South Carolina 26, Michigan 19
[Marc-Gregor Campredon]
New year, same Michigan.
In one of the uglier games of an aesthetically unpleasant season, the Wolverines never managed to cobble together a coherent offense, and five-second half turnovers beget 23 unanswered points for South Carolina.
Quarterback Brandon Peters, playing behind a line down three starters by halftime, never looked comfortable. Factoring in two sacks, Peters averaged only 3.7 yards per dropback and missed a number of throws, including two late interceptions to seal the loss. Michigan fared little better on the ground, gaining all of 2.9 yards per carry.
While the Jim Harbaugh takes will reach a level of scorching usually reserved for large celestial bodies, it's fair to criticize the playcalling, which didn't do much to take the pressure off Peters or Don Brown's futilely amazing defense. No single call was responsible for the loss, but the third-and-short handoff to tight end Sean McKeon, fumbled for a South Carolina recovery, defied explanation until Harbaugh, taking responsibility, said after the game that Michigan had the wrong personnel on the field.
[Campredon]
That play was just one in a series of mistakes that turned a 19-3 second-half lead into a 26-19 loss. Karan Higdon fumbled inside the South Carolina five-yard line with the Wolverines leading 16-3 and poised to blow the game wide open. After Michigan added a field goal and SC responded their first touchdown drive, McKeon's fumble gave the Gamecocks the ball on the M 21; they needed one play to score again, with Jake Bentley's pass to Bryan Edwards cutting the lead to 19-16.
Michigan's ensuing drive went nowhere, and the defense—as we've seen too many times this year—cracked under the pressure of supporting an inept offense. Bentley improbably converted a third-and-17 on a jump ball to tight end Hayden Hurst; three plays later, Shi Smith beat Tyree Kinnel clean to the pylon for a 53-yard score.
The comedy of errors continued unabated. After driving Michigan 75 yards in seven plays, Peters committed a cardinal sin of quarterbacking, throwing under pressure across his body to get intercepted in the end zone. When the defense held, SC's punt clanged off Donovan Peoples-Jones's facemask, setting up the Gamecocks with the ball in the red zone, where they'd get a critical field goal to take a two-possession advantage.
Down to one timeout in the waning minutes, Harbaugh decided to go for it on fourth-and-ten deep in his own territory, but Peters's deep shot to Kekoa Crawford wasn't anywhere close to a completion. The defense gave Michigan one last chance, pushing SC back to force a missed field goal. Another interception by Peters, forcing it to a well-covered Crawford, ended it.
Fair or not, this will be a long offseason. The mitigating factors, or excuses, or whatever you care to call them, go away in 2018, when the program will be loaded with talent recruited by Harbaugh. They'll certainly look better than this. They'd better look a whole lot better.
January 1st, 2018 at 4:53 PM ^
I would bet on this over any other senario
January 1st, 2018 at 4:53 PM ^
that totally sucks
January 1st, 2018 at 4:40 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 4:39 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 5:41 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 7:09 PM ^
If the O was designed like the T-Rex JH purports to be, that'd be dandy--fullbacks can still be found in the wild, and the end zone, after all. The problem is that the offensive staff is composed of retro reptiles who together make a pretty poor hunting party.
(I gather Drevno and Pep would be, respectively, brontosaurus and pterodactyl, with Jay as, say, Dinosaur Jr., but I'm getting out of this metaphor while the getting is relatively good.)
January 1st, 2018 at 4:39 PM ^
...I had little doubt that this season would disappoint (as we worked through the Hoke recruiting issues) but that next year would be great. Today is the first day that genuine doubt about next year entered the picture. The problems with this team seem...systemic.
January 1st, 2018 at 4:47 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 5:41 PM ^
Well said. Same boat. I'm still optimistic about next year, but damn, this feels so eerily similar to 2013 going into 2014.....
January 1st, 2018 at 4:41 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 4:40 PM ^
It is fair to question every aspect of this team and program right now, including Jim Harbaugh. No, I am not saying fire him...but he needs to put the right coaches in place and stop calling plays not to lose. Don Brown, your defense needs to make big stops in the 4th quarter...they haven't on too many occasions. I could go on-my point is, there are no more sacred cows. It is all on the table.
January 1st, 2018 at 7:24 PM ^
but this year's game against Penn State is pretty much the only loss that we could put largely on the D since Don Brown was hired. Incorporating some situational zone D seems like a no brainer, but our offense is like 80% of our problem.
January 2nd, 2018 at 3:50 AM ^
I would put it in the high 90's. The defense replaced ten starters and still managed a top 5 finish. If anything, the defense overachieved. The problem is that the offensive ineptitude gives the defense zero margin of error, so the handful of big plays that the defense gives up (which wouldn't make a dent if we had a competent offense), end up being the difference. If your offense is so putrid that your defense bears the entire burden of winning by itself, at some point they'll break, and it won't be their fault. And the irony is that this is the reason why Will Muschamp failed at Florida.
January 1st, 2018 at 4:40 PM ^
That was like watching an earthquake swallow the Big House whole...I have no words!
January 1st, 2018 at 4:40 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 4:46 PM ^
special teams tackle on a kickoff. So, there's that too.
January 2nd, 2018 at 4:19 AM ^
The fact that Scholoene gets playing time with the receivers were have recruited is disturbing.
January 2nd, 2018 at 4:19 AM ^
The fact that Scholoene gets playing time with the receivers we have recruited is disturbing.
