Michigan Football, Team 139, 2018 Season

[hack]

I think Wiz can probably handle it. He's already demonstrated the ability to simultaneously like two things at the same time, i.e. ice cream and a nice pair of slacks.

[THE_WIZARD_]

I love poetry...scotch...and of course my dog Baxter here...

[Hannibal]

Superfan reaches new levels.

[iam416]

[WM Wolverine]

I'm about the last person to defend Brown but some of those points came off special teams, and short fields. However the buckeyes could've went well past 70 if they desired.

[iam416]

That's true. One short field for sure and one blocked punt. But, Ohio State also had two drives stopped in the first half on 15-yard penalties, including one on UFM for being flabbergasted at lack of a targeting call. And Ohio State finished the game on the 8.

But, man, even if you take out 14, that's still 48. And perhaps Superfan's red hot ire isn't the best take. Maybe this was just an outlier game. But, it was horrific.

[Hannibal]

You guys should have had 70 and you would have had that had it not been for some Mike Debord style playcalling inside the 10.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Brandon Watson was not good enough to cover Paris Campbell and that other Freshman guy (Victor?) on any number of routes where Day picked on him. He was repeatedly isolated in coverage - that's partly a scheme issue for Brown but it's beyond that as Hanni has pointed out. Anything Brown appeared to do to try to mitigate that weakness didn't work and caused a lot of player frustration.

It get's down to a couple of things: (1) osu out-talented M with WRs. (2) Brown now has to admit his interior DL isn't good enough to deliver that inside pressure his scheme needs. If M wants to play with the best teams, that has to be addressed through recruiting and the long list of 3* M seems to be enamored with for whatever reasons, isn't going to hack it..

[Hannibal]

The team was mentally unprepared too. It was coaching fail at every level.

[WM Wolverine]

Olave was the freshman receiver. That's a flaw in Brown's base defense that I foresaw before the game (as did talent) and the buckeyes had 21 points by the time he adjusted to more zone looks...

Like to rewatch the game to understand why M couldn't get pressure or prefer a UFR which won't happen. My eyes were focused on which of Watson or Kinnel were trying to cover a 4.3 receiver as was Haskins...

By the time Brown made adjustments the buckeyes blocked a punt, Shea threw the interception and the entire team was deflated.

Offense played better than most give them credit for, especially Shea. But that wasn't a good buckeye defense.

[iam416]

You guys should have had 70 and you would have had that had it not been for some Mike Debord style playcalling inside the 10

There was certainly one really terrible series inside the 5. I think to start the 2nd half. At the end of the 1st half they were sort of up against the clock.

and that other Freshman guy (Victor?)

As noted by WM, it was not Victor, but Olave. You don't have to cover Victor. He's 50/50 to catch the ball. And, in fact, had one huge drop. He's good for the spectacular catch and for the Over-45 rec league drop.

Olave was the freshman receiver. That's a flaw in Brown's base defense that I foresaw before the game (as did talent) and the buckeyes had 21 points by the time he adjusted to more zone looks

Yeah. So, M likes to jump a lot crossing routes with inside leverage. I've watched them do that to teams all year. OSU did a couple basic things. They out-formationed that concept with bunch receivers and understood how to get Watson in a trail position out of that. And then they also ran a lot of crossing stop routes (I don't know the correct terminology). But, the WR runs the crossing route, gets inside leveraged, slams on the breaks and peals outside. McClauren torched Long on one of those for a key first down conversion -- and also ran right through Mettelus for the extra yard and half he needed.

Offense played better than most give them credit for, especially Shea. But that wasn't a good buckeye defense.

They were, but they also blew opportunities. Whilst OSU was fucking around shooting themselves in the foot, they could only manage 6 and that includes an awful drive that started at the 50. They did get back into it with the help of OSU, but then when they were needed again, they shit the bed again. They got one two downs in their first three series of the 2nd half. They had a chance to take the lead at 24-19, but went 3 and out. Then at 27-19 they got two first downs, but that was it and the punt block put them down 34-19. Desperately needing an answer, they threw an interception (it would have been 3 and out). At 41-19 they finally scored, but it was over. Nothing after 41-19 was particularly meaningful.

[froot loops]

This was the first good throwing QB they faced, the holes in Brown's scheme get exposed when they face those type of quarterbacks and they can't get home. His scheme is really good for 90 percent of the time, but the other 10 percent turns out to be a flaming dumpster fire, you are in trouble. You have to have a viable plan B to what your base defense is.

[hack]

When that 10% of the time is the most-important game of the year, the 90% means much less. And it's pretty consistently been precisely this way.

[froot loops]

True, but Jeff Buchanan does love when you bring in the lesser teams to Michigan Stadium and gives them a whupping. It hearkens back to the Bo days, that's not to be discounted.

[Niffla]

Maybe this was just an outlier game. But, it was horrific.

I don't think it was an outlier. I think if you play that game again over tomorrow, it's more or less the same result. 2 weeks after that -- same. And so on. And they could play it in Ann Arbor or on Mars. Wouldn't matter. Haskins and those WRs would still be able to do what they wanted, when they wanted.