Another Harbaugh Choke Postgame Thread

[WM Wolverine]

Really bad loss, lots of bad shit happened to us when we should've put the game away and lots of fortune went Sparty's way.

[Cody_Russell]

It's pain. I'm dreading the idea of getting sucked back into M before the obvious loss to Ohio State.

I'm thinking I was happier watching football before the internet message forum...before that I'd just go walk the dog after a loss, complain to myself and then move on w/the day. Now I read everyone else's miserable comments and think that yea, that's me too. I know, don't read...maybe I should just do banking online, even that's iffy these days.

You can do both! Internet message forum + all of the non-stressful activities.

My Sundays are so much better since giving up on the Detroit Lions since week 2 of the season. So much more enjoyable.

[froot loops]

It will be interesting to see the mogoblog UFR. My impression of the Spartan defense was they were taking unnecessary blitzes in 3rd and long in the first half that McNamara took advantage of. It seems like they backed off of that in the second half with the exception of that corner blitz.

Defensively, I thought Walker took advantage of the Wolverines penchant for rallying to the ball. Specifically, they were not great at keeping contain.

[BadWolf]

You can do both! Internet message forum + all of the non-stressful activities.

My Sundays are so much better since giving up on the Detroit Lions since week 2 of the season. So much more enjoyable.

I'd agree, but I also watch the Lions...and I pay DTV to watch them, thinking about not doing that for next year. I think I'm just tired of paying attention to Michigan team sports.

[Mike]

Basketball and hockey win things. Don’t let the football team suck the enjoyment out of all UM sports. The winter/spring should be fun.

[lineygoblue]

Basketball and hockey win things. Don’t let the football team suck the enjoyment out of all UM sports. The winter/spring should be fun.

Exactly. Anything worth playing for flew out the window today with that crap fest.

I don't even care what they do for the rest of the year now. They'll probably beat Indiana, but so what? That will get them to 8-1 and in line for a beatdown in Florida against an SEC team they are overmatched with.

Bring on basketball. Coach Howard, .. you're up.

[Cody_Russell]

Here is my coaching staff wishlist for M next season. Just hire every meme, troll, cheatin, one year wonder coach in recent memory. Copy Purdue’s idea of having several co-coordinators.

Head Coach - Hugh Freeze
Co-Offensive Coordinator - Butch Jones
Co-Offensive Coordinator/ RB Coach - Mike Hart
Passing Game Coordinator - Art Briles
WR Coach - Derek Dooley
TE Coach - Jake Butt
OLine Coach - Les Miles
Co-Defensive Coordinator - Mike Macdonald
Dline Coach - Coach O
LB Coach - Gene Chizik
Co-Defensive Coordinator/ DBs coach - Jeremy Pruitt
Assistant Head Coach/ Secondary coach - Charles Woodson
Special Teams Coordinator- Jay Feely

Quite an all-star cast that will surely get M over the hump.

[lineygoblue]

In my earlier rant, I failed to give proper credit to the players.

I don't blame the loss on the players at all. I think the effort was there, and should have been enough to win. At the top of the list, a performance that will go absolutely unnoticed by everyone in the CFB world, was the performance of Cade McNamara. He played the game of his life, all for naught. He played having to look over his shoulder to see if JJ was coming in, even though he was playing so well. Cade will never play in the NFL, but on Saturday, he was Michigan's best QB, and he should have been rewarded for that, by not having to worry about coming out of the game. This is beginning to look more like Brady/Henson with every passing game. And no, Cade is no Tom Brady, but the situation is similar.

Eric All, Andrel Anthony, Mike Sainristill, all had fine games. Wasted efforts, thanks to the coaches, .. but still fine efforts that will also be ignored by the "elite" CFB wags.

Blame for the loss sits squarely on Harbaugh's shoulders, because he's the boss, and he gets paid the big bucks to make sure everything is ready to go. McDonald is 2nd to blame for the substitution errors that directly led to at least 2 MSU touchdowns. The rule he got burned on was getting more time to substitute when the offense substitutes. Problem is, MSU wasn't substituting. Its a bush league action on MSU's part, but if a bush league move actually works, then shame on McDonald. It worked at least 3 times. That's on him, not the players. There were several other times that the defensive players legally in the game, had no idea where to line up. MSU quick snapped, and in one case threw to a wide open receiver who had nobody covering him. That sustained a touchdown drive, where Michigan had MSU in a 3rd and long. Dan Dierdorf had a fit over that one, as did I. Again, that one led to ANOTHER State TD.

