Michigan 35, Maryland 10
[Paul Sherman/MGoBlog]
Jim Harbaugh must be so disappointed.
Once upon a time, when Maryland coach DJ Durkin was Harbaugh's young assistant at Stanford, the two locked horns in one of the most competitive games of one-on-one "basketball" on record.
"It took like an hour and a half, and it ended 4-3 or whatever," recalls former Stanford offensive tackle Ben Muth. "Neither of them would call a foul. Someone did in the first five minutes, the other guy made fun of him, so it was on from there.
"It was like that James Caan 'Rollerball' movie, basically a fight to the death."
Today, Durkin called for not one, but two Sad Field Goals on fourth-and-short situations with his team down 28-0. Henry Darnstadster connected from 20 yards on the second, most depressing attempt with 19 seconds left in the third quarter, ensuring Maryland wouldn't be shut out. James Franklin would be proud.
Given (1) Maryland's white flag, (2) an unfortunate series of hopefully minor injuries, and (3) the desire not to put anything on film for Wisconsin and Ohio State, Michigan went into a shell. The offense went run-run-pass or run-screen-run for most of the fourth quarter, resulting in some quick exits. The Terps put together a couple decent drives, even managing to score a touchdown on one. A certain segment of the fanbase found this quite alarming.
Then Chris Evans jumped over a guy, bulled through two tackles on his way to the end zone on the next play, and kicked the Terrapin corpse.
CHRIS EVANS JUST JUMPED OVER YOUR ANGRY NARRATIVES
— Jane Coaston (@cjane87) November 11, 2017
The game was already over, no matter what Glen Mason said. Michigan jumped all over Maryland from the start, establishing the duo of Karan Higdon and Chris Evans early. The two combined for 44 yards on Michigan's second drive before Henry Poggi, playing in his home state, plunged in from two yards for a 7-0 lead. After Brandon Peters broke the pocket and found Higdon for a 35-yard catch-and-run, Evans covered the remaining 16 yards on four rushes, diving in from a yard out to bring the margin to 14.
The defense held Maryland to 3.0 yards per play in the first half. [Sherman]
The Wolverines broke it wide open four plays later, stuffing Jacquille Veii on an ill-advised fake punt in Maryland territory, then striking on the next snap with a 33-yard touchdown pass from Peters to Zach Gentry. Josh Metellus gave the offense great field position once again with a remarkably casual blocked punt on the following Terrapin drive. After a 16-yard Higdon run to set up first-and-goal, Peters found Sean McKeon wide open on a waggle.
Michigan missed an opportunity to extend the blowout even further before the half. Maryland's best drive of the day got them into a goal-to-go situation, but on third down, fourth-string quarterback Ryan Brand—the latest injury replacement at QB for Maryland—panicked under heavy pressure from Rashan Gary and Josh Uche, throwing a duck that David Long plucked out of the air and ran all the way back to the Maryland 20. The offense went three-and-out; for the third straight game, Quinn Nordin missed a kick, this one from only 31 yards out.
Even so, Michigan held a 212-112 edge in yardage at halftime to go with a 28-0 lead. Peters was averaging ten yards per attempt even though Maryland got away with some very physical coverage early. The backs were plugging along at five yards a pop. The defense was the defense.
Evans' late hurdle and subsequent TD made the final score more fitting. [Sherman]
After stopping Maryland, Michigan went three-and-out on their opening drive of the second half. That'd be the last time this game had a whiff of competitiveness, as Durkin elected to try a 43-yard field goal on fourth-and-two with under eight minutes to play in the third quarter. To cut a four-score game to a four-score game. Some pity points for the home crowd. The kicker missed.
From there, little of actual note occurred. There was a successful Sad Field Goal. The Terps scored a touchdown. Evans responded on the next drive with his leap-and-score sequence. In an unfortunate way to prove why Harbaugh shelved most of the playbook in favor of clock-chewing, multiple Wolverines got dinged up; Higdon exited after the first half with a right ankle injury, Long had to put a brace on his left knee, Lavert Hill suffered a concussion, and Rashan Gary walked off favoring his arm. After the game, Harbaugh said "we'll see" about the status of those four players.
Peters kneeled the game out inside the Maryland ten.
The final stats show a Maryland advantage of 340-305 in total yardage. That's a hollow victory for the Terps in a game that got out of hand early and featured several short fields for Michigan—there were only so many available yards to gain in the first half. Don't be fooled: this was a blowout with nearly a full half of garbage time. Durkin certainly treated it that way.
