Quick thoughts:
– Ugly loss, Morgan Trent was worked over all day and night.
– Booty looked very good and the receivers for USC were too much. –
– You expect to see a couple drops; I don’t think they had any.
– In relation to the pressure on Lloyd Carr, Musburger and Herbstreit must have mentioned “the bloggers” 4 or 5 times during the fourth quarter. Musburger (in-)correctly noted that Bill Martin has a great relationship with Lloyd Carr. That said, Coach Carr isn’t under any kind of pressure from the University, I guarantee you that. And no pressure is coming from this blog.
– This hurts quite a bit. Looking back to this time last year, Michigan was coming off one of the worst years in recent history and rebounded to be in the conversation for the BCS title game up until today. A win would have been huge but it doesn’t take away what Michigan accomplished the rest of the season.
9 Comments
Jim
We got beat bad. Our defense fell apart the last two games of the season by giving up too many big plays. I back Carr, but M has to start winning some bowl games. This makes 4 in a row, 3 of them Roses. 1 for our last 6, etc, etc.
skpjah
Its the same ole thing – the team was not prepared nor were the proper adjustments made to get them in a position to compete for a win. Just look what USC accomplished from their UCLA loss to their win today. They were ready and firing on all cylinders. Great game plan with little to no threat of Michigan responding. That’s a coaching problem pure and simple!
Jim
I must say I agree. Pete Carroll came out with a blitz we couldn’t figure out and made great adjustments at halftime to get the offense revved up.
Bonus
Man i dont know where to start. Our defense faltered by not getting enough pressure on booty, among other things, but this loss is really on carr, our offensive line, and a little less so, on henne. Henne looked like bledsoe/deer in headlights/insert statue joke here all game. 5 sacks in the first half: they werent all his fault, but you got to be able to move a little and step into the pocket and away from pressure. I was similarly troubled that michigan didnt seem to see the need to put henne in a better position to win, try and give him more time with additional blockers or shotgun formation offense. Its as if they didnt have any shotgun plays ready at all, which i think would have given him the necessary extra second or two to get rid of the ball. I also wanted to see more misdirection plays on offense, which obviously arent there when all you do is zone rush. bottom line: our offensive line got completely used while the USC blitz scheme went unchecked, and our QB didnt have the ability to avoid it. henne made a comment that he ‘thrives in big pressure situations’. i didnt see that at all.
mvictors
Bonus, good takes all. I disagree with a lot of your criticism of Henne. I know you said most of the blame is on Carr and the O line (i agree). Henne was a sitting duck for a lot of those sacks. Despite all this he threw some incredible passes and let’s not forget M was only 8 points down in the fourth despite getting no rushing yards.
skpjah
Carr said Mich was treating this Rose Bowl like a business trip. Well, in order to win in business you must be prepared and it was obvious that wasn’t the case.
Isn’t Martin a businessman? I don’t know how he can he sit and do nothing year after year with the results Carr has been delivering? Not many businesses surviving these days with that type of apathetic approach.
I am convinced more now than ever. If Michigan is ever to compete for a National Championship, Mr. Carr is going to have to step down. Like it or not, he and his staff are not contemporary to the game played today and will never be!!
mvictors
skpjah- Understand where you are coming from. I’ve heard a lot of people say Michigan wasn’t prepared despite have 6 weeks to do so. Well, they didn’t lose the game in the six weeks up to the game, they lost it by not making any reasonable adjustments at half-time. Check out the quote I just posted from Mike DeBord. He STILL thinks they executed the right gameplan.
skpjah
MVICTORS- Yes, I saw it and it truly explains everything. DeBord is making Carr look even worse than he is!! No one in their right mind who was watching that game would say the same thing. You don’t even need to have a good grasp of the game to understand that the strategy was not working. I guess the result speaks for itself!
Jim
mvictors = ex navarre apologist = new Henne/Carr apologist ;-)