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 12:51 AM ^
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September 4th, 2015 at 12:56 AM ^
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September 4th, 2015 at 12:58 AM ^
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September 4th, 2015 at 1:55 AM ^
You can't be everywhere, all of the time, without some occasional over pursuit and failures to make a play. Not to mention maybe being a little too amped up under the circumstances.
"Let's see it in a game first" has been my feeling on the Pepper's hype (though I was optimistic with the overwhelming amount of it). I'm now 100% sold. The kid looks amazing.
September 4th, 2015 at 12:50 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 6:35 AM ^
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September 4th, 2015 at 12:50 AM ^
I love Jimmy, no doubt. But I'm tired of losing games. I think he can get it turned around. I don't want to lose to these mid level teams anymore. There's a reason Utah is 2-8 vs Pac 12 at home.
September 4th, 2015 at 12:51 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 12:54 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 12:57 AM ^
Alot of these problems will be fixed by Big Ten play and the starting lineup will have morphed. Isaac will be starting over Smith. James Ross will rotate in more to improve our space tackling. Hopefully someone will pick it up on boundary corner because that is our biggest position problem, since we don't have an apparent fix for it.
September 4th, 2015 at 1:03 AM ^
I thought Smith still looked better than Isaac.
September 4th, 2015 at 2:11 AM ^
I thought Smith was given the tougher job and asked to go against a stout run D focused heavily on just that.
Isaac was given better chances to get some space due to the situations and play calling when he was up. He did what he was asked and I thought he looked pretty good.
Smith missed a couple holes but I was impressed with how hard he was to bring down. I think he'll have a big year.
I think they'll both play similar roles going forward as they did tonight.
September 4th, 2015 at 12:58 AM ^
On the 4th down play, Kalis pulled and blocked no one. He ran right by one guy. It seems like he should have turned up field where Smith ran. Also, Braden got blown up.
Smith still has vision problems. He missed some huge holes. He also had some nice YAC. I will be interested to see if Drake Johnson can get some carries when he returns. He has better vision. The running game was better in the second half.
Peppers looked great in the second half.
The passing game was coherent. There were a lot of open receivers. I think Rudock will get the timing down on the long bombs. It was great to see Chesson open deep on two or three occasions. That didn't happen last year.
On the TD run by the Utah QB, it seems that Hill (safety) was way to aggressive running up field.
Colin Cowherd is the worst analyst ever.
September 4th, 2015 at 1:01 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 1:06 AM ^
I hate that Troll. I wish Delaney puts a clause in their next Tier One contract that if the B1G switches over to FS1 that they fire Cowherd.
September 6th, 2015 at 5:59 PM ^
I don't hate him; I just think he is a terrible analyst.
September 4th, 2015 at 1:07 AM ^
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September 4th, 2015 at 1:01 AM ^
The biggest improvements happen between game one and game two and a little lesser extent between games two and three. You can only practice against yourself for so long. You need an actual game to put into your head what it's really like. Practices the next two weeks will fix a lot of things that were wrong today.
We're fine. And not burning building fine. We'll have a good season. We're going to a bowl game. A decent bowl game. And we'll be one hell of a tough team at the end of the year.
September 4th, 2015 at 1:01 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 1:01 AM ^
with a lack of Green out there? I dont know whats going on inside the team, but it can't be a very good look if Green is the 3rd back (at best) and didn't recieve any carries tonight.
September 4th, 2015 at 1:41 AM ^
We all want Green to be successfull, but damn, he must be the most overrated back I've seen.
September 4th, 2015 at 4:57 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 9:21 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 2:48 AM ^
He got two carries in the first half. It wasn't really his fault, but he didn't get anywhere. He's just been beaten. I'm disappointed about it--he's a five-star and has shown glimmers of real promise--but he has had opportunities to win the job and has not done so. The other guys are better right now.
September 6th, 2015 at 6:03 PM ^
I believe Green did get one carry.
Why are you concerned with whether or not he plays?
