Brandstatter never had to economize his speech to the point where he could get the information out using as few words as possible. He's been a decent color guy for Beckmann and still for Dan Miller, but he's always had them to put the ship back on track when the action starts. By way of example, instead of saying "third and seven from the Michigan 31," Brandstatter might say "it's third down, Michigan is on their own 31 yard line and need to get to the 38 for a first down." It doesn't seem like much, but it takes 10 seconds longer to say, by which point the play has already started and he has to catch up.
Some of this may come in time, along with a better back & forth with Dierdorf, which has been cumbersome so far. But I wonder if Brandstatter will be able to really pull it off with all his years of color commentary habits getting in the way. Good play-by-play should paint a picture of the game, give you all the necessary information of what's happening, and ramp up the energy at crucial moments. It's really hard to do. Ken Kal is probably the best at it in this area, edging out Dan Dickerson because hockey is MUCH harder to call than baseball. Brandstatter has been in radio since the mid-80's, but despite his experience I suspect he won't be able to convert his talent for color commentary to be a successful play-by-play guy.
***
There isn't much I want to say about Michigan's performance on the field Saturday. If I'm giving Brandstatter/Dierdorf a D- for announcing, the actual football team gets a C-. They were playing a pretty weak Miami of Ohio team and went into the half up only 7, thanks to a bunch of Michigan turnovers (not the good kind).
The Wolverines came out in the second half and held onto the ball, but did little else differently from the first half. They were basically playing against themselves, and I wasn't particularly impressed. I'm of the opinion that Devin Gardner won't ever "get it" but Morris isn't ready yet, so we're stuck with Gardner. The offensive line is atrocious. As well as the running game carried the day, there were a LOT of negative/short plays (including a failed Big Boy moment - 3rd & 2, stopped short) considering the size advantage Michigan's offensive line had over Miami's defense.
The Big Ten (or whatever they are now) is REALLY weak this year, so Michigan could finish as well as 8-4 despite the fact that they feel more like a barely-.500 team. Utah is going to be a tougher challenge than most suspect. Michigan are 5.5 point favorites, but the offense is mediocre and the defense, while having performed reasonably well so far, is largely untested. My biggest concern are the turnovers. Michigan has committed 8 through 3 games, while only causing 1. Utah has committed 1 turnover in 2 games and caused 1 themselves. If Michigan doesn't get on the right side of the turnover differential in this game, they lose. They know this.
***
A lot can happen in the NFL from week to week, and the standard response from fans is to overreact. After the week 1 win over the Giants, I was guilty of that (although it was mainly for comic effect). I'm not going to do the same this week. There were a number of factors playing into the loss to Carolina.
- That defense is incredible. SHOULD the Lions have been able to break it? Well, yes, but...
- A revolving door would've given Stafford more protection at RT than he got from the Reynolds/Lucas combo, although that doesn't excuse the poor play from both Stafford and the receiving corps
- Sometimes you just are off. Stafford was off, underthrowing CJ on the interception, etc, and the receivers were off, dropping many of the passes that got to them. CJ only had 6 catches on 13 targets, notably dropping a TD pass and a 3rd down pass that would have converted
- The run game hasn't come around. The Lions are 28th in the NFL in rushing offense. I don't expect it to get much better if RT Waddle is still out, although Green Bay is 26th in the league in rushing defense (caveat: GB was facing 2 run-first teams, and Detroit is hardly run-first, run-second, or even run-third). Expect this "weakness v. weakness" storyline to get pounded hard by any media outlet covering this game. I'd like to see Bush get more carries than Bell this week
- Team depth is a serious issue. Martin Mayhew has not distinguished himself with very deep drafts, as has been reported earlier this year. In a retrospective, ESPN gave the 2011 draft the lowest possible grade, and that was before Leshoure got cut! From the 2012 draft, only Reiff (starting LT) and Tahir Whitehead (LB/spec. teams) are currently making a significant contribution. Broyles & Bentley are injured (again, in both cases), and most of the rest of that draft have been cut. Suh is the only one left from the 2010 draft (Willie Young is playing well elsewhere). 2013 was Mayhew's best draft, but early returns on the 2014 draft (and my vague impression) suggest it will be more like the 2010/2011/2012 drafts than 2013.
