Michigan: What did we learn

Undone said:
I can't believe Harbaugh's immaturity in the stupid stuff he said in the post game presser. It's childish, bordering on classless.

Anyway, this might sound dumb but I think one of the biggest things that could prevent us from beating both Wisconsin & Iowa is Prochazka being out for the season. As soon as the lineup changed our ability to pass block went downhill.
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Do y'all remember how much crap Frost took when he mentioned Iowa's clapping? Harbaugh is a clown, but when you win you can get away with it.

 
Mavric said:
We had the B1G kicker of the year last year.  So he seemed to be getting good coaching then.  He had one terrible game.  It happens.  Mason Crosby had made 27 straight FGs.  He missed three yesterday.  But people reacted to that like we didn't care about it.  That's not accurate.  It's a knee-jerk reaction to one bad game.  Based on one player having a bad game.

Last year we were #109 in the country in kickoffs.  This year we are #40.  That's still not great but a heck of an improvement.  

We've struggled to find consistent punting.  But that's mostly on the guys doing the punting.  Przystup has shown he can be very good.  But he's hit a couple clunkers.  I'm pretty sure he didn't hit a seven yard punt because he hasn't gotten coached to be better.
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Give me a FG kicker who makes 27-30 and we dont need to have this conversation  :rolleyes:  Our Special teams issues aren't about "bad luck" aberrations 

You seem to forget about trying to field punts on the 3 and throwing the ball out of bounds, not fielding punts and giving up huge swaths of yardage, not getting guys away on a short punt- yielding a turnover, the myriad of horrific KO returns - short return inside the 20s, not fair catching, yielding KO returns and punts for touchdowns- some in this season, many in seasons past. ONE thing after ANOTHER. Dirk so aptly put it- when you are ranked 100+ in MANY of the Special Teams categories year after year after year- It points to a systemic problem. 

Culp having one good year out of the 4 Frost has been here looks like an aberration. He was missing EVERYTHING past the 20 yard line in pregame- Frost wasnt going to let him kick much of anything. I dont think that problem is back in the barn just yet. 

 
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Undone said:
The majority of the fan base (for the most part understandably) seems to basically be in a feedback loop right now:

1. The loss to Illinois ruins the actual or perceived level of where we're at in 2021

2. The stupid-tough strength of schedule gets largely overlooked because of Point #1
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:yeah

Illinois is really a crazy-bad outlier at this point.  Easily the worst game we've played this year. 

If we just don't lay an egg there, being 4-3 with three one-score losses to undefeated Top 10 teams, we are a really good team that's played a really tough schedule.

 
Nebraska55fan said:
Give me a FG kicker who makes 27-30 and we dont need to have this conversation  :rolleyes:  Our Special teams issues aren't about "bad luck" aberrations 

You seem to forget about trying to field punts on the 3 and throwing the ball out of bounds, not fielding punts and giving up huge swaths of yardage, not getting guys away on a short punt- yielding a turnover, the myriad of horrific KO returns - short return inside the 20s, not fair catching, yielding KO returns and punts for touchdowns- some in this season, many in seasons past. ONE thing after ANOTHER. Dirk so aptly put it- when you are ranked 100+ in MANY of the Special Teams categories year after year after year- It points to a systemic problem. 

Culp having one good year out of the 4 Frost has been here looks like an aberration. He was missing EVERYTHING past the 20 yard line in pregame- Frost wasnt going to let him kick much of anything. I dont think that problem is back in the barn just yet. 
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I'm not trying to say we haven't been bad in areas.  I'm saying most of our issues this year have been players need to make plays.  And often, they need to make the easy play or make the play the coaches have told them to make.

They are coached to put their heels on the 8 and not back up.  It's up to the players to actually do that.

Pretty sure they were not coached to try to throw the ball away.  That was a dumb move by the player.

They are coached to yell to get guys out of the way on short punts.  It's up to the players to actually do that.

I'm curious about the supposed "myriad of horrific KO returns".  Seems like you're exaggerating that.

Also, I'm pretty sure we haven't given up "some" return TDs this year.  It's exactly one.  But I'm sure you exaggerating that makes your story better.

 
I feel like Nebraska needs to get to 6 wins at least to show true progress.  If they are truly improved, I don't feel there is any excuse not to go 3-2 down the stretch.  A top 30 or even 40 caliber team with just some "bad luck" should be able to get there. Either pull off a top 25 upset & 2 more or get all the wins against lesser & equal teams. 

 
Packerhuskerfan said:
I feel like Nebraska needs to get to 6 wins at least to show true progress.  If they are truly improved, I don't feel there is any excuse not to go 3-2 down the stretch.  A top 30 or even 40 caliber team with just some "bad luck" should be able to get there. Either pull off a top 25 upset & 2 more or get all the wins against lesser & equal teams. 
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This is the problem that losing to Illinois puts this season in.

