Michigan 28, UNLV 7
Eric Upchurch/MGoBlog
That's pretty much how that should go.
The biggest drama of the afternoon was whether Michigan would give Sione Houma the ball again after his first career touchdown was overturned on review. They did, and Houma plunged one yard to give Michigan a 28-0 lead.
The second-biggest drama was whether the defense would hold onto the shutout. After allowing only 111 yards on 42 plays through three quarters, they relented in the fourth, ceding a touchdown pass to Devonte Boyd after a slip-up in coverage set up UNLV deep in M territory.
Channing Stribling remained in phase and nabbed an early pick. De'Veon Smith started off the scoring with a walk-in receiving touchdown in the flat. Jabrill Peppers had a tantalizing, twisting 24-yard punt return. Jehu Chesson took a sweep and ran untouched for a 36-yard touchdown as Amara Darboh nearly blocked his man into the end zone. Ty Isaac burst 76 yards down the same sideline for another.
That about covers the important stuff.
Upchurch
Also important, of course, is Jake Rudock's performance at quarterback. He underwhelmed again this week, throwing his fifth interception of the season—as many as he had in all of 2014—and finishing with 123 yards on 22 attempts. When asked to assess his quarterback's performance, however, Jim Harbaugh seemed unconcerned.
"His job is to win football games. It wasn't an ideal day to throw, there was a swirling wind the whole day. I thought he did a good job. He managed the game well," Harbaugh said. "There's things to get better at, to improve from, and coach, so it'll be another week of doing that."
"Satisfied is a word I'm never going to use. I don't associate it with football," Harbaugh added later. "I've never been satisfied. But yeah, I'm happy."
After a routine 21-point win that could've easily been by a much bigger margin, it's probably best to follow the head man's example here. Michigan has issues to work on, that much is apparent; they're also taking care of business, and that too must be acknowledged.
September 19th, 2015 at 4:53 PM ^
September 19th, 2015 at 4:40 PM ^
September 19th, 2015 at 4:43 PM ^
Nice phoys Upchurch! They really show the glory of the Maize color.
I know it was only UNLV, but this felt like the Michigan Football I grew up with.
September 19th, 2015 at 6:12 PM ^
September 19th, 2015 at 4:49 PM ^
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September 19th, 2015 at 4:53 PM ^
lost the starting job at Iowa.
September 19th, 2015 at 4:54 PM ^
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September 19th, 2015 at 5:49 PM ^
If/when Rudock next completes a long throw to a wide-open guy, some people might sarcastically cheer him, as if to say "Finally!"
That's a common definition of a Bronx cheer.
September 19th, 2015 at 4:57 PM ^
Great D, great run game with Isaac and Drake. The game was never in doubt. Rudock must improve his accuracy. I can forgive the one pick because the game was never in doubt, but he is very inaccurate. He's missing some easy throws, and not reading consistently. Yet, this team plays much better than anything the past three years. Go Blue.
September 19th, 2015 at 5:14 PM ^
September 19th, 2015 at 5:33 PM ^
September 19th, 2015 at 5:49 PM ^
September 19th, 2015 at 8:35 PM ^
September 19th, 2015 at 7:50 PM ^
Yeah, he had a receiver wide open downfield in the 2nd half, but he was running right and knew he had no prayer of getting it there. Damn.
September 19th, 2015 at 5:49 PM ^
Not saying it was the cause for all but it played a role. He's the QB for the whole year and he's still beyond serviceable. Hang in there.
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September 19th, 2015 at 5:55 PM ^
Speight coming in and throwing darts down field but the UNLV DB 's were covering well on those plays?
Rudock missed some very simple passes that cost us a lot of offense today, he needs to improve greatly, those were easy passes to make.
September 19th, 2015 at 5:58 PM ^
September 19th, 2015 at 6:02 PM ^
we all saw it with our own eyes
September 19th, 2015 at 6:21 PM ^
His first two passes were good; his third was an ugly one-hopper. Even if it's the case that he throws a better deep ball than Rudock, that doesn't mean he's the better overall quarterback.
September 19th, 2015 at 6:35 PM ^
September 19th, 2015 at 10:25 PM ^
September 19th, 2015 at 8:08 PM ^
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September 20th, 2015 at 3:01 AM ^
Rudock has mist a couple gimmies, and had a few bonehead int's, but he has almost always made reasonable decisions. I think that is what is meant by the term "game manager." He doesn't get in the way of a solid running game, and (hopefully once he gets over this string of INT's) he will at least give O'Neill a chance to pin our opponents.
