Chip off the OL block. Game day bitches!!

Rocinante wrote:I’m just going to assume the late scoring was because MSU was playing 2nd stringers.

I felt we got a little casual or at least that the intensity (not the poster) waned when we were up 31-3. But we were as dominant as you'd realistically hope we would be for the 2nd and 3rd quarter.

A few observations from someone who was at the game while it was 31-3...

-Lewerke seems to be overthinking things too much. He panics a lot, most of it due to the OL not even getting that great of a push against fucking CMU. Once he just calms himself down the accuracy and big plays will come.

-Rush D is going to be #1 in the nation easily. Once a team gets past the LBs it's feasting season for them. Need Josiah Scott back badly.

-Staten is the root of the offense's problems, IMO. I despise Dave Warner, but feel like his playcalling has been fine lately, outside of the inexplicable Sowards sweep from the IU game. Staten has relied on "Hey, I coached Jack and Brian Allen, and Jack Conklin, so I'm good!" for a little too long. Coach D's loyalty is what will hinder MSU from becoming a true college football superpower under him.

-Some dumbass behind me told his little kid that Weston Bridges "is DEFINITELY related to Miles. They have the same last name, so they're definitely related somehow." He also said on every punt MSU had, along with Coghlin's FG, that they should have faked them all. Every time, he said, "It's the PERFECT time to fake it!!!"

DWags wrote:

Death Roe wrote:Also I’m pretty sure White broke or sprained his wrist.

Seriously?  


Fuuucccvkkk

Typical man. See a few posts above.

Death Roe wrote:A few observations from someone who was at the game while it was 31-3...

-Lewerke seems to be overthinking things too much. He panics a lot, most of it due to the OL not even getting that great of a push against fucking CMU. Once he just calms himself down the accuracy and big plays will come.

-Rush D is going to be #1 in the nation easily. Once a team gets past the LBs it's feasting season for them. Need Josiah Scott back badly.

-Staten is the root of the offense's problems, IMO. I despise Dave Warner, but feel like his playcalling has been fine lately, outside of the inexplicable Sowards sweep from the IU game. Staten has relied on "Hey, I coached Jack and Brian Allen, and Jack Conklin, so I'm good!" for a little too long. Coach D's loyalty is what will hinder MSU from becoming a true college football superpower under him.

-Some dumbass behind me told his little kid that Weston Bridges "is DEFINITELY related to Miles. They have the same last name, so they're definitely related somehow." He also said on every punt MSU had, along with Coghlin's FG, that they should have faked them all. Every time, he said, "It's the PERFECT time to fake it!!!"

Reminds me of the chucklehead in our section for a few seasons who would scream “fumble!” every time the visiting team ran an offensive play. I was so happy when we switched sections. We all cheered like lunatics, but appropriate cheers at the appropriate times.

The biggest problem with the team is health imo. I've been critical of Lewerke, and deservedly so - he has not played well, and he ignores the TE. But he has not had a healthy OL. The entire offense  looks a lot different with Chewins, Jarvis, Allen, Beedle, and Campbell/Higby out there playing the same positions every rep, every game together. 

People complained about Scott, because he tends to dance and doesn't explode through the hole. Well, with Heyward we see what happens when you explode through the hole. You often misread the blocks, and run into contact. And imo Heyward goes down way too easily. He's had some big holes and gotten chopped down by arm tackles. Scott runs through contact much better, and I think he's a much better pass protector than either of the young guys. 

It sucks to lose White, but provided that Stewart and Nailor are relatively healthy and just were held out today for precautionary reasons, we should be ok at WR. 

What's most concerning to me - other than general health - is that the real actual 1s have had no time to play together and gel together entering the meat of B1G play. It's go time. I expect Chewins full time at LT next week, Beedle and perhaps Campbell full time at the Guard positions, Allen full time at Center and I'm thinking they put Higby at RT. LJ will play next week, so will Stewart and so will Nailor. Let's hope we can survive NW dinking and dunking down the field all day and get some experience playing a tough nosed football team going into HV. 

