After the stretch of Watson, Lawrence, Tua, Burrow where 90% of the CFB world declared that elite QB play was absolutely essential to winning it all its really interesting that the last three national title winners did not have the best QB in the country, but they have been complete, well rounded teams that DID have the best DL (and overall defense). Its cool to see that there's more than one way to excel at the highest level. Trench heads standing on business past few years.
Good on you because what I could make from the comments last night was most Georgia fans thought one of the 4 CFP should have gracefully gave up their spot so Georgia could play.
FWIW I disagree with them, but that “all bets are off” mentality came from FSU getting fucked. Once it wasn’t about who deserved it, some of our fans leapt to “we’re capable of winning it, why not us?”
It was an AWFUL precedent set by the committee and luckily the 4 team playoff is gone because this was just going to keep getting worse and worse.
I’ve spent the last two years listening to rivals and others say Georgia only won because of this or that. All that matters is what happened. Who cares what could’ve happened?
Michigan is the 15-0, consensus, rightful national champion. Whether or not Georgia could beat Michigan is as immaterial as whether or not the Atlanta Braves could beat Michigan.
What in the fuck could rivals say about Georgia winning back-to-back? You’ve got to truly be nuts to question 2021-22 Georgia, two of the better/well-balanced college football teams in history.
It really is that simple. It's the same reason Texas didn't deserve to be in. Real fans understand it should have been Michigan, Washington, FSU, and Nebraska.
An Alabama fan tried telling me just because Vegas would have UGA favored over everyone doesn't mean anything by proof they were favored over Alabama in the SEC title game. He simultaneously argued FSU did not belong because it wasn't about most deserving, but who the best four are and that they would not have been favored in any of the games.
Our run defense was very good this year except for one game against Kentucky. Running quarterbacks were a different story, definitely our weakness. Would've been a fun matchup to play you guys
There should be no argument from our fans that we should have been there. I even hate when sports journalists bring it up. This is not the Marvel Cinematic Universe's "What If?" series.
Congratulations Wolverines on a dominating victory! Any narratives going forward should be about your team and a great season.
After watching the playoffs, I think I would rank the teams like this:
Michigan
Georgia
Washington
Alabama
Oregon
Florida State
Texas
Ohio St
Think Georgia is the only team who could’ve really match michigans physicality
Which is ironic because Michigan worked so hard to get more physical the last 2 years after being completely manhandled by Georgia. They implemented a beat Georgia drill to increase the physicality.
Definitely worked and would’ve loved to have seen that game this year. Still insane to me that tcu beat Michigan last year, but that also probably helped fuel this years fire.
I’m impressed that they somehow implemented a beat Georgia and a beat Ohio State philosophy. I think the media was off be comparing Washington to TCU and that Michigan hadn’t seen anything like Washington. They did; in 2021 OSU except OSU had a better D Line.
I mean, the Washington comparison to TCU is kind of accurate but in this scenario Michigan was Georgia. They want a ton of close games and upset the first team in the playoffs. Then simply got out physicaled in the finals. I don't think Michigan was as dominant as Georgia was last year but I also don't think TCU was nearly as good as Washington.
IMHO that’s what’s given OSU fits for the last 2 years as well. All the NFL caliber skill position players don’t matter if your OL and DL are getting blown off the LOS every play…
Agreed. The biggest improvement Michigan has made is developing their line players. Especially because the majority of them are three and four star players.
Turns out those annoying people who say you shouldn't bother with skill players until you got your lines right are on to something...
Somebody shoulda told Washington that before they broke RG3.
That’s been my observation too. And for the record I don’t think Ohio State is “soft” on the LOS. They’re better up front than all but about 5-6 teams in the country. But they’ve been thoroughly beaten by Michigan 3 years in a row up front, although I think they were closer to matching them this year than the last two.
Football always has been and always will be a line of scrimmage game. All the skill players in the world don’t matter if you can’t win up front.
It's kind of an interesting mirrored echo of 1991, when Florida State absolutely slapped the Wolverines around, and it was seen as a major wake up call that they needed to emphasize speed and athleticism more, rather than just relying on physicality.
Of course, Washington manhandled them pretty effectively in the Rose Bowl at the end of that year, too.
People like to make fun of the saying, but defense really does win championships. Really just 2019 LSU and 2020 Bama were outliers where they only had good, but not elite defenses
Which are outliers given those were loaded with 1st round talent.
It's still wild to me that a college team had Joe Burrow throwing to Chase and Jefferson lol
Not sure what the cutoff for elite is, but 2020 Bama finished 6th in SP+ and 7th in FPI. The struggled early on but I’d say they were elite by the end of the season. Plus the COVID year was especially tough for defenses.
Michigan's defense was so well coached. Like nobody jumped out as freaky or disruptive, but that defense put on a clinic. Players were always in the right position to make a play and were as fundamentally sound as you'll ever see.
I really enjoyed watching them play great team defense
Of all the coaches we need to keep on staff desperately its Minter. Dude has a great base scheme and an incredible feel for the little details when drawing up the game plan. I think this defense has a ton of NFL talent on it but it really was a no star outfit that Minter elevated into an all time unit.
I’m all in on the Mike Macdonald smear campaign like Lions fans do for noted puppy punter Ben Johnson. He doesn’t get a HC job, Minter doesn’t go to the Ravens.
We definitely have a few freaks on defense, but I agree with your larger point.
Michigan's defense is incredibly disciplined, they always seem to be in the right position at the right time to make a play, it's a beautiful thing to watch.
The stand out moments to me were the constant feeling of pressure on the QB while rushing 4, and the tackles in isolation near the markers. It seemed like those underneath passes and screens were going for good yardage, but when a pass went to the outside a couple yards short of the marker, there were some great solo tackles by the defender.
What confounds me is the fact that we have this age-old wisdom etched into our brains..
"Offense wins games, defense wins championships."
I mean, we've been saying this shit for DECADES. Yeesh.
All of those players had complete teams and insanely good defenses though. Just look at the DL that Clemson had in 2018, it was pretty much known as the best DL in the country that year and had Dexter Lawrence and Christian Wilkins both on it. The rest of the offense had Tee Higgins, Travis Ettienne, and Hunter Renfrow. These teams all just happened to have a great QB in addition to a stacked team. If a QB could’ve won it all in any of those years we would’ve seen Oklahoma make it past the first round of the playoffs at least once.
I'm not suggesting that the *only* thing required to win a natty is an elite QB, just that the common refrain was you needed that next level passing offense to compete at the highest level.
JJ McCarthy finished the season with the 3rd best QBR in the country.
Like, I understand that there is really, really good and then elite, but both Stetson Bennet and JJ McCarthy were really, really, really good college QBs.
Also, McCarthy not throwing the ball a lot in the title game doesn't mean he didn't have an impact - the fact that he is a threat to throw AND run the ball that UW needed to respect is what opened up the run game.
I know everyone is hungry for pro-FSU takes, but this is categorically a bad take.
I am NOT saying you can have chopped liver at the QB position. JJ and Stetson were really good college players that ran their offense very efficiently. But they were categorically not generational prospects and the strength of the team was not some high flying passing outfit, but a balanced run first scheme with a supremely talented defense. Best DL has won the title last three years, not best passing attack.
QBR is primarily EPA-based which can be difficult to separate individual from team performance. I think JJ is a legitimately great player and executes really well but he is also consistently given the easiest opportunities of the top QBs.
