Blue By Ninety - E100: just beat ohio state

Episode Date: October 31, 2021

A heartbreaking loss for Michigan in week 9 of the cfb season. Where do we go from here? Crack a cold one and enjoy the show.

This is the University of Michigan. Touchdown, Michigan! The Beats of Michigan! And they've caught extra pass. And it goes for the win! The three-pointer by Jordan Poole! Down the sideline! Peebles-John!

Touchdown, Wolverines! All right, welcome back to Blue by 90. I am Justin, joined by Jack and Kalen, and I am dead inside. It is officially sad boy hours. No other way to put it. I feel like we have to, like, I wish i was into like theater like i was just like my big hobby wasn't sports it was just like broadway nobody loses broadway you know you like maybe you go to a show and it's you know it's a you know not as good as you hoped it would but like your your entire year isn't ruined by that right you're you're

ready to change your entire life based off of this game rose having a bad day i'll tell you what i've been on like a three-day bender so i don't even know if reality's hit me yet so i'm just gonna keep drinking keep it going keep it going it's a lovely way just out there we're recording here broadway justin it's just a totally new mode i've never seen it i'm ready to scrap my entire life into something else because of this game oh my god um i mean obviously everyone if you is what you know you can call it you're you're up big you're rolling you got the ball up 16 you have a chance to step on their throat and you just didn't and I think I tweeted out I can't remember exactly what time I tweeted out but I said we have to play this and finish this game. Like we're down

seven, you know, keep playing aggressive and things like that. And we let off the gas and it obviously showed and they just, you know, I don't know, man, it was, that was just really tough to you. I don't know, as a Michigan fan, I felt like it was coming at some point, you kind of felt the tide turn on a couple on a couple of times and you're just like, all right, when's it going to happen here? I can't lie. I felt pretty good for the majority of the games. Even when I think Michigan had the ball in the fourth quarter up three, driving, and then there's the botched handoff with McCarthy and Corum. And then I was like,

okay, yep. Sparty's going to come back and win this game. That was the moment. I was like, all right. Yeah, when you started seeing the D'Antonio-esque level of just weirdness

starting to happen, which just surrounds that whole stadium, right? Like that was when you started to feel, okay, something's not quite right. Yeah, it was honestly, I mean, Michigan controlled the game from the opening drive, Andrew L. Anthony, which, by the way, where's he been all year? If he's this guy that we can go to, where's he been all year? If he's this guy that we can go to, what's been, where's he been? That was insane to me.

That was insane. I'm like, he came out of nowhere. It's like this. Okay. First of all, this guy's fast as shit. He has to go 93 yards slant to the house. Nobody was even close to him. Then he's catching jump balls in the end zone.

And he's, you know, he looks like Randy Moss out there. I'm like, what the hell's been going on all year year long the stat line was pretty close too at halftime right he was like 125 yards and two touchdowns i was like oh shit and then and then you wait why didn't we keep going back to him i think we did it we tried to a couple times but i don't know i that was i was just like, okay, you know, for them, they changed the entire offensive scheme up as far as the passing game goes.

Eric all with 10 catches for a hundred yards and, and Andrew L. Anthony, six catches for one 55. Those two guys. I want to know what their stats are for the year. That was Andrew L. Anthony's first catch of the year. Correct. That first touchdown. Oh, I don't know. Hold on are for the year. That was Andrew L. Anthony's first catch of the year, correct?

That first touchdown. Oh, I don't know. Hold on. I'm pretty sure it was. But it might have been his second. I think he had one play against Northwestern or something. But I want to say that was even like an end around. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. Either way, I want to know what, you know know eric all i'm looking it up as well how many that's his first catch like that was his first catch yeah geez and and how many what what's eric all's uh high season high you know for a game no way he's gotten 10 catches or even close to that i half of that five like i mean i'm i'm with you i don't think it had to be i don't think he's gotten that close to 10 before um i mean i don't have a game on the year yeah i mean he had two against ruckers three against wisconsin two against nebraska five against northwestern and then 10 so yeah i mean his previous season or previous game high was five half of that yeah and i will say i'll give them credit we did say that that josh gattis

must be listening to us a little bit because we did say we that the uh the tight ends were going to be a mismatch um so that was I thought that was good to see um but I think the big question for Michigan's offense was you couldn't get the run game going you you know where was the answer there and it just felt like I don't know. It felt like they stopped them up the middle and then we'd try to do it again. And we, you know, it wouldn't happen. But we couldn't be creative like we have in the past on getting them out in space or, you know, things like that.

