The Navarre Zone Comment Count

Brian

9/9/2017 – Michigan 36, Cincinnati 14 – 2-0

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furk [Eric Upchurch]

There is always a tipping point when something that probably won't happen becomes something that probably will happen. Sometimes this is nice, like when the entire NFL swears up and down that Jim Harbaugh wouldn't go back to Ann Arbor for love or money. Sometimes it is not nice.

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If we aren't already at the tipping point where "Wilton Speight makes a lot of critical mistakes" is a reasonable, seemingly immutable theory, surely we are approaching it.

The weird thing is the way these critical mistakes are loosed into the world. Anybody can throw several passes into defenders' facemasks. Killing your team with a blizzard of boggling interceptions is almost common in college football, where injuries and the vagaries of rostering regularly see peach-fuzzed high schoolers thrown into a tank of piranhas. Sometimes people transfer from Tulane and are expected to stop throwing interceptions, for reasons unknown.  Also apparently the NFL has this issue. Twitter informs me Scott Tolzien—yes, that guy—started a game this weekend. Twitter hastens to note that things did not go well. The hopelessly overmatched panic machine quarterback is so common it's a football trope.

Speight, on the other hand, has an air of cool control up until the moment he wings a pass so high that Donovan Peoples-Jones correctly decides his best bet is to spike it, or he turns around to hand air to his running back, or he does that again for the second time in one dang game. He does not seem overwhelmed. He hasn't thrown into coverage except on rare, understandable occasions*. He's yelling at his peach-fuzzed skill player crew about where to line up regularly. He makes a bunch of checks at the line. He is a man in command.

And then.

The very bad events are adding up. Everyone misses guys or makes bad reads or eats a sack on occasion. Speight's bad has been explosively bad, and maximally punished. Thus this column, which is lot like 2015's Jake Rudock is going to kill us column.

Rudock, of course, did not kill Michigan. He turned into a fine college player and Matt Stafford caddy, and even now it's not too hard to see Speight getting it together. His issues are fairly simple to correct; they jumped out at me, a layman, on a re-watch and Speight confirmed it in the postgame press conference:

“What it comes down to is, when there's something going on in my face – when I avoid the pressure – I've got to keep my base. Coach Pep is big on keeping my base. Staying loaded. And sometimes when I move around in the pocket, I get a little sloppy with my feet and it causes the ball to sail or go a little low."

Speight was leaning back a bunch in this game and the resulting throws were high. Nick Baumgardner with a preview of what UFR is going to say:

Also he's dorfing handoffs because he's not listening to Harbaugh. Two seemingly simple fixes yet to make it to the field in year four. This cuts both ways: if Speight can fix his lingering issues Michigan has that commanding guy when he throws straight and does not fumble exchanges, and that seems pretty good.

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deep shot hit rate: muchly [Bryan Fuller]

There are very good reasons that Speight is keeping his competition stapled to the bench, and it's that upside. Nobody else on the roster is going to walk on the field and know where everyone else has to be, a critical skill given the average age of Michigan's offense. Nobody else is going to have all the checks in his head, or the pocket presence.

The things Wilton Speight needs to fix are fixable in a timespan of weeks. John O'Korn and Brandon Peters do not have flaws (presence and youth, respectively) nearly as tractable, and so Michigan is going to ride with Speight and hope like hell these blips are just that, and not a pattern that will clobber a promising season like it did in Iowa City last year.

Until further notice, all dropbacks will be evaluated with a jaundiced eye and glance towards Columbus. Welcome to the John Navarre zone.

*[In this game he tried a deep shot to a bracketed Peoples-Jones because there were only two guys in the route and both were covered and what else was he going to do, which is fine.]

HIGHLIGHTS

Inside Michigan Football:

AWARDS

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mobile man mauls Mouhon [Fuller]


Known Friends And Trusted Agents Of The Week

-2535ac8789d1b499[1]you're the man now, dog

#1 Mason Cole. This is a bit of a guess but OL never get the proper amount of respect in this section because I haven't gone over things with a fine-toothed comb yet. Cole helped Michigan bust a lot of crack sweeps, and while Isaac got the yardage on the long one it was Cole's ability to ID the force defender, declare him harmless, and go wreck a safety that sprung the play. He gave up nothing in pass protection, as well.

#2(t) Khaleke Hudson, Devin Bush, and Tyree Kinnel. Michigan's bushel of short fast dudes on defense terrorized the Cincinnati backfield, collecting all of Michigan's sacks on the day. Each also had their moments in the ground game as well; Kinnel in particular had a couple of critical tackles. Oh, and a pick six. (That was a bit of a gift, yes.) I'm rounding up and giving each gent a point. The points are made up and don't matter, people!

#3 Ty Isaac. Isaac was Michigan's best back again, slaloming through waves of opponent players. He alternated bounces with interior runs that kept UC off guard and used his size and speed combination to excellent effect.

Honorable mention: Winovich, Hurst, and Gary were all effective in bursts. Brandon Watson was in the back pocket of many a wide receiver. Grant Perry was efficient, explosive, and dangit that third down was a catch. Zach Gentry had a couple of key receptions.

Honorary Honorable mention: Baker Mayfield.

KFaTAotW Standings.

