Wisconsin 24, Michigan 10
A somber scene as Brandon Peters was down on the field. [Patrick Barron]
Michigan led undefeated Wisconsin, 10-7, in the third quarter at Camp Randall Stadium. Then Murphy's Law struck.
First, Wisconsin quarterback Alex Hornibrook shook off a shaky start to thread two inch-perfect throws to A.J. Taylor. The first victimized freshman Jaylen Kelly-Powell, who was on the field replacing injured starting corner Lavert Hill. The second was a touchdown up the seam to give the Badgers a 14-10 lead. Adding to the frustration, the drive only stayed alive due to a third-down pass interference call on Tyree Kinnel despite Hornibrook's throw hardly looking catchable.
Then disaster really struck. Facing third down on Michigan's ensuing possession, Brandon Peters took a hard hit from Andrew Van Ginkel, who stunted up the middle unblocked. Peters, who'd shaken off some huge hits in his last couple games, stayed down. As the team gathered around him, Peters took a cart off the field. According to MLive's Mike Mulholland, he was wheelchaired to the locker room, then transported to the hospital via ambulance. In postgame, Jim Harbaugh confirmed Peters has a head injury; he's expected to rejoin the team for the plane ride home.
That took the wind out of Michigan's sails. Wisconsin struck quickly, with a one-handed catch by Danny Davis setting up a 32-yard end-around touchdown for Kendric Pryor at the end of the third quarter. John O'Korn took over for Peters, and the offense never threatened to score. UW's Rafael Gaglianone eventually tagged on a field goal to provide the final margin.
A.J. Taylor's touchdown catch stood as the winning score. [Bryan Fuller]
Before it all fell apart, Michigan hadn't just scraped out a lead, but missed some opportunities to really put the Badgers on their heels. Wisconsin struck first when Nick Nelson picked up a punt off the bounce and worked his way past some poor coverage for a 50-yard touchdown. Peters had a chance to tie it up on the next series, but underthrew an open Zach Gentry, allowing Natrell Jamerson to recover for a pass breakup.
On Michigan's next drive, an apparent touchdown from Peters to Donovan Peoples-Jones was ruled incomplete, and despite replay showing that DPJ's left foot touched inbounds a fraction of a second before his right landed out, the call stood. On the very next play, Peters fumbled while scrambling for the end zone, and Michigan came up completely empty.
The young quarterback bounced back, though. Peters finally connected on a deep ball to Peoples-Jones, getting Michigan out to midfield, then made consecutive sharp throws to Chris Evans and Sean McKeon to set up a one-yard Ben Mason touchdown plunge. That knotted the score at seven heading into halftime.
After Devin Bush picked off Hornibrook to give the offense great field position, Quinn Nordin snapped his cold streak with a 39-yard field goal to give Michigan a short-lived 10-7 lead. Instead of compounding his prior error, Hornibrook morphed into Aaron Rodgers, and everything went terribly wrong in a hurry.
All other concerns at the moment are secondary to the health of Peters. If he can't recover in time to take on Ohio State next week, the odds stack even higher against Michigan unless Wilton Speight can make a remarkable comeback from his fractured vertebrae. As it stands, optimism for The Game is going to be hard to come by.
November 18th, 2017 at 6:50 PM ^
November 18th, 2017 at 7:17 PM ^
November 18th, 2017 at 8:34 PM ^
November 18th, 2017 at 9:07 PM ^
November 18th, 2017 at 6:16 PM ^
November 18th, 2017 at 6:42 PM ^
Senior Peters? So 3 years from now?
Dude.
November 18th, 2017 at 8:59 PM ^
November 18th, 2017 at 11:36 PM ^
We don't know that. Football's an emotional sport and to see your QB knocked out (literally) and taken to the hospital has to be a blow to morale. We don't know how this game may have turned out without that.
November 18th, 2017 at 8:59 PM ^
November 18th, 2017 at 9:35 PM ^
Poor planning with JOK and OT's? How? When he arrived in 2015, the only QB's were Speight, Morris, and Malzone. He took Rudock and JOK as transfers to get some options. Rudock worked out, so did Speight (last year, this yr is incomplete). JOK, Morris, and Malzone have not worked out. That leaves Speight and a redshirt freshman. This is poor planning, it's a circumstance he inherited. QB Whisperer, or not - you can't make P5 talent if you don't have the raw tools to work with.
