Rose Bowl Opinion

I will begin this post by saying that this is not a rant, but I have never been more embarrassed to be a Michigan football fan. I do not even half blame the coaches, even though they were out coached by the USC coaching staff for the second time in three years. I do not necessarily blame the offense, specifically the offensive line, who continually got manhandled while unable to handle the continuous blitzes from the USC linebackers and corners. I have watched football for years, and have continually become more numb emotionally the older I get, because I realize that the better team almost always wins the game. This was certainly the case today, as there is no doubt in my mind that USC has a better team than Michigan, despite the loss to UCLA to end their regular season. However, there is really only one reason USC won today. The Michigan defensive backfield is absolutely horrible. I want to make one point very clear: this is not the fault of defensive coordinator Ron English. USC ran for less than 50 yards on the ground, and I have always strongly believed that if you can create a game strategy that fully stops the run or the pass, you can win with marginal d-backs or d-lineman, whichever one you are lacking in. This should have worked today, except for the fact that the d-backs, specifically Morgan Trent, are not even marginal. The only d-back who played well at all was Barringer, as even Leon Hall was beat deep for the second straight game. It is hard to have a successful gameplan when your players continually blow coverages and have mental lapses at key moments. I can't count how many times Trent got beat. If an offense is unable to run the football, there is no excuse to not at least keep the passing game in check, similar to what USC did to Michigan today. I am disappointed that we (Michigan) does not have better options at our second corner position. I know the game would have been much closer. Next year I guess.