Inside the Boxscore - Team 136, Game 5

Submitted by ST3 on

     At the beginning of this season, Seth wrote

If Ann Arbor was hit with a nuclear bomb and declared a radioactive zone for 100 years (or 7 football seasons), ST3 will still be there digging out scorecards and sharing the gory details. We just tried this and it worked; the organism is more on point than ever

At the time, I wasn't sure what he was referring to by "the organism," but now I think I know. Friday night, I was diagnosed with shingles. If you don't know what that is, let me spare you the gory google image search. It's basically adult chicken pox, fairly common for people in their 60's. I'm only 45, but I've always been precocious. I was yelling, "get off of my lawn!" when I was living in an apartment on E. Washington in Ann Arbor and my yard was Thano's Lamplighter's back door. Shingles is basically a red, bubbly, pus-filled rash that has inhabited my left side. (Aren't you glad you clicked on this diary?) The organism has taken up residence most prominently on my left hip. But I won't let that stop my boxscore analysis. I will let that stop me going to Church, my son's baseball game, and work this week - doctor's orders, thank goodness for sick leave - but the diary will live on. A guy's got to have priorities, don't you know.

Link: http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-footbl/stats/100315aaa.html

Burst of Impetus

* The first half was impetus free. What a slog-fest. There were a couple nice plays that led to Michigan field goals, but one was left thinking Maryland was only one big play away from awakening the Michigan road ghosts. Instead of picking the burst of impetus play or sequence, I'm going to focus on impetus denied this week. There were three times Maryland got the ball as a result of Michigan turnovers. The first stopped a Michigan drive as Maryland recovered at their own 34. They went three and out and punted. Michigan fumbled again, giving Maryland great field position and their best chance of scoring all day. Three players later, Michigan's Jeremy Clark intercepted the ball to end that threat. In the third quarter, a ghastly interception (half on Rudock for throwing, half on Houma for bobbling) gave Maryland the ball at our 45 yard line. Three Maryland plays saw them gain zero yards and they punted.

The Two Jakes

* I posted this during the week, but wanted to share in case it got lost in all the comments.

Let's compare college career stats for two notable Michigan quarterbacks:

Player A: 59.5% completion percentage, 7.1 yards per attempt, 27 TD, 15 INT (1.8:1), 130.6 Rating

Player B: 60.7% completion percentage, 6.9 yards per attempt, 38 TD, 23 INT (1.65:1), 128.8 Rating

Who is better? But wait, let's add in rushing totals, because QBs sometimes run the ball.

Player A: 85 carries, -81 yards, -1 ypc, 4 TDs

Player B: 155 carries, 448 yards, 2.9 ypc, 10 TDs

Looks like Player B has the edge. But wait, what about punting?

Player A: 14 punts, 36.3 yard average.

Player B: 0 punts.

Player A is Brian Griese. Player B is Jake Rudock prior to the Maryland game.

* Jake Rudock missed on all three of my efficiency metrics, 50% completions, 5.6YPA, 2 TOs, yet his team won by 28 points and his statistical profile matches National Championship winning QB, Brian Griese. Maybe my metrics are worthless. It's good to remember that National Championship winning QB Brian Griese didn't become National Championship winning QB Brian Griese until he won a national championship. I guess what I'm saying is, let's all relax with the microscopic evaluations and criticisms of Jake Rudock. He's only been here 5 games and a couple months and he's already taken charge of a top 20 team that has outscored it's opponents 119-7 (or thereabouts) in the last 15 quarters.

* Jake Butt caught 4 passes for 61 yards with a long of 44.

The Three Harbaughs

* Hey, John Harbaugh looked pretty good in maize-and-blue. If Jim decides to follow his dream and coach the Colts, maybe we can get that John guy to replace him.



AMARAcan Darboh

* Darboh caught 3 balls for 27 yards and had a nice block on Johnson's TD reception.

* Catches were distributed to 7 receivers, the low mark for the season.

Jackhammers

* De'Veon Smith proved in his absence that he is our best running back.

* Drake Johnson started showing some of the burst he displayed at the end of last season. He's not back completely to my untrained eye, but he did scamper for 68 yards on 13 carries for 5.2 ypc.

* Jehu's one carry left him two yards from being our leading rusher for the day.

