But the defense???? C'mon. At what point do you stop coddling these 'kids' and their new toy??? This loss is on them, plain and simple. Sorry, but I'm calling out the defense this morning. BIG TIME.
Especially when the starters on defense are:
DE -- 90 TIM JAMISON (5th yr. Senior)DT -- 67 TERRANCE TAYLOR (Senior)
DT -- 97 WILL JOHNSON (5th yr. Senior)
DE -- 55 BRANDON GRAHAM (Junior)
SLB -- 49 JOHN THOMPSON (5th yr. Senior)
WLB -- 8 JONAS MOUTON (Junior)
LCB -- 14 MORGAN TRENT (5th yr. Senior)
SS -- 3 STEVIE BROWN (Junior)
FS -- 27 BRANDON HARRISON (Senior)
RCB -- 6 DONOVAN WARREN (Sophmore)
MLB -- 45 OBI EZEH (Junior)
Ok, so props to Obi for 15 tackles. But did ya have to interfere with the guy short of the sticks? Crucial error there.
Here are the gruesome numbers for Illinois:
OVERALL: 191 rushing yards, 310 passing yards for 45 points. But who accounted for the majority of their offense???? Juice.
Juice Williams: 121 yds rushing, 310 yds passing while Arrelious Benn had 20 yds rushing with 122 receiving yards. Daniel Dufrene had a mere 46 yds rushing with 66 receiving yards. Cumberland? 77 receiving yards.
Seriously...is Juice Williams THAT good? I mean, he's no Vince Young---right?? And we should know better given our "experience", right??? er, WRONG.
On his game winning run every single linebacker got washed out and let him go for 59 (FIFTY-NINE) yards. Are you kidding me? We ALL knew he was going to keep it. And where on earth was the secondary during game??? Open receivers with no defensive player in sight all game long. Heck, I could have caught for 50 yards (until I got hit, of course). It's just soooo frustrating to watch, particularly given the D's performance last week. Or even on 1st and 2nd downs. They stuffed the run. You take away Williams' numbers and all that's left is a mere 70 yards on the ground for the Illini. But then they give up huge 3rd down plays. Painful to watch. And many many fans left with more than 5 minutes left in the game. (but no one boo'd) I've never seen an exodus like that before. Although, Jim Herrmann --former Defensive Coordinator and current linebackers coach for the J-E-T-S, Brett!, Brett!, Jets! must have had a great chuckle from his visitors' spot on the sidelines.....
{Andy and I went back and forth about whether or not leaving early is quitting on the team or saving one's sanity. And yes, I stayed til the bitter end cuz I'm no quitter. And we agreed that boo'ing is WAY worse than leaving}
It was good to see that Rich Rod was visibly pissed, angry, and frustrated during the game, and in his presser afterwards too. And it was great to see him use his remaining time outs at the end of the game even though there was no chance of winning. Sending a message there. Play til the Zeros. Stay til the Zeros.
Scott Shafer better get this squad together or there will be NO bowl game this year.....
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14 comments:
The 3 long plays (Dufrene long screen TD, Cumberland broken coverage TD, and Juice 4th quarter back buster) killed us.
The defense was simply on the field too long starting in the 2nd quarter. You can't have 8 straight punts (or fumbles) and expect your defense to play perfect.
I am not shocked by getting beat by Illinois. I am shocked on how pathetic our offense is at this point.
Look on the bright side, at least I am not a Cubs fan or a member of the Wisconsin band
Ah-greed!
If I remember correctly, in your "Know the Coaches" segment on Shafer, he has a strong history game planning against MAC teams, so you guys should be fine for Toledo ;)
I don't Sru. Given how this team has or hasn't played, nothing is a given this season!
BTW--
good win for you guys against Wisco last night. TP may be the real deal....
When have you ever seen a MI defense be able to stop a spread offense? It just doesn't happen. Sure you can say that this defense is supposed to be good because they're mostly juniors and seniors but I see that as the same kids who couldn't stop the spread before so why would they be able to now. Need a whole new batch of kids brought into the program to learn defending the spread as a priority (from practice) rather than learn stopping the NFL offense like they're used to.
Say what you will about booing and that but to me honestly that piece was just booing the defense with more letters involved. Which is why I say booing is a part of sports. Whether in the form of an actual boo or the next day bitching about how terrible the defense was. I bet there are at least one or two kids from the team that maybe read this blog so that is just as insulting to them.
It was as I expected as I stated before. Once the juice got loose I knew it was over. To coin a Cleveland phrase "there's always next year."
In brighter news the original "Juice" will be going to jail finally. Hopefully for life.
Hammmm--
Fair to call me out. And I will ponder whether blogging with fervor, sarcasm, and criticism is akin to booing in 'real-time' or not.
I think it highly dubious that any of the players read this blog (but that may be my complete naivete). If so, I'm sure that I'm not saying anything the coaches haven't, their roommates haven't, and that they haven't said to themselves too.
And, by all means, if any players are reading please please please chime in. I'm just a dumb girl who's been watching football since the '70s. And still resent the fact that I couldn't play.....
