Michigan @ Wisconsin, Noon, 11/18, Fox/Stream FoxGo

[iam416]

FWIW, if I had to assess M, I think that defensively they're an easy A. The Don Brown style, I think, could use a few very slight tweaks, but otherwise there isn't much to complain about. The kids entering the program develop and execute at a high level.

Offensively, it's a C. and it's a C based on injuries. The actual performance is a D at best. But, the QB situation has been tough to deal with. However, there's really no excuse for being as ineffective on offense as they are in this day and age. None.

Of course, with that said, I'm sure M will explode for 30 against OSU on Saturday.

[paul daugherity]

Thanks for the grading of the coaches. It's interesting to see the outsider perspective. That said, you are being too generous in your grading curve. I'd give the offensive coaches a D-. The injury factor saves it from an F. But the offense has been very bad, and the inability to pass protect has been frustrating.

And please stop with the sandbagging. There is no way that UM scores 30 next week. You know it, I know it, everyone on this board knows it. The o has struggled all year and there is no reason to think it will put it all together now.

[whodean]

There is a 5% lunatic fringe. They can be ignored.

5% ???

[iam416]

I think the OL has been really bad in pass protection. I would give it a legitimate F, no excuses. I think the OL has been roughly a B in run blocking. The RBs are good -- I like Higdon a lot. I'd give them a B. The WRs/QBs are hard for me. For WRs, if you're really relying on a true frosh to be the difference maker, I'm not sure what to say. So, I don't put a ton into the Black injury. I like the emergence of TEs. The QBs have been a trainwreck. I think that's a total D.

So, I'd say OL is overall a C-, RBs are a B+/A-, WRs/TEs are a B- and QBs are a D. That seems about a C, to me.

[whodean]

It's interesting to see the outsider perspective. .

Outsider???? <Guffaw>

[hack]

That seems unnecessary. We put up with talent and all the many annoyances and aggravations because he's a sane non-M fan. Anyhow, well, yeah -- there's SOMETHING going on here. Too tied to Drevno? Maybe. Dunno. I'm certainly skeptical of the many cooks in the kitchen on offense. The defense has a college lifer for a coordinator and position coaches, and thinks work just as they should. Say what you will about the overaggressive scheme, and I think there are things to say, but the unit peforms at a high level and so far we've seen kids come in, get coached up, get on the field and play well. That's how it's supposed to be. There's none of that mighty struggle there is on offense to get four-star players to perform competently in all facets.

Froot nails it that the repeated frequency of unbocked rushers is a real situation.

Overall, Michigan competed well for most of that game, and if it goes slightly differently they come out with that first signature win of the Harbaugh era and all these legitimate problems are papered over and there's chest thumping instead of fears of eternal futility. I don't like that the defense seemed to just crumple with the Peters injury. Too easy to knock the wind out of their sails.

I don't know if Harbaugh has to fire any offensive assistants over the offseason. I think you want the NFL guys as position coaches, frankly, if you can get them. At the coordinator level, I wonder. The emergence of the running game suggests that they've got the right people in the right places. The failures in pass protection suggest otherwise.

All that said, I continue to wonder about in-game decisionmaking from Harbaugh himself. There could very well be an argument about him being too conservative with all those short fields in the third quarter. It could be that he struggles to strike the right balance. Reckless at times and dickless at times. That possibbly legitimate weakness will loom smaller when he has the players he needs. A shame it's taking too long, but he'll get them.

[hack]

I also don't like Harbaugh talking about the refs to the extent that he does. That's the job of people like me on message boards. He's supposed to make the usual noises about playing hard no matter what and all that, because that's what his players need to hear.

[Rocky Bleier]

Inexperience was a factor yesterday. For example, the play where McDoom is supposed to do a double move, but the Wisconsin DB does not bite. McDoom is open at the 14 yd. line, and the DB is sitting at the 9. Peters doesn't attempt a throw to the sideline - the announcers claimed he pump faked - but instead McDoom turns for the end zone and has to break up the pass as it should have been intercepted. Both QB and WR should have recognized what was happening, but it appeared that they were both going to run the play regardless of how it was played by the DB. That's what I saw anyway. Am I wrong?

[Hannibal]

The coaching staff on offense is poor. Very very poor. Changing staff members likely won't make much of a difference. We're still stuck with Harbaugh and whomever he chooses, after he takes the team to visit the Great Wall of China or the Egyptian pyramids in the spring. Wait a minute -- he should take them to MacMurdo station in Antarctica instead. I'll bet that nobody has ever done that! Imagine the activity on Twitter that we'll see! Whatever the choice of spring destination, we will keep our winning streak alive of having a team that is more culturally enriched than that of our rivals. While Harbaugh was off making rap videos, planning his next podcast, and visiting the pope, the rest of the conference was hard at work developing their team. Literallly the only thing that separates Harbaugh from Hoke right now is the presence of Don Brown. Harbaugh inherited far more talent than Hoke (except for Denard) and he only has two more wins than Hoke at this stage (28-9 vs. 26-11). After the loss against ND next year concludes a four game losing streak, Harbaugh's record through 40 games will be 28-12 (vs. Hoke's 40 game record of 27-13). Dave Brandon was right -- all that glitters is not gold.

