Michigan 36, Cincinnati 14
[Bryan Fuller]
Michigan's home opener was supposed to look a lot like last year's Rutgers game. Instead, it more closely resembled last week's Florida game. While that was perfectly fine against a talented UF squad, it was far less so against an overmatched Cincinnati team that barely squeaked by Austin Peay last week.
The game began as expected. Ty Isaac churned out yards with ease, setting up a 43-yard Wilton Speight touchdown bomb to a wide open Kekoa Crawford on the opening drive. The defense held up its end, booting Cincinnati off the field in three plays. While the Wolverines went three-and-out on their ensuing drive, Tyree Kinnel got them back on track, picking off an overthrow from UC's Hayden Moore and diving into the end zone for a 28-yard pick-six.
Then things started going sideways. A short punt by the Bearcats bounced off Nate Johnson's leg, giving Cincinnati a first down on the Michigan 38-yard line. After a penalty kept the drive alive, Mike Boone squeezed his way in from a yard out for the first touchdown scored against the M defense this season. The next Wolverine drive stalled in the red zone, and Quinn Nordin's 28-yard field goal opened one of the uglier quarters Michigan has played under Jim Harbaugh.
Seemingly nothing could go right on offense in the second quarter. Speight fumbled a jet sweep handoff to Crawford to kill a promising drive. Tarik Black ran what, on review, turned out to be an 11-yard route on third-and-12 to end the next one. Speight winged a couple passes high, evoking bad memories of last week's second quarter.
Michigan didn't get a first-half point after Nordin's field goal with 14:03 left. The defense didn't give up any, either, but only after an interminable final drive by Cincinnati resulted in a 51-yard field goal sailing wide right. As the team ran into the tunnel, the fans were audibly displeased with the 17-7 halftime lead.
[Eric Upchurch]
The grumbling continued into the third quarter as Cincinnati took the kickoff and marched 85 yards in ten plays to cut the lead to three points. Michigan's next two drives went nowhere. What had been an annoyingly close game was becoming a potential nightmare.
Thankfully, Michigan woke up. With 3:01 left in the third quarter, Speight hit Grant Perry in stride on a crossing route, and Perry jetted through the Bearcats secondary and dove in for a 33-yard touchdown. Cincinnati could only threaten to score after that. Michigan's offense, meanwhile, piggybacked off some excellent running by Isaac to drive for a short Quinn Nordin field goal midway through the fourth quarter.
Luke Fickell handled the rest. On fourth-and-two from the Cincinnati 33, down two scores with seven minutes remaining, he called for the punt team. One yakety snap later, Michigan had a safety and the ball back, and the potential nightmare was over. The next UC drive ended after one play when Lavert Hill cut off a Moore pass, reversed field, and slipped inside the pylon for M's second defensive touchdown of the afternoon.
By pure box score standards, this game turned out well. Michigan outgained Cincinnati 414-200, dominated the ground game, and kept Moore under constant pressure. Speight, for all the complaining, completed 17-of-29 passes for 221 yards, two touchdowns, and no picks. Isaac seemingly cemented himself as the lead back with a 20-carry, 137-yard performance.
Still, it's difficult to shake the feeling of the middle two quarters, which were indisputably ugly. The offense has some issues to work out, especially in the red zone, where they haven't scored a touchdown since the wrongfully negated Crawford catch to open the Florida game. Next week, Air Force presents another overmatched opponent, but one that's tricky to prepare for because of their unusual schemes on both sides of the ball. If Michigan doesn't bounce back with a more authoratative win, the good feeling from the Florida game won't carry over to Big Ten play.
September 10th, 2017 at 12:56 AM ^
be fair, he did have two fumbles, one of which may have cost Michigan a TD.
September 9th, 2017 at 9:20 PM ^
September 9th, 2017 at 9:35 PM ^
1. This was the first home game, first start, and/or first week of classes for a bunch of guys. This whole process will take a bit of time to get the hang of. I'm sure there were a lot of jitters.
2. The o-line and WRs are really young and will likely improve.
3. We had a lot of close calls/poor calls go against us.
The main problem right now is the QB. Unfortunatley, Speight just isn't taking great care of the ball. He's overthrowing at least a few guys on open/easy throws each game. He's throwing into tight coverage at least a few times every game. And now, ever scarier, he's not handling the ball very well and fumbling.
If the QB can just take care of the ball and make a little better decisions and clean up these overthrows, I think the o-line will improve, the young WRs will improve, and the coaches will do better with playcalling to put our guys in plays they can execute. I think Speight has a history of learning from mistakes and being resilient, so he has the ability to improve. But, it is concerning that he continues to cycle through this process.
September 9th, 2017 at 9:39 PM ^
September 9th, 2017 at 10:37 PM ^
Did you see his first throw in 2016?
