Let’s see more of this guy on offense . . . Jabrill Peppers. Michigan struggled to run the ball yet again, but Peppers had 2 carries for 24 yards in this one. He also had 204 all-purpose yards, including a 54-yard punt return touchdown. Michigan shouldn’t wear out Peppers, but if he can be a difference-maker, he should be getting 5-10 touches on offense against the best opponents. I think it’s good to get him some early touches, and then if Michigan pulls away, they can stick with their regular offensive personnel.
Hit the jump for more awards from the Colorado game.
Let’s see less of this guy on offense . . . Wilton Speight. I would prefer to watch Michigan’s running backs and an occasional receiver drive the offense, not a 6’6″, 243 lb. first-year starter. He threw the ball 37 times last week and 30 times this week. It would be nice to see him throwing the ball 20-25 times a game. Of course, that depends on how well the offensive line blocks and how well the backs run, and that’s the bigger question mark.
Let’s see more of this guy on defense . . . Jourdan Lewis. Lewis, who has missed the first three games due to injury, would have alleviated some of the issues Michigan faced against Colorado’s spread offense. If he’s out there in coverage, I don’t think Shay Fields catches 4 balls for 99 yards. Lewis can shadow a team’s best receiver and play in the slot, but instead, Michigan is playing a fair amount of Brandon Watson in the slot and then a couple decent #2 corners in Jeremy Clark and Channing Stribling on the outside.
Let’s see less of this guy on defense . . . Jabrill Peppers. So in order to play Peppers more on offense, I think his snaps need to be a little more limited on defense. You do what you have to do to win the game, but he plays defense, special teams, and some offense. He had a career-high 9 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, and 1 sack in this game. It’s not that he’s bad on defense. But if Lewis comes back to play defense, then that can allow Peppers to rest a little bit more for offense and special teams.
Play of the game . . . Jabrill Peppers’s 54-yard punt return for a touchdown. For a couple years now, Peppers has been close to breaking some big returns. He’s fast and athletic and strong and has vision. He kept getting forced out of bounds or tackled by an ankle, and it was frustrating. That frustration got a reprieve on Saturday when he took a short punt from the -46, split a couple defenders, cut back to the left, broke a tackle, and then stumbled into the endzone. It was a great moment for an excellent player who, as a redshirt sophomore, may be playing his final season in Ann Arbor. Honorable mention goes to Amara Darboh’s 45-yard catch-and-run touchdown on a quick screen.
MVP of the game . . . Jabrill Peppers. This is a no-brainer. Jim Harbaugh even said that Michigan wouldn’t win that game without Jabrill Peppers. He was excellent on defense (9 tackles, 3.5 TFLs, 1 sack) except for a busted coverage on a post route for a touchdown, dangerous on offense (2 carries for 24 yards), and exceptional on special teams (4 punt returns, 99 yards, 1 TD; 2 kickoff returns, 81 yards).
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If Peppers was made a feature RB, would he have as much success? Or is his success on offense due to the unpredictable way he is used? Imagine he lines up as the tailback for every offensive snap … does that cure our running game woes?
(Hypothetical question, of course … what I’m driving at is whether the running game issues are related to the RBs, the running blocking support, or if opposing defenses have focused on standard run prevention and thus other plays — passing, Peppers on sweeps, etc. — have some success.)
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Actually, and I am probably in the minority here, I don’t want to trade a lot Peppers snaps on the defense for him taking over the role of every down back. Certain packages on offense sure use him even as a decoy.
I would like to see Evans and McDoom used more (maybe even Higdon or Johnson if he makes it back) in running plays designed to take advantage of their speed or Evans and McDoom for short passes out of the slot .
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I agree here. Frankly, I would be happier if he never trotted out on offense. I know Charles did it and got himself/us a Heisman, and I don’t care.
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That would be fine if we were able to move the ball conventionally against the best defenses in the Big Ten, but I’m not convinced that we can. Peppers is an X-factor and could make a difference in a close game against MSU, OSU, etc.
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And on the road against the Hawkeyes
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I agree too…using Peppers all over the field on defense and on kick returns is enough. Yeah, he could do some cool stuff on offense, too, but we just don’t need him that badly on the other side of the ball, certainly not enough to justify increasing his risk of injury. We have far more speed and big play capability than we did in 1997 when we used Woodson as an occasional WR.