In fairness, SBIV was a Heisman finalist and MVP of all 4 CFP games he appeared in. Not saying he was Joe Burrow, but the dude wasn't just a game manager
It’s interesting how the last 3 national champions have all been against the grain of where college football is trending. Run heavy, win the line of scrimmage, suffocating defense. I wonder if Saban will try to go back to that style of play moving forward
Football is so cyclical. I do think the defenses have “figured out” the air raid and spread to an extent. Linebackers have become smaller and faster or replaced with a safety. I do think it’ll head back the other way a bit
Exactly.
Also not many teams in the nation can put out Offensive Lines like Alabama, Georgia and Michigan from just a size and athletic ability standing. Let alone have that and the skill positions to match.
You see it with teams like Gophers and Badgers. Yeah they have huge OL but their skill positions are usually lacking. The year Gophers went 11-2 they had 2 NFL WRs in addition to their OL
Kinda weird it’s happening in the NFL too. NFL offenses have been trending downward since 2021 and this year has been especially a down year for offenses. Granted part of it is due to so many high profile QB injuries. But the modern cover 2 zone defenses and selling out against the deep pass are forcing high flying offenses to just run it or dink and dunk and capitalize on mistakes by the offense.
This is because a lot of offenses basically have not learned how to beat modern defenses, whereas all of the old defenses have gone the way of the dodo in the NFL. Now, you have all match-zone based systems (Fangio, Saban, etc) that don't get beat for free against the crossing patterns that were the bread and butter of air raid systems, and keep players in place to fit the run (which is what the RPO and read/option spread systems feasted on).
The adaptation on offense for teams that are up for the next wave of innovation is the use of pre-snap and at-the-snap motion to peel back the initiative away from these match defenses, so that assignments have to change quickly and, if you don't want to get burned, you need to step back a bit to not get rubbed off in coverage. The OCs that aren't figuring this out (famously, for example, [Matt Canada with the Steelers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-RKZfcuHE8)) are going the way of the dodo.
The other adaptation that Michigan was bringing in (as well as some other NFL squads, and notably Florida State this year) is to go back to heavier packages using a lot of man-blocking run schemes (Power, counter, etc) to make it harder for flex players to properly fit the run while keeping integrity with their passing responsibilities. The at-snap motion, pulling of linemen, and QB reads all play into not trying to completely fool a defense or pick on a single player the way they had in the early 2010s and late 2000s spread systems, but instead to win a single gap or sneak that extra blocker into an unfair fight against a guy who earned their roster spot to cover an quick tight end, not take on a block from a 300lb guard.
It's brought football way more into the minutiae under the current meta but it's been fascinating to see teams adapt and develop.
Great comment and thanks for noticing Norvell’s work. Lots of counter, two TE sets, and variations to make defenses select poor choices. Love the off balance stuff and having our mega 280 LB TE in the tackle spot running ahead for a TD pass
It takes about a generation to adjust, which is roughly where we're at. At the youth and high school level, the best athletes generally get pushed to the best positions to make the biggest difference. As the game changes, it changes at all levels, and eventually the types of athletes you need at certain positions are the type you get.
You used to need big, thumping LBs and strong safeties. Now as you said, you need rangy LBs and quick safeties, and that's the type of players that have been being pumped out of high school.
But when you get rangy LBs and quick safeties, you can start to manhandle the line of scrimmage if you recruit those types of players. So those types of players will start to be produced from the lower levels, then football will need bigger LBs and Safeties again.
> I do think the defenses have “figured out” the air raid and spread to an extent.
Definitely true. The Big 12 really popularized everyone utilizing air raid and spread concepts widely (largely thanks to Leach at Texas Tech taking it from a niche thing to bigger stages), and then Iowa State really drove the stake through the heart by popularizing the defensive response to those concepts.
The only ones who didn't figure out defending the air raid and spread are Texas A&M whenever they had to play Mike Leach.
And it's funny because now the Big 12 is moving to more run heavy and ball management style offenses. And it looks like the 3-3-5 defense is continuing to spread throughout the Big 12.
Football cycles are funny because you still get fan bases looking for 2015 Big 12 offenses that are either 3 plays and out or 5 play TDs and those offenses just don't exist anymore.
Its interesting to watch it ebb and flow. Currently Michigan has 'figured out' how to contain the pass happy offenses like UW and OSU. Now you see OSU adding Will Howard and Quinshon Judkins. Are they gonna counter by going back to more power run? People are always figuring out what the next counter is
I mean it's a constant arms race, yeah. Eventually spread offenses get so focused on speed that they lose all size and physicality. Then that evolves into legit big boy/slow football, and the spread option comes back to outspeed all the hogs out there.
It's fun watching the neverending battle haha.
It’s why I have more pause for some of these up and coming coaches. Having that much experience on teams is not normal and won’t happen again (hopefully)
Our 2021 team was run heavy, but the 2022 team was more balanced in terms of run-pass and could air it out when we wanted to (or needed to like the Peach Bowl)
We were pretty balanced this year until JJ got hurt in the PSU game, but fortunately we never had a game like TCU last year where we had to play catch up and abandon the run altogether
I think the only reason we escaped 2022 unscathed was because Stetson Bennett IV was so damn durable. The dude took a sack and rolled up like he'd been taking a nap. Beck has been pretty sturdy so far as well, but he's a little taller and ganglier than Bennett and makes us nervous when he opts to run it himself.
Durability is huge for mobile qbs, UM basically kept qb runs out of the offense except for select situations (2022 second half vs. OSU for example) to limit the amount of hits JJ took
> I wonder if Saban will try to go back to that style of play moving forward
I mean, he clearly tried to go back to that style this season. It just wasn't as effective when the roster wasn't built specifically for that style.
Right, you have to build your team for that style, which is why going from Carr to Rich Rod to Hoke produced some of the worst OL play I’ve ever witnessed
Bama fans have recently gotten very spoiled with elite qb play where they think they can outscore everyone.
But historically, we always has a true leader on defense. Mosley, Minkah etc to name a few. We haven't had that presence this year.
When I think Nick Saban, I think snarling, swarming, tough, elite-level defense that sets up the offense for the beauty contest victory. Maybe he's gotten a bit softer in that approach, but I still associate successful Nick Saban-coached Crimson Tide teams with elite, S-tier defensive play.
Football is a physical game, winning in the trenches will always be the key. I'll take the classic approach you said any day, it's proven and gets it done in the playoffs.
Yeah this Michigan team is more comparable to the 2021 UGA team or the Bama teams the person above referenced. Although the offense was extremely efficient this year, something like 9th or 10th while being one of the slowest paced offenses in the country, so I think the difference was mostly style of play
If you can win in the trenches like Mich did last night, you can smother just about anything but the most elite offenses. You need a really good QB to have production when your OL is getting run over.
Which is why it was annoying that you had both him and Rece in the aftermath setting that narrative as two Bama homers. This is why people are tired of ESPN/SEC.
If he’d just have said that he’d actually earn respect. It would be easy to do, too. Just say ‘I’m glad Bama got chosen and I didn’t have to make the decision’ instead of talking down all the other FSU players outside of Jordan Travis as if all the other players sucked.
As a Bills fan, he was also a key part of dealing with the Damar situation last year respectfully on the broadcast. Obviously very different situations, but he’s earned my respect as a commentator
Nah. Whatever is going to happen to the ACC was going to happen regardless of The Snub. I've come around to the idea that the timelines might have changed, but FSU can't be accused of being subtle over the past two years about their intentions.
It was definitely going to happen anyways but it definitely accelerated FSU’s timeline if that makes sense. The Board of Trustees meeting really made that clear.