As for the OT's, there wasn't anything on the roster - we're seeing it! A couple of recruiting misses (because kids go where they want), and a disastrous injury. Again, not poor planning, just dealing with the worst of a bad situation.
Personally, I think Harbaugh has done a fantastic job coaching this team.
November 20th, 2017 at 11:38 AM ^
even the 'poor coaching' comments to me are kind of flexible. Someone might not like the playcalling, but if that play works its 'novel and exciting!'. Harbaugh right now is coaching with his hands tied due to the limit of experience.
November 18th, 2017 at 7:14 PM ^
November 18th, 2017 at 7:31 PM ^
I think there are a bunch of extenuating circumstances, which you call excuses. They are frustrating things that have and continue to happen. However, looking at the issues out of context is a mistake when trying to analyze what's working and what is not. When looking at the roster Harbaugh inherited there are a few obvious things. One, he got way more out of similar talent than Hoke did. Two, the team set up well for a strong year in '16 and a rebuild in '17. There were lots of seniors last year and few this year. We have also had terrible luck with officiating. My hunch is this all feels a little different if we get the 4th down call last year and beat OSU, win the B1G, and go to the playoffs. That probably would have given Harbaugh a little more good faith. That very well could/should have happened, but we didn't get the call. We have also had some bad luck with injuries that unfortunately our roster is simply not able to deal with yet. Newsome, Speight, and Black all really hurt. Also consider some of these talented players that were recruited that are no longer with our team...LTT, Brian Cole, Amir Mitchell in addition to the injuries.
All that said, the offensive side of the ball has been frustrating even considering the setbacks and youth. I agree there needs to be some shakeups in the offensive coaching. I for one have never liked the "pro style" when compared to the systems that other folks like OSU run with more mobile QBs. It seems to be easier to learn, have fewer mistakes, and can get more yards with less talent. Also, it's super hard to account for the QB both running, throwing, and handing off to the RB. This puts pressure on a defense that a pro style can't by simply the fact that one of these options (QB run) is eliminated. This makes sense to me and unfortunately may not be something we ever do with Harbaugh as he likes his TEs and FBs.
The problem with wanting to win the B1G by claim of looking at our recruiting is the team to our south. They have continued to out-recruit us, some years by a wide margin and other years by a narrow margin, consistently for the last 20 years. So, if the logic is recruiting and time, well, I personally don't think we'll never out-recruit them consistently nor do I think we'll ever start to beat them more than half the time. I don't see what happened in the 90s happening again, so if that's your expectation you're setting yourself up for failure. And, as long as they are in our division it's going to be a struggle to beat them. It also seems to hurt us more than them playing them the last game of the year as they seem to absorb injuries better than we do. Hopefully some coaching stability will iron that out, but I wouldn't mind changing the date of the game. Now, should we beat them often than we have the last 15 years?...absolutely. But, we probably aren't going to beat them like 8 of the next 10 anytime soon. I'd hope for more like once every 3 years.
November 18th, 2017 at 9:35 PM ^
damn, dont get me started on running QBs. its so tough to consistently recruit, develop and deploy pro style pass game / power running O at college level. it can be done and its a beautiful thing to behold when clicking - but few can do it at the highest level and year in / year out, especially given college restrictions (and even when they can, teams like bama see benefit of sprinkling more spread and speed to go with QB run). and its not like QB run prohibits hurting Ds via pass or results in significantly more QB injuries (just look at michigan this year while osu has won tons of games over past 10-12 years with like 5-6 athletic QBs). there just seems to be greater margin for error vs more pro style / pocket passer.
good post though. im sure peters, mccaffrey, etc will light people up next fall and ill cheer for them like always - but my stance on mobile QBs and O style likely wont change until college games changes
November 20th, 2017 at 11:34 AM ^
I don't know that running a different style would have helped this year. In addition to all of the things mentioned above we've had a young team hit with key injuries. We've lost 3 QB's, our #1 wideout (himself a freshman), been devestated at tackle, and dinged at guard, all with a new Center.
Running pass or run spread with this combination might yield the same results for similar reasons: We've had to bake down the playbook and just focus on fundamentals. We've had to work with RS and sometimes True Freshman on the O line to get things going, and they make mistakes.
This shouldn't surprise anyone.
Heck, many on this board were thinking 9-3 8-4 *without* the injuries we have had. That we are the team that many predicted isn't scandalous or bad.