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FWIW, I don’t think Peppers has enough upside as a kick returner to warrant playing him there. It’s extra running and shots to the body when Chesson, Lewis, Dymonte Thomas, etc. can do roughly the same job. Even if returns drop from 28 yards/return to 25 yards/return, it’s not a big deal.
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It seems to me there is a stronger case to be made for this argument at RB than at KR. KR is a spot where natural running talent is a bigger element than at RB – which is a multi-faceted position where you have to block, catch, read blocks, etc.
Turning that one tackle into a miss is the difference between starting a play on the 40 yard line and taking it to the house. those kind of plays can win you ballgames you otherwise wouldn’t.
I would have zero problem with Peppers returning kicks against MSU or OSU – he’d get 3 or 4 returns at most -, but I would hate for him to take a pounding as a primary RB.
He’s too important at LB.
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I’m not asking for him to take a pounding as a primary RB. I would actually like to see him more at receiver, and I think we can agree that receivers don’t generally take a pounding, at least not as much as RBs. Throw him some bubble screens, hit him on a slant or a wheel route, etc.
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I’m fine with this. He’s been used on screens before. The thing is people will pay attention to him wherever he is.
I wouldn’t mind him being a decoy WR like Woodson sometimes was in ’97.
Just in general, I think the staff is using Peppers very appropriately. I have little quibble with what they are doing.
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I don’t have a quibble with what they’re doing, either. But looking forward, Michigan is going to need to switch things up, and they’re probably going to need to get Peppers the ball a few more times against the better opponents. What worked against UCF, Colorado, and Hawaii may not work all through the Big Ten.
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Like last year at OSU, Peppers use will surely by dialed up when it matters most.
Most of the Big Ten isn’t appreciably better than Colorado though.
Will Michigan need Peppers against PSU, Wisconsin, Iowa….we’ll see. I hope not.
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Surprised that people are so against Peppers on offense. I get the fear of injury, but I don’t understand how one can look at us against Colorado—an 8-4 team at best—and conclude we have all the weapons we need on offense. We had no downfield passing game against them, and we weren’t dominating on the ground either. Peppers provided a lot of the “offense” through special-teams yardage.
I think you have to get past the injury fear and let him rip. No need for him on O against Maryland and the like, but better defenses are going to expose our considerable limitations (shaky run-blocking, questionable RB vision, no QB scrambling/read-option threat). Peppers can help compensate.
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Not just injury but effectiveness. You can only play so many snaps.
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No hypothetical here – Peppers was the primary back against OSU last year. It didn’t help much because the run game is more dependent on OL execution than RB play-making. Play-making does separate good from great but on a down-to-down basis it’s mostly about the OL.
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A good running game is partly dependent on a good offensive line, but you’re jumping the gun. Here are the stats from last year’s OSU game:
Smith: 10 carries, 23 yards, 2.3 yards/carry, 0 TDs
Peppers: 7 carries, 29 yards, 4.1 yards/carry, 0 TDs
That’s almost two yards more every time Peppers carried the ball. I’d say that’s significant.
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We’ve talked about sample size before. On the season Peppers ran for 4.0 ypc while Smith ran for 4.2 ypc. That’s not significant.
I don’t dispute that Peppers is the more talented runner or that he would have a higher ypc than Smith if given the same chances, but I think the differences would be very small over the long-run.
I think Evans brings a similar skillset as Peppers to RB and MIGHT even be better at this stage (since he is practicing there every day).
Peppers is a difference-maker on defense and Michigan doesn’t have a lot of good options at LB. I’m fine with some limited usage on offense, but this staff is utilizing him the right way by putting not only where he is needed most but also where he is best at.
I am hoping the Hill/Thomas mistakes were just a hiccup. If not, the one spot I’d consider moving Peppers to would be safety.
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Yes, but even if that ypc difference holds for a whole game, how many carries would he have to have for it to make a meaningful difference in the game? 15-20? That’s way too much pounding for him to take, especially when he has to come right back in on defense (tired and maybe a little gimpy).
The reason you use Peppers other than on defense is to hopefully break a big play. He’s much more likely to do that as a WR or KR than as a RB. If you want to run a reverse or jet sweep, use McDoom or Chesson, or even Evans.
