SPONSOR NOTES. You know one thing I appreciate about HomeSure Lending is that Matt is not a song designed to draw the attention of a child, and has never gotten stuck in my head for days on end, relating banal facts about the world around me. This may be happening to my brain right now, and is not a very good advertisement.

If you'd like to think about something other than washing your hands for once in your life you could call Matt and get some quotes for a home loan. The problem with this strategy is that Matt will get you your quotes so quickly that your respite will be brief. But then you can talk to him about football, which helps.

FORMATION NOTES. Nothing particularly unusual except for one tackle over play that was a waggle pass to Poggi. Purdue alternated between a 3-4 and 4-3 front but was also not weird in any significant way.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES. OL was standard save for a healthy number of Runyan snaps at right guard; after the game Harbaugh said those were more about Onwenu's endurance than his performance. Speight got the first three drives and was knocked out before the fourth, whereupon O'Korn came in. Brandon Peters got the final, uncharted drive.

Isaac was limited with a ding sustained late in the Air Force game, so Higdon got a plurality of the work until his fumble. Evans got most of the carries after that. Kareem Walker saw his first live action late. Fullbacks were the usual rotation between the seniors with one snap for Mason.

With Black out it was Nate Schoenle and Grant Perry who got most of the additional snaps. Perry played both inside and out in this game; DPJ got his fair share but didn't get targeted as much as many folks want. Crawford was still the most-heavily deployed WR. TE saw McKeon and Gentry get almost all of the targets and a clear edge in snaps. For Ty Wheatley that means he's playing with a cast on his hand; for Ian Bunting that is bad news. Eubanks got scattered snaps as well.

[After THE JUMP: my kingdom for an offensive line.]

O'KORN FOR KING OF ALBANIA

Does Albania still have kings?

uh... they had one from 1914 to 1946 under, get this, KING ZOG THE FIRST

So not anymore.

King Zog was also President, Prime Minister, and Marshal of the Royal Albanian Army. Quite a guy!

Can we talk about football now?

oh okay Mr. Post This UFR More Than A Wee—

Anyway, O'Korn's day held up after a fine-toothed comb review. Speight's did not improve. A chart:

[Hennechart orientation: mouse over column headers for explanations of the categories. + is handed out for a good throw under duress. * is handed out for a very bad version of a bad thing. Numbers in parens are screens. DSR is an attempt to compress the numbers into one overall number.]

WILTON SPEIGHT

In Speight's defense, the offensive line was 3/10 in pass protection when he was on the field. But while he got a lot of pressure he also wilted in the face of it. I don't think any of his passes actually saw him hit while the ball was in his throwing motion so events like "overthrows McDoom so badly it's almost an INT" are partially on him.

While his teammates continually let him down, Speight did not pick them up by doing something even moderately tough. He continued to look like a guy who had regressed from last season. The early failed third and short conversion is an excellent example. Nate Schoenle is supposed to rub a linebacker and fails. Speight sees this and correctly decides not to throw, but he starts drifting left when that is not strictly necessary and never comes off Hill to see a wide open McKeon:

That should be an easy conversion as Michigan catches man coverage on a rub route and if Schoenle executes nobody gets peeved at Speight; if you're a redshirt junior and one of the few guys with experience you're going to have to pull some plays out of the fire. Speight has not done this much, if at all, after doing it quite a lot a year ago.

O'Korn, meanwhile, had a day.

JOHN O'KORN

DSR is not a weighted metric so it does not encapsulate six DOs and five + throws versus no asterisks. 75% is a good number; the performance exceeded that by some distance, in no small part because of Michigan's pass protection. But more about that later, with "womp womp" sounds. This bit is about the QBs.

So. After a year and change of Speight starting off terribly about half the time it was nice for O'Korn's first throw to be a deep hitch to Schoenle that was confident and on the money:

And after a year of excellent pocket presence followed by... not that, O'Korn's ability to move and find guys downfield was a drive-saver, repeatedly. This chunk play got erased by a penalty...

