining of the year and look at the schedule, how many of you circled this one as a win? Yes I too was hoping they would put on a better showing, but these freshman are looking like freshman. 18/19 year old, they are going to have up and down days. It's too bad they had to be pushed into service so fast, but it is what it is. Today they take there lumps,in another year or two they will start delivering the lumps. When we have thsi schedule again in 2 years (home games ND, Penn, OSU) and these kids are junior and senior verterns, you will see a big diffference. I will admit the coaching staff really needs to focus their attention on bringing in some top notch defensive people, but I have faith Rod and Coach Robinson will turn it around. LB's are too slow and out of position, DB's are still trying to find their way. As someone else said a walk-on starter is a nice story, but what does that say about your scholarship player that are sitting on the bench taking up space.On another note, just because Robinson was not a successful HEAD coach, doesn't mean he is not a great defensive coordinator. Some people are not ment to be a head coach. I belive he has found his place. GO BLUE
rightmind250
Mon, Oct 26, 2009 : 11:48 a.m.
Chumps Sports Bowl! How appropriate.
GoblueinNE_PA
Mon, Oct 26, 2009 : 11:45 a.m.
This team is in serious trouble. While early on, it looked like there was some improvement year over year, lately, this years team looks NO different than the 2008 model. The problem, as I see it, is at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Whether Molk is playing or not, the O-line is porous at best. Ortmann want's to say that TF should sit tight and count on the pocket. It's not been there all season. Think about the comparisons made of Tate, even early. They called him the "little Fran Tarkington". He was running for his life early in the season too, lets' not forget. I think this is a flaw in RR's coaching style as much as is his blindness to the defensive side of the game. He focuses almost exclusively on the "skill players" and leaves the line to it's own fate. Both lines need to play on the other side of the line of scrimmage, but we have just the opposite going on right now. I'll admit I'm off the bandwagon. I didn't think RR was the right coach to begin with and last year added fuel to that fire. However, winning is the ultimate deoderant and RR got the stink off of himself early in the season. He needs to get that deoderant again and use it liberally for the remainder of the year, otherwise, I don't see him lasting past the coming regime change.
Macabre Sunset
Mon, Oct 26, 2009 : 11:32 a.m.
Fresh said that Arkansas runs a spread, therefore Mallett simply didn't like RichRod. I don't know how Mallett felt, but the Arkansas version of the spread does not require the quarterback to execute zone-read runs. He has 32 carries for -41 yards this season (in college football, sacks are counted as rushing attempts, so this total includes a bunch of sacks and a few scrambles). Mallett is primarily a pocket-passer. He is big and slow and would likely be very unsuccessful running the ball 10-20 times per game. He knew that and got out. I don't blame him one bit. The cupboard was well-stocked with top-ten recruiting classes for RichRod. Forcing this gimmicky offense combined with paying no attention to the defense is what caused the 3-9 (2-6) record last season and has us hurtling toward a 5-7 (1-7) record against a much easier non-conference schedule this season.
Macabre Sunset
Mon, Oct 26, 2009 : 11:18 a.m.
One piece of football I think a lot of posters here are missing: A Spread is an offense that spreads out the defense, forces defenses to attack offenses in space as opposed to the tighter reads we're used to seeing. There are as many spread offenses as there are coaches teaching it. What RichRod does with his version is combines the use of receivers with a quarterback who specializes in zone-read rushing. This is a gimmick. Once a defense is installed geared toward a quarterback behaving in this manner, Rich's spread is a vanilla spread, and the quarterback has to throw the ball well for it to be successful. Michigan does not have a quarterback capable of doing much damage against a competent secondary. Hence, Michigan will never score a lot of points against a defense that has both talent and discipline in the defensive backfield as well as a coach who understands how to stop the quarterback from gaining a lot of rushing yardage. That's what happened against Penn State. Against Ohio State, RichRod won't even gain momentum on the first drive. This is going to be a repeat of last season's embarrassment. We now know hiring RichRod was a serious mistake. The question is only how many years can we handle Michigan losing 6-10 games before we bring in a less gimmicky coach who both cares about defense and understands football. I'm only pointing out what should be obvious now. I love Michigan football. Hiring this overpaid, trendy goof was the biggest mistake ever made within the program.
