Best:  Indescribable Feelings

This is the first thing I wrote 2 years ago when UM played Rutgers for the first time:

[EDIT] You know it's been a long season since this was originally titled "Maryland".  Just banking these beforehand, I guess[/EDIT]

One of these days I'm going to put in less work on writing these than the coaching staff did in preparing for the game.  They just keep setting the bar so low, though.

Best:  Semi-competent loss

It's come to this, hasn't it.  Not moral victories or BS like that, but after being destroyed by a cadre of mid-level BCS teams and Notre Dame, Michigan finally looked semi-competitive against another BCS team.  And Rutgers is at least a bowl team, something Michigan sure isn't right now.  I always figured Michigan would have a close loss like this during the year, but the expectation was that it would be a rare occurrence of bad luck and incompetence instead of, I guess, a sign of growth and competence in year 4. 

Ugh.  Moving on.

If you ever wondered what rationalization looks like on (digital) paper, it’s that paragraph.  Now, the nadir of Michigan under Brady Hoke had come a week earlier against Minnesota, but I am on record as being a bit of an apologist for how Hoke handled the Morris incident, at least at the time (which doesn’t need to be re-litigated here).  I thought it was reactionary that Morris was given the start because we had seen nothing to suspect he would be an upgrade over Gardner at the spot; the offense had regressed every year under Hoke, and in fact had been buoyed somewhat with Gardner in the backfield, compensating for poor blocking and a anemic rushing attack by using his legs to keep plays alive.  Morris lacked that ability, and so he got pummeled even moreso than Gardner, including an uncalled targeting shot, and well, you remember the rest. 

But no, the offensive coordinator who currently oversees the #73 offense in the country at Florida(!), who people clamored for after the coordinator who oversees the #75 offense in the country in the Mountain West (!!), chosen by the man who is currently the defensive coordiantor for the #100 defense at Oregon (!!!) thought a change at QB would be the cure for what ailed Michigan in 2014….  Oh gawd, there isn’t a font invented yet that conveys the unique combination of sarcasm and anger I have for those men.  Just…

But anyway.  We’re talking about Rutgers.  That Minnesota team wasn’t half-bad; they went 5-3 in conference, nearly beat OSU, and played in the Citrus Bowl.  The Rutgers team might have also gone 8-5, but they struggled in conference (3-5), got pantsed by literally every halfway-decent team they played (unless you believe 2014 UNC resembled in any way the 11-3 outfit they’d become in 2015).  And against Michigan, Gary Nova threw for 400 yards.

Gary Nova, perhaps the only man in the Big 10 who could challenge Taylor Martinez for snarky Youtube videos of his collective failures at playing the QB position, threw for more yards (404) than the entire UM team collected on offense (336).  Gary F’ing Nova hung a 404 Page Not Found on the University of Michigan football defense.  Let that sink in for a moment.  No, I mean, really breathe it in.

There aren’t a lot of players left on the roster who competed in this game (Lewis, Clark, Charlton, Gedeon, Hurst, and Glasgow show up in the box score for the defense, while Smith, Chesson, Butt, and Darboh registered offensively, and I think about half the offensive line remains the same), but I have to believe that they remember the last time they traveled to New Jersey, a state full of suburban commuters to more interesting cities, a state that will hunt down your next of kin for unpaid student loans, a state that would foster a football program to the point that GARY NOVA would throw for 404 yards against the winningest football program in college football history, and wanted to make amends.

And with a couple more native sons returning to their home state, they sure did.

78-0 was the final score, and in some ways it probably could have been worse.  UM had 600 yards of total offense compared to 39 for Rutgers, and 29 of those yards came on the last 2 drives of the game for the Scarlet Knights.  At halftime, UM was up 43-0 and Rutgers had –13 yards of total offense.  Michigan rushed for 486 yards and 9 TDs on the ground at a robust clip 9.2 ypc, which is doubly amazing considering De’Veon Smith, the team’s leading rusher coming into the game, averaged 2.2 ypc for only 11 yards.  They nearly had 4 100-yard rushers on the day, with Isaac (93) and Peppers (74) trailing both Evans (153) and Higdon (114) in that department.  From that group, only Evans failed to score, while Isaac, Peppers, and Higdon all scored 2 TDs and recorded at least one run of over 30 yards. 

Wilton Speight played only that half, threw a total of 13 passes, completed 6 for 1 TD, and yet the offense looked downright unstoppable.  Part of his early struggles were due to the weather; it wasn’t quite Notre Dame vs. NC State, but at least at kickoff it was raining quite hard and the air was swirling.  A couple balls sailed on him and there were at least 2 drops that probably would have been hauled in (one each to Darboh and Chesson) on a drier day, and it was apparently bad enough out there that the team switched gloves a couple of series into the game because the logo ones were making it harder to grip the ball.  And when JBB went down 2 plays into the game, you saw even more shuffling on the front line.  Unsurprising, Rutgers tried to take advantage by blitzing.  Now, none of this should be construed as saying Speight had a good day, as that UCF version of him is getting ever farther in the rearview mirror.  But as the worst of the weather lifted and his protection improved, he threw a couple of really good balls, including the TD to Chesson.

