Michigan played one horrible half of football against Rutgers, and it almost cost them. The fact that it came against a well-coached team that defended them ... well, just like we thought they would, raised the red flags.
As we wrote in postgame Notes, Quotes & Observations, it might mean little, or it might mean something. Most took it to mean we said "all is lost" — maybe they didn't read the last few paragraphs of the initial body. Here it is for those who didn't make it that far:
All that said — that assessment isn’t a postmortem, thanks to a great start and some timely, opportunistic play. Freshman linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green struggled in replacing injured Josh Ross, but he made two huge plays late in the fourth quarter when the Scarlet Knights were driving to try to tie, one on third and short and then on fourth down.
David Ojabo’s strip and Junior Colson’s fumble recovery saved the day on the last drive, the first-half offense was really good, a great mix of run and pass for 233 yards, 7.1 yards per play and 20 points, and the defense only allowed three points before the break.
The hope is they just fell asleep thinking they had the game in the bag … that this was a wake-up call and a case of things spiraling, a one-game aberration for a team that had been humming.
Thanks to the schedule-makers, we’ll find out soon enough. It’s fair, though, to be a bit gun shy after what we’ve witnessed in the recent past, especially when the competition is about to get so much better.
And that bring us to point No. 1. The guys on this team have no experience going into a hostile environment against a good, physical football team and winning. None. In the past, as our Doug Skene said, they'd head into a stadium giddy about taking it over, shutting up the fans, stealing their gold and their women (okay, too far) and 'breaking their spirit.'
We don't know how this team will respond in that environment, but the fact that they seemed lost in the second half of the Rutgers game ... yeah, it was a major concern in that respect. It absolutely was an embarrassing half of football — the hope is that it was just that and they learned from it. That they coasted because they had a chance to put it away in the first half and perhaps thought they had.
Still, all this "Wisconsin doesn't scare me talk" — we get it. But this Badgers team didn't destroy every team on the schedule the way they did the Wolverines in 2019 (and especially, 2020). They took advantage of favorable match-ups in the trenches to own the Wolverines, and while we'd like to believe U-M is better equipped to handle it this year, we still don't know.
Those looking at the final score only of the Badgers' 41-13 loss to Notre Dame and saying 'Wiscy sucks' aren't looking deep enough. Exhibit A:
That's Notre Dame's rushing yardage against the Badgers. It includes sack yardage. Wisconsin leads the nation allowing only 23 yards on the ground, per game — second, by the way, is Brady Hoke's San Diego State team (45.5) — and for those saying, 'ND sucks, too' ... well, you're not being honest with yourself if that stat doesn't raise eyebrows.
Granted, Penn State and Notre Dame are near the bottom of the NCAA (literally) in rushing in the early going, but they have physical fronts. Wisconsin's defense is legit, from scheme to physicality, and that's an area in which U-M didn't hold up against Rutgers Saturday after the first quarter.
Again, we're hoping it's an anomaly, and it might well be. But the Badgers outplayed PSU for most of the game, and the reason they didn't win is Exhibit B from Saturday's ND vs. Wiscy game:
The Wisconsin quarterback has been an absolute disaster, and the Badgers haven't been able to run the ball against physical fronts. But you know they'll try against this U-M front — again, we still don't know how it will hold up against more physical lines, and last week was disheartening (though they were clearly gassed in the fourth quarter).
The Badgers are going to try to run it on first and second down, throw to the backs, help Mertz get comfortable with short, underneath stuff ... and that's what Michigan defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald's groups have been conceding in the early going in the bend-but-don't-break scheme. The hitch routes were there for the taking for six, seven yards a pop against Rutgers with the corners playing back ... this might be the game where they play press a bit more, because the Badgers' receivers just aren't very good.
They'll have to keep an eye on the tight ends in this one, because we guarantee that will be a huge part of the game plan when Wisconsin goes to throw.
But it's tough to win at Camp Randall for a reason. That's a tough environment, and that's a big factor in Saturday's game, too. How is quarterback Cade McNamara going to respond to it if/when forced to throw? He wasn't comfortable in the second half last Saturday, and while the 'he needs to be replaced immediately' talk was absurd (he's been leading scoring drives at an incredible clip and had a really nice first half — more on that coming up in our second look), you just don't know how he's going to respond when adversity hits.
We didn't like how the whole team reacted last week, at home, against Rutgers. Again, here's hoping that was just a speed bump.
But there are a lot of factors working against Michigan Saturday. They should be fired up to atone for the last two years of beatings, though, and there's an opportunity to change a lot of narratives in Madison.