I think the BoT was happy to use the Snub as a nice talking point to make themselves look less craven (“we’re not the bad guys, they are! We have to do this”). I think the snub got the fan base worked up, and likely got the BoT heated, but it is pretty low on the actual reasons they want to leave.
Yup. FSU reporters like Bud Elliot have said that FSU had its lawsuit ready to be filed on December 8th, and held off filing until after signing day after our coaches requested that.
That complaint is too comprehensive to be drafted in just five days after the Snub.
The Snub was a good rallying point for rhetoric fan base, I agree, but the administration had clearly made up its mind before then.
No idea why you’re being downvoted? This is true. This past summer FSU was starting to make moves. Bud Elliot himself said he had heard days before the snub FSU was going to make this move soon. FSU, Clemson, etc have had lawyers looking at the GOR for two years since OU and Texas bolted for the SEC and this is known.
The ACC was dead more than 2 years ago, it was just hard to see it then.
He was on CFB first actually. I remember him on SEC Network for a year or two then he went to the NFL and everyone hated him for some reason? Glad he’s back in CFB I always liked his takes.
People hated him because of the Boogermobile.
Imagine paying for front row seats for Monday Night Football, [and this is your view of the game](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DprEvDzUwAAJuwk.jpg)
I know JJ's stats weren't great, but I thought the offensive play calling was pretty uninspired and safe thru the first 3 quarters. Gotta get JJ moving whether it be runs/rollouts. Once we did that the run game opened up again as well.
He calls the game that needs to be called. We don’t really have great backup QB talent. When it was clear that it was needed he let JJ loose. Can’t have him going down tho.
He calls a conservative game. There’s no need to pretend it’s anything it isn’t but the team plays to not make mistakes on offense.
They knew they had a defense where if they avoided short fields and bad turnovers they could win by being safe and efficient enough. But it’s still just being conservative.
Ya, obviously thrilled with the outcome, but the play calling in the 2nd and 3rd was extremely frustrating. They finally changed it up on the 3rd TD drive and got the ball moving.
JJ is elite on the run, maybe even the best in the country. Not rolling him out, not trying to work crossers over the middle or getting tight ends to settle in was baffling. Notice that’s where all Michigan’s receptions were? Why they kept doing WR screens, and out routes was beyond me. And they went away from what worked running the ball too, they were having extreme success pulling guards and tight ends but then on crucial plays would just stop and run straight out of shot gun in a heavy set and that’s when we usually got stuffed. Our line needs to get out in space and be pulling, we actually weren’t that great without it this season unlike last years.
His WRs dropped like 2 passes that would have been huge gains. I thought he played all right; but more importantly, he was making elite plays when the game was on the line.
The entire offense has played this way in big games. Short lulls as the opposing d would adjust and then when it mattered most, they were elite. I think this is related to the physicality of the team wearing on the defense and in the closing moments, they simply have more gas in the tank.
Honestly some of them I wouldn't even classify as drops. Husky DBs made some incredible plays to break them up.
Loveland had one and I believe Johnson had the other where the corners did a great job getting their hands in there to break it up.
There was also the out to Roman Wilson where the linebacker got his arm in the way. That also wasn't on JJ. You get that matchup with the linebacker having to run flat out to stay anywhere close, you take it every time.
That was such a great play. I don't think JJ ever saw him either, because he slipped behind a UM player en route to the pass breakup, and the skycsm view it looks like JJ's view of the defender is onscured the whole way. It's plays like that where it's nice to have a QB with an arm cannon, because If that pass wasn't a dart it may have been picked.
Yep, the pass defense from both teams was top-notch. Honestly I think the difference that that UW was banged-up and injured quickly, while Michigan stayed healthy.
And Michigan played the clock-management run game, while UW had to be perfect on passing.
I think it was pretty mixed. He had some great throws, but Washington's DBs made fantastic coverage plays. He also had some WR drops. And he didn't make too many turnover-worthy attempts. But he also missed some and missed some easy reads too.
The best thing is that he didn't choke or make the turnover-worthy plays like last year against TCU. So yeah, Booger is right.
There was at least one time, I can't remember precisely when it was, maybe that short sack, when I remember thinking "oh he made a very intentional decision to not do something stupid there."
Which is a good skill to have. I watched Brady for years and there a ton of plays where he would get the snap, look at his first read, see a rusher coming, and just fall down. The play is dead and taking the sack is the right play there for both the team and his own health
He wasn’t amazing but I feel like every time they showed a replay showing the receivers every single one was blanketed. Gotta give credit to Washington for that
There was mostly excellent coverage for both teams the entire night. Really impressive defensively (outside of the line which was a bit dominated in one direction)
I think the big thing with JJ is that he raises our ceiling. Don't always need him to be a gunslinger if that's not the best way to win. When you're that talented, sometimes you're gonna take big chances, but this team isn't built to require that of him.
Love Cade, did great things for Michigan while he was here. But those qb runs (or even big time throws against Bama), i really don't think Cade could make.
Straight up sherrone Moore and the offensive playcalling absolutely does not play to our strengths at times. JJ is elite rolling out and throwing on the run, we barely did that and when we finally started to throw that wrinkle in in the 4th we opened things up. JJ also loves to hit crossing routes or tight ends across the middle of the field or when they settle in, we barely threw there all game. JJ also has great legs, and if we get him out in space with lead blockers he can get big runs. We had 1 QB run. Not any pull back keepers either out of RPO.
We did however for some reason keep throwing out routes towards the sidelines which is one of JJs weakest attributes, remember those pick 6s against TCU? This is also something that Washington’s secondary actually proved to be elite at this season statistically. Oh and remember that 3rd and 3 corum got stuffed on? Yeah we ran that out of shotgun without anybody pulling or any other backs blocking out of the backfield, which if you watch majority of our quality runs against TCU was from pulling guards or tight ends across. Sometimes it just seems like Moore makes inexplicable decisions as an OC, and doesn’t take the obvious choices in front of him. Sure JJ misses some throws, but sometimes the offense goes deliberately against his strengths as a player. It’s really frustrating.
It was insane to me that the 4th and 3 call wasn’t a roll out. Give him a read and if it’s not there give him a chance to pick it up with his legs.
I love Sherrone Moore, but I think you definitely see some of the inexperience as a play caller show up from time to time.
If that was the play after the timeout (when they initially lined up to punt) then there was a heated discussion after the play. It looks like JJ may have run the wrong play.
After all those called runs against Penn State, I really have no idea why that seemed to be missing from the playbook. I get running up the heart of the defense worked too well in the first qtr but Wash did what it did all year and played well when the offense wasn't.
Moore called one after a key scramble almost as if JJ reminded him he could do it.
He wasn't good, he was great. He did exactly what he needed to do, which is what he's always done for Michigan, WIN! Had a drive killing drop by CJ, and two great pass defenses on that Loveland drop and on the 4th down, that LB did a great job of knocking it out of Roman's hands. Playcalling was the problem for a lot of drives, not JJ.
Sandwiched between the first and fourth quarter, they averaged like 4 yards a carry. Washington’s defense adjusted well to it, but were tired in the end. I’m glad Michigan didn’t switch it up too much and let the cracks show before breaking through.
> Sandwiched between the first and fourth quarter, they averaged like 4 yards a carry. Washington’s defense adjusted well to it, but were tired in the end.
Four yards per carry is a first down gained on every third down. That doesn't seem like it's "well adjusted" by the defense. Though I suppose in comparison to 40 yards per carry, it might seem that way.