...and O'Korn just followed that up with the chunk play after which everyone thought maybe it's gonna be all right:

A third improv chunk to Perry brought his total up to 60-some yards upon breaking the pocket. (Also, the first one that got wiped out almost perfectly offsets the cheap 24-yarder Evans got at the end of the first half, so O'Korn's 270 yards on 26 attempts is both factually and spiritually correct.) O'Korn had a couple of wobbly moments where he vacated too early when he had someone coming open. These did not come close to offsetting the big chunks he picked up when forced into scramble mode. Notably, all of these were plays on which he looked downfield.

When not forced into improvisation mode, a lot of the stuff O'Korn did was simple. Here Purdue tips a blitz; Michigan has a route headed right to the vacated area. Second and long into an easy conversion:

Basic stuff... that felt like a revelation. O'Korn's quick, open throws stood in contrast to Speight's struggles to identify open guys the last few games. Twice Michigan picked up catch-and-run conversions on outs that had to be thrown with accuracy and timing to provide YAC. They were. Ditto Gentry's mesh touchdown, which O'Korn knew was open before he even turned around off of play action. This is basic quarterbacking being executed very well. That's huge progress for O'Korn, and apparently the offense. 

And then he got dialed in. I gave him 6 DOs in this game, which is a lot on just 26 throws, and I shorted him one on his scramble escapades. The others were no-doubters. This throw is not only between two guys in a tight window but leads Gentry upfield and cannot be better placed for a catch and run:

One 15 yard penalty later, Michigan faces first and 25 with Purdue breathing down O'Korn's neck. O'Korn stands in, takes the hit, and gives Gentry a chance to make a play.

1) Yes, throw it at the Ent. 2) He even puts this outside of the defender. Given the circumstances this about as good as it gets.

Michigan punched the ball in after that throw, and then the next first down they got was this:

That was the only called QB run in the game; O'Korn displayed the kind of ability that makes him a viable threat, the kind of guy you have to check on zone reads and the like. Going forward expect him to be incorporated as a traditional Harbaugh running threat who gets 4-6 carries on purpose.

Meanwhile a rewatch didn't change my opinion that O'Korn's errors were relatively few and benign. The interception was low and behind Perry, but I thought Perry won that route decisively and then gave it back with some unnecessary Route Artisanship; if he doesn't do that he's probably digging out a difficult completion. As it was he got hit by a DB and the deflection went to the wrong place. That's not a great throw but 90% of the time that ball hits the ground harmlessly, and a lot of the time it's complete. 

Other incompletions included:

• barely missing Perry for chunk plays twice, once on the third-and-short hitch and go down the sideline, once on an out route that would have featured a ton of YAC
• a bomb to DPJ that was acceptable; DPJ didn't play it well
• thinking he had press coverage on Crawford and throwing a fade route against cover three; he got instant pressure and didn't have time to come off his read
• throwing it away with instant pressure up the middle
• badly missing Eubanks on the play he got lit up on
• Evans thinks O'Korn is going to run, goes to block just as O'Korn tries to flip it to him

He missed some throws; he didn't miss them by much, and bad decisions were minimal. Some of that was Michigan giving him a lot of throws on which his first read was all but guaranteed to be open, about which more later. It was still an outstanding performance no matter which caveats you want to throw at it. And if you have those caveats, let me present... whatever the opposite of a caveat is. A vista-on. Or whatever.

I don't want to look at this.

TOO BAD IT'S THE OFFENSIVE LINE

/is sacked

CHART

That protection number isn't a whole lot worse than Michigan's two iffier days this season but the opponent gives pause. Purdue entered this game with one sack; they left it with five. Ulizio got worked one on one for a couple pressures; everything else was systematic.

