100% worst thing ever
donovan peoples-jones
john o'korn
brandon peters
2017 wisconsin

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

Todd92

November 18th, 2017 at 7:07 PM ^

Those who thought they were seeing 'improved' OL play were seeing a mirage due to crappy opponents.  Michigan QB's are paying the price.  Sad to see absolutley no improvement from game to game.  Go ahead and down vote me homers, I could care less.  Stupid system anyway.  Penalize someone for stating the obvious truth because homers get butthurt by it.

Get ready for an embarrasing beat down next week.

Joined: 04/07/2013

MGoPoints: 281

jackw8542

November 19th, 2017 at 9:16 AM ^

the blocking was improved.  On most pass plays, Peters had time to throw.  Against a really good defense, there are always going to be some hurries and even a few sacks.  On Saturday, our OL did about as well as could be expected.  Supposedly UW has a very superior OL, but we were able to hurry, hit and sack its QB.  Is it reasonable to expect our OL to provide 100% protection against a nearly equal defense?

Joined: 10/30/2010

MGoPoints: 4265

Kevin Holtsberry

November 18th, 2017 at 7:07 PM ^

Not surprisingly there is a great deal of over-reaction tonight. I get the emotions. We have improved from bad to merely decent. We can beat up on bad teams but struggle against good teams particularly on the road. We seem unable to pull off the upset or win a big game. Other than Florida bowl game and Penn State and MSU last year there haven't been any emotionally satisfying wins. Beat MSU this year or any of the three losses last year and things feel different right now. But instead it feels like Michigan will never take the next step. It certainly feels like it to me. It has been a long time since this program felt truly elite. But there is a great deal of talent on this team and Harbaugh is a proven coach. We just need the experience and maturity that comes from time. Youth and injuries derailed this season, and that sucks, but I still believe the future is bright. I get the frustration and anger but calling for a program rebuild or restart is cutting of your nose to spite your face.

Joined: 07/10/2008

MGoPoints: 325

smwilliams

November 18th, 2017 at 7:44 PM ^

I’ll say my peace and then leave... Jim Harbaugh is paid (and frankly it’s not my $, it’s the expectation) like a top coach in the country: He is on track to lose 10-11 games in his first 3 years: Here’s how other elite coaches have done in their first three years: Saban: 8 losses and a national title (6 losses in Year One) Meyer: 8 at Florida and 3 at OSU (national championships with both programs) Fisher: 10 and a conference title Stoops: 7 losses and a national title Miles: 6 losses and a national title So, yeah, I expected Harbaugh to get Michigan to that level. He hasn’t been able to. At some point you have to do more than beat crap teams and lose to good ones.

Joined: 08/20/2010

MGoPoints: 9917

SpilledMilk

November 18th, 2017 at 7:58 PM ^

I also think JH would be wise to go away from the precision NFL style approach to offense. Hell, even the NFL doesn't run this style anymore - they've switched to hybrid attacks that feature a ton of shotgun and short, quick hitting routes.

Joined: 10/15/2017

MGoPoints: 2895

jjelliso

November 19th, 2017 at 8:44 AM ^

Yep. No point in calling for a firing because we won’t get any better candidate, but fans should resign themselves to the fact that this program is going to be a perpetual also-ran. The best we can hope for is to be relatively even with Sparty over the next several years.

Joined: 10/04/2008

MGoPoints: 3558

Bigly yuge

November 18th, 2017 at 7:49 PM ^

Honestly I think there are too many irons in the fire. We have 3 coaches who call plays. We have 2 coaches who coach the offensive line, one specializing in zone, one in power. We have two coaches working with the QB’s. We have no one coaching awR’s, and a RB coach that has NEVER done it before. It has been 3 years with Drevno coaching the OL. During that time we have lost out on multiple big time OL recruits, and our pass protection has gotten WORSE. I’m a believer in coach Harbaugh, and I want to trust his staff decisions, but at this point I think Drevno and or Pep has to go. We have to restructure the offensive staff so that there aren’t so many guys doing the same thing. No staff that I am aware of is set up anything like ours. We would be so much better off with a traditional set up. Please Jim, assess the staffs performance and make a much needed change or else next year could be tough too bc we are at ND, at MSU, at OSU, vs PSU, and vs WISCY.

