It was only Rutgers....
No, it was Michigan...showing significant improvement and giving us a glimpse of what we can become.
Yes it is always easier to look better when you are better than your opponent. But the problems we’ve had recently have more to do with poor execution, bad penalties and not making the plays.
Against Rutgers, we executed better and eliminated mistakes. THAT’s the exciting part.
It’s not about Rutgers, though. It’s about Michigan. Peters played very well, but not perfectly. More exciting, to me, was our ability to take over the game from the line of scrimmage. 2 backs over 100 yards, no sacks allowed on offense. 5 sacks on defense and 6 other TFLs.
After O’Korn was replaced, we scored 4 TDs on 7 possessions with a missed FG, a missed TD pass on 4th down and a harmless punt with the second OL in after 3 consecutive runs by Samuels.
The offense finally started to click and the defense played very, very well once again.
Some things from the second viewing...
QB Play...
JOK forced Harbaugh’s hand by mishandling 2 snaps and throwing a bad INT. He must just be better in practice, because he’s just not very good in games. He played okay vs. Purdue and I don’t think he played poorly vs. Penn St. But every other chance he’s had he has been bad. Indiana last year, Indiana this year, and Rutgers this year. This year, the offense needed a guy that wouldn’t shoot himself in the foot. Speight shot himself in the foot and so did JOK.
Peters, on the other hand, did not shrink under the lights. He took what the defense gave him, avoided mistakes (mostly) and passed his first test as a Wolverine QB. He ended the day 10/14 124 yards and a TD pass (that should have been 2!).
He made 2 bad throws. The first was a quick slant, that wasn’t really a bad throw. But he locked on to Perry and allowed the S to read it and break it up (could have been a pick 6). I think that’s something that will come with experience and confidence....looking off the S before firing the slant. His other bad pass was the 4th down attempt that nosedives at McKeon’s feet. He was rolling out and could have just lofted it to the corner, but tried to put a little into it on the run and it just went short. Another incomplete was a fade out of bounds to DPJ. I did not like the spacing on the play...Perry was 5 yards inside of DPJ and I assume he should have been drawing the defense away from DPJ who was a little too close to the sideline. BUT it wasn’t a bad throw on 1st down in the 2 minute offense. The other incompletion was a high throw to Wheatley that might have been caught if he didn’t have a bad hand (he wears on receiver/jordan glove and the other is wrapped up).
Two other throws were not perfect,but good enough. One was the TD pass to Evans that was a little short, but Evans makes the play vs. the LB covering. The other was a first down throw that drifts inside a tad and McKeon was open enough to catch it before the LB closes. That throw was a yard or two inside of where it should have been. In both cases, the throws are good enough to allow the receiver to make a play.
Penalties 3 for 25 yards...
1. 12 men lined up/illegal participation. TV view doesn’t show it.
2. Thomas Delay of game after a nice KO return.
3. Hurst late hit on the QB.
Well played game with only a few mental mistakes. And, again, the officials arent’ letting anything close to a penalty slide for Michigan. The ball spin earlier this year and the mini spike on Thomas don’t need to be called, but don’t need to happen either. The Hurst hit was definitely a good call. Rutgers, on the other hand, extend hits out of bounds at least 3 times with no calls. But I digress...Huge improvement from the Wolverines regarding penalties this week.
Turnovers: 1-0 Rutgers.
You can see JOK visibly upset after the INT. “Come back for the ball Zach” is what it looks like he says. But it should have been thrown longer and higher for the 6’7 Gentry, who gets his head around a little late and the 6’0 DB/former receiver makes a play on the ball. I put 90% blame on JOK and 10% on Gentry.
We also put the ball on the ground 3 other times. One was gon a good snap that JOK takes his eyes off of and loses 14. Another was a bad exchange (?) between JOK and Kugler. JOK slides for no loss after picking that up, but he might have been able to make a play if he doesn’t panic there. The last was on a DPJ return that I think was recovered by Hawkins.
There were also 2 bad exchanges between Peters and Evans. It seems to me that Evans is the culprit in both instances. On one, Peters looks like he wants to fake the handoff going left, so he can give to Evans going right. If that handoff is clean, it’s probably + 10 yards for Evans...it was blocked very well. Peters follows Evans into the hole before sliding for a -1 loss. On the other, it looks like there is a mixup on which side Evans should get the ball on and he bobbles it. It wasn’t well blocked, but the bad timing definitely botches the play and Evans is fortunate to bounce it outside for no gain instead of a loss.
We forced one fumble on a sack by Winovich. The QB never sees him and Winovich absolutely should have stripped the ball on that play. I know it’s nitpicking, but it’s a play that should be made fa a fourth year guy.