4: Devin Bush (#1, Florida, T2 Cincinnati)
3: Mason Cole (#1, Cincinnati), Ty Isaac (#2, Florida, #3 Cincinnati)    
1: Quinn Nordin (#3, Florida), Khaleke Hudson (T2 Cincinnati), Tyree Kinnel (T2 Cincinnati).

Who's Got It Better Than Us Of The Week

Grant Perry's third-quarter grab and go both further established him as a bonafide top-flight, experienced receiver but staked Michigan to a two score lead that allowed most to exhale.

Honorable mention: This week the good section gets to talk about Pick Six #1 and Pick Six #2. You will like them better here, I imagine. Also: Ty Isaac rips a long one off down the sideline, Speight hits Kekoa Crawford with a bomb; Rashan Gary hulks up after nearly getting ejected and gets the crowd hyped.

imageMARCUS HALL EPIC DOUBLE BIRD OF THE WEEK.

Speight's second dorfed exchange ends a promising drive for Michigan and causes even the aggressively reasonable to think this guy has a long term issue.

Honorable mention: Cincinnati rips off a long touchdown drive to start the third quarter and create a period of squeaky bum time; Donovan Peoples-Jones turns out to be Not Jabrill Peppers on punt returns; various Speight overthrows; that one play where both guards pulled in opposite directions.

[After THE JUMP: oh also a defense]

OFFENSE

Speight. As above. I've obviously downgraded my expectations for him since the rollercoaster is clearly still in effect. I'm still not anywhere near the complaining wing of the fanbase that fills my mentions with bitches about how I was wrong about something in the season preview. He's the guy, clearly, and if he resolves half of his issues he's a guy Michigan can win many things with opposite this defense.

Insufficient receivers. One mitigating factor for Speight: Michigan is running a ton of max protect, and too often the two or three guys in routes are blanketed. I understand why Michigan's doing it—the right side of the line—but it feels extreme to me when it's goal to go from the ten and Zach Gentry is staying in.

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[Fuller]

Grant Perry remains good. Having an utterly reliable slot receiver is a nice thing. Having one who can take a slight horizontal edge and burst for a 33-yard touchdown is a very nice thing. Perry is delivering on all of his recruiting takes and then some; he is a better athlete than those takes gave him credit for. Anyone lacking as sufficient appreciation for his game should just check out the Ohio State wide receivers after two games. Those guys wear defensive backs like parkas, man.

Also Perry did not spin the ball. Not like he was going to. Post-Florida takes about how Perry had some serious growing up to do—or whatever fusty old man stuff was on offer—were ridiculous. He had a bad habit and didn't immediately break it. That habit was not challenged during fall camp, because obviously, and given a week they successfully went back to the hand-the-ball-to-the-ref thing.

Meanwhile Perry's emergence as a 50-catch-plus guy (he's on pace for 52 after two games with not a lot of throwing) takes a lot of pressure off of the freshmen, especially because he can be the chain-mover while they try to grab deeper shots.

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jumbo jumbo wide receiver [Fuller]

Each week a new tight end. Heavy rotation at the tight end spot once again and Zach Gentry finally got to display his chops on a couple of downfield catches from five-wide. He looked real good on 'em, and if Speight is going to continually overthrow guys I recommend that he target Gentry a bunch more because he's hard to overthrow.

Wheatley and McKeon also got in on the passing game; Wheatley also had at least one play where he caved in one side of the Cincinnati defense. Ian Bunting's continued sort-of absence is about to be real bad for him since he doesn't seem hurt. He's lost in the shuffle right now.

Very five wide. Michigan's passing spread tendencies were further confirmed in this one, when Michigan seemed to go five wide empty on most passing downs that weren't super long, and several others beside. Michigan did good work from this formation. I wonder when and if we're going to see the rumored tailback participation; through two games Michigan hasn't thrown a single pass to their running backs.

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frippery frip [Upchurch]

Well, dangit. The above shot is from Michigan's most frippery-laden play on the day, a couple of fake handoffs followed by a fullback wheel route that Cincinnati covered just fine. You may remember this play from the MSU game a couple of years ago, and that Michigan stole it. I'm impressed that the Cinci guy didn't lose Hill, because who covers a fullback wheel route two weeks into a new coaching regime? This guy, I guess.

Speight had a small window that he missed, and if all of his misses were like the one above we're feeling much better about him this morning. That's off by a little bit; too many of his misses were off  by a mile.

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[Fuller]

Inevitable; hopefully fixable. Onwenu had a couple of bad pass protection moments. On one he was straight-up beat by his man and gave up a sack; a second pressure ceded came when he and Ulizio failed to ID and address a stunt between the DE and DT. Later in the game Cincinnati returned to that stunt and the right side of the line handled it, so they are making some progress.

Ulizio was probably fine? Nothing he did jumped out as a huge problem on a surface-level rewatch. I don't recall any pass protection issues, and that's good. Now his level of competence is "less than Florida but greater than Cincinnati." We'll see if that holds up on a detailed rewatch.

