1 - Kudos to the fans and especially the students. Heard all week about how poor attendance was going to be, and how the students wouldn't show up. Great job student section (and the rest of the fans as well)!
2 - What a beautiful day for a late season finale. Breezy, but beautiful.
3 - All the Michigan fans I met today were very friendly and complimentary of PSU. Many were with PSU fans which may have had something to do with it.
THE GAME....
1 - Michigan is a better team than PSU right now.
2 - We blow a minimum of 2-3 timeouts a game - at senseless times. Hate the timeout on 3rd and 10 as the stadium was rocking, and UM was on their heals and disorganized. Just hated that timeout. Especially followed up by a long play. Even if we were in the wrong D, I don't think UM would have had a successful 3rd down play as they were struggling with the play-clock and were totally out of whack at that time.
3 - If you can't score 7 points from 1st down inside the 5 yard line, you do not deserve to win the game against a solid team. Our red-zone offense is a problem. I am not blaming Hack for this, and I am not saying it is fair to him, but I would stick McSorley in and try the read-option until we can prove that we can get any kind of offensive-line push every time we are inside of the 15 yard line. IMHO, we should have played either Charles or Johnson all season long - even if only for fade routes inside of the 15 yard line.
4 - Our angles, and tackling were horrible - especially some of the younger guys. Can't say how many times we had plays that should have been stopped that were overrun, miss arm-tackled, etc. I wish Campbell was healthy, playing more. Cabinda, Reeder, Allen, Haley and Reid problems at times with tackling in space.
5 - Our special teams is just bad. 7 points on a muffed punt, horrible kickoffs (I am sorry, if Julius can't get the ball near the end-zone, he should lose this spot as well), ZERO threat on kickoff returns (blocking and Farmer were all bad today), and punting is a problem. We need a pooch punt - can pretty much count on a 40+ yard kick. We need a long kick, can pretty much count on a pooch punt. Been an issue all season long.
6 - Our offensive play-calling - especially so many times from the shot-gun, inside the 10 yard line is just abysmal. I am not sure with 2 weeks to prepare for this game that we could not come up with a better game-plan???? UM used the middle of the field quite effectively. Why can't we?
7 - While our D missed tackles, they get absolutely NO HELP from our offense or special teams when we have the chance to turn momentum after big stops or creating turnovers. NONE.
8 - Referees were our friends today. Not saying the calls weren't correct, but outside of maybe one or two calls today I would have liked to have gone our way, we lost today - Not because of the refs.
9 - Hack was all over the place. Kudos to him for sticking in there after getting hit, and for making some really nice passes today. On the flip-side, he killed us at times today with his decision-making of not getting rid of the ball earlier at times, or just getting rid of it at all. There were times he missed open receivers and there were times he seemed to be checking out of plays and into plays that made no sense. One play we had a 1 on 1 with Godwin that would have been a perfect time for a lob pass, and instead he checked into run to Barkley which had NO CHANCE. This happened another series as well where we needed to throw the ball, as we had NO RUNNING game outside of Barkley's early game 56 yard run. He seemed to be overthinking things to me. There were several times he had green grass in front of him that he chose not to run, and instead of gaining 5 yards, we lost yardage or threw an incomplete pass. UM's QB did a good job of taking what we game him. I am not at all putting this loss on Hack, but he did not help us win the game either (and this was a big stage for him).
10 - Barkley had a great run, but he failed to bounce outside on the occasion runs that had a chance. Unfortunately most runs had ZERO chance thanks to the UM defense, and our OL.
11 - Hats off to Michigan. Their QB took one of the more violent shots you are going to see today, and that kid continued to hang in there all day long. He was hit several times just after making throws as well. Tuff kid who took what we gave him all day long.
12 - Happy for Gesicki who made a really nice catch today (not sure if he got hurt), and felt bad for Carter who almost made a really nice catch today that would have been helpful.
As upset as I was today that we had our chances and did not take advantage of them, I probably still was more frustrated by the loss at Northwestern. Today several things could have made the difference, against Northwester we just needed to make the 3rd and 1.
I am still a believer in Franklin. However, I think he needs to look seriously in the mirror at himself and at the staff prior to next season. I am not saying changes have to be made, but we need to get the program to a point that we are winning games that are winnable against good teams. This game was winnable as Michigan made some critical mistakes, and our staff and players did not take advantage of the opportunities that we had. Until we get better on special teams, can figure out how to finish drives, and can consistently take advantage of momentum, we are not going to beat the better teams in our conference.
