South Carolina 26, Michigan 19
[Marc-Gregor Campredon]
New year, same Michigan.
In one of the uglier games of an aesthetically unpleasant season, the Wolverines never managed to cobble together a coherent offense, and five-second half turnovers beget 23 unanswered points for South Carolina.
Quarterback Brandon Peters, playing behind a line down three starters by halftime, never looked comfortable. Factoring in two sacks, Peters averaged only 3.7 yards per dropback and missed a number of throws, including two late interceptions to seal the loss. Michigan fared little better on the ground, gaining all of 2.9 yards per carry.
While the Jim Harbaugh takes will reach a level of scorching usually reserved for large celestial bodies, it's fair to criticize the playcalling, which didn't do much to take the pressure off Peters or Don Brown's futilely amazing defense. No single call was responsible for the loss, but the third-and-short handoff to tight end Sean McKeon, fumbled for a South Carolina recovery, defied explanation until Harbaugh, taking responsibility, said after the game that Michigan had the wrong personnel on the field.
[Campredon]
That play was just one in a series of mistakes that turned a 19-3 second-half lead into a 26-19 loss. Karan Higdon fumbled inside the South Carolina five-yard line with the Wolverines leading 16-3 and poised to blow the game wide open. After Michigan added a field goal and SC responded their first touchdown drive, McKeon's fumble gave the Gamecocks the ball on the M 21; they needed one play to score again, with Jake Bentley's pass to Bryan Edwards cutting the lead to 19-16.
Michigan's ensuing drive went nowhere, and the defense—as we've seen too many times this year—cracked under the pressure of supporting an inept offense. Bentley improbably converted a third-and-17 on a jump ball to tight end Hayden Hurst; three plays later, Shi Smith beat Tyree Kinnel clean to the pylon for a 53-yard score.
The comedy of errors continued unabated. After driving Michigan 75 yards in seven plays, Peters committed a cardinal sin of quarterbacking, throwing under pressure across his body to get intercepted in the end zone. When the defense held, SC's punt clanged off Donovan Peoples-Jones's facemask, setting up the Gamecocks with the ball in the red zone, where they'd get a critical field goal to take a two-possession advantage.
Down to one timeout in the waning minutes, Harbaugh decided to go for it on fourth-and-ten deep in his own territory, but Peters's deep shot to Kekoa Crawford wasn't anywhere close to a completion. The defense gave Michigan one last chance, pushing SC back to force a missed field goal. Another interception by Peters, forcing it to a well-covered Crawford, ended it.
Fair or not, this will be a long offseason. The mitigating factors, or excuses, or whatever you care to call them, go away in 2018, when the program will be loaded with talent recruited by Harbaugh. They'll certainly look better than this. They'd better look a whole lot better.
January 1st, 2018 at 4:50 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 4:50 PM ^
is very suspect regarding the offense. We should not give a pass to Don Brown's defense. They were spotted to 16 point lead and yet again they could not hold it. In the last two years we have lost seven striaght games at the end of the season. There is failure all around including what appears to be classless act of JH not crossing the field to shake SC coach hand.
Musscamp in the post game interview gave a shot back by stating football tradition and history has little to do how you play on the field. Our entire coaching staff needs to be reviewed. We need an outside receiver coach, a QB coach and a new OC if JH wants to keep his job.
January 1st, 2018 at 4:53 PM ^
No man, listen to Ace. Michigan's defense was just so demoralized by the offense's ineptness that they gave up a 75+ yard TD drive while they were still ahead 19-16.
Just like they were so demoralized to be up 20-14 at home against Ohio State with JT Barrett injured.
January 2nd, 2018 at 4:22 AM ^
The game write up makes excuses for Peters and the defense.
Unreal.
January 1st, 2018 at 5:01 PM ^
It's a high-variance D that gives you man downfield all day. That allows for the uber-pressure up front in the box, but as the game goes on and the pass rushers begin to fatigue, the bad matchups downfield begin to reveal themselves, and DB simply will never have his guys playing even a smidge more conservatively. That seems more of a testosterone/manhood thing than a tactical one at this point.