September 19th, 2015 at 8:18 PM ^
He said a few times that Rudock's struggles are due to him not knowing the offense well enough yet. I almost gagged on the beverage when i heard that one.
But I hope Long is right AND that Rudock learns the offense fast.
Then again, Chuck Long's performance as Lions QB kind of taints his credibiiity on QB play for me.
September 19th, 2015 at 9:10 PM ^
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September 20th, 2015 at 10:11 AM ^
to Bo Jackson in 1985.
That season Michigan went into Kinnick Stadium ranked #2 in the country, behind #1 Iowa. It was and is the only #1 vs. #2 in Iowa football history.
I'll never forget the drive Chuck Long had late in the 4th quarter, with Michigan leading 10-9. Long drove the Hawkeyes down the field to set up the game-winning field goal as time expired.
Of course, Jim Harbaugh was the quarterback for the good guys. Iowa won the yardage battle, 422-182 and TOP 38 minutes to 22.
In typical Hawkeye fashion, Iowa went on to lose to Ohio State two weeks later, and lost the Rose Bowl to UCLA.
September 19th, 2015 at 9:57 PM ^
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September 19th, 2015 at 5:56 PM ^
He's in his 5th year. Harbaugh has done all he can, I'm guessing. Only other option is burning Shane's potential redshirt and it's obvious Harbaugh really doesn't want to do this if at all possible.
I expect Harbaugh will continue to say very positive things about Rudock to help keep his confidence up.
September 19th, 2015 at 9:51 PM ^
September 20th, 2015 at 10:04 AM ^
September 20th, 2015 at 7:38 AM ^
I dont beieve the coaching staff gives a flying flip about redshirting Shane.
They care about winning and winning now. They know they have enough frosh talent, a transfer waiting and another couple top recruits coming in that can be developed. You really think they're worried about getting a player thats been here 4 years and can't sniff the field an extra year?
September 20th, 2015 at 8:04 AM ^
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September 19th, 2015 at 6:03 PM ^
September 19th, 2015 at 7:28 PM ^
but an inacurate short & intermediate ball combined with a glacially S L O W long ball is a serious concern.
Rudock's throws are taking forever to get to their recievers and it's one of the reasons for the timing & adjustment issues.
September 19th, 2015 at 11:02 PM ^
it is a documented fact.
September 20th, 2015 at 6:13 AM ^
September 19th, 2015 at 6:20 PM ^
I'll bet Ace would have found more cause for concern if a Hoke team had beaten an awful UNLV squad 28-7. After reading how undersized the UNLV DL is (two 230 pounders), it is very concerning that our OL didn't look dominant. Don't get me wrong, I have confidence in Harbaugh and Drevno to improve this unit, but like QB play, the performance of this veteran OL is something that will hold us back.
September 19th, 2015 at 7:11 PM ^
September 19th, 2015 at 6:43 PM ^
Offense seemed a bit sloppy , still, or at least inconsistent. Ruddock shouldn't be throwing picks at this point, that's a big cocern. Next week is a big test against BYU, we can't afford turnovers against them.
September 19th, 2015 at 6:56 PM ^
September 19th, 2015 at 7:12 PM ^
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September 19th, 2015 at 7:30 PM ^
11W nuts are having an epic meltdown it is glorious
September 19th, 2015 at 7:21 PM ^
I'm not as scared to death about Rudock as others but it would have been nice to see him connect on a few deep passes. He was behind his receivers today but did look a little better in the second half. It was a very conservative day in terms of play calling.
Getting stuffed on 3rd and 1 and then 4th and 1 pissed me off. I wish they tried something different than rushing up the middle.
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September 19th, 2015 at 7:29 PM ^
Good comment about the TFL vs stripping...I saw the one play that really jumped out and thought the same exact thing.
I'm totally non plussed about the QB position..Jim Harbaugh will sort all that out.
September 19th, 2015 at 8:09 PM ^
The inability to hit WR's downfield is distressing. Seems like darn near everything that we complete is quick and short. Quick short passes don't do much to get the LB's and safety out of the box.
And take away Isaac's one long run and the running stats don't look overwhelmkingly good. The inability to open holes for the running game (like last week) was disappointing, especially against a bad team.
September 19th, 2015 at 8:30 PM ^
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September 19th, 2015 at 10:52 PM ^
September 19th, 2015 at 8:03 PM ^
September 19th, 2015 at 7:26 PM ^
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