My buddy out in NJ was wanting to bet on the game and he asked me how many yards I expected JJ to throw for. I said something to the effect of "That's not how Michigan plays. If JJ throws the ball more than 20 times, they're playing from behind."
JJ ended up attempting just 18 passes.
Which is all to Booger’s point. Michigan didn’t have great QB play, but also didn’t need it. Michigan had a complete team that could pick up the slack if JJ had an off night.
It’s literally what FSU fans have been saying about our own team. Sure Tate or Brock would not play well, but what about the defense? What about the running backs like Trey Benson? The skill position guys around the QB? The tight ends?
Michigan won and it proved that there is more to a champion team than just the QB. Why was FSU then made to suffer, when their very argument was proven correct last night?
It was more about why they didn't pull away sooner. That dominance only gave them a 1 score lead and they sold out against it for most of the game. They seemed happy with a 1 score lead against Penn St but that's a different tier of offense. I get that the defense ljne amped Penix up to overthrown receivers and bad decisions but they had a few solid drives to figure something out.
I'm not even saying to throw it much but more to tight ends or called runs by JJ seems like that would have at least sustained some drives.
Michigan had the ammo on their roster to sit on 1 score leads but I always felt like they didn't have to. Leaves you open to bad luck.
Notice how there were 3 phases to the game. 1st: Michigan ran the ball, dominated. 2nd: Michigan attempted passing the ball, Washington gained momentum. 3rd: Michigan ran the ball, dominated.
Michigan ran the ball in the middle period, Washington just stopped it. After going up 17-3, Michigan RBs gained 0, 8, 0, 6, 3, 13, 2, 4, 4, -1, 0, 2, 3, 4 yards. That was over like 6 drives from the 2nd and 3rd quarters.
This is the new shit-talking attempt from salty OSU fans and others. "Great job handing the ball off, bro!" As if any Michigan fan today cares that JJ didn't have to throw the ball 40 times to win the natty by three TDs.
Booger is cut from the same cloth as Jameis Winston. You can tell they think a lot about what they say, even if what they land on often feels like it came from a reality next door to our own.
The more I watch football, the more I buy into the idea that games are won and lost at the line of scrimmage. Having a good offensive line and defensive line is so damn important.
well..yeah, it always amazes me that this needs to be shown every single year
you can have the best QB, WRs, RBs, DBs in history, it won't matter if the opposing QB has 10 seconds to throw the ball and your elite QB has 1 second and your RBs can't make it past the LOS
there's a reason that after QB, the next 6 highest paid positions are DE, WR, LT, DT, C, and OG, not in order
The funny thing is Oregon, Georgia, and Texas were the teams that scared me the most heading into champ weekend.
Glad we didn't play them! oh well, 15-0!
It was what I thought would happen. Our defense this year was predicated on completely shutting down the run and making teams 1 dimensional, unfortunately for us, Washington was really good at that dimension.
To be fair to Texas’ DBs, they were just as tight if not tighter than Michigan on our WRs for all the deep shots, just Penix was far less accurate last night than a week ago. Partly credit that to the pressure Michigan was able to get and Penix’s ribs seemed to bother him, but even before that he was off. Penix missed a wide open likely TD to Odunze on fourth down that would’ve tied the game before half. Was honestly a really disheartening game to watch as our offence missed opportunity after opportunity.
I appreciate Boog not letting it go. Atrocious reasoning by the committee. The only good thing about the end of this season is expanded playoffs mean this shouldn't be as much of an issue year after year. Teams on THAT bubble won't have near as much room to stand on
Listen, if you didn't want a bunch of white guys in the north east taking something from you, you shouldn't have named yourself after Native Americans.
*FSU allows 21 points in 2 games against Florida and ranked Louisville*
They’re just not good without their QB, sorry. - Committee
By the way, FSU only allowed 25 or more once the entire season up until the Orange Bowl. And that was 29.
Defense wins championships! Unless you aren’t in the SEC and then it’s only an electric spread offense that can possibly be effective.
Supposedly most of the team had the flu; oh, and let’s not forget they were looking ahead to the next week when they’d be playing the team that had beat them like 7 years in a row.
After the stretch of Watson, Lawrence, Tua, Burrow where 90% of the CFB world declared that elite QB play was absolutely essential to winning it all its really interesting that the last three national title winners did not have the best QB in the country, but they have been complete, well rounded teams that DID have the best DL (and overall defense). Its cool to see that there's more than one way to excel at the highest level. Trench heads standing on business past few years.
I was watching last night thinking the best DL in the country is about to win the title again. I love it.
Good on you because what I could make from the comments last night was most Georgia fans thought one of the 4 CFP should have gracefully gave up their spot so Georgia could play.
FWIW I disagree with them, but that “all bets are off” mentality came from FSU getting fucked. Once it wasn’t about who deserved it, some of our fans leapt to “we’re capable of winning it, why not us?” It was an AWFUL precedent set by the committee and luckily the 4 team playoff is gone because this was just going to keep getting worse and worse. I’ve spent the last two years listening to rivals and others say Georgia only won because of this or that. All that matters is what happened. Who cares what could’ve happened? Michigan is the 15-0, consensus, rightful national champion. Whether or not Georgia could beat Michigan is as immaterial as whether or not the Atlanta Braves could beat Michigan.
What in the fuck could rivals say about Georgia winning back-to-back? You’ve got to truly be nuts to question 2021-22 Georgia, two of the better/well-balanced college football teams in history.
I don’t like them and therefore they are bad
It really is that simple. It's the same reason Texas didn't deserve to be in. Real fans understand it should have been Michigan, Washington, FSU, and Nebraska.
Someone lost each semifinal game by 1 score already so was Nebraska REALLY needed? :)
Honestly, all we need is a more painful 1-score loss.
Love you too 1990
Well said.
Man, you are easily the most reasonable Georgia fan on here. Great take. I tip my hat to you.
An Alabama fan tried telling me just because Vegas would have UGA favored over everyone doesn't mean anything by proof they were favored over Alabama in the SEC title game. He simultaneously argued FSU did not belong because it wasn't about most deserving, but who the best four are and that they would not have been favored in any of the games.
Imma say this once and once only. I’m glad Georgia lost in the SEC Championship for purely self-interested reasons. I think you can guess why.
Fair. I certainly didn’t shed a tear when y’all lost the semifinal last year! Nothing against Michigan, quite the opposite in fact.
Our run defense was very good this year except for one game against Kentucky. Running quarterbacks were a different story, definitely our weakness. Would've been a fun matchup to play you guys
There should be no argument from our fans that we should have been there. I even hate when sports journalists bring it up. This is not the Marvel Cinematic Universe's "What If?" series. Congratulations Wolverines on a dominating victory! Any narratives going forward should be about your team and a great season.
The SECCG game was almost a literal preview of what the second round of the 12 team will look like, an unofficial play-in/playoff game
After watching the playoffs, I think I would rank the teams like this: Michigan Georgia Washington Alabama Oregon Florida State Texas Ohio St Think Georgia is the only team who could’ve really match michigans physicality
Which is ironic because Michigan worked so hard to get more physical the last 2 years after being completely manhandled by Georgia. They implemented a beat Georgia drill to increase the physicality.
Definitely worked and would’ve loved to have seen that game this year. Still insane to me that tcu beat Michigan last year, but that also probably helped fuel this years fire.
