tarik black

[Bryan Fuller]

image-6_thumb_thumb5_thumb_thumb_thu[3]SPONSOR NOTE: Upon Further Review is sponsored by HomeSure Lending and Matt Demorest. Rates are the lowest they've been in three years so it can't hurt to check whether you can save money on a refinance. Or you could buy a house in Ann Arbor! Good luck with that!

Matt's relocated the bus to Pioneer this year, BTW, and invites everyone to stop by and say hi. There's beer. I mean, obviously. Matt. Matt and beer: a good pairing.

FORMATION NOTES: Not a whole lot to note on Michigan's end. Michigan is going legitimately four-wide a lot more often. This is still mostly passing downs but previously there was a tight end on the field all the time; now you have some snaps with 4 WRs.

As for Indiana, you'll have to forgive this week "D form" column, as IU did a ton of late shifting and incessantly blitzed off the corner after lining up in slightly odd ways.

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Hint: slot is blitzing, because it is a down. I threw up my hands a bit as the Hoosiers explored new ways to not quite stop Michigan's offense.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Patterson the whole way, usual Haskins/Charbonnet split at RB with Wilson coming in from time to time, mostly late. OL the usual, with Hayes getting the last drive and some bonus OL snaps.

McKeon got ~every snap that wasn't four-wide; Eubanks got in for a bit fewer than half the snaps.  Usual Collins/Bell/Black/DPJ rotation at WR with Sainristil poking through as #5; Jackson and Johnson both got a handful of snaps. Ditto Mason.

[After THE JUMP: bombs away]

flexing mandatory this week [Bryan Fuller]

11/23/2019 – Michigan 39, Indiana 14 – 9-2, 6-2 Big Ten

Indiana waltzing down the field for an opening-drive touchdown was an ominous sign that the trademark Indiana Stupid Game was about to transpire. That feeling was reinforced when Indiana scored again in short order. They kept throwing wide receiver screens to their tight end. Some goofy pass interference calls and Michigan's punter kicking a 24-yarder that was somehow not a shank buttressed the structure further.

By the time Giles Jackson, hearing no whistle after having literally every portion of his body hit the ground, got up to "score" the world's most emphatically overturned touchdown it was a lock. Michigan would be embroiled in another one of those games, the ones which Indiana should win 37% of the time and wins 0% of the time. A traditionally stupid Michigan-Indiana game. Michigan would find itself embroiled in a stupefying conflict until their center went the wrong way in overtime and Michigan scored anyway or Jeremy Gallon racked up receiving yard #369, and then they'd win. I spent much of the first quarter thinking about the one where Indiana went on 15-play touchdown drives, whereupon Denard Robinson would score in two plays and the cycle would repeat. I braced for the kind of win that makes you want to shower afterwards.

This didn't happen. What happened is Indiana stopped doing anything and Michigan scored over and over again. After Indiana's second touchdown the Hoosiers gained 49 yards on their next six drives; by the time they did anything of note Michigan had put up 32 unanswered.

This has been a rarity over the past decade. Since 2009 the only other Michigan-Indiana game that hasn't been in serious doubt in the fourth quarter was the 2014 edition. That was 34-10 because the Hoosiers had to start Zander Diamont (career YPA: 4.6) at QB. Every other IU game over the last decade has been somewhere between pretty uncomfortable and having your nose hairs plucked out one by one by an old man regaling you with tales of his various lesions.

This was the best of any of these Indiana teams, the one Michigan stuffed in a steamer trunk and mailed to Peru.

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And so here we are. A lot of people are coming out of the woodwork now to say they always believed. This is a lie unless the person in question has also been scammed out of money by a robocall. If you have lost money because a recorded message says They Have Been Trying To Reach You, I believe you. I believe you if you are Raj:

Otherwise, no.

Six games ago Michigan was coming off:

  • a six-game stretch dating back to last year's Indiana game where they failed to cover the spread by at least 17 points, including horrible blowouts against OSU, Florida, and Wisconsin and a three-point OT win over Army
  • Rutger
  • a 10-3 win over Iowa in which Michigan gained 267 yards

Michigan's offense sat in the 70s in SP+ a year after finishing 25th and returning pretty much everyone. Jim Harbaugh said something about how his offense was on the verge of clicking that everyone on the internet and off scoffed at. I deleted a sassy quote tweet instead of sending it, not because I disagreed with everyone else but because it was more trouble than it's worth.

Even a couple games later Michigan was coming off a blowout of Illinois that featured an Illini run from 28-0 down to 28-25 and a Penn State game in which Michigan's many, many errors outran a down-to-down pounding. This was progress. It was easy to see but hard to feel. Those games appear vastly different when they're at the tail end of the eight games mentioned above than when they are the start of the final six games of this season.

But it turned out Harbaugh was right: Michigan was close to clicking on offense. Since he said that Michigan's been held under 38 points once, by Penn State. That game featured one Michigan drive end on a blatant uncalled PI, a second go in the tank after Nico Collins had a 45-yard catch wiped out by a horrible OPI, and a drop in the endzone that would have tied it. That was a 417 yard performance that should have been closer to 500.

Every other game has been a hamblasting, culminating in a game where Shea Patterson was undeniably elite. The offense has climbed all the way to 26th in SP+, with legions of Michigan fans badgering Bill Connelly to run the numbers after Iowa to see where this version of Michigan lands.

The looming cliff this weekend looks like it has handholds for the first time. Not many, and perilously spaced. But Ohio State is no longer a blank, unscalable wall of steel.

[After THE JUMP: thrown it to Nico]

paul! paul! paul! [Patrick Barron]

My goodness, the levels to this one. You have Tarik Black's initial flex, the theatrical shock at the taunting flag, and the slow turn to Josh Gattis, who Black somehow senses is right behind him. Then Jim Harbaugh emerges from the depths of the sideline and, well, he's not pleased. Gattis appears more resigned to the whims of the refs. This isn't a GIF; it's a three-act play.

[After THE JUMP: speaking of tragedies, MSU tried to football.]

it's over 

mr worldwide is back! i am going to forget mr worldwide next week 100%

in before "i refuse to read this" 

yikes

thanks i hate it 

maybe Scott Shafer wasn't a misunderstood genius at Michigan 

need more dap reps

dorfs are natural in week one; the things Uche and Collins due are supernatural

"throw it up to the dudes" is off to a good start

red flowers bursting down below us / those people didn't even know us