Tag: Al Borges

Ohio State 26, Michigan 21

Here’s some Kate Upton to make you feel better.

I told you so but I wish I didn’t.  Last week I railed against the usage of Denard Robinson, saying that using Denard so much last week a) set him up to get injured, b) might limit his effectiveness against OSU, and c) took away the element of surprise of using him in the backfield and at receiver.  People responded by saying that they were glad Michigan used him because it would give Urban Meyer trouble preparing for this week’s game.  How did that go for you?  Denard tweaked his elbow injury last week and didn’t throw even once this game.  Michigan also ran very few plays with Robinson and Devin Gardner on the field, running a very vanilla and predictable offense.  I guess all that stuff last week was just for fun.


WTF.  There’s really no excuse for the play calling in the second half, and that falls on both Brady Hoke and Al Borges.  People want to fire Al Borges, but the head coach has to step in and call shenanigans on the crappy play calling.  Now I’m not suggesting that either one get fired, but you can’t separate the two entities. As the head guy, Hoke is responsible for the calls that are made by his coordinators.  Michigan tried running the ball up the middle with Vincent Smith – which has been a terrible idea for years – and generally went into a shell on offense.  There was no element of surprise, and all the plays and counter plays that were opened up last week by Robinson’s utility were apparently erased from this week’s playbook.

Derrick Green, come on down.  Outside of Fitzgerald Toussaint, Michigan’s running backs are terrible.  Thomas Rawls has no vision, lacks speed, and isn’t as powerful as a short yardage back should be.  Vincent Smith is gone anyway, and while I always liked him as a third down-type back, plugging him in for short-yardage plays against OSU was a poor decision.  You simply cannot expect him to gain yardage when Michigan’s interior offensive line is this bad.  He did okay running outside on the inverted veer plays, but good grief, Borges has to put him in a position to be successful.  Even fullback Stephen Hopkins comes in for some criticism here, because he missed two key blocks and generally looked like he didn’t understand his job.  Michigan needs running backs in a bad way, and I don’t see game-breaking ability in either DeVeon Smith or Wyatt Shallman.  The coaches need to bring in a bunch of backs and let them improve through competition.

Play action bulls***. Here’s the part that perhaps irked me most about the play calling in the second half.  Borges kept calling play action passes when there was clearly no threat of running the ball.  That doesn’t work against teams who aren’t stupid, and the Buckeyes are a lot of things – cheaters, ugly, arrogant, etc. – but their defense is always well coached.  When Devin Gardner turns around to give play action fakes, he’s diverting his attention from the coverage and sometimes he’s limiting himself to throwing to half the field.  The linebackers and safeties weren’t biting on play action fakes to Vincent Smith because Smith gets tackled by a stiff breeze, so there’s no tactical advantage.  But again and again, Gardner wasted time by running around with his back to the defense and pretending like the Buckeyes gave a s*** about the 5’7″, 175 lb. running back.  Just drop Gardner straight back or roll him out.

Carlos Hyde played well.  I actually thought Michigan’s interior defense would hold Hyde down pretty well, but Michigan’s defensive ends and play calls seemed so concerned with Braxton Miller that they unclogged the middle a little bit.  Hyde got downhill and broke a few tackles, but there were several occasions where he got to the second and third levels without being touched.  Greg Mattison seemed to call more 4-3 Over defensive fronts than normal.

Freshman frustration.  I do not like seeing guys like James Ross and Joe Bolden out there in games like this.  It was somewhat inevitable, I guess, because of a lack of depth, but today is an example of why you need depth at linebacker.  Bolden in particular got out of position a couple times and allowed some key gains, and Ross got caught inside on a Braxton Miller run.  Both of those guys have high upsides, but freshmen are freshmen.  Next year the Wolverines should be able to go two-deep with experienced guys at every linebacker position, so we should see even more improvement in the linebacker group.