Missed blocks: not a whole lot...
Gentry and McKeon both miss the CB covering McDoom on the first pass that went for -3 (on first down, putting JOK behind the chains again).
Side note: on the WR screen to McDoom on the same possession, Perry gets the corner on the ground, but the pass is slow and behind the LOS with McDoom’s momentum going backwards. It eventually gains 7 (on 3rd and 16). A better timed and executed throw might get the first down (if McDoom gets the corner vs. the CB on the ground for a moment). Those screens the last few weeks are sooooo close to turning into big plays.
Cole gets beat inside on the 4th and 1 that Higdon stretches for the first down with second effort. Surprisingly, it was a good spot that got the first down by an inch.
Bredeson gets out a little slow on a sweep that Poggi gets the edge on and Higdon has to put his head down against 2 guys to gain 2.
Missed tackles: one play(?)
On the 65 yard Grant TD...Gary follows the T inside as he doubles Hurst. We might have been slanting in that direction, too, but Gary gets a little too far inside. Once Grant gets outside Gary, Hudson does a fair job of containing and turning the play back inside (he could have squeezed the lane a tad more, though). Grant cuts it up and is able to beat Gary, Hurst, Winovich and McCray who were all a half step out of position to make the tackle. Tip the cap to Grant, who made the play and took advantage of some very slight mistakes on the play.
The Defense:
Besides the 65 yard sprint by Grant, Rutgers was able to execute a 29 yard crossing pattern on third and long. They hit a TE in the seem for 30 with a good rush and fair coverage by Furbush. They completed a 21 yard pass on a well covered receiver with good coverage and ran a nice screen for a 10 yard gain where the defense almost gets the QB before he can flip it forward in the redzone. ALL on the same drive.
155 out of 195 yards were given up on 5 plays. There is room for improvement. But give Rutgers and Grant a little credit. That QB made a couple perfect throws with guys all over him and Grant was able to get a crease one time.
Other observations:
DPJ has enormous potential as a punt returner. BUT he needs to field the ball. He let three catchable punts hit the turf, costing us first downs in field position. I don’t know if he’s not seeing the ball well enough off the foot, but he’s the opposite of Peppers last year who saved a ton of field position by just catching punts.
Spanellis wore #97 as the sixth OL early in the game and did well. He looks like he could be a player. I was thinking that maybe he should move in for Bredeson and let Ben play RT. But late in the game he pulls and whiffs. That’s the thing you get with young players. They can look awesome on one play, then foolish the next.
Ruiz, Runyan and Ulizio (along with Spanellis) get PT late. JBB played his best game, I think. He had one play where he dances with a LB, who eventually tackles Evans on the bad exchange. But other than that, I didn’t see a lot of mistakes from him.
Nate Schoenle is a value to this team. He is our best blocking WR and made at least 2 special team tackles (one slicing in from nowhere that could have been a TD if he doesn’t make the play). He might have supplanted Crawford, whom I didn’t see play.
Nico Collins and O’Maury Samuels played for at least the second time this year. Hopefully we can preserve their Redshirts if the new 4 game rule goes into effect as speculated. (Also assuming that they only play 2 or less of the remaining 5 games).
On defense, Dwumfour had a sack (with Paye right there). Kemp is getting more minutes. Uche flashes some real potential as a pass rusher. Getting a lead allowed us to get some reps to the second team.
Whoever thinks Gary isn’t playing great football is ignorant. His stats may not be where they will be in the future, but this guy is a beast. Instead of criticizing the one or two plays a game he gets tired and “loafs”, we should appreciate the juice that he brings to the game. He is projecting towards a #1 draft pick status as early as next year.
The starters are coming along. People criticized Drevno for his “it’s very close” comment, but we have been all season. It seems to me that the coaches tried way too hard to help and protect JOK to the point that they went away from things that worked to try to get his confidence up...and it always backfired.
Moving forward, I hope we can build on this game and the first unit gets sharper in the next two scrimmages. If Peters can avoid the mistakes that cost JOK his job, we can continue to pound the run game and maybe even develop some depth. I look forward to tweeting the WR screen game and giving DPJ some opportunities on offense.
One last thing...I wonder if the rumored off season conversation with O’Korn actually happened. There was speculation the JOK would move on as a grad transfer after the spring when he was apparently behind Speight (who was still injured) and Peters. I feel like MAYBE there was an assurance given that he would get a chance or be the backup while Speight recovered and Peters improved. It sure seems that he was given more opportunity than he earned. For the record, I don’t think it was necessarily a bad thing...we needed JOK from a depth perspective and I think many hoped he would be better than he was...including the coaches. But if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.