Tacos and Peppers and Captain Morgan

* I need a beverage with my tacos and peppers. I'm fairly certain if we had more than three 5th year seniors, Desmond Morgan would have been voted captain. He's definitely the leader of the defense. Morgan tallied 9 tackles, 1 interception and had two BrUps.

* Michigan tallied 8 TFLs, 4 of which were sacks. Interestingly, after leading the defensive line early in the season, Wormley was held without a tackle against Maryland. If he's drawing double teams now based on early season production, that's opening up things for Hurst, Glasgow and the rest of the d-line.

* Michigan had three interceptions and 6 BrUps. I'm perfectly happy with the referees letting some physical play go between the WRs and the DBs now that we are the ones pressing the action.

ST3's STSTs

* I was watching BTN this week when they showed the B1G punting leaders on the bottom of the screen. I kept waiting for Blake O'Neill's name to show up. It never did. He doesn't have the best average in the conference mainly because he's dropping dimes inside the 5 yard line on the regular and he's sliced a couple punts. But the difference between this year and last is so stark I expected him to be 1st or 2nd in the conference. Perhaps he does better on net punting yards.

* 32 of the game's 167 plays were special teams plays. That's 19%, or roughly 1 in 5. That's a high-water mark since I started tracking this 8 or 9 games ago. Maryland punted 13 times. Of their 13 punts, none went for touchbacks because they were never close enough to our endzone.

Baughscore Bits

* First downs were 14-7 in favor of Michigan. That, combined with the turnovers, all those Maryland punts, and the weather made it the ugliest 28-0 victory I can remember. Or maybe it was just the pus-filled blisters exploding forth from my skin.

* Maryland was held to 105 yards of total offense. Isn't that what BYU got? Back-to-back shutouts are incredible, but holding teams to 105 yards in back-to-back games? I wonder when the last time was that that happened.

* Maryland gained 1.7 yards per play. {Insert Nelson Muntz "ha ha" gif here.}

* Maryland was 1 of 18 on third down. ONE OF EIGHTEEN!!! I guess going 1 of 18 would explain why they never tried to convert on 4th down.

WHAT ARE THOOOSE?

* When you see Michigan defenders moving before the snap to confuse the offense, those are called defensive adjustments. Matt Millen, for all his ham-handed announcing* (yeah, we all get it, follow the fullback,) he made one insightful comment. One in 3.5 hours. He pointed out Michigan's defensive backs moving around before the snap and he said Michigan was trying to bait Maryland into making a throw. In this day and age of offenses eschewing the huddle, hurrying to the line, surveying the defense for 10-15 seconds, and then making the playcall, why do defenses play right into the offense's hands by standing still? This bothered me and all the Michigan faithful during the past several years, but particularly the last couple. We would give away a blitz and stay with that defensive playcall. I watched the defense more carefully after the Millen comment and always saw someone, whether they were a defensive back or a linebacker or a down-lineman move before the snap. It was glorious. We have more talent on defense and we are not going to let you out-scheme us.

*I looked up ham-handed and found these synonyms: clumsy, bungling, incompetent, amateurish, inept, unskillful, inexpert, maladroit, gauche, awkward, inefficient, bumbling, useless, pus-filled blister. Yep, they all apply to Matt Millen, yet he has the gall to call Jake Rudock myopic?!?

Comments

BlueMan80

October 5th, 2015 at 4:29 PM ^

right around my 30th birthday.  It was awful.  I was out of work for a week and still looked like a dried up zit mess when I did return to work.  I had chicken pox just about everywhere on my body.  Because of that, I live in fear of getting shingles.  I keep asking my doctor about getting the shingles vaccine and he says "too soon".  He wants me to wait until I'm 60 (which, unfortunately, is not all that far away).

Best of luck on a speed recovery and minimal pain along the way.

Blueroller

October 4th, 2015 at 3:12 PM ^

Couldn't agree more about the defense moving pre-snap. The last few years it seems like they were telegraphing blitzes, in particular. This year blitzers move up later. Part of that may be that these are mostly seniors and juniors. On the other hand, it's their fifth game in a new system and they look like they have their communication down. The real test will come against a super high tempo offense. Utah got them with tempo in the opener, and I'm surprised subsequent opponents haven't tried it more. Indiana games the last few years have been wretched at tempo.

reshp1

October 4th, 2015 at 3:33 PM ^

It wasn't just the roving "buck" LB moving around either. Our safeties would often swap who was taking deep coverage at the last minute and the DBs would fake press coverage and drop off to give a cushion and vice versa. It's a great addition to the toolkit for our defense.