Win that one, and they'll have a lot more believers heading into another tough environment the following week at Nebraska, at which point they'd really have an opportunity to gain some momentum.
As we wrote in postgame Notes, Quotes & Observations, it might mean little, or it might mean something. Most took it to mean we said "all is lost" — maybe they didn't read the last few paragraphs of the initial body. Here it is for those who didn't make it that far:
All that said — that assessment isn’t a postmortem, thanks to a great start and some timely, opportunistic play. Freshman linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green struggled in replacing injured Josh Ross, but he made two huge plays late in the fourth quarter when the Scarlet Knights were driving to try to tie, one on third and short and then on fourth down.
David Ojabo’s strip and Junior Colson’s fumble recovery saved the day on the last drive, the first-half offense was really good, a great mix of run and pass for 233 yards, 7.1 yards per play and 20 points, and the defense only allowed three points before the break.
The hope is they just fell asleep thinking they had the game in the bag … that this was a wake-up call and a case of things spiraling, a one-game aberration for a team that had been humming.
Thanks to the schedule-makers, we’ll find out soon enough. It’s fair, though, to be a bit gun shy after what we’ve witnessed in the recent past, especially when the competition is about to get so much better.
And that bring us to point No. 1. The guys on this team have no experience going into a hostile environment against a good, physical football team and winning. None. In the past, as our Doug Skene said, they'd head into a stadium giddy about taking it over, shutting up the fans, stealing their gold and their women (okay, too far) and 'breaking their spirit.'
We don't know how this team will respond in that environment, but the fact that they seemed lost in the second half of the Rutgers game ... yeah, it was a major concern in that respect. It absolutely was an embarrassing half of football — the hope is that it was just that and they learned from it. That they coasted because they had a chance to put it away in the first half and perhaps thought they had.
Still, all this "Wisconsin doesn't scare me talk" — we get it. But this Badgers team didn't destroy every team on the schedule the way they did the Wolverines in 2019 (and especially, 2020). They took advantage of favorable match-ups in the trenches to own the Wolverines, and while we'd like to believe U-M is better equipped to handle it this year, we still don't know.
Those looking at the final score only of the Badgers' 41-13 loss to Notre Dame and saying 'Wiscy sucks' aren't looking deep enough. Exhibit A:
That's Notre Dame's rushing yardage against the Badgers. It includes sack yardage. Wisconsin leads the nation allowing only 23 yards on the ground, per game — second, by the way, is Brady Hoke's San Diego State team (45.5) — and for those saying, 'ND sucks, too' ... well, you're not being honest with yourself if that stat doesn't raise eyebrows.
Granted, Penn State and Notre Dame are near the bottom of the NCAA (literally) in rushing in the early going, but they have physical fronts. Wisconsin's defense is legit, from scheme to physicality, and that's an area in which U-M didn't hold up against Rutgers Saturday after the first quarter.
Again, we're hoping it's an anomaly, and it might well be. But the Badgers outplayed PSU for most of the game, and the reason they didn't win is Exhibit B from Saturday's ND vs. Wiscy game:
The Wisconsin quarterback has been an absolute disaster, and the Badgers haven't been able to run the ball against physical fronts. But you know they'll try against this U-M front — again, we still don't know how it will hold up against more physical lines, and last week was disheartening (though they were clearly gassed in the fourth quarter).
The Badgers are going to try to run it on first and second down, throw to the backs, help Mertz get comfortable with short, underneath stuff ... and that's what Michigan defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald's groups have been conceding in the early going in the bend-but-don't-break scheme. The hitch routes were there for the taking for six, seven yards a pop against Rutgers with the corners playing back ... this might be the game where they play press a bit more, because the Badgers' receivers just aren't very good.
They'll have to keep an eye on the tight ends in this one, because we guarantee that will be a huge part of the game plan when Wisconsin goes to throw.
But it's tough to win at Camp Randall for a reason. That's a tough environment, and that's a big factor in Saturday's game, too. How is quarterback Cade McNamara going to respond to it if/when forced to throw? He wasn't comfortable in the second half last Saturday, and while the 'he needs to be replaced immediately' talk was absurd (he's been leading scoring drives at an incredible clip and had a really nice first half — more on that coming up in our second look), you just don't know how he's going to respond when adversity hits.
We didn't like how the whole team reacted last week, at home, against Rutgers. Again, here's hoping that was just a speed bump.
But there are a lot of factors working against Michigan Saturday. They should be fired up to atone for the last two years of beatings, though, and there's an opportunity to change a lot of narratives in Madison.
Win that one, and they'll have a lot more believers heading into another tough environment the following week at Nebraska, at which point they'd really have an opportunity to gain some momentum.