Fan
Mon, Oct 26, 2009 : 10:41 a.m.
Fact of the matter is, Penn Sate made an adjustment after Mich's first series of downs. We did not respond to that change. Then Tate went zero for three on the next series of downs (3rd and 6, 3rd and 11, 3rd and 3). Clearly this was the same ole pattern from past weeks. For me a punt is like a turnover, Mich gives up the ball and gives up the immediate opportunity to score. RichRod recognized the delima and put Denard in the game. I believe Denard made a first down or so (I really don't remember). Then on second down his receiver dropped a pass for a first down...no comment. On the third down, the call is for a drop back pass (rather than an option pass that plays to Robinson's strength.) The pass was intercepted and resulted in a 3 point field goal for Penn Sate (10 - 7). Robinson was jerked from the game as if to punish him for the turnover. Ladies and gentlemen, THE GAME WAS OVER AT THAT POINT. Our offense (Denard) was on the bench or didn't anyone notice. You can tell me about all those interceptions Denard has thrown (4 out of???) then you can make excuses for all the Tate turnovers (including interceptions and failure to make 3rd down conversions - which are many). My point is simply, and I repeat, our spark and fate is in the hands of Denard AND Tate; not either or. RichRod play them both - alternating or even at the same time! Keep somebody (preferably the defense) guessing. Really Coach, what do you have to loose; the sixth win for a 2009 bowl game??? Play to win! Fabulous effort from Brandon Graham. Defense why not get nasty? What do you have to loose?
Fresh121
Mon, Oct 26, 2009 : 10:04 a.m.
The cup was bare for RR, but u cant blame marioM and arrington for wanting to go make millions of $$ instead of comming back to a fresh or soph year....That kid who left MIch. For Osu and mallet they were LC kids hes the one who sat on there couch recruiting them and 2 think carr sat there and let them kids go with no fight..Mallet is running a spread for the razorbacks QB dont rush as much in BP offense as RR. So Mallet dident like RR? This whole breaking down 1 of the winning program crap that was the PAST.. We are in the present and hope to keep the record in the future....Im pretty sure RR will come through were FOR the most part befor PS a 1-2 year team playing on the level of teams thats been together for 4-5 years..gimmick naa so many teams run the spread its sick, We had to get out of the past and move forward...evolve or die man...I know are offense will be there are biggest worry should be D even when Ron English was here he still got beat by texas app st oregon i mean troy smith and chris well murder us everytime..i think it was AZ talkin about the DC from Tenn, If something with are defense is fixed were never gonna get better. Its like we dont no what kinda defense we wanna be we blitz team,were fast but small so we dont get off of blocks well so this whole blitz thing doesnt work and hasent yet..we need to play zone put everything in front of us and see what happens gettin beat down 30-50 yard plays all the time aint workin..RR has to pay more detail to our D if we ever gonna make it..
jeremy
Mon, Oct 26, 2009 : 8:16 a.m.
theo, do u read your posts? king rich rod is 9th in the big ten. How are we better than iowa? Sorry our team plays with no heart outside of graham and minor. And if molk is the key to our offense than it is a sad state. Reminder for the "lloyd left the cupboard bare"....when lloyd left mallet, boren, and 3 other olinemen who could have come back for redshirt year were here. Also there was arrington and manningham who both could have come back. Thats not bare!!!!!
KeepingItReal
Mon, Oct 26, 2009 : 4:19 a.m.
