Let’s see more of this guy on offense . . . Brandon Peters. Peters has only played a couple snaps this season, which included a handoff and a quick pass to Mo Ways for 4 yards. I wasn’t one of the guys longing for Peters against Penn State, but if Michigan can pull away from Rutgers, it would be nice to get Peters some snaps.
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This looks like a “Finish him!” moment from Mortal Kombat (image via AL.com)
A loss is a loss. I predicted a 20-9 loss, which was obviously incorrect. It ended up being a 42-13 loss. Remember when Michigan beat Penn State 49-10 last year? The Nittany Lions went on to win the Big Ten. Obviously, a 42-13 loss hurts at the time, but so do close losses. The bottom line is that Michigan is 5-2, and this game was confirmation that Michigan doesn’t have it this year. It was said all off-season – you don’t lose that many players to the NFL and go right back where you started. Michigan lost its top two wide receivers, one of the best TEs in the country, three senior starting linemen, and basically 11 starters on defense. And this year, they’re already down the #1 QB and the #1 WR. No rational person was expecting a Michigan win in Happy Valley at night, so let’s not overreact.
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Karan Higdon (image via USA Today)
John O’Korn was bad. I expected a better John O’Korn to show up on Saturday, but that wasn’t the case. He finished 10/20 for 58 yards, 0 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions. He also ran 2 times for 8 yards. Early in the game, he missed a wide open deep post route to Donovan Peoples-Jones that might have given him and the team some confidence, but it was overthrown by a few yards. O’Korn did pull some magic out of his hat when he escaped three seemingly unblocked defenders in the pocket to scramble to his right and find a well covered Peoples-Jones. Otherwise, he just locked onto his primary receiver and never came off the read. It was astounding how little he went through his progressions. Believe it or not, I actually think O’Korn played better in the Michigan State game, because a couple of his interceptions were decent ideas but bad throws. Against Indiana, the bad ideas and bad throws combined for a very ugly game.
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The O’Korn flop deserves an Oscar pic.twitter.com/fdj0Kfhany
— Clay Wendler (@ClayWendler) October 8, 2017
Let’s start this off with some fun. Some people claim this was a flop. Some people insist it was legit. Watch the gif in the above tweet and tell me whether it was fake. I originally thought it was a flop, but if you look at O’Korn’s name plate on the back of his jersey as he gets up, it’s sort of bunched up and then suddenly seems to get yanked down. That would be a tough thing to fake. Maybe it was a slight pull and O’Korn exaggerated it, but with MSU’s penchant for dirty play, it wouldn’t be surprising at all if someone one the sideline yanked him down as he got up. After all, Chris Frey very clearly threw O’Korn to the ground 8 yards out of bounds on another play, and Jacob Panasiuk ran over O’Korn at the end of an interception return.
Well, that wasn’t exactly a showcase night game. For all the hoopla surrounding night games, when your clunker of an offense puts up 10 points while spending a third of the game in a monsoon, maybe it would be better to have that noon kickoff without quite as many eyeballs. Michigan purposefully held off on having big recruiting weekends so they could have this showcase (here’s the visitors list), and now those recruits who were finally there probably walked away with a sour taste in their mouths.
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Let’s see more of this guy on offense . . . John O’Korn. You don’t want to see anyone get injured, but O’Korn did a pretty good job in place of the banged up Wilton Speight. O’Korn was 18/26 for 270 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception, and he put up the best quarterback performance of the season. He also led Michigan on its two longest drives of the season (84 and 86 yards), including going 3-for-3 in the red zone. O’Korn also passed the eye test with some very good throws, quick decisions, and scrambling ability. O’Korn should be the starter moving forward.
Hit the jump for the rest of the awards.