Mike Jones and Brandin Hawthorne exist in bad ways.  I was not a fan when Rich Rodriguez recruited Jones and Hawthorne, and they have worked their ways down the depth chart.  Jones incurred a 15-yard penalty for a late hit in this game, and Hawthorne has made similarly poor plays this season on special teams.  It’s not a coincidence that Ross and Bolden passed those guys for playing time.  Hawthorne will graduate after this season, and I would not be surprised to see redshirt junior Jones depart with a year of eligibility remaining.

This was Gardner’s worst game.  Gardner was visibly frustrated at a couple points, and it showed in his play.  Especially in the second half, it looked like he was trying to throw pinpoint passes instead if letting it fly.  He’s always had a slightly awkward throwing motion, but he just didn’t seem to be following through with his normal verve.  That’s somewhat understandable for a kid playing quarterback in such a big game for the first time, which is why it would have been helpful to have Robinson ready to throw the ball.  Robinson had his best quarterbacking performance against these Buckeyes last season, so limiting him to 10 touches seems like a bad idea.  Gardner finished 11/20 for 171 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception, and he took 4 sacks despite the absence of John Simon, OSU’s best defensive lineman.  There was nobody to take the pressure off of Gardner – Robinson out of the backfield, Toussaint, Borges – and thus it was left on his shoulders to try to make plays when there none to make.

The better team won.  I argued with people all week who said that Michigan was the better team but that the Wolverines played a tougher schedule.  The bottom line is that any of us would rather be 11-0 than 8-3 coming into the game, regardless of who was on the schedule.  The Buckeyes ran the ball well, threw the ball well, and played pretty solid defense except for a couple huge plays (Robinson’s 67-yard touchdown, Roundtree’s 75-yard TD reception).  The bottom line is that Michigan replaced David Molk, Mike Martin, and Ryan Van Bergen with Elliott Mealer, Quinton Washington, and Craig Roh, respectively, all of which are steps backward.  I fully believe that an influx of talent is coming with Hoke’s recruiting classes, but right now Michigan has a deficit that will take some time to fix.

Video: Borges, Mattison press conference – Iowa week

Michigan 38, Northwestern 31

Kenny Demens makes the game-clinching tackle (image via AnnArbor.com)

Kenny Demens goes boom.  In Friday’s game preview, I predicted that Demens would have a big game.  It seemed like the coaches were trying to give him a breather by playing Joe Bolden a little bit, but I’m really not sold on Bolden being ready for Big Ten play right now; he’ll be good but he’s not yet.  Back to my point, Demens stepped up in a big way late in the game by making the final two tackles, including a thumping hit on Northwestern superback Tyris Jones to end the game.  Games against a team like Northwestern set up well for someone like Demens, who can take on Northwestern-caliber linemen and still make plays on interior runs.  He did get burned for a touchdown in pass coverage, but he was covering a wide receiver, which was hardly a fair contest.  Demens ended the game with 9 tackles and 2 tackles for loss.

Devin Gardner for Heisman? Okay, not really the Heisman, but Gardner has played really well in Denard Robinson’s stead.  Brady Hoke insists that the offense doesn’t really change when Gardner takes over for Robinson, but nobody who watches these games can actually believe that.  I felt bad for Kain Colter when he got hurt late in the game, but I didn’t feel bad for Northwestern, because Michigan was already down their starting quarterback.  For Gardner to be so inexperienced and still have the ability to come out and beat the #24 team in the country speaks well for him.  And, oh by the way, some guys really stepped up and made plays for Gardner.  The junior QB finished the game 16/29 for 286 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception, along with 9 rushes for 47 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Roy Roundtree is stepping up. I don’t know why, but Roundtree has stepped up his game now that Gardner is playing quarterback.  Robinson and Roundtree are close friends, so I’m sure it’s not related to a lack of personal chemistry.  It just seems like Roundtree has realized that he needs to step up to help out his inexperienced quarterback.  I wish it had happened earlier, but I’ll take it now.  He had 5 receptions for 139 yards, and his final reception in regulation was a juggling catch he made while the Northwestern defensive back interfered with him. (No interference was called, but it should have been.)

