The last words on the Michigan Wolverines’ loss at Wisconsin … and several thoughts after watching the film.
First off — someone compared this U-M defensive line to the undersized 2000 line that had plug-ins and got pushed around playing guys like converted fullback Evan Coleman at defensive tackle. And yes, there are some similarities.
We’ll say this, though — senior Carlo Kemp is a warrior. As a complement (not compliment), you can see why he was more than adequate last year. He’s quick off the ball, much stronger than given credit for and battles on every play. There were times he was in the backfield as quickly as Mo Hurst used to be … his was more timing the snap than quick-like-Hurst, though.
Regardless, you can win with him. But they need to find someone to complement him, now. We heard a lot about redshirt sophomore Donovan Jeter in the offseason. He got pushed around quite a bit against the Badgers, looked pretty slow when asked to loop and played too high. He needs to improve (to be fair, though, it was his first extensive game action inside, and that was one hell of a Wisconsin line).
But the Badgers did what they do best, and it was reminiscent of Michigan teams in the 80s and 90s … here it comes. We’ll tell you what’s coming, in fact. Try and stop us.
The Wolverines couldn’t.
We’ll say this, though — this Badgers team is really, really good. Quarterbacak Jack Coan — you can see why Jim Harbaugh recruited him. A lot of his throws in play action were right on the money, including a fourth-and-three 26-yarder (on a great rub route — where have those been, Josh Gattis?) to Quintez Cephus in which Ambry Thomas had to avoid a curler, giving Cephus just enough space to get open.
Coan avoided a couple of sacks, too — one by linebacker Josh Ross and one by sophomore end Aidan Hutchinson — that turned into big plays that Alex Hornibrook, for example (last year’s Badgers QB), wouldn’t have made.
Wisconsin also adjusted from last year and did a great job of using U-M’s aggressiveness against it, almost like draw plays in which the linemen would give up ground before shoving defenders past the play and leading a convoy into the next level.
Flat out, schematically, U-M was also outcoached on this day. It happens, and it’s also more evidence that one year has no bearing on the next. How many assumed the Badgers were going to be “no good” because they lost so much talent from an already 8-5 team?
Sometimes there’s addition by subtraction. Sometimes teams just jell better with one another. But it’s clear Don Brown has not had his best stretch going back to last year and needs to be better. Whether it’s personnel (hard to scheme around poor line play) or what, something has to change.
Other observations —
• Michigan’s timeout after the first offensive play (a 68-yard reception by Ronnie Bell) was the result of an official accidentally dropping his flag. Head coach Jim Harbaugh and his staff were waiting to see what the penalty was before sending the play in — the play clock had already started.
The first down play was a great one. Junior Ben Mason shouldn’t have carried the ball, but as a decoy his presence had the Badgers thinking and opened up a slant to junior receiver Nico Collins. As he’s done about four times this year, senior quarterback Shea Patterson overthrew Collins in the end zone.
Patterson simply has got to do a better job putting the ball where Collins can make a play.
Giving the ball to Mason on the next play was … well, not smart, hindsight or not (and we were cringing at the time). The kid added 25 pounds in the offseason and hasn’t been playing the position most of the fall.
At the same time, not having freshman Zach Charbonnet in that position hurt, too — and it’s hard to say what the deal is there. You’re either healthy enough to play or you’re not. He had two carries in the game and was on the field for several other plays.
• Handling adversity is the sign of a good team. This team didn’t Saturday. After Mason’s fumble, for example, Wisconsin was still backed up. Seniors needed to be better. Both Lavert Hill and Khaleke Hudson seemed to get confused in coverage and both left to cover the same man, leaving the fullback alone out of the backfield top pick up 10 yards on a pass from Coan.
Later in the first quarter, when the game was still a game, safety Josh Metellus let a pick go through his hands. He has to make a play there.
• From the “do the little things” department … On a first down pass to Tarik Black, instead of turning and getting eight the receiver runs backwards and it’s second and five. Then you get the Ronnie Bell overturn (an absolute joke) after a diving catch and on third and five, Patterson has time but throws incomplete to Sean McKeon in double coverage.
Nobody’s open, but he had more time than he thought. He did not see open receivers in this game, and though the first quarter touches were limited, the pass pro was okay for much of the first half (though “okay” isn’t good enough for a line that’s been playing together so long).
And the receivers flat out stopped their routes too often and didn’t move when Patterson was scrambling and looking for someone. Just once we’d love to see one of them look behind them and cut deep, for example, rather than watch the QB run for his life.
Pass protection was bad by the end of the second quarter. At the same time, Patterson also missed a couple of receivers, including Bell on a throw on the run he made regularly last year. It seems clear he’s not 100 percent.