Of interest only to obsessives. Second team OL in warmups from left to right: Filiaga, Ruiz, Vastardis, Runyan, JBB. Ruiz wore 96 and got in as a sixth OL a little bit, FWIW. There are a couple of inferences to make there. One: Vastardis is on that line ahead of Spanellis*, a guy who drew a fair bit of "he'll be good down the road" praise this fall. He continues to track as a bonus OL. Two: as soon as they decided on Ulizio they moved Runyan back to guard. Three: no Stueber despite the fact he's seen the field. Back tweak incoming.

*[I know Spanellis is a guard but it would be very easy to have Ruiz or Runyan at C and have Spanellis on the second team line.]

On the one hand; on the other. Nate Schoenle got a fair amount of time, so that offseason hype was also for real. Unfortunately his main contribution was a screamingly obvious holding call that brought back a long crack sweep.

DEFENSE

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veeeeeeeeeeeroooom [Fuller]

Even more excellent than statistics suggest. Michigan held Cincinnati to 233  yards of offense—official stats subtracted 33 on the yakety snap on the punt—and while this is very very good it fails to capture the whole picture. Because of the various turnovers in this game, Michigan faced a ton of drives: 16 in total, 15 in the competitive portions of the game.

Of those 15 drives only three lasted more than four plays: the short-field TD drive after the punt muff, the end-of-half drive that Michigan would have had a stop on if not for end of half things, and the 75-yard TD drive to kick off the third quarter. The outing did not feel as dominant as the Florida one because Michigan got hit on some things that all relatively competent spread offenses are going to hit you with occasionally; it was still very, very dominant. Not that I need to tell you that after the defense gave up zero net points.

If this game moves the needle for anyone it's probably Florida; a few twitterers suggested that Cincinnati's offense looked better than the Gators', and they might not be wrong.

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this still doesn't go so well [Upchurch]

Familiar bugaboos. When Cincinnati did pick up yards it was almost always in one of two ways: tunnel screens and exploiting Mike McCray in space. Both of those issues cropped up a year ago. Maryland racked up almost 100 yards on tunnel screens in 2016, and McCray's tendency to get lost or outrun when he was forced to leave the box was a major theme during the second half of the season.

McCray's issues in space have waxed and waned sort of like Speight's accuracy. This was not a good day for them. He got beat on a wheel route that wasn't as much of a pick as I thought it was going to be; he got juked badly on a flare to the running back; he more or less tackled the same guy on the holding call at the end of the first half; his zone drops were insufficiently deep on a few intermediate shots.

Michigan's willingness to expose McCray to situations like this is about my only Don Brown complaint. (Let me be clear: this the mildest, most breathtakingly gentle of complaints.) The situation that induced the holding call was inexplicable to me: it's fourth and eleven; Michigan lines McCray up in man in the slot while leaving Khaleke Hudson in the box to blitz. Invert that and things are sure to go better.

There's some level of edge exposure it's impossible to protect McCray from. Michigan should be doing what they can to erase the rest of it. Put anyone else in the slot.

The Don Brown hat trick. I have invented this. A Don Brown hat trick is three sacks from defensive backs. (Viper counts; a natural Don Brown hat trick is three different DBs getting sacks.) Michigan had a Don Brown hat trick in this game with one sack from Kinnel and two from Hudson. Two of those—one each—were Brown blitzes generating free runs at the quarterback. The third was an outstanding play from Hudson to beat the right tackle, get held, and get to the quarterback anyway.

GARY ANGRY. Rashan Gary almost got ejected on a terrible targeting call.

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[Upchurch]

Let's try to have that happen in the first quarter of all games going forward.

Escape from slant-corner. Michigan's safety coverage has been good to excellent so far with two major exceptions, both in the second half of this game. Metellus and Hudson both got beat badly on corner routes that could have ceded touchdowns. Hudson saw his man drop a ball in his breadbasket; Metellus's man was overthrown.

Cincinnati did a good job of setting that up by running a ton of slants early in the second half. After the first one Michigan was covering those excellently. Then Cincinnati switched to double moves on those and both safeties got burnt. Something to work on.

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[Upchurch]

Already par for the course. Devin Bush got a free run in this game, and this was a sack. So far his ability to come in super hot but still maintain enough control to take a good angle to the quarterback is remarkable. I've seen guys close like Bush did on his sack, and it seems like most of the time the QB steps up and the guy goes flying by.

Beast Mone. Bryan Mone got much more run in this game than he did against Florida. He didn't do anything flashy, but did contribute to a Bearcat interior ground game that was all but hopeless. He again proved he's a useful bull in a china shop on a second-half third and one on which he didn't just stand up to a double but deposited it two yards in the backfield. A nigh-singlehanded third and one stop is a big win.

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[Fuller]

From the "happy to be wrong" department. Brandon Watson looked dang good for the second straight game. He had another Mutumbo incident on the sideline, for one. This one wasn't as good as last week's—he'd lost a step and there was a window—but his awareness and ability to track the ball allowed him to break up a decent throw. Two other times he was tested he was there to break it up. He's exceeding expectations.

The cornerbacks are doing so as a group. When guys popped open in this game it was against safeties or in zone pockets. Hill, Long, and Watson have been in tight coverage for the duration.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Goodbye, certainty. If special teams weren't an outright disaster in this game they were close to it. A punt bonked off one of Michigan's blockers for a turnover that led to Cincinnati's first touchdown; Will Hart shanked two second-half punts that set Cincinnati up with excellent field position. Boy, never having to worry about anything on special teams except for that one weird Wisconsin game was great. And now it's less great.

