Good step forward

[cg_8]

How did this team win on Saturday?

Tell ya how....

Two penalties for 25 yards. Two. For 25 yards.

From a team that had (per each previous game):

12 penalties for 90 yards

7 penalties for 80 yards

12 penalties for 98 yards

6 penalties for 42 yards

9 penalties for 89 yards

This was the most complete game they've played all year long. They reduced the backbreaking stupid penalties, won the turnover battle, and for the most part, tackled well.

Exactly this.

Honestly, this is exactly how Minny beat us last year. They had ZERO penalties going into our last drive. They ended up getting a PI, that could have cost them the game, but it obviously didn't. Regardless, Minny also had ZERO TO's last year too.

I hope we can continue to play like that. I didn't get a chance to really watch the game, but seems like we played well. 48 points in conference play is always a good step.

Also, who said this is our worst punt returning? Do we all forget our punt returns in 2013? Where we returned a total of 70 yards the whole year? Also, as someone pointed out, Santino Panico.... C'mon...

 

[MichiganDad3]

Punt return game worse than ever.

What?!

We let two punts roll a long ways yesterday, and we fumbled one the prior game. One punt we didn't catch was downed at the one yard line against Minny. Not executing the fundamentals is killing this team. We need DPE with that fearless, I can catch everything and take it to the house, attitude he had last year

you do realize dpe was staring straight into the sun, right. The ball landed 4 yards behind him and ironically, onto his shadow (if your shadow is behind you that implies the suns in front of you). When dpe returned a punt the other way (not staring into the sun) he returned it for 40+ yards.

It is about doing the basics well. Does the baseball team let fly balls go because they lost the ball in the sun. Almost never, yet we do it twice in a single game. IMO, we can win two to three additional games per year just by improving the basics. Someone posted a TO video a couple days ago where TO said they practice the same play over and over until it was almost impossible to run it incorrectly. We improved greatly in ST last year, but we have degraded this year, although that was partially caused by a couple key injuries. I also think DPE has been coached tonplay more cautious this year.

 

[Hunter94]

special teams still need work.......ask Michigan and Michigan State how important they are..........

 

[Huskers19911]

I don't normally dog players and he's the best we have, but Armstrong couldn't win in the new system. He showed potential and they tried it. But today they said several times, they've simplified things for him. It showed, but still he over and under threw balls.

I blame the coaching staff for not taking the game out of his hands earlier just to win more games. He'll throw cross body or off his back foot even if he's rolling and has time to set.

Braxton Miller is a better QB than Armstrong and Ohio State moved him to wide reciever this year.

To win we need to play into his strengths. But even rolling him out he's throwing up crap and should run if in doubt. No routes over 20 yards the rest of the year. More tight end.

Why bring Miller into the conversation? OSU proved they had three talented QBs last season, that can win. Plus, they have a ton of talent around them, which helped.

Armstrong does well when we have a balanced attack. If we try to pass it over 70% of the time, he will struggle. Closer to 50/50, his percent of completion will rise.

Healthy Martinez who would have stayed healthy (all four years and developed vs playing hurt) vs. healthy Miller? I'll take Martinez over him as qb. Braxton was good at qb, but nothing phenomenonal, which is why he was moved, Taylor stayed at qb, while hurt, because we were lacking in subs.

 

[Mierin]

Punt return game worse than ever.

What?!

We let two punts roll a long ways yesterday, and we fumbled one the prior game. One punt we didn't catch was downed at the one yard line against Minny. Not executing the fundamentals is killing this team. We need DPE with that fearless, I can catch everything and take it to the house, attitude he had last year

you do realize dpe was staring straight into the sun, right. The ball landed 4 yards behind him and ironically, onto his shadow (if your shadow is behind you that implies the suns in front of you). When dpe returned a punt the other way (not staring into the sun) he returned it for 40+ yards.

It is about doing the basics well. Does the baseball team let fly balls go because they lost the ball in the sun. Almost never, yet we do it twice in a single game.

The consequences to letting a football touch you and then dropping it are way more devastating than doing the same thing with a fly ball. Especially where our player was on the field. It's almost a certain touchdown for the other team. And the consequences to letting the ball go over your head aren't that bad in football. You're not even comparing apples to oranges here it's more like apples to sardines.