Tater, once again I'm having problems understanding your analysis of the situation. Neither Molk or Forcier should have been in that game. Both of them hurt the overall team effort. It was obvious that Molk was not fully recovered from his injury and should never have been allowed to return to play at this time and Forcier is now suffering from the McGuffie syndrome. Forcier may have one more good game left in him probably against Illinois (although I would not rule out Illinois). MIchigan secondary has proven that it cannot handle a high quality receiver and Juice is the type of QB that befuddles M. I'm going to go with Illinois on this one. If M wins six games, the only reason it may win out on some of the other teams for a bowl is because M travels well and we know its all about the dollar. I would like to see M in the Pizza Pizza Bowl.
OSUbeBetter
Mon, Oct 26, 2009 : 2:17 a.m.
Wasnt RR and "HIS System" like the 4th or 5th choice for Michigan? If i remember correctly the first choice was Les Miles, and he came out and said in a press conf that there was no way he was leaving, then it was Gregg Schiano (SP) who did the same thing stating that he was happily overpaid at Rutgers, then it was Harbaugh who wouldnt come back for any amount of money or fame, and i think there was another coach in there somewhere. But time was ticking and Carr had already been Fired (No way did he retire) and you goons ended up with choice #4 Rich Rod who is as great of a coach as any #4 could be.
Macabre Sunset
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 11:40 p.m.
I give a rat's ass. This is part of my culture RichRod is trashing. I don't know what you're seeing from other teams, but RichRod's spread is nothing more than a gimmick. And the man doesn't care even a little about the defense. It's all about how many points his gimmick offense can generate. Not many against the better teams. I'd be amazed if this scheme can even break single digits against Ohio State. All the hype about what RichRod's teams do in year two? Yeah, that works fine when the competition is Syracuse, Rutgers and an extra Sun Belt smackdown the other conferences don't have (the Big East plays only seven conference games). It will never work in the Big Ten.
marineblue
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 11:32 p.m.
if it was such "GIMMICK" the majority of great teams in this modern era of football wouldn't run some sort of version of it. hey, did you know that they don't wear leather helmets anymore??? BTW it is 2009. i love to brag on Michigan's history but in this day and age noone gives a rats axx.
Macabre Sunset
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 11:22 p.m.
Change is one thing. Trashing a century of tradition for a gimmick and a prayer is quite another thing entirely. A year and a half of the worst football ever played in the Big House is quite enough of this experiment. It's time to cut our losses and get a real football coach in here.
marineblue
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 11:20 p.m.
trying to catch us huh????? getting beat by nebraska, texas, usc, oregon, and appy state(while using the spread) and people were trying to catch us. that is funny! how about osu beating us year in and year out. looks like we are the ones playing CATCH-UP... what offensive scheme did we run to beat florida??? pro-style power-i right???
marineblue
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 11:07 p.m.
lemans, if you don't understand what is going on w/ this YOUNG team you need to do something else on football saturdays. improvement: tforcier > sthreet. that's is just 1 example. where does the sense of entitlement come from? Michigan is not your average university, but w/ this drastic change occurring, you would expect the "ELITE" fan base to show some restraint in the complaint dept. and more support for the young and inexperienced players that are giving their best every saturday.
Lemansblue
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 11:03 p.m.
It amazes me how some people cannot get Mi did not need to change it's system. Is it really so hard to understand? Decades of success...Yes let's destroy all of this it is not working. Funny all the other teams were trying to catch up to us. Then we hire the wrong coach and we are trying to catch up to them. Are you kidding me!!! Unbelievable!!!
Lemansblue
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 10:53 p.m.
