FORMATION NOTES: Michigan alternated between their 4-3 with guys often split over the slots like so:

And their nickel package.

They also had some weird snaps where they would take their WDE and line him up like a SAM:

This was always a drop into man coverage on the TE by Clark. I did not call this out as a new formation. I probably will in the future.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Secondary saw Avery replace the youngsters as the third corner when Michigan was in nickel, which was quite frequently. The rest was Taylor/Countess/Gordon/Wilson as per usual.

At linebacker the usual rotation of Ross, Morgan, and Bolden. Beyer went the whole way at SAM, I think.

On the line, another light day for nose tackles. Both got some run but it was a lot of three-techs out there. Clark got the most run at WDE with Ojemudia backing up. Black was out there almost all the time; Henry and Wormley got more snaps than any other SDE/3T type with Heitzman also participating quite a bit. Glasgow and Godin appeared rarely, if at all.

[After THE JUMP! Points! Yards! None of those!]

FIRE NOBODY

In this, at least, we agree. UConn had 13 drives. One of these was a quality 56-yard touchdown drive. One other set them up for a 45-yard field goal attempt they missed. One was a touchdown drive starting from the Michigan nine after the DaMario Jones punt incident. Everything else was a punt or a turnover. When Michigan was struggling badly in the first half UConn went three and out four consecutive times; for the game they ended up with six three and outs and two additional one-first-down and out including the game-turning interception.

Even if UConn is bad, and they are, that is what you're supposed to do to a bad team. Now, the—

CHART

—chart (I see we're not boycotting the defense)—

I'M ANNOYING NOT STUPID

—is a little light on amazement as UConn had only 47 plays and on several of those plays they screwed it up themselves. Check the ratios not the raw numbers.

While the overall positives are mostly concentrated on the DL, an overall +6.5 from the secondary is pretty good and their coverage number is also good. The two starting ILBs had good days, but Beyer didn't have any notably positive plays. In his defense, his minuses were almost entirely a result of Michigan putting him in positions he is uncomfortable—covering down the seam, playing ILB.

The line's overall plus rate is not impressive but the near lack of minuses is. About the only things that went wrong were Henry getting blown up once and Clark not folding back, which we'll talk about in more detail in a bit.

You'll notice that I've separated out the rush positives in an attempt to see which are guys straight up beating OL, which are blitz-generated, and which are stunt-aided (almost all stunt positives will be paired with a line positive). This one was a straight up beating applied by Michigan's defensive ends and Black, in particular.

UConn's two actual drives featured a number of plays that were tip-your-hat moments, including a comeback that Taylor couldn't do anything about despite being in excellent position.

We seem to be getting burned in the short seams a lot.

Yeah, after Akron exploited that area a bit in the last game UConn had a large chunk of their limited success there. This strike to a tight end exploited both Brennen Beyer and Desmond Morgan:

Somewhat understandable that the ILBs would suck up on this as UConn pulls a guard and threatens to run the veer, but this is the third straight game in which Michigan has seemed vulnerable in these areas. We saw very little Cam Gordon in this game, and this is an area where he may be an asset.

Meanwhile this was a virtual replay of the Akron game down to the non-blitzing LB (Ross here, Morgan last week) and Clark hanging out uselessly close to each other and the far too easy inside releases against outside leverage without anyone underneath to cut that lane off:

We had a discussion about this last week after I wobbled about whether that was man or zone; people say zone, so fine it's zone. In that case I don't see how you can stop this without having some sort of robber in that area, whether it's a safety coming down or Ross dropping. UConn also hit an identical route against man coverage as Avery got beat.

And Bolden had a coverage error that led to a touchdown for the second straight week:

Spielman brings in Countess there as a potential culprit but Countess is lined up to the outside and I'm not sure what he can do even if he does try to cover this short seam. Look at that TE's route, meanwhile: he throws a slight jog in just as he reaches Bolden, which convinces him that he needs to check the inside route.

Work to do there, though the Morgan interception demonstrates the perils of going over the middle too consistently.

And we're dying on fly routes.

Well I don't know. For the second straight week it was just like…

Avery joins the lolwut you made that play club

…if you're going to make that play, you're going to make that play, and no one can do a damn thing about it. It seems clear that Michigan's corners are either coached in such a way that they end up trailing or just aren't good enough to stay over the top, and that is a concern. It has taken perfect throws to beat them, or almost beat them, most of the time.

Black is good? We are not worried about Black? I'm still kind of worried about Black.

We're yet to see him play anything resembling a rushing offense, but he has been playing well so far. He provides a lot of pass rush for an interior player and his size makes him effective on Michigan's frequent stunts and twists. He's also generated some organic rush in the first four games:

And he has a relentless quality to him that provides a number of plays that aren't explosive decapitations of the quarterback but are important when Michigan's trying to prevent an iffy play from becoming a bad one. Here his legs never stop moving on one of Michigan's bizarre long yardage defenses and eventually he flushes the QB:

When Michigan's been bludgeoned out of a hole by a double team it has usually not been him. Minnesota will be an interesting test, as their system is moving towards what would happen if you put Tim Tebow through the tunnel in Being Tim Tebow. They have brutes at quarterback and run them all day.

The play immediately after the sack above was an encouraging note in that department:

Elsewhere in three-tech run defense Henry obliterated an inverted veer and seems to have emerged into the clear #2 at three-tech. We should slow the hype train a bit, though, as there were a couple plays in this game where Henry got blown up pretty good. The guy is an ox, but he's still a work in progress.