Joined: 09/23/2017

MGoPoints: 3166

uncleFred

November 18th, 2017 at 9:55 PM ^

Listen to their comments about the value of being in the same offense for a third year for the first time in their experience. Listen to Don Brown who a week or two ago talked about how the starters coach the guys behind them when they make a mistake before a coach has a chance to do it. Over the course of this season the offense has made visible and substantial progress. It's hard to say that pass protection, which has been a struggle all season, has gotten worse or if Wisconsin's pass defense is simply much better than what they faced up to now. Even today, despite Peters' injury, there were a number of passes where he had all day to throw. Not consistently obviously, but sometimes the blocking actually worked pretty well.

This team needs offensive coaching consistency so that the older guys can mentor the new guys and enhance the effectiveness of the coaches. You don't get that by making a bunch of changes. I trust Harbaugh to make whatever changes he deems appropriate. Michigan didn't hire a coach with a traditional approach, it's pretty foolish to expect that he'll adopt a traditional approach just because the team is in a rebuilding phase. 

Joined: 10/14/2011

MGoPoints: 2399

FlexUM

November 18th, 2017 at 7:56 PM ^

I honestly think most of the rage is pent up anger from last year. Last years team should have gone undefeated. Period. You guys are mad at your current girlfriend based on something your last girlfriend did. Last year was THE YEAR. Should have gone 12-0 and played in the BT championship game. There are key games this team did just not deliver. ‘15 went as I expected. MSU game sucked but shit happens. ‘16 shit the bed @iowa and @tosu THIS IS WHERE YOUR ANGER IS COMING FROM ‘17 went as expected except for MSU game. There are three games that are literally clawing at us UM fans (@iowa, @tosu, MSU). If those three are w’s I think much of the pent up anger is toned down. PSU and UW are better than UM this year. Fine. MSU is not and that was a terrible loss. Nobody in their right mind wants harbaugh gone and I think we’d all be cool with a 9-3 rebuilding year this year if some of the house key games above where UM was better and should have won lost.

Joined: 11/05/2011

MGoPoints: 13557

SpilledMilk

November 18th, 2017 at 8:04 PM ^

No. I'm certain that my current dissatisfaction with UM football is stemming from this season. Sure, those losses last year were bad but had we won those, it would have made this season feel even worse than it does now. ** Imagine if someone had told us last year before the Iowa game that by the end of the next season we would lose 7 games.

Joined: 10/15/2017

MGoPoints: 2895

mgobaran

November 20th, 2017 at 8:42 AM ^

"I'm not angry about last year"

"I can't believe we've lost 7 games since before Iowa last year, including three games from last year." 

Joined: 09/12/2012

MGoPoints: 22810

jmblue

November 18th, 2017 at 8:26 PM ^

That it was better than a typical 3-loss team.  

We lost at Iowa by one on the last play of the game.

We lost at OSU in double-OT and well, you know.

We lost to FSU on a last-minute TD.

We were right there in every game and they didn't go our way.  I agree that a lot of the angst this year is a spillover from that, especially since 2016 was supposed to be redemption for the previous decade.

This year, taken alone, really shouldn't surprise anyone.  People just hoped against hope that it would be the redemption year and that wasn't possible.  

Joined: 11/07/2008

MGoPoints: 102712

aiglick

November 19th, 2017 at 12:53 AM ^

This is pretty reasonable and probably true. However, as others have said it would be nice for UM to beat a team it’s not supposed to. Today was close and had Peters not gone down maybe would have happened. Next week is a huge opportunity. Chances are low but they were also when Harbaugh beat Carrol. Personally, I’d like to see/hear about how our coaching staff out coached OSU next week. Even in a loss that would give some hope to our fan base.

Joined: 11/27/2010

MGoPoints: 21418

bighouse22

November 19th, 2017 at 8:52 AM ^

I am disappointed by how the year has gone, but there is no comparison between Harbaugh and Hoke or RR. 

RR and Hoke were beaten handily by bottom dwealers in the B1G.  Although Harbaugh hasn't had many signature wins against top teams, the team has not lost to teams that they shouldn't.  MSU is much improved and will be even better next year. 

