Michigan 18, Penn State 13 Comment Count

Ace



Eric Upchurch/MGoBlog

Throw out the records. Ignore the lack of offense. Forget that Penn State's offensive line looks eerily like Michigan's 2013 O-line.

Michigan won a game tonight in front of a packed house of genuinely excited fans, and it felt damn good. Maybe not for much of the game, an ugly slog in which the two teams combined for just 470 yards of offense, several Wolverines went down with injuries—including Devins Gardner and Funchess—and both coaching staffs seemed intent on out-bungling the other, but come that final drive, it felt like Michigan football should.

The stars of this game, without a doubt, were on defense. The Wolverines limited PSU to just 214 yards, with a paltry 65 in the second half after Michigan came out a little flat against the run. Six different Wolverines accounted for the team's six sacks. Jourdan Lewis came up with a critical second-half interception when the defensive front nearly got to Christian Hackenberg again, forcing an ill-advised throw across the field. Mike McCray anticipated a fake punt and displayed tantalizing athleticism in hawking Grant Haley to blow it up two yards behind the line.

When Penn State needed a field goal to tie with 3:44 left, the defense came through with their biggest possession of the night, as Jake Ryan and Frank Clark sacked Hackenberg on consecutive plays to force the Nittany Lions into punt formation from just outside their own goal line. PSU coach James Franklin bizarrely called a timeout to avoid a delay of game—one that would have cost his team about half a yard—before making the correct call to take a safety and go for an onside kick.

What happened next perhaps made up for the blown call at the end of last week's Rutgers game. Penn State recovered the initial kick, but a questionable flag for offsides negated it, and Blake Countess fell onto the ensuing re-kick without any trouble to effectively end game.



Bryan Fuller/MGoBlog

In feelingsball world, however, the star of this game was Devin Gardner, who recovered from a bad interception and an ugly-looking ankle injury to engineer the game-winning field goal drive. Gardner's numbers didn't look great—16/24, 192 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT—but without him on the field for two second-half drives, the offense looked helpless with Russell Bellomy at quarterback. Gardner may be inconsistent—yes, often infuriatingly so—but there's no question he's by far the most capable leader of this offense, and it showed most tonight during his brief absence.

Devin Funchess scored Michigan's lone touchdown of the evening in the first quarter, somehow chasing down a Gardner moonshot and snatching it away from PSU safety Ryan Keiser, who looked like he was preparing to field a punt—after a bobble, Funchess secured the ball and streaked towards the home sideline, arms raised in triumph.

That turned out to be the only touchdown the Wolverines would need, with Matt Wile providing the decisive points on field goals of 45, 42, and 37 yards.

Granted, the running game proved non-existent, the offense remained relatively ineffective, and Brady Hoke gifted Penn State a Hail Mary attempt at the end of the first half by inexplicably taking a timeout with three seconds left on the clock. Those are concerns, to be sure, but they're concerns for another day.

Tonight, we celebrate. Hail to the victors, valiant.

Comments

GoBLUinTX

October 12th, 2014 at 11:31 AM ^

exactly how he felt, he thought the outcome dumb.  That isn't a might have, that's what he wrote.  He also said he'd look stupid if Michigan won.  Here's his quote.

 

Finally, three opportunities for me to look stupid Sunday:

Sludgefart espectaculo, with total rushing yards under 150 between both teams.

PSU's DL outperforms Michigan's and this is the difference in the game.

Penn State, 17-14

dnak438

October 12th, 2014 at 11:47 AM ^

  • He said that the game was dumb, not the outcome. The game was dumb by pretty much any objective measure. Would you like to claim that it was an outstanding example of the sport of football? Penn State called one of the dumbest timeouts in the history of the sport. Then we got bailed out by a very close (technically correct) offsides call. Neither team looked outstanding.
  • He was right on with his prediction about the sludgefart and the total rushing yards.
  • He predicted that Penn State would win. That doesn't mean that he wanted them to win. I think that most M commentators expected a loss. See, e.g., Magnus' game post and cf. MVictor's write-up.