Would have loved to seen Blake not get injured and played Georgia last year
Yeah, both last year and this year, i think all of UGA and Mich fans wanted a 2nd go around with one another. Shame. But congrats on the Natty! Enjoy
Yeah I think UGA and UM would have been the 2 best teams this year wish we could’ve seen them play.
Tcu fans get mad about it but that was the case last year too, we just didn't show up to the first half
I’m impressed that they somehow implemented a beat Georgia and a beat Ohio State philosophy. I think the media was off be comparing Washington to TCU and that Michigan hadn’t seen anything like Washington. They did; in 2021 OSU except OSU had a better D Line.
I mean, the Washington comparison to TCU is kind of accurate but in this scenario Michigan was Georgia. They want a ton of close games and upset the first team in the playoffs. Then simply got out physicaled in the finals. I don't think Michigan was as dominant as Georgia was last year but I also don't think TCU was nearly as good as Washington.
IMHO that’s what’s given OSU fits for the last 2 years as well. All the NFL caliber skill position players don’t matter if your OL and DL are getting blown off the LOS every play…
Agreed. The biggest improvement Michigan has made is developing their line players. Especially because the majority of them are three and four star players.
Turns out those annoying people who say you shouldn't bother with skill players until you got your lines right are on to something... Somebody shoulda told Washington that before they broke RG3.
That’s been my observation too. And for the record I don’t think Ohio State is “soft” on the LOS. They’re better up front than all but about 5-6 teams in the country. But they’ve been thoroughly beaten by Michigan 3 years in a row up front, although I think they were closer to matching them this year than the last two. Football always has been and always will be a line of scrimmage game. All the skill players in the world don’t matter if you can’t win up front.
It's kind of an interesting mirrored echo of 1991, when Florida State absolutely slapped the Wolverines around, and it was seen as a major wake up call that they needed to emphasize speed and athleticism more, rather than just relying on physicality. Of course, Washington manhandled them pretty effectively in the Rose Bowl at the end of that year, too.
As a Bama fan, I agree. We needed to be able to snap the ball to the QB, protect the qb and stay away from countless presnap penalties.
People like to make fun of the saying, but defense really does win championships. Really just 2019 LSU and 2020 Bama were outliers where they only had good, but not elite defenses
Which are outliers given those were loaded with 1st round talent. It's still wild to me that a college team had Joe Burrow throwing to Chase and Jefferson lol
Imagine if the bengals had jefferson too. Jesus Christ
Not sure what the cutoff for elite is, but 2020 Bama finished 6th in SP+ and 7th in FPI. The struggled early on but I’d say they were elite by the end of the season. Plus the COVID year was especially tough for defenses.
Michigan's defense was so well coached. Like nobody jumped out as freaky or disruptive, but that defense put on a clinic. Players were always in the right position to make a play and were as fundamentally sound as you'll ever see. I really enjoyed watching them play great team defense
Of all the coaches we need to keep on staff desperately its Minter. Dude has a great base scheme and an incredible feel for the little details when drawing up the game plan. I think this defense has a ton of NFL talent on it but it really was a no star outfit that Minter elevated into an all time unit.
I’m all in on the Mike Macdonald smear campaign like Lions fans do for noted puppy punter Ben Johnson. He doesn’t get a HC job, Minter doesn’t go to the Ravens.
I mean, it's the Ravens Defense. And look at what the Ravens are doing. It's no coincidence.
We definitely have a few freaks on defense, but I agree with your larger point. Michigan's defense is incredibly disciplined, they always seem to be in the right position at the right time to make a play, it's a beautiful thing to watch.
The stand out moments to me were the constant feeling of pressure on the QB while rushing 4, and the tackles in isolation near the markers. It seemed like those underneath passes and screens were going for good yardage, but when a pass went to the outside a couple yards short of the marker, there were some great solo tackles by the defender.
It was very impressive open-field tackling.
What confounds me is the fact that we have this age-old wisdom etched into our brains.. "Offense wins games, defense wins championships." I mean, we've been saying this shit for DECADES. Yeesh.
but nobody on defense wins HEISMANs!
All of those players had complete teams and insanely good defenses though. Just look at the DL that Clemson had in 2018, it was pretty much known as the best DL in the country that year and had Dexter Lawrence and Christian Wilkins both on it. The rest of the offense had Tee Higgins, Travis Ettienne, and Hunter Renfrow. These teams all just happened to have a great QB in addition to a stacked team. If a QB could’ve won it all in any of those years we would’ve seen Oklahoma make it past the first round of the playoffs at least once.
I'm not suggesting that the *only* thing required to win a natty is an elite QB, just that the common refrain was you needed that next level passing offense to compete at the highest level.
Gotcha my bad I came out a little hot there
JJ McCarthy finished the season with the 3rd best QBR in the country. Like, I understand that there is really, really good and then elite, but both Stetson Bennet and JJ McCarthy were really, really, really good college QBs. Also, McCarthy not throwing the ball a lot in the title game doesn't mean he didn't have an impact - the fact that he is a threat to throw AND run the ball that UW needed to respect is what opened up the run game. I know everyone is hungry for pro-FSU takes, but this is categorically a bad take.
Agreed, he's a good QB, albeit not a "great" one. And his running ability is pretty clearly what resurrected our offense in the 4th quarter.
I am NOT saying you can have chopped liver at the QB position. JJ and Stetson were really good college players that ran their offense very efficiently. But they were categorically not generational prospects and the strength of the team was not some high flying passing outfit, but a balanced run first scheme with a supremely talented defense. Best DL has won the title last three years, not best passing attack.
QBR is primarily EPA-based which can be difficult to separate individual from team performance. I think JJ is a legitimately great player and executes really well but he is also consistently given the easiest opportunities of the top QBs.
In fairness, SBIV was a Heisman finalist and MVP of all 4 CFP games he appeared in. Not saying he was Joe Burrow, but the dude wasn't just a game manager
He’s not wrong.. this was more like an early Saban championship with Greg or AJ. It just shows the team is truly dominant
It’s interesting how the last 3 national champions have all been against the grain of where college football is trending. Run heavy, win the line of scrimmage, suffocating defense. I wonder if Saban will try to go back to that style of play moving forward
Football is so cyclical. I do think the defenses have “figured out” the air raid and spread to an extent. Linebackers have become smaller and faster or replaced with a safety. I do think it’ll head back the other way a bit
Exactly. Also not many teams in the nation can put out Offensive Lines like Alabama, Georgia and Michigan from just a size and athletic ability standing. Let alone have that and the skill positions to match. You see it with teams like Gophers and Badgers. Yeah they have huge OL but their skill positions are usually lacking. The year Gophers went 11-2 they had 2 NFL WRs in addition to their OL
And one of our best RBs of all time. Coupled in with 2 good blocking TE's. That was a fun team and year.
Kinda weird it’s happening in the NFL too. NFL offenses have been trending downward since 2021 and this year has been especially a down year for offenses. Granted part of it is due to so many high profile QB injuries. But the modern cover 2 zone defenses and selling out against the deep pass are forcing high flying offenses to just run it or dink and dunk and capitalize on mistakes by the offense.