Dierdorf said that it'd be one thing if State lined up, and just punched Michigan in the mouth all game long. They didn't. Michigan bumbled and stumbled their way to this loss. That's on the coaches. Dierdorf didn't come out and acutally say that, but its clearly what he meant. I totally agree. I just CANNOT understand WHY Michigan is CONSISTENTLY UNPREPARED for the big rivalry games on the schedule. Why is this happening? The only thing consistent about Michigan under Harbaugh is that they are consistently unprepared to play when it matters most. I mistakenly thought we'd seen signs that this was ending this season. Silly me. There I go again. I fell for the sucker move, and I was starting to buy it. And here Michigan goes once again into the laughingstock category of college football. Howard Finebaum is orgasming tonight over the opportunity to heap more crap on Harbaugh. And Warde Manuel will do nothing.

So, the road is paved to yet another embarrassing and humiliating end to another failed season. Nobody cares about what happens from here on out. Michigan will likely beat Indiana, and has a 50/50 chance of beating Maryland on the road. But, with what happened on Saturday, they're not beating PSU or OSU. Just stop any idea that this has even a remote possibility of happening. We already KNOW what will happen. Michigan will enter both games unprepared, and the QB's from both PSU and OSU will pad their stats for the NFL, and Heisman races, at Michigan's expense. Michigan's likely 8-4 or 9-3 record will look "good" for the purposes of trumpeting the praises of OSU, PSU and MSU, .. but we all know the truth. Michigan's wins have mostly been in the lucky category, with great individual efforts by the players, .. but unsupported by an unappreciative coaching staff that refuses to coach to the team's strengths, and refuses to get the players properly prepared for big games.

Sign Harbaugh for another 2 years. Its obviously what is now acceptable to Warde Manuel and the Michigan athletic department.

[froot loops]

It certainly isn't bush league, it's something that has been done in the superior NFL forever. If you try to sub against Aaron Rodgers, he will exploit that.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I've had some time to soak all this in. Here are my keys to the loss:

• Illegal substitution penalties with MSU tempoing M highlighted a major coaching deficiency (Mike McDonald) leading to big plays and M's collapse. It is inconceivable, with this tactic being used extensively by MSU and on tape, that M collapsed and gave the game away.
• JJ McCarthy's fumbles. On Gattis. The first fumble on a muffed RO happened because Gattis put MCCarthy in unnecessarily when McNamara was dissecting the MSU defense with his passes and Anthony was terrorizing DBs. The second was apparently due to a McNamara injury forcing him off the field. The RO play call, however, that led to the fumble on the exchange, was unnecessary. Gattis again. Just hand it off until McCarthy comes out of the injury tent.
• Entire game lacked crisp player execution. Dropped balls and penalties stalled out multiple drives and was impactful in trading TDs for FGs.

The "Buck Stops Here" line would seem to implicate Harbaugh but his coordinators should be taking the majority of the blame. It is undeniable that the game plan in all phases was well designed giving McNamara the opportunity to exploit MSU's defensive weaknesses and M's DTs and DEs to get after Thorne over a weak OL. My sense in retrospect is that the excellent game plan was poorly executed by players and coaches alike. Froot's point that Walker exploited M's tendency to rally to the point of attack and lose contain is a good one and reflective of some excellent coaching and player awareness on Walker's part.

I do think these collapses in big games is an established trend during the Harbaugh tenure and while the underlying causes of it don't show out against weaker opponents, it most definitely does against stronger ones where the opponent understands this trend and can exploit it. This is clearly one of Harbaugh's best teams but, IMO, he's squandered it's potential by failing to provide the in-game leadership that might prevent these kinds of collapses when M is playing a competitive opponent in a competitive game. What's behind this?

It's difficult to judge JH's demeanor on the sidelines without being there but it seems to me the bad coaching decisions on the part of coordinators/assistants and player execution errors when the game is close and the outcome is in doubt are symptoms reflective of a HC who loses control of what's going on within the sidelines. An out of control demeanor, apparent fearfulness and frustration on the part of leaders can stoke confusion and contribute to a loss of confidence good decision making and focus. Platoon leadership 101. This may be a reach, it may be over-thinking it but I prefer trying to find rational explanations for repeated bad outcomes for M in big games to arm waving and yelling.

