That was a win. It wasn't always pretty - especially on offense - but a win in Happy Valley is always nice. It's not an easy place to play, and the Nittany Lions are usually pretty good, so you take an ugly win if you can get it. I decided to watch the game sans social media and just enjoy the back-and-forth, because I knew there would be a ton of griping. And nobody's allowed to gripe but me. So I grumbled at times to myself, but for the most part, I thought Michigan played pretty well.
Hit the jump for more.
Thank goodness for Hassan Haskins. Haskins had a career-high 31 carries for 156 yards (5.0 yards/carry). Despite not scoring, he was probably Michigan's most valuable player on offense. Not only did he often create something out of nothing, but he caught 5 passes for 45 yards, both of which are also career highs. That type of performance was necessary with Blake Corum out. Freshman Donovan Edwards got a couple carries, and you can see he's just not ready yet, as he stumbled his way to 2 carries for 2 yards. He really needs to work on his footwork and balance. But back to Haskins, the guy just finds ways to twist and stretch and spin for necessary yardage. His instincts are outstanding.
Kudos to PSU for wearing out Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo. It was great gamesmanship by PSU to decide to allow Aidan Hutchinson (3 sacks) and David Ojabo (2 sacks) to wear themselves out early in the game by sacking quarterback Sean Clifford over and over again and dancing effervescently. I thought that would end up going badly for PSU, but the pass rush slowed down a little bit later as Hutchinson/Ojabo's energy waned. Unfortunately, the carcass of Clifford was unable to threaten much on the ground or even through the air when it came to crunch time.
Was that the defensive game plan? I wonder how much of the defensive game plan was to get after Clifford by any means necessary, or if the defensive line was just drooling so much about facing PSU's offensive line that they got out of their rush lanes. With the defensive ends shredding PSU's tackles, Michigan's interior defensive line seemed a little undisciplined with the thought of getting sacks, too. As the game went on, I thought they did a better job of maintaining rush lane integrity and preventing Clifford from escaping vertically out of the pocket. That slowed down the rush and forced Clifford to try to win the game through the air.
4th-and-2 ugh. I hated the 4th-and-2 play call when Michigan packed everyone inside, overloading the right side of the offense. Under center with the opportunity to run the ball left, where only 3 defenders existed, Michigan could have sent the fullback (Erick All) and Haskins left, outnumbering Penn State's defense and preventing center Andrew Vastardis from having to reach the playside defensive tackle. I don't know if McNamara had license to check the run to the other side, but Penn State obviously knew what was coming and Haskins had no chance.
With all due respect - which isn't much - why is James Franklin so dumb? Running a fake field goal from the 2-yard line against a team with good special teams is dumb. Just leave your offense out there and try to gain 2 yards for a score. Get the ball in your best athletes' hands and try to score. Unless Franklin thinks his punter/kicker is his best athlete, then this is stupid. The fake punt worked not because it caught Michigan by complete surprise but because a guy who hasn't played much (Quinten Johnson) misjudged the throw.
Michigan is 9-1. I'm going to take a victory lap early here and taunt the people who thought Jim Harbaugh forgot how to coach. There were people who jumped off the wagon last year - during the weirdest year in anyone living's memory - when Michigan went 2-4 and thought the program was going down the tubes. At the very worst, Michigan is going 9-4 this year. The Wolverines put players in the NFL at a pace matched only by a few powerhouse programs, and it looks like they'll do it again in the near future with the likes of David Ojabo, Aidan Hutchinson, Daxton Hill, and others. Harbaugh was winning 9.4 games per season before COVID. Does he beat OSU and MSU as often as we would like? No. The lack of faith in Harbaugh is baffling to me. He is a legitimately excellent coach whenever Nico Collins, Ambry Thomas, and various others aren't bailing on his team.
Our offense may be frustrating, and our D does show why many were nervous ... BUT, they did it. They fought through and won a big road game. Outstanding effort & accomplishment
ReplyDeleteGO BLUE
Interior D Line was problematic? And your point? That's been an issue since what's his face has been here(I leave his name out because he's a fan favorite for some reason).
