SPONSOR NOTES. Matt's on his way to Penn State as we speak, thinking no doubt about various ways in which US Soccer's surplus can be spent effectively: reducing the cost of A-level coaching licenses, supporting youth clubs that produce USMNT players, building a giant statue of Sunil Gulati being devoured by wolves. Maybe I'm projecting. I'm probably projecting.

Matt's probably thinking about ways to get your mortgage quote even faster, like inventing a time machine or hiring really fast donkeys. Because he gets you quotes fast, like a competent person not in charge of US soccer does.

FORMATION NOTES. Another 60-40 split between the stack package and a four-man line. 31 four man line snaps of which Mone probably got 25, with Dwumfour in on passing downs. 4-3 snaps went down 3 against a spread offense.

Michigan is deploying some dime now, with all three CBs on the field simultaneously. I had them for 11 dime snaps.

Indiana was all spread, never under center. Here is a picture of Indiana:

Other than the usual diet of weird line alignments on passing downs this was basically what you'd expect.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES. Secondary was the usual: Kinnel and Metellus omnipresent except for a play or two after Kinnel got dinged when Woods came in. Thomas and Glasgow both got a few snaps. CBs rotated through snaps, with a half-dozen or so snaps where all three were on the field.

Bush was omnipresent; McCray nearly so except in the immediate aftermath of a cut block when Gil got a play.

Michigan again rotated between two of Hudson, Furbush, and Mone, with the 3-3-5 set far more common than alternatives. Uche got a few of Hudson/Furbush's snaps in the second quarter. The DL did see some rotation, with Solomon, Kemp, Marshall and Dwumfour all getting scattered snaps. Winovich did not come off the field; Dwumfour was usually in as a fourth DL on passing downs instead of Mone.

[After THE JUMP: bolded alter-ego can't maintain the fiction any longer!]

20 points allowed! A step back! A palpable step back!

uh

They almost got 300 yards of offense in an OT game!

i mean

Dude, I can't pretend to be worried about the defense. This is a leap too far for even bolded alter-ego.

I... okay. You're probably right about that. I apologize for making you Devil's Advocate this. Drive chart reprise:

• 8 three and outs if you count the two-and-out INT
• 1 first down and out
• 21-yard turnover on downs in OT
• 3 FGA drives of 54, 61, and 42 yards
• 20-yard TD drive after punt return
• 64 yard TD drive

That's close to part for the defense, which tends to give up one legit TD drive and 2-4 drives of any length otherwise, with points derived from those based on field position. This was 15 drives, and they gave up 20 points with two of those drives starting at the Michigan 20 and 25. They're the #2 D in the country to S&P+ and yards per play. Indiana averaged 3.8 YPP. It was the same game from the same elite D.

Thank you. Give me that sweet Rick chart.

The chart is Rick, our favorite FOX director who is not actually named Rick; I should mention that due to the nature of the Indiana offense this director was handcuffed. He also tended towards hateful zooms even on passing downs, which was doubly unfortunate with the lack of replays. There's more guessing about downfield stuff than usual here.

CHART OF RIIIIIIICK

(also there were 72 snaps in this game, which is a little high, so numbers are correspondingly higher)

RICK, THE CHART

Much of this will look familiar. The main differences: the opponent was competitive in pass protection, Gary had a breakout game, the tackling leaked a bunch of yards, and the cornerbacks handed out an unholy beating. When your 'worst' cornerback is +5 against Simmie Cobbs you're in business.

So now the corners are great?

Maybe? I'd caution that Cobbs is a very particular kind of battleship wide receiver and they may have a tougher time against a 6'1" guy with great speed. The guy on the other side is a freshman, and none of these guys were five stars.

But... Michigan "gave that work" to Cobbs, as the kids say. Everything he attempted was heavily contested except for one late dig on which Long got beat. All else was a struggle. Watson kept in contact on slants, materially impacting his ability to catch the ball. Watson got singled up on Cobbs with nobody in the galaxy around to help him; Watson forced Cobbs into the sideline on that would-be 62 yarder:

I don't think he even pushes the guy. His arm's out as more of a guide; Cobbs goes out on his own in an attempt to get around Watson. That should have been illegal touching and that's a win for the CB.

