Florida State 33, Michigan 32
Dalvin Cook lived up to his billing. [Bryan Fuller/MGoBlog]
Sometimes you make it a game despite yourself and the human lightning bolt that is Dalvin Cook and then a freshman receiver who looks like a tight end turns a dumb play into a game-swinging kickoff return and a 5'11" guy beats Jourdan Lewis for a touchdown because sure why not and a series of improbable events occur and a laugher turns into a heartbreaker.
For most of the game, Florida State showed why Michigan is on the wrong side of the playoff bubble. Michigan's offense couldn't overcome a shaky offensive line to put any sort of consistent attack together, mustering only 83 first-half yards. Florida State's couldn't either but for the notable exception of Cook. The future Pro Bowl running back had 141 yards and a score on 16 touches. Nyqwan Murray exploited a busted coverage for a 92-yard touchdown. The rest of the FSU offense had 22 yards on 17 plays. The Seminoles held a 20-6 lead at halftime.
Neither team did much of anything in the third quarter until Kenny Allen, for seemingly the umpteenth time, backed up FSU deep in their own territory with 1:12 left in the quarter. Facing second-and-ten from his own eight-yard line, quarterback Deondre Francois rolled right to escape pressure and threw a pass directly to Mike McCray, who ended his short trip down the sideline with a dive into the end zone to make it 20-15. Michigan had pulled within a score for the first time since the opening quarter, setting up one of the wildest finishes of this college football season.
Chris Evans, flying. [Fuller]
Cook once again pulled the game almost out of reach, breaking a 71-yard run on third-and-22 to set up a three-yard touchdown run by his backup, Jacques Patrick. After the teams traded punts, Wilton Speight capitalized on great field position with a third-and-goal touchdown pass to Khalid Hill. The Wolverines returned to the end zone less than four minutes later, forcing a three-and-out before Chris Evans juke-posterized an FSU safety on a 30-yard touchdown scamper. Before you could say "Captain America," Michigan had taken a 30-27 lead.
The ensuing kickoff looked as innocuous as could be. FSU freshman Keith Gavin fielded Allen's boot a couple yards deep in the end zone, surveyed the field, and paused. In football, when you pause on a kickoff return, you kneel for a touchback. That is the only play. Except for this play. This play, Gavin belatedly took off despite the protestations of fellow return man Kermit Whitfield, burst through a tackle, and was finally dragged down 66 yards later by Jourdan Lewis.
The winning touchdown. [Fuller]
Cook got the Seminoles to the 12-yard line on a screen pass. Two plays later, Murray rose over Lewis to haul in the go-ahead touchdown. As if this game wasn't frantic enough, Michigan blocked the extra point and Josh Metullus, filling in for an injured Jabrill Peppers, brought it all the way back for two points. With 36 seconds left, down a point, Michigan had the opportunity to give this meandering game one final twist.
Instead, the Seminoles held strong, intercepting a desperation fourth-and-ten heave by Speight forced by instant—perhaps too instant—pressure by DeMarcus Walker.
It may be coachspeak cliché, but it's true: Florida State made more plays. The better team, at least tonight, won the game. Cook showed Michigan what they lack: an offensive playmaker that makes opponents sigh with relief every time the ball goes elsewhere. That, or an elite quarterback, can overcome a porous offensive line. The Wolverines had neither.
Maybe next year.
December 31st, 2016 at 1:04 AM ^
I'm not so sure the 92 yard td was on Jourdan, like I think you're insinuating.
December 31st, 2016 at 1:06 AM ^
The safety should have been there, but that was the single worst play I have ever seen Lewis make.
December 31st, 2016 at 1:12 AM ^
He was expecting safety help and then Don Brown chewed out Dymonte right after. Pretty clear that was not on Lewis.
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December 31st, 2016 at 1:16 AM ^
I don't think he was supposed to go with that guy. Brown was talking to Dymonte after the play. Pretty sure that was his assignment, but Dymonte was put in a tough spot. I think we just got badly RPS'd there as they had a great play call to go for the bomb on first down inside their ten with the whole world expecting them to give it to Dalvin.
December 31st, 2016 at 1:19 AM ^
In Zone, you stay with a vertical route, UNLESS the under is threatened. There was no other route, no #2 receiver and no reason for Lewis not to stay with that route. Mind blowing. Maybe Thomas needs to be there, but it's Lewis, for Petes sake.
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December 31st, 2016 at 1:39 AM ^
as I don't know all the assignments in a zone and was making the assumption based on Brown's reaction with Thomas after the game. Guess Lewis just got caught sleeping a first down play inside their ten that everyone expected to be a run.
December 31st, 2016 at 1:41 AM ^
it was cover two and Lewis' responsibility. We haven't played much zone so there was a clear breakdown. I can forgive him on that but not on the late td where he wasn't looking and could have made the play. Playmakers make the plays and I guess we just don't have them when they are needed.