As for the defense, there isn’t much to say, as I am out of superlatives.  You know how OSU got a bunch of praise for holding Rutgers to 116 total yards of offense, including 3 completions for 33 yards?  Well, Laviano and Allen combined for 2 completions (in 18 pass attempts) for 5 yards.  In fact, Zach Allen’s one completion was for a loss of a yard, so even half their completed passes pushed them backwards.  The only time Rutgers even sniffed the UM endzone was on pick-six that was rather obviously an incomplete pass by Shane Morris. 

In total, Rutgers ran 54 plays for 39 yards.  That is a third as many yards as they picked up last week, and brings up the question of whether Rutgers would have recorded more yards simply falling forward every play.  Honestly, depending on the spots they got, it’s quite possible that would have been a more successful offensive gameplan than what they employed. 

The Michigan team that staggered into Triple Bundle (But You Don’t Want The Phone But It’s Part Of The Package) Stadium two years ago was disorganized, disinterested, and dysfunctional.  But with the arrival of Harbaugh, UM now looks and plays the part of a professional organization with bigger goals in mind than revenge. 

Best:  No Mercy

I know I just listed a bunch of stats about the dominance on both sides of the ball by Michigan, but this probably takes the cake:  Rutgers punted for 609 yards on 16 punts.  That’s longer than the height of the Sears Tower, the Empire State Building, and the Eiffel Tower.  It’s 6 football fields worth of surrender.

Michigan had 13 TFLs, including 4 sacks, on only 54 plays by Rutgers, meaning they lost yards a good quarter of the time they ran a play.  Remember 2013 against MSU when the Wolverines rushed for –48 yards and everyone felt terrible about themselves?  MSU recorded 11 TFLs on 59 plays by UM in that game.  This was a terrifying display by a defensive unit that chewed up other decent offenses in Colorado and Penn State, and one that will probably replicate similar performances against the mediocre offenses that are coming up on the schedule. 

Against teams like PSU and Wisconsin, the defensive performance was some shade of ass kicking, a known quantity of dominance that you as the viewer can contemplate and commoditize in your head.  For me, the most ass-kicking performance by a Michigan defense was UM’s obliteration of undefeated PSU in 1997.  Penn St. probably wasn’t the #2/3 team in the country (they had a number of uninspiring wins up to that point), but they were still one of the better offenses in the country.  And UM absolutely shut that team down on the road, and that was the moment I realized that 1997 could be a special year.

Now, this Rutgers team isn’t anywhere close to those Nittany Lions teams, I get that.  But UM held Rutgers to 0 first downs for 3.5 quarters of a football game and, had they not “slacked” and let Rutgers get a couple of first downs on the ground, might have kept the total yardage in the single digits.  This is the same Rutgers team (sans Janarion Grant, admittedly), that netted 304 yards, 21 first downs, and 13 points against Washington to open the season and 383 and another 21 first downs against Iowa.  The closest Rutgers got to a first down in that first half was a scamper by Allen that cleared the first down marker but was immediately nullified by a fumble and recovery by Michigan.  That was it.  Nobody was open downfield, nobody could run inside or outside the tackles, nothing.  Chris Laviano started the game, was chased around for a couple of series, and was replaced by Zach Allen, who didn’t do any better.  Taco Charlton had 2 sacks on the day and repeatedly crushed whoever was put in his path, while guys like Glasgow and Hurst just ran through would-be blockers to consume ball carriers before they even made a step forward.  28 players recorded at least 1 tackle in this game, and sure, kickoffs count for some of it, but that’s an insane stat.  That’s 2.5 full defensive units of tacklers out there, and that doesn’t even include Bryan Mone recovering Allen’s fumble. 

It got to the point that I was bored watching the defense out there, and I instinctively clicked on my remote to see about fast-forwarding to the offense.  It’s not it wasn’t interesting in an intellectual context; this is an elite defense just destroying another team’s will to live.  But I also don’t like watching a snuff film for 60 minutes, and after about 5 minutes of this game it was pretty clear Rutgers wasn’t going to be putting up much of a fight.

I want keep my excitement down, to put some perspective forward for viewing this defense in an historical light.  In my lifetime, it feels like it’s better than 2006, and given how dynamic offenses are now I’d say it’s probably better than 1997 in terms of adaptability.  It’s pretty clear that this season is going to be decided by the Game, and I think the final referendum on 2016’s place in the defense Pantheon will rest on that performance as well as the game against IU; hold two dangerous offenses (mostly) in check, and this is probably the best unit in modern UM history. 

