Wisconsin 24, Michigan 10 Comment Count

Ace



A somber scene as Brandon Peters was down on the field. [Patrick Barron]

Michigan led undefeated Wisconsin, 10-7, in the third quarter at Camp Randall Stadium. Then Murphy's Law struck.

First, Wisconsin quarterback Alex Hornibrook shook off a shaky start to thread two inch-perfect throws to A.J. Taylor. The first victimized freshman Jaylen Kelly-Powell, who was on the field replacing injured starting corner Lavert Hill. The second was a touchdown up the seam to give the Badgers a 14-10 lead. Adding to the frustration, the drive only stayed alive due to a third-down pass interference call on Tyree Kinnel despite Hornibrook's throw hardly looking catchable.

Then disaster really struck. Facing third down on Michigan's ensuing possession, Brandon Peters took a hard hit from Andrew Van Ginkel, who stunted up the middle unblocked. Peters, who'd shaken off some huge hits in his last couple games, stayed down. As the team gathered around him, Peters took a cart off the field. According to MLive's Mike Mulholland, he was wheelchaired to the locker room, then transported to the hospital via ambulance. In postgame, Jim Harbaugh confirmed Peters has a head injury; he's expected to rejoin the team for the plane ride home.

That took the wind out of Michigan's sails. Wisconsin struck quickly, with a one-handed catch by Danny Davis setting up a 32-yard end-around touchdown for Kendric Pryor at the end of the third quarter. John O'Korn took over for Peters, and the offense never threatened to score. UW's Rafael Gaglianone eventually tagged on a field goal to provide the final margin.



A.J. Taylor's touchdown catch stood as the winning score. [Bryan Fuller]

Before it all fell apart, Michigan hadn't just scraped out a lead, but missed some opportunities to really put the Badgers on their heels. Wisconsin struck first when Nick Nelson picked up a punt off the bounce and worked his way past some poor coverage for a 50-yard touchdown. Peters had a chance to tie it up on the next series, but underthrew an open Zach Gentry, allowing Natrell Jamerson to recover for a pass breakup.

On Michigan's next drive, an apparent touchdown from Peters to Donovan Peoples-Jones was ruled incomplete, and despite replay showing that DPJ's left foot touched inbounds a fraction of a second before his right landed out, the call stood. On the very next play, Peters fumbled while scrambling for the end zone, and Michigan came up completely empty.

The young quarterback bounced back, though. Peters finally connected on a deep ball to Peoples-Jones, getting Michigan out to midfield, then made consecutive sharp throws to Chris Evans and Sean McKeon to set up a one-yard Ben Mason touchdown plunge. That knotted the score at seven heading into halftime.

After Devin Bush picked off Hornibrook to give the offense great field position, Quinn Nordin snapped his cold streak with a 39-yard field goal to give Michigan a short-lived 10-7 lead. Instead of compounding his prior error, Hornibrook morphed into Aaron Rodgers, and everything went terribly wrong in a hurry.

All other concerns at the moment are secondary to the health of Peters. If he can't recover in time to take on Ohio State next week, the odds stack even higher against Michigan unless Wilton Speight can make a remarkable comeback from his fractured vertebrae. As it stands, optimism for The Game is going to be hard to come by.

Comments

Bando Calrissian

November 18th, 2017 at 7:52 PM ^

You ever watch a game and get mad about what you're seeing? Yeah, me too.

You ever watch a program consistently underachieve for a decade and get mad about it and vent on the internet? Yeah, me too.

I don't tell you how to be a fan. Don't tell me how to be one, either.

You Only Live Twice

November 18th, 2017 at 10:28 PM ^

The halftime shows are ANYTHING but tired.

You must be a season ticket holder, then?  Cause you won't get any sense of the halftime shows from your couch.

Which BTW the halftime shows have been outstanding.  Are you really not impressed by the jazz renditions in the Minny game?  There is serious talent in our school.

 

Cavalry21

November 18th, 2017 at 4:56 PM ^

How's 9 years? I literally never post despite being here since the beginning. Calling out these kids despite the injuries, you are an Asshole. They had this game. They were ready. It didn't finish like we hoped, but this team played their ass off today. Top 2 qb hurt, top 2 rb hurt, top two OR hurt top CB hurt, and played that game against a top 5 team. If that's not enough for you, get the fuck out, and go away. Yeah. Delete your account

Cavalry21

November 18th, 2017 at 4:56 PM ^

How's 9 years? I literally never post despite being here since the beginning. Calling out these kids despite the injuries, you are an Asshole. They had this game. They were ready. It didn't finish like we hoped, but this team played their ass off today. Top 2 qb hurt, top 2 rb hurt, top two OR hurt top CB hurt, and played that game against a top 5 team. If that's not enough for you, get the fuck out, and go away. Yeah. Delete your account

You Only Live Twice

November 18th, 2017 at 7:12 PM ^

what the hell do you want exactly?  If you don't like Michigan fans supporting Michigan then why are you here?  Find another site that's more to your liking.

