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 4:03 AM ^
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December 31st, 2016 at 8:39 AM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 11:45 AM ^
That Saban didn't win his championship at LSU until year 4. He had a 10-3 record in his second year at LSU, just like Harbaugh.
December 31st, 2016 at 2:33 AM ^
"someone elses recruits" thing is really poor logic. Those recruits include a ton of really talented NFL players and it's not like he's running a different style on either side of the ball. Saban won a championship with another guys recruits. Stoops did. Urban did. Hell, even Gene Chizik did. Lots of guys win more than ten games with other guys recruits.
Now, I'm not arguing Lloyd is or was a better coach. He's not even close so yes, that post was absurd. I'm just saying the "someone else's recruits" thing isn't an excuse. We had more talent this year than most teams. More NFL draft picks than probably anyone but Bama (they showed that Tood McShay graphic all season long). We need to be better in close games if we want to be elite.
December 31st, 2016 at 3:00 AM ^
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December 31st, 2016 at 10:57 AM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 8:26 AM ^
If you consider where this program was two years ago following the consecutive train wrecks of RR and Hoke, I think Harbaugh is doing a great job. Back-to-back 10 win seasons. We were five points away from being undefeated. We are about to close out on our second straight top-five recruiting class. Things are heading in the right direction. I'm sure just about every Michigan fan would have eagerly signed up for that two years ago.
As far as last night goes, it was a tough loss. I actually give the coaching staff a lot of credit that it wasn't an FSU blowout because it certainly looked that way early. Considering that we have some devastating injuries (Peppers, Butt, Perry, Newsome, Clark am I missing anybody?), our OL struggled (to put it nicely), our QB is limited and lacks confidence, no game breakers on offense, I have to give credit to Harbaugh and the team that they were even in a position to win. Of course, it really sucks that they couldn't close it out - we will need to figure out how to win these close games against elite opponents going forward.
One thing is for sure - it is never boring being a Michigan Fan
December 31st, 2016 at 11:21 AM ^
Some of you guys are just dumb. Good lord. Half the coach Lloyd was? I can't even muster the energy to argue with that. If you guys seriously want to believe that go and beieve your delusions
December 31st, 2016 at 1:21 AM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 1:39 AM ^
didn't understand that either. Once FSU got around the 10 they were almost guaranteed a relatively easy FG to tie. If Harbaugh had used a TO, UM could have gotten the ball back with about a minute left.
December 31st, 2016 at 2:37 AM ^
There isn't a difference between having 3 TOs and 36 seconds (which is what we had) and 2 TOs with a minute left. We had plenty of time with all three TOs. Needed to make some plays and didn't.
December 31st, 2016 at 9:11 AM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 12:29 PM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 3:52 AM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 10:45 AM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 12:30 PM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 1:23 AM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 1:24 AM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 1:39 AM ^
Jim Harbaugh is not that great of a coach. It's a hard pill to swallow considering our last 2 coaches.
We will never be in the playoff as long as Urban coach's OSU.
December 31st, 2016 at 1:50 AM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 4:00 AM ^
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December 31st, 2016 at 9:10 AM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 12:00 PM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 12:08 PM ^
Actually he won two conference titles in three years at USD.
He also went 8-1 in 2010 at Stanford, which usually is good enough to win you a league title. This year he was one FG (either by Iowa or OSU) away from playing for one. He'll get a B1G title soon enough.
December 31st, 2016 at 1:56 AM ^
Concern troll is concern trolling. (And making an ass of himself.)
December 31st, 2016 at 2:13 AM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 8:39 AM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 10:24 AM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 11:22 AM ^
We were within inches of making it this year. Quit concern trolling
December 31st, 2016 at 12:36 PM ^
You could become a buckeye. No one stopping you.
I'm staying with the maize and blue... and give Harbaugh and staff much credit for no doubt having to make radical adjustments without Peppers yesterday.
Yes, I hated losing. Willing to bet the players and coaches hated it more.
December 31st, 2016 at 1:40 AM ^
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December 31st, 2016 at 1:41 AM ^
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December 31st, 2016 at 1:41 AM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 2:04 AM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 2:10 AM ^
Oregon has 0 national titles.
December 31st, 2016 at 10:07 AM ^
My mistake. Oregon lost that year in a last second field goal to Auburn in the NC game but it doesn't diminish the point.
December 31st, 2016 at 2:06 AM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 2:19 AM ^
Saying the kicking the PAT instead of the failed two-point attempt is intellectually lazy. We successfully completed a two-point conversion to go up 3. If we had the PAT earlier, we kick the PAT and are… up 3.
December 31st, 2016 at 2:39 AM ^
people I was watching with were complaing about this too, but the 2pt conversion got us right back to where we would have been anyway. The failed 2 pointer meant nothing.
December 31st, 2016 at 9:59 AM ^
Classic hindsight bias. A decision is not a good or bad decision based on the results of later decision.
December 31st, 2016 at 12:39 PM ^
January 2nd, 2017 at 10:41 PM ^
My statement was not hindsight bias, rather addressing a statement that insinuated that the decision to go for and failure convert the two-point attempt led to the loss.
Whether or not the two-point decision was appropriate was irrelevant in this analysis.
And I tend to take the opinion that the rate of scoring in a game should dictate how early a team attempts to go for two, and considering this was our first TD (off of a pick six) with 54 seconds left in the third, the likelihood that there were going to be a number of additional TDs seemed rather small. So going for two to set up a game tying FG is probably the right approach.
December 31st, 2016 at 11:05 AM ^
when McCray got the pick 6 to make it 20-15 the offense had done absolutely nothing to make you think they were going to score a TD later in the game. You go for two to try and make it a 3 pt game so a FG would tie it.
December 31st, 2016 at 2:56 AM ^
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December 31st, 2016 at 1:59 AM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 2:09 AM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 2:22 AM ^
What is this obsession with the play calling? Speight throwing balls that receivers can't catch has ZERO to do with play calling. It has everything to do with Speight having this terrible habit of going stone cold for long stretches against quality opponents.
And when the interior of the OL can't block (which they have been terrible at for a number of years), it really limits what the team can attempt -- as it kills both the running game and the passing game.
December 31st, 2016 at 7:24 AM ^
December 31st, 2016 at 8:01 AM ^
Looked overwhelmed at several points. I also cannot understand his apparent inability to understand the "clock" he needs to have on pass rushes and use the ability to throw the ball away at times.
Several big sacks were completely on him on 1st and 2nd down plays where he could have just tossed the ball away and took big sacks instead.
December 31st, 2016 at 10:03 AM ^
I'll tell you what it is because there is a pattern. It happened against ohio and it happened again last night. Once we get into the red zone, M changes up its package. In the ohio game we moved the ball up and down the field with a creative mix of pass, run. Then, inside the 20, we pull in tight and try to ram it repeatedly down the middle. Sure, it will work against MD and Rutgers, but it fails against ohio and other top programs.
We've largely improved the defensive schemes with the exception of the bit of confusion when we went zone in peppers absence. So, now in addition to the player development, we need to rethink our offensive strategies.
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