[paul daugherity]

The most frustrating and disappointing thing about this loss is that it is Year 7 under the same head coach, and the patterns and trends are established. Every other position coach has been changed over multiple times, with the same end result. The constant is Harbaugh. It is clear he no longer has “it”. My fear is that the AD will let him stay on because he ends up at 8-4 or 9-3, and that isn’t a record you fire someone over it will be as if this year is looked at in a vacuum, and rivalry results aren’t really important.

At least basketball and hockey are still fun to watch.

[froot loops]

After I posted that about the breaking contain, I saw Walkers two final TDs repeatedly on highlights and it wasn't a case of that. All the stuff I was talking about with Walker happened earlier in the game. The last two TDs looked like a case of catching Michigan in the wrong D and the offensive line having A+ blocks. Michigan's D may have been gassed by the 4th quarter. One thing Tucker has emphasized for them is their fitness, the biggest example was the Miami game where the Canes were obviously exhausted in the 4th quarter.

I was hoping that Michigan would try to manball it up because you can pass on the Spartans. The Wolverine coaching staff to their credit did not skip the Western Kentucky game. That gave the blueprint to attacking the bend but don't break defense. It should show Michigan that they can create better passing attacks. They haven't had a true passing quarterback since Henne, but some of that is pure scheme stubbornness.

[WM Wolverine]

Trying to sub when Sparty was doing their hurry-up was responsible for about 150 yards and 3 TD's, or more, almost all benefiting Walker. The second time I saw it was happening, I was yelling to call a timeout and it resulted in a TD for Walker yet M made the same mistake at least 5 times. This was something Sparty was doing in previous games yet M wasn't ready. This allowed Sparty to stay in the game when M should've put the game away. That's 100% on coaching and the single reason M lost the game. If M doesn't sub in defenders when the offense isn't, they have a great chance to keep Sparty to kick FG's instead of TD's.

I wasn't overly impressed with their offense other than Walker, who benefitted tremendously from M not being ready. This was NOT a team M should've given up 30 points too, not even close.

M's offense was mostly having their way other than when they got in their own way, a number of dropped passes, a fumble at literally the worst possible time. Corum's drop was a touchdown, our receiver got held badly on the 4th down with no call. They failed to convert a 4th and 1.

One team was at home, got the calls, got every review overturned, got the breaks, was prepared and ready after a bye week. The other got shafted, made mistakes at the worst time. I'd love to play them again, at home, after a bye week, get all the calls. It shouldn't be close let alone a loss.

[froot loops]

The refs are out to get you even at home.

[Mike]

TBH, I don’t think in-game coaching was much of an issue other than the D getting caught mid-substitution a couple times.

Penalties were Michigan’s biggest self-inflicted wound followed closely by a few drops.

The 3rd down drop by Corum on the 2nd possession cost them points. I don’t think he would have scored but it would have definitely been a chunk play that ended in FG range.

Then the next possession Anthony got called for a dubious holding penalty that negated first and goal at the 4. M settled for 3 instead of 7. It could easily have been 17-0 (or more) after 3 possessions.

The bobbled snap on the punt in the second half was costly. I don’t remember what State did on the ensuing possession but it likely cost Michigan about 40 yards of field position. When it happened live I thought it was a designed fake. That would have been a terrible call but it was just another instance of a Michigan player making a costly mistake at a very inopportune time.

The offside on 3rd and 9 that changed it from a passing down to a 3rd and 4 that Walker easily picked up on a wildcat carry.

The fumble by McCarthy and the RB. Everyone acts like it was sheer malfeasance to have him the game in that spot. Did they think that when he zipped a perfect strike to Anthony for a 17 yard TD? Turns out McNamara was unavailable so it wasn’t a bad coaching decision. There was no other choice. They just needed to execute a goddamn handoff.

I do think we got royally screwed on the reversal of the fumble TD. Michigan got zero breaks in the game but still would have won fairly comfortably if not for shooting themselves in the foot over and over.

The list of miscues is too long to win a game like that. They are like the Lions in that they continually manufacture new gut-wrenching losses.