Punt field follies. I thought the first two dodgy punt incidents were more on the blockers not getting out of the way than anything else. I still kind of think that—it looks like DPJ is shouting and pointing on the second one at least—but the insertion of Perry as a punt returner rather argues otherwise. DPJ got yanked after he allowed a very fieldable punt to bounce and then somehow got himself in a situation where he felt compelled to grab it while surrounded by six Bearcats.

The downgrade from Peppers was suddenly apparent. DPJ didn't have to make these decisions against Florida and their cyborg punter. He could just field a 55 yard punt without worry about anyone else, and then go get some yards. When presented with 35-yard wounded ducks he fell apart.

Perry didn't do anything but fair catch balls that should have been fair caught, but that was an upgrade on DPJ. Ask again later.

At least the kickers were good. Nordin hit a couple chip shots and Foug got touchbacks on 6 of 7 kickoffs. #collegekickers can happen to anyone at anytime—Arkansas missed FGs of 19 and 23 yards on Saturday—so I'm not going to dismiss even chippies just yet. Ten more FGAs and then I'll start taking Nordin for granted.

MISCELLANEOUS

I'm tellin' all y'all. Michigan players arriving for the game or Beastie Boys cosplayers?

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mock rock plans: revealed [Eric Upchurch]

That's Jared Wangler as Cochese and Henry Poggi as "The Chief," FWIW. Good to see that Poggi's sane-looking-person phase was brief.

    Redshirt status, part two. A few freshmen who didn't get during the Florida game hit the field Saturday. Your current redshirt statuses, with new entries in bold:

    • DUH: Donovan Peoples-Jones, Tarik Black, Aubrey Solomon
    • SENSIBLE: Ben Mason, Cesar Ruiz, Kwity Paye, Ambry Thomas, J'Marick Woods, Jaylen Kelly-Powell.
    • MIGHT GET INJURED BEFORE THEY PLAY IN GAME 5: Andrew Stueber, Benjamin St Juste, O'Maury Samuels, Josh Ross, Brad Hawkins.

    And the still pristine:

    • Chuck Filiaga, Luiji Vilain, Drew Singleton, Jordan Anthony, Dylan McCaffrey, Nico Collins, Oliver Martin, James Hudson, Deron-Irving Bey, Donovan Jeter, JaRaymond Hall, Joel Honigford, Phil Paea, Kurt Taylor, Brad Robbins.

    I saw Vilain (and Kareem Walker) in street clothes; Martin and Jeter were also not on the dress list. Those three are candidates to play whenever they get back from their injuries. I'd imagine the rest of the guys who haven't played yet are locked into redshirts. I have few complaints if that's how it works out this year. Only Stueber jumps out as redshirt you'd really like to get amongst the third category above.

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    yea their punishments are swift and hilarious [Bryan Fuller]

    Fourth downs. Two bizarre fourth down decisions in this one:

    • Late in the first half Michigan found itself with fourth and a half-yard at their own 40 after Tarik Black's would-be first down reception was correctly deemed short on review. Despite having Mike Onwenu and Khalid Hill, a combination that barreled forward for four seeming unstoppable yards against Florida, Michigan punted. We've seen Harbaugh cowboy up for fourth and short in that area before, and it's difficult to envision Cincinnati standing up to Michigan's beef machines. Dios mio, man. However, not to be outdone...
    • Luke Fickell decided to punt on fourth and two, down 13 points, with seven minutes left in the game. This cowardly act was punished with a swiftness. Fickell compounded his error by dithering; by the time he sent the punt team out they had to rush if they weren't going to burn a precious time out; the ensuing snap zinged by a punter who was looking at his feet, preparing his footwork.

    In our as-of-yet imaginary list of chickenshit opponent coaching decisions in the Harbaugh era, Fickell's punt slides in just under James Franklin's sad field goal in last year's Penn State game.

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    giddyup, pardner [Upchurch]

      Hat. Chase Winovich borrowed Eric's. That is all.

      Time management what? I've seen many complaints online about Michigan's clock management at the end of the first half, none of which I get. Cincinnati starts their final drive of the half with 2:23 on the clock and ends up with third and six two plays later. They call timeout after running the playclock down to 1:03. Michigan could have saved 40 seconds there, but it's hardly egregious to let that run and see what happens on third down. You've still got a one minute drill in good position if you get a stop.

      Michigan does not get a stop. A few plays later Cincinnati has fourth and 11 on the Michigan 39 with about 20 seconds on the clock. Michigan calls timeout here to prevent UC from getting a free Hail Mary. ("Don't allow free Hail Marys" has stuck in my mind because of that Penn State game where Brady Hoke called the free Hail Mary timeout for Penn State because he thought he might get a shot at blocking a punt.) This is good clock management.

      Fickell then decides to go for it, which seems like a bad idea but doesn't have a ton of downside, and Michigan does the weird thing where McCray is in coverage on their back instead of Hudson. They miss a long field goal attempt at the end of the half.