Wisconsin's QB hit the passes he needed to hit.  The passing windows were inches and he made big time throws.  Give it up to them.  The coverage was good, just perfect throws. 

Next year they will improve, but we may be starting a new QB.  Need to see how it plays out.  I like Peters, but he needs to recognize the rush and get rid of the ball quicker.  It's not HS anymore.

Joined: 10/29/2013

MGoPoints: 2916

MGoBlue96

November 18th, 2017 at 8:09 PM ^

team your margin of error is really small. UM hurt themselves by missing a couple oppurtunituies, and the missed/bad calls were huge as well. Block in the back on Wisconson's punt return, DPJ was in fact in as evidenced by a pic floating around, and the nonsense PI to extend Wisky's drive that led to a TD. That is a 21 point swing, hard to overcome when compounded with your own mistakes due to youth largely. Peters fumble was just a young guy trying to do too much. 

Joined: 12/26/2010

MGoPoints: 25993

ricosuave

November 18th, 2017 at 8:36 PM ^

as to why people are venting.  We have not been pleasantly surprised in ages.  I have witnessed games back to the late 70's - there just is not much wind in these sails any longer.  We never pull an upset. 

Here is an honest statement, right now, and I have not Google'd it, I cannot name the last time we beat Ohio St.  I recall that Luke Fickel was coaching for them.  Was that 5 years ago?  

One other point, it has been weird to see Michigan so completely inept in certain facets of the game.  It started with RR, but you would think a Harbaugh team would have a little more in the tank offensively.  Yes we know where the weaknesses are, but again, it is odd that we are so terrible on that side of the ball.

 

Joined: 09/26/2015

MGoPoints: 321

Mgoczar

November 18th, 2017 at 9:06 PM ^

More disturbed/sad about how unlucky and snakebitten Michigan is 1. Just when peters looking great , online blows stunt and he's knocked out. Wtf. 2. Higdon gaining steam and he gets hobbled last weak at a useless game before the tough stretch. Wtf. 3. Lavert hill shut down corner - think noodle arm threads that throw without PBU? I think not. Wtf. Other musings 3. The 2015 class - third year and all the top 4 CFP teams are built on it. We got nothing. Wtf 4. Newsome. Enough said. Wtf. 5. Looking at ucla moving the ball fairly easily against USC so far and we got one year of Fisch. Now a new OC. Wtf Summary: I hate losing peters like this, he was doing well and gaining confidence

Joined: 09/29/2017

MGoPoints: 4198

uncleFred

November 18th, 2017 at 9:11 PM ^

I've been following Michigan football since 1962. If you're interested in an ugly bunch of seasons check out Michigan's record in the 60s. When Bo arrived in 1969 Michigan offered something like 125 football scholarships. Think about that a second. He made an immediate difference but the ten year war took ten years for a reason. It takes time to turn a program that's lost its way around. 

How much more depth would Harbaugh have if he and Hoke had 125 scholarships to load up on the oversights and early departures from the RIchRod era? How many of Hoke's early departures wold have been mitigated by an extra 20 scholarships? 

Hoke and Mattison, and then Harbuagh recruited and retained very well on the defensive side. As we've seen this season losing 10 starters hasn't hurt the defense nearly as much as we expected preseason. Unfortunately, the team had much worse luck on the offensive side. Shit happens. With only 85 scholarships and the typical lead time on offensive line players, we're still real shallow when it comes to depth. 

If you're willing to look closely, Harbaugh is building a juggernaut. It's unlikely that in the best of circumstances the team would have won more than ten regular season games this year even if the injury god had been kind. Given the actual injuries, eight regular season wins, and a bowl win if the team can heal up, isn't half bad.

So suck it up buttercups. Having followed Michigan football for 55 years, I can tell you that things are moving in exactly the right direction and we have precisely the right coach at the helm. My prediction is that this season will be the low point of the Harbaugh era.

Joined: 10/14/2011

MGoPoints: 2399

jackw8542

November 19th, 2017 at 9:28 AM ^

was great at recruiting great players and not so great at coaching them.  As a result, Bo inherited a LOT of talent that he put to good use.  That is not what happened with JH.  Harbaugh has truly turned lemons into lemonade, and we should all be happy with what he has been able to accomplish, not piling on him like spoiled brats.