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I don’t think it necessarily “cures” our running game woes, but it helps. Peppers has shown good vision on offense/special teams in the past, and he has the burst to get through the holes that are there. If he were a full-time RB, he would be head-and-shoulders above the rest of the guys, IMO.
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He ran for 4ypc last year. Maybe he would be better as a fulltime RB but I think you’re overstating the impacts there as a runner. Most of the improvement from practice would come in blocking, playbook knowledge, route-running, etc.
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Reasonable minds may disagree on the Peppers-at-RB hypothetical, but we do have at least some evidence to look at.
Peppers has 20 carries in his career, though many (half?) have come from the WR position.
He’s at 4.9 ypc for his career. That’s less than Drake Johnson, Ty Isaac, and all of 0.4 yards ahead of much-maligned De’Veon Smith. Hell, Derrick Green averages 4.2 ypc for his career despite spending most of it running behind the worst OLs in Michigan football history.
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He also has the disadvantage of having all eyes on him when he steps onto the field. If he’s on the field for 3 plays, he’s probably getting the ball 2 of those times. Johnson, Isaac, Green, Smith, etc. don’t have that issue, because they’re a part of the normal offense. Regardless, you brought up the OSU game as an example of when we’ve seen him as a “primary” running back. And in that example you chose, he gained 1.8 yards/carry more than the starter at running back.
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Yes and again – sample size. You flip a coin 10 times it may land on heads 8. Doesn’t mean it’s weighted.
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The sample size thing strikes me as not relevant since your eyeballs are all you need to compare Peppers and Smith as a threat with the ball in their respective hands. In the best dream Smith has ever had, he isn’t in the same league as Pepper’s when it comes to explosiveness, speed, elusiveness and of course Smith’s eternal nemesis ….. vision. I’m not even sure smith matches up with Pepper’s when it comes to Smith’s own thing, power and will.
It’s the every eyeball in the stadium thing that concerns me. I don’t really want my best defender and a guy good for 175 return yards taking shots between the tackles, or even on sweeps for that matter.
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If sample size is irrelevant and your eyes don’t lie, then how do you explain Smith running for more YPC than Peppers last year?
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The entire team follows Peppers every where he goes, they care so much about Smith’s whereabouts, as he was as or more likely to run up Kalis’ back as find a hole.
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Don’t care so much.
An edit function would be great.
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An edit function would be great. Unfortunately, a) it’s going to cost me a chunk of money to change the interface in order to install an edit feature and b) I’m refraining from making structural changes to the website until my football season is done. In the meantime…I guess you can just try to reach your goal in catching Lanknows!
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I’m on it.
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I think it’s fairly easy to explain. D. Smith, Isaac and Drake collected most of their big runs against weaker competition, games in which Peppers didn’t line up on offense.
Peppers would pad his average too if he played offense against the cupcakes.
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Right. Context matters. But eyeball test doesn’t always factor this in.
Also, Smith didn’t rack up his stats against easy competion. Relative to the 20 carriers Peppers got yeah, but he’s in a very different category than Isaac and Johnson.
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Let’s see less of this guy on special teams: Kenny Allen. C’mon there isn’t anyone who can kick the ball better than him? His punts were ALL line drives. He struggles to put the ball deep on kickoffs, and FGs are an adventure. We’ll give up at least one special teams TD this season once the competition gets better.
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I think Allen was doing a better job in kickoffs last year. I’m not sure what happened. As for punts, his current average of a little over 41 yards/punt would place him fifth in the conference (if he had enough punts to qualify). That’s not great, but it’s not terrible.
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Harbaugh has raved about how good Evans is as a receiver, but he’s barely tried to use him in that capacity. Makes me wonder if he’s dinged a little. And please..no catches from our best WR? Can we see more of Chesson in the future?
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That’s what I’m saying. The extremely heavy targeting of Darboh (to an extent we haven’t seen since probably Edwards) in the first half was a total head-scratcher. It’s the first strategic thing on offense that this staff has made that I’ve really taken issue with.
With the possible exception of Peppers, Chesson is the best play-maker we have. Get him the ball!
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I got the impression that this was the age old thing where the QB under duress locks on to his favorite receivers, which happened to be Darboh and Butt in the first half.
Agree, use Chesson for more than sweeps or you are wasting his talent. I bet Speight hears about this in the film room. He is a young QB.