• Jonathan Taylor is an elite running back. Period. But his biggest runs came when he bounced outside after the Wolverines lost contain. Harbaugh talked about ‘fits’ Monday — whether it was an end, a linebacker, safety or corner, they struggled in this area, including Taylor’s 72-yard touchdown run.
But again, the Badgers were really good and very well prepared. There was a great call on a second and 10 screen for a first down. And again, Coan was poised and outstanding.
• The defense showed heart on a goal line stand in the second quarter. Great effort by redshirt frosh linebacker Cam McGrone firing to the ball, though we have no idea what they were doing on the goal line on fourth down with Glasgow at the line and the ‘A’ gap left uncovered. But we will ask Don Brown the next time we see him.
• The first drive of the second half, the offensive line looks like they were challenged. Someone lit a fire under them a bit. There was a decent run by Christian Turner, Dylan McCaffrey with a nice touch pass on an RPO and push up front.
Another from the ‘make plays” department, though … on second and four he threw a ball senior tight end Sean McKeon absolutely has to catch. Right through the hands. On third down a tipped pass, fourth down a perfect punt inside the one called back by an illegal formation penalty.
Just can’t happen.
On the first play of Wisconsin’s next drive, Kemp gets incredible penetration off the snap to force Taylor to bounce it outside. Once again, nobody is there for contain and Taylor goes for 10 to the 30 or so.
And that series of events is how you become uncompetitive in a big game.
The Badgers finish the drive with an absolute clinic on the ground with combo blocks, finishing every block. Absolute domination up front. That would continue through the fourth quarter.
• McCaffrey comes back in and leads a nice drive. Linemen are starting to finish their blocks a bit and McKeon, too, has a nice finish after a Bell completion. There’s a bounce in their step.
Then … McCaffrey gets knocked out of the game. Reggie Pearson’s hit was one of the dirtiest we’ve seen in college football this year. He should be suspended a few games.
• For all the talk of tight end Nick Eubanks being a better blocker … he’s got a long, long way to go.
• The whistle hadn’t blown when the Wolverines stopped the pile and stripped the ball on one second half play. If you’re going to let the Badgers’ linemen move the pile, as an official, you’ve got to let the defense play to the whistle.
• And finally, Joe Milton has thrown some of the worst interceptions ever seen in his limited action as a Wolverine. He’s just got to be more aware of where he’s going with the ball.
Onward.
First off — someone compared this U-M defensive line to the undersized 2000 line that had plug-ins and got pushed around playing guys like converted fullback Evan Coleman at defensive tackle. And yes, there are some similarities.
We’ll say this, though — senior Carlo Kemp is a warrior. As a complement (not compliment), you can see why he was more than adequate last year. He’s quick off the ball, much stronger than given credit for and battles on every play. There were times he was in the backfield as quickly as Mo Hurst used to be … his was more timing the snap than quick-like-Hurst, though.
Regardless, you can win with him. But they need to find someone to complement him, now. We heard a lot about redshirt sophomore Donovan Jeter in the offseason. He got pushed around quite a bit against the Badgers, looked pretty slow when asked to loop and played too high. He needs to improve (to be fair, though, it was his first extensive game action inside, and that was one hell of a Wisconsin line).
But the Badgers did what they do best, and it was reminiscent of Michigan teams in the 80s and 90s … here it comes. We’ll tell you what’s coming, in fact. Try and stop us.
The Wolverines couldn’t.
We’ll say this, though — this Badgers team is really, really good. Quarterbacak Jack Coan — you can see why Jim Harbaugh recruited him. A lot of his throws in play action were right on the money, including a fourth-and-three 26-yarder (on a great rub route — where have those been, Josh Gattis?) to Quintez Cephus in which Ambry Thomas had to avoid a curler, giving Cephus just enough space to get open.
Coan avoided a couple of sacks, too — one by linebacker Josh Ross and one by sophomore end Aidan Hutchinson — that turned into big plays that Alex Hornibrook, for example (last year’s Badgers QB), wouldn’t have made.
Wisconsin also adjusted from last year and did a great job of using U-M’s aggressiveness against it, almost like draw plays in which the linemen would give up ground before shoving defenders past the play and leading a convoy into the next level.
Flat out, schematically, U-M was also outcoached on this day. It happens, and it’s also more evidence that one year has no bearing on the next. How many assumed the Badgers were going to be “no good” because they lost so much talent from an already 8-5 team?
Sometimes there’s addition by subtraction. Sometimes teams just jell better with one another. But it’s clear Don Brown has not had his best stretch going back to last year and needs to be better. Whether it’s personnel (hard to scheme around poor line play) or what, something has to change.
