2019 penn state

wsg Jane Coaston (@cjane87) senior politics Reporter at Vox with a focus on conservatism and the right, who got that gig by getting good at college football Twitter (Go Blue!)

also wsg Joe Pichey, writer of those MGoBBQ articles we'll bring back as soon as a sponsor steps up. Find him at Instagram at gobluebbq, and twitter: @GOBLUEBBQ.

The Sponsors

We can do this because people support us. You should support them! The show is presented by UGP & The Bo Store, who are the Dudes.

Our other sponsors are also key to all of this: HomeSure Lending, Peak Wealth Management, Ann Arbor Elder Law, the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, the University of Michigan Alumni Association, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, FuegoBox, Perrin Brewing, and The Athletic (this link gets you 40% off your sub)

[After THE JUMP: a rundown]

Things discussed:

• The weird road game when there's lots of mistakes, and this is still that game despite this being the best game they played all year
• Harbaugh killed three drives in Penn State territory or near enough by not going for it on 4th and short
• The mugging: can't argue the refs were the difference in this game.
• Shea had a good day. Peoples-Jones's drop: two guys open crossing each other in the middle of the field, Patterson doesn't see it, then he rolls out and finds DPJ and the safety rakes it out—that's on Shea. Brian thinks Shea's performance was okay, not great.
• Yippee they ran bubble screens and it worked because they've been ignoring it.
• Regular screens: why hasn't one worked all year? It wasn't a pick if Charbonnet doesn't trip but it wasn't going to work.
• Sloppy play—they still can't handle tempo (which is bad this week).
• Sam: RPO illegal man downfield: correct call on Ruiz but PSU has a guy 8 yards downfield who breaks up Hawkins's interception attempt wasn't one. The push-off is 7 points or 4 if PSU gets back in range. The Collins thing! The mugging on 4th down! Need to have officials grading so it's left to people like Craig Ross to grade them.
• Notre Dame: Brian says go ask Seth. Ed says they've got those DEs. Ian Book's a good QB. They've been trying to find a running game.
• Michigan as they were in the 2nd half last week can beat them, but this is a solid opponent.
• Back to Shea: if he has this game in context of a decent season we're down on his PSU game.
• Brian: Stop trying to cheer me up and make me optimistic about stuff. It's not going to happen. It's not. It's a one-game season and we're going to get hammered in that game.
• Caller: on the ledge, because it's the same old problems every season. Brian: we were hoping Harbaugh would come in and be a top five coach, and we're not there—we're on James Franklin level.
• Isaiah Todd: The way Michigan stays as good as they were under Beilein is they recruit better.

[Player after THE JUMP]

SPONSOR NOTE: Upon Further Review is sponsored by HomeSure Lending and Matt Demorest. Rates are the lowest they've been in three years so it can't hurt to check whether you can save money on a refinance. Or you could buy a house in Ann Arbor! Good luck with that!

Matt's relocated the bus to Pioneer this year, BTW, and invites everyone to stop by and say hi. There's beer. I mean, obviously. Matt. Matt and beer: a good pairing.

FORMATION NOTES: Michigan did a few unusual things. They had a quads formation with a RB in the backfield:

This was either bubble screens or QB runs and probably won't recur unless there's some more stuff in the vault. They also had an arc read off a twins formation with two guys in the backfield:

Also there were a couple I-Form plays!

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Patterson at QB, usual on OL—no Hayes this time. Haskins and Charbonnet split the RB snaps about down the middle; Turner and Wilson did not appear. Ben Mason got ~10 snaps as a FB/TE.

WR was close to even between Black, Collins, DPJ, and Bell, with each guy getting 60-70% of the snaps because most snaps had 3 WRs. Eubanks was near-omnipresent; TE #2 was mostly All, with a cameo from Schoonmaker. Sainristil, Jackson, and Johnson got cameos.

[After THE JUMP: more yards, fewer points]