Sunday, September 27, 2009

On Stafford, The Tigers' Lost Sunday And UM-MSU...

- Matthew Stafford played well, but was far from the main reason the Lions won Sunday. The Lions beat the Redskins because they stopped the run and ran the ball effectively. Stafford fed off that. Not the other way around.

- Kevin Smith's shoulder injury is a major concern. The dropoff from him to Maurice Morris is major. The Lions' offensive coaches will have to come up with more packages for Aaron Brown and fullback Jerome Felton. They are both better suited as specialists than every down backs.

- As dramatic as the Tigers' victory was Saturday night, the overall series in Chicago was disappointing. The White Sox have tanked on their season, and the Tigers had the pitching matchup clearly on their side Sunday. With Zack Greinke pitching against the Twins in Kansas City, it was a very good opportunity to start inserting the dagger. Instead, the Tigers took a lot pressure off the Twins heading into this weekend's series.

- It will be interesting to see how Michigan reacts to its first road game Saturday in East Lansing. That reason - and perhaps a sense of desperation - will give MSU a chance to beat the Wolverines. But the Spartans' problems are obvious, and not necessarily easily corrected. Their run defense is not good. They aren't running the ball effectively. And State's quarterback play has been spotty.

- Yeah. I did think of Marty Mornhinweg and the "we'll kickoff" overtime game against the Bears, when Redskins' coach Jim Zorn accepted the Lions' penalty rather than having Jason Hanson kick a 50-yard field goal. That, and not kicking a field goal earlier, ultimately cost the Redskins the game. And perhaps Zorn his job.

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pat,

MSU looks pretty darn bad to me. on defense they absolutely cannot stop the run. Their DB's constantly look weak, but I think they are getting overexposed as they have not got any pressure up front. The DB's are almost sitting ducks back there with as much time as the opposing qb's have had to throw the ball. I think at running back they need to start glenn winston. I know he coughed the ball up against wisconsin, but he is the only guy that attacks the defense when he's running with the ball. you could see on saturday that he was running with some passion and as result he was the only running back getting past the line of scrimage consistently with the ball. I think cousins is their guy and he has played fairly well considering his inexperience. on saturday he drove them down the field in the 1st half for a TD and then they replaced him with nichols. how do you get "hot", if you are removed from the game right after having success? just my thoughts after watching another nauseating week of sparty football.

Lastly, i knew the lions would win. after watching my sparties lose, the enemy uofm come back and win again, i just knew the lions would come in and win, just to tease me into believing that i have 1 team to root for. they will either win next weeks game to keep up the tease or they will get slaughtered just to get us back to reality!

lil rob

9:24 AM 
Blogger Pat Caputo said...

lil rob,
State needs to toughen up defensively. That's supposed to be their strength. They are getting pounded and breaking down in the secondary. I agree Cousins is the guy. He is more consistently accurate than Nichol. I think State is going to win this week. although Michigan probably has better team. State has a lot on the line. Will be motivated.
Caputo

2:26 PM 

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