      And... like, so? I'm prone to yell about how everyone should have a Madden 14 year old on the sideline and none of this moves the needle for me. Almost all of this is in the gray area where if someone is wrong it's not by much and isn't likely to impact the winner, or even the score. I'm baffled people are even talking about it.

      download (2)

      [Upchurch]

      Now with leash. Eric caught a slight tweak to Habaugh's gameday apparel: his playsheet is now lashed to him, so that when he hurls it in disgust it doesn't flit onto the field or end up in the cord guy's neck or whatever. Always thinking ahead to the next rage, that Harbaugh.

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      [Fuller]

      Woof, and woof, and woof. This game was littered with bad calls:

      • Michigan got hit with a dubious pass interference on Cincinnati's first touchdown drive, which okay Lavert Hill did get in some jersey yanking. But later in the game Tarik Black was yanked backwards when he tried to hitch up with no call. Your author's flashback to last year's Ohio State game was brief and fictionally murderous.
      • Grant Perry's diving catch was reviewed and still incorrectly called an incompletion, because 80 or 90% certainty isn't enough, I guess.
      • The aforementioned Gary targeting incident. Only the ejection was overturned; a bogus 15 yard roughing the passer call stood.
      • Cincinnati's successful passes were about 50% egregious pick plays. Their second touchdown was particularly bad.
      • A couple of near-tackles didn't get called holding. One was the Hudson sack so maybe that gets thrown if Hudson doesn't get through it.
      • Cincinnati got called for a terrible celebration penalty when one of their players drew a line under the "Cincinnati" on his chest.

      Every college football season has that moment when you remember "oh, right, these guys again." Michigan's came early against UF, and continued here.

        HERE

        Best and Worst:

        Best: The Defense, Again

        I feel like these columns always focus on the offense, and it's not intentional. I really, truly enjoy watching a great defensive effort; few things are more exciting as a fan than a pick-six or a defensive end depositing the soul of a QB about 20 rows into the stands. But while the offense had its ups and downs, its tense moments and discussion points, the defense did basically what its done the past 2 years; strangle an offense and grind it into a fine powder. As I noted above, the Bearcats had 3 legitimate scoring drives (the 2 TDs and the missed FG), and nothing else. And honestly, that first TD was a gift of a short field after a bad punt return. As for the other TD, I don't think it was an illegal offensive PI (as a corner you have to be careful about initiating and maintaining contact with a receiver when they've been using that against you earlier in the game), but the refs definitely allowed more physicality by the Bearcats on offense than you'd expect.

        Ecky Pting has a breakdown of win expectations based on fancy stats. Michigan's status before week two:

        image

        We'll see how much the Purdue and Indiana wins move the needle for them.

        AJDrain reviews some tape; you can take the Fan Satisfaction Index survey. Ace will grapple with EGD's look at Air Force later in the week.

        ELSEWHERE

        Baumgardner is all up in his mentions, and mine:

        It’s tough to pinpoint the exact moment when it happened.

        But somewhere between a near lost fumble at the goal line and two incompletions in the red zone, the portion of Michigan’s fan base who had been on the fence about Jim Harbaugh’s quarterback situation for more than eight months invaded my Twitter mentions.

        With full force and no time for reason, many of them had seen enough. Harbaugh’s not playing his best quarterback, they insisted. Brandon Peters, a redshirt with zero college snaps and third on the depth chart, has to be better than this, they wrote. Has to be.Wilton Speight’s just not going to cut it, they typed.

        Welcome to Week 2.

        Also he tackles the Speight issues:

        Peoples-Jones is open with plenty of space pretty quickly here. If those feet get set, as we saw earlier, and he puts the ball on his hands on time then the speedy freshman has a chance to catch the ball, cut up field and make something happen. But he waits a beat, then his feet get flat and everything goes haywire.

        His back leg is stiff. He’s not stepping into the throw. The ball comes out late and way too high and what had the makings of a nice play goes in the books as an incomplete pass.

        Sap's Decals gets literal:

        UNIFORM CHAMPION – I can’t tell you how cool it was to (once again) see the wolverine decals on the Michigan helmets! As I said last week, as long as Jim Harbaugh is the Michigan football coach, there will be helmet stickers on the Wolverine headgear. Now, from what I can tell, it does indeed appear that the blue outline has been removed and it also seems as though the stickers may be that much smaller in size. Probably a wise move, as making them smaller will allow for more to be placed on the Michigan helmets. I’ll see if I can track down one and provide a more detailed analysis later in the season.

        I also noticed that the warning label has been moved from the side of the helmet to the back and bottom of the helmet. Why do I call this out?  Well, this frees up more space on the helmet for at least one more helmet sticker, but more importantly, this allows for a more symmetrical placement of the stickers on each side of the helmet.

        HSR:

        Sports are not necessarily a form of art, but they inspire passion and evoke emotions in people.  This builds communities of fans and followers.  Nick Hornby explored this ground in a number of his early works, after all.  This game was a mediocre album, maybe one or two solid singles, but lacking the depth to make it a classic.  Let's hope next week is a return to form.

        Memories of first home games. People showed up.

        Maize and Blue Nation. Maize and Blue News. Maize and Brew caught the fun bit of the halftime show:

        As they filed back out afterward there were some kids lining the tunnel who punched every dinosaur in the head, to general hilarity.

