Jim Harbaugh's team suffered one of the worst losses of his tenure in a 35-14 setback at Wisconsin, an embarrassing display from the top down. The effort was lacking, the game plan sketchy on both sides of the ball ... and Harbaugh vowed to fix it.
Former Michigan cornerback Charles Woodson said on national television he was "embarrassed" by the performance, and Harbaugh seemed to share his sentiment.
Get a free 60-day trial to TheWolverine.com with promo code Blue60
RELATED: Players on McCaffrey hit, Glasgow at the Goal Line
RELATED: Video: Harbaugh, Players on What Needs to Happen Moving Forward
"Watching the film, it was pretty obvious to everybody that was watching in the entire football world, from A to Z, it wasn’t good. It wasn’t good enough," Harbaugh said. "Not acceptable. It starts, really, with not acceptable for me. You start being self-critical and determined to get it fixed. That speaks for me and everybody on our team, players and coaches. Not [a game] that they were proud of.
"... We all take responsibility for it; we all have fingerprints on it. Determined to get it fixed is where we're at right now. I could go into all the details, but ... every single detail is saved for the team. I won’t talk about it — we already have as a coaching staff, and what our plans are, in ways we’re determined to see improvement. And I’m confident that we’ll rally and get that done."
There will be some personnel changes, most likely, and players held accountable. It was easy to see on film who was giving 100 percent and who was loafing, and there was far too much of the latter.
"Emphasis on physicality, emphasis on toughness and emphasis on hustle," he said. "We'll make that part of the practice plan more and also playing the players that are dedicated and playing physically at all times ... get those players in the ballgame.
"Players have to focus ... always have to play with focus. That has to be coached, too. That's not getting done. We're missing detail at one position and then a mistake pops up at another position on the next play. There's always one guy. That's coaching and focusing by the players, make sure they're doing their job."
The mistakes were prevalent on both offense and defense, he added. They missed tackles and fits on defense, didn't protect the quarterback on offense and again, didn't go hard enough at times at many positions.
That's on the coaches, too, Harbaugh said.
"I know our coaches are determined, I know they're not accepting it," he said. "They have to do a better job. You put that on all of us.
"Same thing we feel about whether we're a player, a coach, is self-critical. That's the way we're looking at it. Not an excuse. Get it fixed."
---
• Talk about this article inside The Fort
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolverine
• Sign up for our newsletter, The Wolverine Now
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolverineMag, @Balas_Wolverine, @EJHolland_TW, @AustinFox42, @JB_ Wolverine and @DrewCHallett
• Like us on Facebook
