"Maybe the game has passed me by," Lloyd Carr, Michigan head coach.

Even though Mr. Carr was being a smart-ass when he fired off that one-liner he managed to hit the nail directly on the head.

As I walked into Michigan Stadium just before the game, I jokingly asked an Oregon fan if we could switch coaches for the day. He laughed and I walked up the steps and into what would become a veritable public stoning of Carr and his loyal band of clueless assistants.

Carr can harp all he wants on his team's mistakes, but the bottom line in this 39-7 beatdown is that Carr didn't have his team prepared at all for the second week in a row.

Throughout the day, Michigan defenders were caught looking around trying to get the play in even as Oregon was snapping the ball. That's inexcusable and falls directly on the shoulders of Ron English and the coaches.

The no-huddle offense confused the hell out of Michigan from the opening snap, and as Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said, he actually pulled in the reins a little bit at times or the score could have been much worse.

The Ducks had about 400 yards by halftime and got most of them with ease. Many of their players said UM's d-line pretty much gave up.

The Michigan offense actually hung with the Ducks in the yardage department, but once again couldn't score nearly often enough in the red zone, which I attribute to coordinator Mike DeBord's inability to inject any type of creativity or versatility into the Michigan offense.

Blaming losses on play-calling and coaching is the easiest thing to do in football, but Michigan fans have seen this act for years and believe me, the coaches deserve every bit of the blame for this loss.

Once the score started to get really out of hand, even the offensive players gave up, except of course for Mike Hart, who should be commended for his fiery attitude and confidence in these dark times.

The fans also gave up just after halftime when UM's first drive stalled out yet again, and many of them got up and left, which I can't blame them for.

This mess isn't about one bad year, or one bad start. It's about the complete and utter destruction of everything UM has built in the past three years. In college football, the goal is always to develop the young players enough so that by the time your best guys are seniors, i.e. Hart, Henne, and Jake Long, you're contending for a national title. But all of that experience and all of that time has been wasted because Carr and company still have no idea how to stop a mobile quarterback, a multi-dimensional offense, or how to draw up a play to get a key first down when they need it.

So there you have it, straight from the source. Michigan flat-out gave up on Saturday, and it was even more embarrassing than the previous week's debacle against Appy State.

The only people in Maize and Blue who didn't give were the band members, who ventured up into the sea of simmering fans for some up-close-and-personal renditions of "The Victors." But as I turned to my friend in the third quarter and said, "Hey, this is just like in 'Titanic' when the violinists continued to play even as the ship split in half and sunk into the ocean."

My apologies to Big Ten fans everywhere, but this team is a disagrace to the league and college football in general right now.

And what's worse is, I have a feeling they're going to do some damage in the Big Ten because the coaches actually have a clue as to how to stop the basic pro-style offenses teams like Penn State and Wisconsin run.

As for me, I'm hoping that doesn't happen because much like in 2005 when I rooted for UM to lose, I'm just dying to see Carr get the hell out of town so a new era can finally begin in the place where time seems to stand still and nothing ever changes with what has become one of the most overrated programs in the land (excepting Notre Dame and perhaps Tennessee, of course).

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JEH45 said:

	Ouch! Can't argue with you Nick. Is there a move afoot to file a class action suit to get your money back for the last two games? Obviously your players didn't play ball, and your coaches didn't coach ball. How about we give Carr just one more year?
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September 11, 2007
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Lloyds Apple said:

Great read. I have to agree that Michigan will be ok come Big Ten season. Illinois fits the mold of a team Michigan can't handle but the number of mobile qb's steadily decreases throughout the season. I've been theorizing that OSU may set up some plays for the current 3rd string QB, redshirt freshman Antonio Henton, just for the season's final game vs. Michigan. At this point, the formula for beating Michigan is so recognizable it's scary. Now it's just whether you have the personnel to accomplish goals. Also, this defense for Michigan is simply bad. It will be interesting to see how they fare against offenses with a drop back quarterback.

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September 11, 2007
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Adam546 said:

Very good article. Michigan was not prepared for the spread-offense which both Appalachian State and Oregon use. The only thing that people need, and are yet, to realize, is that no one in the Big Ten uses a spread-offense. Every team, including most important match up this season, Notre Dame, doesn't use the spread-offense, but the standard. With the QB not being a running QB, unlike the firs two games, Michigan will be prepared and ready to defend what they want. They'll be ready for the Big Ten games, because no matter what, if they win the Big Ten games, the ones that matter, they will, and can, make it to the Rose Bowl where they can stun the entire nation.

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September 13, 2007
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