Look, as a coach, as a fan, or spectator I'm all for being understanding and supportive and patient. BUT as I said right from the outset--when does the coddling end and the accountability begin??
In some respects Hamm you are saying that these kids aren't athletes since they couldn't defend the spread before and they can't do it now. Is it the scheme???? Is it the coaching??? That's what we thought before.....
But now they practice against a spread for gosh sakes.
I just don't get it. And I'm still pondering whether open criticism is the same as booing...
" I'll get back to ya on it..."
Are you kidding me? Leaving the game early when you are losing for anything other than an emergency or pre=arranged event is WAY WAY WAY worse than booing. Booers at least stay and show support and hope for a turn around. People who leave early show NO support. Boo to you!
Scuse me, and I don't mean to sound pissy, but what did you guys expect? How many times have we looked like this against fast spread teams?
This wasn't as bad as Oregon last year. Or App St. Or all the other mobile QBs/mobile offenses we've struggled against the last 5-7 years (since Randy Walker & Joe Tiller arrived).
But these are almost all Lloyd Carr recruits. This is a roster for a D designed to stop a power I running attack. Like Wisco.
Our LBs are big & slow. Our D line is big & slow. Just like the rest of the team. You can't scheme fast (ask Sru & the rest of the tosu fans how that works against USC/SEC teams).
We are not gonna play consistent D against fast teams until we get fast ourselves.
And that's gonna take time.
Fortunately, we are now recruiting faster, smaller LBs- guys Lloyd wouldn't talk to 'cause they only weigh 215 lbs. But that's next year. Until then, hold your breath & hope!
sic - don't you guys kill the SEC with those big slow lb's and dl's.....?
our problem against the sec/usc ISN'T our slow defense as much as it is our offensive line against super fast dl's. the problem we do have with our defense against those teams is lack of adjustments when they make their initial adjustments. we hold them, they adjust, we keep up the same game plan and suffer for it
wow Sru.
did you just call out your beloved Sweatervest???
impressive.
This is simply going to be a painful year. We have discussed previously exactly why we are going to have a painful year, so I will not drudge it up again. My thoughts on the matter at this point is consistency. I believe that the reason that we have shown any promise at all is that these kids are playing their hearts out. Otherwise, I think that we would suck every single game, every single quarter. They are giving it all they can and we are seeing inconsistent results. There simply is too much new mixed in with too much old. Patient. Michigan WILL be back.
On a side note, I did leave the game early, however it was due to my "section". Graduate students here who did not complete their undergraduate here are not worthy of "good" seating.....ever. This of course means that each and every year I will be sitting with Freshmen and sophomores. That I can take, homecoming brought a whole new experience that was quite unpleasant. I have a few bruises to prove it. Jim Beam was flowing heavily and the thing that really made it unbearable was that this entire group of "students" were alumni that did not have a ticket to sit in this section, but it was apparently where they sat when they were students, so they all congregated there. I am all for having fun, but when I am getting stepped on, bodies falling on me and I myself am feeling the affects of alcohol simply from smelling it........I just couldn't take it any longer and left. My apologies to the football team, however I am certain that you didn't notice an empty seat after my departure, as there were way more people in that section than there was suppose to be and I am sure they filled up that space just fine.
OHHHH, AND, Corey I am kicking myself for not getting back to you. I have been truly busy and I totally forgot about you coming until I was walking around the golf course looking for a tailgate that I was suppose to be at and saw the engineering tent! I hope you had fun, even though we lost!
Well, good news- BTN is showing the 93 Rose Bowl. Bo is in the booth w/ Musberger & Vermeil. It's tied but I think we're gonna pull this one out.
Sru, it's your team but I politely disagree. I still think you have a personnel/speed issues on D. The reason you don't see a lot of adjustments is because your personnel can't cover in man- the players limit the alternatives. But that's just me:)
Oh snap- McGee just caught a TD from Elvis! Now if our D can only hold a lead in the 4th??
I think a lot of the problem with the D adjusting to the changes this year is that they are practicing against the offense. The offense is in such a state of disarray that the defense probably feels and looks like they are doing a great job in practice. Then when they go up against an experienced spread like Illini they get their ass shown to them. These are recruits that were recruited from schools that I highly doubt used the spread or played against it much and thus it is a big stretch for them.
I never said the kids weren't athletes and weren't trying their hardest. I think the offense is doing a hell of a job for what they got all things considered and I'm really giddy about what they will look like when they are all juniors and they have a sophomore Beaver running the show. Things will get better just now it's hard.
Also T9 I was not calling you out at all I was just trying to prove my point from the old booing argument. There are different forms of booing and it's not all bad. Yes booing juice williams as he's walking off the field after his injury was very childish but booing an entire team playing at the winningest program in college football because they can't move the ball 5 yards is perfectly acceptable. You're not booing and individual you're booing the whole.
Catie--
No problem ... should have stopped by the tent and asked for me ... they all know me.
Anyway, I will be back November 14-17th.
GO BLUE!
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