The scary thing is this is not a problem localized to any one person. The right side of the line got the bulk of the blame in the Cincinnati game. Here it was Ulizio... and also the left side. Speight got knocked out on a blitz up the middle that either Cole or Bredeson or Isaac or Kugler or some combination of the four made a horrendous mistake on:

Your guess is as good as mine. I guessed Cole because he's looking right at the guy and decides to pass him up. Meanwhile Bredeson cannot get off his block because Kugler slides right the whole play, doing nothing. I don't know what he's looking at. If it's Onwenu's guy he should see that he's slanted outside and anticipate pressure from the other side, which he does not do.

Plays like this make me wonder if Kugler's screwing up a bunch of line calls. Michigan's in a tight bunch here and slides their line away from the bunch, where all the Purdue guys are lined up. There are other times when the thing Michigan is trying to do is a complete mystery to me.

And this in particular bodes unwell for MSU. Purdue tips a double A twist blitz and Michigan misses it entirely, giving a Boiler a free run up the gut:

Michigan ate that blitz up last year with Cole at center, FWIW.

Why are your run grades mostly positive? This showing was dismal, I say! Dismal!

As always, it takes one bad block to blow up a play and several to make it work. We're looking for 66% positives for an average-ish to good day; Michigan came nowhere near that. The run grades are bad grades.

It all started so well, with Michigan plowing up the gut for ten yards. Watch the two Purdue DTs get hammered off the ball:

That has been rare this year. Michigan got good doubles in and then two guys got to the second level.

Much of the rest of the day Michigan spent their day getting wrecked by slants. This is a basic anti-zone strategy that Michigan sucks at dealing with. Evans gets swallowed here on a corner blitz. Onwenu does poorly here; what if he does well?

RG #50, also the rest of the OL

Evans gets swallowed by of the other two guys who shot into the backfield, or he cuts it all the way back to the free cornerback. (If he does really, really well he carves out a lane for Higdon for six yards.) I don't think I've seen Michigan recognize these slants and adjust once this year. Michigan makes a presnap read and then they are done. They did that against Florida, when Ulizio kept leaving tight ends with assignments they could not handle, and they did it here. At no point do they stop to help based on a post-snap read. I keep expecting Michigan do to something like this Kyle Kalis thing against Rutgers in 2014:

They don't do this. They eat slants instead. The clip above sees three different guys rip into the backfield.

It's brutal at times. This embarrassing TFL sees 1) a guy set entirely free by Cole and/or Bredeson, 2) Bredeson whipped by the NT, 3) Kugler whipped by a DT, and 4) Runyan and Ulizio stalemated on a double by another DE.

Oh, and McKeon runs right by a guy. But, hey, good kickout by Gentry.

This again makes me wonder about Michigan's line calls. Cole is clearly expecting Bredeson to pop out on the DE who flies by him. When the four-year starter expects something that does not happen, and the rest of the blocking is such a disaster, and a version of this play where everyone blocks a gap further to the backside does seem way more likely to work, I feel like this might go back to Kugler (and/or O'Korn, I guess) mis-identifying who should block who.

Another example in this vein follows. Check out both guards chasing guys they can't get to.

#50 RG and #74 LG

This is split zone, with Bunting headed to the backside, and that means some Purdue guy has to go out there lest they give up the edge. A LB is clearly doing this; Bredeson follows him instead of hitting the guy who tackles. Onwenu, a gap behind, is doing the same thing. (Also yes the bounce is wide open; I can't blame Higdon because the middle looked like he was getting delivered to the safety until this happened.) That feels like a mis-identified MIKE.

And then there's just crappy blocking. I was willing to write some hall passes after the Florida game when Taven Bryan repeatedly stuffed double teams; four games in against Not Taven Bryan it's time to get worried. This Evans run ends up cutting all the way back mostly because Bredeson and Cole nearly get split at the LOS:

#74 LG and #52 LT

On the other side of the line, a woof moment from Kugler and (to a lesser extent) Onwenu:

Only Onwenu is moving people on a semi-regular basis. You can get away with that if you are precise and metronomically efficient against all the games opposition defense will throw at you. Michigan is not. There's little separating this performance from various Hoke debacles—other than the 49-yarder Michigan had 99 yards on 33 carries against a team that was in the 120s in fancystat rush defense last year. They are 119th in tackles for loss allowed. It is time to start glaring at Tim Drevno.