Next week in Madison, Michigan can start emptying out the playbook.
November 12th, 2017 at 12:03 PM ^
I get the whole "I don't want to put it on film thing", but at the same time that needs to be balanced with the fact that young players need to work on weaknessses. If you have a young QB that doesn't have experience throwing the WRs much, then he needs an opportunity to work on that. That must be balanced with not wanting to put stuff on film. It seems unlikely that the very first time you ask a young QB to make complex reads and thow to WRs in 3 and 4 WRs sets that he will be successful doing so against a quality defense.
November 12th, 2017 at 11:33 PM ^
I could see the 'holding back the playbook' if this was a more experienced team with a veteran QB. But when your QB has barely played 3 games and most of your receivers and tight ends are in the first year of playing, I don't think you hold stuff back. You call plays that you have confidence will be executed well.
November 11th, 2017 at 8:16 PM ^
but one I don't buy entirely. It's 2017 and Maryland isn't a bad FCS opponent - nobody 'goes into a shell' by choice after a half of football.
I do believe the injuries - Higdon's in particular - caused tentative play on part of more than a few players..but of course there is a classic and not untrue notion that if you play football trying not to get hurt you probably increase the chances of getting hurt. And furthermore, I don't think that this was intended on part of Michigan.
I've seen a lot of Michigan football and I don't think I ever saw Michigan go up 28-0 on a team and then decide to just leave it at that out of choice *at halftime*.
The reality is that Michigan can't execute its passing offense. End of. If you think this will change in the brief time remaining this season, you're in for a next few weeks full of very bad surprises.
November 11th, 2017 at 9:45 PM ^
You've never seen Michigan let off the gas and coast to a win? Then you have not watched a lot of Michigan football.
November 12th, 2017 at 9:32 AM ^
and simply being unable to execute the plays you are calling. Against bad defenses, good Michigan teams could take the foot off the gas and still cruise to 40+ points easily. Maryland last night actually shot itself in the foot so much, a more capable team would have taken this to over 50 without ever going full-speed past a point. In these games, bad defenses also tend to wear down with time and their resistance fades. Last year's Michigan *abused* these kind of teams and there was no 'ah let's keep it at 28' mentality.
In those games people mentioned from 2015, our offense wasn't exactly great either. Rudock had some significant issues for much of that year and the rushing game wasn't exactly world-beating either. Michigan was an average team offensivey in 2015. And those Northwestern and BYU teams were pretty good defensively. Northwestern in fact was extremely good. They finished 6th in total defense, while BYU finished a very solid 34th. So you had an average offense go against good to very good Ds and what a surprise the offense stalled eventually.
Maryland is 90th at this point and struggled defensively all year. They made countless mistakes last night as well. This was a time begging to be put away. Now you can fantasize about Harbaugh being 'nice' to Durkin or something, which presumably is why we killed them last year and now we're being 'nice' when we'd actually need a big, complete win for morale this year a lot more than last year.
What happens here is that this fanbase allows itself to get drunk on its own fantasies about where Michigan should be after a few consecutive adequate performances vs a number of bad opponents. Meanwhile I don't think anyone else in the country has changed its mind on the 8-4 prediction.
Now, I am not saying we got no chance. You always do in this game. It's a crazy sport played by youngsters who are typically inconsistent in their output. But make no mistake if we win in Wisconsin, it'd be a big upset. Wisconsin is no worse than PSU and we'll be their one and only chance for a late CFP statement win.
November 11th, 2017 at 10:44 PM ^
November 11th, 2017 at 10:56 PM ^
Lol they shutout Northwestern in that game. What is your point? That didn't happen today.
November 11th, 2017 at 10:59 PM ^
November 12th, 2017 at 2:21 AM ^
November 12th, 2017 at 6:05 PM ^
November 11th, 2017 at 8:16 PM ^
Well done, Ace.
I thought the Durkin FG attempt and make were chickenshit too.
November 11th, 2017 at 8:57 PM ^
are like when you pull over on a bleak two lane country road and pick up the fatalistic but singleminded turtle from the double yellow line and carry him to the side of the road with that sinking feeling that he's just going to turn around...
November 12th, 2017 at 11:53 AM ^
It was even more sad in person. There were two Maryland fans in the row in fron of me who were complete assholes, well beyond the point where it mattered. And yet I could not help feeling sorry fo them.