Bottom line -- I don't give a shit about what happens this weekend, in our bowl game, or in the off season with the staff. Fire, keep, rearrange -- don't care one shred. We now have a wealth of evidence that Harbaugh's judgement stinks. The Pepcat was a catastrophe. His scheme has been complete garbage since day 1. He chose to not have a wide receivers coach to coach the most talented receiver haul in the program's history. He put his nephew in charge of the running backs. He mixed Frey, Drevno, and Hamilton together in some kind of fucked up arrangement that nobody else in the country usees. He thought that Nolan Ulizio was worthy of a Michigan scholarship, but Erik Swenson wasn't. He thought that John O'Korn was a better QB than Brandon Peters. The list goes on and on. It's obvious at this point that Andrew Luck was the Harbaugh version of Nate Davis or Cam Newton.

Having Harbaugh at UM is an ideal outcome... for MSU and OSU. They will beat us every year but Harbaugh will never get fired. It's like when Cooper was OSU's coach. I do expect Harbaugh to return to the NFL someday though. When all of the fawning and the admiration stops (it's going to be a couple more years but I think that people are starting to wake up a little bit), he will go somewhere else for a fancy private bathroom and a huge ego stroke. I could give less of a shit at this point. I could give a shit less who we hire. The program is a shit program now regardless of who is in charge and it's always going to be a shit program. The stands will start emptying again like they did at the end of the Hoke era, and this time, the fans won't be coming back. They are probably all on stubhub now trying to unload their tickets. Who can blame them? Who wants to see yet another faceplant? I expect the red/blue mixture this weekend to look a lot like the 2009 game. Unless OSU fans don't want to travel to see another win over a cupcake that they easily beat every year. It's like traveling to Purdue or Maryland. What's the fucking point? It's the Brown Jug game for them. In 50 years, historians will once talk about how it was once a great rivalry and people will laugh.

[whodean]

Dave Brandon was right

Stopped reading.

[Tom W]

That seems unnecessary. We put up with talent and all the many annoyances and aggravations because he's a sane non-M fan..

Sorry, but that?s REALLY funny- like saying that Paris is really an amazing city to visit- in 1942.

[whodean]

He's a closet M fan anyway.

[UMStan White]

"Am I wrong?"

Always!

[THE_WIZARD_]

HARBAUGH!!!!!!!

[Jeff Buchanan]

These are the two sacks that knocked Peters out of the game. I've pulled them out of Brian's UFR at mgoblog because I think they are both instructive on two counts. First, Brian minces no words in assigning causation to specific players and (2) Brian does not try to extend causation to the coaches.

First thundersack. Evans immediately goes in a route here. Line sets to left like it?s a slide protection. OLB sacks Peters. Could be Evans, could be a bad line call because Evans is leaving the backfield. Could be both JBB and Ruiz screwing up in the same way at the same time. But probably not. (PR, 0, protection 0/3, TEAM -3)

[ame]https://youtu.be/xMqo0iIG6ck[/ame]

UW tries the LB on RB as outside WR thing and M goes after it. Connelly does an okay job despite turning his hips inside on a threatened slant. Evans is running at the numbers and has plenty of room to the sideline to make a play but not much separation. Evans misses. Peters is also annihilated as he throws, as Kugler(-1) and Bredeson(-1) collectively fail to pick up a stunt. Ruiz(-1) also should have looked for work once his guy went outside to JBB. (IN, 0, protection 0/3)

[ame]https://youtu.be/75lNVCKWlZs[/ame]

Why then are these really stupid things happening in pass-pro game in and game out? Well, Brian does a thing at the end of the UFR section where he re-reviews plays that make points that he wishes to make.

(1) C, Patrick Kugler, appears to be blowing line calls and this has been a constant refrain of Brian's since right about after the 4th or 5th game.

(2) Why haven't the coaches done something about this? Well, Kugler is a 5th year senior and this is his first year starting. Does that tell us something? Yes. I'm pretty sure the coaches have worked hard with him. It's just not happening.

Brian goes on to fault the coaching staff for being overly conservative about who plays. It's entirely possible that Cesar Ruiz could have done a better job than Kugler at C but because he was a true Freshman, they might not have trusted him. I'm sympathetic to the LT issue as a complicating factor for the coaches. Who was going to play there in 2017 other than Cole. That rather forces Kugler to C and a patch work solution for the right side of the OL.

(3) The OL continues to fail to pick-up stunts and the 2nd thundersack that knocked Peters out of the game is an example of that. Kugler is again involved but not because of a bad line call. He and Bredeson just plain didn't see it and should have. Ruiz didn't either. I find it hard to believe, given the number of stunts that have resulted in free rushers, that the OL hasn't reviewed tape after these events and talked about overcoming them. I suppose they're not getting reviewed but no, that is just not rational. The more rational thought is that certain players are at or near their ceilings of performance.

I think one of things Brian fails to illuminate in trying to understand causation regarding OL play is the things Ron Utah (an mogoboard poster) brought up about scheme. Brian insists, and he uses several plays to make his point, that too many OL errors are on Kugler and his bad line calls. He makes some good points in support of this causation factor but does not get into what Ron Utah describes as a scheme that is too predictable. There's a lot more but you can read his post here (I linked in once before, you may have missed it - good read) http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/play-calling-vs-scheme

The scheme stuff is all coaching and it is one place where, if this is an accurate description of a failing offense, that Harbaugh is totally responsible for.