RUSH OFFENSE vs. RUTGERS RUSH DEFENSE
Michigan is #36 with 210 yards/game and #40 with 4.9 yards/carry. De’Veon Smith (325 yards, 2 TDs) continues to be the bell cow, but Ty Isaac (198 yards, 2 TDs) stepped up with a more decisive effort last week. Karan Higdon (145 yards, 3 TDs) didn’t play last week after a breakout game two weeks ago, and Jim Harbaugh said the reason did not have to do with injury. The team will be affected by the significant knee injury to left tackle Grant Newsome, who will be replaced by redshirt sophomore Juwann Bushell-Beatty. Rutgers is #116 in rushing defense as they give up 227 yards/game, though their 5.26 yards allowed/carry is good enough for . . . #115. While not quite as devastated by injury as Penn State, the Scarlet Knights are missing defensive end Quanzell Lambert and their best linebacker, Greg Jones. The top tackler is safety Kiy Hester (36), followed by sophomore linebackers Deonte Roberts (33) and Trevor Morris (30). Defensive end Julian Pinnix-Odrick and Hester each have 5 tackles for loss.
Advantage: Michigan
Hit the jump for more.
PASS OFFENSE vs. RUTGERS PASS DEFENSE
Michigan is #70 in the country with 234 yards/game and they’re #48 in passer rating. Quarterback Wilton Speight threw his second pick last week against Wisconsin and has 10 touchdowns on the season. He completes 63% of his passes, but he struggles to push the ball down the field or fit passes into tight windows. Wide receiver Amara Darboh (23 catches, 335 yards, 5 TDs) has been the most productive receiver, while Speight also frequently looks for tight end Jake Butt (22, 265, 3). Speight and last year’s breakout star, Jehu Chesson, don’t appear to be quite on the same page and Chesson has lagged behind. The Wolverines are now #51 in sacks allowed after letting Wisconsin get to Speight 4 times last week. Rutgers isn’t bad getting to the passer with 11 quarterback takedowns, led by Pinnix-Odrick with 4. The team is #32 against the pass, allowing 196 yards/game. But they’re #89 in passer rating against them, so that yardage might have to do with the fact that they’re not very good at stopping the run. Safety Anthony Cioffi leads the team with 2 interceptions, while cornerback Blessuan Austin leads with 5 pass breakups.
Advantage: Michigan
RUSH DEFENSE vs. RUTGERS RUSH OFFENSE
Michigan has been very good against the run, for the most part. They’re #23 in rushing defense, and they’ve been hurt most when not keeping contain against mobile passers. That issue was somewhat mitigated by the return of Taco Charlton from injury. The only team to average more than 2.54 yards/carry against them was Central Florida, bolstered by an 87-yard run and a couple scrambles. Ben Gedeon leads the squad with 42 tackles, followed by Jabrill Peppers with 36. The numbers aren’t bad for Rutgers, unless you look at the opponents. They’re #51 in rushing offense. They racked up a ton of yards on the ground against Howard and New Mexico, but they averaged 3.64 yards/carry or less against Iowa, Ohio State, and Washington. Leading rusher Robert Martin averaged 3.08 yards/carry last week against Ohio State.
Advantage: Michigan
PASS DEFENSE vs. RUTGERS PASS OFFENSE
The Wolverines are #2 in pass defense (135 yards allowed/game) and #7 in passer rating against them. No team has completed more than 60% of its passes against them, and last week they bullied Wisconsin freshman Alex Hornibrook into a 9/25 performance for 88 yards, 1 TD, and 3 interceptions. Michigan is #4 in sacks with Chris Wormley leading the way at 3.5. Cornerback Channing Stribling had 2 interceptions last week and now leads the team with 3, but Jourdan Lewis has looked excellent the past two weeks after returning from injury. Rutgers is #123 in passing offense (140 yards/game) and #120 in passer rating. Quarterback Chris Laviano is completing 49.6% of his passes for 5.4 yards/attempt, 5 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions. I feel a little bit badly for Rutgers, who lost their best receiver and playmaker Janarion Grant due to injury. Though he had yet to score a receiving touchdown, he had scored on a kickoff return and a punt return and was the team’s leading receiver when he got hurt. Freshman slot guy Jawuan Harris numbers look decent at over 17 yards/catch with 2 touchdowns, but most of those numbers were racked up against Howard and New Mexico; he has 6 catches for 54 yards and 0 touchdowns in the last two games. Michigan should be able to dominate up front, and I don’t see anyone being able to threaten the secondary.
