Michigan vs. Ohio State Awards

Michigan vs. Ohio State Awards


November 27, 2017

Let’s see more of this guy on offense . . . Brandon Peters. If Peters were the quarterback in this game, I think Michigan probably wins it. Unfortunately, Peters got concussed against Wisconsin and was still in concussion protocol when the Ohio State game came around. It was the right call for the health of Peters, and I’m glad the medical staff didn’t clear him. But it was unfortunate for Michigan. Hopefully Peters is ready to go for the bowl game.

Let’s see less of this guy on offense . . . John O’Korn. O’Korn didn’t have an absolutely terrible game (17/32, 195 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT), but he missed a handful of open receivers and threw a really, really, really, really, really bad interception when Michigan was down just 24-20 with a little less than three minutes left. O’Korn took the blame for the loss, and that’s entirely fair. Good for him. But he doesn’t give Michigan a very good chance to win.

Let’s see more of this guy on defense . . . Tyree Kinnel. For most of the season, I’ve said I like the defensive rotations. I just want Kinnel to be healthy after it looks like he suffered a concussion when hitting Ohio State receiver Austin Mack.

Let’s see less of this guy on defense . . . Jordan Glasgow. As much as I respect the Glasgow family – and even Jordan himself – Michigan has better safeties. Both Kinnel and J’Marick Woods got injured, which forced Glasgow into action late in the game. Hopefully, he can just concentrate on special teams in the bowl game.

Play of the game . . . Donovan Peoples-Jones’s 42-yard punt return. Peoples-Jones made several people miss, accelerated up the sideline, lowered his shoulder, broke a tackle, spun back for extra yards, etc. It was a brilliant return, and it indicated that it would be great if Michigan could find ways to get him the ball more.

MVP of the game . . . Rashan Gary. Naysayers might point to Gary’s missed tackle, which came right after he left the game with a shoulder injury (that seems to have been nagging him for several weeks). It didn’t look great, but bad shoulders can do that to a guy. Even so, he finished the game with 10 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, and 2 sacks. He was Michigan’s best defensive player on Saturday, and nobody on offense had a standout game.

13 comments

  1. Comments: 1356
    Joined: 8/13/2015
    Roanman
    Nov 27, 2017 at 7:41 AM

    O’Korn is just a real interesting story as far as I’m concerned. If you watch even some of his games at Houston, the Rice game is still up for sure, you’ll see under thrown balls, balls thrown into and at times where maybe they shouldn’t have been. The difference in is freshman year was … I think … a good measure of just plain dumb luck. Cornerbacks just fall down on balls they’d have had a shot at were they upright. Linebackers in the middle of a screen, simply forget to look up. He does make the throw that gave everybody occasional encouragement around here on the play where he gets chased out to his right and puts a nice ball right on a parallel trailing receiver. But seemingly, it begins and ends there.

    If you review his play, which I’m going to quit doing for the rest of my life immediately after posting this comment, he looks like a kid who walks up to the line of scrimmage with an idea in his head who completely lacks the ability to make a decision based on what was happening around him.

    I hope he does well with his degree.

    As for Speight, I think he’s done. I’ve thought that since the spring game. He’s got something that we just don’t know the details on. And that something has been going on for a long time, back to the plate and screws he won in his JR year of high school. At maximum, it hurts, At minimum, he don’t want it to hurt again. I think he’s a game kid that had a chance to be a solid BIG QB, but his body couldn’t/can’t take it.

    • Comments: 528
      Joined: 9/13/2015
      michymich
      Nov 27, 2017 at 7:53 PM

      I don’t agree with the comment on Speight. I don’t think he is done at all although I think he is limited as a thrower. Speight was quoted as saying he was taken aback at not being given the free reign to be the starting qb after last year and I got the impression that he just doesn’t want to fight for HIS job after his performance.

      It really sounds like he has a sense of entitlement although he didn’t really do anything to justify a given starting position. If you read his quote that is how it comes across.

      Now this is something that occurred to me the other day. Maybe having too many cooks in the kitchen isn’t always the best thing. Too many qb’s taking reps where you probably should have two primary guys competing the job each year taking the majority of reps rather than 3 or 4.

  2. Comments: 191
    Joined: 8/13/2015
    crazyjoedavola
    Nov 27, 2017 at 8:00 AM

    Michigan may have won had Peters played, but OSU may also have blown Michigan out had Haskins played the whole game for them. That kid looked impressive.