Yes, they're loud mouth assholes, by geez DJ, at least give them something.
They are still semi-human.
November 11th, 2017 at 8:17 PM ^
It was a clear victory from the get go. Hitting the 8 win mark this year is meeting modest/low expectations with a very young team. We have an oppourtunity to build off of this and pick up some nice wins @ Wisky and against OSU in the coming weeks. It will be fun to watch our young QB battle on the road, against a good defense, in a very hostile environment next week.
Go Blue!
November 11th, 2017 at 8:22 PM ^
Glen Mason is an idiot.
November 11th, 2017 at 8:59 PM ^
November 12th, 2017 at 1:00 PM ^
He and Millen are both absolutely terrible. I hardly ever complain about commentators, but they seem to be clueless about some of the most basic tenents of playing, officiating, and managing football games
November 11th, 2017 at 8:27 PM ^
Call me a downer but I’m not exactly excited to see us play the next two opponents. Feels like it maybe PSU all over again. Hope I’m wrong.
November 11th, 2017 at 10:33 PM ^
November 12th, 2017 at 9:06 AM ^
November 12th, 2017 at 5:47 PM ^
In the first half I saw no reason to doubt that. After we went up 28-0 and lost Higdon, I didn't see quite the same sense of urgency.
November 11th, 2017 at 8:28 PM ^
November 11th, 2017 at 8:35 PM ^
November 12th, 2017 at 11:55 AM ^
It's fine. Just don't ever get in third and long.
Ever.
November 11th, 2017 at 8:43 PM ^
November 11th, 2017 at 9:00 PM ^
November 11th, 2017 at 10:14 PM ^
After dinner do you and Jim retire to the smoking room for cigars to discuss such matters?
November 12th, 2017 at 2:39 AM ^
November 12th, 2017 at 9:07 AM ^
November 12th, 2017 at 1:33 PM ^
November 11th, 2017 at 9:05 PM ^
They don't have any WRs left. Seems like Perry and Black were the two best WRs by far and they are also missing Crawford so there's just no one left. TEs and RBs is all there is now.
November 11th, 2017 at 11:23 PM ^
November 12th, 2017 at 8:20 AM ^
He has a year of experience, and he's basically done nothing this year, despite having all the snaps he wants. DPJ is out there a lot, but has also made very few plays worth noticing.
And who thought it was a good idea to move Drake Harris to CB because we were so deep at WR?
November 12th, 2017 at 9:30 AM ^
From what we've seen McDoom isn't great at the basics of being a WR. He's great at the whole jet sweep thing, but not so great at running routes, getting separation, or even catching it. Which is why he was down on the depth chart to start the year.
And moving Drake was fine at the start of the year when they actually were deep. But they are now down 4 of their top 5 WRs. That's tough. And they still need depth in the secondary so Drake's move is fine. Should hopefully pay off later.
November 12th, 2017 at 12:08 AM ^
November 12th, 2017 at 12:09 AM ^
November 11th, 2017 at 8:31 PM ^
November 11th, 2017 at 8:32 PM ^
November 11th, 2017 at 8:34 PM ^
November 11th, 2017 at 8:36 PM ^
November 11th, 2017 at 8:42 PM ^
little windex spray...they'll be fine
November 11th, 2017 at 8:42 PM ^
The negative nancies miss the point that while no, we're not "fine," we're not any holistically less fine than we have been. That's the key. Plus, injuries suck. We're missing our TWO best receivers and that was a bit of a black hole anyway. Pass pro isn't great. That leads to a meh passing game, and that's likely the way it's going to be.
November 11th, 2017 at 8:50 PM ^
November 11th, 2017 at 11:59 PM ^
it. Curse you Angry Michigan QB/WR/TE/OL/RB/CB/Gary Hating god.
November 11th, 2017 at 11:25 PM ^
November 12th, 2017 at 5:02 AM ^
November 12th, 2017 at 11:30 AM ^
November 11th, 2017 at 8:41 PM ^
hate the injury bug..
we need a full quiver to take out the badger
November 11th, 2017 at 8:45 PM ^
November 11th, 2017 at 10:21 PM ^
We are a far cry from a balanced offense. We do not have one serious deep threat. Best hope for this offense is to leverage the several good TEs we have and figure smart ways to get Evans involved in passing game. We likely won't have a serious downfield passing attack until late 2018 or early 2019 once Niko, Donovan, Tariq and Oliver mature.
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