No, it was Michigan...showing significant improvement and giving us a glimpse of what we can become.
Yes it is always easier to look better when you are better than your opponent. But the problems we’ve had recently have more to do with poor execution, bad penalties and not making the plays.
Against Rutgers, we executed better and eliminated mistakes. THAT’s the exciting part.
It’s not about Rutgers, though. It’s about Michigan. Peters played very well, but not perfectly. More exciting, to me, was our ability to take over the game from the line of scrimmage. 2 backs over 100 yards, no sacks allowed on offense. 5 sacks on defense and 6 other TFLs.
After O’Korn was replaced, we scored 4 TDs on 7 possessions with a missed FG, a missed TD pass on 4th down and a harmless punt with the second OL in after 3 consecutive runs by Samuels.
The offense finally started to click and the defense played very, very well once again.
Some things from the second viewing...
QB Play...
JOK forced Harbaugh’s hand by mishandling 2 snaps and throwing a bad INT. He must just be better in practice, because he’s just not very good in games. He played okay vs. Purdue and I don’t think he played poorly vs. Penn St. But every other chance he’s had he has been bad. Indiana last year, Indiana this year, and Rutgers this year. This year, the offense needed a guy that wouldn’t shoot himself in the foot. Speight shot himself in the foot and so did JOK.
Peters, on the other hand, did not shrink under the lights. He took what the defense gave him, avoided mistakes (mostly) and passed his first test as a Wolverine QB. He ended the day 10/14 124 yards and a TD pass (that should have been 2!).
He made 2 bad throws. The first was a quick slant, that wasn’t really a bad throw. But he locked on to Perry and allowed the S to read it and break it up (could have been a pick 6). I think that’s something that will come with experience and confidence....looking off the S before firing the slant. His other bad pass was the 4th down attempt that nosedives at McKeon’s feet. He was rolling out and could have just lofted it to the corner, but tried to put a little into it on the run and it just went short. Another incomplete was a fade out of bounds to DPJ. I did not like the spacing on the play...Perry was 5 yards inside of DPJ and I assume he should have been drawing the defense away from DPJ who was a little too close to the sideline. BUT it wasn’t a bad throw on 1st down in the 2 minute offense. The other incompletion was a high throw to Wheatley that might have been caught if he didn’t have a bad hand (he wears on receiver/jordan glove and the other is wrapped up).
Two other throws were not perfect,but good enough. One was the TD pass to Evans that was a little short, but Evans makes the play vs. the LB covering. The other was a first down throw that drifts inside a tad and McKeon was open enough to catch it before the LB closes. That throw was a yard or two inside of where it should have been. In both cases, the throws are good enough to allow the receiver to make a play.
Penalties 3 for 25 yards...
1. 12 men lined up/illegal participation. TV view doesn’t show it.
2. Thomas Delay of game after a nice KO return.
3. Hurst late hit on the QB.
Well played game with only a few mental mistakes. And, again, the officials arent’ letting anything close to a penalty slide for Michigan. The ball spin earlier this year and the mini spike on Thomas don’t need to be called, but don’t need to happen either. The Hurst hit was definitely a good call. Rutgers, on the other hand, extend hits out of bounds at least 3 times with no calls. But I digress...Huge improvement from the Wolverines regarding penalties this week.
Turnovers: 1-0 Rutgers.
You can see JOK visibly upset after the INT. “Come back for the ball Zach” is what it looks like he says. But it should have been thrown longer and higher for the 6’7 Gentry, who gets his head around a little late and the 6’0 DB/former receiver makes a play on the ball. I put 90% blame on JOK and 10% on Gentry.
We also put the ball on the ground 3 other times. One was gon a good snap that JOK takes his eyes off of and loses 14. Another was a bad exchange (?) between JOK and Kugler. JOK slides for no loss after picking that up, but he might have been able to make a play if he doesn’t panic there. The last was on a DPJ return that I think was recovered by Hawkins.
There were also 2 bad exchanges between Peters and Evans. It seems to me that Evans is the culprit in both instances. On one, Peters looks like he wants to fake the handoff going left, so he can give to Evans going right. If that handoff is clean, it’s probably + 10 yards for Evans...it was blocked very well. Peters follows Evans into the hole before sliding for a -1 loss. On the other, it looks like there is a mixup on which side Evans should get the ball on and he bobbles it. It wasn’t well blocked, but the bad timing definitely botches the play and Evans is fortunate to bounce it outside for no gain instead of a loss.
We forced one fumble on a sack by Winovich. The QB never sees him and Winovich absolutely should have stripped the ball on that play. I know it’s nitpicking, but it’s a play that should be made fa a fourth year guy.
