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| Drew Dileo (image via AnnArbor.com) |
That being said, yay! Good golly, I hate Mark Dantonio. I hate William Gholston, too, but Dantonio is the biggest tool of a coach in the Big Ten, even more so than Bret Bielema. It would have felt great to see Dantonio lose, even if Michigan wasn't the opponent. It just makes the win that much sweeter that seniors Denard Robinson, Elliott Mealer, Patrick Omameh, Jordan Kovacs, Craig Roh, etc. succeed in their last chance to beat the Spartans. Congratulations to those guys.
Thank you, Drew Dileo. Wide receiver Drew Dileo played a great game. He's never going to be the fastest player in the field, and he certainly isn't the biggest. But he's the type of do-it-all player and possession receiver that finds all kinds of ways to win a football game. He came up huge in the Sugar Bowl against Virginia Tech, and he had another standout performance on Saturday with 4 catches for 92 yards . . . and as the holder on all four of Michigan's scoring plays.
Brendan Gibbons and Matt Wile were great. I was extremely impressed with the solid kicking from these two guys. Gibbons was 3/3 kicking, including the 38-yard game-winner. Wile was 1/1 in his first career chance to kick a field goal, and that one was a long attempt from 48 yards. Obviously, each of the four kicks was huge.
Jeremy Jackson is slow. At a couple points in the game, I couldn't help harking back to the days when wide receiver Jeremy Jackson was recruited. I said then that he didn't have the athleticism to be an impact player at Michigan, and I still question why he's on the field so much. Denard Robinson targeted him a couple times deep, and while the throws could have been more accurate, Jackson looked like he was running in quicksand. If the play call is for someone to go deep, then Jackson should be replaced by someone with a little giddyup.
The defense was pretty darn good. There wasn't much of a pass rush, and the coverage on the outside was mediocre. But the Wolverines only allowed 68 yards to Le'Veon Bell (on 26 carries) and 86 total rushing yards to the offense (punter Mike Sadler ran 26 yards on a fake punt, which I won't pin on the defense). Desmond Morgan (11 tackles) is playing very well, and Jake Ryan (10 tackles, 1 sack) was all over the place once again, and Bell's longest run was 8 yards.
Cornerbacks are a concern. J.T. Floyd made a couple nice plays on short passes and supporting the run, which is an improvement for him; however, he was beaten deep a couple times by receivers who were unable to hook up with MSU quarterback Andrew Maxwell. Meanwhile, Raymon Taylor left with an elbow injury, leaving the opposite side to slot corner Courtney Avery. I'm hoping that Taylor can return soon, because the Wolverines are running out of healthy corners. The only other guys left on the roster are backup slot corner Delonte Hollowell and tiny freshman Terry Richardson.
Michigan has 900 wins. That's more wins than any other football program in the history of the whole wide universe. By comparison, Michigan State has 643 all-time victories. The Wolverines are now 68-32-5 against the Spartans.
Thank you for doing something no one else in MSM was doing... giving credit for ST teams duty (holder) for Dileo, in addition to the catch. The snap wasn't exactly perfect, but maybe I'm just a nervous nelly.
ReplyDeleteWillyWill9
No, when I saw the snap, I thought we were toast.
DeleteGood thing UM has a scholarship long-snapper coming in soon, right?
DeleteYeah, I thought Dileo was the player of the game. Four big receptions (each one for a first down) and four perfect holds on field goals. Great to see him get some positive buzz.
Delete"I said then that [Jeremy Jackson] didn't have the athleticism to be an impact player at Michigan, and I still question why he's on the field so much."
ReplyDeleteInteresting. My dad, who's a teacher at Huron High, said the same thing yesterday. When Jeremy played for Huron my dad told me that all he ever heard was how slow and lazy Jeremy was, that he had the talent but just never really cared to put it all together. But I guess that's Huron's athletes in a nutshell: they never really reach their potential because they're feeling themselves too much for some reason...
... And I'm also guessing is father being Fred Jackson has something to do with him being on the roster. But, you know, just a guess.
It's funny, because Huron football finished the year 0-9 this year and also got into a brawl with Pioneer after getting their ass beat.
DeleteI think Jeremy Jackson is simply a limited athlete. He is simply more slow by nature than lazy. I also think that if his father weren't a coach he never would have been recruited to Michigan.
Delete"punter Mike Sadler ran 26 yards on a fake punt, which I won't pin on the defense)." I'd put that one on the coaches... was I the only one saying watch for the fake punt! And booom... there goes the damn punter with a ton of blockers and we look like we've never seen that play before!
ReplyDeleteIowaBlue
I was screaming this at the TV set too. It just seemed so Dantonio to do.
DeleteWillyWill9
Can someone explain to me why Toussaint made that catch with 18 seconds to go? Not only did we lose yards but he was in bounds and we had to burn our last time out. To me that was the most boneheaded play in the game. Its a good thing we won because there was a lot of questionable things going on. Earlier, Denard had a chance to run for 10 yards and get into field goal range but instead he just chucked the ball down field.
ReplyDeleteIt was a bone-head play. Toussaint should know better than that. One thing I recall was that in our last drive where Gholston gifted us an offside, Denard just tucked the ball and ran outside. I don't know whether our receivers were open or not, but a senior QB should take advantage of free plays like that.
DeleteIt wasn't a bonehead play. It wasn't a great play, but it's hard in the heat of the moment to NOT catch a football when 99% of the time you're SUPPOSED to catch the football. I'm not going to hold that play against him.
DeleteIt may not be easy to go against 'normal' protocal but it's still unquestionably the right thing to do. Not having situational awareness there is a bone-headed play, unquestionably. It might be defensible and understandable but it's still bone-headed. That played burned a timeout that Michigan very badly needed and came very close to costing Michigan the game.
DeleteToussaint can't take all the blame though - Denard shouldn't be throwing that in the first place, and Borges probably shouldn't be calling that sort of play.
I didn't think that pass was necessarily a bad idea - but it was a very badly thrown.
Delete