2 - What a beautiful day for a late season finale. Breezy, but beautiful.
3 - All the Michigan fans I met today were very friendly and complimentary of PSU. Many were with PSU fans which may have had something to do with it.
THE GAME....
1 - Michigan is a better team than PSU right now.
2 - We blow a minimum of 2-3 timeouts a game - at senseless times. Hate the timeout on 3rd and 10 as the stadium was rocking, and UM was on their heals and disorganized. Just hated that timeout. Especially followed up by a long play. Even if we were in the wrong D, I don't think UM would have had a successful 3rd down play as they were struggling with the play-clock and were totally out of whack at that time.
3 - If you can't score 7 points from 1st down inside the 5 yard line, you do not deserve to win the game against a solid team. Our red-zone offense is a problem. I am not blaming Hack for this, and I am not saying it is fair to him, but I would stick McSorley in and try the read-option until we can prove that we can get any kind of offensive-line push every time we are inside of the 15 yard line. IMHO, we should have played either Charles or Johnson all season long - even if only for fade routes inside of the 15 yard line.
4 - Our angles, and tackling were horrible - especially some of the younger guys. Can't say how many times we had plays that should have been stopped that were overrun, miss arm-tackled, etc. I wish Campbell was healthy, playing more. Cabinda, Reeder, Allen, Haley and Reid problems at times with tackling in space.
5 - Our special teams is just bad. 7 points on a muffed punt, horrible kickoffs (I am sorry, if Julius can't get the ball near the end-zone, he should lose this spot as well), ZERO threat on kickoff returns (blocking and Farmer were all bad today), and punting is a problem. We need a pooch punt - can pretty much count on a 40+ yard kick. We need a long kick, can pretty much count on a pooch punt. Been an issue all season long.
6 - Our offensive play-calling - especially so many times from the shot-gun, inside the 10 yard line is just abysmal. I am not sure with 2 weeks to prepare for this game that we could not come up with a better game-plan???? UM used the middle of the field quite effectively. Why can't we?
7 - While our D missed tackles, they get absolutely NO HELP from our offense or special teams when we have the chance to turn momentum after big stops or creating turnovers. NONE.
8 - Referees were our friends today. Not saying the calls weren't correct, but outside of maybe one or two calls today I would have liked to have gone our way, we lost today - Not because of the refs.
9 - Hack was all over the place. Kudos to him for sticking in there after getting hit, and for making some really nice passes today. On the flip-side, he killed us at times today with his decision-making of not getting rid of the ball earlier at times, or just getting rid of it at all. There were times he missed open receivers and there were times he seemed to be checking out of plays and into plays that made no sense. One play we had a 1 on 1 with Godwin that would have been a perfect time for a lob pass, and instead he checked into run to Barkley which had NO CHANCE. This happened another series as well where we needed to throw the ball, as we had NO RUNNING game outside of Barkley's early game 56 yard run. He seemed to be overthinking things to me. There were several times he had green grass in front of him that he chose not to run, and instead of gaining 5 yards, we lost yardage or threw an incomplete pass. UM's QB did a good job of taking what we game him. I am not at all putting this loss on Hack, but he did not help us win the game either (and this was a big stage for him).
10 - Barkley had a great run, but he failed to bounce outside on the occasion runs that had a chance. Unfortunately most runs had ZERO chance thanks to the UM defense, and our OL.
11 - Hats off to Michigan. Their QB took one of the more violent shots you are going to see today, and that kid continued to hang in there all day long. He was hit several times just after making throws as well. Tuff kid who took what we gave him all day long.
12 - Happy for Gesicki who made a really nice catch today (not sure if he got hurt), and felt bad for Carter who almost made a really nice catch today that would have been helpful.
As upset as I was today that we had our chances and did not take advantage of them, I probably still was more frustrated by the loss at Northwestern. Today several things could have made the difference, against Northwester we just needed to make the 3rd and 1.
I am still a believer in Franklin. However, I think he needs to look seriously in the mirror at himself and at the staff prior to next season. I am not saying changes have to be made, but we need to get the program to a point that we are winning games that are winnable against good teams. This game was winnable as Michigan made some critical mistakes, and our staff and players did not take advantage of the opportunities that we had. Until we get better on special teams, can figure out how to finish drives, and can consistently take advantage of momentum, we are not going to beat the better teams in our conference.
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