Michigan hung on to beat Rutgers, 20-13, after dominating the first half and getting owned in the second. Here’s what we saw after watching the film a few times …
First off, a really nice first half for the Wolverines. The stench of the second stanza kind of clouded that fact. They punched them in the mouth offensively — the line was firing off the ball, the pulls by the line had a purpose. Freshman right guard Zak Zinter in particular was mauling people and finishing his blocks.
Hassan Haskins was the better of the two backs Saturday. Blake Corum wasn’t as patient as he usually is — that was on display on the second to last drive that resulted in a field goal. He didn’t set up his blockers or wait for the hole and ran for three yards on a play that could have gone for six or seven. It resulted in a field goal and a 17-3 lead.
The big play on that drive was a beautifully thrown ball to Cornelius Johnson from Cade McNamara, who really had a nice half minus the missed throw to tight end Luke Schoonmaker. Even then, we’d have liked to see better clock management (we’ve talked about it). They had a timeout left, took it rather than running another play with five seconds remaining.
Either way, the short yardage offense hasn’t been good enough. The guys up front are doing a nice job blocking when they’re pulling and moving (for the most part), but not great when they have to line up and blow people off the ball for a yard.
Trente Jones, brought in as an extra blocker near the goal line, was an exception. He and tight end Erick All threw nice blocks to spring a first half touchdown, Jones getting movement and pushing his guy into the end zone.
Give Rutgers’ defense credit, too, for not throwing in the towel. It got better as the game progressed, played hard throughout, and Michigan’s offensive line didn’t match their intensity in the third quarter in particular.
On that field goal drive, receiver Mike Sainristil has a ball hit him in the hands, but it’s knocked away. It would have been a nice catch, and the DB made a solid play, but really good receivers make that catch. Sainristil just isn’t a natural pass catcher, so that route for him — don’t like it. The ball hit him in the palm of his hands and was bouncing away before the DB touched it.
U-M had a chance to get off the field on the next drive, but Dax Hill reacted late on a second down play and let QB Noah Vedral outside of him on third down — it got brought back by penalty, but if he makes a play they punt — and then was out of control on the subsequent play, a third down blitz on which Vedral stepped up and made him whiff.
Michigan got the ball back anyway and drove the field quickly, but those are plays you need against better opponents.
Hill made up for it on the next series, reading a flat pass and closing quickly for a negative gain play, and then closing fast on Vedral on third down and forcing a bad throw.
Thanks to Greg Schiano for the fourth down decisions. Credit Chris Hinton (who played a great first half and continues to improve) and Mazi Smith, also Aidan Hutchinson, who was running downhill at the snap and destroyed the tackle, knocking him back into the ball carrier, for recognizing the fourth and short trick play.
The fourth and 10 decision at midfield was just stupid. That was a six-point swing, essentially, a potential three left on the board for Rutgers and three for Michigan after a 50-yard pass from McNamara to Sainristil set it up.
On that play, Rutgers gets a shot on McNamara which should never happen. U-M had six blockers against four rushers but got fooled on a simple twist on the left side. The Scarlet Knights ran the same one against the right side in the second half and forced a flush out of the pocket.
Wisconsin’s defense is built on stunts and twists. They will destroy McNamara if that isn’t shored up.
The targeting call against him was weak, but the Rutgers D-line actually played better after Julius Turner was DQed. And McNamara was not shaken up or ‘woozy’ – he just didn’t play as well after that. Maybe that’s on the line for allowing the big hit, as our Doug Skene always says …
“NOBODY touches the quarterback!”
Linebacker Josh Ross was an absolute stud in the first half, running downhill at the snap and putting his facemask into chests. Talk about contact courage. They missed him in the second half. He is huge to this defense. If I were Jim Harbaugh, I’d be asking boosters to line up NIL deals for this kid to convince him to come back next year.
Hinton made a great play to start the second half, but the first Rutgers drive was doomed by a penalty. Ditto Michigan’s first drive — Andrew Vastardis blew the snap, they were behind the sticks and then the crappy third and 12 play happened.
