Post Game Observations....

[kmoose]

1. Guess what? The Defense isn't as good as most people had hoped/thought. I think that the D is really missing Manti Teo in the middle. It looks to me as if the D Line is not just pinning their ears back and getting after the quarterback, like they did last year. They could get away with it, last year, because Manti was there to clean up any runners that slipped past. This year? We don't have that guy. So the rushers have to slow down on their way to the quarterback, making the secondary look terrible. The secondary just isn't able to cover for that long. Get to the quarterback quickly and they wil be fine. Take your time getting there, and quarterbacks will eat up our secondary.

2. The kicking game looked much more like we expected it to.

3. The playcalling was at times puzzling, but was most likely proper, based on the looks that the defense was giving them.

4. I think TJ Jones was hurting, in the second half. There were a couple of balls that came close to him, that went incomplete. I'm not blaming him for those, just saying that I normally see him making a MUCH greater effort to get to the ball.

These games are becoming bad for my heart. I'm almost glad to see the series take a break for a while.

 

[Buster Bluth]

People need to step back from the ledge. Notre Dame will be fine and there wasn't anything too upsetting tonight to make one think that the season is over.

Michigan outplayed Notre Dame. Get over it; it happens. You don't always need to point the fingers (e.g. at Diaco). Michigan played out of their minds and made juuuuuust enough plays.

Name a QB Notre Dame will play who can do that? Someone this week (or by the end of the night) will have a total telling us just how many times he evaded a Notre Dame defender in the backfield. It was damn impressive.

I saw two actually bad things. I thought the running game sorta sucked generally. I also thought Russell got abused.

 

[anarin]

1- Rees still made the one INT that turned the tide of the game.

2- The defense can be summed up with the statement... WTF

3- Gardner was the difference. I'm a little shocked that that there wasn't a planned spy on him.

4- Special Teams looked good tonight.

5- Jaylon had some good plays tonight, he'll be a special one for us.

6- ugh... ****ing michigan

7- The pass interference on BJ was bullshit

 

[calvegas04]

still think we can win up till stanford and then its any ones guess

 

[magogian]

Ugh. Tough loss but still a good game. Seriously, how the heck did we let Galleon practically win the whole game for them.

 

[magogian]

Please never throw Atkinson another pass EVER.

Carlisle looked good though.

 

[BobD]

 

[pkt77242]

1- Rees still made the one INT that turned the tide of the game.

2- The defense can be summed up with the statement... WTF

3- Gardner was the difference. I'm a little shocked that that there wasn't a planned spy on him.

4- Special Teams looked good tonight.

5- Jaylon had some good plays tonight, he'll be a special one for us.
6- ugh... ****ing michigan

He also had some plays that he looked like a Freshman. He will be special eventually but boy there are going to be some rough times for him this year. Councell had a much more solid game when he was in but has no way near the upside of Jaylon.

 

[Jerry]

The Defense is pretty bad. If we need the offense to score in the 40's to beat decent teams its going to be a long season.

I thought the offensive play calling early in the game was weird on those first two 3rd downs they ran the ball and got stuffed. That gave the momentum to UM for most of the game till Tuitts interception/TD.

Rees is an average athlete trying to play at an elite level. He looks more poised than when he was younger but he's still just average. Obviously a better defensive performance and he doesn't need to be great.

 

[IrishMoore1]

What happened to the defense?

What happened to the defense?

How did we go from not allowing more than 12 pts per game and no rushing touchdowns till week 8 in 2012 to this in 2013? 41 points to michigan!? Our guys are missing tackles. There are break downs in coverage. We are allowing big chunk plays. Can't defend the play action pass at all. We only lost 2 players from last year's defense.

Did Manti Te'o really make all that difference? The performance of the defense has been pathetic without him on the field.

 

[cody1smith]

Quaterback and receiver both look like future nfl starters. Gardner will not have another game close to that this season. Unless its against really bad teams. I hope they are that good and its not we are that bad.

Minus the one bad call on Jackson, we got out coached and out played. In all honesty the score looks better than it really was.

 

[Buster Bluth]

Ugh. Tough loss but still a good game. Seriously, how the heck did we let Galleon practically win the whole game for them.

Stop thinking like this. Notre Dame didn't let him. HE'S ****ING GOOD.

 

[magogian]

I was shocked that Jaylon couldn't run Gardner down on that one play. Jaylon was about 2 yards behind and just couldn't catch him. That shows how freakin fast Gardner really is.

 

[Fbolt]

Disappointment is the one word that sums up my thoughts.

I believed the O was fine. Not great, but fine. The Rees INT did not kill me.

The D was over-pursuing. Poor tackling was a huge problem. Michigan came out fired up and ND never took that fire away. LB's and secondary were abused today.

Disappointed! However, optimistic for the rest of the season.

 

[Buster Bluth]

Minus the one bad call on Jackson, we got out coached and out played. In all honesty the score looks better than it really was.

Totally disagree. I don't think an even slug-match constitutes being out coached.

 

[anarin]

Stop thinking like this. Notre Dame didn't let him. HE'S ****ING GOOD.

Gallon reminds me of a poor mans Golden Tate

 

[Irishbounty28]

People need to step back from the ledge. Notre Dame will be fine and there wasn't anything too upsetting tonight to make one think that the season is over.

Michigan outplayed Notre Dame. Get over it; it happens. You don't always need to point the fingers (e.g. at Diaco). Michigan played out of their minds and made juuuuuust enough plays.