September 4th, 2015 at 1:03 AM ^
this was one of the rowdiest student sections in the Pac-12
September 4th, 2015 at 1:04 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 1:07 AM ^
You mean there were no cops?
September 4th, 2015 at 6:31 AM ^
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September 4th, 2015 at 1:05 AM ^
The game showed Michigan is maybe a fringe top 25 team which is better than I was expecting. I'm just looking for toughness and not giving up at this point.
September 4th, 2015 at 11:33 AM ^
I'm drinking the same Kool-aid. I think Michigan will be ranked at the end of the year if Utah is, and there is a very good chance they will. It's just difficult to predict at this time of the year. I feel like I will know more after week 2.
September 4th, 2015 at 1:05 AM ^
I obviously wanted a win, but I am not feeling anything like I felt last year.
I honestly felt like we were competitive for pretty much the entire game. I thought we were going to tie it up until the pick six and I just kept telling myself that if any of those overthrown passes were on the money, this game would have been totally different. Like... I was having flashbacks to Henne to Manningham.... we could have done that on numerous occasions because Chesson was just blowing past their secondary. That is potential that we can use if Rudock cleans up his throws.
Lucky for us, Harbaugh's expertise is QB's so I feel confident that Harbaugh can help improve Rudock over the course of the year. I think we will be pretty competitive in the B1G and most importantly, we won't be giving up games halfway.
September 4th, 2015 at 1:05 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 2:35 AM ^
I agree. A few months - weeks actually - of good coaching is not going to turn our O-Line into pound-it-down-your-throat Stanford. Continued good coaching and a few more live games might move them in that direction some, though. Realistically, it might take two or three years for that to happen.
I plan to try to be patient and sit back and watch for improvements; and take the wins as they come.
September 4th, 2015 at 2:52 AM ^
Almost everyone picked us to lose by about a touchdown. The line was about 5 points. We lost by 7. We did par for the course. Anyone who is despondent by the loss drank too much Harbaugh KoolAid this summer.
We could have won, we could have easily lost by 10 more points--that's football, a few plays can swing the game either way.
Early game, new systems vs. veteran, established team with returning key players on the road and at altitude.
When Harbaugh coached Stanford beat #2 USC in 2007 as 45 point underdogs, they were1-3 going into the game, having lost the week before 41-3 to #23 Arizona State.
My point is that by the end of the year, the kids will have had twice the amount of practice under Harbaugh as they currently do. If indeed coaching was the reason for Harbaugh's teams' successes, expect a better team going into coference play and the OSU game.
It's still possible to get better every week and have a good year.
September 4th, 2015 at 1:06 AM ^
There was a graphic that explained that Harbaugh lost his first game at San Diego and Stanford. Step away from the ledge. We'll win our next two games and be much better by BYU.
September 4th, 2015 at 1:14 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 1:18 AM ^
Doesn't make me feel any better.
September 4th, 2015 at 1:08 AM ^
But damnit...it's so difficult to see repeated mistakes, not just some. Mistakes over and over and over, mistakes that make good plays the exception, and mistakes that lose games to bad, average, and good teams. This has been the consistent point since the first RRod team touch was fumbled in 2008 to Hoke's game management fumbles and for players throughout. It has been 7 years of dumb mistakes, and it's just so damn difficult to watch.
It will finally start to get better though. I have no doubts about that. Fine.
Go Blue.
September 4th, 2015 at 1:09 AM ^
End all the Harbaugh hype distraction and just get on with it. At halftime I was angry frustrated but not incredulous angry frustrated such as nearly every game in the Hoke era. It sucked to get out toughed by Utah but they can man up.
September 4th, 2015 at 1:10 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 1:10 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 9:17 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 1:18 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 9:15 AM ^
September 4th, 2015 at 1:19 AM ^
It doesn't matter if you don't want to hear it, it doesnt matter if you think it's unfair to Rudock, this will be the *lead* story till Rudock has a good game, at minimum. Today? Oof. And, yes, be worried. Michigan has a brutal schedule and Harbaugh, who knows QBs, knows that Rudock is his best option.
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