Michigan won the game in the trenches.  Brady Hoke’s philosophy seems to be that he wants to wear teams down, and Michigan will do so more consistently when the offensive line improves.  Right now Michigan’s interior offensive linemen are just average, but by the fourth quarter, they had sufficiently worn down the Wildcats’ interior.  Toussaint started to get some running room . . . which is why I was frustrated with Michigan’s play call on the penultimate regulation drive, after Dennis Norfleet had returned a kickoff to Michigan’s 47-yard line.  Al Borges had overused the play action pass up to that point, because Michigan hadn’t been running the ball.  So when Borges called a post-wheel (for Gallon and Funchess, respectively), Northwestern hadn’t learned to respect the run yet.  He put the game on Gardner’s shoulders, and while Gardner has been playing well, he hadn’t been in a situation this year when Michigan needed  a crunch-time drive from him.  Michigan could have moved the ball by running on the interior with about four minutes left and down by three points.  What happened the next time Michigan had a chance to run it, in overtime?  Fitzgerald Toussaint ran for 5 yards, then 3 yards, and then Gardner ran a bootleg for the game-winning touchdown.

Stop kicking to Venric Mark!  Mark is one of the most explosive players in the Big Ten, but Michigan’s kickers and punters couldn’t seem to help themselves from kicking to him.  He burned Michigan for a 96-yard kickoff return late in the game, but one of the Wildcats held Brandin Hawthorne and got flagged for it.

Northwestern doesn’t throw well except against Michigan. Backup quarterback Trevor Siemian completed 6/7 passes for 87 yards and 2 touchdowns.  Kain Colter was slightly less successful at 8/14 for 96 yards and 1 touchdown.  Michigan struggled with the pace of Northwestern’s offense, and the Wolverines were beaten on the edge several times (partly because of numerous obvious holding calls that weren’t noticed by the referees).  Northwestern could run and pass on Michigan’s defense, and there was no consistent answer until overtime.  That answer was, of course, Kenny Demens.

Jordan Kovacs is now #11.  I don’t really care.  It’s just a number.  Before the game Kovacs was honored by being given the #11 jersey that was previously worn by the three Wistert brothers – Francis, Albert, and Alvin.  I’ve seen the argument that this prevents Kovacs from becoming a legend jersey down the road, but come on, Kovacs isn’t a legend.  He’s a walk-on who turned into a pretty good player, but that doesn’t make him a legend.  I also don’t think Michigan should give Legend jerseys to true freshmen, who still have three years to taint the number with drunk driving arrests, stealing laptops, etc.

Michigan is 7-3.  The team and fans should consider themselves slightly lucky to come out of this weekend with a victory.  Being 7-3 at this juncture isn’t too bad, considering that Michigan has been without its starting quarterback for the last 2.5 games.  Regardless of the opponents, they have scored 35 and 38 points with the backup QB.  The defense has picked up its game at critical junctures, and the offense is doing enough to make games winnable, at least when Russell Bellomy isn’t in the game.  The Wolverines should  beat Iowa, and that would lead up to the ballyhooed game against Ohio State.

Nebraska 23, Michigan 9

She’s better than any pictures from the game, I think.

The QB situation.  I don’t even know where to start.  Denard Robinson was playing okay before he got hurt (6/11 for 55 yards; 10 carries for 46 yards).  After that all hell broke loose.  Redshirt freshman backup quarterback Russell Bellomy entered the game and threw eleven or twelve straight incomplete passes.  He finished the game 3/16 for 38 yards and 3 interceptions, along with taking 2 sacks.  His receivers dropped some passes, but mostly the throws were inaccurate and uncatchable.  At some point Devin Gardner should have been inserted as the quarterback.  Brady Hoke and Al Borges have insisted that Gardner is their #2 quarterback, and while that obviously hasn’t been true, even the #3 guy should be given a shot when #2 can’t get the job done.  The Wolverines were down by a touchdown or less for most of the game, and Gardner might  have been able to provide a spark.  He’s obviously not the best quarterback in the land, but he does have some athleticism to improvise if the play breaks down.  Bellomy looked absolutely lost.

