24 hours, a trip to COSTCO, washing both cars, now I'm in a better state. So............
1. There's probably hope for Chubba if he works hard, stays healthy, and tries to have 2 productive years as a college QB. He did make some plays, but most of the time he couldn't find receivers or even a check down. The dropping the ball thing was pretty freaking amazing, but probably just our normal bad luck. He's not the first QB to not see a defender in front of his receiver because he had guys in his face, but again, that wasn't the pass that needed to be thrown at that time. Still desperately need to get a good portal QB. Sims is done here. HH is a TE, and we could use some help there.
2. Our defense over the past 4 games has been about as good as anyone could have imagined before the season, and frankly been that way in 11 of 12 games. But one thing that's happened all season is that when this defense is faced with a quick change because of a turnover, we almost always give up a big or really big play in the next 2 plays after that. That's something that needs to be fixed.
3. We aren't suffering from and poor scheme or bad play calling (other than the normal things people bitch about on every team). What we're suffering from is purely a strength and leverage issue on the OL and somewhat on the DL. We have been seeing OLs on this team being thrown around like rag dolls for 8 years and this year was no exception. I just don't think that most of the players we have on the OL now have the strength potential to face good lineman on the other side of the ball. This wasn't the case in the past, and the only solution is new players who have developed strength and leverage skills before they're thrown into the fire. Benhart seems to be better and Teddy with a healthy off season can be good, but what's on the inside has been pathetic, and it needs to change if we have any chance of a decent running game.
4. I know I'll be savaged for this because of the old attitude that bitching about the refs is for losers, but since Mike Riley took over in 2015, we are 10-29 in B10 games decided by one score or less. 10-29 in these games over 8 years is as statistically improbable as us winning the national championship now unless there are forces outside our control that push many of these wins in the other team's column. Not getting the TD call on replay right against Minnesota truly cost us that game this year. Michigan State, Iowa, and Maryland all had bogus calls that allowed the other team to get a leg up and may have cost us a win or at least a chance at a win. Yesterday, a bullshit late hit, a bullshit holding penalty, and a bullshit no-targeting call are all that Iowa needed to squeak out a win.
The holding penalty was particularly bad as that forced us into throwing downfield at the end of the game, but the bigger issue is something that has been the case since we joined the B10, is that our B10 opponents get away with holding on the OL like it's not even against the rules. A lot of the problems we have had with a pass rush over the years is because of the willingness of the B10 refs to be blind to holding on our opponents. We have seen winning drives over and over again against us where the holding on the OL was epic, yet ignored. I've re-watched many of our games in detail, and we don't hold like the other B10 teams hold. It leads to 2 possible conclusions: 1) that maybe we should hold more, or 2) they're just not going to call it on our opponents because this is Michigan and Ohio State's conference and no one ****s with that. I tend to lean to the latter, and USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington are going to learn this lesson the hard way next season I think.
The money's great, but we're kind of screwed in this conference.
1. There's probably hope for Chubba if he works hard, stays healthy, and tries to have 2 productive years as a college QB. He did make some plays, but most of the time he couldn't find receivers or even a check down. The dropping the ball thing was pretty freaking amazing, but probably just our normal bad luck. He's not the first QB to not see a defender in front of his receiver because he had guys in his face, but again, that wasn't the pass that needed to be thrown at that time. Still desperately need to get a good portal QB. Sims is done here. HH is a TE, and we could use some help there.
2. Our defense over the past 4 games has been about as good as anyone could have imagined before the season, and frankly been that way in 11 of 12 games. But one thing that's happened all season is that when this defense is faced with a quick change because of a turnover, we almost always give up a big or really big play in the next 2 plays after that. That's something that needs to be fixed.
3. We aren't suffering from and poor scheme or bad play calling (other than the normal things people bitch about on every team). What we're suffering from is purely a strength and leverage issue on the OL and somewhat on the DL. We have been seeing OLs on this team being thrown around like rag dolls for 8 years and this year was no exception. I just don't think that most of the players we have on the OL now have the strength potential to face good lineman on the other side of the ball. This wasn't the case in the past, and the only solution is new players who have developed strength and leverage skills before they're thrown into the fire. Benhart seems to be better and Teddy with a healthy off season can be good, but what's on the inside has been pathetic, and it needs to change if we have any chance of a decent running game.
4. I know I'll be savaged for this because of the old attitude that bitching about the refs is for losers, but since Mike Riley took over in 2015, we are 10-29 in B10 games decided by one score or less. 10-29 in these games over 8 years is as statistically improbable as us winning the national championship now unless there are forces outside our control that push many of these wins in the other team's column. Not getting the TD call on replay right against Minnesota truly cost us that game this year. Michigan State, Iowa, and Maryland all had bogus calls that allowed the other team to get a leg up and may have cost us a win or at least a chance at a win. Yesterday, a bullshit late hit, a bullshit holding penalty, and a bullshit no-targeting call are all that Iowa needed to squeak out a win.
The holding penalty was particularly bad as that forced us into throwing downfield at the end of the game, but the bigger issue is something that has been the case since we joined the B10, is that our B10 opponents get away with holding on the OL like it's not even against the rules. A lot of the problems we have had with a pass rush over the years is because of the willingness of the B10 refs to be blind to holding on our opponents. We have seen winning drives over and over again against us where the holding on the OL was epic, yet ignored. I've re-watched many of our games in detail, and we don't hold like the other B10 teams hold. It leads to 2 possible conclusions: 1) that maybe we should hold more, or 2) they're just not going to call it on our opponents because this is Michigan and Ohio State's conference and no one ****s with that. I tend to lean to the latter, and USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington are going to learn this lesson the hard way next season I think.
The money's great, but we're kind of screwed in this conference.
