Best and Worst: BYU

Submitted by bronxblue on

Viva Dad Rock!

Best:  Rock You Like a Hurricane

This game in a single image:

That’s Wilford Brimley (as “Uncle Douvee”), on a horse, with a bow and arrow, escaping a fireball created by the dynamite he placed around his cabin deep in Bayou, which he detonated to kill a phalanx of guns-for-hire trying to kill him and his “nephew”, Jean Claude Van Damme’s “Chance Boudreaux”, is the movie Hard Target.  It is an incredibly dumb movie that may be the best 97 minutes you can spend in a day.

Tanner Mangum and the BYU offense was that cabin on Saturday, except UM wasn’t a bunch of goons circling in for the kill, but instead a bunch of grizzled warriors streaking away on their trusted steeds, swatting away passes, grinding up linemen, and warning all those who listen about the dangers of high blood sugar.

Michigan gave up exactly 3 offensive plays over 10 yards, and one was the Stribling near-INT that became a tip-drill reception on the second drive of the game for the Cougars.  BYU’s average yards per play was 2.1, and it was nicely split between 2.3 yards per rush and 2.0 yards per attempt in the air.  BYU punted 11 of the 12 times they had the ball, with the 12th possession ending the game.  On those other 11 drives, they didn’t have a drive longer than 8 plays or for more than 41 yards, and went 3-and-out 7 times and had two 6-play drives that netted them…0 and 8 yards, respectively.  Hell, it took BYU playing out the string on the last drive of the game to crack 100 yards of total offense.

On the other side of the ball, UM’s offense did what you kind of expected.  After the first drive of the game resulted in a quick 3-and-out and a couple of “yeesh” collar pulls from the faithful as Rudock looked out of sorts with ill-timed passes, the offense proceeded to march down the field on it’s next 5 possessions and score 4 TDs and a FG.  All those drives were for at least 47 yards, including drives of 80, 90, and 68 yards, the first two being of the bludgeoning 10-play variety and the other featuring Smith Beast Moding through BYU.

Smith finished with 125 yards and the above-noted TD on 16 carries, the team recorded 254 on 51 with two more rushing TDs from 2015’s Dual Threet Memorial Award Recipient Jake Rudock, and that was with UM definitely letting up on the gas a bit in the 2nd half.  And a week after his worse passing performance as a Wolverine (and, in all fairness, probably as a starter anywhere), Rudock had the quintessential Rudock-ian performance, completing 56% of his throws for 7.76 ypa and a TD, got rid of the ball when that was the right call and, for the first time this year, finished without a turnover.  As per usual, he spread the ball around (9 different players caught at least one pass, with Darboh leading the way with 4), and (usually) ran the ball effectively when necessary. 

Last week I described the game against UNLV as the most vanilla game possible, with Michigan going full Milton Berle* after the half.  Some people criticized that playcalling because of the passing game’s struggles, but I thought it was appropriate given how overmatched UNLV looked.  And that’s why I think Harbaugh is different than a lot of college coaches – he does what he needs to win a game and improve his team, but outside of perhaps a rivalry game he doesn’t seem particularly wired to improve the “optics” of a win by running up the score.  If this was Mortal Kombat, he wouldn’t go for the fatality; he’d just let your player stumble around and fall over while he’s taking another sip from his can of Crystal Pepsi.

So in this game, UM basically did the same thing after the half, being content to run the ball (25 times in that second half vs. 10 passes) and getting off the field with minimal injuries (it doesn’t sound like Smith’s ankle is all that bad).  It was just that the first half wasn’t so much vanilla as Superman ice cream covered with Viagra and cocaine.

It’s been three weeks now of UM dismantling their opponents to a degree we haven’t seen around these parts in nearly a decade.  Since Utah, UM has outscored their opponents 94-14, and you could argue that’s a bit misleading given how often UM has let up on the gas in the second half.  It’s still a long season ahead, but at this point it’s hard not to be excited about the heights this team could hit this year and beyond.

* Milton Berle was known for having a rather large member, and was (in)famous for winning, um, measuring contests handily, with Jackie Gleason once advising him to “go ahead, Milton, just take out enough to win.”  And no, Google image searching isn’t a good idea on your work computer.