Sometimes you can take the hits we have taken and it works out, but that is pretty damned rare. To quote Aaron Rodgers, people need to R E L A X. Next year should be more fun.
November 18th, 2017 at 7:32 PM ^
Harbaugh is the best we can possibly have/get.
November 18th, 2017 at 8:37 PM ^
This is pretty much right on. Offensive staff blew this season from the beginning. OL, WR, and QB play were garbage until Peters came in and make the offense at least mediocre. Offensive staff need to go and start over.
November 18th, 2017 at 8:46 PM ^
November 18th, 2017 at 11:25 PM ^
always the same lame crap with you (you only show up for losses) about how Michigan got out coached and how the coaches need to be fired and how the players suck. Do you have anything new?
November 19th, 2017 at 12:26 AM ^
Fire Harbaugh if he doesn't make the B1G Championship next year. That makes sense. Because taking a team that's essentially been in the toilet for a decade to the conference championship in four years is something anyone should be able to do.
Who do they hire next? And how long does that person get? Another four years? Or is that too long since they've had some decent recruiting success? Maybe only 2 for the next guy?
Of course, they could just hire you. You seem smart. I'm sure you could win a National Championship on year one.
November 19th, 2017 at 11:59 AM ^
Fire Jim Harbaugh?!
Seriously? That's what you're with?
And, what, make Saban an offer he can't refuse?
I'm honestly wondering what your plan is after you run JH out of town?
Ask Jed & Trent how it worked for them....
November 19th, 2017 at 4:13 PM ^
November 20th, 2017 at 6:48 AM ^
November 18th, 2017 at 4:23 PM ^
November 18th, 2017 at 4:26 PM ^
Didn't look to have them ready to go this week with everything to play for and a winnable game in front of them... Couldn't even get a play off the sideline during the first quarter without burning all the TOs.
It's typical of the Michigan fanbase to assume that something magical happens for Ohio State when, really, that's not how this works. Clinging to miracles is all we do now. Just a bummer.
November 18th, 2017 at 4:39 PM ^
How were we not ready to go in this game? We outgained Wisconsin 170-99 in the first half.
And maybe the timeouts had something to do with a RS freshman QB playing basically his first road game?
November 18th, 2017 at 4:56 PM ^
our coaches somewhat failed them.
We drove fairly easily to the Wisconsin 40 and it was 3rd and 6 on the first drive. Instead of treating it like 4 down territory (which it was), we ran a poorly executed fade to a TD and then punted even though we still should have gone for it. Punted to the endzone for a net 20 yards and it was clear our coaches didn't understand the importance of opportunities on the road in this game.
Our brilliant offensive wrinkles? Wildcat. WTF. This is a team that's really good at stopping the run with smart LBs, hey, let's direct snap to the RB to absolutely tell them what's coming. And then let's line up again for it, realize how terrible the idea is, and call a TO to get out of it.
We looked like the far better team for the first 2.5 quarters because our DL was unblockable during that time. Unfortunately, we didn't get enough of a lead before the thin DL inevitablely fatigued on the road against a good rushing team.
No jet sweeps. No reverses. Nothing creative other than the nice throw to Hill. For having three offensive coordinators, they don't do a very good job.
November 18th, 2017 at 5:06 PM ^
Actually I'm pretty sure both DPJ and McDoom carried the ball today on end-arounds/reverses.
You can quibble with the odd playcall here and there but that's small potatoes stuff. UW is a good defense and they've only given up 300 yards twice all year. So for us to gain 170 in the first hallf was pretty good. It's unfortunate we didn't have the lead at intermission.
November 18th, 2017 at 5:25 PM ^
they each had one carry (I think went to the bathroom during the McDoom carry) and they averaged 7.5 yards.
Our RBs ran into the line 18 times for a total of 45 yards. Why not more of the interesting stuff? Last I checked 7.5 > 2.5.
And the wildcat remains an absolutely stupid decision to light downs on fire.
Which is my point. We moved the ball decently well in the first half when our O line was fresh (good protection mostly!) and it was clear that UW does not have a good secondary when not interfering. Our failure to capitalize was largely on coaching. You have to take your chances on the road and call better plays against a good opponent and we did not.
We decided to get into a field position battle even though we didn't need to during those first 2.5 quarters, and since we have a terrible punter, that didn't go well and was a bad idea.
