Overall, the offense performed better. Less of those long 3rd downs. It didn't appear that the "D" played lights out but at the same time I give Miami credit; There offensive line is humongus, the running back showed some skills, and the qb had a pretty decent game as well. I didn't know that Miami was the MAC champs last year. They also returned 17 starters from last year as well, so they weren't the bottom of the barrell in terms of talent.  

I for one thought the defense did a hec of a job.   Miami has a big lead in time of possession for the game, and wh en reviewed you'll notice that we put the defense on a island several times.  Only giving up 6 points was pretty impressive.

As for the O... I was really hoping to see a big improvement.  The first drive had my juices flowing, but that quickly evaporated.  I know that these QB's are young, but I can never recall a Michigan QB missing wide open receivers so often.  At this point if I had my choice and he was heathly, CB would be taking 50% of the snaps.
I broke my rule of looking forward, but after the game yesterday I'm not sure how this team will be able to compete with Wisky and Illinois in a few weeks.   Although, I do know that RR will continue to work his butt off to have them improve each and everyday.

BigBlue06


Did anyone else notice that McGuffie was better out of the pro-set than he was out of the spread formation?  It seemed when he got the pitch he was a lot more explosive than when handed the ball out of the shotgun.  

YES!! I really want to see more I Formations next week at Notre Dame. I know Rich wants to run his spread option in shotgun, but I have not been impressed by McGuffie at all out of this formation, but man, you line him up behind a full back and he gets to the corner and turns on the jets.

Also, Stevie Brown. Good Lord. He has learned nothing from that Appy State game where he took terrible angels to the ball, over pursued, and had sloppy tackling. We seriously don't have anyone else that could step in and play that position? It's never a good sign when you safety is constantly running after WRs....

"Jim Tressel's DNA is linked to the Devil at some point, I'm sure of it."
-Doug Karsch "The Big Show"

My opinions were:

1) I have no idea who should stay at QB, Threet or Sheridan. Threet forgot how to pass, and we didnt see Sheridan much. Please stop missing the open recievers, its really depressing. I think we need to run plays under center and not in the spread for the QB's we have. We made some good plays in the pro style of offense.

2) Defense played better, we still need them to play better if we are to beat anyone in the Big Ten besides Minnesota. Obi Ezeh is definetly my favorite player on D, and our secondary needs to be better.

3) Minor and Brown need re aps, I know they probably have a few nagging injuries, but once 100% give the ball to them. McGuffie is gonna be a special player in a year or two thats for sure.

4) Im not worried about whats ahead. This year is gonna sting, but in the next year or two we will be talking about how bad it is that were not in thetop 5 teams.

I definitely agree that we need to try someone else out at punt returner. There has to be someone who can get some yards there.

The defense IMO played very well. Miami has a decent QB and offense and our own offense did not help the defense at all. For almost the entire game. If you aren't impressed with anything else so far from hiring RR, you have to love the conditioning our defense has shown. Once the fourth quarter comes, their pressure just turns up. The line looks great and we are not giving up much on the ground.

I think that Threet is just a little better than Sheridan so far just because he seemed to make better decisions in the option read more consistently, but that could have just been my perception. Does anyone know if we completed any passes past the line of scrimmage? Any? It just seems like Threet would have hit one of those open receivers by accident after a while. Every time I saw it I thought about Henne in this offense and the Citrus Bowl last year and I just get upset thinking about the possibilities. What could have been...

Go Blue!

Michigan Alumnus since 4/28/07

-LOVED watching McGuffie, Shaw, and Odoms do their thing, these kids are going to be special.

-Warren looks pretty scared back there on punt returns.  I kind of get the feeling he has a "just don't screw this up" mentality back there. 

-Never seen such bad QB play at Michigan.  I have always hated the 2 QB thing but it's obvioius why RR is doing it.  There's just not much to work with yet.

-Threet's throwing mechanics look pretty bad, hard to watch him keep sailing balls way over guy's heads who are wide open and headed towards the endzone.  I think he needs a more vertical and over the top release.  He's got a great frame for it.

-Loved seeing Minor, Moundros, and Grady running the ball up the middle.

-D gave up lots of first downs and couldn't get off the field at times.  Good job keeping points off the board but we need to "attack" ND this week.

-Stevie Brown was always close to making some big plays, but a little behind.

-Will Morgan Trent start making plays...ever?  Our secondary should have a chance to against ND if we bring consistent pressure on Clausen like we did last year.  He'll be shell-shocked and lobbing up some ducks.

Go Blue!!  We'll take our first "W" of the RR era even though it wasn't pretty. 

scmgoblue


How you can say the first and then go on to say the second is beyond me.  Sheridan took the team down the field at the end of the game for the sealing touchdown did he not?  As long as Threet continues to throw for under 50% and miss wide open receivers he does not deserve to have a lock on the position.