Best:  You Shook Me All Night Long

It’s getting more and more difficult to come up with superlatives to describe the defensive effort we’ve seen every week by this team.  Oregon State just put up 24 points and 386 yards against Stanford on Friday, or 17 more points and 248 more yards than they did against UM, and 79 of those yards came on their one scoring drive to open the game.  That same Utah outfit that dropped 62 on Oregon on the road could barely muster 17 against UM, and UNLV just put up 72 points against Idaho St. 

As Brian noted last week, UNLV was so scared of Peppers and co. wreaking them on screens that they didn’t even consider throwing one to the one NFL-quality guy on their offense until well into the blowout.  They basically pitched a shutout until Decker hit Boyd on a couple of nice passes late in the game. 

And in this game, BYU barely scraped by 100 yards total of offense after coming into the game averaging about 430 yards/gm before the day started.  Tanner Mangum, he of the 12.3 ypc and numerous long-range bombings, averaged 4.6 ypc in this game, and if you throw out his tip-drill completion of 14 yards you get 3.7 ypc. 

I’m not sure that any team in the country has been playing better defense than UM thus far this season (given how their opponents have looked against other squads), and that’s with breaking in a new corner, the loss of Mone before the season, and the various transition costs associated with the coaching change even with the Mattison-aided continuity. 


Best:  No More Mr. Nice Guy

The defensive dominance thus far begins with this defensive line.  You know you absolutely dominated a team’s offensive line when your leading tackler is a cornerback (Stribling with 4), followed by your NT and DE with 3 a piece (Glasgow and Ojemudia).  Your top tackler in the LB core was Ben Gedeon, with 2 of his 3 tackles on kick returns, and it wasn’t for a lack of effort by Desmond, Gedeon, Ross and Bolden.  It was just that when an opposing team runs 50 plays, 16 of which end in incompletions, there aren’t that many opportunities for your second level to get to the ball carrier.  The defensive line recorded 3 sacks on Mangum, 5 more QB hits, and held BYU’s leading RB Adam Hine to 33 yards on 8 carries, or 4 yards on 7 carries if you throw out a 29-yard scamper in the first quarter.  And I’d like to single out Ryan Glasgow, who had 2 TFLs and just demolished BYU’s offensive line for long stretches of this game.


Best:  Blinded by the Light

During the telecast, McDonough and Spielman talked about how UM’s defense has been, both by ranking and in actuality, very good these past couple of years, and how they were put in bad positions by the offense.  And while that is absolutely true, I also think the insinuation that UM could have “relied” on those defenses to win games, as they seem capable to do with the 2015 outfit, is not.  The defense under Hoke was quintessential Carr-ian – great when you “put on your big-boy pants” and smash into each other like wildebeests or when UM had a clear physical superiority, but increasingly anachronistic when tasked with stopping the more “modern” offenses you see across college football.  The talent was there, but as soon as the QB started to move around the pocket and little slot receivers were introduced, the schemes seemed to fall apart or, at the very least, seemed unable to adapt quickly.  They looked great on paper until they were punched in the mouth, and then all bets were off.

This team is different – when you punch this defense in the mouth, it goes all T-1000/Borg on you, assimilating your tendencies and exploiting your weaknesses, and that’s when the fun stops.  I know it’s early in his tenure, but I think this flexibility, this adaptability, will be the greatest benefit D. J. Durkin brings to this team.  This is going to sound incredibly cliche (as is most of this post), but the players are being put in positions to succeed, and you see that not only in the box score and the RPS scores, but in the scary calm you feel when the ball leaves the QB’s hand and you are reasonably confident that a cornerback will be in the right position on the receiver, with safety help on the way.  It’s when you see a jet sweep or a short WR screen and know that a linebacker and Peppers is about to hold it to minimal gain.  When you see Mangum spin away from the pressure (and there was always pressure), survey downfield with that cannon ready to go off for a 65-yard field-flipping dart, and have to dump it off behind or over his nearest receiver because there isn’t anyone breaking in the secondary and a couple of maize and blue jerseys are bearing down with cruel intentions.