September 10th, 2017 at 11:03 AM ^
September 9th, 2017 at 10:19 PM ^
We need to accept that those close calls/poor calls are NEVER gonna go our way...ever.
September 10th, 2017 at 1:24 AM ^
September 9th, 2017 at 9:42 PM ^
with a win considering the problems the Wolverines created.
Defense was outstanding.
Interested to seeing the offensive performance next Saturday.
To me Cincinnati looked like the better football team than Florida.
September 9th, 2017 at 9:58 PM ^
- A young team looked young and inexperienced, especially on offense.
- Despite it being the home opener, so much energy went into the big time match up with Florida, and subsequent over positive press clippings, this young squad looked past Cincy.
-Cincy had a handful of good players and a good d line who made plays(and almost made a few more!)
- our defense would play well
Some were not
- the offense would regress, as opposed to making the big " first to second game " leap.
- Speight has to be better, and, he has to LEAD this team. I am a Speight supporter, however, he has got to step it up a lot or we will be in struggles with a bunch of teams.
- the crowd was not helpful, there was no home field advantage after the first few minutes.
Lots of season and upside with this squad, but they have to learn and improve from what happened in this game.
September 10th, 2017 at 11:01 AM ^
September 9th, 2017 at 10:13 PM ^
A young team returning home after an emotional win across the country playing a little flat for a portion of the game.
September 9th, 2017 at 10:37 PM ^
1. No "Don't Stop Believin'," no wave, no cowbell. The stadium and the student section wasn't executing any better than the offense much of the day. On the other hand... the dinosaurs. Big win.
2. Not sure if you could see this on TV, but at 12:21 left in the 4th, 2nd-and-10 at the Cincy 34-- McKeon comes across the middle right-to-left about 12-15 yds deep and totally uncovered in space, but Speight doesn't see him and he ends up rolling right as pressure gets to him and throws incomplete in the direction of a covered Crawford. Everyone in the stadium saw the uncovered receiver, and so did the coaches--- so after the 2-yd run from Isaac, the entire section is yelping "run that route again!" (note, I'm not blaming WS for not seeing it, you don't have time to look at everyone-- just setting up the next bit)
Drev or Pep saw what the rest of us saw and appeared to call the same 2nd down play on 4th-and-8. Same trips left formation. Cincy plays it the same way. Sure enough, McKeon comes across the middle again about 12-15 yds deep without a Cincy defender in the same zip code. You'd have to think the booth called it in and told Speight to watch that crosser, but he never looks in that direction. He ends up hitting a semi-well covered Crawford for the 1st and we salvage a field goal out of the deal.
Here's where I'm going with this: there's a weird disconnect on this sequence that seems exemplary of the day as a whole. When route combinations evidently designed to clear space for certain routes to pop open are called, WS doesn't seem on the same page to look for those "schemed open" guys. He clearly goes through progressions, and much of the day his receivers weren't getting separation downfield (hence the DeBord-inspired shallow crosses on 3rd-and-longish), but the order of the progression doesn't seem to line up with the design of the play. This seems to be a QB-Whisperer issue of some kind, but given that WS is in year 3 with Harbaugh, I don't get it.
For what it's worth, there were not a bunch of open receivers running around downfield all day. The scheme was not getting them open, and they weren't beating their man and getting space. It really did look tactically DeBordian at times. Sheesh.
3. Did I mention the dinosaurs?
September 9th, 2017 at 10:54 PM ^
... for taking the time to write that all out. That's a very helpful perspective.
September 10th, 2017 at 12:54 AM ^
There was no opportunity to do the wave (except the very end of the game, I guess). You don't do it when the score is 17-14.
September 9th, 2017 at 10:50 PM ^
Minor point of contention in the write up-- punt went off St. Juste's leg, not Nate Johnson's.
September 9th, 2017 at 11:18 PM ^
September 9th, 2017 at 11:40 PM ^
Right on. Go Bllue
September 10th, 2017 at 12:22 AM ^
September 10th, 2017 at 9:51 AM ^
Well, gotta say Sp8 has an NFL mind and good pocket presence. The mechanics .... hard to fix at 23.
September 10th, 2017 at 1:08 AM ^
But Harbz needs to think about his QB. And I don't think that O'Korn is the best option other than Speight. I hope that Brandon Peters is well on his way!
September 10th, 2017 at 9:09 AM ^
September 10th, 2017 at 9:50 AM ^
I can imagine the Millenials descending upon you with rage soon. Facts pass for hate speech nowadays.
September 10th, 2017 at 11:41 AM ^
September 10th, 2017 at 11:39 AM ^
September 10th, 2017 at 8:23 AM ^
September 10th, 2017 at 8:48 AM ^
We need: 2017 Speight > 2016 Speight.