And yet, even that praise almost feels a bit faint.  After a couple of growing pains against UCF and Colorado (mind you, games that UM won by a collective score of 96-42), Don Brown’s defense looks locked in, and even OSU looks tractable when you consider just how little the past couple of teams have been able to move the ball.

Best:  Don’t Hurt ‘Em

This punt return didn’t count because apparently we can’t have nice things.

So another day, another amazing performance by Jabrill Peppers.  Peppers was finally able to pull the ball when the Rutgers defensive end foolishly bore down on the option, allowing Peppers to scamper 63 yards to set up UM’s first score.  He later scored on another play where he feinted toward the line, ran out to the flat, faked throwing the ball, then just ran into the endzone largely untouched.  He added another goal line TD, and with that scored 2 TDs on 3 carries for 74 yards.  He also added 2 tackles, including half a TFL (Rutgers attributed the other half to Grant Perry, which seems…wrong…but I couldn’t confirm), and a QB hurry.  Harbaugh keeps talking about him as a transcendent player, and every weekend Peppers seems to prove him right. 

Now, I will say that the Heisman talk probably won’t be realistic unless guys like Watson, Jackson, and Barrett struggle.  Woodson only became a viable candidate after Manning struggled (again) against Florida, and that was a weird year wherein the next couple of viable candidates played for unknown programs in Ryan Leaf and Randy Moss.  By comparison, all of the major candidates now play for prominent programs and/or have great statistical marks, and Peppers will never be used on the offense enough to rack up truly eye-popping numbers.  Heck, a performance like in this game is probably the ceiling for him simply because there’s no reason to expose him to abuse on offense in any game coming up until OSU, and maybe not even then.  Plus, I’m not sure college football is quite ready for the only two defensive Heisman winners to come from one school, even if Peppers is unquestionably one of the top 2-3 players in the country right now.  He changes the game with his mere presence on the field, and I hope every fan watching is enjoying his performance every week.  Very soon UM fans will be referring to every recruit as the “next Peppers”, just as they used to unrealistically call players the “next Woodson”.

Meh:  A Confusing Speight To Behold

I don’t know if there’s much to take away from this game for Speight.  He played about a half of football, threw a couple of okay balls, struggled with his accuracy early on in the rain, and generally looked serviceable.  He did look more comfortable as the game progressed, but he also had some issues throwing the ball downfield.  His toss to Chesson was fantastic, but he also left a deep ball to Darboh hang up a bit such that he had to readjust and fight off a DB for the catch.  He faced a decent amount of pressure early on and that led to some scrambling and mixed results throwing, but pretty early on it was clear this team could just run over Rutgers basically at will and that became the focus of the offense.  O’Korn and Morris also got snaps but only three 3 times the rest of the day (O’Korn did throw a TD on a nice ball to Hill.  Morris’s one pass was initially thought to have been a pick-six by the referees, and if it had stood I assumed Shane would have been told to walk home for breaking the shutout.

But otherwise, I’m not sure what you can take from this game in terms of passing.  The receivers let a couple of catchable balls gets away from them, but they were rarely called upon and it still looks like they might be working out some kinks with Speight.  I sort of wonder if the offense is expanding the playbook a bit and that might be contributing to some of the issues, but who knows.  It is still a passing offense that doesn’t try to over-exert itself too much but can deliver downfield when called upon.  I doubt we’ll see much against Illinois, but if you see Speight putting it on the face of MSU’s corners for 4 quarters, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Best:  Sherman’s March to the Sea was Less Destructive

These are all of UM’s runs in the 2nd half of this game:

3, 5, 5, 3, 3, 57, 15 (TD), 2, 4, 0, 15, 3, 5, 6, 11, 1, 10, 13 (TD), 5, 2, 44 (TD), 7, 9, 6, 3, 4, 0, 34 (TD). 

That’s 275 yards, no negative plays, and absolutely 0 regard for human life.  Rutgers knew UM was going to run them over in that second half and really had no defense. 

Basically everyone but Smith had great days running the ball, though I thought Higdon really stood out with how aggressively he hit holes.  He’s not the biggest or fastest guy on the roster, but he follows his blocks pretty well and runs decisively, and oftentimes that’s all you need to be successful in a Harbaugh offense.  Evans was fantastic in space, and was dined a couple of scores by mere yards.  Isaac just looks like a different player compared to last year, running with an authority that hasn’t always been present for a guy so talented.  I’m still a bit surprised he hasn’t been integrated more into the passing game, but I assume those packages are there and UM hasn’t really felt the need to utilize them.  As for Smith, he fumbled during the rainiest part of the game but also wasn’t needed much once the game got out of hand; I assume he sat mostly for the same reason Speight did.  He still seems to be the feature back, though, especially when passing.

