Michigan has found a lot of stupid ways to lose to Ohio State in the last decade or so. In my mind, 2013 was unequivocally the stupidest. 

Let’s recap. The same offense that, for most of the season, resembled Patrick building a stable had somehow managed to accumulate 603 yards — 451 of which came through the air — and stood on the precipice of victory against a team that was favored by three scores. For the game-deciding two-point conversion, Al Borges’ offense lined up in the same formation it had before the timeout, then ran what turned out to be the only 2-point conversion they ever ran out of that formation. 

Stupid. 

Weeks later, down 31-12 with two minutes remaining in the Buffalo Wild Wings Who The Hell Cares Bowl™, Borges decided to make it even stupider. In quite possibly the most creative play the offense ran all season, Jeremy Gallon took the hand-off on a jet sweep, then lofted the ball to a wide open receiver for the 2-point conversion. It was, effectively, Al Borges’s last hoorah. 

By the fourth quarter of the Indiana game, any question over the salvageability of 2020 was put to bed. The Al Borges Two-Point Conversion — a brilliant, creative, or annoyingly effective play at the most meaningless time possible — became the mantra of the season. Michigan football became a universe where a fan wished for a four-passing-touchdown win on a Monkey’s Paw, and was granted a triple-overtime win against Rutgers. 

Let’s admire these Borgeses, and see if there’s anything to learn from them. In this post, we’ve got one more touchdown against Indiana, one against Wisconsin, and one against Rutgers. Hey, you probably turned off the Indiana and Wisconsin games before these touchdowns even happened, so why not stick around and learn about them? 

At Indiana

Milton to Ronnie Bell

The Context: In theory, Michigan was still in the game. This drive began late in the third quarter, so a touchdown would bring the Wolverines within two scores with plenty of time remaining. 

For anyone watching the game, though, it was over. Indiana had already responded to the previous score with a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, as Michael Penix Jr. continued to carve up Michigan’s secondary with relative ease. Offensively, a fractured offensive line and uncreative gameplan made sustained drives difficult outside of isolated big gains. Still, Milton was putting together a decent one here. He’d already hit Nick Eubanks for 22 yards early in the drive, and two plays after that he wisely checked down to Charbonnet for another 14, setting up first-and-10 from the Hoosiers’ 21-yard-line. 

Why it Worked: Ronnie Bell, mostly. Indiana’s running a one-deep set here, meaning a deep route to the outside will leave Bell in single-coverage since the safety won’t be able to slide over to help in time. Off the snap, Bell is able to get a small jump on the slot corner, and a quick step to the outside gives him enough space for Milton to hit. The throw is on the money, the corner can’t turn quickly enough, and Bell high-points it for the catch and the score. 

What it Means: As with the rest of the season, Ronnie Bell had been Milton’s favorite target all game — he finished with six catches for 149 yards. Typically, the offense used him more in routes that came across the field than as a vertical threat. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as his size limits his over-the-top ability against taller defensive backs. Still, his above-average speed means he can create space against single coverage, and he has great hands that can help him make plays when the ball can’t go right in his breadbasket. Ronnie Bell will continue to be a major part of Michigan’s offense in 2021; hopefully, this play acts as a preview of some new looks to come. 

A quick note: Bizarrely, Michigan actually outgained Indiana through the air in this game, 344 yards to 342. It wasn’t an issue of volume, either — Milton completed 18 of 34 passes, Penix completed 30 of 50. The key difference was consistency. The bulk of Milton’s yards came from a few big gains; when those weren’t connecting, he struggled to string successful plays together. Of course, the bigger culprit was probably that the Wolverines rushed for a pathetic 13 yards, while the Hoosiers tallied 118. Something something Establish the Run.