December 31st, 2016 at 2:18 AM ^
but you have to admit he made several plays between the 92 yarder and the game winner to keep Francois completely useless (in one stretch he was 3/14 for 17 yards and he only ended up 9/27...that is insane!!!). He's been so good and was for much of tonight that it was weird to see him not make that play. QBs complete like 60% of their passes. When you're disappointed that a CB gives up 2 or 3 of his ten targets, you know it's because he's really good. I also wonder what the toll was on him taking punts and kickoffs. He played a lot. Had to have been a little winded.
December 31st, 2016 at 11:09 AM ^
he also took a helmet to helmet hit
December 31st, 2016 at 3:01 AM ^
He got beat deep on another play late in the game too, but this time Thomas was there to bail him out. If Thomas is half a step slow, that's either a big gain or a touchdown.
December 31st, 2016 at 4:14 AM ^
This is too painfully true - they made a great call and executed!
JD was not supposed to either jam that WR or follow past his zone. With Jabrill in, Dymonte is likely several yards deeper at the snap and in proper position to give help. I didn 't like how Dymonte was walking away from Don Brown when he was trying to talk to him after that play, but honestly, a Senior in his last game is probably not going to suddenly get better coached.
We still had the lead with under a minute to go...
December 31st, 2016 at 1:18 AM ^
It was dymonte who was suppose to cover that's why Jourdan's backed off. Watch the replay
December 31st, 2016 at 1:36 AM ^
it looked like if Thomas had come over to cover that receiver, then the receiver that Thomas was shading to cover was going to be even more wide open. There was two receivers running deep and Thomas was the only db back there. Not matter who Thomas covered, if Francois makes the correct read, it's a huge pass play.
December 31st, 2016 at 3:33 AM ^
was likely in cover 2, which means he wasn't the culprit on that play. There should have been another deep safety.
December 31st, 2016 at 1:01 AM ^
Michigan didn't have Peppers. He would have made a two point swing in the game in my opinion.
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December 31st, 2016 at 1:11 AM ^
Offensive line you will not be missed!
December 31st, 2016 at 1:09 AM ^
I think I was really irritated by Hurst celebrating instead of going for the fumble by the QB on the sack. It's like mental lapses in a few second spurts cost us the game. Like the kickoff return to setup FSU go ahead TD with 30 seconds left.
December 31st, 2016 at 1:13 AM ^
There were lots of reasons to be irritated from the officials, to the o-line to sp8 to Jordan Lewis to bad kick off coverage at the end... just too many reasons.
December 31st, 2016 at 2:26 AM ^
Hurst was never going to get that ball. The trajectories that each player was following took Hurst (generally along the line of scrimmage) away from the ball and the QB (towards his own endzone) towards the ball. And there was no way for him to see it. If that ball is to get recovered, it would have to have been recovered by a teammate.
December 31st, 2016 at 1:09 AM ^
On their last TD it looked like their WR spiked the ball, why wasn't that called? That would've given us better field position on our dismal last drive.
December 31st, 2016 at 2:05 AM ^
he went through the spike motion but actually held the ball and let it dribble behind him between his legs
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December 31st, 2016 at 11:16 AM ^
I was actually surprised we didn't get called for that when it happened
but on that note, I hate that no one can celebrate without drawing a flag. That's one of the very few things I like about the NFL more than college. You should be able to dance and spike the ball up to a certain point and still have the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for egregious taunting / overcelebrating
December 31st, 2016 at 1:10 AM ^
And I'm sure FSU has been out-recruiting us for the past 5-7 years.
December 31st, 2016 at 1:44 AM ^
class (2013) was ranked 4th to their 11th and our 5th-year senior class (2012) was ranked 6th to their 3rd. We were stacked with experienced all-conference, all-american, future NFL players. Talent was not the problem.
December 31st, 2016 at 12:00 PM ^
I'm not sure how stacked our offense was this year in terms of future NFL players. In the end, that side of the ball wasn't quite national championship-caliber while the defense was.
December 31st, 2016 at 1:10 AM ^
Great summary. Don't see much happening for next year with too many holes; loss of 18 starters, o-line, running game, etc. As you noticed, we don't have the playmakers.
December 31st, 2016 at 1:20 AM ^
Well we lose deveon Smith so our running game should see a massive upswing.. the oline won't get worse as the upper class men were awful for the 3 years hoke coached them and never improved much. Harbaugh should change that.
December 31st, 2016 at 3:07 AM ^
That same OL has had two full seasons of Harbaugh/Drevno coaching as well. If they can't fix Hoke's linemen, I'm not very confident that they can get a bunch of underclassmen up to a level where they are an improvement.