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Darboh shouldn’t be his favorite is part of my point. I think the bigger issue was that they liked that matchup better. Couldn’t take advantage of it, because it turns out it wasn’t any advantage. A non-descript guy locked Darboh down. Which brings me back to my first sentence.
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Understood.
Part of my logic was that with Chesson’s injury he may have worked out more with Darboh in the off season. A timing and comfort thing for the young QB when hurried. I also didn’t consider the gameplan/matchup issue to the extent that you did.
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they had a pretty good CB taking chesson out of much of the game, hence the increased targets for darboh, butt, etc. they quite obviously tried to take away the run game and big plays from chesson
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I got to sit and watch this thing again with the knowledge that we win and the trip on the emotional rollercoaster forgotten.
Not only did we not cover particularly well (I’m talking to you Dymonte Thomas), some of our defensive backs tackled poorly. Brandon Watson so completely whiffed on one during their third TD drive that he got waived off within seconds. Stribbling missed one where he got his feet tangled up on the way to the hit and had nothing when he got there.
Tedric Thomas/Thompson is really good. Their D Backs mostly cut down Jake Butt real well, although he got open on them.
Jake Butt is a much better blocker in space than a lot of Tight Ends. He can run with DBs, line them up and get it done.
Khalid Hill got two guys twice on touchdown plays, Darboh’s screen and Chesson’s jet sweep. I think the reason we are running jet sweeps is because we really get them blocked. Hill is really good at everything he’s asked to do, he just crumpled a kid who thought he was going to cut him down, he’s really fast for such a big kid and he catches the ball. I think we’ll be seeing significantly less Poggi and way more Hill going forward.
Grant Newsmen is also really good in space and seemingly improving. That kid is way mobile for such a huge human being.
I started out thinking that we got lucky forcing Liufau out of the game, but it was us fair and square. We got to him over and over, the first time we dinged him was about half way through the second quarter and then we kept coming back with clean shots as he lost mobility. I love that kid. I hope mightily that he heals quick and has a great season. If I was an NFL guy, I’d be thinking about him maybe 4-6.
I’m not always crazy about Dan Dierdorf doing color. I’d much prefer Mark Champion back doing play by play and Brandy doing color. Just sayin’.
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Dan Dierdorf doing color is better than Brandstatter doing play-by-play.
After the Hawaii game I commented elsewhere that Brandstatter had improved from last year, but with the Colorado game I think he’s regressed. He’s simply not a good play by play announcer. I listen to other college games on Sirius, and their announcers are almost universally better than Brandstatter.
Brandstatter’s problem is he does not furnish in a timely manner the information a radio listener is seeking. On a critical third down play, the #1 thing a listener wants to know is the approximate yards gained, and whether the play resulted in a first down. Brandstatter will stammer and babble about what the play was, who was in on the play, and who made the tackle … and in many cases it’s 10 or 20 seconds later that he *finally* says whether it’s a first down. He’s trying too hard to emulate Bob Ufer, and he shouldn’t.
Michigan can do better than Jim Brandstatter as play by play. And they should.
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I’m not ready to write Speight off just yet.
While watching the game, my dad was texting me, “Why doesn’t Harbaugh pull this steaming pile of garbage out of the game?!”
Speight took a helmet to the throwing shoulder from a screaming DB coming in untouched on the 3rd play of the 2nd drive. I don’t know how many of you played football, but that’s tough to shake off. I do think Harbaugh/Fisch should’ve recognized that injury and maybe pulled the kid for O’Korn for a series or two when Speight was 3/11 for 20 yards, or whatever it was, but it’s not because Speight is no longer a solid quarterback, it’s because that hit is a rough one. Trainers were testing his strength to check for tears, but it was incredibly obvious his touch was suffering from it.
Of course if they pulled Speight and O’Korn lit it up, we’d all be talking about how Speight should be benched in favor of O’Korn on a go-forward basis.
At the end of the day the 1st quarter was ugly, but adjustments were made and we won the game.
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They would have found tears on me.
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I’m not writing him off yet, either, but the comment about his touch suffering is misleading. Speight was making bad decisions with the football, including the attempted throw to Darboh (almost picked off by Awuzie) and the late throw to Butt (almost picked off by Thompson, I think). He was panicking. I agree that it’s a tough hit to shake off, but that’s what you have to deal with at this level. Of course, maybe the coaches see that he was a little out of sorts, and maybe they’ll game plan around that issue next week.