I think the RBs carried the drive, not really Sheridan. Screen passes are kind of ehh, not very special throws. Threet throws a better ball. I think if he gets more practice time and reps his accuracy will come. Can you honestly say you have confidence in Sheridan throwing a pass over 10 yards after seeing him in the first two games? He has little zip on his throws, they are very soft. Im not saying hand the job to Threet, but I think he has to have a leg up in the competition.

We all heard before the season started that Sheridan was ahead of Threet in picking up the offense and he still is; this is why RichRod kept putting him into the game. Threet’s strong suit is field artillery; unfortunately he hasn’t been able to throw a ball downfield any closer than 3’ outside a receiver’s grasp. On the zone read, Threet made the wrong decision several times. Considering that this is the bread and butter of RichRod’s offense, and Sheridan is making better decisions right now, look for more of Sheridan next week but we’ll still see them both.

Go Blue!
Jeff

My question is don't we have someone better than Steve Brown?

M FTHFL


We all heard before the season started that Sheridan was ahead of Threet in picking up the offense and he still is; this is why RichRod kept putting him into the game. Threet’s strong suit is field artillery; unfortunately he hasn’t been able to throw a ball downfield any closer than 3’ outside a receiver’s grasp. On the zone read, Threet made the wrong decision several times. Considering that this is the bread and butter of RichRod’s offense, and Sheridan is making better decisions right now, look for more of Sheridan next week but we’ll still see them both.

I disagree - Sheridan made 5 or 6 throws into coverage against Utah that either were or could've been picked off.  Threet made one or two, and unless I'm mistaken, he didn't make any on Sat.  And, although Threet is bigger, he seems to be just as athletic as Sheridan, if not moreso.  He still needs to hit open receivers instead of overthrowing them, but I feel more comfortable when Threet is in the game.

Conquering Hero


-Stevie Brown was always close to making some big plays, but a little behind.

-Will Morgan Trent start making plays...ever?  Our secondary should have a chance to against ND if we bring consistent pressure on Clausen like we did last year.  He'll be shell-shocked and lobbing up some ducks.

Wow, have to disagree with you here BIG time. The problem is not Trent, it is Brown. On that long pass that went against Trent it was not his fault, he was expecting safety help-which is why he let him get behind him-but Brown bite hard on the play action and was totally out of position leaving Trent out to dry.

I said it before the season started that i was worried about Brown being our starting safety after his terrible performance in the first tow games of last year-a performance that got him benched the rest of the tear-and I have not seen any difference in his game from last year. He still takes poor angels to the ball, he over pursues, gets caught out of position, bites on almost every play action, and is a sloppy tackler. The two biggest plays the Michigan defense has given up this year involved Brown. The long slant pass against Utah Brown took a poor angle and got burned, and then this week he bit on the play action. Dreadful play for a safety.

"Jim Tressel's DNA is linked to the Devil at some point, I'm sure of it."
-Doug Karsch "The Big Show"

BigHouseFootball



Wow, have to disagree with you here BIG time. The problem is not Trent, it is Brown. On that long pass that went against Trent it was not his fault, he was expecting safety help-which is why he let him get behind him-but Brown bite hard on the play action and was totally out of position leaving Trent out to dry.
 

I don't think Trent is a problem.  I think he's made great strides as a cornerback and I'd just like to see him take the next step this year and start making big plays and lockdown his side of the field.  I think that's reasonable.   If I didn't think he was an extremely talented football player, I wouldn't expect more from him.  I think if he's more confident that the safety help will be there, he could be able to jump some of the short passing routes against him and score 6 for the good guys! 

Good call on the missing safety help by Brown, and that was darn good coverage by Trent but just a perfect throw.

BigHouseFootball
 

I said it before the season started that i was worried about Brown being our starting safety after his terrible performance in the first tow games of last year-a performance that got him benched the rest of the tear-and I have not seen any difference in his game from last year. He still takes poor angels to the ball, he over pursues, gets caught out of position, bites on almost every play action, and is a sloppy tackler. The two biggest plays the Michigan defense has given up this year involved Brown. The long slant pass against Utah Brown took a poor angle and got burned, and then this week he bit on the play action. Dreadful play for a safety.

RE: Brown I was referring to a couple of picks he nearly had in the second half where it seemed as if he had sniffed out the play pretty well, but was just a flash away from disrupting it or grabbing an Int.  He made some plays against the Gators too, so I think if something "clicks" with Brown he could be a solid player.

But you're right, dreadful is an accurate description of his play thus far in the first two games.  Lucky for us we've got another cupcake on the schedule this week. 

Ah, ok, I misunderstood what you were getting at. I don't think it isunreasonable to be expecting INTs from Trent, I thought you weregetting on him for a few big plays, which have not been his fault.

With Brown, I see what you mean on a few plays, but they have been justthat-only a few. Every time I lock on Brown for a play I see him miss atackle, which is the worst thing coming from a safety, they call themthat for a reason!

"Jim Tressel's DNA is linked to the Devil at some point, I'm sure of it."
-Doug Karsch "The Big Show"