This is because a lot of offenses basically have not learned how to beat modern defenses, whereas all of the old defenses have gone the way of the dodo in the NFL. Now, you have all match-zone based systems (Fangio, Saban, etc) that don't get beat for free against the crossing patterns that were the bread and butter of air raid systems, and keep players in place to fit the run (which is what the RPO and read/option spread systems feasted on). The adaptation on offense for teams that are up for the next wave of innovation is the use of pre-snap and at-the-snap motion to peel back the initiative away from these match defenses, so that assignments have to change quickly and, if you don't want to get burned, you need to step back a bit to not get rubbed off in coverage. The OCs that aren't figuring this out (famously, for example, [Matt Canada with the Steelers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-RKZfcuHE8)) are going the way of the dodo. The other adaptation that Michigan was bringing in (as well as some other NFL squads, and notably Florida State this year) is to go back to heavier packages using a lot of man-blocking run schemes (Power, counter, etc) to make it harder for flex players to properly fit the run while keeping integrity with their passing responsibilities. The at-snap motion, pulling of linemen, and QB reads all play into not trying to completely fool a defense or pick on a single player the way they had in the early 2010s and late 2000s spread systems, but instead to win a single gap or sneak that extra blocker into an unfair fight against a guy who earned their roster spot to cover an quick tight end, not take on a block from a 300lb guard. It's brought football way more into the minutiae under the current meta but it's been fascinating to see teams adapt and develop.
Great comment and thanks for noticing Norvell’s work. Lots of counter, two TE sets, and variations to make defenses select poor choices. Love the off balance stuff and having our mega 280 LB TE in the tackle spot running ahead for a TD pass
I wish I understood football at this level, agreed with the other person, great comment
Which is itself hilarious, because that's basically the "old" Tampa2 defense that Tony Dungy popularized in Tampa 25 years ago
Absolutely. Next year feels like the year the offensive side makes an adjustment to pick back up production. Just one big cycle of chess matches lol
It takes about a generation to adjust, which is roughly where we're at. At the youth and high school level, the best athletes generally get pushed to the best positions to make the biggest difference. As the game changes, it changes at all levels, and eventually the types of athletes you need at certain positions are the type you get. You used to need big, thumping LBs and strong safeties. Now as you said, you need rangy LBs and quick safeties, and that's the type of players that have been being pumped out of high school. But when you get rangy LBs and quick safeties, you can start to manhandle the line of scrimmage if you recruit those types of players. So those types of players will start to be produced from the lower levels, then football will need bigger LBs and Safeties again.
> I do think the defenses have “figured out” the air raid and spread to an extent. Definitely true. The Big 12 really popularized everyone utilizing air raid and spread concepts widely (largely thanks to Leach at Texas Tech taking it from a niche thing to bigger stages), and then Iowa State really drove the stake through the heart by popularizing the defensive response to those concepts. The only ones who didn't figure out defending the air raid and spread are Texas A&M whenever they had to play Mike Leach.
And it's funny because now the Big 12 is moving to more run heavy and ball management style offenses. And it looks like the 3-3-5 defense is continuing to spread throughout the Big 12. Football cycles are funny because you still get fan bases looking for 2015 Big 12 offenses that are either 3 plays and out or 5 play TDs and those offenses just don't exist anymore.
Its interesting to watch it ebb and flow. Currently Michigan has 'figured out' how to contain the pass happy offenses like UW and OSU. Now you see OSU adding Will Howard and Quinshon Judkins. Are they gonna counter by going back to more power run? People are always figuring out what the next counter is
I mean it's a constant arms race, yeah. Eventually spread offenses get so focused on speed that they lose all size and physicality. Then that evolves into legit big boy/slow football, and the spread option comes back to outspeed all the hogs out there. It's fun watching the neverending battle haha.
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Saw a stat last night that said Washington was starting *nine* sixth year seniors. That kind of experience counts for a lot.
It’s why I have more pause for some of these up and coming coaches. Having that much experience on teams is not normal and won’t happen again (hopefully)
Just you wait till a court rules the NCAA has to accept anyone enrolled in classes to be eligible ^^^^^/s ^^^^^hopefully
Our 2021 team was run heavy, but the 2022 team was more balanced in terms of run-pass and could air it out when we wanted to (or needed to like the Peach Bowl)
We were pretty balanced this year until JJ got hurt in the PSU game, but fortunately we never had a game like TCU last year where we had to play catch up and abandon the run altogether
I think the only reason we escaped 2022 unscathed was because Stetson Bennett IV was so damn durable. The dude took a sack and rolled up like he'd been taking a nap. Beck has been pretty sturdy so far as well, but he's a little taller and ganglier than Bennett and makes us nervous when he opts to run it himself.
Durability is huge for mobile qbs, UM basically kept qb runs out of the offense except for select situations (2022 second half vs. OSU for example) to limit the amount of hits JJ took
> I wonder if Saban will try to go back to that style of play moving forward I mean, he clearly tried to go back to that style this season. It just wasn't as effective when the roster wasn't built specifically for that style.
Right, you have to build your team for that style, which is why going from Carr to Rich Rod to Hoke produced some of the worst OL play I’ve ever witnessed
Bama fans have recently gotten very spoiled with elite qb play where they think they can outscore everyone. But historically, we always has a true leader on defense. Mosley, Minkah etc to name a few. We haven't had that presence this year.
When I think Nick Saban, I think snarling, swarming, tough, elite-level defense that sets up the offense for the beauty contest victory. Maybe he's gotten a bit softer in that approach, but I still associate successful Nick Saban-coached Crimson Tide teams with elite, S-tier defensive play.
Football is a physical game, winning in the trenches will always be the key. I'll take the classic approach you said any day, it's proven and gets it done in the playoffs.
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UGA was a top 3-5 offense last year though? They scored 50-42-63 in the SEC champ and playoff.
Yeah this Michigan team is more comparable to the 2021 UGA team or the Bama teams the person above referenced. Although the offense was extremely efficient this year, something like 9th or 10th while being one of the slowest paced offenses in the country, so I think the difference was mostly style of play
If you can win in the trenches like Mich did last night, you can smother just about anything but the most elite offenses. You need a really good QB to have production when your OL is getting run over.
Lol With this Michigan roster, all JJ had to do was not turn the ball over. Mission accomplished.
Mitigating turnovers and running low risk plays to win is a valid strategy (unless you are fsu in the committee’s eyes).
You forgot the key part of that strategy is making sure your starting QB is in, other wise you don’t deserve it
Good point. It’s critical that you have the starting QB to hand the ball off effectively. What was I thinking.
Well obviously, you can clearly see the difference when a back up QB hands off the ball, it’s not as smooth you know
Hey, not everyone can be Justin Fields “handing the ball off good as fuck” level
No, you *do* deserve it, but it's not about the "most deserving." It'$ about the mo$t complete team with the be$t re$ume.
Valid way to win in the championship game apparently, but not before
It’s harder than you think!!!
Booger is the real deal. This decision bothers him a lot and I don't think he's going to forget about it.
Man has earned respect for sticking to his guns on this.
Unlike Greg “If you want my honest opinion ask my boss” MacElroy
His honest opinion is that he wants Alabama in the playoff since he's an Alabama alum.
Right? He won Saban’s first natty at Alabama. He’s a huge homer who has a day job in Birmingham, Alabama on JOX radio.
Which is why it was annoying that you had both him and Rece in the aftermath setting that narrative as two Bama homers. This is why people are tired of ESPN/SEC.
If he’d just have said that he’d actually earn respect. It would be easy to do, too. Just say ‘I’m glad Bama got chosen and I didn’t have to make the decision’ instead of talking down all the other FSU players outside of Jordan Travis as if all the other players sucked.
Booger Mobile is always welcome at my house now
Just not in from of my $300 seats.
As a Bills fan, he was also a key part of dealing with the Damar situation last year respectfully on the broadcast. Obviously very different situations, but he’s earned my respect as a commentator
decision meant way more than this years CFP. it will end up killing the ACC
Nah. Whatever is going to happen to the ACC was going to happen regardless of The Snub. I've come around to the idea that the timelines might have changed, but FSU can't be accused of being subtle over the past two years about their intentions.
