Air Force @ Michigan, Noon, Saturday, 9/16, BTN, Stream BTN2Go

[Hannibal]

Stop criticizing Speight you ignorant dummies.

[JRB]

Purdue has 370 yards of offense and is leading Missouri at the half 28-3. Missouri's defense is dreadful, granted, but the Boilermakers appear to be much improved. Next week's trip to West Lafayette figures to be much more suspenseful than I would have guessed a month ago.

[Hannibal]

That's more than we got in the whole game against AF.

[whodean]

Air Force @ Michigan, Noon, Saturday, 9/16, BTN, Stream BTN2Go

Purdue looks good vs Missouri


Next week it will be the first Michigan loss of the season

Do not underestimate how much Missouri sucks

[WingsFan]

Baumgardner said last week (on tv) if Sp8 doesn't get better M could lose to Purdue.

[whodean]

Baumgardner .

[Rocky Bleier]

Look at the fucking tweet Cody just posted. How the fuck is that on Speight. Lololol

The dumbass tried to throw a pass as he was being tackled to the ground. Television had the better angle.

I hope AA has Michigan v.s. Purdue in next week's picks. I'll take Purdue and the points. Shit, they'll probably win.

Possible losses now against MSU, and Indiana
Probable loss against Maryland
Certain losses against PSU (beatdown), Wisconsin, and OSU.

[Rocky Bleier]

Fuck that shitty game. Never schedule Air Force again.

Not so fast...

[WingsFan]

The dumbass tried to throw a pass as he was being tackled to the ground. Television had the better angle.

That was a terrible decision, Speight just needs to 'settle down' Rocky

[Rocky Bleier]

Michigan entered the game dead last among Power 5 schools in the percentage of red-zone trips that ended in touchdowns and was shut out on its four attempts inside the 20 Saturday.

That's because the O-line can't push anyone off the line of scrimmage. Fucking Air Force was stopping them. Bo would be appalled if he saw a Michigan team that couldn't run inside the 20 on Air Force. Isaac still runs like a pussy when he doesn't have a huge hole to run through. Evans trips on his own feet. Higdon has burst and runs hard, but usually he's running into a wall. And if you blitz Wilton, he'll gladly throw the ball 5 feet over his receiver's head. As John McKay said when asked about his team's execution, "I'm for it."

[Rocky Bleier]

Why do we never throw a screen pass? Do we have any in the fucking playbook at all?

Maybe they're saving it for the B1G season? I hope the problem with the offense is just inexperience. Got to believe that the brain trust of Harbaugh, Hamilton, Drevno, and Frey will put out a better product than this.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Whelp, that went about exactly as I thought it would ......

AF successfully shortened the game with some degree of possession football.

But they couldn't score TDs as most observers believed predicting they'd fold in the red zone. That was an accurate take.

The offense with Speight at QB are what they are. There's no use in getting apoplectic about it. They can be both stunningly explosive and down right terrible in a game. There really has been no improvement, by the eyeball check game to game. None.

The problem is that Speight has been serviceable. He was 14/23 for 169 yards, 60.1% completion rate, Isaac ran at a 5ypc clip and had two big plays nullified - one by a penalty and one by a hair's breadth step out of bounds running down the sideline. There were more + run plays than - ones. This was against a blitz heavy AF defense that routinely committed 8 or 9 guys to run support. The passing game distributed the ball nicely although the crossing routes behind the LBs and in front of the S's, while they looked to be available, and Perry had one nice play, that route quickly disappeared/was covered. Credit to AF defense.

It does absolutely no good to bitch and moan. I'm not defending the offense. It is significantly limited. Thing is, I think the staff knows it and is perfectly fine with where it is hoping for it to iron out some of the issues that have plagued red zone efficiency (1 TD in 10 trips, ouch.)

Watching the game live and in person, it was fairly obvious that after Drevno dialed up too big pass plays to start M's first possession, with the likely intent to see if Speight could make the big play, finding Speight wasn't going to be good Speight, the rest of the game was called offensively clearly to play to the defense. The long ball was ineffective in getting a S or two out of run support and this was against single coverage; Wilton looked unsure of himself throwing in to that.The quick outs were wasted plays but safe. Few plays went to the center of the field, TEs were pretty much absent and the fear of a turnover upsetting the basic conservative approach being played out was obvious as the 4th quarter approached.

This is what we are going to see going forward. The offense is the limiting factor of this team for a lot of reasons that don't have anything to do with Wilton Speight, and Harbaugh knows it. It does fit the Harbaughffense mold. run, run run, big play - sometimes they work, most of the time they don't. The defense is so good that M can continue to win with it without exposing the O to any high risk plays. M can probably get by with 21-27 points (any way Harbaugh can get them) while holding opponents under 17. That's the teams MO right now. Learn to live with it and relax.

For those of you sitting at home or anywhere else watching this game, let it be a lesson in not getting worked up. While I was frustrated, I never thought M was going to lose this game. It was also clear very early on that not only was this not going to be an easy win in blow-out fashion, but AF came to play. Hat's off to their effort.

That's the games in a nutshell going forward. Besides I picked AF ATS and won.

[Rocky Bleier]

Isn't it hair's breadth?

[hack]

This is what we are going to see going forward. The offense is the limiting factor of this team for a lot of reasons that don't have anything to do with Wilton Speight, and Harbaugh knows it. It does fit the Harbaughffense mold. run, run run, big play - sometimes they work, most of the time they don't. The defense is so good that M can continue to win with it without exposing the O to any high risk plays. M can probably get by with 21-27 points (any way Harbaugh can get them) while holding opponents under 17. That's the teams MO right now. Learn to live with it and relax.

If so then second-and-5 has to be a running down. I didn't watch today save for the second quarter, but I don't know that I agree that Harbaughffense is r-r-r-r-deep pass. I think it's balance. So far that's what he shows he wants.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Well, here's my take on that ...... the basic Harbaughffense is run the ball to pass it. Duhh.

What he and Drevno do seem to do is call plays off schedule. Not enough for my taste but that is just reflective of the run to pass approach of Harbaughffense and a very conservative one at that.

Ricky, yep it's a hair's breadth .... fixed it.