        Zack Shaw; Harbaugh punt return explanations.

        Comments

        corundum

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:12 PM ^

        Petition to rename the italicized line below Known Friends And Trusted Agents Of The Week to 'you're the dude now, dog' on accord that most of these are going to defensive players this season.

        wile_e8

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:14 PM ^

        On bizarre 4th down decision #1: At that point in time it definitely felt like a game we were certain to win unless we gave Cinci a bunch of short fields, and the previous two drives features fumbled handoffs. So while I doubt Cincy would have been able to stuff Hill behind Onwenu, I think forcing to Cinci to drive the length of the field instead a risking another miscue giving them a short field makes sense. But I wouldn't stand by this logic versus a more competitive opponent. 

        Pepto Bismol

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:44 PM ^

        I jumped down to say the same thing.  At that point, I think the score was 17-7.  Cincinnati had shown zero ability to drive the full length of the field up to that point and Michigan's offense just spent an entire quarter proving just how many different ways you can f**k up a football game. 

        I had no problem with them punting that ball. 

        stephenrjking

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:15 PM ^

        A couple of years ago I did a run-down on Navarre's career. I was never really happy with it, but it does track through the key games he started. For whatever it's worth.

        Re-evaluating John Navarre.

        I actually think Speight is better at the same stage of his career than Navarre was. He has never had the lows Navarre did, and both were a couple of breaks away from winning in Columbus. Speights agility in the pocket and his command of the offense are both significantly better than Navarre's and I think that gives him the potential to get a lot better.

        bronxblue

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:32 PM ^

        Navarre has become the "gritty receiver who plays for New England" of references for some reason.  It's this super-backhanded way of calling a guy who won a bunch of games and set passing records mediocre because he was just steady.  

        Speight never had the weapons Navarre had either.  Like I said in my diary for this game, Speight's ceiling is limited, but you can absolutely win games with him.  He's demonstrably better than I ever expected him to be,

        stephenrjking

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:41 PM ^

        Navarre wasn't just a steady mediocre guy, though. He flashed some potential early, but mostly he was plain bad. 2001 was a miserable slog for most of the year and Navarre was the focus of the problems. Navarre had games where he could barely throw an accurate pass and the offense was hopeless no matter what was tried.

        But he grew as a QB, and while he never became great, he became very good. After the Oregon and Iowa disasters in 2003 (which were mostly the fault of special teams, though he wasn't great in either game) he rounded into a very good QB that not only had weapons but the ability to hit them. Stretch run 2003 John Navarre was a legit good QB that dominated a legit good Ohio State team, among other accomplishments.

        I think Speight can fix his own consistency issues, which to my mind are less serious. I am hopeful that he has better coaching. And, given time, he'll have tools that are just as good (I am still high on the receivers but I, of course, overestimated the ability of the freshmen to be difference-makers early in the season). 

        bronxblue

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:51 PM ^

        2001 wasn't a great year for him, but that whole team felt disjointed; Henson leaving for the Yankees really messed up the continuity for the offense and robbed it of a dynamic playmaker, and Navarre clearly wasn't ready as a first-year starter.  But I think you undersell his 2003 season.  He beat OSU by completing 66% of his passes against the #6 team in the country.  He consistently pushed the ball downfield but also minimized his mistakes.  He was never great, but you don't need that to win a title.  Brian Griese was, at best, very good, and that team won a title.  Alabama has won a bunch of titles with guys I'd charitably describe as "fine".  Hell, OSU won titles with Craig Krenzel and their third-string QB.  

        I agree that Speight will look better as the offense matures around him.

        Rabbit21

        September 11th, 2017 at 4:29 PM ^

        Air Force had tons of turnover and the new starters are all recruiting site "whodat's" with maybe one or two guys who had power five offers and the rest competing with low level FBS/FCS schools.  Add on a victory against a bad FCS school and there's really nothing to for an expected productivity model to do anything with.

        mGrowOld

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:21 PM ^

        Every college football season has that moment when you remember "oh, right, these guys again." Michigan's came early against UF sometime shortly after Bo’s first game as a Michigan Head Coach in 1969, and continued here.

        There, fixed it for you Brian.

        kehnonymous

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:24 PM ^

        • Late in the first half Michigan found itself with fourth and a half-yard at their own 40 after Tarik Black's would-be first down reception was correctly deemed short on review. Despite having Mike Onwenu and Khalid Hill, a combination that barreled forward for four seeming unstoppable yards against Florida, Michigan punted. We've seen Harbaugh cowboy up for fourth and short in that area before, and it's difficult to envision Cincinnati standing up to Michigan's beef machines. Dios mio, man. However, not to be outdone...

        It's probably folly to make a meta-analysis of the machinations within Harbaugh's head, but is it at all plausible that in a situation where the odds say you should go for it on 4th and short, Harbaugh sent out the punt team as a way of sending a message to the offense?  Something along the lines of 'you doofs have played to badly you haven't earned the right to go for it on 4th'?  I would've gone for it.  So would most of us.  But given how badly the offense had been executing at that point, I can totally see why a coach might not have.

        mgobaran

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:25 PM ^

        If Speight doesn't improve we will be the 9-3 team we all thought we were going to be before the year started. An improved Speight and this defense can take us to the CFP. 