I’m sure those around these parts with more football knowledge will point out areas where the defense still struggles, and I recognize that teams with solid offensive lines (MSU) or dynamic playmakers (OSU) will probably still give them headaches, but as we stand here on the last weekend of September, I don’t see a single offense on the schedule that UM can’t adapt to rather effectively.


Best:  Born to Run

Another weak, another dominant performance on the ground.  This week it was De’Veon Smith rumbling for 125 yards, including a 60-yard score that was basically the physical manifestation of De’Veon Smith if Smith wasn’t a human being already. 

It’s a video game play, but not like a football video game play, but instead like Dig Dug where Smith just burrowed underneath everyone and popped out on the other end with nobody the wiser.  Brian keeps saying Smith is the closest runner he’s seen to Mike Hart, and this play is the type Hart pulled out for 4 years.  Just seeing a hole and deciding he won’t get tackled until he’s in the endzone or the entire defense lassos him down. 

Credit should again be given to the offensive line.  TFLs were minimal, and while BYU doesn’t have a dominant run defense UM’s backs were rarely being hit in that first half until they were 3-4 yards pass the line of scrimmage.  Even when Rudock was sacked, it didn’t feel so much like the line broke down in protection as much as BYU just brought the right number of people and Rudock either held onto the ball a bit too long or just ate the sack because the game was so out of reach.  I’ll be interested to see how they grade out this weekend, especially Braden and Glasgow, who seemed to just be manhandling guys at times.

And Jake Rudock showed the type of mobility that Harbaugh expects in his QBs, which brought a new dimension to the offense that absolutely helped loosen up those defensive fronts.  I’m not sure if he’ll be able to run for quite that freely against the better lines in this conference, but even the threat of Rudock on passing downs should add a needed dimension to the offense going forward.


Best:  Carry on Wayward Son

I mentioned it earlier, but Jake Rudock had the best game of his short UM career but being, well, Jake Rudock.  His completion percentage was a bit lower than you kind of thought watching the game (though 56% on 25 throws with a number of out-of-bound throws in the second half to save downs attributed to that number), but after the first-drive jitters he looked really solid out.  Ace linked to it in his recap, but this catch by Darboh felt like the turning point for Rudock’s day, even though it was early in the first quarter.

All year I’ve been noticing that while Rudock clearly had issues with downfield accuracy and vision, he was also not being bailed out by his receivers the way all QBs tend to.  And it’s when you get one or two of those “my bad” balls on the positive side of the ledger that not only do you look better in the box score but you also play better.

Rudock is a 5th-year senior and he has his limitations, including a desire to make the “perfect” throw instead of the “let my guy be better than the other guy”, but I always thought had he connected on one of those long throws to Chesson or Darboh against Utah, or those clear PIs against Darboh by OSU, or that twisty-turning bomb to Darboh against UNLV, he’d have looked better on the scoresheet and, I think, fans would have been less bothered by fears of his limited arm strength or ability to stretch the field.  As soon as UM’s new American Hero did his best Odell Beckham, you could see the offense open up and Rudock become more comfortable.  It is incredibly feelingsball, but trust in your receivers is essential for any QB, and today you saw what a competent, comfortable Rudock brings to this offense.

Now, Rudock still needs to improve his timing and reading of the play (he missed a BYU corner slipping on his first pass that would have been for huge yards, he threw a ball to Canteen before he even turned around, was quick on a short pass to I believe Darboh on that first scoring drive, and nearly threw a pick on a blown-up WR screen), but he looked light-years better than he did even a month ago.  And he seemed comfortable throwing to everyone, which explains why 9 Wolverines caught balls and Khalid Hill caught twice as many as Jake Butt without it looking remotely out of place.  My hope is that he looks good against Will Likely next week before taking on NW and MSU.


Sorta-Worst:  Down Under

Because I have to be cautionary about something, I guess, I was a little bothered by O’Neill seemingly unilaterally deciding to run on 4th-and-16 in the 3rd quarter.  Love the Aussie spirit, but in games that aren’t quite such a blowout it probably isn’t a great idea to try to run for a first on your own half of the field with that make acreage ahead of you.  I like that the punter has the ability to make that call in Baxter’s special teams because of its unpredictability, but that was the wrong one to make given the circumstances.

