1. I was pretty critical of the play calling last week. Today, I was fine with it. Our offensive struggles today should not, at least in my opinion, be blamed on coaching. Today was on our QB play. Period.
2. Five plays sum up O'Korn's problems today (and going forward). The overthrow of a wide open DPJ on the first possession, when he had gotten behind everyone, highlights his problems with the deep ball. The overthrow of Perry near the sidelines on third down in the same possession demonstrates his accuracy issues in the mid-range game. His failure to see Gentry running wide, wide open (fifteen yards away from any Indiana defender) on a drag route and instead throwing deep to a double covered Crawford emphasizes his lack of field vision. And then there were his two massive play clock problems--the delay of game penalty when he didn't snap the ball in time and nullified a brilliant shovel pass call, and his inexplicable decision to snap the ball with more than five seconds to go in our last regulation possession when we were running down the clock (think that 4+ seconds might have made a difference in a game where the tying FG was kicked with :02 left on the clock when the play started?). It's one thing to be limited physically. However, those kinds of mistakes cannot be made by a fifth year senior.
3. I do have a few questions with respect to decisions on special teams. I have no idea why we punted to a guy with two PR TD returns already this year while holding a ten point lead with less than four and a half minutes left (and Indiana without any TOs). And I have no idea why we put no pressure on their FG kicker on the kick which sent the game to OT, especially after we blocked a FG earlier.
4. I can't say enough about our defense, facing an extreme tempo team with an offense which could not get them a breather. We weren't perfect--we broke down on the first drive of the second half, and let them make a few plays at the end of regulation--but overall, that was a spectacular effort under the circumstances. And we weren't helped by the refs penchant for making some calls no one customarily makes
5. Obviously, Higdon was great. I thought Issac was pretty good when he was in there, and Walker had one nice carry. I don't know what has happened to Evans--I hope he gets untracked.
6. Back to offense, while turnovers clearly stifle momentum and sometimes give points to the opponents, we played a game with no turnovers today and could not consistently move the ball aside from big runs by Higdon. We had eight three and outs in the second half alone. Eight in thirty minutes. The problems we have on offense are not primarily turnover based.hurt.
7. I've been watching Michigan football since I was three years old (that's sixty years for those counting), and I don't ever remember seeing that many penalties on us (or even close). When something is that big an outlier, I'd like to know more about the crew and their tendencies--the way they call PI penalties (on both sides) in particular seemed bizarre.
2. Five plays sum up O'Korn's problems today (and going forward). The overthrow of a wide open DPJ on the first possession, when he had gotten behind everyone, highlights his problems with the deep ball. The overthrow of Perry near the sidelines on third down in the same possession demonstrates his accuracy issues in the mid-range game. His failure to see Gentry running wide, wide open (fifteen yards away from any Indiana defender) on a drag route and instead throwing deep to a double covered Crawford emphasizes his lack of field vision. And then there were his two massive play clock problems--the delay of game penalty when he didn't snap the ball in time and nullified a brilliant shovel pass call, and his inexplicable decision to snap the ball with more than five seconds to go in our last regulation possession when we were running down the clock (think that 4+ seconds might have made a difference in a game where the tying FG was kicked with :02 left on the clock when the play started?). It's one thing to be limited physically. However, those kinds of mistakes cannot be made by a fifth year senior.
3. I do have a few questions with respect to decisions on special teams. I have no idea why we punted to a guy with two PR TD returns already this year while holding a ten point lead with less than four and a half minutes left (and Indiana without any TOs). And I have no idea why we put no pressure on their FG kicker on the kick which sent the game to OT, especially after we blocked a FG earlier.
4. I can't say enough about our defense, facing an extreme tempo team with an offense which could not get them a breather. We weren't perfect--we broke down on the first drive of the second half, and let them make a few plays at the end of regulation--but overall, that was a spectacular effort under the circumstances. And we weren't helped by the refs penchant for making some calls no one customarily makes
5. Obviously, Higdon was great. I thought Issac was pretty good when he was in there, and Walker had one nice carry. I don't know what has happened to Evans--I hope he gets untracked.
6. Back to offense, while turnovers clearly stifle momentum and sometimes give points to the opponents, we played a game with no turnovers today and could not consistently move the ball aside from big runs by Higdon. We had eight three and outs in the second half alone. Eight in thirty minutes. The problems we have on offense are not primarily turnover based.hurt.
7. I've been watching Michigan football since I was three years old (that's sixty years for those counting), and I don't ever remember seeing that many penalties on us (or even close). When something is that big an outlier, I'd like to know more about the crew and their tendencies--the way they call PI penalties (on both sides) in particular seemed bizarre.
