Appalachian State 34, Michigan 32 (Final!)

[Best Buckeye]

My guess is the coach didn't want to risk a turnover and went for the win. And I can see that point if true.

 

[Jaxbuck]

I don't think Michigan is light years ahead of ND. I think Michigan will beat ND but IMO GT would beat Michigan. App State is comparable to a good MAC team.

Lets pretend this wasn't a fluke. Lets pretend that Michigans back 7 is just that bad. I watched the game and their veteran players were dazed and confused. Sears and Trent have no idea what they are doing. What is Michigan gonna do against Purdue, Wisky, OSU, and PSU WR's. Their linebackers were nuetralized by the spread and when they were able to play they were lost.

There is alot of game tape for everybody. Oregon is gonna provide even more tape this weekend. Oregon has better athletes than App State. Stewart is gonna have a fieldday in 4wr sets. I could Oregon even run some option.

Any changes made defensively in the 2nd half by Michigan will be gameplanned for by Oregon. If the App State team wouldn't have shot themselves in the foot in the 2nd half they beat Michigan by 14. App State was the faster team!!!! Thats not a fluke...thats a fact.

Michigan may come out fired up this weekend but sometimes that causes you to make mistakes and can open things up on offense for the other team like screens. I'm sure Belotti and company are gonna use this approach when Michigan sells out.

It was Michigans offense that let their team down. My goodness the offense was supposed to the strength of the team. Mike Hart and Co were supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. They could only muster 32 points with their starters in the whole game and the entire playbook open.

Michigans special teams are attrocious. Shawn Crable needs to learn how to mentally play football. The kid cannot block on kicks. The are atrocious on special teams.

With as many seniors and AA calibre players on their team I don't see how this can be viewed as a fluke. Sure Michigan has recruited athletes but this wasn't a track meet it was a football game. This has to be the worst Michigan defense and spcial teams unit I have ever seen.

We'll see if its a fluke but IMO its not as big of a fluke as Michigan fans want to believe. If these veterans players from Michigan don't know how to play by now they are never gonna learn.

It wasn't a fluke, tsuns back 7 is that bad. That wasn't my point.

My point is that NoD doesn't have the offense to exploit tsuns weakness. You have to have at least an above average offense to spread them out and do what OSU, USC and APSU did to them. NoD simply doesn't posses that ability right now.

Also, tsun can pressure the QB. They may not be able to cover but they can get after the QB. NoD can't pass protect at all from what I saw.

Tsun is a bad match up for NoD from what I saw in week 1. Hart should have a field day.

 

[lvbuckeye]

yes 1, which is even more a statement on how forced to use their TO's, tsun was. Even knowing we still had 1 to use to set up the FG they burned one to keep us from running the clock down.

Its all about saving time for your(tsuns) offense to take their last shot. Every second lost eliminates something they will be able to do. 10-15 more seconds off that clock and its just 1 hail mary to the endzone. Forget the FG.

No doubt at all if the APSU QB shuffles latterally, takes a knee and gets them back up to the LOS...tsun HAS to take the TO. Hell you could run a real play to the wide side and have time to spike it with a full 30 seconds left on the clock but its a moot point, tsun would HAVE to take a TO.

thanks, that's what i thought.
apples and oranges. having a timeout left is HUGE, because it affords you the ability to stop the clock after you center the ball. ASU didn't have any. timeouts. they would have been IDIOTS to run a play that keeps the clock running and then try to spike the ball. too many uncertainties. kicking on first is the right decision.

 

[Jaxbuck]

thanks, that's what i thought.
apples and oranges. having a timeout left is HUGE, because it affords you the ability to stop the clock after you center the ball. ASU didn't have any. timeouts. they would have been IDIOTS to run a play that keeps the clock running and then try to spike the ball. too many uncertainties. kicking on first is the right decision.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. The fact that tsun was setting up to kick the game winning FG shows it wasn't idiotic to run more time off, it needed to be done and could have easily been done.

Bad decision they almost paid dearly for.

 

[brutus2002]

My point Jax is that Michigan is a veteran team...especially on offense. Everybody knew ND lost their entire team and expected them to struggle. At least ND has an excuse. To only put up 32 points on App State is really telling. I noticed they missed Breaston on offense and special teams . Arrington looked average and so did Mathews. Manningham was open a few times but he didn't even look 100% . I think his 2 knee surgeries might be a factor. I think their offense is overated.

I'm gonna wait and see how they do against Oregon. If they struggle/lose this week then I think they are in trouble. There were 4-5 team in the B10 that look pretty darn good. MSU impresed more than any other team...they look like a different program.

 

[jlb1705]

Count me among those that disagree.

Watching the game, I was saying the same thing about the need to take more time off. However, after hearing their coach's comments about the situation after the game, I think his perceived need to take pressure off of his FG unit outweighed the need to take more time off. On first down, App State had their only guaranteed chance to kick a FG under conditions most similar to a normal FG and keep his team organized. If they ran another play, the ability to stop the clock would have been out of his control, dependent upon the actions of M*ch*g*n and the presence of mind of his players on the field. That coach knows his team better than any of us, and if his assessment was that his team was likely to fold in the process of rushing a FG, then he was absolutely right to make the call that he did. After seeing how it played out, imagine now if App State had failed to stop the clock because they couldn't get organized enough to spike the ball or only sent ten men on the field or threw a Crable-esque lookout block on the FG attempt.

This will obviously always be up for debate, but their coach, knowing his team better than anybody else, took the course of action that he felt put them in the best position to succeed. That's all you ever ask for from a coach, and in that sense it was the right call.

 

[Jaxbuck]

My point Jax is that Michigan is a veteran team...especially on offense. Everybody knew ND lost their entire team and expected them to struggle. At least ND has an excuse. To only put up 32 points on App State is really telling. I noticed they missed Breaston on offense and special teams . Arrington looked average and so did Mathews. Manningham was open a few times but he didn't even look 100% . I think his 2 knee surgeries might be a factor. I think their offense is overated.

I'm gonna wait and see how they do against Oregon. If they struggle/lose this week then I think they are in trouble. There were 4-5 team in the B10 that look pretty darn good. MSU impresed more than any other team...they look like a different program.

Tsuns passing game did indeed look like shit and I'm with you that they are overrated. That said I give them the edge over NoD because tsun will be able to run at will and after the loss, Carr will get all old school(if thats possible) and focus on the run even more.

I'm not saying tsun is anything special, I'm saying NoD can't exploit tsuns weaknesses and NoD's weaknesses play right into what tsun can do well.

If APSU is like a good MAC team, NoD is a bad B10 team. As much as we all dislike them, tsun will beat the bad B10 teams they play. Just a bad matchup for NoD from what I saw week 1.

 

[LordJeffBuck]

In a battle of "bad" against "worse", "bad" usually wins. Michigan should beat Notre Dame fairly easily.

 

[Best Buckeye]

Agree and was thinking about how many voters who voted tsun to win the conference are choking on their tongues this am .

 

[Jaxbuck]

Count me among those that disagree.

Watching the game, I was saying the same thing about the need to take more time off. However, after hearing their coach's comments about the situation after the game, I think his perceived need to take pressure off of his FG unit outweighed the need to take more time off. On first down, App State had their only guaranteed chance to kick a FG under conditions most similar to a normal FG and keep his team organized. If they ran another play, the ability to stop the clock would have been out of his control, dependent upon the actions of M*ch*g*n and the presence of mind of his players on the field. That coach knows his team better than any of us, and if his assessment was that his team was likely to fold in the process of rushing a FG, then he was absolutely right to make the call that he did. After seeing how it played out, imagine now if App State had failed to stop the clock because they couldn't get organized enough to spike the ball or only sent ten men on the field or threw a Crable-esque lookout block on the FG attempt.

This will obviously always be up for debate, but their coach, knowing his team better than anybody else, took the course of action that he felt put them in the best position to succeed. That's all you ever ask for from a coach, and in that sense it was the right call.

I hadn't heard that, if so then I can see where he was coming from. If you have to worry about your FG kicker missing a 20 yarder because he was rushed then by all means, do what you have to do for them to not feel rushed. A quick spike or throw out of the back of the end zone stops the clock however and gives you a full 25 second play clock to get your FG team out there.

I guess JT's spoiled me on ST's over the years. He could have easily done what I was proposing and ran the FG team on to get it done.

I still say Carr would have been forced to call a TO if you ran a play.

 

[Buckeye86]

In a battle of "bad" against "worse", "bad" usually wins. Michigan should beat Notre Dame fairly easily.

I agree, Mike Hart is a whining little bitch, but he should have 100+ yards and a couple touchdowns easy against ND's pathetic defense. And if that doesn't work, the Henne special (throw it really high and far and hope for the best) to Manningham will be there all day long as well.

 

[EastSide]

In a battle of "bad" against "worse", "bad" usually wins. Michigan should beat Notre Dame fairly easily.

Weis and Co looked really bad but again I will say and I believe that Chad Henne and Mike Hart lead the underachievement nexus of the universe.

 

[Best Buckeye]

Weis and Co looked really bad but again I will say and I believe that Chad Henne and Mike Hart lead the underachievement nexus of the universe.

I would dare to disagree. I think that Hart's almost 200 yards in a little over 2 qtrs isn't underachieving. Now maybe in leadership.....

 

[lvbuckeye]

I hadn't heard that, if so then I can see where he was coming from. If you have to worry about your FG kicker missing a 20 yarder because he was rushed then by all means, do what you have to do for them to not feel rushed. A quick spike or throw out of the back of the end zone stops the clock however and gives you a full 25 second play clock to get your FG team out there.

I guess JT's spoiled me on ST's over the years. He could have easily done what I was proposing and ran the FG team on to get it done.

I still say Carr would have been forced to call a TO if you ran a play.

Carr was WINNING. why in the name of the football gods would he want to stop the clock? all that would do would give ASU a better chance to make the FG.

 

[LitlBuck]

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. The fact that tsun was setting up to kick the game winning FG shows it wasn't idiotic to run more time off, it needed to be done and could have easily been done.

Bad decision they almost paid dearly for.

Totally agree! That was exactly what I was thinking when their coach did not run one more play and then if no timeout was called they could have spiked the ball and stop the clock.

How many times do you see two FG's blocked by the same team in one game.