Utah 24, Michigan 17
Bryan Fuller/MGoBlog
A coaching change can only do so much.
Michigan flashed their potential to turn the corner. De'Veon Smith had some punishing runs. Jake Butt couldn't be covered. Amara Darboh and Jehu Chesson consistently got open. The alignment of Chris Wormley and Willie Henry looked like a stroke of genius at times. Jourdan Lewis locked down one side of the field. After an up-and-down first half, Jabrill Peppers looked like a five-star talent in the second. Blake O'Neill had that punt.
But the mistakes were numerous. Jake Rudock's first interception looked to be the fault of freshman slot receiver Grant Perry, who hitched when Rudock expected him to cut outside. The next two Rudock picks, both thrown in Perry's direction, looked to be the fault of the quarterback; the third proved especially costly when Utah's Justin Thomas jumped a throw to the flat and took it back 55 yards for a score, giving the Utes a late 24-10 lead. Rudock also missed a few open deep throws that could've changed the outcome of the game; he finished with an underwhelming 279 yards on 43 attempts and didn't tally his second touchdown until desperation time.
The errors weren't limited to Rudock. Michigan's second cornerback spot is far from settled; neither Channing Stribling nor Jeremy Clark stood out there. Joe Bolden missed a handful of tackles on slippery Utah running back Devontae Booker. The offensive line got manhandled in the run game, losing leverage and missing assignments. Smith offset many of his broken tackles by failing to hit the correct hole. Kenny Allen pushed a 44-yard field goal wide right, after which Jim Harbaugh could clearly be seen muttering "I should've gone for that."
There were flashes, chief among them Peppers' second-half TFLs and Jake Butt's spectacular third-quarter touchdown catch to briefly pull Michigan within seven.
But on the road against a decent team, Michigan simply made too many mistakes, big and small, to expect to come away with a victory. They'll be better than they looked tonight, there's little doubt of that. There'll also be rough patches. Home games against lesser teams lie ahead until BYU comes to the Big House, by which time the Wolverines should look more impressive.
At least there was Harbaugh, a sensible gameplan, and a solid outing from the defense. That's something to build on. If this turns out to be an anomalous performance from Rudock, this squad still could be very good. After all the offseason excitement, it's painful to wait through the development process, but even tonight it wasn't hard to see that the process is underway. It just might take a little longer than we had hoped.
September 4th, 2015 at 12:54 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 1:03 AM ^
I seem to remember 11-2 Brady kinda being saved by lightning in his opener against Western.
This was a solid competitive disappointing effort. But I see brick and mortar being laid, whereas the last guy seemingly started with smoke and mirrors.
September 4th, 2015 at 1:24 AM ^
"Saved by lightning" is quite a stretch. Had it been closer, I'm sure WMU would have waited it out to play.
September 4th, 2015 at 1:47 AM ^
and like Western was starting to roll. All I remember was thinking they were lucky WMU agreed to call the game. This is gut feeling, not empirical analysis, obvs.
September 4th, 2015 at 9:59 AM ^
All I remember was thinking they were lucky WMU agreed to call the game.
Brady Hoke sucked on pretty much every level, but this is just stupid.
September 4th, 2015 at 3:23 AM ^
I suspect Hoke would have had about the same result, but that does not mean that JH is an equivalent coach.
JH hasn't been a "gets big results in year one" guy in the past. His first year at San Diego (7-4) wasn't better than the prior year (8-2). His first year at Stanford (4-8) was better than Walt Harris' last year (1-11) but winning one-in-three games isn't much to write home about.
September 4th, 2015 at 10:13 AM ^
Hoke's team would have got smoked last night.
September 4th, 2015 at 12:56 AM ^
The receivers actually caught the ball and the OL blocked. The defense was about the same.
I don't know what you expected with a QB who has only been here a month. Mistakes were amde by guys still learning to play together.
September 4th, 2015 at 2:07 AM ^
The OL did well in pass protection. But the run blocking was not good. There were a number of plays where our OL missed blocking assignments - most notably on the 4th and 1.
September 4th, 2015 at 1:01 AM ^
Right on. Fire Harbaugh! /s
September 4th, 2015 at 9:50 AM ^
You're out of your element Donnie
September 4th, 2015 at 12:45 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 12:52 AM ^
You didn't see Rudock sacked or beaten within an inch of his life. The run game got positive yards. Yeah, turnovers. They sucked. Mistakes were made, Utah made plays, shit happened. Take a breath. This is NOT the same team.
September 4th, 2015 at 3:20 AM ^
The running game didn't go backwards. The offense didn't consist of the QB running for his life and heaving the ball into coverage. There were 11 guys on all special teams plays. No one got concussed and went back into the game. No one quit in the fourth quarter. The gameplan made sense and looked comprehensible. The defense didn't give up ridiculous broken plays. Special teams didn't allow the return-man 20 yards of space in which to catch the ball.
September 4th, 2015 at 9:49 AM ^
hahaha. you dont know anything about football.
September 4th, 2015 at 12:33 AM ^
nice writeup, Ace.
Typical opening game for both sides. They mades some mistakes, also some good plays (the zone read Wilson touchdown, the interception, good run defence, and some 3rd down conversions) as did we. We could have won if we connect on a few more throws downfield, we also could have lost bigger had we not got a few breaks on late hit penalties.
I thought both sides called good games.
Team has good base to build on. We were in it, we had our chances. Let's see what this team is made of--hopefully, better than the last few years.