Criticism of Warner for play calling or Staten for patchwork OL play is kinda premature. 

I do have some criticisms of the staff today, but they are at a higher level:

-towards the end of the first half, MSU has the ball 4th and 3 at CMU 15 with 20-odd seconds left in the quarter. 1 TOL. Perfect opportunity to line up and try to draw them off. Clock gets down, call your TO and kick the FG. If they jump, good chance to get the TD and go for the throat. I don't understand the downside to doing this. I understand the coaches are busy, but is there not a QC person or something who can point this out?
-Onside kick. Not expecting it at all? Come on. 
-Challenging the onside kick ruling. What the fuck? This wasn't close? He was 3-4 yards clear of the 10 yard mark before he made contact. Inconsequential but...
-The 4th quarter meltdowns - not sure what this is and I'm not gonna be simplistic here and try to blame Coach D for not working them hard enough in Summer or Mannie or something but for some reason this team is losing its focus.

Over the last couple of weeks, thereve been suggestions that Lewerke and the team are spending too much time at the bar. I seem to recall someone mentioning weed, too. Can’t remember: DWags, did you mention those things or just today? And are you joking or is there an actual issue? Because we’ve been down this path before, more than once, and I’m a little battle weary from it.

#inquiringminds

I don't think that's an issue GW. I think we've done some joking that he looks so off that he might be at the courthouse in GR. But from my understanding most of these kids are very, very good kids and very religious. I think most of the team drunks (TOC and Cox, etc) are long gone.

tGreenWay wrote:

Death Roe wrote:A few observations from someone who was at the game while it was 31-3...

-Lewerke seems to be overthinking things too much. He panics a lot, most of it due to the OL not even getting that great of a push against fucking CMU. Once he just calms himself down the accuracy and big plays will come.

-Rush D is going to be #1 in the nation easily. Once a team gets past the LBs it's feasting season for them. Need Josiah Scott back badly.

-Staten is the root of the offense's problems, IMO. I despise Dave Warner, but feel like his playcalling has been fine lately, outside of the inexplicable Sowards sweep from the IU game. Staten has relied on "Hey, I coached Jack and Brian Allen, and Jack Conklin, so I'm good!" for a little too long. Coach D's loyalty is what will hinder MSU from becoming a true college football superpower under him.

-Some dumbass behind me told his little kid that Weston Bridges "is DEFINITELY related to Miles. They have the same last name, so they're definitely related somehow." He also said on every punt MSU had, along with Coghlin's FG, that they should have faked them all. Every time, he said, "It's the PERFECT time to fake it!!!"

Reminds me of the chucklehead in our section for a few seasons who would scream “fumble!” every time the visiting team ran an offensive play. I was so happy when we switched sections. We all cheered like lunatics, but appropriate cheers at the appropriate times.

What’s funny is that I know this guy. When I lived in Portage, we both went to the Y quite often. He’d bring his kid and we all would play basketball once in a while. Nice guy there. Moron when it comes to football. Glad he didn’t recognize me.

Ok I’m comfortable here saying this. My kid who is a senior does hang out with those guys. She has said on numerous occasions that He does go to Lou ha’s but often wears a hoodie and covers his face and drinks little to nothing. He lives with Higby and they’re pretty outstanding kids. As a father who knows his daughter has been hanging out with some high testosterone type guys, I’ve been very relaxed. From going to faster horses to hearing of hanging out at the cheer teams house these are pretty damn good kids it seems. However, we are beat to piss. When woward tripped on a play White would have balked in for a TD to seeing receivers who have no business playing right now to seeing our corner get completely faked on a double pass to watching our line get no push at all it is a team that has shown we have no depth. We suck right now because of huge gaps between ones and twos. Is that Dantonio’s fault or bad luck? We’ll never be Bama. We cant take these injuries. And we have a shit load of them.