Michigan 18, Penn State 13
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.
October 12th, 2014 at 11:49 AM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 9:39 AM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 12:52 AM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 1:15 AM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 2:04 AM ^
I love that guy
October 12th, 2014 at 2:30 AM ^
Hoke made point of thanking the fans. Can't help but like that guy. As DG said GO BLUE!
October 12th, 2014 at 7:11 AM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 8:53 AM ^
Throwing deep implies your QB has time to throw.
October 12th, 2014 at 10:26 AM ^
October 13th, 2014 at 12:57 PM ^
October 13th, 2014 at 2:27 PM ^
all can incoprporate deep routes, if you call them right. You need to set up the D, naturally, something that Nuss doesn't ever seem to do.
You can easily run a deep drag, back side post, play side go, or really anything you feel like, as long as its set up before hand, hell even a flood play...
October 12th, 2014 at 8:56 AM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 1:52 PM ^
I did the count every play. They had 11 every time. It felt ridiculous that I had to do that to make myself feel better.
October 12th, 2014 at 9:02 AM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 10:11 AM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 11:31 AM ^
Did you watch the MSU game against putrid Purdue? MSU looked as bad as Michigan. The game is going to be very competitive unless DG can't play.
The Michigan PSU game featured two lousy teams with dumb coaches and below average officials. Winner won by being less bad and dumb.
October 12th, 2014 at 10:17 AM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 10:52 AM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 1:17 PM ^
Sorry, but no. A thousand times no. Maybe a million times no.
Losing to Rutgers was awful, but the season was already a tire fire. My expectations for Michigan football do not include 10-man punt return teams, horrible clock management, 31-0 losses to Notre Dame, and putting probably-concussed quarterbacks back into play. I absolutely refuse to lower my expectations to the point where being barely over .500 would change any of my perceptions.
October 12th, 2014 at 11:56 AM ^
I'm so happy for the win, and really for DG
I'm so sold on the fact that DG has been undersold and has had to deal with adversity that no NCAA QB with his skillset has ever had to deal with that I cannot believe he catches so much shit.
I'd almost rather (if he can still play out the rest of the season) see DG just lead the offense. Let him fucking call the plays, let him play in his OWN comfort zone. I think the kid is smart enough, and he surely has the fucking grit to do whatever it takes. The fact that he seems to be able to construct TD drives out of SPITE and how he can run a hurry up down the field as fast as a RR wet dream.. I just want to see that kid have a CHANCE at the next level.
Tired of people attacking that kid for anything, without DG we would have ZERO wins. (OK, maybe one...)
It really is terrible to me that he never was given the opportunity to play consistently to his strenghths throughout these past few years, and his send-off tour is a raging turd sandwich full of illustrations of how many times we've left that kid left hanging dry. Who wouldn't have a high turnover ratio in his position? Well, most would have probably left on a fucking stretcher before they were able to turn the ball that many times, but let's assume there's someone out there as tough as DG for a moment who is as prolific.
I really think there'd be no doubt about him being decently touted draft pick if he didn't have to learn a completely new system pretty much every f'n year while working on a master's.
I just hope he doesn't have to pay for the rest of it life for giving it his all to a garbage season. I hope he's healthy enough to settle his score in Columbus this year, because that kid almost single-handedly handed us a miracle last year.
I do want Hoke and Brandon gone, but I want DG to win win win. Watching him AND Funchess both playing so obviously hurt makes me fume.... Both of the Devin's are everything the offense needs, and they lay it all out every time they are on the field....
October 12th, 2014 at 12:10 PM ^
Funny, he sounds exactly the same after each loss! If these guys practice half as hard as he says and if they care half as much as he says, given the talent, he is the worst coach in America!
Happy to see the team get a win. They deserve better than Hoax can give them. I hope bozo Brandon is lining up the next coach and/or the President are lining up the next AD. It's dangerous to have any optimism this year but if we can pull out a win in Evanston, we can actually go to a bowl!! Ha, good one.
October 12th, 2014 at 1:01 PM ^
felt good to end the losing streak, it hasn't done anything to improve my confidence moving forward. I still see at least 3 losses with 2 of them being ugly.
October 12th, 2014 at 1:10 PM ^
Yes, we were playing Penn State but Michigan's defense is very very good and I've been impressed with it all season.
October 12th, 2014 at 4:44 PM ^
You were impressed with our defense against Notre Dame, Minnesota and Rutgers?
October 12th, 2014 at 2:37 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 4:47 PM ^
This game made me pretty happy that PSU no longer has Bill O'Brien as coach. That guy scared the crap out of me. An experienced Hackenberg in his system would have been a monster.
I'm fine facing James Franklin for the next however many years.
October 12th, 2014 at 6:04 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 8:26 PM ^
We are still not a good team and are poorly coached.
I apologize about my comments regarding Matt Wile after the ND game, he has bounced back and is really reliable.
Devin Gardner is a MAN.
How can we have no viable backup QB? Morris and Bellomy are simply awful.
Damn it feels good to get a win, even if it's agianst a bad team. I'll take anything at this point.
October 13th, 2014 at 5:34 PM ^
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