No further words are necessary, we all knew this would be a building process, but I couldn't have been more wrong in my preseason outlook. I'll stand up and take it like a man: I WAS WRONG. Completely and totally wrong. Biasedly and hope-filled-optimistically wrong. I thought a young offense that had some talent could manage to gel and become competent. I thought a pretty highly recruited QB would be serviceable enough to lead this team. I thought an experienced and very-talented-on-paper defense could step it up and let this team grow a bit without costing us games. The offense hasn't gelled, which is a shame because the way some guys like Martavious Odoms and Sam McGuffie are playing, if the surrounding cast were ANY better, they would be legitimate stars and the offensive unit would at least be functional. God, however, feels it necessary to ensure that every pass poor Nick Sheridan throws is tipped and picked off. The world is a funny place.
Some blame the system, but of all the turnovers that this team has lost, how many can anyone possibly attribute to a system change? 25%? Maybe? Today, AGAIN, turnovers cost Michigan a football game. It's nauseating... nay, it's soul crushing. It's one thing to get outplayed, it's entirely different to simply gift-wrap a football game... week after week. The defense has gotten worse the past two weeks after a masterpiece of a performance against Wisconsin. Apparently after beating a top 10 team, we respond by forgetting how to tackle, bring pressure, and wrap up. Our offense goes in spurts and bursts, and then it seems like we forget that "hey, we moved right down the field by throwing downfield!" for the rest of the afternoon.
Someone somewhere this week will say: "Hey, the D only gave up 6 points" and someone else will likely say, "yeah that's right!". That's true, but they also let the opponent march all over the field, they let them dig out of terrible field position (Zoltan with another tremendous game by the by) time and again. When this team need something, anything to provide a spark, the defense didn't respond. When they would correctly diagnose a play and be there behind the line of scrimmage, they would arm tackle or flat out whiff and turn a 2 yard loss into a 6 yard gain... time and again.
This team is playing worse now than it was in week one, this defense was worse this week than they were last week, which I didn't think was possible. This was a truly terrible team we lost to today, which makes us... well for right now: worse than truly terrible.
Tol... I can't even type it.... the opponent ran the same THREE PLAYS all day, and we declined to stop any of them. Every time they stacked the wideouts, shockingly it was a halfback draw... and yet everytime, we lined up with three down-linemen and only one linebacker anywhere in the same zipcode as the middle of the field... which suffice to say, is not the best way to stop runs up the middle of the field. Their only receiver set a Michigan Stadium record today by doing the following: running 7 yards downfield and stopping. Convienantly, no one felt this player in the other uniform was worth the time or effort to cover, and less convienantly, their QB is in fact capable of hitting a stationary target a mere 10 yards away. This strategy worked out for them to the tune of 20 receptions. 20. Yes, as in one more than 19.
In fact, had the opponent decided to not get so tricksy on 3rd and short throughout the game, it is likely that they would've won by a previously unthinkable margin. The third play was one where trips would line up to one side, the QB would sprint out to that side... stop turn around and throw to a back who had slid out the other way, and find him sitting there with nary a defender tween him and his goal. This is a defensive line that is one of the most loaded in the conference... so what do we do? We play three down linemen all day. Then what do we do? We top that nice bowl of ice cream with the warm chocolate syrup of a soft zone... mmmm mmmm!
How fitting is it that a team that has struggled so badly all year would lose by the following:
- A 101 yard interception return for their only TD of the game, and losing the turnover battle to the tune of -3
- A kicker's career long 48 yard FG that lands on the crossbar and goes through
- A missed 26 yard FG by a guy who simply didn't miss last season
There will be misery laden breakdown upon misery laden breakdown... but it's very simple: if you can't tackle, you can't block, you can't keep the football in your possession, and you can't hit receivers when they're open, you can't win football games. Schemes and play-calling and personnel will all be dissected to the microscopic level, but if you can't perform basic activities of the game we call football, all that other crap is for naught. The greatest plays in the world won't work if you can't do anything proficiently outside of snapping the football.
Logical and constructive criticism is well deserved, this team got embarrassed last week, they got called soft... and they come out this week and do this? It will be interesting to see what adjectives are used this week. I can think of many, but am trying to remain somewhat detached and somewhat reasonable... There will also be the nonsense and roof-jumping-woe-is-us type of commentary that will become more and more difficult to tolerate. Unfortunately, the realities of this situation still don't make losing football games any easier.
Further proof that God has a sense of sick humor? The program on the BTN after this game? 90 minutes all devoted to the past greatness of Michigan Football. Sadly, I can't even bring myself to watch it.
How are we rewarded? We now get to take this non-cohesive mass that some might call a team on the road to State College, PA... possibly without our best player, and I get to honor plans that have been in place for a while and will watch the 99.99999999% certain undressing in person. I understand that this team is young, I understand that we are going through a monumental shift... what I simply cannot understand is why it is that this team has suddenly forgotten how to do even the most basic of fundamentals. Michigan isn't losing because they can't run some complex play... Michigan is losing because they can't execute enough separate fundamentals to actually make plays, even the most basic plays, work.
College football can be pure extasy at times, but right now? Nothing but agony. I understand that this team simply isn't that good, but they way they're losing football games goes well beyond that, it goes to a level that I've never before witnessed. I will try to recall this several years from now when the death butterfly (ht: Brian... or as some might call him, Brain) emerges from the cocoon that this horrifyingly ugly larva is currently trying to form, but right now, there's just not much optimism left.
But I'll still be there next week, ready and waiting, screaming and hoping that we manage to put together a football game. Why? Because there's a quote that's at the heart of Michigan tradition, not the superficial crap that some people call "tradition", but actual tradition:
"True loyalty is that quality of service that grows under adversity and expands in defeat. Any street urchin can shout applause in victory, but it takes character to stand fast in defeat. One is noise - the other, loyalty." -Fielding YostThere will certainly be better days, and if they'd like to give us a sneak peak of those days sometime over the coming weeks, that'd be wonderful.
GO BLUE!
Posts