The running backs didn't exactly cover themselves in glory either.

Higdon did well, I thought, except for the fumble. Big "except," yes. Both Isaac and Evans were frustrating.

Too frequently Michigan guys are running straight the whole play. When the opposition has put an extra guy in the box you need to get someone to waste themselves without occupying a blocker, and misdirection is the way to do that. There's play-level misdirection that gets filed under Rock Paper Scissors, and then there's an in-play misdirection where you threaten one gap and then show up in another. There's a reason you hear a lot about "great one-cut runners" and not great zero-cut runners, because unless you are physically dominant on a play zero-cut running results in this:

Michigan actually does a great job to blow out and combo through the NT and the don't get anything because Ulizio's guy slides inside. He can do this because of the extra guy in the box—the gap behind him is covered. How does this work for anything other than two yards? Poggi reads that Ulizio block and pops behind him, and Isaac follows. I've seen Michigan do this before and have to think that is an option on first and ten, when you're swinging for more than two yards.

This was never more frustrating than on this Ty Isaac run that should have been the pretty sibling of the Evans touchdown. Both that play and this one have Purdue committing to the outside and creating a cavernous gap inside. Isaac ignores his:

Like one of the frustrating Higdon cuts early in the year he's actually shading towards the correct side of the first level block when he decides to run right into the bad side.

Later Higdon would turn in an example of almost getting this done. He commits both linebackers to an interior gap and then bounces out, but a hair too slow, allowing one of those guys to get an ankle tackle in:

If he keeps his feet (or Michigan doesn't try to block that guy by free releasing on the wrong side of him) Michigan's one Hill kickout block from a big play.

One final one from Evans, who just runs directly into Bentley here:

Cut. You are 210 pounds; he is 260. You have the advantage when he changes direction. Purdue has pinched their line here to get this exact thing, but the risks are clear: on either side of the Great Wad in the middle of the play are big pockets. Don't take their bait.

Onwenu kept getting pulled but he's got your best grade?

Michigan named him their OL of the week and it was deserved. He wasn't responsible for much of the pass rush with just one minus there, and he opened up some of Michigan's infrequent rushing lanes. Here he creates a crease for Higdon by driving a slanting OL across the formation and pancaking him:

Purdue is trying to induce a cutback there but Onwenu carved out a hole so big the Boilers can't shut it down in time. Onwenu isn't amazing but when he gets you he gets you.

Any random destruction that might make me feel better?

Yes. I have no larger point here. I just want you to see this.

#80 FB

Hammer panda.

Anything... like... good, personnel wise?

Other than O'Korn, I'm sure you mean. Yes: both McKeon and Gentry flashed the athleticism they're purported to have as they emerged into frequent targets in the passing game. McKeon drew one on one coverage with a linebacker on his big catch and run; it was no contest:

#84 standup TE to bottom of line

That guy was done before the stumble. Their other contributions are embedded above in the O'Korn section. Gentry did have one drop; aside from that it looks like Michigan's tight end pecking order has resolved itself with those two guys on top, with Wheatley likely to feature more prominently as a blocker when he gets healthy.

Boy, I'd hate to have to manufacture an opinion about the wide receivers.

It was a routine day for them. DPJ hung on to the ball on O'Korn's first scramble completion despite taking a heavy hit; Schoenle had  one tough-ish catch, and everything else was routine. Perry did make himself available a couple times when O'Korn was moving around.

Crawford didn't do much other than catch a couple smoke screens. His other two targets were both deep balls. On one he was trying to run a go route against cover three and the DB did a very good job; not much he could do about that. He drew a flag on the second but it was unwarranted*, and the route was weak. This is not a double move that fools anyone:

Black's targets went to Schoenle and the tight ends. Crawford's disappointed so far.

