Michigan 49, Rutgers 16
Patrick Barron/MGoBlog
For the second straight game, Wilton Speight came on in relief of Jake Rudock at quarterback in the second half.
This time around, though, Rudock wasn't injured as Michigan went toe-to-toe with Minnesota; instead, he took a well-deserved rest after his career day headlined a blowout of Rutgers. Rudock completed 18 of 25 attempts for a career-high 337 yards and two touchdowns, adding a third score with an unlikely scramble to the pylon. Jim Harbaugh called him "tough as a two-dollar steak" for his performance coming off last week's injury.
Rudock looked better than he has at any other point this season, to the benefit of many—ten different Wolverines logged a reception. Michigan exploited a bad Rutgers secondary in a variety of ways. A Sione Houma wheel route set up a post route touchdown to Jehu Chesson; Michigan's second huge gain on a screen led to Rudock's dive to the pylon; a motion swing pass to Jabrill Peppers accounted for the third score; Jake Butt spent much of the day running free up the seam on his way to a career-high 102 receiving yards.
Butt would've had even more if not for a penalty of substituting with an "intent to deceive," a rule that seems to go against the core tenets of football, and it may have been misapplied anyway, as Rutgers simply didn't bother to account for Butt after he left the huddle. In the postgame presser, Jim Harbaugh said he was "offended" by the call.
Creative officiating was about the only way Michigan's offense could be slowed. The Wolverines finished with 487 yards. While the running game took a while to come around, the multiple successful screens were fine in its place until De'Veon Smith got it going in the second half, finishing with 73 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries.
The defense bounced back from an iffy performance against Minnesota with a stifling one against Rutgers, ceding 225 yards and only six points that weren't set up by long returns. Janarion Grant accounted for the other ten, breaking a kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter and setting up an end-of-half field goal with a punt return inside the ten. My only additional comment is both those returns also involved some creative officiating.
The defensive line, led by Chris Wormley (two sacks), dominated like usual, even after Ryan Glasgow exited with a shoulder injury—his status wasn't updated after the game. Royce Jenkins-Stone returned to his normal spot as the starting BUCK and aquitted himself well with a sack and two QB hurries.
Jarrod Wilson, long lauded here for being comfortingly boring, made an exceptionally un-boring play when he got over the top of a pass to Grant and dove for an interception. Jourdan Lewis, whom Chris Laviano inexplicably targeted with frequency, matched and surpassed the school single-season record for pass breakups previously held by Leon Hall and Marlin Jackson; his record-breaking 19th PBU killed a late Rutgers drive.
By that time, little was in doubt except when Harbaugh would call off the dogs. He didn't do so until midway through the fourth quarter with all the scoring—including a rather inexplicable two-point conversion after Smith's touchdown to give M a 43-16 lead—already in the books.
The rote blowout had enough moments of excitement to stay interesting, especially the Peppers touchdown, which looked destined for a TFL until he found an extra gear or three to blow past multiple defenders.
"I knew he was good, but man, he's really good," Harbaugh said of Peppers.
Rutgers is probably saying similar about Michigan after getting hit with arguably their best offensive performance of the year.
November 7th, 2015 at 9:29 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
November 7th, 2015 at 9:49 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
November 7th, 2015 at 9:23 PM ^
Only Rutgers first scoring drive (which resulted in a field goal) was a bad showing by our defense because they gave up that 50 yard run. The other 13 points RU got was from the kickoff return and a TON of Michigan penalties, the majority of which were horrible by horrible refs.
The substitution with the intent to deceive penalty was beyond stupid. I remember MSU scoring that way against us during the national title year. They faked a field goal and left Sederick Irvin all alone on the sidleine so their backup QB could toss an easy pass to him and he walked into the end zone. When did that rule get changed?
Happy with a big win. I would have preferred a 70 point win after last year's game but this is nice too.
November 7th, 2015 at 10:07 PM ^
November 8th, 2015 at 1:06 AM ^
Bolden was held too. It was ridiculous.
November 8th, 2015 at 7:41 AM ^
November 7th, 2015 at 9:24 PM ^
November 7th, 2015 at 9:47 PM ^
they're pretty quick with this stuff.
November 7th, 2015 at 9:44 PM ^
Surprised more isn't being made of Glasgow. I, for one, am very worried.
November 7th, 2015 at 10:21 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
November 7th, 2015 at 10:21 PM ^
November 9th, 2015 at 10:37 AM ^
I thought he broke his thumb, which you can play with.
November 7th, 2015 at 11:21 PM ^
Thank you NEBRASKA!
WOO HOO !!!!!!
So glad the offense woke up a bit today. Nice win !
Jake did well today. It was nice to see!
November 7th, 2015 at 10:49 PM ^
November 7th, 2015 at 10:49 PM ^
November 7th, 2015 at 11:36 PM ^
I wish we could've exploited MSU's porous secondary a bit like this
November 8th, 2015 at 12:09 AM ^
I like the 2 pt. conversion call, not because of the extra points or the chart, but because it seems like good practice for us.
Same with Speight -- he got tangled up with the lineman's foot on the one play, and I'm so glad he learned that lesson today instead of someone like Ohio State.
November 8th, 2015 at 6:43 AM ^
That was a great win. Shut them out in the second half. If Rudock can throw the ball like that, we will not be beaten by anyone. The key is to give him time and the receivers need to be open in the middle. If that happens consistently, he will find them. There were still complaints in the live thread about Rudock throwing behind on some of those throws. I am keying in on a lot of QBs in the CFB and most of them don't throw well all the time. The receivers adjust. Rudock had a pretty good day and the receivers also helped him out a little bit. It is team work and I hope it continues into the next few games.
November 8th, 2015 at 10:33 AM ^
It's a pretty good bet that Ruddock won't have that much success in any of our remaining games. And our running game continues to be mediocre, even against fairly lame defenses.
November 8th, 2015 at 2:43 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
November 8th, 2015 at 8:23 AM ^
November 8th, 2015 at 9:20 AM ^
November 8th, 2015 at 9:51 AM ^
November 8th, 2015 at 2:17 PM ^
November 10th, 2015 at 5:07 PM ^
Thought it looked familiar. Went back to the MSU UFR, the FB wheel to Houma is an exact replica of MSU's play that gouged the Michigan D for 74 yards. Same formation, motion, routes, right down to the RG pulling. I find it awesome that Harbaugh and friends will straight rip off a good play if they like it. Constantly evolving.
November 8th, 2015 at 9:37 PM ^
Photo title: The State of New Jersey
November 9th, 2015 at 6:04 AM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
November 9th, 2015 at 10:39 AM ^
I assure you that if a Michigan-Iowa match occurs, I will probably have to leave the state of Iowa for a couple of weeks.
Comments