FORMATION NOTES: Michigan was split close to evenly between shotgun/pistol/under center. Notre Dame, meanwhile, was in a ton of four-man fronts until late, when they went back to more of a 4-3 look. Here you can see Shembo with his hand down and a 1-3-5 technique split to the strongside of M's formation:

I know I've mentioned in the past that Notre Dame's defense is not really all that different from Michigan's, and this game was a good demonstration of that. ND prefers over fronts when they go to a four-man line since their SAM equivalent is Jaylon Smith, a fast light bugger. I guess that's kind of a big difference. The point is: ND runs a lot of four man fronts.

Here's ND's 3-4:

The DL are head up on the Michigan OL, with the SAM over the TEs and Smith is over the slot.

This is the pistol. Pew pew:

Another 4-3 over from ND.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: QB Gardner, RB Toussaint on almost every play. Derrick Green got in for two, I think, and M lined up Norfleet as a back once. The line was the starters the whole game, but when Lewan got poked in the eye, Michigan sent in Magnuson, not Braden. Lewan returned, so Magnuson didn't get a snap. He's your #3 tackle it appears.

Williams, Funchess, and Butt all played plenty; Williams went out with an injury, came back for a few plays, and then left permanently. At WR, Gallon (obvious) with Chesson and Jackson rotating more heavily than Reynolds, who may still be dinged. Excepting the Norfleet package early, the slot was always Dileo. Michigan never had more than two outside WRs in the game. On passing downs they filled out with Funchess and Dileo.

[After THE JUMP: slicing and dicing goes both ways.]

Heisman?

Don't be ridiculous.

Aw man I'm just havin' some fu—

Heisman doesn't cover it. MacArthur genius grant is more like it.

Wow.

Yes. Wow.

Jebus

Jeeebus

JEBUS

JEEEBUS

JEEEEEEEEBUS H FEIST!

I mean, look at that last one. What is that? How do you do that?

He did have the worst play in football history.

Yes, but since he's already done that he can't do it again. (Shut up, he can't.) On his other 32 throws he displayed an incredible combination of accuracy, courage, and telepathic understanding of Jeremy Gallon. It set off NFL scouts:

After witnessing Michigan's Devin Gardner's performance against Notre Dame Saturday night, I'm convinced he is not only capable of playing in the NFL but has the tools to be a franchise quarterback. …

Gardner showed the complete array of skills coaches find desirable in a starter. He capably made strong throws to every area of the field, while also showing a deft touch dropping in teardrops near the sideline. He flashed ability to make accurate throws on the move to either direction, which makes him a terror to defend on bootlegs and naked passes. Factor in Gardner's ability to execute the zone-read and some designed quarterback runs, he becomes a dangerous weapon in the backfield.

I think he's a little weak rolling right, but… uh… yeah. Holy pants. Just look at this—

CHART

Yes. The mother of all charts.

Devin Gardner 2012

Devin Gardner 2013

Shane Morris

The downfield success rate in this game was equivalent to Gardner playing Central Michigan. Or Iowa last year. Do you remember the Iowa game? Iowa doesn't because they did not participate. AND he put up seven "dead on" passes, which I'm pretty sure is a record since the paleolithic UFRs in which DO was CA and CA was MA. There were a couple borderline cases (I gave that Butt seam route on which Butt maybe had a tiny chance an MA instead of an IN), but… uh… wow.

Now consider the fact that this upcoming offensive line chart is going to be a shambles, especially in protection, and that Notre Dame returned eight starters from last year's #2 scoring defense. I think this is the best QB performance I've ever charted even including the worst play in the history of football. The Mathlete's numbers are a quick sanity check, and they agree.

Other than the worst play in the history of football, these are the negative plays to set against the embeds above and 90 rushing yards:

• Gardner wasn't prepared for ND to sit on a back shoulder fade late, and got bailed out by a questionable pass interference penalty.
• On a rollout he threw back across his body to Dileo only for Jaylon Smith to deflect it. Not particularly close to an INT, but a BR.
• He missed Funchess on a pop pass.
• He didn't set his feet and missed Gallon on third and short.
• He probably should have pulled a couple more times on read plays.