THIS IS ALL TO SAY - injuries have hit this team hard through games 1 & 2. An already weak defensive backfield (thanks Mayhew!) is now all but holding an open tryout (Ihedigbo - missed 2 games, day-to-day, Bentley & Lawson - out for season). A position of strength, RT, is now a question mark after starter LaAdrian Waddle got hurt in the first series of game 1 & his very competent backup Hilliard got knocked out for the season later the same game. Additionally, the Lions drafted Kyle Van Noy to balance out the LB position, which was pretty strong with Tulloch & Levy. Well, you can guess what happened. A depth chart, already shallow from a number of weak drafts, is suffering greatly. The Lions are like a ship that springs a leak from the weakest part of the hull, the strongest part of the hull, and all the places they've patched before. And they are using seaweed to stuff the holes. Yikes. - The kicking game has been... (looking for a word more expressive than "craptastic")... ABYSMAL. This team cannot afford to leave points on the board. New kicker Nate Freese has missed kicks of 43, 49 & 49 yards. His longest make so far was 28 yards, meaning the ball was on the 11. In the NFL, if you miss a FG under 50 yds you are leaving points on the board. The two misses last week prevented that game from being competitive down the stretch. The hope is that Freese is just having some rookie jitters and starts kicking straighter, but Mayhew & Caldwell probably screwed up BIG in going with Freese over Tavecchio in the preseason kicking competition. Now they're stuck.
***
The Tigers are fun to watch again, but I'll save that for later this week. Instead, how about we take a look at the one athlete in Detroit having a worse week than Nate Freese... Jayru Campbell. Campbell was listed as a 3-star recruit by ESPN with offers from Alabama, MSU, and Notre Dame, and had committed to play for MSU in the 2015 season. On January 22nd he body-slammed a security guard at Cass Tech, purportedly for the crime of hassling him to take of his hat. Campbell decommitted from State, took some anger management classes, and went to jail on July 28th. He was let out at noon last Friday and wasted no time, making it to Cass Tech a little later in the day & pushing his gf down while he checked her texts. (Interesting side note - Campbell's attorney is named Walter Pookrum. You're welcome.)
There is a flood of football players in the news for some form of domestic violence - Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, Greg Hardy, et al. It's gone so far that CBS has pulled a Rihanna song from its Thursday Night Football rotation because of her association with domestic violence (I'd like to point out the insanity of this since Rihanna was a VICTIM not the abuser, so penalizing her for being in an abusive relationship is like SUPPORTING domestic violence, right?).
The main ingredients of the problem seem to be "athlete in a violent sport" + "tends to get his own way". Campbell was given a break on the initial sentencing back in May, but don't expect him to catch any more breaks. Another common thread is some random friend/family member saying something like "he was always a good kid, this is totally out of character," and this Jayru Campbell Story is no exception (check the Ogletree quote in the 4th paragraph). Excuse me, but no it isn't. That's crap. I guarantee you in every situation there is a silent minority who have directly experienced the poor character of these men, only those people have been shouted down by adoring fans and those who hope to benefit from the athlete's success.
The NFL is getting its nose rubbed in this right now and rightly so, but Jayru Campbell is an example of a deeper societal problem. We glorify athletes to the point that we excuse their actions because we admire what they can do on the field, until those actions are caught on camera like Campbell's body slam and Rice's elevator punch. When we see the viciousness and ugliness they are capable of, we demonize them and dismiss them. But aren't we a little bit guilty? We've been handing out free passes like crazy, why are we outraged when someone takes advantage of them?
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