We currently have: 2017 Speight = 2016 Speight
September 10th, 2017 at 11:48 AM ^
I think we currently have 2017 Speight < 2016 Speight.
If we could have 2016 Penn State-through-Maryland Speight for 2017, we'd be fine IMO.
September 10th, 2017 at 9:28 AM ^
September 10th, 2017 at 10:39 AM ^
September 10th, 2017 at 10:55 AM ^
Thanks for posting.
/s
September 10th, 2017 at 10:45 AM ^
A quarterback can be a genius at the blackboard and perfect in practice but then can't make the right decision or the same throw on the fly, in a game when he has a big dude he does not know looking to assassinate him. The evidence of that is that the quarterback will 1. throw into double coverage or not find the open man (mental breakdown); 2. over or underthrow the wide open guy (mechanical breakdown).
That's why the brilliant and hard working Wilton will end up as an offensive coordinator, and not an NFL quarterback. He does not have the mind of an assassin.
You want a quarterback that when having 2500 lbs of assassins coming at him, looks across the line and stares them down with the cold look of "I am the assasin", "I am the danger", and their decision making and mechanics actual improve.
Talk to a professional baseball pitcher. It is the same psychological game they are playing with the batter. The best pitchers intimidate the batter so that the batter does not react to the same level of perfection that they were coached and practiced, even while the pitcher has jacked himself up mentally to perform better than otherwise. It's the same for fighter pilots and racecar drivers.
OFFENSIVE LINE PERFORMANCE IS A REFLECTION OF THE QUARTBACKS MENTAL COMPLEX
When your quarterback is not seeing the open receivers, throwing into double coverage and over/underthowing open receivers the missed opportunity has a negative psychological effect on the other 10 out there. At the same time, the opposing defense knows they have him rattled and having one the last play their aggression level gets even higher (their assassin index increases) even as that of ones own offensive linemen is decreasing.
All of this starts with the AGGRESSION/ASSASSIN level of the quarterback.
September 10th, 2017 at 11:51 AM ^
So the reason Onewenu and Ulizio can't pick up line stunts is because Speight throws into double coverage (even though he never really does that)? Okay.
September 10th, 2017 at 12:01 PM ^
September 10th, 2017 at 1:28 PM ^
True. I'd much rather see him throw it to taco pants rather than sail one into double coverage. I honestly cannot recall the last time Speight threw a ball away.
September 10th, 2017 at 10:48 AM ^
This feels like 2013 Akron to me. Big win followed by a team that doesn't go away while Michigan trips over themselves to an unsettling win. The team looked young to me in the sense that they didn't have a sense of urgency to take control of the game. Cincinnati saw this, dialed up the intensity, and kept it close.
One big difference between Akron and this game is that in this game Michigan adjusted and kept their foot on the gas.
September 10th, 2017 at 12:00 PM ^
Another one that it kind of reminded me of was the San Deigo State game in 2004. That was the game coming off a tough loss to ND in which Michigan dicked around and only beat a bad SDSU team 24-21. While this game was after a win and that was after a loss, in both cases there was kind of a mental letdown aspect that seemed to affect the team's performance. Then what really made it feel similar was that Michigan actually scored on its first play from scrimmage in that SDSU game wth a 50-yard bomb to Braylon Edwards, and then intercepted SDSU on its first possession (not for a TD like yesterday, but M did get a red zone possession out of it)--and then played like shit thereafter.
September 10th, 2017 at 10:53 AM ^
The beauty would be that we would not have to sacrifice most of what Harbaugh seems so determined to do offensively. This would allow us to keep our power game alive by using the H/TE (as our mgo writers so often refer to as "blocky-catchy" types) in slot positions where they best access deep seem threats paired with folding into lay down power kick outs and log schemes. Power offenses have naturally evolved to more 2x1 and 2x2 sets with power slots. All we would give up would be the back to the LOS play fake that seems to be losing its effect in the current scheme anyway. I feel like Jim needs to let go of the traditional I right and left sets, and let this transition happen.
September 10th, 2017 at 11:18 AM ^
September 10th, 2017 at 11:32 AM ^
A few observations:
1. OL needs to learn how to pick up a stunting front 7.
2. Speight gets thrown off mentally when he sees chinks in the OL's pass protection. And this isn't a temporary single possession thing. It seems to continue for the entirety of the game.
3. McCray appears to be playing injured. He's a step behind. Slow to the play. He doesn't seem right.
4. The secondary this season makes me miss Jourdan Lewis in the worst possible way. Here's to hoping they get much better each and every game. Otherwise we could be in for a long day against PSU.
September 10th, 2017 at 12:04 PM ^
September 10th, 2017 at 3:15 PM ^
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