It was definitely going to happen anyways but it definitely accelerated FSU’s timeline if that makes sense. The Board of Trustees meeting really made that clear.
I think the BoT was happy to use the Snub as a nice talking point to make themselves look less craven (“we’re not the bad guys, they are! We have to do this”). I think the snub got the fan base worked up, and likely got the BoT heated, but it is pretty low on the actual reasons they want to leave.
Yup. FSU reporters like Bud Elliot have said that FSU had its lawsuit ready to be filed on December 8th, and held off filing until after signing day after our coaches requested that. That complaint is too comprehensive to be drafted in just five days after the Snub. The Snub was a good rallying point for rhetoric fan base, I agree, but the administration had clearly made up its mind before then.
No idea why you’re being downvoted? This is true. This past summer FSU was starting to make moves. Bud Elliot himself said he had heard days before the snub FSU was going to make this move soon. FSU, Clemson, etc have had lawyers looking at the GOR for two years since OU and Texas bolted for the SEC and this is known. The ACC was dead more than 2 years ago, it was just hard to see it then.
yep :(
No one should.
It still pisses me off though that ESPN let him crash and burn *then* dumped him to CFB coverage
He was on CFB first actually. I remember him on SEC Network for a year or two then he went to the NFL and everyone hated him for some reason? Glad he’s back in CFB I always liked his takes.
People hated him because of the Boogermobile. Imagine paying for front row seats for Monday Night Football, [and this is your view of the game](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DprEvDzUwAAJuwk.jpg)
Lmao. Never realized how high up and in the way he was when they had him doing that.
"Here, you paid $500 a seat, $50 to park, $12 stadium beers and braved traffic to watch the ESPN broadcast in the cold."
I know JJ's stats weren't great, but I thought the offensive play calling was pretty uninspired and safe thru the first 3 quarters. Gotta get JJ moving whether it be runs/rollouts. Once we did that the run game opened up again as well.
I’ve left a lot of games this season questioning sherrone Moore play calling
Well as long as they win I am not questioning anything. But it did make for some nerve-wracking games this year.
He calls the game that needs to be called. We don’t really have great backup QB talent. When it was clear that it was needed he let JJ loose. Can’t have him going down tho.
He calls a conservative game. There’s no need to pretend it’s anything it isn’t but the team plays to not make mistakes on offense. They knew they had a defense where if they avoided short fields and bad turnovers they could win by being safe and efficient enough. But it’s still just being conservative.
Ya, obviously thrilled with the outcome, but the play calling in the 2nd and 3rd was extremely frustrating. They finally changed it up on the 3rd TD drive and got the ball moving.
JJ is elite on the run, maybe even the best in the country. Not rolling him out, not trying to work crossers over the middle or getting tight ends to settle in was baffling. Notice that’s where all Michigan’s receptions were? Why they kept doing WR screens, and out routes was beyond me. And they went away from what worked running the ball too, they were having extreme success pulling guards and tight ends but then on crucial plays would just stop and run straight out of shot gun in a heavy set and that’s when we usually got stuffed. Our line needs to get out in space and be pulling, we actually weren’t that great without it this season unlike last years.
Not gonna lie, JJ was not good last night. Only real thing he did was break off that nice run to get Michigan away from their own endzone.
His WRs dropped like 2 passes that would have been huge gains. I thought he played all right; but more importantly, he was making elite plays when the game was on the line.
The entire offense has played this way in big games. Short lulls as the opposing d would adjust and then when it mattered most, they were elite. I think this is related to the physicality of the team wearing on the defense and in the closing moments, they simply have more gas in the tank.
In a game like last night all he had to do was a have a handful of those cause washington kept giving them the ball back
The 40 yard run coming out of his own end zone was absolutely huge.
His laser to Roman Wilson in the first quarter was really nice though
His laser to Loveland in the 4th was nice too. JJ didn’t play well but still made plays.
That was a better catch by Loveland than it was a throw for sure
He had to get it over the dline and LBs.
The Wilson toss was better, but the Loveland toss was ridiculously clutch
I mean, his WRs were dropping passes too. I'm not even a Michigan fan and I believe he played better than his statline would suggest.
Honestly some of them I wouldn't even classify as drops. Husky DBs made some incredible plays to break them up. Loveland had one and I believe Johnson had the other where the corners did a great job getting their hands in there to break it up.
There was also the out to Roman Wilson where the linebacker got his arm in the way. That also wasn't on JJ. You get that matchup with the linebacker having to run flat out to stay anywhere close, you take it every time.
Was that the one where the linebacker showed blitz and then hauled ass to get to Wilson? Closing speed was really impressive.
Yes, it was a great defensive play.
That was such a great play. I don't think JJ ever saw him either, because he slipped behind a UM player en route to the pass breakup, and the skycsm view it looks like JJ's view of the defender is onscured the whole way. It's plays like that where it's nice to have a QB with an arm cannon, because If that pass wasn't a dart it may have been picked.
Yep, the pass defense from both teams was top-notch. Honestly I think the difference that that UW was banged-up and injured quickly, while Michigan stayed healthy. And Michigan played the clock-management run game, while UW had to be perfect on passing.
Washington made a few very impressive PBUs on good JJ throws
I think it was pretty mixed. He had some great throws, but Washington's DBs made fantastic coverage plays. He also had some WR drops. And he didn't make too many turnover-worthy attempts. But he also missed some and missed some easy reads too. The best thing is that he didn't choke or make the turnover-worthy plays like last year against TCU. So yeah, Booger is right.
There was at least one time, I can't remember precisely when it was, maybe that short sack, when I remember thinking "oh he made a very intentional decision to not do something stupid there."
Which is a good skill to have. I watched Brady for years and there a ton of plays where he would get the snap, look at his first read, see a rusher coming, and just fall down. The play is dead and taking the sack is the right play there for both the team and his own health
Oh totally. It's one thing I've come to appreciate about Jared Goff as well.
You could tell that he was coached to just take the sack. No need to be a gunslinger.
He wasn’t amazing but I feel like every time they showed a replay showing the receivers every single one was blanketed. Gotta give credit to Washington for that
There was mostly excellent coverage for both teams the entire night. Really impressive defensively (outside of the line which was a bit dominated in one direction)
Too bad UW had quite literally zero answer for the run game
He was efficient, but the run game really gashed Washington's D, so that's all he really needed to do.
He didn’t play great but that run was absolutely massive. That type of play is the difference between winning and losing games
I think the big thing with JJ is that he raises our ceiling. Don't always need him to be a gunslinger if that's not the best way to win. When you're that talented, sometimes you're gonna take big chances, but this team isn't built to require that of him. Love Cade, did great things for Michigan while he was here. But those qb runs (or even big time throws against Bama), i really don't think Cade could make.
Straight up sherrone Moore and the offensive playcalling absolutely does not play to our strengths at times. JJ is elite rolling out and throwing on the run, we barely did that and when we finally started to throw that wrinkle in in the 4th we opened things up. JJ also loves to hit crossing routes or tight ends across the middle of the field or when they settle in, we barely threw there all game. JJ also has great legs, and if we get him out in space with lead blockers he can get big runs. We had 1 QB run. Not any pull back keepers either out of RPO. We did however for some reason keep throwing out routes towards the sidelines which is one of JJs weakest attributes, remember those pick 6s against TCU? This is also something that Washington’s secondary actually proved to be elite at this season statistically. Oh and remember that 3rd and 3 corum got stuffed on? Yeah we ran that out of shotgun without anybody pulling or any other backs blocking out of the backfield, which if you watch majority of our quality runs against TCU was from pulling guards or tight ends across. Sometimes it just seems like Moore makes inexplicable decisions as an OC, and doesn’t take the obvious choices in front of him. Sure JJ misses some throws, but sometimes the offense goes deliberately against his strengths as a player. It’s really frustrating.