It felt like we also abandoned it a little bit later in the game. Right. Cause like in the first half, we weren't running for a lot, but we were using it to kind of set up some other plays. And then we just totally abandoned it, and we were all, like, empty set. Cade, you're just throwing the ball. 44 passes for Cade. I'll tell you what, Cade had a hell of a game. That was by far Cade's best performance of his career.

And I'll say this, the loss absolutely does not rest on the shoulders of Cade McNamara. I was proud as hell of what he did. Yes, there were some throws that he missed and could have had back. But when you throw it 44 times, that's going to happen. That's going to happen. I mean, he even had a nice deep ball to Mike Samer still in that game. Even that last pick, man, like that was a hell of a play by the DB.

I mean, it looked like he was coming up to him. And you have to force it. Yeah, there was a minute left, and he's trying to get the ball downfield. So, I mean, I definitely – I was thinking about this this too i don't feel any worse about this team than i did before the game started i i still i still feel about the same sparty's a good team that kenneth walker is real fucking deal i mean he had five touchdowns he's got to be leading the heisman campaign i did not realize until after the game that he had five touchdowns it didn't all of their touchdowns were his i'll i'll say this i you know i was at the game you guys watched on tv it didn't feel like when we were

in the game like we just couldn't stop him right it didn't feel like oh my god he's dominating us i felt like he was totally dominating us well i mean i feel like it was. He had 23 carries, but he probably had three or four big runs. I think the majority of his yards came from that. That's what we talked about, man, before the game. It's the explosive plays that are going to get us. That's what it was. It wasn't even that they got us because they were playing better. I think two of those touchdown runs were because the defense wasn't set.

That's even on coaching, then time out a hundred percent how do you not call a fucking time out like that happened twice in the game i think more than that it was i thought it was five or six times that we weren't set and i mean that just it's unacceptable that part was really unacceptable because a if it happens once or twice then you have to address it and say hey we're not going to you know we're going to read them if they don't sub we don't sub that's got to be the play if you realize that they're going to go you know go uh uh quick and try a quick snap then you just don't sub and then like you said jack jim call a timeout it literally resulted in touchdowns multiple times from that or it extended a drive because it was third and eight or third and five and they you know get uh they get the penalty and all of a sudden it's a first down,

or they have a short yardage now for third down. Like, that was so frustrating. And you know what? Two years in a row, Jim Harbaugh got outcoached by Mel Tucker. That's for sure. I don't think you can say anything different than that. I mean, it's hard to disagree with it. I think there's definitely some things that could have –

like that – I mean, I don't know how they overturned that touchdown and the fumble. The fumble touchdown where Aiden recovered an end zone. I don't know how you can overturn that when they ruled that a touchdown initially. Unbelievable. That was insane to me. I don't know how the fuck that happened. I mean, that's four points right there that's the game don't don't forget the uh our

own mistakes right i mean we we made mistakes where we didn't execute right the first quarter pass to play quorum drop that was basically a touchdown yeah yeah no I, I had somebody text me right after the game and say that one's on the coaches. And I, I disagreed right away. I said that I, and I, I think it's, I think it's a pretty equal share of coaching in players, I think, because I think they're the coaches set these guys up that if they execute and make those plays, Caitlin, that you're talking about the Blake Corum drop the, you know, a few different times of the ball, just like, if we take care of

business, if, if Cade hits, you know, the flea flicker for a touchdown, if, you know, even towards the end of the fourth quarter, Cornelius Johnson is, has three or four steps on the guy. Kate under throws him. And, and then, you know, it hits Kate. It still hits them in the chest. And then the next play hit him in the chest on the crossing route too. And so I thought that the coaching staff set this team up that they could have won by probably two scores. They could have won that game,

but there was an equal amount of blunders from the coaching staff as well. The D like everything we just said about the defensive substitutions. I thought that there were times when you probably shouldn't have JJ McCarthy in the game. I, I heard that. So obviously the big one we're going to talk about is the fumble, the snap, you know, the botched snap or botched handoff with Corum. Cade was apparently in the tent, in the medical tent, so that was why he started that drive?