You Only Live Twice

October 4th, 2015 at 7:06 PM ^

and rest.  I've had shingles 3 times, back/stomach,  the first time  mid-30s.  Doc said it would resolve on its own and that's what happened.  Having learned that the dormant virus is activated by stress, I learned how to manage the stress.  2nd attack was far less severe, and 3rd was very minor (both happened in early 40s).  54 now and no reoccurrence.  

Totally impressed that you wrote a diary while experiencing such pain, let alone the humorous sentence, "Matt Millen is a pus filled blister"  LMAO!

 

You Only Live Twice

October 4th, 2015 at 7:06 PM ^

and rest.  I've had shingles 3 times, back/stomach,  the first time  mid-30s.  Doc said it would resolve on its own and that's what happened.  Having learned that the dormant virus is activated by stress, I learned how to manage the stress.  2nd attack was far less severe, and 3rd was very minor (both happened in early 40s).  54 now and no reoccurrence.  

Totally impressed that you wrote a diary while experiencing such pain, let alone the humorous sentence, "Matt Millen is a pus filled blister"  LMAO!

 

MMB 82

October 4th, 2015 at 7:37 PM ^

Get it, after your current episode resolves. What's worse than shingles? Postherpetic Neuralgia- horrible, continuous pain. Take your antiviral med and get well soon!

alum96

October 4th, 2015 at 7:45 PM ^

Chesson continues to look nice on end arounds - and he was wide open on an overthrow from Rudock.  Seems like this guy would get massive YAC if he could ever get a ball completed to him past 15 yards! 

Interesting data on Rudock vs Griese but ball security is important and his "on pace" INT rate wont be taking us to the promised land.  Also there have been a lot of "near misses" by Rudock - but poor defensive players are not making the plays.  Wont be so fortunate vs Minnesota's very good secondary, NW, OSU, MSU.   The completion % of 60% is fine by me, and the YPA is also "servicable" if boring - its all the turnovers and "near turnovers" you see when watching the games play by play that dont show up in the box score.   Good football teams win the turnover battle - I truly thing its the most important stat in football.

By the way if you isolate 1997 only Griese he only had 5 INTs.  i.e. what Rudock did at Iowa last year.  So all we want is Iowa 2014 Rudock!!!!

  • Griese 1997:  63.2% completion rate, 2042 yds, 7.2 ypa, 14 TD, 5 INT
  • Rudock 2014:  61.7% completion rate, 2436 yds, 7.1 ypa, 16 TD, 5 INT

Almost statistical tie - give us back that guy!!!

Alas

  • Rudock 2015:  60.1%, (projected) 2485 yds, 6.5 ypa, (projected) 13 TD, 16 INT

That last # is the killer (16 INTs) - well 15.6 projected...

By the way the 97 offense is strikingly similar to 2015 - top receptions was a RB (Howard), top yardage was a TE (Tuman).  It was a down year for actual WRs... Tai Streets only had 24 receptions all year i.e. just under 2 a game.  That was our leading WR in receptions!

Michigan4Life

October 4th, 2015 at 11:20 PM ^

from 1997 to this season where the current numbers are unimpressive compared to the big numbers that Baylor, TCU, etc. have put up on a regular basis.

Also, Griese does a much better job of throwing deep passes than Rudock. Rudock has never shown that he can throw deep ball even at Iowa.

UMForLife

October 4th, 2015 at 7:45 PM ^

Hope you feel well soon. Millen was dishing it out to everyone. He is going to be calling the game again in State of Michigan. I hope it is the Sparty game. He has got his head up his a** and thinks he is smarter than everyone.

m1jjb00

October 4th, 2015 at 10:33 PM ^

BTN said that Michigan's back-to-back 105's was the best since Ohio State did it in 2007.

Michigan is 50th in net punting, putting them 3rd in the B1G.  I don't know if they do net punting right and subtract 20 yards for touchbacks.

bronxblue

October 5th, 2015 at 4:10 PM ^

Just the two of us, waiting for the world to fall apart.

Didn't mean to steal your Player comparisons; absolutely not planned.  I actually didn't load the site until I posted.

Again, great stuff.