Oh, also, my heart breaks a little seeing Jake Rudock run this offense and remembering that Devin Gardner was stuck playing in Hoke’s dinosaur offense for years.  Nevermind…I’m moving on.


Best:  Don’t Stop Believing

Last week I talked about how I thought UM had a real chance to upset both MSU and OSU this season, and there was a contingent of readers who thought I was a bafflingly-myopic homer.  And I’ll totally cop to that somewhat.  But right now, OSU has some questions at the QB position and has struggled against pretty mediocre competition despite the final score.  The NIU game was probably closer on the scoreboard than in reality, but Cardale Jones remains a guy who completes a bit over 55% of his passes and looks less and less like a major running threat as teams start to prey on his accuracy.  Obviously, having Barrett off the bench to step in if necessary is a great luxury, but this remains a boom-or-bust offense that relies heavily on its defense to cover up their mistakes, and that might not hold true for the rest of the season.  It sucks that UM won’t play them until the end of the year because I assume they’ll have some of these issues ironed out by then, but it remains a very vulnerable #1 team.

As for MSU, they were outgained for the 3rd straight game, this time by Central, and may have lost Conklin for some time.  That Oregon win is looking less and less impressive and the Ducks play well below expectations, most recently getting waxed by Utah at home.  This year they are also suffering some sustained injuries to key players (Davis, Conklin, Copeland, Kieler) for the first time in this current renaissance, and depth is becoming a major issue.  Playing Purdue and Rutgers should give them some time to at least try out replacements and heal up, but after what UM has done to teams like Utah and BYU defensively, I’m not sure Connor Cook is going to look like the first-round QB some are touting him as.  And that defense isn’t getting any better in the secondary, so if UM can establish a running game the screens and play-action throws might be there for the first time in years.

I know there are games to be played and UM still has to face tough defenses like PSU and Minny along the way, but at this point I’d be disappointed if UM didn’t at least split with MSU and OSU and be in it for the division title at the end of the year.


Best:  Already Gone

Looks at schedule

Go Blue!

Comments

BlueCube

September 27th, 2015 at 10:01 AM ^

I just finished a MLive story and it shows how the players are buying into Harbaugh. The spoke to Ryan Glasgow and he spoke of relentless effort and reinforcements. During Michigan's defensive streak of 6 consecutive 3 and outs, he only played 3 of them. Hurst played the other 3 and there was no let down. They now believe in themselves but also believe in every other player on the team.

I can't wait to see how they play as they get more experience and confidence.

And I'll end with this:

 

Eye of the Tiger

September 27th, 2015 at 10:38 AM ^

One thing--you mention the 2013/14 defenses as good except when playing against spread offenses. But my worst memories of those defenses are actually against "manball" offenses in max protect, with a QB sitting in the pocket with enough time to wait for a hole in the zone coverage to form in the middle of the field.

Basically, our defense did not possess he ability to generate sufficient pressure with the DL, was soft in coverage, and featured LBs who didn't do well on long-developing pass plays. Now our defense gets a ton of pressure from the DL and plays aggressive in coverage, which has cut down on those long-developing pass plays.




Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

bronxblue

September 28th, 2015 at 11:10 AM ^

That's true, but the structure of the defense always felt ill-suited for the mobile QBs they ran into.  I mean, they could sorta compete with your PSU/Minny types reasonably well, but throw some tempo at them like IU or OSU and they were a mess.  And yeah, elite offenses could chew them up as well, for the reasons you noted.

Everyone Murders

September 27th, 2015 at 10:40 AM ^

Great write-up after a great game. I had an unsettling thought that this UofM team bears a strong resemblance to circa 2012 (shut your whore mouth!) MSU. A suffocating defense, generally a bit underrated, and playing aggressively on the DL, solid LBs, and an opportunistic set of DBs not afraid to clutch a bit. Offense run by an improving game manager, strong RBs, and WRs able to punish you for overloading the box. Apart from our guys being about a million times more likable, there's a striking similarity here.

Blasphemy? Sure. What's worse is I'm pretty much fine with it. Not as an end point, but for 2015.