I don't know. So I didn't see that. I saw Zach Waddy tweet it, say something about it this morning, but I never noticed that. Yeah, I heard that that was not reported on the Fox broadcast, but it was reported on the, like, Michigan radio broadcast or whatever. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, but we've said it, you know, the past few games, right? We love seeing J.J. go in there and kind of, like, mix it up a little bit.

And we've never and we've never seen jj fumble twice some back-to-back plays like yeah one of them luckily it went out of bounds but in hindsight in hindsight you're definitely like wow what a stupid decision there right but yeah you i mean you're not expecting you're gonna just you know have a on nobody did anything to him that was just them you, having miscommunication and doing that. But I also think that, like, all right, let's think about it. There's seven minutes left. Cade has been playing unbelievable all game.

He's your game manager. You have seven minutes left with the ball up three. What do you want to do? Manage the game right that's when you want Cade McNamara in there to just dink and dunk and get it done you don't need JJ to come in and do everything crazy so I you know whether he was in the medical tent or not I'm not that's you know I'm not really sure and obviously that's a factor in that decision but I don't know it just felt like there were times where it's like

you know I love having JJ in there for a different look and things like that but Cade was moving the ball Cade was getting the job done so at some point do you just say I believe in you Cade go get it done and win the freaking game I mean I'll tell you what I gained a hell of a lot more confidence than Cade McNamara from that game than I did any other game. So, I mean. I agree. I agree. It was just strange because it felt like they had abandoned the run by that point. Right.

So, like, why are you running read option to try to set up some sort of, like, counter run? You know, it was just a strange play call in my opinion but i understand things happen fast all sudden your starters out in the tent you're trying to make something work here yeah so it's hard i i thought unfortunately jj showed that he's a freshman yesterday too yeah yeah that that was i mean that was kind of a factor in how, and you don't know how he's going to respond there, right? That's your first time seeing him, you know, in that rivalry game on the road, like you, but I think what I heard from the spring game and, and summer ball and, you know, camp and stuff is that he's a freshman. He makes freshman mistakes sometimes. And that's what that is. You know, the conversation was before this people that wanted to go with JJ, you're going to get a very high ceiling, but there's going to be things that happen. Mistakes are going to happen.

And that's what you don't get for the most part with Cade McNamara is he's not going to do anything crazy for you but he's usually going to get the job done and not do anything super detrimental to your team and so yeah that was that was I don't know that was just tough um but I felt like all right so I felt like, all right. So I felt like, first of all, calls officiating. Let's say there were 10 calls. Felt like eight of them went to MSU, which you kind of just have to expect in Spartan Stadium, right? But God damn it. Like, I mean, they were big ones.

It wasn't like, you know, little stupid stuff. That's, you know, the, overturning multiple calls against us. It's insane. And I thought Aiden Hutchinson literally got held twice on one play right in front of a ref and didn't get called. Like, he was getting held all day long, and they weren't going to do a gonna do a thing yeah i mean the biggest one for me is it's that touchdown getting overturned like i like that's how the fuck does

that happen who who was reviewing that and saying yeah no that was the he was down you can see it from every camera angle that he was not down and i thought for sure let's say it's close it's super close there's no way there's evidence to overturn it what the call on the field was it should have stayed that's what if he was if he was called down on the field you probably keep it right and but like the the the fact that you're gonna say that there's evidence to overturn that is crazy. Crazy. I had MSU fans texting me like, dude, I don't know about that call. That's why I had the exact same thing.

Like, come on, man. That's bullshit to me. Yeah, but you got to play above that, right? I agree. Things happen, but you got to play above that. I mean, listen to the last five possessions on offense, right? Punt, field goal, fumble, turnover on downs, interception. That's – you literally left – if you score a touchdown every drive, you left 30 points on the field.

