Drive Chart: O'Korn vs. Peters

Peters was really good. 

But Rutgers kept itself honest, for whatever reason.  They had both safeties deep from the opening snap.  This was a big reason for the improved running game as well, unfortunately.  I don't think other teams in our schedule will be as generous. 

BUT.  Peters playing well may be something that forces the teams coming up to keep their safeties back. Couple that with the line blocking better - Rutgers made it a lot easier, but the OL continued its improvement in locating targets and moving people - and an actual offense can emerge. 

-- Decisiveness -- got rid of the ball in time to the right guys

-- Gave his receivers a chance to make plays

-- Accuracy

-- Completed passes to 10 receivers (including three backs) -- a required ability in this offense -- that ought to keep the safeties focused on something other than runnning downhill

Things are lookin' up!

Is the excitment in some of Toonces’ drives on SNL.

yes it was a good game, but did everyone forget JOK verses Purdue? lets give BP a few games and see what happens.

O'Korn is a good man and better teammate, but it was time to build for the future. After Wilton went down, Peters development skyrocketed taking backup snaps. These next two weeks are huge for his continued development. UM might become truly competitive at Camp Randall and who knows how good he can make this improving offense by The Game.

The most important thing for us as a fan base is to allow him to develop. He is going to make mistakes. Impatience with Wilton and John is understandable given their class status and time as starters.

But it’s Rutgers and a small sample size. It is exciting though since O’Korn seemed to have no further upside as a 5th year senior while Peters has immense upside as a redshirt freshman. All of sudden, there are many more possibilities. Peters made some great scrambles and throws, showed the ability to improvise and think on the run. He’ll have his ups and downs. We still need to see how he weathers those and how he fares against a better D. But the possibilities are exciting.

Peters was actually highly rated - nearly a consensus 5* and Elite11 type QB. These high school ratings matter at QB as they are the most highly scouted position, especially the Dilfer Elite11 designation which has been a huge stamp of approval. O'Korn and Speight were just never in that league in terms of raw talent. They have likely hit their ceilings, where Peters is just starting to ascend.

I thought it was very inappropriate when the crowd went crazy when Peter's was put in the game. O'Korn wasn't great but he played his heart out for the team and you can see that he has been a very good role model if you follow him on social media. Imagine how he felt hearing the stadium cheer when he gets benched.

There is a huge difference between O'Korn's Purdue game and Peter's Rutgers game, and the difference is context.

O'Korn lost his job at Houston, transfered, and 2x lost out on the starting competition to a not great qb Speight. I suspect O'Korn's issues are mostly mental. And surprise PT help negate that. I said as much in a thread where the board was discussing whether 12.5 or 17.5 was the better line against MSU

http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/siap-michigan-opens-125-point-favorite-over…

The Peters storyline is apples and oranges with O'Korns. Regression was likely with O'Korn. Good young talent tends to improve with experience.

And I do think the coaching staff bungled all this. Perhaps it was a series of unfortunate accidents (mainly, Speight not being able to get a comfortable lead against cupcakes), but my expectations of this staff are to come up with solutions. If handled correctly, we would have beat State. I would even guess if Peters started day 1 we score more points in every game so far this year.

We were running the ball at-will on them. Like we were gashing them. This was the same with both QBs in.

Victory thus should have been a foregone conclusion. You have to be real stupid not to win a game if you can get 7 yards a carry on a team and your D isn't a sieve. Our D is still pretty solid so yeah this would normally be a W penciled in.

But O'Korn faltered in the worst possible way and suddenly you're in a close battle more than halfway through the first half. Eventually your QB has to make a few plays even in a game like this and O'Korn just wasn't up to it. If he stays in, it seems pretty likely he makes a few more crucial mistakes and misses easy throws. In that case, the game goes down to the wire.

All Peters had to do was make a few easy throws, 1 or 2 clutch throws and it was ballgame. It's good that Peters could do this as it shows that he can perform adequately at the QB position at this level in the most elementary sense. But it really is flabbergasting that O'Korn *wasn't* able to do that.

The game didn't prove that Peters is a star in the making or leading us to the promised land, but it proved that he's a better bet than O'Korn if only because of the latter's complete collapse over the last month.

I'm stoked, but I also remember O'Korn slicing and dicing Purdue when Speight went down. 

I will say what I found different isn't anything situational necessarily. I can see the comparisons between their two defining games. But the post game comments from Harbaugh were radically different. With O Korn it was as if he felt grateful that he came into the Purdue game and despite his limitations played the best he could and it worked out. With Peters he described his performance like you would a young quarterback who you are proud of (good depth on drops, felt the rush, understood what the linebackers were doing, etc). The evaluation itself felt more promising. Quite honestly, this kid will face teams going forward that will mix coverages and mess with his reads and keys. He will look young and make really silly at best, crushing at worst, mistakes. But his future and potential are enticing. For Harbaugh and hopefully the fan base.

a lot to build upon !

4 TDS and the fifth was a rare missed FG by Nordin...IMPRESSIVE

It was only Rutgers, and there are far better defenses in the coming weeks. But this is definitely something to build on. I’m sure Harbaugh gave Peters some safe, low risk plays to handle, but he handled them very well, made his reads, evaded pressure, and didn’t hone in on one receiver too much.

Harbaugh will undoubtedly continue loosening the leash as Peters gets more and more reps. But considering I’m sure yesterday was a limited playbook for Peters, and it was his first real in-game action, it’s definitely a lot to like.

MSU's top 2 backs had 41 carries for 268 yds and 3 TDs.

Would like to see some passing for sure, but power running game that sets up play action the next two weeks would be nice.

I'm also expecting for the Wisky game that Harbaugh and staff will look for ways to have Peters fake a hand off and go end-around. Not often but enough to give OSU some new looks.