I do not see the improvement. We were 2-6 against the Big Ten last year. 1-3 this year...Where is the improvement? I do not care about our weak non conference schedule beating up on weak teams should not be what Mi football is about. I know RR did that at WV but we should not accept it at Mi. We are still at the bottom of the Big Ten.
marineblue
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 10:39 p.m.
most of you people are stupid. this coach and his staff have been on the job for 1.5 years and you sad sacks want perfection. hard to have w/ totally changing the structure and sysytem. for all of you that think that you can plug in carr's recruits to do what RR expects are plain ignorant. it isn't going to happen! this man is trying to field a team that isn't up to HIS standards. his players at wvu were so much more athletic and mobile. you can see that the players that are playing(mostly carr's pro-style) just do not possess the skills to get the job done. until he gets the majority of his people(recruits), then properly trained things are going to be difficult. do i like it? no, but i will be patient and supportive. this coach is going to clean up the big10 and make this team a national contender, but it is not going to happen overnight. this year we are making progress. next year, we make even more. if you people have even given any of your rants any thought you would realize that most of RR recruits haven't even seen the field yet! once this team develops some depth and has talent at every position you will get what you expect. you band wagon fans ought to be ashamed of yourselves. only immature kids want and demand to have what they want now. RR has said that this will be a team in progress this year. if you can handle what is going on, go cheer for another team. no QBs last year, now two freshman this year. you whiners and complainers are pathetic. i won't even mention that b/c of lloyd and the depth issues we are playing walk-ons.
hooks
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 10:11 p.m.
Whats with the defence?I did not see one good stick by the secondary the whole game.No one seams to pay when they go over the middle.They play like they are going to get hurt if they hit someone.i`ve been a wolverine fan for over 50 years and to watch a michigan football team get out hit out classed by penn st and msu makes me sick.i`ll go to my grave being a wolverine but i would like to see a little more tenacity from our defenceive unit
Macabre Sunset
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 10:07 p.m.
Michigan will have a losing record in the Big Ten for only the second time since Bump Elliott's next-to-last season in 1967. One more loss, and RichRod ties Gary Moeller for the 8th-most losses by a coach in Michigan history. Moeller needed five full seasons. RichRod could tie Fritz Crisler (71-16-3 in ten seasons) for seventh this year. RichRod has his guys. Young, yes, but this stupid gimmicky offense does not work against elite defenses like Penn State's. And he pays no attention to the defense. It's time to cut bait on the RichRod experiment, chalk it up as an unprecedented failure in Wolverine history. RichRod has single-handedly turned the greatest program in football history into a mediocre gimmick.
heartbreakM
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 8:42 p.m.
Hey easyE: Before you start questioning about improvement from last year--you have to ask yourself: where else could you go but up from last year. Is that Rich Rod's M.O.? To make your first year so bad that any other year seems good in comparison? Last year was lost, and can't be compared to anything because it was unprecedented in Michigan football history. Question is: how is Michigan football doing compared to the previous 3-5 years? Well, we had the App State loss, the Oregon loss, the 7-5 season, 3 Rose Bowls (all losses), a Citrus Bowl victory over Florida, a bunch of B10 victories, a bunch of OSU losses, a bunch of PSU wins... Suffice it to say that in my opinion, Rodriguez in the middle of his second year has not elevated this program above the worst parts of the previous 3-5 years before last year. Of course it's better than last year, but last year was SOOO bad...How much time do you give a coach to turn things around that he apparently created (as no other Michigan coach in the last 60 years has had a similar problem)?
EasyE
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 8:32 p.m.
wow, so much for tempered expectations. it is disappointing to see how quickly some commentators will turn on a team or a coach despite obvious improvement from last year. anyone here who says we hired the "wrong coach" is being unbelievably stupid, and I look forward to richrod proving you wrong during his sure to be extensive tenure as UofM's head coach. Go Blue and quit complaining about a team that is still in progress and having a good OVERALL year.
maizenbluedoc
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 8:13 p.m.
Give Tate credit for stepping up and taking credit for his inadequacies. It takes a man and a leader to do that. Give him time, he will be fine. Denard does not exhibit good QB traits. Use him sparingly for his running (after he learns how to protect the football). Unfortunately, Michigan may not have the luxury of leading by enough points to permit him to get reps in real game situations. RR needs to realize that Tate (if healthy) is his best bet for winning at this point.