Even if you get a field goal, will you win by, you know, 10 points still? Yeah. Yeah, I thought I thought it's really difficult to comprehend that's for sure especially when you like when you were talking about it Jack with how good we felt going in you know to halftime um you know I that it was very frustrating. Uh, and I thought that we talked about it, uh, before the game too, where we can't settle for field goals. We had to score. And there were a lot of times where we got into the red zone and honestly, thank God for, for Moody dude. Moody's the,

how about him just four in a row when they call three timeouts and just drilled every single one of them? I loved it. That was incredible. I just imagined his calm face. Just like not even face. He did not even like, no, he didn't even flinch one time. He's like, all right, get more face time.

I don't care. But, yeah, I mean, there were – how many drives did we end up – I mean, just looking at the scores by the quarter, I'm going to say we had – oh, in the red zone, and couldn't score. I mean, we had the late one with fourth down. We're on the third 40, you know, but we're down four. I'm not sure how many were in the red zone.

That's what I'm curious. The first quarter, I mean, there was a red zone field goal, 26-yard field goal. So, let's go down to 16. Other one was on the 28. Other one was on the 25. 26. But they're down there.

They're right down. You're within 30 yards of the end zone. It happened too many times. Too many times. I think that was the killer. Then the other killer was them going down. When they were starting their comeback

and they went touchdown, two- comeback and they went touchdown two-point conversion touchdown two-point conversion got them both and then that makes it you know a tie ball game instead of it would have been a 10 you know let's say they don't get it that first time it's still a 10-point game you know instead of eight and that's a two score game that's way different way different so yeah I it was I agree we can talk about the refs we can talk about a lot of things but there were a thousand opportunities um and here's what I thought here's how I like how I thought about it is it felt like Michigan had 20, you know, 30 opportunities and let's say,

let's say Michigan had 20 opportunities. It felt like they converted on half of them. And it felt like MSU had 10 opportunities, but they converted on nine. Right. And so it was like, they, their,

they, they capitalized on everything that happened and Michigan did not Michigan had chances it did not capitalize a lot and that was the difference in the ball game in the end yeah can't disagree with that yeah they just did the right things right when they needed them right so yeah I. Yeah. I mean, that's, that was what was frustrating to me is I felt like, I mean, if you looked at the stats through halftime, I, we were doubled up on them in total yards. Right.

And still only up what 2314. So, you know, it felt like we should have had 30-something points by halftime, but we didn't. And that was like – that was when I was pretty sure that, you know, we were going to pay for that. You know, I know I still felt good because we were going to have chances, but I felt like we were – it was, you know, we needed some of those.

And then you can't get out scored 15-3 in the fourth quarter. You just can't. What this really, really makes me think about, I mean, I think we had this conversation last week on the pod. Harbaugh could go 10-2 with a loss to Michigan state and Ohio state. Does it matter? Is he gone? I, I just, I, I was having this conversation this morning with somebody. They said, you know, is, they said that they thought that Jim saved his job by going seven and oh,

cause he can still go 10 and two with, uh, you know, and I'm like, do the 10 wins matter? If you lose to Michigan state and Ohio with, you know, and I'm like, do the 10 wins matter? If you lose to Michigan State and Ohio State, do the other 10 matter at all? Because I don't know if they do. After this long with, you know, now he's three and four, I believe, against Michigan State and clearly Ofer against Ohio State.

I mean, you come to Michigan, right, to beat your rivals, to beat Ohio State, to beat Michigan State and win Big Ten titles. And if you can't beat Michigan State or Ohio State, you're not going to win a Big Ten title. Dude, it's tough to defend Jim after this one. I mean, you lost to a second-year coach whose team is made up of transfers and freshmen. Like, and he has his team ranked in the top five now or whatever

right right it'd be in top five yeah so it's like if you can go do that hiring the guy from Colorado and we have Jim Harbaugh it's just like Jim if you can't get it done like there's obviously other people who can't the thing I really struggle with, too, is that it was such a close game and it totally could have gone Michigan's way and we wouldn't even be having this conversation. I know. But the fact that it was such a close game and we did lose and, you know, you look at the previous record with the rivals,

I mean, it's just – Well, I think – It's got to be talked about. It has to be talked about. And I think that you can say there's definitely an argument for hey 10 and 2 is pretty damn good right but I just I mean it doesn't matter at the end of the day because it's a super unsatisfying 10 and 2 you know and so uh and and listen the wheels could still fall off this season they could end up waiting. I don't know. I doubt it, but still.