Al Borges anger?  Am I mad at Al Borges?  A little.  The throwback screen to Jeremy Gallon has become way too predictable, for one.  But I’m certainly not mad at him for calling the plays he did after Bellomy entered.  Borges gave Bellomy some easy throws early, and Bellomy threw them into the ground or sailed them over the receivers’ heads.  What plays should an offensive coordinator call for a guy who’s bad at running every play?  Aside from running the ball, which wasn’t working (Fitzgerald Toussaint had 15 carries for 38 yards), there’s not much an OC can do.  Nebraska blitzed Bellomy on passing downs, and they sucked up on the short routes because Bellomy doesn’t like to throw downfield.  If I remember correctly, he threw exactly two passes beyond 15 yards; the first was an incompletion to Roy Roundtree in the endzone that was incorrectly called pass interference against the defense; the second was to a double-covered Devin Gardner that turned into an interception.  Bellomy is terrible at this stage in his career.

Quarterback recruiting and development.  I have been beating this drum now for a couple years, but Brady Hoke should have taken a quarterback in the class of 2012.  Michigan is apparently down to two quarterbacks on the roster: Robinson and Bellomy.  Gardner has been limited to wide receiver exclusively.  Even if the freshman isn’t good, he would at least give the Wolverines another option if Bellomy stinks it up as the backup.  Hoke offered just eight quarterbacks in the 2012 class, and none really seemed to be heavily pursued.  Additionally, I’m still annoyed that Rich Rodriguez burned Devin Gardner’s redshirt back in 2010.  From what I understand, the belief is that he will not be granted a fifth year of eligibility, and now he’s a true junior instead of a redshirt sophomore.  Even if Hoke wanted to develop Gardner as the heir apparent to Robinson, he would only have a year to play the position.  Both of Michigan’s most recent coaches have failed to handle the quarterback position appropriately over the last few years.

Michigan’s run defense was excellent.  By the end of the game, Nebraska was wearing down the Wolverines a little bit.  But even with some big runs by running back Ameer Abdullah and quarterback Taylor Martinez late in the game, they combined for 159 yards on 38 carries, which is just barely over 4 yards/carry.  If Michigan’s offense could have stayed on the field longer and kept them in the game, I doubt the Wolverines would have had the same kinds of breakdowns.

Michigan’s secondary was burned several times.  Raymon Taylor was torched.  J.T. Floyd was beaten a couple times and picked up two pass interference calls.  Jordan Kovacs was beaten.  Thomas Gordon was beaten for a touchdown, albeit by an illegal pick.

The referees were terrible.  It went both ways, but the refs were bad.  The early 55-yard catch by Roy Roundtree was ruled as a reception on the field, and there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn it; yet overturn it they did.  Vincent Smith’s diving attempt that launched the ball up into the arms of P.J. Smith could have been overturned just as easily as the Roundtree play, but the interception was upheld.  Bellomy’s deep ball to Roundtree shouldn’t have been called pass interference against Nebraska.  There were numerous holding calls that they missed, including against Taylor Lewan, who has been committing way too many infractions.  Nebraska also took a penalty for targeting Jeremy Jackson, but the defender led with his shoulder and hit Jackson in the chest, not the head.

Much of this could be fixed if Michigan could run the ball.  Outside of Denard Robinson, nobody on Michigan’s team can run the ball effectively this year.  Michigan’s interior offensive line is weak, and honestly, it’s the two most experienced guys who are playing the worst, in my opinion.  Ricky Barnum and Patrick Omameh, both of whom are fifth year seniors, have often failed to get a push.  Center Elliott Mealer has been mediocre, but he hasn’t played much in his career.  Offensively, Michigan doesn’t have an identity.  The offensive line has been pretty healthy, but they can’t run the ball; both quarterbacks have been subpar in the passing game; the receivers are average.  Unless Denard Robinson is running the ball, Michigan is ineffective.  Now Michigan has gone two consecutive games without a touchdown, and you can’t put your defense in that type of situation consistently and expect to win.