Jack
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 7:37 p.m.
You guys make me sick! You expect too much for a young team. Give the players and staff a chance to develop. The very players you brag about have the most experience. I would like to see anyone of you do better, at this stage than these fine young men!!!
Bucky
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 7:29 p.m.
Talking about a Bowl and a News Years Day Bowl? MI fans are a hoot. Denial and fantasy are powerful. MI will have a losing Big Ten record! Likely beat ILL and MAYBE Purdue and that is it. You deserve Xmas Eve Music CIty Toilet Bowl. Can't wait for the maize and blue to come to Madison. Wake up to reality. Over rated and ineffective use of top 5 recruiting class year in and year out. Coach Rod is a savior? More like a stroke waiting to happen.
Bucky
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 6:47 p.m.
Talking about a Bowl and a News Years Day Bowl? MI fans are a hoot. Denial and fantasy are powerful. MI will have a losing Big Ten record! Likely beat ILL and MAYBE Purdue and that is it. You deserve Xmas Eve Music CIty Toilet Bowl. Can't wait for the maize and blue to come to Madison. Wake up to reality. Over rated and ineffective use of top 5 recruiting class year in and year out. Coach Rod is a savior? More like a stroke waiting to happen.
OSUbeBetter
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 6:27 p.m.
So basically it boils down to, if Michigan can beat The Ilini then they can go to a crappy bowl, otherwise they stay home and watch again. I don't see another beatable team on the schedule with a Defense like the one I saw so far this season. and by the way Illinois isnt that bad of a team, they've scored 14, 14, 14, 17 in their last 4 losses with the 17 points coming against penn State. Good luck.
KeepingItReal
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 6:09 p.m.
I noticed something very strange during the latter stage of the game. Michigan players looked like they had given up. They were not playing with any enthusiasm. Kind of makes you wonder.
azwolverine
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 6:05 p.m.
I've seen some fans in recent weeks say that the fact Michigan has no defense is of no concern because "offense wins championships" and we can simply outscore teams. I'm not making this up. That type of reasoning was exposed as flawed this weekend. You NEED a championship caliber defense, especailly if we expect to win a National Championship, as RR was supposedly brought in here to do. There will be games like this (and MSU) in which the offense goes nowhere. You need a stout defense to fall back on. Look at what Nick Saban does everywhere he goes...I don't even know what kind of offense he runs because he wins strictly with D. What will Michigan do if we ever do improve to a championship level of offense and we have to play a team with both a championship caliber offense AND a championship caliber defense, like a USC or a Florida? That's a rhetorical question...everyone already knows the answer. Our offense obviously still has a long ways to go, but until this team builds a championship defense, we will not win a championship.
Rodie
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 5:29 p.m.
The disappointment is that they are looking worse then they looked earlier in the season. The defense at least looked bad all season. Its hard to watch a team regress. I'm not going to pretend like I know what they are doing wrong but I know from leading teams that they are not functioning as an aggressive team.
tulsatom
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 3:21 p.m.
Graham and Minor both played well, but the overall effort stunk. Unfortunately,this year's team must score 40 points a game to win, and unfortunately the offense ran up against a good defense and played like warm weather kids who had never played or practiced before in cold, rainy weather. The most troubling thing was that most of them looked like they weren't even trying in the fourth quarter, which makes me wonder about the character of this team. You can coach x's and o's, but the players have to come ready to play and compete on every play.
truebluefan
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 2:35 p.m.
The warm weather recruits argument holds no water. Martavious Odoms, from Pahokee, FL, is our best receiver and one of our best open field blockers, and it isn't even close. He is getting better as the season progresses and the weather gets colder. We need more kids like him.
pcar1178
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 : 1:47 p.m.
Everyone played horribly, take away Brandon Graham and we have no pass rush, the offense looks bad, Tate runs scared, and Denard is a turnover machine. HOLD THE BALL WITH TWO HANDS!!