Long was equal or better. Virtually every time IU tried to go at that matchup Long had dominated Cobbs over the top, leaving IU to throw it away or try fruitless back-shoulder throws. Cobbs was visibly frustrated by the second half:

#22 CB to bottom of screen

That is an extremely tenuous flag-throw pantomime there. Dude just jammed you into oblivion, man. Ain't nothing wrong with that. Also ain't nothing you can do about it:

#22 CB to top

On the very next play IU would try to go back to Cobbs, who feinted outside before breaking to the slant; Long is still in this dude's cookies.

#22 CB to top

Long did get beat on a dig at the tail end of regulation, but he and Watson collectively held Cobbs to under four yards a target. That is bad ass. Even the extremely dubious flag Long got in OT was bad ass:

#22 CB to top

That's just jamming a guy, and they throw a flag on a back shoulder ball Cobbs has no shot at. Whatever. That's the cost of kicking a dude's ass sometimes.

Cobbs had 11 catches for 149 yards against OSU's projected first-round CB Denzel Ward, and the only reason that even slowed down was OSU dedicating a safety to Cobbs from about the middle of the second quarter on. Michigan offered far less help to their #2 and #3 corners and they decisively won the day.

Oh and the other guy... Levert or something.

Lavert Hill: sort of good.

The interception that got wiped off the board because of PI was probably PI, but the jersey tugs that he made are often the kind of thing that gets screened from referees and you get away with. Hill also made an impressive open field tackle on a flare screen, adding to the tackling resume he started against Air Force.

Michigan's cornerbacks are good. They might be great. They're all back next year. Giggity.

Okay but there was this one time where Ramsey dropped back to pass and he sat there for like three seconds without someone chopping his head off with a battle axe.

It's true. Aside from some tackling dorfs, the main concern coming out of this game was Indiana's ability to keep Ramsey relatively clean. Emphasis on "relatively": Michigan still won our pressure metric with 60% of the assigned numbers. Previous games have been 75% or 80%. This was a step back.

What happened? There were a number of different facets. First and foremost, Indiana got inside Michigan's head with a bunch of fake clappy snaps that got Michigan to bounce offside. In the immediate aftermath of those events Michigan's rush was notably less ferocious.

Second: Michigan ran several stunts that were so XTREME that they are going to be sponsored by energy drinks. Michigan repeatedly stunted defensive tackles around two other defenders. Frequently they did this with both guys. Here Hurst and Gary both take the scenic route:

#73 DT and #3 DT

That got picked up every time, and it wasn't even close.. This was a bit mystifying since Hurst is an elite interior rusher and if you point him at the QB he's going to light that guy up sooner or later. He was the motive force behind the Gary/Long sack that ended a second quarter IU drive before it started:

#73 NT

And also a third quarter sack that ended Yet Another Indiana Drive. I get stunting him a gap over, but if he's not contacting an OL until the play is almost over something's wrong.

Three: sometimes Michigan was sacrificing guys to hypothetical screens. Here Winovich is given to the tunnel screen gods on third and five:

#15 "NT"

Bush also seem to abandon his rush as soon as he's picked up. This is a very passive play for a Don Brown defense.

Four: sometimes it was Michigan's backups not being their starters. A second-quarter dig route found excellent protection; that front six featured Kemp, Marshall, and Uche. That will degrade your ability to get to the QB. It's good that Michigan is getting enough confidence in a set of 5-6 second string options that they're willing to get them live-fire reps in a competitive game, but those guys aren't Hurst, et al.

So... something to keep an eye on going forward. I don't think this is a major problem. Indiana's better than their stats when their starting right tackle is in, as he was this week. And Ramsey got tagged with some frequency.

The step back here was from "absurd blowout" to "solid win."

I was promised a Discussion Below about a non-boring safety.

Yeah, Tyree Kinnel was very un-Jarrod-Wilson in this one. I had a love-hate relationship with him in this game. He continued his trend of missing tackles when he comes in at maximum speed, turning a routine give-up-and-punt screen into 20 yards and almost a first down:

That approach saved a touchdown in the Cincinnati game but he's whiffed on three or four plays like this since. The risk/reward here is off: if he takes it slow and occupies that blocker and forces the WR to cut around him, Michigan rallies after a ten yard gain and there's zero danger of a first down.

I also suspect that he was supposed to be Don Brown's secret weapon against the drag route TD in the fourth quarter. He's in a robber zone and feels that QB has come off of Cobbs behind him but his initial steps are false:

#23 S on left hash

If he reads that drag—and that's in front of his face and pretty predictable—he gets to it before the endzone. As is he's only a step away. Brown's probably a mite peeved about that; he probably felt the playcall was likely to bait the drag throw and get a stop. (In Kinnel's defense, the pocket cracked open and he is threatened by the QB run.)