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C’mon! Third flipping start, three wins. He’s thrown just about every ball you can throw successfully. He gets absolutely pounded, makes some poor decisions but also delivers some proper balls under big time game pressure.
Backup QB insanity evidently spares no fan base, regardless of the quality of their education.
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3 wins don’t mean that much when 2 of them are hawaii and ucf. This was his first real test and he didn’t handle it well.
It seems like Speight is going to take a pounding all year because he trusts his ability to make plays under pressure. He’s not looking to get rid of it as quickly as some other QBs. O’Korn needs to stay ready.
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He beat the three teams he lined up against and put 38 points up on a defense that had given up squat in their two previous games.
UCF just took Maryland to double overtime, they are a solid football team with a fast defense that hits. Spleight smoked them when they bet the farm that he couldn’t. They crying around here had to do with OMG, OMG we can’t run the football.
Colorado defensive backs are a cut above and they came to cover. His first ball hits Darboh in the hands and is dropped. His next drop back gets him just creamed from an untouched outside blitz. He comes back in, stands in the pocket and puts up 38 points, coming from 14 down twice on a defense that doesn’t want to let us pass the football at all. We still can’t run it up inside so we jet sweep and screen them to death. I don’t know what more you could reasonably ask for from your sophomore QB. The only slightly more reasonable conversation has to do with giving up on Smith who by the way for all his rep as a pass blocker was secondarily responsible behind Hill for the hit.
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That’s a popular argument this year, but as far as evidence goes winning easy matchups falls under “necessary but insufficient”.
Your point about UCF stacking against the run makes the point.
Colorado was often blitzing their best DB and the other guys aren’t all conference caliber players. Let’s put it this way – none of us were expecting the best receiving corps in the country (or one of) to get locked down by this secondary going into the game.
I think Speight deserves some blame here. That outside blitz he fumbled on was one that most QBs would have seen. It was not a blindside hit.
Like Thunder said, no one is saying he needs to be benched, but this was a bad game that puts the previous 2 in context. Michigan’s offense isn’t going to look like what it did against Florida during Big Ten play. The team will have to be carried by the defense and that means Brown needs to tie up the loose ends by MSU.
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Win or loss, it wasn’t a great game for Speight. There’s no way around it. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone calling for him to get benched (except for the OP’s dad in a text message), but this was a rough outing.
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I usually agree with the awards but my opinion is very different this week.
I thought our corners were really good yesterday. PFF said Stribling was our highest graded player. I don’t think Lewis would have done much better and I’m not sure he solves the issues that Thomas and Hill had in coverage.Pulling him for Peppers or McCray? Maybe that helps but those guys have generally played pretty well this year.
As for offense, we had one of the better days from our primary back against a legit team in a long time. I get the take if you don’t respect Colorado, but I felt like they were a solid opponent with a good DC. The running game didn’t seem like it was the problem yesterday so, I’m not sure Peppers or any other RB is really changing the story of this game ( where the struggles came in the passing game). Speight was inaccurate, Darboh wasn’t getting open, too many blitzers got through, etc. PFF actually said Speight was worse without pressure than with it.
My hypothesis of the moment was that he was forcing too many thing to Darboh. The staff saw a matchup they liked but it didn’t come remotely close to panning out. Once they stopped trying to get water out of the dry well, the offense settled into a groove.
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I agree that Speight was worse when not pressured. He looks for the right throw and tries to force it in because he sees a matchup he wants. When he gets pressured, it clicks in his brain to hit a checkdown, whether it’s a TE, RB, or FB. End-of-year Jake Rudock would take off and run sometimes, and maybe someone like O’Korn or Peters will/would, too. But Speight seems pretty reluctant to take the yards that Rudock did on the ground.
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I think that’s a good point. Speight might be right though – he seems pretty slow compared to Rudock.
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He might be right not to run, but overall, that’s an area in which we can judge him. As we’ve talked about before on this site (whether it was you or not), all other things being equal, a mobile QB is more desirable than a statue of a QB. In other words, if Speight and O’Korn were to make the exact same decisions and throws in the passing game, then we would prefer to play O’Korn since he can run. Obviously, we are to assume that O’Korn isn’t as good of a decision maker or as accurate as Speight, or else he would be playing. Still, it’s something to lament with Speight.