We have pass rush?

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. UConn is sack Santa this year; Michigan only treaded water relative to other opponents. It was an encouraging performance, as Michigan's four sacks were almost all generated by linemen beating guys. Ojemudia blew past a tight end, but often you're going to need a second guy on a sack, which Wormley provided here:

That kind of thing is what Space Coyote was hoping to get when he talked about how Michigan's line wasn't working as a unit and therefore wasn't getting pressure that led to anything. Wormley doesn't do anything other than push the pocket the whole play, but that's exactly what M needs to finish off a big loss initiated by Ojemudia.

The rest of it was probably UConn's backup right tackle being not good at all. Even so, it's nice to see something of what people were hyping up about Frank Clark:

Clark had a near-TFL on a play where Beyer blitzes and he folds back as a quasi-linebacker that I'm going to picture page later today, but he also blew an assignment on another one of those formation-flip playcalls that gave up a seven-yard gain that would otherwise have been similarly stoned. He's still busting too many assignments for my tastes.

Finally, Clark's first sack was a combination of the above themes. He went to work on the right tackle as the rest of the line stayed in their lanes.

It was a step forward; Minnesota will be a much stiffer test.

What the pants was that on fourth and a billion?

I don't know man. It's fourth and 29 and Michigan lines up two safeties in Siberia but puts four cornerbacks on the LOS, rushes three, and leaves two linebackers idling behind like this Whitmer guy is Michael Vick or Andrew Maxwell and is going to be able to run for it. Whitmer hits a 26-yard pass and all you need is one missed tackle from Jarrod Wilson and it's teeth-chattering time:

Meanwhile, Courtney Avery had been beaten over the top on a fly route that could have given UConn the first down.

That wasn't the only oddity on extreme yardage. On an earlier third and nineteen, Michigan lined up in a stack, rushed three guys, and had all three linebackers hanging out near the line of scrimmage but not rushing.

I can understand one spy-type person and assume the other two are in man coverage on the TE and RB. Super weird all the same.

I guess we should point out that Wilson did not biff the tackle and in fact put the guy on the ground so fast that there wasn't any time to panic before Michigan had won the game. Michigan's only exposure on deep balls remains fly routes to the edge of the field on which it doesn't appear the safeties have responsibility.

I've heard that Michigan might play Jake Ryan at middle linebacker when he comes back?

Wait, what?

Yeah, man, the rumbles are rumblin'.

Not, like, permanently, though.

Naw, just as a changeup.

I'm still skeptical of this. Michigan actually ran a play with Brennen Beyer essentially functioning as an ILB thanks to a shift, and it went poorly:

That's the platonic ideal of your linebackers not understanding what your line is doing. The line is slanting to the playside except Clark, who is contain. This results in one large hole but no release downfield from any of the OL. Michigan is actually hoping to get that cutback from the running back because it should result in a thunderous hit from an unblocked linebacker. Beyer doesn't know what he's seeing and Combs gets a nice gain. SAMs are not ILBs.

If they do run Ryan out there on the interior it'll be part of a rush package, I imagine. It's a way to try to get Clark, Black, Beyer, Ojemudia, and Ryan all on the field at the same time. Even if you fold Clark into three-tech (something Michigan has not done so far) that's one too many pass rushers for your line.

PUNT MURGLE FURGLE BURGLE

If you're wondering why anyone would even be in the area, I am too. Michigan extending its blocks to and past the punt returner did pay off later with that Dileo return, but in the situation Michigan found itself if Dileo fields the ball at all he is making a fair catch. But in a pooch situation, Dileo is fair catching the ball 100% of the time he touches it. Michigan shouldn't have anyone inside the 20 other than the returner.

Heroes?

Black, Clark, Morgan, and Ross. And we should give a shout-out to both safeties, who have been delightfully invisible this season. When you aren't getting anything over the top and your safeties are immediately tackling on any throw over 15 yards, you are getting at least B+ play from them.

Maybe not so heroic?

Pretty much the only thing that looked bad on the day was the coverage on the seam TD from Bolden.

What does it mean for Minnesota and the future?

Probably not much. Sorry to say. But…

There is a blip of Right To Rush Four hope. Black, Clark, and Ojemudia all generated natural pass rush; Wormley pressed back into the pocket effectively. Michigan did much better at creating a constricted space that their playmakers can attack, and then they attacked.

Willie Henry is grabbing the backup three-tech snaps, and the rotation is narrowing. I don't think Glasgow played and if Godin got out there it was very briefly. Henry and Wormley are seemingly the primary backups at SDE and 3T, giving Michigan the eight-man rotation plus Beyer that seems to make sense.

Michigan does have good line depth. Wormley, Henry, and Ojemudia all turned in good plays. Pipkins didn't because this was another nose tackle light game.

Seriously, Ross is doing well. It's about impossible to tell live because it's just pass drop after pass drop and occasional run play on which he may not be involved because he's outside the box, but he's doing his job play in, play out.

There probably isn't much difference between Avery and Stribling/Hollowell/Lewis. Avery is more reliable; Lewis is faster; Stribling is bigger; Hollowell is feistier. They're all about the same player in overeall talent level.

The safeties… could be good? One more game out of the way without anything that could plausibly be blamed on a safety going down. That's four straight. Yeah, level of competition, but a lot of teams find ways to break down at safety even against good outfits. The immediate insertion of Avery at nickelback speaks to how far the coaches' confidence in Wilson has come over the last six weeks.