I thought something similar was the case on this third down conversion. Key points: 1) Kinnel is sliding to Cobbs and looking him up first; when Cobbs breaks for a fade he should start looking for work, 2) Metellus sets up with outside leverage, clearly giving this up, and therefore 3) Kinnel is late here:

A couple of slow reactions that Indiana found when their pass protection held up make me wonder if there have been opportunities like this all year that opposition QBs simply don't have time to find.

On the other hand, he had three or four instances of superior coverage. This is a +2 because his hand goes right through the WR's mitts and it's difficult to imagine this being a catch:

#23 S vs man in motion

And it was primarily Kinnel, not the deeper Watson, that fouled up the second and goal play for Indiana that looked open. Kinnel rolls out, realizes what's happening, and then turns around to get more depth. By the time Ramsey—who is a right-handed QB rolling left—has gotten his body around enough to throw Kinnel is sitting directly in the passing lane. Ramsey tries to wing it but is, again, a right-handed guy rolling left. The ensuing pass would be difficult for Tom Brady, let alone a redshirt freshman:

#23 "OLB" to top

(Also this is an illegal formation from IU, hooray.) The number of throws there that get to the WR without being batted or intercepted, while on the run away from your throwing arm is miniscule.  Kinnel made up for the playcall dusting Metellus with back-and-forth motion; this was clearly IU's best two-point play and Michigan made it very tough.

So... I have mixed feelings about Kinnel. He was not very boring in this game, and this was close to evenly split between good and bad. I'd rather have a 3-0=3 safety than a 9-6=3 safety, but I'd rather have a 9-6=3 safety than most guys I've charted. The safeties are coming in for some clucking largely because there's nothing to cluck about elsewhere.

There were a couple things to cluck about, though.

Sounds like it's time for our weekly "oh god someone scored" section.

Yeah, and it was mostly the other safeties. IU's TD right out of halftime got about half its yardage on a rookie mistake from Khaleke Hudson, who responded to a zone read like it was 2008:

#7 OLB to bottom of screen

IU went tempo after this and went right back to the same play; IU found a hole to the frontside but you can see a probably-chagrined Hudson taking a more conservative shuffle trajectory:

If that does cut back to him the gain is minimal.

The rest of that drive was Metellus with an inexplicable airball on a receiver he had penned in to the sideline...

...and an eight yard run with Solomon and Kemp locked on the field. The Metellus missed tackle was just bizarre. I was concerned the WR would squeeze out the first down before getting shoved out; to not even force the guy out of bounds and turn maybe four yards into 20 is something else.

This is why the safeties seem a little sketchy. Hudson did scrape back up to zero with his play the rest of the day; Metellus not so much, but that was his only major error.

Is there anyone you would describe as cursed on this year's team?

Poor damn Rashan Gary cannot get a sack to save his life. He had 2.5 TFLs and a precious sack in this game but it should have been more:

I am outraged on behalf of defensive linemen everywhere. Also note that Gary is held there, and this outside-the-shoulder-pads grab blunts his momentum long enough for the QB to get that pass off instead of going over like a sack of potatoes.

When not being robbed of sacks, Gary was a constantly disruptive presence, barely outscoring his linemates. Oddly, I didn't clip much from him. This happened to Wormley last year, where dude would put out a blizzard of +1s and I'd clip Mo Hurst flinging a guy.

I... I could be interested in seeing that.

Here's the same section about Hurst you've gotten for three years now. Surprise: still Mo Hurst.

#73 DT

Crying laughing dot emoji:

#73 NT

Just dumping blockers in the backfield on almost every play, like one does. I didn't have him at the absurd heights he hit last week but PFF had him on their national team of the week as the nation's top defender again, so... yeah, he's good. Playing his way into the draft, even!

What happened to all of Bush's lovely sacks and TFLs?

He's still here making plays, man. IU did a better job of not allowing him free runs than previous opponents—something that was inevitably going to happen as he emerged into a star—and usually got a running back over to contest him. This didn't go well for the running back very often:

#10 MLB

At other times Bush reprised his spring game performance by just running the dude over. And despite this attention he should have had a game-sealing sack at the end of regulation but the referees elected not to throw a grounding flag, because they are bad and should feel bad:

Bush remains real good, folks. He did get thunked a couple times because he wasn't ready for tempo. He was otherwise the same guy with a bit worse luck.