It’s usually hindsight to say ‘that play sucked,’ like the first half screen to Erick All on third and eight (that was a screen all the way). Rutgers just happened to play it well. The ‘throw to the sticks’ thing — do people realize how many first downs are gained on YAC (yards after catch) to outstanding playmakers?
Sometimes it doesn’t work. A lot of times, it does. Steve Breaston, for example, probably picked up a few dozen third downs in his career after catching balls short of the first down marker.
But that third down from the 42 was just a bad decision. They’d gone to the third and long well once before in the first half and it worked when Corum broke a tackle. Not this time.
That’s when momentum switched. Rutgers’ linemen started attacking the gaps from the outside in, which made it more difficult for the pulling linemen to find their marks, too.
Overall, the tight ends blocked well this game. Trevor Keegan struggled in the second half at times, and that’s probably why he’s still splitting time with Chuck Filiaga.
Dax Hill gave up five yards after contact on Rutgers’ next drive and took a bad angle on a third down and two, or U-M would have gotten the ball back. Instead, a 90-plus yard TD drive and game on.
Nobody's perfect.
And it was clear they missed Ross when Vedral started running more read option. And the line was gassed. Nikhai Hill-Green blew a coverage on the Aaron Young TD.
A few more things —
The backs ran into the pile too often this game. Haskins did on third and one in the third quarter. No excuse to not get three yards on two carries after Rutgers scored. It only gets harder next week.
McNamara looked spooked when it got tight. That just can’t happen. It’s only going to be tougher on the road.
Too many personal foul and unsportsmanlike penalties for this team. Some are borderline, but those are killers and indicative of lack of discipline.
Everyone in the stadium should have known McNamara was going to keep on third down read option late in the fourth quarter. Greg Schiano did, and he had his team prepared. Had he kept on second, he might still be running.
Not a good sign that Jake Moody missed his first pressure field goal of the year. That could have iced it.
But credit the defense for the game winning play. It was reminiscent of Army a few years back. But frankly, and again, this game shouldn’t have been close.
We’ll find out a lot about this team this week.
Onward .
First off, a really nice first half for the Wolverines. The stench of the second stanza kind of clouded that fact. They punched them in the mouth offensively — the line was firing off the ball, the pulls by the line had a purpose. Freshman right guard Zak Zinter in particular was mauling people and finishing his blocks.
Hassan Haskins was the better of the two backs Saturday. Blake Corum wasn’t as patient as he usually is — that was on display on the second to last drive that resulted in a field goal. He didn’t set up his blockers or wait for the hole and ran for three yards on a play that could have gone for six or seven. It resulted in a field goal and a 17-3 lead.
The big play on that drive was a beautifully thrown ball to Cornelius Johnson from Cade McNamara, who really had a nice half minus the missed throw to tight end Luke Schoonmaker. Even then, we’d have liked to see better clock management (we’ve talked about it). They had a timeout left, took it rather than running another play with five seconds remaining.
Either way, the short yardage offense hasn’t been good enough. The guys up front are doing a nice job blocking when they’re pulling and moving (for the most part), but not great when they have to line up and blow people off the ball for a yard.
Trente Jones, brought in as an extra blocker near the goal line, was an exception. He and tight end Erick All threw nice blocks to spring a first half touchdown, Jones getting movement and pushing his guy into the end zone.
Give Rutgers’ defense credit, too, for not throwing in the towel. It got better as the game progressed, played hard throughout, and Michigan’s offensive line didn’t match their intensity in the third quarter in particular.
On that field goal drive, receiver Mike Sainristil has a ball hit him in the hands, but it’s knocked away. It would have been a nice catch, and the DB made a solid play, but really good receivers make that catch. Sainristil just isn’t a natural pass catcher, so that route for him — don’t like it. The ball hit him in the palm of his hands and was bouncing away before the DB touched it.
U-M had a chance to get off the field on the next drive, but Dax Hill reacted late on a second down play and let QB Noah Vedral outside of him on third down — it got brought back by penalty, but if he makes a play they punt — and then was out of control on the subsequent play, a third down blitz on which Vedral stepped up and made him whiff.