Advantage: Michigan
ROSTER NOTES
- Rutgers players recruited by Michigan include: OT J.J. Denman, CB Ross Douglas, DL Darius Hamilton, S Kiy Hester, OG Chris Muller
- Rutgers CB Ross Douglas played at Michigan before going to Rutgers this season as a grad transfer
- Rutgers players from the state of Michigan include: QB Giovanni Rescigno
- Michigan players from the state of New Jersey include: FB Joe Beneducci, OT Juwann Bushell-Beatty, DT Michael Dwumfour, OL Greg Froelich, DE Rashan Gary, DE Ron Johnson, OT Grant Newsome, LB Jabrill Peppers, LB Cheyenn Robertson, RB Kareem Walker
LAST TIME THEY PLAYED . . .
- Rutgers ran the ball fairly well with Robert Martin carrying 10 times for 81 yards
- Janarion Grant scored on a 98-yard kickoff return, but Rutgers only scored field goals on offense
- Jake Rudock completed 18/25 passes for 337 yards, 2 TDs, and 0 INTs
- Jake Butt caught 4 passes for 102 yards
- November 7, 2015: Michigan 49, Rutgers 16
PREDICTIONS
- Michigan gets its first shutout of the season
- Jehu Chesson scores his first receiving touchdown of the season
- John O’Korn throws his first touchdown pass in a Michigan uniform
- Michigan makes a field goal
- Michigan 45, Rutgers 0
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Jeez, I forgot how easy that was last year
We can get the shutout, but if the weather is nasty, I’ll go with 21-o
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Do you think that JBB is ahead of Bredeson now or are there more injuries than we know about? I would think that the best option is to insert Kugler at C and move Cole to LT but that may change the dynamic of the line too much. How much TE help do you think JBB needs?
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I think Bushell-Beatty will be the starting LT tomorrow. The coaches would probably rather have him step in at LT than blow up the whole line by moving Cole, inserting Kugler, moving Braden, moving Magnuson, etc. I don’t think Bushell-Beatty needs a ton of TE help because of who Michigan is playing.
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Agreed. It should be JBB or Bredeson. Cole seems like a better fit at OC.
It is strange that Kugler hasn’t played more but the coaching staff probably has their reasons for this. I suspect that JBB isn’t much better or worse than Kugler and that Michigan is choosing the route that at least keeps stability at the 4 other spots.
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The picture above with Magnuson made me think of a comment I read somewhere else — that except for Kalis, none of the Michigan offensive linemen wear knee braces. The implication being that if Grant Newsome had been wearing knee braces, he may well have not suffered the injury he did.
Q1 — Is it true Michigan O-linemen do not generally wear knee braces?
Q2 — If not, why not? I thought it was pretty much a given for offensive linemen.
Q3 — Given the hit Newsome took, would knee braces have made a difference?
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1. They used to wear knee braces, but they mostly stopped during the Rich Rodriguez years, I believe.
2. Linemen used to wear knee braces because they get rolled up on or face people who take them out like Newsome. However, I remember reading that knee braces don’t entirely stop things like ACL tears, and they can also increase the frequency of ankle problems. Force on the knees doesn’t go anywhere when you wear a brace – it just gets transferred elsewhere, like the ankle.
3. I think Newsome’s knee would have been injured either way. A direct hit like that to the knee probably isn’t going to be stopped by a knee brace.
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#23 in Rushing D seems to understate things doesn’t it? That’s just past mediocre for a power conference team. S&P has us as the #2 rush D, which feels a lot closer to reality.
UCF, Colorado, and Wisconsin are all decent rushing teams and even PSU has Saquan Barkley.
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I’m guessing M will struggle for a minute with their first road game of the year before settling in. 31-7.
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>> M will struggle for a minute with their first road game of the year before settling in
Rutgers wins the coin toss and elects to defer. They kick off to Michigan. The kickoff is bobbled and Michigan starts 1st and 10 from its own 5 yard line.
On the very next play Khalid Hill rumbles 95 yards to score. 🙂
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I don’t think that counts as a minute. Probably run Deveon on 1st down, JBB misses his block, and it’s 2 and 11 from the 4.
THEN Kahlid Hill run for 96 yards.
Go Blue!
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No offense to Khalid Hill, but him running 96 yards *would* probably take a minute.
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Two points —
(1) It might take a minute, but oh what a beautiful site to see Hill lumber all the way downfield like that. He’d probably have to break 14 tackles — 11 from Rutgers and 3 from Michigan trying to jump on him in celebration before the goal line.
(2) What are the chances Michigan would run a fullback play on the very first (or second) play of the game?
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My favorite prediction:
“Michigan makes a field goal”
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