January 1st, 2018 at 6:10 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 6:17 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 6:42 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 6:48 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 4:50 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 4:50 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 4:50 PM ^
"Don Brown's futilely amazing defense".
You're trolling me at this point aren't you?
January 1st, 2018 at 5:25 PM ^
Is there any point where you consider making SC dink and dunk and execute for 10 plays down the field? Seems like that would be a good idea when you don’t have and offense as you’re up 19-3.
I get the high pressure, blitzing mentality. But we have a front 4 that can get pressure on their own. Maybe give the young safeties some help by playing a soft zone for a series or two. It’s not like SC has a deadly pocket passer that will pick you apart.
Just a thought, because this looked like a total team loss to me today. Defeated in all 3 facets.
January 1st, 2018 at 5:44 PM ^
Right? Whenever you hear about a team destroying Tom Brady, its always because they don't have to blitz and can get pressure with their front four. A 16 point lead and SC just throws screen after screen to take advantage and Brown never adjusts.
January 1st, 2018 at 8:24 PM ^
Love most of what Don Brown has done, but being a Dr. Johnny One-Note Blitz doesn't always work. My biggest beef with RichRod was he didn't adjust his schtick to his players' abilities. Does Don Brown have a problem adjusting his Dr. Blitz approach to situations where that's not the best strategy?
January 1st, 2018 at 4:51 PM ^
I think we have reached that point. I'm not football-smart enough to know what it is or how to fix it, and believe it or not I still trust Harbaugh. But that's my heart talking. My head says there's no turning back. Major improvement in all 3 phases next year or bust.
January 1st, 2018 at 4:52 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 4:52 PM ^
as the worse loss of the Harbaugh era. Offensively, this team was woeful, never establishing anything and Peters looked shell-shocked most of the game. He seemed slow to make decisions and waited too long in deciding to go downfield. He played like he is, a redshirt freshman who hadn't played for two months.
Unless the Oline gets fixed, it doesn't matter who calls plays or works out of the pocket, he will be running for his life. They fumbled away this game in all aspects. From the coaching staff on down. Everyone is to blame, especially the head coach.
January 1st, 2018 at 4:53 PM ^
mediocre OLine, lots of mistakes for key skill players and HUGE question mark at QB until proven otherwise with a brutal schedule next season
lot of work ahead
ps still better than 3-9
January 1st, 2018 at 4:53 PM ^
On the Higdon fumble, what's the rule there exactly? The ball came out before he was down, but replay showed he clearly grabbed it while down, and then someone must have ripped it away after. Obviously that kind of thing happens a lot in the pile, but when you have a camera angle showing him down with his arm holding the ball, shouldn't that be enough to rule him down?
January 1st, 2018 at 4:53 PM ^
Well, that was disgusting.
Drevno, gone. Has to be.
It's going to be a long, cold winter in Ann Arbor.
January 1st, 2018 at 4:54 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 8:05 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 4:55 PM ^
I would make a simple suggestion, let’s stop with the media ploys and events for a while. No more “Signing of the Stars” with celebs or going to Rome on what was undoubtedly fun, but also a total middle finger to the rest of the football world. Let’s just get to work. Lay off commenting on Tweets, getting in the media, etc. When asked to make a comment just say “we are getting to work”. At the beginning of the season they had work shirts, can we get that mentality back? Just work hard, get organized, be focused, and win games. I would have been pleased and will be pleased with ugly wins. I don’t need masterpieces, but to me it is looking like it’s so technical and precise that mistakes are bound to occur.
Ok. My two cents over.