        I was in the crowd Saturday. I got restless. Upset. Annoyed. (Never booed). It wasn't crisp like I wanted it to be. We didn't clear the bench like we could have if our offense was up to the task. In 2013 we would have had a game on our hands well into the fourth quarter. In 2017 we played about as poorly as we can offensively, and stumbled to a 36-14 win. Next week we have a chance to forget we even played this game. Still early in the year, and we have a T25 win under our belts. Ranked in the top 10. Just need to see a step in the right direction next week. Go Blue!

        FreddieMercuryHayes

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:31 PM ^

        It's all about expectations.  If the last two games Speight played are his floor, then this team probably is 9-3 or 10-2.  That's quite an easy senario to envision.  But pre-season most thought Speight would take a step forward and the young OL and defense would cost UM games, resulting in the 2 or 3 losses.  But now that the defense looks like only a smidge behind last year, now all of a sudden Speight is costing UM the playoffs.  If UM gave up 24 points and over 300 yards in the first two games and Speight played the same way and UM still won, people would not be all up in arms about Speight.

        stephenrjking

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:34 PM ^

        I think I agree here. It's early and there's still much to learn, but all of the areas of the team I had questions about look better than advertised (even the right side of the line, which has struggled but not catastrophically) except Speight.

        The upshot is that the defense looks like it has the potential to win the B1G this year. The offense not so much, and a great deal of the issue on offense wears #3. 

        mgobaran

        September 11th, 2017 at 2:32 PM ^

        Do I think Speight can play much worse than he has? No. 

        Will Speight make or break the season? Yes, with a little bit of the RG/RT mixed in. 

        I do think Brian makes a great point regarding Speight's decision making. How many bad decisions has he made? Zero? One? His mistakes are coming from execution. And his numbers show that his decision making is offsetting those mistakes. His numbers are still fine. And fine is good enough for most of this season.

         

        teldar

        September 11th, 2017 at 2:42 PM ^

        I've been banging the inconsistency drum, but speight has a great ability to move in the pocket and makes generally good decisions. I thought his second half this week was pretty good. Not consistent enough. Not very efficient. But the ol didn't provide much and rushers didn't help out a ton.
        Do I think there a better option on the team? Probably not right now. I just wish Speight would get better with his accuracy and consistency.

        JBLPSYCHED

        September 11th, 2017 at 3:41 PM ^

        Specifically our expectations of how Harbaugh could mold a solid but unspectacular QB into a consistent and occasionally spectacular winning QB. I think we all accept that Speight is not a 5* raw talent...but we expect him to be mostly over fundamental problems in Year 2 as a starter under Harbaugh. Of course he's going to have some overthrows, bad reads, and un-clutch moments--all college QBs do--but he appears to having more than his share at this point in his career and after his final three starts last season it's very surprising and frustrating to not see more progress.

        AA Forever

        September 12th, 2017 at 9:18 AM ^

        The people harping on the fact that all QBs make some bad throws are missing the point. Sure they do, but Speight makes too many at this point in his career, and doesn't make enough big plays to compensate. He is not a running threat, so his passing has to be that much better in order for us to win the really tough games. He can't just be "good" if we ever want to get above 9-3/10-2.

        AA Forever

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:28 PM ^

        are easy fixes, that requires an answer as to why they are still problems at all. This is Speight's fourth year in the program, his third under Harbaugh and his second as a starter. The "easy" problems shouldn't be problems any more. If something fundamental is still a problem (like throwing accuracy), then it probably isn't fixable, and will just have to be lived with.

        bronxblue

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:37 PM ^

        I think it's simplistic to say mechanical issues are easy fixes, but I also think it's weird how occassional bad throws are deemed as some terrible flaw of Speight unique to him.  I would hazard that most terrible throws are because of bad mechanics and/or pressure from the defense.  Speight airmailed a couple of balls; he also completed some really nice throws with sound fundamentals.  He's a human who makes mistakes at times in a fast-paced, dynamic game.  

        He will get better, but he'll always have flaws with his game.  Literally every QB in the history of football has issues.  You try to compensate for them as much as you can and hope they don't bite you in the ass at the worst possible times.  But I fully expect Speight to be better at handing the ball off going forward, which is a fixable issue that couple be overlooked until it actually costs you some points.  

        bronxblue

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:58 PM ^

        He misses a couple of throws a game. It's also early in the year, and like everyone else he's getting settled into a rhythm with all the new players around him.

        I guess my bigger issue is I'd like to know who people think is a great QB that Speight should be like. Yes, he's not Baker Mayfield or Deshaun Watson. But I watched both Trace McSorley and JT Barrett throw some terrible balls this weekend and they are supposedly the best two QBs in the conference. People keep acting like saying Speight is a fine QB is the same as saying he's an AA. And it's weird to see Brian, the guy who has both said Speight should never start AND that's he's one of the best QBs in the country when he's on, keep ping-ponging around after two weeks.

        bronxblue

        September 11th, 2017 at 3:08 PM ^

        It's just been weird to see the vacilation between "he's going to be an All-Conference player" to "we should talk aboiut Kevin" on a week-to-week basis.  The expectations have just been all over the map while the reality has largely stayed the same.

