Michigan Game Story--A long day

I'm very disappointed that we did not present ourselves better.  I don't think that's a game we should be losing by 44 points.---Dave Clawson.

I think that is the sentiment of most people in the Falcon Nation this morning.  It was a pretty embarrassing way to lose.

On a sidenote, I think it is refreshing to have a coach who talks this way.  Previous coaches (OK, a previous coach) would have whined about the scheduling, not having a bye week, etc.  Every fan knows that this was a tough draw for BG.  It just didn't have to be like that.

The 65 points and 721 yards of total offense are mind-boggling totals.  The media guide doesn't list negative records (or I couldn't find them), but a review of the game by game stuff shows that we haven't allowed 65 in a long long time.  We did allow MSU (then Michigan Normal) to hit 70 in 1920....maybe there was another one in there that I missed.

I have no idea if the 721 yards is the worst in school history, but it has to be up there.  It is the second best (by one yard) in FBS this season, according to The Blade, and I'm guessing that includes games against FCS opponents.

• Michigan had 11 drives, and scored touchdowns on nine of them.
• Michigan had 466 rushing yards...averaging over 8 yards a carry.
• Michigan had only 3 incomplete passes.
• Michigan never punted.

Anyway, you can truly go on and on.  So, what happened?  Coach was pretty clear in his presser after the game....tackling.  Or lack thereof.  This has been a weakness in this program for a long time, and it certainly reared its ugly head.  Here are some things he said.

Missed tackles.  That's the game. I really believe that if we tackle better maybe it's 14-14 at the half and we start with the ball.

The amount of big plays we gave up because of missed tackles, you can't beat anybody that way.

It's disappointing to me when we make a hit in the backfield or after one or two yards, and they become 12, 15, 30-yard plays. We need to be better than that.

We had guys dropping a shoulder and ducking their heads as if they were tackling JV football players. Certainly Michigan has tremendous skill. But we made them look better. We looked like a very poor fundamental team.

Their way of tackling isn't working. They need to do it our way.

Going in and trying to strip the ball is for the second or third guy in, not the first. The athletes they have make you pay dearly for that.

Of the yards they had rushing, a third of that came after a missed tackle - if not more.

Again, I appreciate the candor of the coach, and his commitment to getting the best out of our guys.  Let's hope we apply the 24-hour rule, and come back new and improved for Buffalo next week...a game we need a lot more than we needed this game.

Coach did seem to be wavering on his famous 24-hour rule, however.

But to say, "Let's move on?" There's some things we did so poorly that, if we do them against anybody in the MAC, we'll be in trouble too.

On offense, Coach noted that this was the wrong week to have to simplify things, but that's exactly what we had to do with Schilz out.  We could not run the ball at all against Michigan, and the passing game was limited to very short stuff.  I don't think Pankratz had a bad game at all, we just were working off a pretty limited set of options.

Ty Pronty did make a big play on his 71 yard touchdown.

In his post-game presser, RichRod said that he was surprised that we didn't screen more, he thought we could hurt them with that.  FWIW.

Anyway, it was a talented Michigan team in a tough environment, but it was a pretty grim performance by our team, even given all that.