Because even though Wisconsin is down this year...they're still Wisconsin. So we assume we'll get Minnesota & Purdue (which are big assumptions), and then we have to win 1/2 against Wisconsin & Iowa.

It's a tough row to hoe. 

 
Mavric said:
I'm not trying to say we haven't been bad in areas.  I'm saying most of our issues this year have been players need to make plays.  And often, they need to make the easy play or make the play the coaches have told them to make.

They are coached to put their heels on the 8 and not back up.  It's up to the players to actually do that.

Pretty sure they were not coached to try to throw the ball away.  That was a dumb move by the player.

They are coached to yell to get guys out of the way on short punts.  It's up to the players to actually do that.

I'm curious about the supposed "myriad of horrific KO returns".  Seems like you're exaggerating that.

Also, I'm pretty sure we haven't given up "some" return TDs this year.  It's exactly one.  But I'm sure you exaggerating that makes your story better.
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 Nope not at all

I clearly said this is a SYSTEMIC issue and CLEARLY said some of those mistakes were this year and SOME from years past HENCE the term systemic. 

If you read the post though- its easier to respond in a way that addressed what I clearly talked about. 

NO one tells a QB to do something wrong, NO one tells a returner to take a step back- but thats the difference in very good coaching and not so good coaching- or a lack of preparation. Telling is such a TINY part of the coaching job- TINY. You cant chalk up consistent mistakes year and year to kids not making plays. YES you CAN lessen those mistakes the WAY you teach, the reps you practice, the situations you put them into, the pressure you put the kids through in practice- how much you rep it- how you rep it- IT ALL MATTERS. Thats why a guy like Frank Beemer or Bill Snyder could have really good special teams stats consistently year after year.  COACHING MATTERs. And all coaching IS NOT EQUAL. 

 
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Mavric said:
Also, I'm pretty sure we haven't given up "some" return TDs this year.  It's exactly one.  But I'm sure you exaggerating that makes your story better.
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My words from my post "returns and punts for touchdowns- some in this season, many in seasons past. "  

Nice try though

 
Undone said:
Because they would have just kicked the PAT. Yeah and this goes to what I'm saying in the Martinez thread also though about how I'm not sure it's entirely sound logic to say that everything down stream happens identically to how it really played out if "X," "Y," or "Z" occurs in the first quarter.

Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't.

I wish we would have taken the points, but obviously these kinds of hindsight observations are low-hanging fruit.
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Definitely agree with ya

 
I rewatched the game today….as painful as it was. 
 

The thought I had was that this team plays like a mid to late 80s team. Very good team. Good talent. Great attitude. Competitive coach. But, when we went against a top 10 team, we were just short. 
 

problem is, we play so dang many this year. 
 

I love this team. I love the players just like back then. (Even though I was in a college drunken haze). 
 

Dang it….they just need to win. 

 
There aren't many teams in the country - only four by my count - who have a better offense AND a better defense than we do.

There is quite a cluster similar to us on offense (vertical) but only four teams are clearly better.


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We’re addressing our flaws one by one. O-line, getting better. Sucks about Teddy, but Benhart was serviceable. I haven’t heard one comment about their play costing us the game. 
 

Special teams was neutralized. We almost got a fumble, too. Hidden yardage factor still present with the lack of return yardage, but at least we’re fair catching it. 
 

next up on the to fix list-play calling at the halves. Don’t care if you blame AM or not, play calling with 2-4 minutes left has been historically atrocious under Frost. It’s like black cloud.  Maybe Betts should have designed plays just for this situation. Just an idea. Not sure how to fix it. Seems like Frost is managing the clock better. 

 
krc1995 said:
We’re addressing our flaws one by one. O-line, getting better. Sucks about Teddy, but Benhart was serviceable. I haven’t heard one comment about their play costing us the game. 
 

Special teams was neutralized. We almost got a fumble, too. Hidden yardage factor still present with the lack of return yardage, but at least we’re fair catching it. 
 

next up on the to fix list-play calling at the halves. Don’t care if you blame AM or not, play calling with 2-4 minutes left has been historically atrocious under Frost. It’s like black cloud.  Maybe Betts should have designed plays just for this situation. Just an idea. Not sure how to fix it. Seems like Frost is managing the clock better. 
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So, we are going to have WRs calling their own plays?

 
Rahmir had a heck of a game. I haven’t seen much attention for his 170 yard all-purpose night. 

we need a dynamite punt returner. Would be a nice one-two punch to compliment the defense. 
 

if I were playing us, I would never put kickoffs into the end zone. Make them hit around the 10-15. 

 
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