2 cents from a day at the Big House

Good to see the students show up in force. I know there was talk about missing the kick off or the 1st qtr. Glad they supported the team. They where loud and vocal all game long.

The fans where loud and vocal as well. We stood most of the game. Fans stayed positive. One time on 3rd & 15, M ran a draw for 5yds, lot of boos. Other than that very supportive crowd.

Sandyeggo mentioned in another post, can M have home games for every game? Whether or not having all day for pre-game tailgating helps the crowd be more vocal, definitely more enthusiasm, the team seems to have more enthusiasm.

Blue pants, yellow shoes, liked them!!!

Now to the game, 1st HALF: THE GOOD: Scoring a TD on 1st drive was huge. Looked like PSU defender was just waiting for the INT, meanwhile Funchess made a nice move to come back for a beautiful catch. Defense bended but didn't break holding PSU to 2 FGs, so its only 13-7 PSU not 21-7. DG made some very nice throws, receivers with some nice catches, a few tough receptions. 45yd FG

1ST HALF, THE BAD: Maybe the stupidest call, calling time out with 4secs left. PSU was happy to ran out clock. Don't have a clue what Hoke was thinking. M got a sack, but fans around me all thinking the same thing, a hail mary for a TD. Next, 4yds of rushing at halftime? ugly!!!

2ND HALF, THE GOOD: the defense!!!!!!!!!!! Haven't seen that kind of performance in a long time. 2 FGs made, 43 & 37yds, 3 for 3 on the day. When needed running game finally found some holes late in game.

2ND HALF THE BAD: can't get to picky, M needed this win any way possible even if it wasn't the prettiest of games. Bellamy's almost pick-6 would've been ugly. Obviously the running game, think at one time in 3rd it was -1 total for the game. But when needed, see above, running game got act together.

OVERALL: A very nice win, team badly needed this. Def. outstanding!!! Special teams where outstanding until on-side kick, luckily PSU off sides. Offense, did enough, O-line good enough. A beautiful day in AA, awesome food, cold beverages at tailgate, the sky was blue, the sun was maize. I guess that made it a maize and blue day!!!

OK its 2:40am, I'm a little slap happy, what can I say except GO BLUE!!!

Thanks for the run down booboo.

I have a thought on the timeout at the end of the first half.

I was yelling for a timeout while there were still 11 seconds left. IMHO that would have forced PSU to try a punt. A failed Hail Mary and we would have gotten the ball for 1 play. Or we may have blocked the punt.

Once it got to 4 seconds it was too late for that and the timeout was a bad one.

JMHO

agreed joe he had plenty of time to use it ... with four seconds all Hackenburg had to do was what he did fall forward and half was done .... poor clock management

joe wrote:

I have a thought on the timeout at the end of the first half.

I was yelling for a timeout while there were still 11 seconds left. IMHO that would have forced PSU to try a punt. A failed Hail Mary and we would have gotten the ball for 1 play. Or we may have blocked the punt.

Once it got to 4 seconds it was too late for that and the timeout was a bad one.

JMHO

Exactly right Joe, will 11 seconds a punt block also would give you a chance at a FG.

joe wrote:

I have a thought on the timeout at the end of the first half.

I was yelling for a timeout while there were still 11 seconds left. IMHO that would have forced PSU to try a punt. A failed Hail Mary and we would have gotten the ball for 1 play. Or we may have blocked the punt.

Once it got to 4 seconds it was too late for that and the timeout was a bad one.

JMHO

The only things that I can think of was maybe he was expecting Norfleet to finally break one (more evidence that Coach Hoke hasn't been paying attention)? Or maybe an INT return for a TD?

But with 4 seconds you are only going to get one play and a Hail Mary of tht distance is unlikely. However with 11 seconds you could make a quick ten yard play, get out of bounds, then have a better shot at a Hail Mary?

I wasn't fond of it either but oh well, it didn't hurt Michigan.

joe wrote:

I have a thought on the timeout at the end of the first half.

I was yelling for a timeout while there were still 11 seconds left. IMHO that would have forced PSU to try a punt. A failed Hail Mary and we would have gotten the ball for 1 play. Or we may have blocked the punt.

Once it got to 4 seconds it was too late for that and the timeout was a bad one.

JMHO

You analyzed it correctly. Call a timeout with more time and you force them to punt, with that little time left, you allow them to try a hail mary.

We also had another classic Hoke inept clock management at the end of the half. Towards the end of the half we got the ball with 2:27 left and two timeouts, on our own 36. That is plenty of time to score a TD and easily enough for a FG. I said to my wife, watch Hoke screw this up. On the first play, we gained two yards and burned nearly 40 seconds off the clock! On the second play, we had no gain, burned another 40 seconds............and then burned one of the timeouts! Even if we convert the first down there, we're under a minute and only have one TO left, most likely near midfield. With our coaching staff, a FG is still possible, but far from a given, and a TD is only possible if someone on PSU falls down.

There is simply no defending burning 40 seconds on first down, that is coaching malpractice again. On the 2nd down, there are two possibilities. First, Hoke assumed we had no chance of converting a 3rd and 8 and was giving up, afraid that PSU would be more likely to score, likely from worse field position than we had, with under a minute to go and with one TO, than we were with 2:27 to go and two TOs. The more likely scenario, is that the coaching staff had no idea that 40 seconds were ticking off the clock on both plays and were too confused to get in a play or make a decision on third down and had to call timeout.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Brady Hoke has utterly no concept of how to manage a clock in late game/half situations. It's a skill that is just completely beyond him.

Well, I don't know that it is Hoke's fault on that burning 40 seconds.

Doesn't Nussmeier take care of the play to play timing?

Hoke does a lot of dumb things but I don't think we can pile EVERYTHING on him.

Obama did it!!!

joe wrote:

Well, I don't know that it is Hoke's fault on that burning 40 seconds.

Doesn't Nussmeier take care of the play to play timing?

Hoke does a lot of dumb things but I don't think we can pile EVERYTHING on him.

My understanding is that only the head coach can call a time out from the sideline.

joe wrote:

Well, I don't know that it is Hoke's fault on that burning 40 seconds.

Doesn't Nussmeier take care of the play to play timing?

Hoke does a lot of dumb things but I don't think we can pile EVERYTHING on him.

It's on Hoke because this has been a consistent thing for four years. Under Hoke, they have had no idea how to manage end of game/end of half situations. They also seem nearly incapable of running a hurry up offense. That was not an isolated incident, it's happened repeatedly. I didn't happen to see what Hoke was doing as that minute and a half ticked off over the coarse of two plays, but I'll wager there was clapping involved.

wshoes wrote:

joe wrote:

Well, I don't know that it is Hoke's fault on that burning 40 seconds.

Doesn't Nussmeier take care of the play to play timing?

Hoke does a lot of dumb things but I don't think we can pile EVERYTHING on him.

My understanding is that only the head coach can call a time out from the sideline.

Well calling a timeout and rushing to get the play in or just plain playing with urgency are different.