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| Jeremy Gallon |
Let's see less of this guy on offense . . . the trainer. Amara Darboh's out for the year, and within a short span on Saturday night, three guys walked off the field: Taylor Lewan, Devin Funchess, and A.J. Williams. Michigan doesn't have the depth to weather many injuries. While all three of those guys returned in short order (Lewan didn't miss a play because the whistle was blown for Funchess's injury), it was nerve wracking.
Let's see more of this guy on defense . . . nobody. I thought Michigan did a good job of playing the best guys on Saturday night.
Let's see less of this guy on defense . . . Dymonte Thomas. Okay, we actually haven't seen much of Thomas at safety up to this point, but there's a reason I don't like freshman safeties. Thomas's 15-yard late-hit penalty was really frustrating, and it was just a sign of immaturity. Safety is the last position on defense where a team can afford immaturity, so I'm glad he's a backup nickel corner right now. He'll be good eventually.
Play of the game . . . Devin Gardner's 61-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Gallon. Gardner play-faked to the left before rolling out to find Gallon settling into the deep middle of the field. Gallon caught the ball, made a couple guys miss, spun out of a tackle, and was helped out by Chesson's knockdown block on his way to a touchdown.
MVP of the game . . . Jeremy Gallon. This was a tough choice between Gallon and Gardner, but I'm choosing the guy who didn't make a disgusting, potentially disastrous turnover. Gallon had 8 catches for 184 yards and 3 touchdowns on the night, including a few catches in traffic and some nifty running after the catch.
I enjoyed Coutess' interception return where he nearly surrounds two hapless ND offensive linemen. First he passes them going east then he passes them again heading north, then he passes them a third time again cutting back west. Fun run.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Thomas' late hit was seriously bonehead. Fortunately for Thomas, Gardner's play will likely define bonehead in these parts for probably as long as there is football. I liked Brandy the instant Gardner turns to go deeper into the end zone, real sad like, "No"
Yeah, I enjoyed Countess's return, too. I really thought he was going to house it for a minute there.
DeleteThe good news about Gardner's interception is I really think he learned a lesson there. Did you see him berating himself on the sideline after the play? He was furious with himself. That kind of thing burns deep. He'll be a better QB for it.
ReplyDeleteOne guy on defense who I think needs to watch more from the sidelines is Wormley. When sent on slants or doubled, ND regularly blew him halfway across the field. The guy is obviously physically gifted, but he did not appear to put up much of a fight once his blocker got the upper hand. On the other hand, Heitzman held his ground pretty well and showed good effort against doubles.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that jumped out in the front seven was Ross playing indecisively. Maybe the expectations are a little too high for him at this point. His forte is the quick read and react but I thought he was reacting slower than the other LB's and getting caught in the wash regularly as a result.
Big credit to the back seven with their tackling. ND was very good in pass protection and Rees is good at distributing the ball. So even though UM gave up yards and points, they made ND earn it by tackling well after the catch and not allowing big plays. I watched the UM/ND game from 2009 last week and was struck by how far this team has come with tackling.
I somewhat agree about Wormley. I've never been high on him, though. Maybe he's still working back to full strength from the ACL tear, but to me he's just a guy. I definitely think Heitzman is well above him, even though Heitzman isn't a stud. Heitzman's just a tough character. I like him a lot.
DeleteI got the feeling that the linebackers were being a little cautious with their reads to prevent big plays in the passing game. Against some other opponents, that shouldn't be an issue.
Ross did have a nice reaction on that near INT. Agree that Wormley has not impressed.
DeleteYou hit it right on the head with your thought on tackling; I thought Countess's open field tackle in the first half was one of the best plays of the game. Kudos also are due to Raymon, who I think is becoming our most physical CB.
DeleteAnother impressive aspect of the defense was the pursuit to the football. There was one play where Niklas made a catch and was gang tackled by what appeared to be the entire defense. The coaches making tackling, pursuit and enthusiasm the main points of emphasis are showing on the field, and it's making us a fun defense to watch.
You hit it right on the head with your thought on tackling; I thought Countess's open field tackle in the first half was one of the best plays of the game. Kudos also are due to Raymon, who I think is becoming our most physical CB.
DeleteAnother impressive aspect of the defense was the pursuit to the football. There was one play where Niklas made a catch and was gang tackled by what appeared to be the entire defense. The coaches making tackling, pursuit and enthusiasm the main points of emphasis are showing on the field, and it's making us a fun defense to watch.
I'm interested to see just how good Wormley and Godin are. Heintzman has shown some real promise, but with the other two guys, neither were overly impressive in high school. I'm curious how much they will produce on the field. I really hope one of them blossoms into a good player.
DeleteSo the hype on Thomas seems to have been mostly hot air. MGoBlog said he was an instant starter, but now he's not even the first (Stribling) or second (Avery) guy in for the secondary. Hollowell getting more run too. Doesn't mean Thomas won't be a good player down the road, but it's hard for true freshman to play when experienced vets are in place.
ReplyDeleteTough choice between Gardner and Gallon for player of the week. Can't go wrong either way.
I think the hype was justified as the coaches were gushing about him and he looked solid in highlights. But other guys have stepped up and with his inexperience with coverage Thomas doesn't have a true spot on defense right now. He did blow up the first punt of the season and clearly has the athletic ability but going from playing LB in high school to safety will take some time. I can't wait to see the secondary next year and the year after with Thomas, Stibling, and Peppers all on the field with an experienced Wilson. We may finally get that no fly zone.
