Michigan Football, Team 137, 2016 Season.

[Tom W]

...
Following that one moment of good, there were two subsequent quarters of shit football from MSU with M playing it's best immatation of Rope-A-Dope, followed by one quarter of Dantonio desperately trying to make MSU look good while making himself look exactly like the Jack Ass he is.
,.

This. Everything Sparty did on Saturday was pure desperation. It only seemed close because a handful of talented players cared "enough" to performed to their level. Why this team is a fermenting compost heap that didn't bother to show any pulse until the weekend before Halloween is anybody's guess but its fully Dantonio's responsibility.

[Detroit Dan]

I agree with both Jeff and Talent here. Well said, men!

I was surprised by how well MSU moved the ball. Michigan moved the ball at will when we had to, which was not surprising. But MSU possessed the ball surprisingly well. As with Jeff, I'll be interested to see what Brian has to say in the UFR. It seems like there may have been a major screwup with the Michigan defensive line. Perhaps we have to go more with our top 4 or 5 performers?

[Jeff Buchanan]

.......I don't think the score does justice to the difference in quality between the teams -- if they played on Saturday at EL, I think the line should be around 21-24. I do think the score did justice to how the game played out. MSU's offense was surprisingly able to move the ball --

When you say ......."I do think the score did justice to how the game played out" ...... what this implies to me is that you see two football teams battling it out with the same tactical, and in one sense, strategic objective.

I don't think that's accurate and I see it differently. On a tactical level, the M coaching staff is managing play by play. The purpose is to not give up any big plays. Let's just say Brown deploys a 4-3 and plays a zone 2hi Ss. MSU is going to run on that. Fine with the M coaching staff. Why? Because ......

On a strategic level their thinking the MSU coaching staff (1) is playing to win and would like to put the ball up and will take risks to do it (= higher variance/turnovers) but (2) knows MSU's OL can easily give up a sac/fumble by M's D on a pass play pressuring Lewerke or Terry, neither of whom can throw the ball worth a crap, so they don't call a pass play.

The net result is that the M coaching staff will be completely happy with watching MSU's OC, who is scared of putting the ball up for grabs and sees M deploying a D ripe for run plays then taking advantage of it. They'll let MSU bleed their own clock. A strategic advantage.

It looked to me like that is exactly what happened until desperation time for MSU (around 3 minutes left after an M/s last possession of the game and a punt with the score 30-17) when Terry did start to put it up and was somewhat successful with that, aided by 2 PI calls, and then a late TD with, what, 00.01 seconds on the clock? I think Dantonio and/or his OC screwed the pooch (to M's strategic advantage) but not putting it up on that long 10 play drive that ended with a turnover on downs.

I think M's coaching of the entire late 3rd (after the INT) and 4th quarter with M up 27-10, then 30-17, was both tactically and strategically purposeful. It worked. So, yeah, you can say the 32-23 score correctly portrays how the game played out; I would respond M's coaching staff was willing to let MSU move the ball, hopefully not score (but they did) and still closed out the game with a comfortable lead.

[SeattleLionsFan]

i think a 13 point differential feels about right. It was never in doubt, but not the type of assbeatings we've seen M hand out this year (or that we've seen State hand to M the past few years for that matter.)

[WM Wolverine]

M's conservative fourth quarter and Shane Morris distaster of a third down call lengthened the game for Spartys offense to rack up yardage and add some points.

[Pasadena Blue]

Sparty was on the ropes ripe to be blown out. Announcers saw it too as they kept saying "danger time" for Sparty.

JH went conservative and let Sparty keep it close... a few bad play calls sprinkled in as noted here. This is on Harbaugh, no question, and hopefully he and the team will learn from this. ...I am just not prepared to say he sucks and consistently underachieves based on this performance, unlike our resident poster who knows more than the rest of us who are all in denial.

[WM Wolverine]

Playing conservative was the "smart", risk averse move. Would've been nice to get a few more first downs in the fourth quarter and kept Spartys offense off the field.