December 31st, 2016 at 6:06 AM ^
Was lack of talent and no smarts. How many busted assignments happened in the big games? Big trend.
December 31st, 2016 at 8:38 AM ^
Sometimes bad habits are hard to break. These weren't blocks of fresh clay. They had muscle memory if bad habits for 3 years in them. Tougher to undo that than it is to take freshmen and coach them up from scratch over the same 2 year period.
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December 31st, 2016 at 1:11 AM ^
God this season sucked donkey dick.
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December 31st, 2016 at 8:30 AM ^
Lol.
After a decade of wandering in the wilderness we have two big seasons and are bitching about it.
The Michigan fan base is back!!!!!
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December 31st, 2016 at 8:32 AM ^
Fwiw yes, the end was disappointing. But we've had an "ok at best" o line for awhile now.
I had fun this year. And last year. Dear God, if this year sucked for you what was the 3-8 year like??? 5-7 with a side of controversy? Whatever dude.
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December 31st, 2016 at 11:56 AM ^
We lost virtually every big game we played in both seasons.
January 1st, 2017 at 10:42 PM ^
Two 10 win seasons. Victories over ranked teams. Going from getting ohysically beat up by MSU to Playing them close.
Improvement against OSU, los by badly at first, then going to the shoe and barely losing.
Very big seasons for the momentum of the program. You preferred hoke? RR?
You expected a NC this year? Just start kicking ass on an OSU team that has been out recruiting us for a decade? Give him time.
I had a freakin' ball. It feels like when the Pistons were working their way up in the late 80's.
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December 31st, 2016 at 1:19 AM ^
Just like OSU game
We had too many mistakes.
Jabrill would have made the differeence.
Just glad we didn't play Bama. If we were the 4th seed like Washington, we would have been embarrassed liked MSU last year.
December 31st, 2016 at 1:27 AM ^
Not at all like ohio where we dominated the stats and the game and lost because sp8 threw to picks, fumbled on the 1, and the officials systematically f-ed us. The only similarities are that we couldn't finish and lost both.
December 31st, 2016 at 2:25 AM ^
Shut out 38-0 - No.
As great as the D was this year it was still lacking + athletes at LB. The O was lacking - starting with the OL and "special" athletes at skill positions. Also, I do now have more doubt in regard to Speight going forward - hoping Peters can step up next year.
I was encouraged to see how Matellus performed in a tough spot and liked that Hill, Evans, the young TEs, and Bush saw some time in key situations - this will help going into 2017. I understand why the coaches tried to give Smith a chance to go out on top - but his lack of speed didn't help with the OL struggling as they did against a very good DL. Still exciting to see the team fight back, but the loss of Butt and Peppers - Particularly in the return game with JP - hurt big time.
December 31st, 2016 at 1:19 AM ^
But they also had a RB who could single handedly flip field position. Until we get one of those, expect more of these types of results.
December 31st, 2016 at 2:59 AM ^
rare. He's the 2nd best ever in the ACC. It's just not the kind of talent you can expect, or even hope to have very often (we've never at Michigan had a RB that good). While an elite generational RB would be really nice, a more reasonable and stable improvement of the offense has to come from the OL and the QB.
December 31st, 2016 at 3:12 AM ^
I'd say Wheatley was
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December 31st, 2016 at 9:15 AM ^
I agree, we've had players of his caliber. Denard could've been an amazing running back, no doubt Wheatley, Hart was formidable, Tim Biakabatuka was a beast... Najee, we're ready for you
December 31st, 2016 at 7:54 AM ^
In my opinion, this would have been the position Peppers should have played if Michigan wanted to maximize talent on the field and have a runner on par with Cook.
December 31st, 2016 at 9:42 AM ^
In reality likely a bit of all 3--better RB, better QB, and definitely better OL play.
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December 31st, 2016 at 1:19 AM ^
we don't seem to play well in true grass field. Ithey seem slower today. Also the field is slippery. A few players from both side slipped. And players can get hurt.
December 31st, 2016 at 1:20 AM ^
Jim Harbaugh is half the coach Lloyd Carr was. Tough pill to swallow.
December 31st, 2016 at 1:24 AM ^
Care to qualify? I think they have different styles, Lloyd was more contemplative and deliberate while I think Jim is more directly competitive (smash mouth).
December 31st, 2016 at 1:52 AM ^
Half the age, perhaps.
December 31st, 2016 at 2:01 AM ^
I can't believe the shit that is coming out of peoples mouths tonight. Sir that is the dumbest thing that I have seen yet. Congratulations! He just won ten games back to back with someones elses recruits. Lloyd sure the hell didn't do that.
December 31st, 2016 at 2:19 AM ^
This. Man it didn't take long for expectations to get out of hand.
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