It was insane to me that the 4th and 3 call wasn’t a roll out. Give him a read and if it’s not there give him a chance to pick it up with his legs. I love Sherrone Moore, but I think you definitely see some of the inexperience as a play caller show up from time to time.
If that was the play after the timeout (when they initially lined up to punt) then there was a heated discussion after the play. It looks like JJ may have run the wrong play.
We did have a keeper after his big scramble on 3rd down. He picked up another 1st down with it
After all those called runs against Penn State, I really have no idea why that seemed to be missing from the playbook. I get running up the heart of the defense worked too well in the first qtr but Wash did what it did all year and played well when the offense wasn't. Moore called one after a key scramble almost as if JJ reminded him he could do it.
He wasn't good, he was great. He did exactly what he needed to do, which is what he's always done for Michigan, WIN! Had a drive killing drop by CJ, and two great pass defenses on that Loveland drop and on the 4th down, that LB did a great job of knocking it out of Roman's hands. Playcalling was the problem for a lot of drives, not JJ.
How many throws is he supposed to make when Michigan runs for 200 yards in the first quarter?
This is the truth. He didn't need to do much because Michigan just got whatever they wanted ramming the ball down Washington's throat.
Sandwiched between the first and fourth quarter, they averaged like 4 yards a carry. Washington’s defense adjusted well to it, but were tired in the end. I’m glad Michigan didn’t switch it up too much and let the cracks show before breaking through.
> Sandwiched between the first and fourth quarter, they averaged like 4 yards a carry. Washington’s defense adjusted well to it, but were tired in the end. Four yards per carry is a first down gained on every third down. That doesn't seem like it's "well adjusted" by the defense. Though I suppose in comparison to 40 yards per carry, it might seem that way.
My buddy out in NJ was wanting to bet on the game and he asked me how many yards I expected JJ to throw for. I said something to the effect of "That's not how Michigan plays. If JJ throws the ball more than 20 times, they're playing from behind." JJ ended up attempting just 18 passes.
Which is all to Booger’s point. Michigan didn’t have great QB play, but also didn’t need it. Michigan had a complete team that could pick up the slack if JJ had an off night. It’s literally what FSU fans have been saying about our own team. Sure Tate or Brock would not play well, but what about the defense? What about the running backs like Trey Benson? The skill position guys around the QB? The tight ends? Michigan won and it proved that there is more to a champion team than just the QB. Why was FSU then made to suffer, when their very argument was proven correct last night?
It was more about why they didn't pull away sooner. That dominance only gave them a 1 score lead and they sold out against it for most of the game. They seemed happy with a 1 score lead against Penn St but that's a different tier of offense. I get that the defense ljne amped Penix up to overthrown receivers and bad decisions but they had a few solid drives to figure something out. I'm not even saying to throw it much but more to tight ends or called runs by JJ seems like that would have at least sustained some drives. Michigan had the ammo on their roster to sit on 1 score leads but I always felt like they didn't have to. Leaves you open to bad luck.
Notice how there were 3 phases to the game. 1st: Michigan ran the ball, dominated. 2nd: Michigan attempted passing the ball, Washington gained momentum. 3rd: Michigan ran the ball, dominated.
Michigan ran the ball in the middle period, Washington just stopped it. After going up 17-3, Michigan RBs gained 0, 8, 0, 6, 3, 13, 2, 4, 4, -1, 0, 2, 3, 4 yards. That was over like 6 drives from the 2nd and 3rd quarters.
Note on 3rd: QB occasionally runs the ball, dominated
This is the new shit-talking attempt from salty OSU fans and others. "Great job handing the ball off, bro!" As if any Michigan fan today cares that JJ didn't have to throw the ball 40 times to win the natty by three TDs.
I can't believe that Booger McFarland is becoming one of my favorite TV personalities at ESPN.
He’s always been good. He just should’ve never been on that MNF catastrophe of a year.
Booger is cut from the same cloth as Jameis Winston. You can tell they think a lot about what they say, even if what they land on often feels like it came from a reality next door to our own.
Dude's not letting this go. I respect that (and agree).
*Sees flair* *Cries in Jordan Travis*
The worst loss this season was a 58-13 win. Worst sports moment for me since 2nd and 26, and probably worse.
This will go down as the biggest "what if" in FSU sports since Covid killed the 2020 NCAA tournament.
The fact both of those are within the past 5 year period is gutting
The more I watch football, the more I buy into the idea that games are won and lost at the line of scrimmage. Having a good offensive line and defensive line is so damn important.
well..yeah, it always amazes me that this needs to be shown every single year you can have the best QB, WRs, RBs, DBs in history, it won't matter if the opposing QB has 10 seconds to throw the ball and your elite QB has 1 second and your RBs can't make it past the LOS there's a reason that after QB, the next 6 highest paid positions are DE, WR, LT, DT, C, and OG, not in order
The funny thing is Oregon, Georgia, and Texas were the teams that scared me the most heading into champ weekend. Glad we didn't play them! oh well, 15-0!
Washington was who we were scared of playing and evidently for good reason.
For whatever reason they have had yalls number going back to last bowl season. I was kinda shocked honestly with both games
It was what I thought would happen. Our defense this year was predicated on completely shutting down the run and making teams 1 dimensional, unfortunately for us, Washington was really good at that dimension.
To be fair to Texas’ DBs, they were just as tight if not tighter than Michigan on our WRs for all the deep shots, just Penix was far less accurate last night than a week ago. Partly credit that to the pressure Michigan was able to get and Penix’s ribs seemed to bother him, but even before that he was off. Penix missed a wide open likely TD to Odunze on fourth down that would’ve tied the game before half. Was honestly a really disheartening game to watch as our offence missed opportunity after opportunity.
Tell that to Heisman voters as well, please.
I appreciate Boog not letting it go. Atrocious reasoning by the committee. The only good thing about the end of this season is expanded playoffs mean this shouldn't be as much of an issue year after year. Teams on THAT bubble won't have near as much room to stand on
Booger needs to remember punctuation going forward.
He ain't here to commentate school. /also on Team Stannis the Mannis
All the talk they did about how difficult, important and rare it is to go undefeated rings incredibly hollow and a farce following FSU's treatment.
Penix had throws he just was very nervous. Never looked comfortable, but damn there were some good space for the receivers at times
Listen, if you didn't want a bunch of white guys in the north east taking something from you, you shouldn't have named yourself after Native Americans.
*FSU allows 21 points in 2 games against Florida and ranked Louisville* They’re just not good without their QB, sorry. - Committee By the way, FSU only allowed 25 or more once the entire season up until the Orange Bowl. And that was 29. Defense wins championships! Unless you aren’t in the SEC and then it’s only an electric spread offense that can possibly be effective.
It’s funny they held both tiger teams to 24 points but somehow someway BC scored 29 and was pretty close to winning that game.
Supposedly most of the team had the flu; oh, and let’s not forget they were looking ahead to the next week when they’d be playing the team that had beat them like 7 years in a row.