September 4th, 2015 at 12:37 AM ^
There just seems to be, at crucial moment, someone popping up and making a vital mistake on offense; Perry on the hitch in the red zone, Rudock not seeing Ty Isaac uncovered and wide open on the slant on the pick six, Kalis pulling past his block on 4th &1, Smith missing a cut to the left that would have made the chase for 1st down irrelevant, Darboh cutting inside on the screen, Rudock not being able to lay a deep ball in to Chesson who was wide open all night, a missed field goal, two poor onside kicks-- everyone at a vital moment made a crucial mistake that tipped the scales. It was *there* for us. It was *there*. You could see it. Which is what makes it hurt more.
September 4th, 2015 at 12:47 AM ^
Well, that's a lot of room for improvement. I would expect that a lot of that will be improved a few weeks from now. I think the missed passes by Rudock worry me the most, because that is simply mechanical. I guess the 5th year senior was nervous?
September 4th, 2015 at 12:33 AM ^
I'm pretty happy with the team tonight, despite the loss. I really doubt Rudock will have as many INTs the rest of the season, seemed like 2 of them were just timing/route issues between him and Perry.
I expect this team to be 5-1 heading in to MSU week.
September 4th, 2015 at 12:35 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 12:59 AM ^
I'm with you, and I'm someone who generally is very bottom-line oriented. To me, this looked like a different team from last year's -- almost radically so. The running game didn't open up big breaks, but there were numerous occasions where runners gained an extra yard or so after essentially being wrapped up. The offensive line held up -- impressively so, sometimes. Lots of players made mistakes, but they kept pushing after those mistakes in a way I don't think would have happened last year. And the playcalling made sense throughout.
Had I known in advance what the final score would be, I would expect to be devastated. But though I'm disappointed in the result, there frankly was much here to like. Utah deserves crazy credit, but I feel more confident than I have in ages that we are headed in the right directon. For now, that will have to do.
September 4th, 2015 at 12:34 AM ^
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September 4th, 2015 at 12:48 AM ^
If we have a couple of wins and look better, you'll revise that back to 8-4. At least I will. This could be a very different team, much for the better, by Big Ten play.
September 4th, 2015 at 12:34 AM ^
definitely room for improvement, but we'll make a bowl this year and start to be more competitive next year! go blue!
September 4th, 2015 at 1:58 AM ^
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September 4th, 2015 at 12:34 AM ^
The Pick 6 was Grant Perry's fault. He broke his route off and circled towards the sideline. It should have been run flat because it is a fucking FLAT route!
The ball was where it should have been on both outs that were picked. Grant Perry needs to sit.
September 4th, 2015 at 12:39 AM ^
After 2 huge INTs on Perry breaking off routes, maybe throw to someone else?
September 4th, 2015 at 12:44 AM ^
the pick 6 was 100% on Rudock who telegraphed the pass right from the start. Utah CB knew it was coming and undercut the route.
September 4th, 2015 at 12:48 AM ^
Butt and Isaac were open if he wasn't in tunnel vision mode.
September 4th, 2015 at 12:53 AM ^
The LB looked like he was going out there just to give the allusion he gave a crap. Rudock is probably going to be in tunnel vision mode until he's more comfortable in game situations with the new offense. By October, he should be better at that.
September 4th, 2015 at 1:03 AM ^
complaint about Rudock and it hasn't changed. When you're a 5th year senior, you are who you are at this point.
September 4th, 2015 at 12:53 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 1:29 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 9:15 AM ^
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September 4th, 2015 at 12:35 AM ^
Against a physical opponent where the game was played hard over all four quarters. The team had their collective heads in the game the entire time, there was minimal slop as compared with prior years.
I believe we'll see continual improvement as the season progresses and more of the play book is internalized. This game certainly wasn't what I had hoped for, but at least the team has majority of the fundamentals mastered.
It'll be worthwhile to watch Meechigan Football again. I'm looking forward to it.
September 4th, 2015 at 8:54 AM ^
Funchess last year
September 4th, 2015 at 12:36 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 12:38 AM ^
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September 4th, 2015 at 12:48 AM ^
Except Drake Johnson, maybe can't always count on the OL to make things happen for you and have a RB that can make something happen for himself instead of running into a wall of defenders. I'm not even that mad about Smith not being able to bounce it outside anyways since he's probably too slow to take advantage of that.
I just want Drake to hurry up and get better
September 4th, 2015 at 12:41 AM ^
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September 4th, 2015 at 12:46 AM ^
Don't forget coming to a complete stop before hitting said pile.
September 4th, 2015 at 1:05 AM ^
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September 4th, 2015 at 12:37 AM ^
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September 4th, 2015 at 12:37 AM ^
We looked good, and we're going to be good. But, unlike
Alabama, etc, we have to compete with another crown jewel.
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September 4th, 2015 at 12:51 AM ^
Which has exactly zero to do with tonight's game, but then again things like relevance and coherence don't usually matter to concern trolls.
September 4th, 2015 at 1:26 AM ^
And you can check my previous posts, I'm not some kind of OSU troll. We're going to be fine, but we're never going to be OSU. We're never going to outrecruit OSU, especially with Urban, and we're never going to have the SEC-style fan base. We have to build; they don't.
September 4th, 2015 at 8:58 AM ^
You missed the memo, these types of posts were ceased around the end of December.
September 4th, 2015 at 9:52 AM ^
OSU lost the home opener last year. Against a team that did not fair well during the year. They went on to win the NC. While I don't see us winning NC, I certainly see us being good by the time we see MSU. We will be even better when we see OSU.
Fan base -- M has one of the best fan bases in the country. Even with a 5-7 last year.
September 4th, 2015 at 12:55 AM ^
You're trying to be sensible for all the wrong reasons.
September 4th, 2015 at 12:37 AM ^
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