    • Comments: 1863
      Joined: 1/19/2016
      je93
      Nov 27, 2017 at 9:32 AM

      Don Brown, for all his greatness, let Haskins play. Should have mixed up coverages and confused the young man!

      • Comments: 3844
        Joined: 7/13/2015
        Nov 27, 2017 at 10:34 AM

        It’s possible. I got the feeling that Michigan prepared for the J.T. Barrett run game so heavily that when Haskins came in (who’s more of a pro-style guy), they didn’t really know how to react. They probably figured that he would make some freshman mistakes down the stretch. That’s what happens with backup QBs sometimes. You don’t really know what you’re getting, so you end up playing very vanilla.

        • Comments: 182
          Joined: 9/15/2015
          ragingbull
          Nov 27, 2017 at 6:32 PM

          they prob had very little scouting and tape on haskins and in those situations many coaches just roll with what they typically do. keep it vanilla and then adjust accordingly, if necessary and when you have more to go on.

          michigan shouldve varied coverage and pressures more but ive been calling for that all year – nothing crazy, just a few more zones here and there. i love browns style and the results he gets. his defenses almost always play great 3rd down D and do mostly well in the red zone and thats the name of the game – get off the field.
          but changing it up just another handful of plays or 5% more or whatever can make a big difference and really mess with QB, OL, OC, etc. you want to dictate, thats great, they just cant know whats coming – and you gotta trust your guys will execute.

          michigan botched enough plays to make the difference and win the game (metellus had several including massive dropped INT, hudson had usual few blips like most games, hurst lost contain and overran a couple, etc) so brown still called a great game. and while his players had chances to win it, if were honest, its not on brown or defenders – the QB lost a winnable game more than anything else. still though, varying looks and pressures a tiny bit more likely wouldve helped (ie one more eagle trap at right time and the QB doesnt rip off 20 before hes stopped)

          • Comments: 1863
            Joined: 1/19/2016
            je93
            Nov 27, 2017 at 10:49 PM

            Couldn’t agree more! What’s the point of such a large staff of Analysts, if they don’t have a quick down & dirty on certain backups?!? A little changeup could have gone a long way

      • Comments: 142
        Joined: 8/12/2015
        coachernie
        Nov 27, 2017 at 10:58 AM

        Believe this season has proven undoubtedly that the greatness of Don Brown has been exaggerated somewhat. The D never played a complete game…threw a shutout, even against the weaklings on the schedule.
        I shudder to think what Washington will do to us in the Holiday Bowl if that indeed is the match-up.

        • Comments: 3844
          Joined: 7/13/2015
          Nov 27, 2017 at 11:24 AM

          Meh. We had the #14 scoring defense in the country with just two seniors/returning starters (McCray, Hurst). And on top of that, our offense was absolutely dreadful at times. Like I’ve said elsewhere, all these things are connected. If your offense can’t move the ball and can’t chew up time off the clock, that gives opponents more opportunities (and shorter fields) to score.

          Michigan was #84 in scoring offense, #101 in total offense, #94 in yards per play, #22 in punts per game (which is not a good thing), and #95 in punting average.

  3. Comments: 142
    Joined: 8/12/2015
    coachernie
    Nov 27, 2017 at 10:54 AM

    I would still like to see what Ambry Thomas can do with a punt?
    DJP seems to have a dozen questionable returns for every good one.

  4. Comments: 55
    Joined: 8/11/2015
    gobluetwo
    Nov 27, 2017 at 9:36 PM

    Definitely loved the DPJ punt return, but I have to say that Higdon and Evans had their fair share of really tough, impressive runs while breaking tackles, making people miss, picking the right holes. This team had more fire in this losing effort than they had most of the season. A bit of a Pyrrhic victory, but a really great showing with an unfortunate result.

  5. Comments: 36
    Joined: 11/17/2015
    funkywolve
    Nov 27, 2017 at 11:37 PM

    Nice write up Magnus. I really enjoy the awards column and the game recaps. It pains me to say this but to me the play of the game was Metellus dropping the int. No guarantee UM would have won had he made the int but at a time in the game where you could feel uncle mo shifting to OSU, it would have been nice to put a dent in the momentum heading OSU’s way.

    • Comments: 3844
      Joined: 7/13/2015
      Nov 28, 2017 at 11:56 AM

      I agree that it was a huge play. Michigan wasn’t able to make any of those game-changing plays down the stretch. I thought DPJ’s punt return might be one of those big plays, and it would have been looked at as being huge if Michigan had won the game. But when you make those plays early in the game and nobody makes them at the end, it’s frustrating. Maybe that’s part of being a young team.

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