Michigan 44, Purdue 13

Denard Robinson had 235 rushing yards and 1 passing touchdown in the 44-13 win

Michigan’s defense is awesome or Purdue’s offense is terrible.  I couldn’t figure out which it was.  I’m leaning toward the latter, really, because Purdue found it necessary to try three different quarterbacks and a bunch of trick plays.  Don’t get me wrong – Michigan’s defense looked good.  But Purdue couldn’t do anything with consistency.  A couple trick plays turned out fairly well, and Robert Marve’s first few plays were productive.  But otherwise, they just don’t look like an offense that should scare any decent defensive teams.

I’m officially concerned about Fitzgerald Toussaint and the running game.  Toussaint (17 carries, 19 yards, 2 touchdowns) looks slower this year, quite frankly.  He also looks like he’s dancing too much instead of burrowing forward for a couple yards when he can.  Of course, it starts with the offensive line, and I haven’t been impressed this year with what the offensive line is doing.  None of the offensive linemen has taken a step forward this year, in my opinion.  Taylor Lewan has taken a step backward, and the other guys are just average.  Obviously, Denard Robinson (24 carries, 235 yards) was great, but the offensive line can’t open holes for the running backs.  Even Thomas Rawls, who had good numbers (4 carries, 33 yards, 1 touchdown), had to break tackles at the line of scrimmage to get anything done.

The broadcasters were terrible.  One of them called it a “flea flicker” when Robert Marve hit a wide receiver on a hitch, then tossed it backward to the running back coming out of the backfield.  That’s a “hook and lateral.”  I thought the dumb interpretation of that was “hook and ladder” but the BTN guys took it one notch stupider.  Also, there was no way that Denard Robinson was down at the 1-yard line on the play they reviewed.  Even if the officials determined that Robinson’s elbow hit the ground prior to the ball crossing the plane of the end zone, the ball should have been placed at about the 2-inch line.  I couldn’t believe that the refs didn’t change the spot of the ball (or award the touchdown), but the announcers didn’t point it out, either.

Raymon Taylor had an okay game.  Taylor hasn’t lit the world on fire and did get beaten on a slant for a touchdown, but I have to give credit where credit is due.  This was his second consecutive game with an interception, and he returned this one 63 yards for a touchdown.

Denard Robinson zone read anger.  Twice in this game, Robinson held onto the ball too long before pulling it out of the running back’s stomach.  The first time it worked okay for him because he gained a bunch of yards, even though his running back (Toussaint or Smith, I can’t remember) got smoked.  The second time it was disastrous because he got Smith crushed and, oh yeah, Robinson fumbled the ball in the process.  He gains a lot of yards because he’s a dynamic runner, but he’s never been adept at running those plays.

I’m really liking the linebacker crew.  I thought Jake Ryan (6 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 1 sack), Kenny Demens (6 tackles), and Desmond Morgan (6 tackles, 2 tackles for loss) all played very well.  There’s not much experienced depth, but the guys backing them up are pretty good, too.  I like James Ross as a prospect, but I don’t think anyone can really justify the talk about Morgan getting passed.  Michigan should be able to field a pretty good inside linebacker crew next year from some combination of Morgan, Ross, and Joe Bolden, not to mention a few other good linebacker prospects.

I liked the game plan.  If Denard Robinson can throw the ball fewer than 20 times a game, that’s probably a good thing.  Between good defense and running the ball well, the game wasn’t on Denard’s throwing shoulder.  Offensive coordinator Al Borges said that he re-evaluated his play calls from the past couple seasons, and he seemed to conclude that throwing the ball with Denard is a bad idea.  Good for him.  Robinson still missed a wide open Fitzgerald Toussaint on a swing pass that would have gained a first down and had a couple other questionable throws, but a 50% completion percentage isn’t so terrible when you’re only throwing the ball 16 times.