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Let’s assume both individuals have the same turnover margin and thought process when throwing. You put a premium on the mobile qb.
How do you factor in the size of the qb. The fact that Speight is taller and can potentially see the field better and over the lineman.
What makes you think a mobile qb won’t take off and run when he should pass. The point is that just because a qb can run doesn’t necessarily make the qb more ideal in an offense. It depends on the player.
Is Lamar Jackson the equivalent of Devin Gardner at qb? Both can throw and run but one is significantly better than the other. Gardner fumbled ball at Iowa as an example.
You are assuming because a qb can run that the runs are always positive. See Gardner scrambling horizontally. Running may actually take away from the throwing and harm the performance.
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Agreed.
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Save Peppers. Develop Isaac, Higdon and Evans.
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My take-homes for the rest of the season after 3 weeks:
-You can shut down Michigan’s run game and you can shut down Michigan’s pass game, but nobody yet has shut down both. UCF shut down the run got passed on at will. Colorado shut down the pass but got run on and screened and sweeped to the tune of 31 points. Neither phase of Michigan’s offense is good enough to win on it’s own, but it may not have to be with this coaching staff. Need more data to tell what will happen against a top 20 caliber D.
-Michigan’s defense is excellent but prone to big play busts. This is the expectation for a Don Brown D in Year 1. If things will be shored up by MSU is anyone’s guess.
-We miss Blake O’Neill, if nothing else because Allen is being asked to do too much. I’m wishing Quinn Nordin was burning his red-shirt too.
-Peppers, Gary, Stribling, Winovich are as good as advertised in the offseason.
-Godin, Glasgow, and Gedeon were as underrated as expected.
-Gedeon and McCray are not liabilities and might even be good.
-Hill and Thomas might not be all the way acclimated to the Brown stuff and/or just flat-out not as good as Wilson (which since neither ever challenged him seems likely). Maybe both. [Play-making DBs are overrated if you ask me]
-Speight’s solid under pressure but his physical limitations (legs and arm) uhhh… limit him.
-The run-blocking is better, though progress is not as much as hoped.
-RBs look better because see last bullet.
-Isaac is just a guy.
-Hill looks like a dynamic force at FB and the concerns about ball-carrying misplaced.
-The pass-blocking is worse, as feared.
-Magnuson and Kalis are better. Hopefully Braden gets there. Newsome and Cole have met expectations. Depth is still a question but there are some at least serviceable options.
-Darboh/Chesson/Butt look the same. This is good or bad depending on your off-season optimism.
-WR is deep thanks to freshman and Perry taking a step forward.
-McDoom and Evans and Peppers are weapons.
-Wheatley, Walker, and Ways were overrated.
-Baxter transition appears to be a non-issue, though opponents have made it very easy so far.
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Best diary you’ve posted to date!
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Brown is far from perfect and not all of this is on safeties. Brown tends to just unleash too much aggressiveness and doesn’t diligently scale it back depending on matchups.
Much more attention and criticism needs to be directed at Brown and the run game.
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I suspect it’s more on Brown than Thomas and Hill. Hopefully these are bumps in the road, building toward something, etc.
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Our defense has been very good, but not excellent. Certainly not as good as last year, so far. And we have yet to play a really complete game on defense. Not impressed with our pass rush or Don Brown’s blitz packages, either. Hopefully getting Lewis, Charlton and Mone back will help. So far, though, they have not given me confidence that they can control a really talented offense, or keep us in a game when our offense is struggling.
Not sure about our “depth” at WR. So far only Darboh and Chesson have been useful pass-catchers. They’re both effective weapons, but no one else is getting open. A little disappointed too that our backup tight ends haven’t made more of an impact so far, though it’s still early. Some of that may be on Speight zeroing in too much on his two main guys plus Butt. And it does not look like Drake Harris is ever going to be a thing at Michigan, which is a shame.
Our LB play has been about as good as we could have hoped, at least among the starters. A little disappointed that we haven’t heard Devin Bush’s name more, but the starters have been so good that he hasn’t been needed too much, which is fine for now, but would like to see him more in the rotation as the season goes on.