But yeah, 486 yards, a school-recrd 9 TDs, and around 9 ypc are video game numbers, and yet I wouldn’t be surprised if they did something similar to Illinois, at least in terms of the overall domination.  It isn’t quite a peak Harbaugh offense, but the past couple of weeks have unearthed a rushing attack that is increasingly opponent-agnostic.  UM averaged around 4.5 ypc against one of the best defenses in Wisconsin, then squashed Rutgers for nearly double that.  If the offensive line can stay healthy and increase their comfort with the rush, UM should be able to mash a whole lot of teams coming up on the schedule.

Worst:  The Morality Surrounding All the Scoring

You know it wouldn’t be a blowout without a couple of people complaining about Harbaugh (a) going for 2 up 27, (b) going for it on 4th down on the ensuing possession to push the score to 36-0, and (c) dropping 78 on a team in general.  I’ve never had a problem with coaches calling their offense in the regular course of the game.  The 2-point conversion seemed a little weird mostly because it didn’t seem necessary, but in the press conference after the game it sounded like that play was always available and the special teams could run it if given the right formation.  And let’s be honest; there are few situations where a team can practice a conversion in a live game; the fact UM put this on tape really shouldn’t be a concern, as most teams should already be prepared for the “run into the massive hole” playcall.

As for the rest of the scoring, going up 36-0 late in the 2nd quarter was the only option Harbaugh really had.  He could have kicked a FG, but 4-and-goal from the 1 is a weird place to do so, and in fact it at least gives the defense a chance to keep a team off the board completely.  If it had been the 4th quarter and UM could have just taken a knee to run out the clock, then sure, but there was still a half+ of football to play, and to paraphrase Herm Edwards, you play to win the game with half a game to go, regardless of the score.

As for the final score, I’m not sure what else could have been done.  During Higdon’s final run, you almost saw him slow up at the goalline a bit, but if the defense is going to give up huge runs there’s not much you can do.  UM was playing incredibly vanilla offensively and defensively in that 2nd half; this wasn’t UM sending the house on blitzes or breaking out a flea flicker up 40.  This was just…a beating.  Harbaugh had some nice words for Ash and his team after the game, and I’m sure at some point Rutgers will be better and use this game for motivation.  But losing 136-0 over 2 weeks probably takes the starch out of anyone’s motivation.

Around the League

I caught a couple of other games along the way yesterday, so here are a couple of quick takes.

• Saquon Barkley is really good (over 200 yards rushing), and Maryland probably isn’t as good as their record dictates.  That said, both PSU and Maryland looked competent yesterday, which is sort of amazing given how bad they’ve looked recently. 
• Iowa is bad and has lost whatever magic they had from 2015.  Why the state of Iowa continues to worry about someone else wanting to poach their 61-year-old coach who has won 10+ games exactly twice in the past 11 seasons has always astounded me, but the man beat Minnesota 14-7 so pay him his money.
• OSU may have beaten Indiana by 21 in the end, but this was a game well into the 4th quarter.  If IU had been able to score deep in OSU territory after picking off Barrett down 17-31, it could have been an interesting finish.  For the game, Barrett  followed up a string of strong passing performances to go 9/21 for 93 yards, and even that was goosed by a 37-yard TD throw for OSU’s final score.  This remains the Achilles heel for this team, and if OSU struggles to throw the ball against IU’s secondary I’m not liking their chances against UM in that department.  We’ll know a lot more next week against Wisconsin; my sense is this level of mediocrity is a blip, but it’s still a team that relies so heavily on Barrett to keep the chains moving that I could see them being stymied by a defense that can force him to throw into small windows. 
• Finally, MSU lost to BYU 31-14, their third loss in a row.  MSU made a switch Damion Terry in the 4th quarter and while that did lead to a score, it also led to a pick and creeping realization in most MSU fans that this year is going to be one of near-constant pain, even in wins.  It was a pretty ugly game all around, but BYU averaged 5.3 yards a run compared to 2.7 for MSU, and BYU just dominated time of possession (34:34 to 25:26) and number of plays (around 100 for BYU compared to around 60 for MSU).  I know people keep saying that MSU will play differently against UM, and maybe passion and hatred will fuel them for a half, but this is a Sparty team without much talent/production in the defensive backfield, under center, or along the offensive line.  They have vanishingly few playmakers, and guys like LJ Scott and RJ Shelton haven’t come close to their preseason hype.  But again, not disrespect.

Next Week:  Bye!

I need a break, and I assume the team does as well.  After Illinois, UM finishes against a pretty decent slate (@MSU, Maryland, @Iowa, IU, @OSU) that will define their season.  That last game could well be for a CoFoPo playoff spot, and maybe even the loser could get a bid if a couple of other teams stumble.  But right now, UM is one of the best teams in the country and are only getting better.