Name a QB Notre Dame will play who can do that? Someone this week (or by the end of the night) will have a total telling us just how many times he evaded a Notre Dame defender in the backfield. It was damn impressive.

I saw two actually bad things. I thought the running game sorta sucked generally. I also thought Russell got abused.

Actually, the running game was working fairly decently and they tried to stick with it as much as they could. When you are playing from a deficit the entire game there tends to be more passes, but we averaged a decent 5.1 yards per carry. That was a clip more than Michigan averaged, which had a lot of long runs by Gardner.

 

[Buster Bluth]

Gardner happened. Name another QB who can do what he does. I'll wait.

Diaco called a fine game and I'm seriously not worried about the defense. Will they be among the top two defenses in the country again? NOOOOOOOOO. They will still be damn tough and I thought they were tonight. Michigan stole everything they got on athleticism keeping plays alive and taking advantage of it nearly every time.

How many times did Gardner evade a sack tonight? Eight? Ten? It was impressive and just give him credit and get on with life. That's what this coaching staff will do. Diaco had guys in position tonight, they just got beat.

In case you didn't know, Michigan outplayed Notre Dame last year too and Notre Dame was lucky to get that W.

To say the defense has been pathetic is just stupid. I'm sorry but it is.

 

[Patulski]

1. Our linebackers are slower, but I don't think anybody thought our secondary would be this bad: Poor coverage, poor tackling, missed assignments. We looked like a Weis defense.

2. Agree. Brindza can do it all.

3. Michigan has an extremely weak defense: By the second half, we were gouging them in the rush game and there were guys open all over the field. Brady Quinn would have won this game, but Rees is who he is: Inconsistent, prone to mental errors that create turnovers, not a threat downfield. He will hold us back all year offensively.

4. I think Jones was hurt as well, but it wouldn't have mattered if he was 100%. We had guys open all night, but Rees has only so much firepower.

It is difficult to accept that we have not taken the next step, but we haven't. We have to increase our team speed at linebacker and the secondary, and we have to have an elite QB.

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

Why is Calabrese still here? I feel like we are haunted by a terrible linebacker. He has been here forever.

Carlisle was great. I'm really excited for him. Same with the offensive line. Stanley had a rough game, but both Martins were stellar.

Someone should kick Brian Kelly & Tommy Rees in the shins for every rollout Rees does. Those are never going to work. Rees is who he is. An average QB who is not going to win us games. Because of the garbage performance by the defense, we needed him to win us this game. It's not going to happen. He's just not very good.

Bennett Jackson, Matthias Farley, Sheldon Day, Dan Fox, Jarrett Grace, Ishaq Williams, Carlo Calabrese: You were all feces today. Work hard in practice and get better. We will not beat Oklahoma, Sparty, USC, or Stanford if they play like they did today.

Diaco and Kelly have both had garbage starts to the year. It's like the ghosts of Charlie Weis and the garbage DC from NC State whose name I have wiped from my memory are haunting them. Predictable offense and a defense that had no idea what they were doing.

I'm already worried about Daniels going pro after this year. He is running great routes and catching everything.

THROW IT TO NIKLAS MORE!

Biggest missed opportunity was the line not catching the guy jumping offsides on that 4th. Total game changer.

 

[Freeman Ara]

Motta was the brains of the back end, and Manti was the most important player on the field for us. Add in that we decided not to hide our corners this year and play more man coverage, there is the difference.

 

[returnofthemack]

Reesus! Man, glad he lived up to his nickname. I guess all of us "pessimists" were really off-base when we were worried about Temple's QB running huh?

 

[Irish YJ]

Totally disagree. I don't think an even slug-match constitutes being out coached.

Many would say the first half D-scheme called by Diaco sucked. He adjusted a bit in the second half, but he should have adjusted at the second series.

 

[West Coast Domer]

Farley is an average safety.

Ishaq showed some good things. I felt like we could should have had so many more sacks but Gardner got The ball out quick.

I would like to see Greg Bryant more. Amir Carlise looked good .

Very frustrating loss this season will be interesting someone needs to step on D

Michigan and Brady Hoke are building something special. Once they get these recuriting classes watch out

 

[irishff1014]

Tommy made a few bad decisions but so did Gardner.

Amir needs our primary back

Diaco needs to call better plays and get his players to play better.

Special teams actually helped us?? the 50 yard kick off return and the put return for TJ.

Our play calling on offense was questionable on a few drives.

Tuitt and nix have been disappointing in back to back games.

This team needs to really start playing and quit expecting people to give them something.

 

[kmoose]

I thought the running game sorta sucked generally.

We averaged 5.1 yards per carry, as a team. The running game was not a problem.

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

Totally disagree. I don't think an even slug-match constitutes being out coached.

If this was even we would have been winning at some point and wouldn't have had to rely on a fluky INT for a TD to get back in the game.

 

[dang227]

I think all those kids we lost over the last couple years like Greenberry, Lynch, Neal, Vanderdoes, and the corner who got booted come back to haunt you when you play the big boys. We just weren't athletic enough tonight.

 

[magogian]

As other have said, please no more Tommy rollouts. I'm holding my breath each time expecting an INT or at least and incompletion.

 

[drayer54]

I thought the war in the trenches was about as good as it could have been.
Secondary gave me a headache..

I hope they have tackling drills planned this week.