/ ducks /

Everyone Murders

September 28th, 2015 at 10:24 AM ^

I used "circa" because I wasn't sure of the year, but now that you mention it 2013 sounds right.  IIRC, that was the year the Connor Cook looked like warm dog food the first couple of games, and many were pointing at MSU's offense and giving the Nelson (from The Simpsons) "Ha Ha" and pointing at him.  Many of us around these parts were thinking that Michigan would perform light years better than MSU at QB, and were pretty vocal about it.

Cook improved each week (still never becoming lights out that year), and MSU had a great record. 

bronxblue

September 28th, 2015 at 11:14 AM ^

Yeah, it really does feel like one of those Sparty teams, down to the corners who play the clutchy-grabby defense that you don't get called on too much.  The offensive line isn't quite as good as some of the vintage MSU teams, but the offense is more dynamic.  MSU ran a super-regimented system that relied heavily on experience and making the smart play, as the default was always to fall back on the defense.  I don't think Harbaugh is a gunslinger right now with the offense, but he doesn't seem as quick to rely on his defense to carry the day.  

You Only Live Twice

September 27th, 2015 at 10:50 AM ^

So this is really a "Best and Best" which we have not had in forever (Bet 5 other people post that as I'm typing) 

I do share your sentiments and had the same thought yesterday, about what Devin Gardner could have been, coached by Harbaugh.  For that matter we'll never know what Hoke could have been without Brandon.  Like you said, though, nothing to do but move on.

 

In reply to by You Only Live Twice

bronxblue

September 28th, 2015 at 11:16 AM ^

Yeah, I felt like I needed a negative-ish comment just to keep up with the theme.  And I didn't want to neg the second half too much, but it would have been nice if the offense had scored even a token FG just to keep the good times going.

Yeah, my two biggest regrets over these past couple of years is that RR didn't get to coach upperclassmen Denard and that Harbaugh didn't get a chance to mentor Gardner.

bronxblue

September 28th, 2015 at 11:20 AM ^

Yeah, I wanted to credit the offense and defense based on who scored.  It also tends to inflate a blowout (though not in this case). MSU has been doing that for a couple of weeks now, getting a defensive TD to make it look worse than it is.

Yeah, that rushing total blew me away.  They didn't even consider running the ball against UM for long stretches, then dropped half a grand on somebody.

shoes

September 27th, 2015 at 1:56 PM ^

so far than last year's. As I recall last year's FEI defensive ranking was 40th or so  which reflected in part from facing fewer plays because our offense was so slow. Once this years FEI ratings come out in a few weeks it will be interesting to compare.

bronxblue

September 28th, 2015 at 11:21 AM ^

Yeah, though with the caveat that they haven't really played an elite-ish offense (Utah is very good, but they aren't the type to just attack like, say, Baylor or OSU).  I do think they'll grade out well, though they haven't faced a huge number of plays thus far because the offense just grinds teams down on this long drives.

treetown

September 27th, 2015 at 7:38 PM ^

Thank you for this post. It has all of the elements:

1. Informative - lots of details

2. Insightful - like you I feel a pangs of remorse for Devin Gardner's time. Denard Robinson probably would have never come to Ann Arbor if Harbaugh was running the show then, because he wanted to play QB and so would have ended up with Rich Rod so there 's that, but like many I have to wonder if DG had 4-5 years to spend with Harbaugh, he probably be playing in the NFL somewhere as a QB.

3. Entertaining - the last GIF is really a smile maker

 

LBSS

September 28th, 2015 at 10:19 AM ^

I posted this in a thread that disappeared rather quickly from the front page, so cross-posting here. Re: Don't Stop Believing, according to Sagarin's predictor metric, we are favored in ALL our remaining games. Here's the breakdown:

  • @Maryland -19.21
  • Northwestern -9.58
  • MSU -9.64 (!!!!!)
  • @Minnesota -14.76
  • Rutgers -26.21
  • @Indiana -16.45
  • @PSU -9.51
  • OSU -1.5 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

bronxblue

September 28th, 2015 at 11:29 AM ^

That's crazy.  MSU seems a bit high (are they really only slightly worse on the road than PSU is at home?), but right now UM is playing like a conference contender.  I do expect OSU to right the ship a bit - that's what sucks about playing them so late, the early turmoil should be weathered.