 

Reader71

November 18th, 2017 at 7:00 PM ^

I agree that we were ready to play, but I don’t think we outplayed them.

We fumbled inside the five yard line, wasting three points. We allowed a stupid punt return for a touchdown, handing them 7 points.

We played OK before Peters was injured, but you don’t win tough road games if you make turnovers and lose the special teams battle.

uncleFred

November 18th, 2017 at 8:24 PM ^

and (IIRC) have coaching experience, but when a tackler gets hit from behind and knocked to the ground and may have touched the ball, none of which was called enabling that punt return, would you consider that maybe we didn't allow the return? Can you consider that Wisconsin is a solid team, and expecting Michigan to stop that particular return under those circumstances is unrealistic? 

You're a long time contributor here, and I respect and value your experience and knowledge. Further I fully understand that life like football isn't fair in any sense of the word. Still, given the circumstances, maybe you might, in this case, cut special teams a little slack. 

Reader71

November 18th, 2017 at 9:54 PM ^

All of what you said about the return is true. That doesn’t change the fact that we allowed a punt return TD. Whether I cut the coverage team slack or not doesn’t really matter, because teams that allow special teams scores typicallly lose the game.

We were playing pretty well but also shooting ourselves in the foot — so I can’t say we were outplaying them.

Squash34

November 18th, 2017 at 9:30 PM ^

Michigan was up 2-1 in yards and tied despite the two things you mentioned. Wisconsin did not get a drive until the pi call on the uncatchable pass, which they scored one. Outside of that nothing.
Michigan also had a takeaway at that point so the turnovers were even.
Therefore, I find it hard to find away to say Michigan was not out playing them at the point of peters injury.

mgoblue98

November 18th, 2017 at 11:41 PM ^

agree.  They looked ready to play.  I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that Michigan would have won if Peters hadn't gone down.  Maybe they would have, but the truth is that we don't know for sure.  He certainly gave Michigan a better chance to win. 

As far as poor blocking pick ups, are you referring to pass pro or the TE's inability to block the Wisconsin LB's on counter plays and what not?

tnixon16

November 18th, 2017 at 5:38 PM ^

This is all it is. We were young and inexperienced. We got many key injuries to key players. We don’t have enough playmakers at key spots (yet). Add this to the team that walked off the field today: Newsome, Black, Speight, Peters, Isaac, Hill, Higdon (healthy)...and you got something. Of those, only Isaac is gone for sure next year. It just wasn’t to be this year. Between Hoke’s final awful recruiting season and Harbaugh’s late start on his first, this dip was inevitable. Add some suspect offensive play designs, and you get 2017. Sucks. But it is what it is.

MGoStrength

November 18th, 2017 at 7:36 PM ^

And we still won 8 games with two more opportunities.  That's a heck of a lot better than some of the RR and Hoke years.  If 8 wins is the basement on a frustrating year with lots of youth, injuries, and terrible officiating I'll take it.  There are better days ahead.  Onward

You Only Live Twice

November 18th, 2017 at 7:16 PM ^

The D was doing an admirable job and eventually got worn out.  Did you notice how much weight was on other side?  Sorry they couldn't accomplish the impossible but make no mistake this is an extremely good defense.

Occam's Razor

November 18th, 2017 at 4:47 PM ^

Wisconsin was a better team. 

A good team doesn't get 2 QBs killed in a season due to shit Oline play that still can't block stunts. 

Wisconsin wasn't lucky. They were just better. Their players made plays when it counted. When was the last time Michigan's offense did that in a big game? 

Next week will not be fun. 

True Blue Grit

November 18th, 2017 at 5:44 PM ^

Sometimes the FB or  RB are supposed to pick up the blitzing players. I saw several times today when they failed to do that at all or whiffed on the block.  And the QB needs to be better at picking up the blitzes too.  Sure our OL could pass protect better, but the much bigger problem is our lack of a viable passing game.  When you can't put a credible passing game out there, of course the other team is going to come after the QB more  often putting more pressure on the QB to make plays.  At this point of the season, I place a lot fo the blame for this on the coaches.