January 1st, 2018 at 4:56 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 4:56 PM ^
A lot of spot on comments so far. Bottom line - UM Football cannot stand pat in the offseason without some serious changes. First and foremost, need a new Offensive Coordinator. If I did my job like Drevno, I would lose my job and have my resume out. And while I appreciate that Harbaugh was taking the heat for that ridiculous play with the TE fumbling a handoff by saying "we have the wrong personnel on the field", it was a lame attempt to cover up stupidity. But that was just one play of many that had us all shaking our head. I heard all year that UM couldn't use it's entire playbook because our QB was not experienced enough to handle the complexity. Well, here is a thought, make it less complex because what you have is not working. As for the punter, the coaching staff had other options. Once the poor kid shanked his third punt, time to let Nordin go back to punting which he has done well in the past. Too many things wrong to keep going on. And so many of the issues were coaching 101 miscues. That is what is most troubling. But if we have any hope for next year, he needs to fire more than his strength and conditioning coach. He needs to completely overhaul a pathetic offensive playbook and needs a Don Brown on the offensive side of the team. Now on to watch some real football in the championship games....Go Blue!
January 1st, 2018 at 4:56 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 4:57 PM ^
This offseason: Fire Tim Drevno and Pep Hamilton
Next season: Win the BIG East, Win the BIG outright, or playoff appearance.
Anything short of that, he unfortunately needs to go. He's not being paid to blow games against teams like South Carolina or to go 1-5 against OSU and MSU.
January 1st, 2018 at 4:57 PM ^
Sorry to say, but Dantonio did a whole lot more with a whole lot less. He just had a QB.
January 1st, 2018 at 5:09 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 5:14 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 6:42 PM ^
we all know the numbers. Our bad season wasn't as bad. But, hey, MSU didn't lose a bowl game last year.
January 1st, 2018 at 9:30 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 12:58 AM ^
Look at what Dantonio's done since he's been at MSU. He's an outstanding college coach.
January 1st, 2018 at 5:14 PM ^
and Harbaugh is a traditional Michigan guy, so....
January 1st, 2018 at 4:58 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 5:12 PM ^
Sorry but that just looks like a bad team.
January 1st, 2018 at 4:58 PM ^
So just to be clear, in order to be good next year all we need is for the NCAA to grant a waiver to allow Patterson to play and hope he doesn't have a rought adjustment like Ruddock did costing us games early in the year. Newsom to come back from a career threatining injury to be an above average LT after not playing football for 2 years. One guys who couldn't top bad to magically turn into a plausible RT. Ruiz to be able to call an offensive line better in year 2 than Kugler in year 5 under the same coacing, a WR crew to take a massive leap forward despite not having a real position coach and to replace a top 10 defensive player in Mo Hurst on the line without too much dropoff.
Oh and we will have to beat a ranked team on the road for the first time under Harbaugh multiple times. Yup, should be a blast to read this blog in 10 months. Happy offseason everyone.
January 1st, 2018 at 5:45 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 6:25 PM ^
Really, you're just saying "young players should get better with experience". That is not far-fetched and happens all the time.
The three biggest personnel factors:
1. Who will be the QB? There are three realistic bullets in Peters, Patterson and McCaffery. I don't think its a stretch to believe that one of that highly touted trio works out if Patterson is eligible.
2. The offensive line will have Ruiz, Onwenu and Bredeson as its core. That is not a bad start. Who will play tackle? We need to find two between Runyan, Newsome, Steuber, Honigford, Filiaga and JBB (and maybe the freshmen, depending on who else Harbaugh lands). This is probably the biggest question mark. As I said above regarding the QB situation, it doesn't seem unrealistic that one of those three guys ends up being great given Harbaugh's track record. But getting two average or above average tackles out of a group that doesn't have an elite recruiting record? This is where things get iffy.
3. Will Winovich stay? He stays and the defense should be even better than this year despite losing Hurst as almost everyone else should be a better version of their 2017 self.
January 1st, 2018 at 5:00 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 5:09 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 5:00 PM ^
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January 1st, 2018 at 5:09 PM ^
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January 1st, 2018 at 5:57 PM ^
January 1st, 2018 at 6:00 PM ^
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