January 1st, 2018 at 4:43 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 4:55 PM ^
practice sessions whch are unheard of in college football. The is the reason why we fade in the latter part of the season. AND yes the college game has passed JH by. His pro-style offense doesn't work in college football because all the high schools play shotgun and all that comes with it.
January 1st, 2018 at 4:57 PM ^
reinstate those from Bolivia, it's the least you can do following how wrong most of us have been. Time to re-examine ourselves along with the program.
January 1st, 2018 at 5:15 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 5:19 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 5:54 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 4:45 PM ^
That was the ugliest loss this team has had in the last 20 years. It wasn't the margin of loss, it was the epic collapse of giving up 23 unanswered points along with 5 turnovers in one half. Tough teams who want to win games don't do that. I'm not really worried much about the defense or special teams. It's the offense that's the big problem. If our offense plays to even close to their talent level going forward, most of the other problems go away. A solid Michigan offense that can throw the ball wins this game by at least 10 points. But if I see the same offensive staff back next year, I don't foresee us doing much better.
January 1st, 2018 at 4:57 PM ^
"That was the ugliest loss this team has had in the last 20 years." In context, I think this is true. There have been uglier performances in the past 20 years, but this team, at this point, after several weeks to prepare, should not have looked this ugly.
January 1st, 2018 at 5:17 PM ^
SC had 8 or 9 in the box and we still could not get a WR open. That's a problem I cannot really understand. Our WRs cannot seem to get separation and do not make tough catches, and at least today our TEs didn't come up with any tough catches either.
Today did make me worried about special teams. Our punting was atrocious, and from a punter who was supposedly the best recruit in the nation. DPJ had a fumble and at least one significant loss on a return while letting other punts bounce, thereby costing us serious yardage. The only positive aspect of special teams was Nordin.
January 1st, 2018 at 8:49 PM ^
What coach pays attention to the WRs?
Is that coach competent?
January 2nd, 2018 at 12:14 AM ^
was fine, it couldn't make up for the weaknesses on special teams.
January 1st, 2018 at 6:20 PM ^
I think part of the problem from a fan expectations standpoint might be that we're significantly overestimating our own talent on offense. Aside from Higdon, there's not a single guy who consistently makes plays, and even Karan had a huge turnover today.
January 1st, 2018 at 6:50 PM ^
I said something like this after the MSU debacle, that we just don't have playmakers on offense. Much of the frustration with Lloyd Ball is that we did have playmakers on offense but would turtle with the lead, insuring that we wouldn't score again. The 2017 offense just didn't have playmakers. Maybe Patterson and second-year Black and DPJ can change that, but it's far from certain.
January 1st, 2018 at 7:42 PM ^
Maybe because most of our guys on offense are freshmen? Like DPJ is a true freshman right? Tarik Black got injured early? A guy like Gentry just started playing TE right? McKeon is really in his first year starting right?
Almost like there's a chance that these guys could maybe, MAYBE, improve.
January 1st, 2018 at 4:46 PM ^
As in "Full of pain."
January 1st, 2018 at 4:47 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 4:47 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 4:48 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 4:51 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 7:44 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 4:48 PM ^
that McCaffery will be a huge factor to the QB starting spot race. He was reportedly ahead of Peters if it weren't for the redshirt season. Peters has done nothing to show that he is a viable starting QB next season. Completed less than 60% of his passes for the season which is not good.
January 1st, 2018 at 4:48 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 6:05 PM ^
That's the part that kills me too. There's no way you can feel good about next season given the complete lack of progress over the season, and the total regression over the bowl break. Remember they called a pretty decent game against Ohio State. And then against South Carolina? ....yeesh.
January 1st, 2018 at 4:48 PM ^
A month wasn't going to fix any of that.
The coaching seems to be a mess right now though. Excepting the Don Brown pick-up, they seem to be in even worse shape than the crew hastily cobbled together prior to the '15 season.
January 1st, 2018 at 4:49 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 4:59 PM ^
But there's something to be said about the "who". Obviously we avoid the guys looking to coast, but I'm not thrilled about people just using the Michigan program to advance their own careers, either. There's more to competence than raw skill; there's such a thing as a sense of ownership. They don't all need to be as good as Brown, and I can't pin it on one thing, but I'm getting feels that there's some mercenary culture working its way in, especially on offense where the pieces just keep getting shuffled around. Defense has largely done well (except for getting gassed late in the game, maybe why Tolbert was shown the door) but Brown's had more position coach consistency to work with.
Let's get some folks who give a shit about what's in front of them.
January 1st, 2018 at 5:10 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 4:53 PM ^
In the 2nd half, the pass block actually held up decently, yet the passing game was still pretty bad...so there's hope they maybe can solve pass-blocking? Maybe? Please?
January 1st, 2018 at 4:49 PM ^
On this play:
"Bentley improbably converted a third-and-17 on a jump ball to tight end Hayden Hurst."
...did you see that offensive holding on Gary? When the play happened live I thought of your diary and immediately said to myself "Boom, there it is! Finally a offensive holding call!" .... and then.... nothing. No flag.
I was beside myself.
January 1st, 2018 at 5:09 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 4:50 PM ^
is rotten. And gave SC the field position battle several times.
Catching the ball at the goal line. More than once.
Letting it bounce at the 40 and roll inside the 30. More than once.
Fair catching it off your face-mask.
All the hidden yardage Peppers got us last year, we gave back double this year.
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