        Monocle Smile

        September 11th, 2017 at 2:22 PM ^

        All that means is that Big Ten quarterbacks are generally awful. Barrett gets his rep from his running and having an outstanding supporting cast.

        I understand the criticism. Quarterbacks who make mistakes can be okay if they counter with eye-opening plays...the classic "gunslinger" thing. Speight is only the first half of that. The last five or so games of his have been extremely disappointing.

        outsidethebox

        September 11th, 2017 at 5:24 PM ^

        Hmmm...I think the B1G's thought to be good QBs are not...so good. McSorely and Barrett offer poor measuring sticks of what you want your QB to be. They are good athletes but very irratic. 

        QB is a HARD, DIFFICULT  position to play. Truthfully, I believe these offenses are far more complicated than they need be. You can run the same play 10 times in a row and every one of them would likely turn out differently. I have said it a thousand times if I have said it once, "THIS GAME IS ABOUT EXECUTION!!!!"  Just make the damn play that is right in front of you!

        mgogogadget

        September 11th, 2017 at 4:16 PM ^

        as the evidence this year is blindingly apparent. But, I don't remember this being an issue last year. If memory serves, wasn't everybody's largest Speight concern heading into this season his ability to connect on deep throws? I think he's looked very solid in that area this year. I don't think it's unreasonable to assert that his inconsistency..... might not be consistent. I guess we'll see.

        lhglrkwg

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:30 PM ^

        The corners got beat over the top a few times and were only aided by an overthrow or a drop. I lost track of how many drops Cincinnati had - it felt like it was nearing 10. It felt like Cincinnati beat themselves almost as much as our defense did. I'm afraid that the first good passing team we see might expose the secondary in a way Cincinnati threatened to do, but wasn't able to finish

        Bertello NC

        September 11th, 2017 at 2:03 PM ^

        Ya, this is why I was hoping the offense would be a little farther along so as to keep their offense off the field. We have to be able to sustain some drives because you're right, the longer our secondary is out there the more opportunities they'll have to goof up. Not that the reps won't be good for them but in terms of winning games we really need our offense to pick it up. Including Speight. He's got to get in rhythm and hit open receivers. He does t have to be Baker Mayfield but he needs to make throws and be consistent for us to move the chains.

        Hail Harbo

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:30 PM ^

        Regarding the back footed pass to Perry that went high and behind him.  To my layman's eye it also seemed like Speight held onto the ball too long.  If he throws half a second earlier he wouldn't have had the pressure from the right side and perhaps could have, would have, stepped into his throw. 

        Yo_Blue

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:33 PM ^

        Dancing T-Rex's were outstanding

        RAWK was freaking unbearable

        The first hype video was mixed so badly you couldn't hear the voiceover

        The M pretzels were delicious

        DCGrad

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:45 PM ^

        has to catch the punt. Period. Unless it's out of bounds he needs to catch it. I think those incidents were on DPJ, but they are freshman mistakes. That's kind of how this whole game felt to me.

        Watching the replay (because I didn't see it live), I didn't think UM played that poorly in general. The defense was great as usual and give Cincy some credit because they had a good game plan and were able to move the ball a bit more than most thought. The second UC TD should have been OPI as the receiver was blocking while the ball was in the air, which is about the textbook definition of OPI.

        Winovich got too far upfield in the first half, but he corrected it in the second half.

        The Speight/Crawford fumble was a timing issue between two guys who hadn't run a lot of jet sweeps together in a live game. I think Onwenu and Ulizio have some issues to workout but that's not unexpected from two brand new starters.

        I am torn on Speight's passing performance. Based on twitter/comments I was expecting a total disaster. It wasn't that, but he definitely has some improvements to make. As many have said already, he doesn't always set his feet when he throws, and I think his pocket presence is getting worse because he hurries throws when he has more time.

        NelzQ

        September 11th, 2017 at 4:20 PM ^

        This DCGrad; I too think Cincy is not getting the credit they deserve.

        I think their gameplan against their first opponent was purposely vanilla and that their entire offseason prep was geared toward catching us off guard with their gameplan.

        They countered our defense brilliantly and gave our coaches plenty to fix before seeing other teams rehash the same.

        As for Speight; I am just an observer at this point..

        CompleteLunacy

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:50 PM ^

        I thought I was taking crazy pills about the clock management stuff. It was a big juicy nothingburger. Just because Brock Huard makes a big deal about it doesn't mean it is. In fact, as a rule of thumb, if Brock Huard thinks is a big deal, then it assuredly is not.

        ak47

        September 11th, 2017 at 1:55 PM ^

        Is the second fumble (jet sweep) 100% on Speight?  Harbaugh put the first one on him but said he'd have to look at the film on the second one.  That seemed more like a timing, shallowness of the sweep issue than an argh Speight moment.

        I also wonder if the play calling has been a little vanilla due to the general youth of the offense.  I think there have been a lot of passing plays with nobody open people are getting mad at Speight about and I think its because the playcalling has been somewhat predictable. 

        I am a little nervous about those tunnel screens.  Florida also could have had success except for Mo Hurst and Gary making ridiculous plays you can't count on.