Joined: 10/30/2010

MGoPoints: 4265

RJWolvie

November 18th, 2017 at 9:19 PM ^

...was 2002-04.

That was also last time we were relevant nationally. Lots of room for improvement, but if a youngest team in country that lost most starters to NFL in country can lose 2-3 quarterbacks, half their freshman receiving core, their top prospect OT, and 2/3 of their 3-man RB rotation at various times and still manage a down Bo-year? Yeah, some perspective please. It’s like folks losing their minds complaining weren’t here for the almost-15 years since we last could expect to be good year in, year out, and sometimes great, and always relevant nationally. Seriously.

But fix the damn O-line issues, please, before we get any more QBs killed. Thank you

Joined: 10/22/2011

MGoPoints: 4417

thevetdoc1

November 18th, 2017 at 9:39 PM ^

The Tennesse Titans, the 2016 LA Rams, LSU, U of M. What they all have in common is a reliance on the power running game. These schemes rely on a superior offensive line and great quarterback. Miss one of the two and they fail. We have to help our players by giving them a better system and we have to have a better offensive line and QB. 

Offensive Line - the names change but the failures remain the same. We can't pick up a blitz or a stunt. The Penn St game was humiliating. It was a pro scheme on the defense line going against a high school scheme on the offensive line. Downright embarrassing. Watching that game and this game, one has to hold the line coaches accountable. Your scheme, teaching, or player selection is bad. It may be all three but there is no doubt when you look at the film, the players have no idea who to block or the scheme is inadequate. Drevno must go. You cannot get paid $1,000,000 a year for this mess. You get the salary to be accountable. Accountability demands you resign or be terminated. Frey - can't say as I don't know how much input he has. 

OB - Truly a disappointing position given the Jim is the QB coach. I am an Kansas State and their third string QB who beat OK State today is better than anyone on our roster save the freshman. Frankly, if Mccaffery was that good, he should have been playing, freshman or not. Speight was promising but has regressed (admittedly the line may be a big reason, my lord are they awful at pass protect). Okorn is a star in division 3. It was evident the first time he stepped on the field that he should be playing at Depauw. You can't play at Houston, you can't play at Michigan. Peters looks adequate. He has a little more athlete in him but still not a threat to run. Mccaffery may be the answer but we have to be disappointed with Harbaughs judgement so far. What every happened to the Alex Malzone? Can he really be worse than Okorn? If he is then why did we give him a scholarship. Watching Shane Morris at Central, it is clear he has more to offer than any of the three that have played this year. 

Scheme - OK State, Boise St, Houston, Oregon, WSU and OU. All produce great college quarterbacks year after year. Most are not great athletes and do not go on to great pro careers. We all call them system quarterbacks. YES. WE need a system that helps make a QB. We have a system that relies on the QB to make the sytem and those QBs are not on the roster right now and are hard to find. Also, how many kids want to come play in this system? If you are a wide receiver, why would you ever come to U of M? I watched OU in person earlier this year and they are light years ahead of the Blue. Line up, coaches analyze the defense, signals made to the quarterback, audibles adjustments, snaps quickly and they move. 

Harbaugh has to sit down at the end of the year and do a statistical analysis. What teams win and what schemes to they run? Who beats Ohio and how do they do it? Who is available to help me catch up to these other teams? Who can coach a line? 

I know the team is young but they do not look well coached. Does anyone think the special teams have been a plus for us this year? Any novel offensive play that impressed you? Improvement against good teams? Wide receivers coming along? Time to think about changes. Drevno to go must be a given. 

 

Joined: 12/29/2013

MGoPoints: 92

RoopDog

November 18th, 2017 at 9:45 PM ^

RB - Higdon and Evans are both playing a OK QB - peters was playing well WR - DPJ, Black, Perry, Collins have all looked good OL - remains the biggest question, still no tackles in sight...!

Joined: 02/15/2013

MGoPoints: 19

plamonge

November 18th, 2017 at 11:47 PM ^

How many times do you let your emotions get the better of your reason? We all knew this season was going to be a transition year. And we were all correct, so get a grip. 

Joined: 09/29/2014

MGoPoints: 1024