Other observations —
• Michigan’s timeout after the first offensive play (a 68-yard reception by Ronnie Bell) was the result of an official accidentally dropping his flag. Head coach Jim Harbaugh and his staff were waiting to see what the penalty was before sending the play in — the play clock had already started.
The first down play was a great one. Junior Ben Mason shouldn’t have carried the ball, but as a decoy his presence had the Badgers thinking and opened up a slant to junior receiver Nico Collins. As he’s done about four times this year, senior quarterback Shea Patterson overthrew Collins in the end zone.
Patterson simply has got to do a better job putting the ball where Collins can make a play.
Giving the ball to Mason on the next play was … well, not smart, hindsight or not (and we were cringing at the time). The kid added 25 pounds in the offseason and hasn’t been playing the position most of the fall.
At the same time, not having freshman Zach Charbonnet in that position hurt, too — and it’s hard to say what the deal is there. You’re either healthy enough to play or you’re not. He had two carries in the game and was on the field for several other plays.
• Handling adversity is the sign of a good team. This team didn’t Saturday. After Mason’s fumble, for example, Wisconsin was still backed up. Seniors needed to be better. Both Lavert Hill and Khaleke Hudson seemed to get confused in coverage and both left to cover the same man, leaving the fullback alone out of the backfield top pick up 10 yards on a pass from Coan.
Later in the first quarter, when the game was still a game, safety Josh Metellus let a pick go through his hands. He has to make a play there.
• From the “do the little things” department … On a first down pass to Tarik Black, instead of turning and getting eight the receiver runs backwards and it’s second and five. Then you get the Ronnie Bell overturn (an absolute joke) after a diving catch and on third and five, Patterson has time but throws incomplete to Sean McKeon in double coverage.
Nobody’s open, but he had more time than he thought. He did not see open receivers in this game, and though the first quarter touches were limited, the pass pro was okay for much of the first half (though “okay” isn’t good enough for a line that’s been playing together so long).
And the receivers flat out stopped their routes too often and didn’t move when Patterson was scrambling and looking for someone. Just once we’d love to see one of them look behind them and cut deep, for example, rather than watch the QB run for his life.
Pass protection was bad by the end of the second quarter. At the same time, Patterson also missed a couple of receivers, including Bell on a throw on the run he made regularly last year. It seems clear he’s not 100 percent.
• Jonathan Taylor is an elite running back. Period. But his biggest runs came when he bounced outside after the Wolverines lost contain. Harbaugh talked about ‘fits’ Monday — whether it was an end, a linebacker, safety or corner, they struggled in this area, including Taylor’s 72-yard touchdown run.
But again, the Badgers were really good and very well prepared. There was a great call on a second and 10 screen for a first down. And again, Coan was poised and outstanding.
• The defense showed heart on a goal line stand in the second quarter. Great effort by redshirt frosh linebacker Cam McGrone firing to the ball, though we have no idea what they were doing on the goal line on fourth down with Glasgow at the line and the ‘A’ gap left uncovered. But we will ask Don Brown the next time we see him.
• The first drive of the second half, the offensive line looks like they were challenged. Someone lit a fire under them a bit. There was a decent run by Christian Turner, Dylan McCaffrey with a nice touch pass on an RPO and push up front.
Another from the ‘make plays” department, though … on second and four he threw a ball senior tight end Sean McKeon absolutely has to catch. Right through the hands. On third down a tipped pass, fourth down a perfect punt inside the one called back by an illegal formation penalty.
Just can’t happen.
On the first play of Wisconsin’s next drive, Kemp gets incredible penetration off the snap to force Taylor to bounce it outside. Once again, nobody is there for contain and Taylor goes for 10 to the 30 or so.
And that series of events is how you become uncompetitive in a big game.
The Badgers finish the drive with an absolute clinic on the ground with combo blocks, finishing every block. Absolute domination up front. That would continue through the fourth quarter.
• McCaffrey comes back in and leads a nice drive. Linemen are starting to finish their blocks a bit and McKeon, too, has a nice finish after a Bell completion. There’s a bounce in their step.
Then … McCaffrey gets knocked out of the game. Reggie Pearson’s hit was one of the dirtiest we’ve seen in college football this year. He should be suspended a few games.
• For all the talk of tight end Nick Eubanks being a better blocker … he’s got a long, long way to go.
• The whistle hadn’t blown when the Wolverines stopped the pile and stripped the ball on one second half play. If you’re going to let the Badgers’ linemen move the pile, as an official, you’ve got to let the defense play to the whistle.
• And finally, Joe Milton has thrown some of the worst interceptions ever seen in his limited action as a Wolverine. He’s just got to be more aware of where he’s going with the ball.
Onward.
