I bet you think I’m going to say “the refs” or “Harbaugh” don’t you? Well here’s a hot take from a Michigan fan:
The refs were fine BOOO!!! Shut up. I’m sick of hearing all of the whining and bad takes from both Michigan fans and Michigan critics this week. Yeah, the replay on the sack/fumble/TD probably wasn’t clear enough to overturn, but it was close enough that he was probably down and people saying otherwise, show me. Yes every… single… video… replay went against Michigan but I felt more like it was “bad luck” on every close play than the wrong call. Even the catch near/off the turf I was fine with as long as it’s called consistently both ways. Michigan never had a similar catch to test that theory so whatever. Play better.
So they lost and it wasn’t the refs fault. So fire Harbaugh! Ehhhh… But you said- Look, I wouldn’t be mad if the fired him… I still think firing him instead of extending his contract was probably the slightly smarter option… But Michigan’s performance Saturday was basically everything that was hoped for and feared by Michigan fans pre-season. Cade McNamara is the best QB Michigan has had since Jake Rudock. He had an excellent game in a high pressure situation. Sure, there were some things that he left on the field but any take other than “great game by a first year starter in a hostile environment” (including those by former Michigan quarterbacks) is dumb. Yes the offense settled for too many field goals but this was as much dropped balls, bad penalties (false starts) and (in one instance at least) an O-Line bust as it was plays Cade could have made… And I haven’t been the biggest Cade fan to date. Yes it would be nice if Cade could keep on a read option, but he DID scramble up the middle for a key first down. Overall, the offense showed just about every improvement you could have expected when you (Warde Manuel) decided NOT to fire Harbaugh last year.
So why did we lose. Whoa… “we?” You play football now? Look I went there… YOU weren’t around back then! You were created from years of hope and failure and Rich Rod and David Brandon and Denard under center, and broken QBs and 2 decades of losing to MSU… YOU don’t even get use claim “I paid the moneys so therefore I’m part of the team” argument. Fair… But to your point. WE …jerk. lost because Michigan State is good. We lost because our defense was not. We lost because of bad luck and penalties and turnovers and sure, the officials did not give us any breaks. So let’s break it down.
Michigan State is good. I expected this game to be a battle of overrated teams. And sure, maybe they still are a bit overrated, but to me, both Michigan and Michigan State looked like good football teams. That was (for the most part) good football. Kenneth Walker is great. He’s probably better than I expected. But also: he didn’t have to be. Michigan State’s offensive line (on running plays) was excellent. This was by far the best running offense Michigan has played all year… and it would have been whether the RB was Kenneth Walker-Heisman candidate or a RB with the EXPECTED level of talent for someone who transferred from Wake Forest and only got 50% of their RB carries last year.
MSU turned Michigan’s run defense (especially late in the game) into Swiss cheese. Walker went largely untouched during his long runs and TDs. Props to MSU. Good game. But this also gets to “bad defense”
Mike McDonald looked like a 1st year 34 year old with no college experience for the first time all year. Here’s a shot of Walker’s 1st half TD to make the game 14-13.
This is Michigan attempting to substitute defensive players before the snap. For those of you not aware of the substitution rules in college football (for example, Mike McDonald, apparently): IF the offense chooses to substitute then the referee will hold up the snap and give the defense time to respond with their own substitutions.* If the offense does NOT substitute then they can snap the ball as soon as they’re set and the Defense substitutes at their own risk. I would like to point out the number of players in position to stop the obvious run play coming to the short side of the field here: 1. I would also like to point out the vertical lines in the bottom of the screen. These represent timeouts.. You can use them to stop the clock and then put in whatever defensive players you want. Mike McDonald should learn about them… He would go on to make this mistake repeatedly in the game (3 times that resulted in penalties). Mike McDonald did not have a good game. BUT: he’s a 34 year old first time college DC who has turned the worst defense Michigan has had since RR into… top 15? I’m willing to give him one bad game before calling for his head…
So… this, combined with a poorly timed JJ fumble and… yeah, that sucked. What’s it mean for the coaching staff? Well unless Michigan loses the next three games they still won’t get fired… and if they win out against everyone but OSU then they probably shouldn’t (again, given that they weren’t fired pre-season). So until then let’s continue to focus on the important questions like: “How has Michigan Hockey lost two games already?” and “When does baseball season start?” No? Ok how about Andrel Anthony having a game then? Here’s a shot of his second TD of the night which was an amazing high point over an MSU defender in the endzone.
I liked you better when you were funny… Sorry.. Next week we’ll go back to talking about James Franklin and how he’s getting ready to play Illinois in the Big House and totally not thinking about his brand new house is Southern California.
*Unless you’re Nebraska, apparently, because Scott Frost figures (correctly it seems) that the referees would rather screw the defense out of this time allotted by, you know, the rules if it means Nebraska would be forced to take a delay of game penalty.