Chalk this loss up to the O-Line and Wrs..

[tigers99888]

Both were absolute garbage... Time to clean house of some of the mac players..

 

[hungry]

No. I say coaching.

 

[bdtay71]

And a great game plan by Sparty against Robinson. It's the same old song and dance. Against weak defenses D-Rob is all-world but make him beat you with his arm and it ain't happening.

 

[tigers99888]

No. I say coaching.

So far that's one bad coaching game.. The offensive line is just not that talented.. The WRs usually are good, but Michigan needs to recruit a true playmaker at the position..

 

[jever4321]

And a great game plan by Sparty against Robinson. It's the same old song and dance. Against weak defenses D-Rob is all-world but make him beat you with his arm and it ain't happening.

The thing I'm having a hard time understanding is that UM used to have decent defenses that would get shredded by QB's half as good as Denard. Why can't they put it together and create more mismatches? O-Line blocking was just pitiful today.

 

[dannydiggler]

coaching on the offensive side of the ball end of convo.

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

What I find terrible about it is that for the past 2 or 3 years i've said all we were missing was a decent defense. But now we have a decent defense and we can't run the pro-set and we can't run the spread. We now have no offensive identity and I'm not even sure what we were doing today with the whole Gardner/Robinson thing. Denard's had like 20+ designed carries for the first 6 games and I can remember only a handful in this game. We literally gave up first down almost every single new set. We handed it to Smith to try and run up the middle where he would either get no yards or lose yards. It was very similar to what we saw with RR in 2008. Nothing changed all the way through the game.

And punting on the other teams' 35 is always a terrible idea down by two scores in the 4th. This game just pissed me off. And not just because it's sparty - but because we blew so many chances to win.

 

[jever4321]

Yep, With all that blitzing going on there had to be someone open somewhere. QB's are locking in on the first receiver and chucking it. O-Line needs to give more time, and you would think that Denard could squirt free more frequently.

 

[bamf16]

And a great game plan by Sparty against Robinson. It's the same old song and dance. Against weak defenses D-Rob is all-world but make him beat you with his arm and it ain't happening.

It's pretty typical for quarterbacks to have more success against crappy teams than better ones.

And you're right; Denard is not at his best when he has to beat teams with his arm. This makes it that much more baffling that in a game that didn't become a two possession deficit until the end, our running backs had 10 fucking carries FOR THE GAME, and our QB who can't beat teams with his arm was continually put in a shotgun formation to run slow developing plays against the best pass rushing DLine we'll likely face all year.

On the first drive, we saw quick passes to the flat. The ball was out of Denard's hands quick and it put the offense in plus position going into 2nd or 3rd down. We saw some West Coast elements with an IFormation and play action as well, and Vincent Smith had pretty much all of his yardage for the game on that drive.

Since it worked, we obviously got away from it. This takes me back to the old "The Lloyd Carr Press Conference" threads. I guess we anticipated them stopping it, so went to shotgun formation the rest of the game and allowed their DEs (strength of their DLine) to rush upfield without threat of a draw or screen. It was the same shit all fucking afternoon. Denard in the gun, slow developing play, DEs rushing upfield to keep him contained, and he ignored rushing lanes to try to throw. You'd think someone would either switch up some calls or tell the fucking QB who can run to run with the goddam ball.

The alcohol wore off and going back through watching this again, I'm struggling to make any case at all to defend what Al Borges did this afternoon.

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

This is the game where they needed to direct snap to Denard 1 million times and they didn't do it. Instead it went something like this:
1st down: Run to Smith up the middle for loss of two.
2nd down: Denard roll out pass either incomplete or tackled for 1 yard
3rd down: Denard incomplete pass or sack.
4th down: punt

 

[biggunsbob]

Beyond frustrating what Borges did today... I wish someone in the media would roast him and Hoke. You can't keep running guys in and out at QB all the time. I know Hoke has to defend his guy in the press conference but the 4th and inches was a horrendous call. Both hoke and Borges get a Big F. today. Mattison defense kept us in the game... We had a chance to tie with the wind and totally gaffed the play call. Memo to AL... Both robinson and gardner cannot pick up blitzes very well. damn the game was there for the taking.