*[I think I saw a commenter assert that the DB was getting in an illegal jam past five yards. That's an NFL rule, not a college one.]

Here's the WR chart, for what it's worth:

[0 = uncatchable, 1 = circus catch, 2 = moderate difficulty, 3 = routine]

ROUTES: Crawford –, Perry ++-, Schoenle –, McKeon +, DPJ -

Schoenle's route minus was the failed rub; DPJs was the bomb at the end of the first half he didn't try to high-point.

You mentioned the pretty Evans touchdown?

Yes, the one to put Michigan ahead was a play I bet they wanted to save for later, because whenever the busted it out the first time it was going to break. Michigan has done a few things from the Very Sweep tight bunch formations, but mostly they've run the crack sweep or a counter trey the other way. Here they fake both at the same time:

#84 TE to bottom of bunch, also other TEs in bunch

Pulling McKeon across the formation takes the entire linebacker level and the free safety out of the play. The pitch convinces the other half of the Purdue lineup it's a sweep. Purdue was playing the crack sweep by having a linebacker shoot upfield fast enough to pick off a puller. He duly executes his assignment; with no puller this just runs him out of the play. Another DB fights outside to string out a sweep, as does another CB, and Evans has the easiest touchdown of his career.

Other RPS items?

Michigan did a lot of work with their routes in this game. Mesh's contribution to the whole was obvious. Michigan had a couple of plays in the same drag-with-a-rub family, notably this 11 yard gain by Gentry. Check out Grant Perry's route, which is a subtle and effective rub:

#88 slot receiver

Gentry danced a bit and ended up getting more or less what he would have if he just went hard to he outside: 11 yards. They'd also clearly identified a weakness in Purdue's zone coverages where the outside CB would follow a slant too long; that opened up a couple of third down YAC conversions. All of these catch-and-run events were easy throws with clear reads that O'Korn executed confidently; they were a perfect way to break in a backup quarterback.

Mesh also helped Michigan on the ground. As mentioned in the game column, on the 49-yard Evans TD Wheatley's route to a linebacker looked just like a mesh drag and therefore took another Boilermaker with him:

#17 TE to right of screen, also Purdue #21

That's a nifty two for one and Evans got to the safety untouched, which was bad news for him.

Finally, this was a very good idea that didn't quite come off:

O'Korn hit a bunch of similar throws in the spring game and then hit Black for 37 yards in the opener; I'd imagine we see more plays like this since it's a relatively safe throw that O'Korn seems to have down.

Heroes?

O'Korn, McKeon, and Gentry were an efficient combination.

Maybe not so heroic?

Pass protection was alarmingly bad against a team with no rush coming into this game. The run game is a mess in general.

What does it mean for MSU and beyond?

Inside zone is a wasted down against MSU. It will look like the Iowa game. MSU will slant heavily and the linebackers will fire downhill incredibly fast. Michigan is going to have to pass to force the MSU defense to look more like they did against ND—a passive cover-3-heavy unit—than what they looked like against Iowa. MSU got to run their hyper-aggressive Narduzzi defense against Iowa, and if Michigan tries the same crap they'll have the same results.

Ulizio can't pass protect. He got whooped twice in this game by a guy who's not very good. Four games in we've accumulated plenty of evidence. This was his second consecutive –7 day.

O'Korn looks like a different guy. That performance was close to great. Michigan did scheme him a lot of easy looks; whether he can go through his progressions remains an open question.

I still don't know what they're trying to do on the ground. There's a lot of stuff that looks like nonsense, whether it's a ton of mental errors or consistently screwed up line calls. Hope your buns off that Michigan gets radically better over the bye week, but I don't think it will.

Michigan's top receivers are Perry and two tight ends. Hopefully DPJ can round into five-star form pretty soon here; I'm not expecting Crawford to bust out in the second half.