The lack of a running game is what’s going to kill us in the big games. Not so worried about Speight…he has his limitations, but will continue to improve, as will (hopefully) his targets. If we can’t run the ball at least semi-effectively against State, we will lose.
Only 2 turnovers and 10 penalties in three games. The latter especially is a good sign, although if you’re not getting flagged once in a while for holding, it probably means you’re not getting away with as much uncalled holding as you should be.
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@WCB
Good point about LB depth. It’s a concern.
McDoom, Crawford, and Perry have all looked solid as WRs in limited duty and Harris and Ways are still around, so this is way better than last year’s WR situation (which was already good).
I share your worry about the D. I think Durkin is a lot more proven than Brown, Brown a far bigger risk than is acknowledged, but our talent level should solve a lot of problems.
I don’t share it about the run game. I mean, it’s a limitation of the team, but we knew that already. The performance against Colorado was encouraging no?
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Well, we have more “depth” at WR in the sense of being able to run more bodies out there, but which of those guys other than Chesson and Darboh are actually going to be able to contribute with meaningful catches, multiple times a game, if we needed them to? I’m not sure any of them are at that point yet. We’re in the same typical Michigan pattern of having most of our WR production concentrated in one or two guys, with third and fourth options either ignored, or just not available. Maybe that’s partly on how the offense has been configured and Speight has been coached, but it’s very tough for freshmen WRs to step right in, run good routes, get open and get targeted.
As far as the run game, it was a decent performance, but that’s all. 168 yds and a 4.1 ypc average just isn’t that impressive. Yes, we knew ahead of time that it wasn’t likely to be a strength, but it’s still a concern. If the Oline doesn’t manage to gel, we will have some very tough sledding against better teams.
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Perry for one.
You mention it being ‘tough’ for freshman. Last year a freshman was our #3 WR and it cost us the Utah game. This year that’s not the case.
McDoom probably for another. This year’s freshman are less worrisome than last year’s situation because we already know that Ways and Harris are solid backups. McDoom and Crawford are better than them already it seems.
I’m not sure how to see this as anything other than a positive. Michigan isn’t a 4-WR spread offense and isn’t going to be. Darboh and Chesson are the starters – they’re supposed to be getting most of the action. Perry looks as good as anyone could have hoped. McDoom, Evans, and Crawford are making plays whenever given opportunities.
As far as WR situations go, it doesn’t get much better than this unless you happen to have a Heisman-caliber player. Chesson didn’t look far off when Rudock was on his game.
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The run game average over 5 ypc. Take out Speights sacks (pass plays) and they had 182 yards on 35 carries.
Our primary back ran for almost 8 ypc. I know Isaac and Evans were held in check but a bunch of other guys had big gains.
Here are the gains on the first 6 run plays of the game for Michigan: 12, 7, 17, 10, 2, 10 . That’s consistently good. They did bog down in the second quarter and leaned on some sweeps – but a) that’s just part of the offense now and shouldn’t be constrewed as a weakness and b) Colorado seems like a decent opponent.
It all depends on how you view Colorado. If you think they are something like last years 93rd rank team against the run this is nothing to write home about. If you think they’re an averagish power conference team, then this was a huge improvement compared to what the run game did last year.
Especially when you consider that the passing game was almost totally ineffective in the first half and had to rely on short stuff and screens to move the ball.
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@windycity and Lanknows,
It’s good to finally hear some contrarian views on Brown who I think is very risky and got too big of a rubber stamp by the Michigan fan base.
I listened to the Brown comments today. Don’t get me wrong, I think Brown has some good views on trying to dictate to offenses but you have to know your personnel. Not only recognizing that Thomas may not be great in pass coverage but as someone else mentioned about having Peppers on a TE or having McCray on a slot wr.
Brown seems to be completely focused on bringing pressure with guys who may not be exactly suited to run his system. I sense a little of Beilein and Rich Rod in that he is a system guy rather than adapting to his personnel.
My personal complaint with Brown is that he has this dynamic dline but believe he needs to be aggressive with lb’ers for a pass rush at the expense of coverage. I don’t have a problem with blitzing on occasion or being aggressive but I don’t think he understands the strengths and weaknesses of this roster.
He is coaching UM like he is in year 3. I would consider him a blitzing attack ideologue.
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