November 18th, 2017 at 5:29 PM ^
Not sure how it is "largely on coaching." One drive stalled after Peters waited too long to throw to an open Gentry for a big gain (if not a TD) and it was broken up. Later we had the pass to DPJ ruled out of bounds, followed by Peters fumbling at the two. At a minimum we get six points on those two drives without the mistakes.
As for reverses and jet sweeps, those are change-of-pace plays, not something you go to all the time. McDoom didn't get much on his carry anyway.
November 18th, 2017 at 5:43 PM ^
Called an improbably fade on 3rd and 6 from the opponent 40. A play that it high risk (unlikely to succeed), when three yards would seet up a no brainer go for it on 4th.
3rd and 8 the third possession and we ran it, despite having mostly good protection and QB play so far. That seems like a better place to go for the TE fade.
Refs already showed they'd call the PI, why not be more aggressive on the road when your punter is terrible?
Oh, I didn't even count Kareem Walkers runs which put our RBs at 21 carries for 41 yards. Less than 2 yards per carry. Try at least a little more of something else. Like the plays they got you 7.5 yards per carry.
November 18th, 2017 at 6:25 PM ^
I thought our run/pass balance was pretty good. You can quibble here and there on individual calls but we were moving the ball with Peters until his injury. It was unfortunate that we didn't finish a couple of drives into their territory.
Not only is the inside ground game our bread and butter, part of why we run so much is to set up other plays like play-action and outside runs. You can only ask so much out of a shaky passing game, especially given our leaky pass protection that has now gotten two QBs injured. And you're not going to be able to run a jet sweep every series or those are going to start losing yards - it works when the defense is caught out of position, anticipating an inside run.
November 18th, 2017 at 11:36 PM ^
that's not the complaint. It's how we did it. Running 21 times with RBs right into the line for 41 yards is very, very bad. Heaven forbid we run something interesting and have it eventually lose yards. If that's happening on nearly every down with the base plays, please run the other stuff until it does lose yards. If the defense is playing inside run every single play, run something else at least more than 10 percent of the time until they stop playing the inside run so that you can run it again. Insisting on running bad plays over and over is some Iowa-level playcalling.
And a wildcat empty set?!?! No zone read even, no FB, just a shotgun to #12 with a giant sign saying hey, this guy right here is 100% going to run the football. I have no idea how that could have seemed like a good idea in the coaches room.
We did move the ball with Peters. He was playing well, and the line was actually giving him some good time. That's why it was dishearening to see the coaches basically give away two of our first three drives.
November 18th, 2017 at 9:12 PM ^
November 18th, 2017 at 11:22 PM ^
the difference between 3&6 from the opponents 40 yard line and 3&8 from your own 16, you're not going to get it. But yes, it was a poor idea on 3&6 (but again still should have gone for it) and it would have been a much better idea on 3&8 than a run.
November 18th, 2017 at 5:59 PM ^
they each had one carry (I think went to the bathroom during the McDoom carry) and they averaged 7.5 yards. Our RBs ran into the line 18 times for a total of 45 yards. Why not more of the interesting stuff? Last I checked 7.5 > 2.5.Well, playcalling is a little more complicated than that. Part of why the former gains you those 7.5 is because the defense is anticipating the latter. 18 carries by tailbacks really isn't many, at any rate.
November 18th, 2017 at 7:32 PM ^
November 18th, 2017 at 7:10 PM ^
doesn't account for the hidden yards aka punt return for a TD hence the tied game at half time but I get your point that Michigan was the better team at 1st half.
November 18th, 2017 at 8:47 PM ^
November 18th, 2017 at 4:40 PM ^
Double posting after a loss, yay.
November 18th, 2017 at 4:44 PM ^
GTFOH, Bando.
November 18th, 2017 at 4:39 PM ^
November 18th, 2017 at 4:43 PM ^
You're really coming out firing.
Try being here for more than two weeks before telling someone to delete their account.
November 18th, 2017 at 4:48 PM ^
November 18th, 2017 at 4:50 PM ^
What are you trying to prove here, tough guy?
November 18th, 2017 at 5:04 PM ^
November 18th, 2017 at 5:35 PM ^
Agree with Hatchett. You've been posting for a long time, but that doesn't make you right about anything. Do you think you could help out the band with their tired halftime shows? Just asking for a friend.
November 18th, 2017 at 7:05 PM ^
November 18th, 2017 at 7:11 PM ^
If you don't have a rebuttal, just lob a grenade. Same old schtick. Cool.
November 18th, 2017 at 7:41 PM ^
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