You upset about how the Missouri game played out? That’s nothing compared to what a pissed off Brian Cook directs at Al Borges’ playcalling in Michigan’s loss at Penn State.
I cried because my team had no pass defense, until I met a blogger whose team had no play caller.
Filed under Big 12 Football
Get The Picture 
Al thinks that’s some S-E-C style bitching although he probably wishes Brian would share the wealth with Special Teams based on its stellar achievement of not hitting 3 game winning field goals (based, of course, on Al’s lack of play-calling skills so Special Teams wouldn’t have had to keep trying them).
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Avoiding an 80% chance of free yards for fear of the 10% chance of a turn-over so you can hold onto a 30% chance of missing a 45 yard field goal that would otherwise win the game… where have I seen that before?
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Good LORD those D backs played 10 yards off the receivers.
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There were D backs on the field?
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I just cried……….indiscriminately.
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And me, consistently.
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Michigan was a loss waiting to happen. Did he really think they were the real deal? In any way that is measured? Big 10/11/12 football is on par with the new/old Big East leftovers. Promise you the only viewers, outside of the two schools’ fanbases were people waiting for the next game, or people like me who had a bet on the game….I was both. Was ticked State Penn almost blew my “upset pick” by giving up two Q4 TD passes.
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This issue is that Michigan has the tools to be a real deal team. Not top five or national title contender, but at least on the fringes of the top ten. The defense is reasonably good and the offense has the tools to be good, but not when they are pissing away 30 of 82 snaps on a tailback running game that is a disaster of historical proportions. What’s frustrating about this team is that they have the raw material to be better, but they are playing like shit, mainly because of Borges.
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Ahhh…reminds me of the good ol’ days when we could just blame Bobo. Good times. Good times.
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That’s some high quality ranting right there. And I agree with him. Pretty stupid play calling. Maybe we’ll play them in the Citrus Bowl.
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That’s some high quality ranting right there. And I agree with him. Maybe we can play them in the Citrus Bowl. Should make for some interesting coaching matchups.
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Sigh…..I hate mobile posting. Mainly because I suck at it.
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But wait … You can spell Citrus without UGA! That’s the sort of team that Georgia could handle and would be fun to play. Maybe if the Dawgs do what is expected and get in to the SECC then lose we’ll knock heads in the Capital One or Outback(or any other promotional game that fits).
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Back in our Bobo bashing days, we just complained about halfback draws in shotgun from third and long and going steering away from plays that were working. This guy provides video/photo evidence of ineptitude. Classic.
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It’s a film study with Zapruder-like analysis. Even Tommy never did that to Al
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Love Al Borges, but he made me shake my head often.
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Most coaches are very conservative by nature. They feel that they can avoid criticism by adhering to the conventional wisdom. Playing for a field goal in overtime and punting inside your opponent’s 40-yard line are examples that coaches often fall back on despite overwhelming evidence that it is a stupid thing to do. Yet, it works once (UT this year), so in the coach’s mind it validates it as a strategy because he conveniently forgets all of the other times that it cost a team the game. The same way with the punting. You pin the other team inside the five once, so punting from their forty is clearly the right thing to do… even though you get a touchback most of the time, and the twenty yards of field position are not worth the down and the possession of the ball.
It is times like these that I like to remind everyone that coaches are not infallible. They do dumb things sometimes. They even believe they are not dumb, because within their closed off circles, everybody else does it, too. The coaches that don’t are gimmicky and outliers.
We should support our coaches, and, more importantly, our players, but criticism of stupid things they do can be okay. It’s just best done with evidence, and not your gut feeling that Bobo should run the ball more or Grantham’s schemes are too complex or other silliness. If you don’t cry wolf every time a third down play doesn’t work, the valid criticism will hold more merit. Like this one:
Coach Richt is a believer in playing for the field goal. He trusted it against Tennessee this year. He trusted it against Michigan State in 2011. He has trusted it throughout his career. He will trust it in the future. It will cost Georgia another game. It is a dumb strategy that fails often, and he believes in it like it’s his fifth child. It’s not playing to win the game. It’s trying not to lose. His team has turned the ball over 9 times in 438 plays this year. That’s a turnover on 2% of plays running your regular offense (prior to Missouri, it was only 1.4%). And, instead of continuing to run your regular offense out of fear of that 2%, you put the game in the hands of a kicker who has a career make percentage of 67%. Morgan has a great leg, but a field goal is a last chance at points when your offense fails to score a touchdown. It is a dumbfoundingly bad strategy to give up your possession and opt for the last chance first. Yet, Coach Richt will choose this strategy again. It will cost the team a game. It might not be the next one, but it is coming… again.
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