Missed blocks: not a whole lot...
Gentry and McKeon both miss the CB covering McDoom on the first pass that went for -3 (on first down, putting JOK behind the chains again).
Side note: on the WR screen to McDoom on the same possession, Perry gets the corner on the ground, but the pass is slow and behind the LOS with McDoom’s momentum going backwards. It eventually gains 7 (on 3rd and 16). A better timed and executed throw might get the first down (if McDoom gets the corner vs. the CB on the ground for a moment). Those screens the last few weeks are sooooo close to turning into big plays.
Cole gets beat inside on the 4th and 1 that Higdon stretches for the first down with second effort. Surprisingly, it was a good spot that got the first down by an inch.
Bredeson gets out a little slow on a sweep that Poggi gets the edge on and Higdon has to put his head down against 2 guys to gain 2.
Missed tackles: one play(?)
On the 65 yard Grant TD...Gary follows the T inside as he doubles Hurst. We might have been slanting in that direction, too, but Gary gets a little too far inside. Once Grant gets outside Gary, Hudson does a fair job of containing and turning the play back inside (he could have squeezed the lane a tad more, though). Grant cuts it up and is able to beat Gary, Hurst, Winovich and McCray who were all a half step out of position to make the tackle. Tip the cap to Grant, who made the play and took advantage of some very slight mistakes on the play.
The Defense:
Besides the 65 yard sprint by Grant, Rutgers was able to execute a 29 yard crossing pattern on third and long. They hit a TE in the seem for 30 with a good rush and fair coverage by Furbush. They completed a 21 yard pass on a well covered receiver with good coverage and ran a nice screen for a 10 yard gain where the defense almost gets the QB before he can flip it forward in the redzone. ALL on the same drive.
155 out of 195 yards were given up on 5 plays. There is room for improvement. But give Rutgers and Grant a little credit. That QB made a couple perfect throws with guys all over him and Grant was able to get a crease one time.
Other observations:
DPJ has enormous potential as a punt returner. BUT he needs to field the ball. He let three catchable punts hit the turf, costing us first downs in field position. I don’t know if he’s not seeing the ball well enough off the foot, but he’s the opposite of Peppers last year who saved a ton of field position by just catching punts.
Spanellis wore #97 as the sixth OL early in the game and did well. He looks like he could be a player. I was thinking that maybe he should move in for Bredeson and let Ben play RT. But late in the game he pulls and whiffs. That’s the thing you get with young players. They can look awesome on one play, then foolish the next.
Ruiz, Runyan and Ulizio (along with Spanellis) get PT late. JBB played his best game, I think. He had one play where he dances with a LB, who eventually tackles Evans on the bad exchange. But other than that, I didn’t see a lot of mistakes from him.
Nate Schoenle is a value to this team. He is our best blocking WR and made at least 2 special team tackles (one slicing in from nowhere that could have been a TD if he doesn’t make the play). He might have supplanted Crawford, whom I didn’t see play.
Nico Collins and O’Maury Samuels played for at least the second time this year. Hopefully we can preserve their Redshirts if the new 4 game rule goes into effect as speculated. (Also assuming that they only play 2 or less of the remaining 5 games).
On defense, Dwumfour had a sack (with Paye right there). Kemp is getting more minutes. Uche flashes some real potential as a pass rusher. Getting a lead allowed us to get some reps to the second team.
Whoever thinks Gary isn’t playing great football is ignorant. His stats may not be where they will be in the future, but this guy is a beast. Instead of criticizing the one or two plays a game he gets tired and “loafs”, we should appreciate the juice that he brings to the game. He is projecting towards a #1 draft pick status as early as next year.
The starters are coming along. People criticized Drevno for his “it’s very close” comment, but we have been all season. It seems to me that the coaches tried way too hard to help and protect JOK to the point that they went away from things that worked to try to get his confidence up...and it always backfired.
Moving forward, I hope we can build on this game and the first unit gets sharper in the next two scrimmages. If Peters can avoid the mistakes that cost JOK his job, we can continue to pound the run game and maybe even develop some depth. I look forward to tweeting the WR screen game and giving DPJ some opportunities on offense.
One last thing...I wonder if the rumored off season conversation with O’Korn actually happened. There was speculation the JOK would move on as a grad transfer after the spring when he was apparently behind Speight (who was still injured) and Peters. I feel like MAYBE there was an assurance given that he would get a chance or be the backup while Speight recovered and Peters improved. It sure seems that he was given more opportunity than he earned. For the record, I don’t think it was necessarily a bad thing...we needed JOK from a depth perspective and I think many hoped he would be better than he was...including the coaches. But if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.
Last edited:
