The Game

Ordinarily we will have a post-game recap written ideally by someone other than who wrote the preview. As head blogger, when no one has the heart to actually think about the game, much less write about it, it is my responsibility to step up.

Now, my brief thoughts on the game before I throw up:

-I was at the Rose Bowl, I was at this game. In both games, we were using a game plan that did not fit the opponent. Michigan should not have continually blitzed from the outside when this team loves to run quarterback and running back draws, and are electrifying at that. The coaches did not seem to game plan at all for this team, particularly on defense. The most telling sign is that once we kept a linebacker spy to watch the cutback lanes, their draw plays were nearly stopped cold in the second half. It was too little, too late. Michigan was capable of stopping ASU's offense, they just didn't know how until the 3rd quarter. Ron English dropped the ball on this one big time, and he bears a lot of responsibility for not coming up with a different game plan.

-Michigan still can't handle 4-5 wide sets. The secondary looked lost and confused, even against a quarterback who stalled in his progression if his first read wasn't open. They looked like last year against OSU, and again against USC. Teams learned how to beat us, and we didn't adapt at all. Ron, again I am looking at you.

-Where was the practice? It wasn't so much the untimely penalties as it was the offense looking completely out of sync. Henne had Manningham or Arrington open at least three times deep, and he missed them every time. Balls were bouncing off of Mike Massey's and Greg Matthew's hands, and the entire passing game looked like the first practice of spring ball. They were not ready to take the field. Mike DeBorg had no excuse for not having this passing game ready.

-The O-line looked great, but it was supposed to facing an App State team that lost it's D-line last year. Mike Hart looked great, though there are questions about a nagging injury that forced him to come in and out. Minor ran alright, but there is no truly competent backup behind Mike.

Evaluation:

Lloyd put it best when he said after the game, "We were not a well-prepared football team. That is my job, and I take full responsibility." Exactly right. The team was not ready for a spring game, much less App State. I said it would be a tough game, I had no idea it would be like this. I thought we might come up with a game plan, I thought we might come after them. We were the victims of our own hubris yesterday. Since I became a huge Michigan fan, Coach Carr has been the only coach I have known. But to have this team this unprepared, to allow Michigan to so consistently lose bowl games, OSU games, and now make our team the laughing stock of the nation? The bowl games are against good teams, I can live with that. OSU has been a great team, I was trying to live with that. But no matter how good ASU is, there is no excuse for this.

I had my doubts whispering about Carr after the Rose Bowl game in which he looked completely out coached. Now those doubts are screaming.