I just think, you know, how many – the Michigan State teams that he has beaten the three times, they've been terrible. What, the three and nine year? Yeah. The next year they were, I think, ended up nine and four, eight and four something like that I mean that that's the issue is he's he hasn't beaten a good Michigan State team and

he's lost to bad Michigan State teams last year last year and I'm not I'm not sure I think they're a good football team I don't think they're a great football team still this year you know i'm not convinced either team is awesome um but it was a hell of a game i don't know it was god from i i would have loved to watch that game if i was just a you know random fan or something, that would have been incredible. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I don't think I've felt this defeated about a game since, like, 2016 Ohio State, right? Like, this one, it felt like it was in the bag. It felt like we deserved to win it.

And then we just dropped the ball, kind of, you know. I mean, I tell you what. I mean, obviously, it sucks. Like, we lost to Michigan State. we just dropped the ball kind of you know i mean i tell you what i i i mean obviously it sucks like we lost michigan state but i i don't feel as bad as last year definitely not even close i don't personally i'm like we're still seven and one kade had a huge game definitely calls could have gone our way but i still think this is a good team i still think that you a good team i still think that you know after watching ohio state and penn state that michigan still has a chance against

ohio state i mean you have to beat ohio state now this year if you're jim harbaugh you're like oh shit if i'm gonna be ohio state like yeah well jim's gonna be at church praying for to beat ohio state because i mean got to i guess they've just been rolling whatever issues they've had they figured it out and it's gonna going to be like playing single Ohio State. There was a dogfight for them with Penn State yesterday, though. That's true. But I still – you want to know why this one hurts more and I don't feel good about it is because last year I just didn't –

I mean, at that time I gave a shit, but at the end of the day, I didn't give a shit. That team was not good. They had so many things wrong. This team, I felt like it was this team still is they've got it. You know, they have the opportunity. They could do it. And that's what is like the worst part to me is like, you had the chance to do it. You know and we've been waiting how many years have we been freaking waiting to have this team that does do it they've got all the tools and they

have the it factor they've got the energy the culture and they can go get it done and win these big games we've had we've been waiting that for that forever and i thought that this team had that and i still have hope because if michigan can beat ohio state at home nobody's gonna go fuck about this michigan state game unless i'm not unless at the end of the day they you know we're both uh 11 and one or something like that and they'd go to the college football playoff over us. Like I'm going to, but I agree with you. You can save the season for sure. If you beat Ohio state.

But I mean, looking at this game specifically, it's just like, I don't know. It is unexplainable a little bit. It's just, god damn it. As a Michigan fan, man, when does this shit stop? Right? No. Like, you think you'd at least have a chance against Michigan State?

You think it would at least be like, okay, we're going to beat Michigan State? Yeah, I should know at this point. I should have got the T-shirt from our pre-season conversations right don't get your hopes up yeah we're also still seven and one guys we're still seven and one i'm sorry i'm yeah bring the positive i'm off the positive vibes only right now i apologize but i can't i can't even come up with a single positive vibe. You know, we got to bring it back. Lions are winning today.