[hack]

A 2-6 team moved the ball on our defense like nobody else this year. Not an ass kicking.

[UMStan White]

MSU moved theball no better on us than UCF did. MSU had a total of 170 yards going into the 4th quarter. They scored 3 points between the first drive and the 4th quarter. They got totally stuffed when the game was arguably on the line. They had a great 4th quarter. That's it.

[WM Wolverine]

Sparty could've been flagged for a half dozen holding calls in the fourth quarter alone.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Over at mgoboards, there are two embeds showing each of M's offensive snaps and M's defense snaps.

Its worth watching the two videos. My take:

Offense:

• Killer efficiency in the first half. Some definite ass kicking going on. At about the 8 minute mark of the second half, M is driving, gets inside the 10 and ends up settling for a FG. The third down play was a decent throw (a fade route) by Speight into double coverage that was broken up by MSU. Butt was open at the goal line. Speight didn't see him.
• That and the INT on M's first drive of the 3rd were missed daggers. Score TDs on those 2 series and it's a 31-7 ball game early in the third. Probably changes the dynamic a bit.
  
• I'm going to back down some on the notion that JH went conservative after the pic. There were some big plays made and missed in the second half. Some of that had to do with execution and some of that due to aggressive MSU D that paid off, with M not being able to take advantage of the man coverage/5-6 man rushes. Seems to me some missed opportunities with play calls that advantage the TEs or slot in the mid range vacated by aggressive MSU LB and S play. MSU seemed to have Peppers' number; maybe those calls were overplayed a bit. I think the offense missed Grant Perry in the slot?

Defense:

• Just affirms my first take that the big run plays that Scott got were from missed tackles. Out of his 22 carries, I saw maybe 2 where M got RPS'ed for 1st down + runs.
  
• If I remember the numbers he might have had 7 plays that went for more than 6 yards. So, on 9 runs he got a bunch; on 13, he didn't. I'm going to guess that of those 9 good runs, 5 of them came off missed tackles where contact was made at or near the LOS and he wasn't brought down.

[hack]

MSU moved theball no better on us than UCF did. MSU had a total of 170 yards going into the 4th quarter. They scored 3 points between the first drive and the 4th quarter. They got totally stuffed when the game was arguably on the line. They had a great 4th quarter. That's it.

I think that's reasonable to say. I'd rather not get sliced on the first defensive possession, but they tightened up after that. It looked to me like the refs were determined to call one personal foul on each side early, and the one they got bailed them out of a punt whereas the one we got wasn't needed. Still, though, it wasn't an ass kicking. It was an almost ass kicking that wasn't because Harbaugh took his foot off the gas too early.

[Rocky Bleier]

Pump the brakes article on Michigan.

http://www.thescore.com/ncaaf/news/1144252-why-we-should-pump-the-brakes-on-the-michigan-hype-train

[WingsFan]

Lets not forget that horrible call that was ruled a catch on 3rd and 15, the one that clearly hit the ground. That kept MSU drive alive late in the 4th and they scored a TD, with 8 minutes to go it was 30-10. Game wasn't in doubt, but history had me nervous of a possible Sparty miracle.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Pump the brakes article on Michigan.

http://www.thescore.com/ncaaf/news/1...gan-hype-train

I think there's some good stuff in that article. I don't think the opponent's ranking in any specific category is a good measure when comparing them to how M may have done on defense against said opponent.

I do think the QBR stuff is relevant when judging the M defense in the passing game. So, I'll give the article that in supporting it's "Pump the Brakes on the Michigan Hype Train" meme.

Moreover, we do have Hanni here to keep us grounded. I think it's hard to balance optimism and the sense that we've already reached the light at the end of the tunnel and seem to be emerging into the brightness of daylight with unpleasant knowledge.

But it is what it is. It takes a lot of luck, the ball bouncing the right way and a favorable schedule to go undefeated. M seems to be getting the breaks, overcoming set backs, a back loaded schedule that amounts to decent scrimmages before big games and a good serving of luck. Let's hope that keeps up.