Michigan got the ball back anyway and drove the field quickly, but those are plays you need against better opponents.
Hill made up for it on the next series, reading a flat pass and closing quickly for a negative gain play, and then closing fast on Vedral on third down and forcing a bad throw.
Thanks to Greg Schiano for the fourth down decisions. Credit Chris Hinton (who played a great first half and continues to improve) and Mazi Smith, also Aidan Hutchinson, who was running downhill at the snap and destroyed the tackle, knocking him back into the ball carrier, for recognizing the fourth and short trick play.
The fourth and 10 decision at midfield was just stupid. That was a six-point swing, essentially, a potential three left on the board for Rutgers and three for Michigan after a 50-yard pass from McNamara to Sainristil set it up.
On that play, Rutgers gets a shot on McNamara which should never happen. U-M had six blockers against four rushers but got fooled on a simple twist on the left side. The Scarlet Knights ran the same one against the right side in the second half and forced a flush out of the pocket.
Wisconsin’s defense is built on stunts and twists. They will destroy McNamara if that isn’t shored up.
The targeting call against him was weak, but the Rutgers D-line actually played better after Julius Turner was DQed. And McNamara was not shaken up or ‘woozy’ – he just didn’t play as well after that. Maybe that’s on the line for allowing the big hit, as our Doug Skene always says …
“NOBODY touches the quarterback!”
Linebacker Josh Ross was an absolute stud in the first half, running downhill at the snap and putting his facemask into chests. Talk about contact courage. They missed him in the second half. He is huge to this defense. If I were Jim Harbaugh, I’d be asking boosters to line up NIL deals for this kid to convince him to come back next year.
Hinton made a great play to start the second half, but the first Rutgers drive was doomed by a penalty. Ditto Michigan’s first drive — Andrew Vastardis blew the snap, they were behind the sticks and then the crappy third and 12 play happened.
It’s usually hindsight to say ‘that play sucked,’ like the first half screen to Erick All on third and eight (that was a screen all the way). Rutgers just happened to play it well. The ‘throw to the sticks’ thing — do people realize how many first downs are gained on YAC (yards after catch) to outstanding playmakers?
Sometimes it doesn’t work. A lot of times, it does. Steve Breaston, for example, probably picked up a few dozen third downs in his career after catching balls short of the first down marker.
But that third down from the 42 was just a bad decision. They’d gone to the third and long well once before in the first half and it worked when Corum broke a tackle. Not this time.
That’s when momentum switched. Rutgers’ linemen started attacking the gaps from the outside in, which made it more difficult for the pulling linemen to find their marks, too.
Overall, the tight ends blocked well this game. Trevor Keegan struggled in the second half at times, and that’s probably why he’s still splitting time with Chuck Filiaga.
Dax Hill gave up five yards after contact on Rutgers’ next drive and took a bad angle on a third down and two, or U-M would have gotten the ball back. Instead, a 90-plus yard TD drive and game on.
Nobody's perfect.
And it was clear they missed Ross when Vedral started running more read option. And the line was gassed. Nikhai Hill-Green blew a coverage on the Aaron Young TD.
A few more things —
The backs ran into the pile too often this game. Haskins did on third and one in the third quarter. No excuse to not get three yards on two carries after Rutgers scored. It only gets harder next week.
McNamara looked spooked when it got tight. That just can’t happen. It’s only going to be tougher on the road.
Too many personal foul and unsportsmanlike penalties for this team. Some are borderline, but those are killers and indicative of lack of discipline.
Everyone in the stadium should have known McNamara was going to keep on third down read option late in the fourth quarter. Greg Schiano did, and he had his team prepared. Had he kept on second, he might still be running.
Not a good sign that Jake Moody missed his first pressure field goal of the year. That could have iced it.
But credit the defense for the game winning play. It was reminiscent of Army a few years back. But frankly, and again, this game shouldn’t have been close.
We’ll find out a lot about this team this week.
Onward .