They're going to break the winless streak. Let's hope. I mean, at this point, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Tank for Thibodeau. Tank for Aiden. Aiden's incredible, man. He had a great game. Yeah, I'm good. David Ojabo had a great game yesterday

yeah that fumble that strip sack and the fumble it felt like when I was in the stadium it felt like that ball was on the ground for an hour and a half and nobody was jumping on it it was just like sitting there people were like blocking around it

get the ball oh man yeah I mean there it just there were so many times where it was like all right we got them backed up to third and nine we got them you know like this or we're we're driving we got a chance to put it away here and we just like didn't and we let them hang around for too long and they just like kept working and working it back and that fourth down throw to what jayden reed like down the two yard line oh yeah oh that was like a backbreaker of course like this he drops a dime to this fucking guy yeah and god it just all we can do is what take it learn from it and try to

you know improve and play what indiana penn state maryland ohio state kind of went out yep got a win out that's for sure and you know what the cruelest thing about this is is they put the indiana the indiana game at 7 30 after all why on big 10 network like nobody gives a fuck man what are we doing here what are we doing here yeah that's tough so i don't know man it's uh that one hurts a lot, a lot. And I, I don't think there's an excuse for it. You know what I mean? Like the thing is, I, you know, we put this out on Twitter after the game. I am really proud of these guys for playing their asses off. Right. At the end of the day, it was not like these guys like rolled over and did this and they put up a

fight and battled and and were tough and at the end of the day it was it was a dog fight man it really was like you know at the end of the day i think that everyone nobody like played terrible everyone did their job for the most part um except for you know here and there you made mistakes um so you can say you can be so disappointed and defeated while still being proud of what you know these guys did and so i don't know if that doesn't make it a moral victory because i don't believe in moral victories we We got to, you know, have wins, but it's just this weird spot where you're like, that's why it hurts even more.

I think because you can't just sit there and say, Oh, well, they just like rolled over and let it happen. Like it was, it felt like you had this team that had the guts to finish it, and they just couldn't do it, couldn't pull it out in the end. So, yeah, tough one to swallow, that's for sure. Yeah. Just wait for basketball season. Hey, basketball tips off in a week.

Soon. Basketball tips off in a week, that's for sure. Juwan Howard, come save us once again we've needed you we've needed you a lot and you help me juwan you're my only hope you are my only hope that's for sure you know that reference justin no i don't oh my god what is it star wars it is hey there you go. There you go. Maybe I just get it. It's just like a Star Wars Lord of the Rings. That's one of the first guesses.

Yeah. Yeah. What if I just get I become a big Star Wars guy and give up sports? You should do it. I could do it. Star Wars doesn't let you down. That's true. Well, hold on.

Sometimes. Yeah, sometimes. I could get into Game of Thrones and then still be let down in the end. We just got to stop at that time. Definitely. Yeah, just don't watch season nine. All right. Well, that's about all we have today.

I mean, this is not how I wanted this podcast to go. And so trying to make sense of it is just really tough um i think that there's a lot of things that this team has to has to look at right now a lot of things that jim harbaugh has to look in the mirror for you know and say what are we doing wrong here why is this you know why does this keep happening so we'll see how this team responds against indiana for the rest of the year i think there's two ways that it can go you can you can say you know let's pack it in doesn't matter you let the wheels uh you know fall off or you say hey you never know what can happen down the road let's keep playing our asses off each week

and let's finish strong so it'll it'll show it'll show how much the rest of the season is going to show one thing. How much does that energy and culture change was real? Is it real that you guys are tough and you care and that, or was it just winning, winning solves things, right? You know, and winning winning winning makes everything better and then as soon as you lose it's back to the same hole um so we'll find out a lot about this team uh looking forward to the future i mean i'll tell you what i think this loss makes the team even

more more motivated and they're gonna beat the fuck out of everybody hey i hope so i hope for that's what i hope for if i i would be if they do that i i think i would still be on the jim harbaugh train if they're that's a big yeah oh yeah i would be on the jim harbaugh train if he's able to rally these guys and get them to be playing their asses off still after this i think um so i to me to me the the Jim Harbaugh conversation is more than just looking at the record and 10 and 2 and blah blah blah it's more about can you will your team to win football games and complete a season because here's the thing if you look at the record down the stretch for Michigan year in and year out with Harbaugh, November never ends well.

Not only just the last weekend of November, but all of November, they don't play well. So it'll be really telling here for the next month is to where this program is at and if they need to move on or not. So we'll leave it at that. You can follow us at Blue by 90 on instagram twitter and facebook at blue by 90 podcast on youtube go blue go blue go blue and have a happy halloween everyone i'm already having my treats right now so drink your booze eat your candy do whatever you gotta do