[After THE JUMP: McNamara steps in, throws some touchdowns]

At Wisconsin

McNamara to Mike Sainristil

The Context: Uh, yikes. If the Indiana game was a trainwreck, Wisconsin was the collapse of the entire U.S. railway system. The score was 28-0 entering halftime. In the first drive of the second half, Michigan ended its second remotely promising drive of the game with three incompletions and a historically sad field goal. After the Badgers responded with another touchdown two drives later, Cade McNamara trotted out for an Al Borges touchdown drive of epic proportions. 

On the first play, McNamara connected with Bell for 23 yards. Two plays later, he hit Eubanks for 28 yards. After that, it was Mike Sainristil’s turn:

Why it Worked: I see two possible explanations for this touchdown. Either Cade McNamara saw you — yes, you! — on Twitter calling for him to get a chance and was inspired by your zeal for the game, or Sainristil just got a good jump at the line of scrimmage. 

Assuming it’s the latter, this really is solid play all around in a game that mostly lacked it on the Michigan side. With only one safety hanging back, Wisconsin effectively left the outside corner on an island, and Sainristil beat his man in the one-on-one. The protection held on long enough for McNamara to recognize the favorable matchup and put the ball right where it needed to be. Nothing too complicated here, just enough players winning matchups for everything to work. 

What it Means: Woof. Are we allowed to draw conclusions on sad, pointless touchdowns? At the very least, this drive sparked some confidence in McNamara from the staff and any fans still watching, though some of that may have disappeared when he threw three straight incompletions on the next drive. On a day where pretty much everything fell apart for Michigan, having the backup quarterback step in and immediately lead a touchdown drive offered the scantest of moral victories, even if the resulting expectations on McNamara would be unrealistic. 

In terms of Sainristil, though, my takeaway from this is less about his speed — we already knew he was fast enough to beat corners off the line — but more about how he’ll be used in the offense moving forward. Generally speaking, I wouldn’t expect to see too many fades thrown to a speedy, 5-foot-10 wide receiver, but the fact that it was a rare win in this game (and that the coaching staff doesn’t always do things that make sense) tells me we might see more of these routes in 2021. 

At Rutgers

Triple-overtime win against Rutgers? Triple-overtime win against Rutgers. McNamara threw four touchdown passes in this game, all to different receivers and all in regulation. May God have mercy on our souls. 

McNamara to Cornelius Johnson

The Context: Once again, a disastrous start from Milton brought McNamara into the game just as the reality of “oh no Michigan might lose to Rutgers” started to set in. Once again, he inherited a stagnant offense and a huge deficit, only this time it was 17-0 and against Rutgers. Also once again, he made an immediate impact with a 14-yard gain on an RPO to Sainristil. The next play, he put Michigan on the board:

Why it Worked: After going RPO on the previous play, Michigan goes with a standard play action here to try and catch the defense overthinking things. The near-side cornerback blitzes, leaving Johnson one-on-one with the safety. Johnson feints to the inside, causing the safety to jump on the slant route that’s standard with many RPO looks, then burns the safety over-the-top. The second touchdown pass of McNamara’s career is also possibly the easiest. 

What it Means: In the immediate term, it launched Michigan’s comeback in a game that otherwise would have been a new low in a season of new lows for Harbaugh and staff. Beyond that, it’s hard to give much of a bonus to any players when the Rutgers defense practically handed the touchdown to them. Still, the play offers clues as to how RPO opens up new avenues for the offense moving forward. If the offense finds enough success in the RPO game that opponents have to respect it, that can create new wrinkles that put individual players in more conflict, potentially causing them to either hesitate or, as with this play, comically jump the wrong route. There also could be some takeaway about how Michigan plans to use Johnson as a vertical threat moving forward, but this play was so wide open that it could really be extrapolated to any receiver. 

Look, I get it. It's easy to slip into nihilism when thinking about the second half of 2020. Everything about the season was immensely stupid, and it's natural to just want to disregard everything and move on. But the reality is, most of those players who were involved in that late stretch will probably be key parts of Michigan's offense moving forward. To have any idea about how things will look in 2021, we have to look at the entire body of work — even the parts we'd rather just forget.