Do we have some sort of verdict on Mone after two games where he got a bunch of snaps?

Yeah. He is a space eater, and only a space eater. He's lovely to have around for third and one:

#90 NT

He's a non-entity as a rusher. He attempts to push the pocket a bit but he's mostly just saving himself. Indiana's scramble in OT saw Winovich get around the corner at eight yards, which is usually good for a pressure. Mone didn't get any push, though, so there was a huge gap between him and Winovich that the QB exploited. Mone can't shut down space. He's a two-down player.

Useful player, not a star. Some rumbles from fall camp that Michigan was displeased with his size seem to be on point. A version of Mone minus 20-30 pounds is probably just as effective on third and short and much more useful against the pass. Hopefully he can get there next year.

You've been very patient and not at all smug so far

OH MY GOD YES LET'S TALK DEBORD. Mike DeBord's bright ideas for this game were:

• a QB throwback Purdue ran twice
• a misdirection screen similar to MSU's but without one piece of flair
• tunnel screens to the slot receiver, which Purdue ran a few times

There was one tunnel that got 12 yards on second and thirteen that I gave an RPS –2 to; almost every other RPS minus was something Michigan was more or less doing to itself. (That dual DT stunt I didn't like much got –3 across deployments, for one.) That's it. And DeBord ran a basic inside zone up the gut on third and one after the screen. Guess how that went?

IU's tempo wasn't particularly effective—the first and goal hurry-up-and-inside-zone was obvious from space and stuffed—for a second straight year, but this was on another level as far as uninspired game plans goes. Maybe they spent all their time on blitz pickups and hoped to have Cobb go off? That would be a very DeBord approach.

There was one play that Michigan was clearly screwed on: the third and goal in overtime. If the QB hands this ball off, it's a touchdown.

Now, sometimes a read is a read and sometimes it's just misdirection. I have to believe that's just misdirection because the person checking the edge for Michigan is Nobody At All. In which case, RPS plus. If it's a read that the QB blew, RPS minus. Fickle and mysterious are the ways of football.

The ensuing fourth down was not at all mysterious. Michgian anticipated rollout, blanketed every WR, and got quick pressure. Comprehensive doom.

I was happy to be on the Don Brown side of this matchup.

You fulminated about the referees on twitter. Valid, or in-game anger?

Valid. Very valid.

They were indeed terrible. My favorite moment was when they gave Mo Hurst a fictional roughing the passer call and then doubled down on the derp by giving Indiana 13 yards. My least favorite was when Mike McCray suffered a direct shot to the knee on a tunnel screen that knocked him out:

That is a 15 yard penalty, one that Indiana had in fact already been hit with earlier in the game. It is also a cheap shot that could have destroyed McCray's knee. Pass interference and various comical calls are one thing. Player safety is another.

Also, who would you say is "in the area" on this throw?

That should have been a loss of eight and another runoff. And a Bush sack.

Add in the Wheel Of Pass Interference and an inability to detect IU receivers out of bounds and it was clownshoes. Michigan escaped a couple of holds and got that INT called back, so it went both ways. Until the mean man yelled at them, and then it didn't. Real bad. Hire full time refs, please.

Heroes?

Entire DL, Bush, all cornerbacks. So seven guys. Yes.

Maybe not so heroic?

Nobody really. Metellus and Hudson gave Indiana 50 of their yards on their long TD drive, but I mean... nobody, really.

What does it mean for Penn State and the future?

Hello, cornerbacks. This was a test against a passing-oriented offense that hasn't shed the Kevin Wilson competence just yet, featuring a potential first round WR. Michigan's cornerbacks crushed it. Penn State will be another test; at this point it's one I expect they pass.

Please dump the weird stunts. Bleah!

Gary is emerging. He beat his compatriots in my grading for the first time.

Bryan Mone is a space-eater only. He's not the #3 guy on the team from two years ago. He is a nice piece on short yardage.

The safeties are a tiny bit wobbly. I'm going to repeat this until Michigan is giving up under 150 yards of offense, probably.

Depth is building bit by bit. Michigan played 7-8 backups in this game, on purpose. They didn't perform to the level of the starters but Uche, Solomon, Dwumfour, and Thomas all turned in positive plays.