DeleteI assume the coaches wanted to get through the ND game with primarily upperclassmen whom they could trust. Don't think that reflects poorly on guys like Thomas or Charlton. We should see a lot of the young guys show their stuff over the next couple weeks and then the ones who are good enough will work their way in as the season progresses. Even Blake Countess didn't start until his 6th or 7th game as a freshman CB and he was UM's best cover guy the minute he stepped on campus. The bar will be even higher for a freshman safety. On top of all that, Wilson seems to be settling in OK, so they don't need to gamble right away.
DeleteThomas has loads of potential but that is different than being an instant-starter. I'm excited about the future as well.
Delete@PS - you know Stribling is playing a lot right? He's got less experience than Thomas who was an EE.
Gordon was out in G1, Avery has been hurt - the opportunity for time in the secondary was there.
I thought Wilson played fairly well with a few exceptions. He got caught out of position a few times and missed a couple of tackles. He also did get absolutely flattened by Niklas on the goal line, but the guy outweighs him by like 50 lbs, so there's that...
DeleteHis inexperience shows, but the physical skills (length, speed, hitting ability) are definitely there. I think he will be a more-than-serviceable FS by the end of this season and should carry us into next season nicely.
So the hype on Thomas seems to have been mostly hot air.
DeleteYou'd have said that about Jordan Kovacs too, if his second game as a Wolverine were all you had to go on.
There's a point where players hit their ceiling, and further development is unlikely, e.g., Josh Furman. It's absurd to say that about Thomas, who is only just beginning.
Stribling is playing corner.
DeleteThomas is slated to nickel and safety.
There are some positions where freshman can (and often) contribute early. Corner is one of them. Safety is not. Magnus himself has harped on this ad nauseum. Bitching about MGoBlog and comparing Thomas to Stribling in terms of early contributions is rather crass.
@Marc
DeleteKovacs got zero hype - he was a walk-on that red-shirted. No one expected him to make the team, let alone play, let alone start, etc.
Thomas was a 4-star recruit who early-enrolled and people said would start from Day 1.
I said nothing bad about Thomas, let alone his potential.
@BB88
DeleteThis will probably be the only nice thing I ever say to you: I like your use of crass. Now on to football, where you are off-point as usual.
Since Countess can obviously play cornerback or nickelback, the coaches have a choice between using Stribling, Hollowell or Thomas. Thomas has been the third choice. This is especially damning (insofar as anything can be 'damning' about a great looking true freshman who already plays) because moving Countess to nickel is not ideal. The supposed ideal for a NB is a guy who can cover or blitz AND be beefy enough to take on a FB or OL when needed. This is not Countess.
So, we have the coaches moving Blake to a different position that he doesn't fit as well because the next best option is playing another CB (rather than Thomas).
Clearly, Thomas is behind two guys that got MUCH less hype than him. 2 guys that no one was talking about as having already nailed down a starting spot (which is what was said about Thomas less than a month ago, and the assertion made all summer long.)
So yeah, safety is harder to contribute at for a freshman, but no one is talking about Thomas at safety.
Nickelback is the spot that a freshman can play (many think Peppers will do that next year) and the spot that Thomas was hyped up to be the starter at. That hype has proven to be flat-out wrong because when Stribling showed up to campus 8 months later he immediately proved to be the better player (at least initially.)
Thomas should have a great career at Michigan, but his immediate role was badly exaggerated by MGoBlog and others. Whiff.
Oh, I agree. MGoBlog missed entirely. It happens. Get over it and stop bitching on other sites about it.
DeleteCountess and Hollowell are both older and more experienced. Thomas is listed as a safety on the depth chart. He's probably being groomed there. He was probably put at nickel in spring to see if they could get him on the field.
It's also only 2 games in. Remember when Brandon Herron was the savior at linebacker after Western in 2011? Let's re-address this after like five more games.
@BB
DeleteWe're like 9 days from season kickoff and I just said that pre-season hype seems to have been overblown. First you argue with my point, then you say get over it, then you say give it time. OK.
Dymonte Thomas is listed as the backup Nickelback on the depth chart. That is his primary position and it is the the position he was purported to be starter at. No one expects to play at safety right off and he didn't even when half the guys ahead of him were unavailable. MGoblog has asserted that Thomas will stay at Nickel beyond this year.
Channing Stribling is less experienced than Thomas but is playing more. That is interesting to me. Doesn't have to be to you.
I do remember Western 2011 - check the TTB awards post and you'll see that I was arguing with Thunder that Herron got lucky and that Kovacs should have been MVP and that Ryan really stuck out to me - so, no, I didn't think he was the savior.
I just said the hype was overblown on Thomas -- which it was. I don't think that needs to lead to 20 comments of people arguing with me. Preseason predictions are often wrong, but MGoBlog had been asserting for months that Thomas had won the job and doing so very strongly. He/they were wrong and it won't be the first or last wrong preseason prediction for anyone.
Chesson's block on the long Gallon touchdown reminded me of Omameh's block during Denard's long TD run against ND in 2010. Both used put a quality lick on one defender, and ended up knocking others out of the play in the process. Awesome stuff from Chesson.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I'd call it mostly hot air, or even a little hot air as he played in Michigan's first series of downs in his first ever game and demonstrated some big time playmaking ability in doing so. Not to mention the fact that he's getting snaps in a nationally televised, national rivalry game. As an aside, Brian Kelly needs to just shut up, his administration chickened out. The kid just went bonehead, that's all.
ReplyDeleteWhere I don't necessarily agree with Thunder here either, is on the notion of this being a sign of immaturity, I hope that's all it is but the second it happened I flashed back to that fairly grizzled veteran, Jeremy Lasueur's very similar bonehead penalty against Sparty.
To paraphrase Mrs Bueller, "Bonehead is ..... "
I can't wait till harris /ways/peppers/Campbell are here specially if peppers plays offense
ReplyDelete