That's it, against five touchdowns and almost 400 total yards against a defense that—yes—is still badass. I predicted that Gardner would be first-team All Big Ten in the season preview and that wildly surpassed all my expectations. Holy pants.

But it's not all sunshine and roses.

Oh man. Don't even.

Gotta do it.

So, first: to continue our Gardner wow experience: Michigan's protection number of 60% is very, very bad and he was +5.5 on the ground largely because he is fast.

That out of the way, there are a few positives amongst mostly exploding face here. Lewan was his normal self even against Tuitt and Day. Toussaint had a good day turning nothing into something, and when Michigan went to isos in the second half Kerridge was a thumping presence.

The rest? Urgh. But first, let's continue having the fun bits.

So you are binkies with Al Borges now?

I gotta tell you something. It's pretty cool.

Here's Michigan's first pass. This would be a short completion to Jake Butt.

Notice something?

Prince Shembo is checking Funchess on an in route and no one takes the flat. The wheel is unaccounted for. Al Borges sat on this almost the whole game. Toussaint ran one more swing/wheel route, which ND covered. That's one poke at it. Didn't get that coverage again. Okay.

Borges still had it in his back pocket, and after Notre Dame had pulled to within four, he pulled it out for 31 yards on Michigan's game-sealing drive. Shembo again chased Funchess, and there was no safety help.

"Al Borges evil genius" tag: deployed.

That drive up four points with ten minutes left saw Michigan head downfield with scoring intent. Borges brought out a little pitch that should have worked as Lewan sealed Tuitt; he took a shot into the endzone with Jake Butt; he kicked it off with a pop pass to Funchess. Nothing about it indicated Michigan was content giving the ball back to Notre Dame up one score. A salute to Hoke and Borges for preventing my heart from imploding with 1:30 left.

The rest of the gameplan was good. Michigan did try their counter trey but it got blown up by Nix; they moved to more isos late after discovering some success with them; they got Gallon a free touchdown as no LB was able to stay with him as he came across the formation on a waggle. Most of the stuff that didn't work was stuff that coulda/shoulda worked but Michigan didn't execute. ND got some plays with those hopped-up linebackers, but Michigan paid them back in full.

He occasionally got burned when the defense guessed right, as everyone does, and may have let Notre Dame get away with too much aggression, but in the end his gameplan put up 41 points while getting crushed up front. This or 2010 OSU, take your pick as to his best game at Michigan.

What is with all the unconvincing play action?

I'm starting to get it. It's not really designed to muck with the safeties or pull people up. It's focused on the defensive line, and it tends to end up with Gardner sitting in an absolute cavern of a pocket.

The linebackers don't bite for a second on that. No one thinks this is a run. But Gardner ends up without anyone in the same zip code as him and can leisurely pick out which bomb to throw.

Somehow this lame play action move ends up with Gardner as well-protected as you can be, every time. (Almost every time.) I guess the DL have to respect the possibility of the handoff and can't rip upfield willy-nilly. The LBs read pass sets (Spielman will say "high hats," if you wonder what he's talking about) and aren't taken in, but the DL have much less information since they're engaged with OL. You can see them respect the RB on the long Gallon post. Tuitt holds up and tries to two-gap Lewan, and that's all she wrote for a pass rush on that play.

Toussaint didn't run for a whole lot of yards but scored a lot better than last week.

He made 14 yards out of nothing on one of his runs, and then made 22 yards out of… uh, about 22 yards when he cutback and put the moves on Farley:

Nice run!

I kind of think you should have followed your fullback, though. (ND had a linebacker playside of Miller but there is no way he can close that space down.) To be fair, he does have a crease on the backside, but he's got a lane, an alley, a boulevard where the play's supposed to go.

Toussaint also turned some minimal gains into losses when Nix would beast on someone. He'd inadvisably bounce the ball into trouble when pounding it at a linebacker gets you a yard.

But other than those things—and one of the complaints here is that Toussaint shouldn't have had to have an awesome cut in the hole as he burst out for 22 yards at a critical juncture—Fitz looked good picking through traffic.

His blitz pickups were pretty bad, unfortunately. Michigan really missed Vincent Smith in this one. Not sure what they'll do about that in the future, since they clearly did not trust anyone else to be the third down back.