RobSk

October 12th, 2014 at 9:03 PM ^

If the offsides isn't called, Penn State has the ball on their own 30 with 90 seconds left, and they haven't moved the ball an inch in the second half.  My belief is that the most likely truth is that the offsides call ended the game a bit faster, and that's it. Unless Hackenburg had magically developed an OL in the 5 minutes since their last drive.

        Rob

asstastic

October 12th, 2014 at 5:21 PM ^

I think the real point of Brian's tweet was that it was a terrible game of which coach could out-dumb the other and which offense could out-suck the other and it was a dumb game, but I'm sure Brian was just as glad as most* of the people on this board that Michigan finally got the W.

asstastic

October 12th, 2014 at 5:26 PM ^

I completely disagree. I feel like Brian is distraught as many of us fans are, but while he wants an AD and coaching change, I believe he still wants UM to win and don't believe he would be like the fan on ESPN who told James Franklin, despite being covered in Michigan gear, he wanted Michigan to lose so Brady Hoke would be fired. I don't think Brian would say this because I think he, along with most on the board, believe that Hoke's already out and the outcomes of the remaining games likely won't make a difference in his tenure, that being said, I know I as a fan, still want to see Michigan be succesful this season, not to save Hoke's career, but for the kids who play for the Maize and Blue. 

CR

October 12th, 2014 at 8:59 PM ^

Brian is very pained by the season and wants UM to win as many games as they can. He isn't rooting for losses though, I know some UM fans are. I hope they are few in number.

BrewCityBlue

October 11th, 2014 at 11:18 PM ^

So proud of Gardner and all the players. The administration and coaches and injuries and bad luck and everything going wrong all year can't keep the players from just not giving a fuck and playing their asses off.



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dragonchild

October 11th, 2014 at 11:19 PM ^

Doesn't feel like turning a corner so much as finally finding a storied program in even worse shape, but after all these players have been through, it's nice to see them earn a win to savor.

Mattinboots

October 12th, 2014 at 7:33 AM ^

There's a good explanation of this above. On regular kicks, refs almost never call offside because really no advantage given to the kicking team. On onsides kicks, it's a completely different story emphasized by the fact the offside player was the one who recovered the kick. Although what Jeremy Clark was thinking sticking his hand out I have no idea.



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M-Dog

October 12th, 2014 at 10:19 AM ^

Man, that's a call you just don't make at that point in the game.

I have no sympathy for Penn State, but if the Ref's will do it to them, they'll do it to us.

Oh, yeah, they already did . . . in the Rutgers game.

These guys need to settle down and not make it about them.  We know you know all the obscure rules.  If you're trying to show off, do it in a high school game.

buckeyekiller1

October 12th, 2014 at 1:01 AM ^

Some of the older folks around me were yelling "get off the field" and the like when he was dancing. I love it though. Football is a fucking game. It's not life or death out there. If you wanna dance around I don't have a problem with it (provided you do your job). He always catches the kicks/punts and is exciting with the ball. Did they show him getting down on tv?

caup

October 12th, 2014 at 3:58 AM ^

If he had caught the Rutgers punt out of the end zone last week (that bounced on the RU 43)  he would've probably been able to take it down to at least their 35 yard line.  At that point, M doesn't even need a first down to get into FG range.  That's the winning points we're talking about.  He has GOT to get up there and field that punt!

 

Instead, he let it bounce in front of him and the ball rolled 17 yards all the way back to our own 40.  Michigan wouldn't score on the ensuing drive.

 

hailhail

October 11th, 2014 at 11:24 PM ^

That win was far from beautiful, but damn did it feel good. Sweet golly I am happy the Michigan Wolverines have won a game.

Go Blue. Go Gardner. Go away Brandon