The offensive line got thumped? But the yards?

The tackles were quite good. ND got a lot of pressure; only once was it a tackle getting beat. They seemed to be blocking well on the ground. Michigan could not make that relevant, though.

The interior line got beat. Nix didn't do much on the stat sheet until two tackles on Michigan's final drive, after the game had been decided, but he is a nose tackle. Do not judge nose tackles on stats. Here's what happens when Michigan goes one on one:

Bleah. There were plenty more examples. Adding to the issues, Sheldon Day* was beating Kalis like a drum in pass protection early, and somewhat late.

It wasn't all bad for them when they could get doubles in—isos were actually pretty effective. That was rare what with the ND linebackers shooting gaps all day, and they struggled to cope. They all ended up slightly negative, which I'll take against this team in game two. They've got a long way to go over the next month.

The good news is that Michigan's done playing guys who ESPN projects will come off the board third and thirteenth in the 2014 NFL draft. Some Irish fans are complaining about a lack of production from those guys after they added some weight, but I thought Nix was everything he was supposed to be; Tuitt may not have been amazing but Michigan made every effort to run away from him all night (because when they didn't stuff like this happened) and he was often matched up against a pretty good player in Taylor Lewan. Michigan should cope better with the rest of the schedule; Michigan won't face anyone near their caliber the rest of the year.

*[Argh not recruiting Sheldon Day. M ended up changing their mind about needing more DTs late and grabbing Henry. He shows promise by Day is a good player already as a true sophomore.]

I've never seen a TE score like Funchess's.

Neither have I. He got pressed into all of the blocking TE duty when Williams went out, and that went really, really badly. It's hard to pick Funchess's worst block of the day. There are a half-dozen options, mostly guys under him instantly, leaving him in a heap. He had no hope of blocking Shembo:

Here I'm not sure what his assignment is because he's not sure:

He lets the end by him. He then thinks "whoops," starts to turn around, remembers that one of his coaches told Funchess he would personally bury him in a fire ant colony if he turned upfield one more time, starts moving downfield, and runs by the linebacker. Given Kerridge's response I bet Funchess was supposed to kick the end, but it doesn't really matter because he didn't block anyone.

And here's Ishaq Williams throwing him away:

Funchess couldn't block anyone against ND, which sucks, because he continues to flash that receiving ability. If Williams comes back, Funchess might see his job under threat from Butt. His blocking can't be worse, and he's a pretty good receiver in his own right. Michigan can't afford to have their tight end on the ground looking apologetic after every play.

THROW IT TO DILEO

I KNOW

He is actually like Wes Welker. If Mike Leach had him at Washington State he would end the year with 150 catches.

ALSO GALLON

Yes.

What a great player.

While we're here:

[Passes are rated by how tough they are to catch. 0 == impossible. 1 == wow he caught that, 2 == moderate difficulty, 3 == routine. The 0/X in all passes marked zero is implied.]

No flat drops on the young season; the only negatives were Gallon not bringing in a long corner route on which he was being harassed but did get plunked in the hands and Butt not boxing out on the other corner route that ended in a PBU. Michigan got two circus catches, one each from Dileo and Funchess.

Heroes?

Gardner and Gallon, obviously. Lewan and Schofield were great in pass protection. Kerridge was very effective when deployed.

Maybe not so heroic?

The interior of the OL got overrun, Jeremy Jackson whiffed some important blocks, and Funchess had about a 10% successful block rate.

What does it mean for Akron the future?

I will see any Devin Gardner hype you have and raise. He and Gallon promise to be one of the most devastating combinations in the country. The stuff I saw Gardner do against Notre Dame was unprecedented in my experience. He was firing every pass you could want with excellent accuracy despite staring down rusher after rusher. He just needs to stop making one big mistake a game… but even if he does, okay.

Gallon is going to clear a thousand yards easy. Possibly by halftime of the Akron game.

The interior offensive line isn't ready to take on the NFL yet. We'll see about mortals in a few weeks.

Devin Funchess hasn't progressed as a blocker. Need AJ Williams back.

Toussaint is pretty good. Just get him some blocks, guys.