ReplyDeleteI think if the holder on the Penn St fake FG throws a good pass the kicker scores.
The most impressive thing to me was the drive when Michigan got behind. They opened holes for Haskins when they had to. And Penn St is supposed to have a defense. It turns out Michigan can run the ball on a good defense, not just on Washington. See you at the Big House Ohio St!
Has any team this year given up more 2 point conversions then Michigan? Or any year?
ReplyDeletePhew... The game was too closed for my liking. The eye test seems to suggest that Michigan was the superior team yesterday. Penn State offense only has Clifford and Dotson and yet at times they could move the chain at ease.
ReplyDeleteOffensively, we keep shooting ourselves in the feet with the false starts. Thank goodness for the Eric All touchdown. Honestly, I thought we were going to lose another game we should have won.
Quick question: A few times in this game, I noticed the ref waited for our defense to complete our substitution before restarting. Why was this not afforded to us in the MSU game?
Defense can only substitute if the offense substitutes. MSU did not substitute on those downs so the ref couldn't delay the game for a defensive substitution.
DeleteShould qualify that as defense is only given time to substitute if offense substitutes.
DeleteAs Anonymous said above, the defense is only given time to substitute when the offense substitutes. That's one reason why it's beneficial to use the same personnel over and over again to create different fronts, which is a big reason why it's important to have versatile tight ends/H-backs. If you can split a guy out wide or put his hand down, the defense can't sub in from play to play. That's why Jake Butt was such a great asset.
DeleteErik All is even more valuable than Butt in this regard. He can line up at WR, TE, or FB and do well at any spot.
DeleteIt's also why guys like Morris and Barrett can be huge assets to our D.
Year minus 2014!
ReplyDeleteDidn't seem we missed corum at all.
ReplyDeletedog with a bone
DeleteCorum averages .95 yards more per carry than Hassan Haskins.
DeletePersonally, I would prefer one more yard per play when Michigan hands off the ball, but I guess you don't like those extra yards.
That's not how it works.
Delete@ Lank 9:22 p.m.
DeleteNeither does "running backs don't matter," so I guess we're even. Except at least mine has a clear statistical backing. You can't hide behind "Oh, well Ty Isaac/Mike Cox got his yards against backups in blowouts." Nope. Corum and Haskins are both playing starter's reps and splitting reps evenly (until Corum's injury), and Corum's numbers were better.
There is no "hiding" when pointing out that RB ypc numbers differ primarily based on context rather than individual ability. It's just a fact. Check Rutgers, Wisconsin, MSU. Corum and Haskins - same pattern. Almost like they're running behind the same OL...
DeleteCorum's ypc were worse than Haskins last year - which made you doubt the Corum hype. How'd using YPC to predict things work out there?
Edwards still has a higher YPC than Haskins even now. Does that tell you something? Or is it meaningless?
Furthermore and anyway, Haskins had better YPC in 2 of the 3 games noted above. Do you think NIU, Northwestern and Western translates better to PSU? Those are the games where Corum gained his marginal edge.
So no, your argument that Corum would have produced 1 ypc more than Haskins against PSU doesn't have any statistical backing. At all. One of the guys you thought/think is one of the most important players on the team missed a game and the offense had one of it's most impressive and balanced performances of the year because, wait for it, another RB was there and did just fine. More than fine in this case.
Corum was out. It didn't matter.
Part of the preseason debates on RB rankings over the years was related to where you ranked 3rd string RBs. Michigan uses them, you argued. But they don't matter, I argued. If one of top 2 go down, the 3rd guy is needed you argued. Nuh uh, I said. Well this game was a good case study of why just because a guy gets used and accrues some stats doesn't mean he matters.
DeleteHaving 2 freshman RBs - neither of which look like standouts - as 3rd string options seems to not really matter.
We can't live in alternative universes so I can't tell you what would have happened if Donovan Edwards got those 30 carries or how his season long advantage of 0.9 ypc would translate to the PSU game but we can say that, because it happened in real life, that Michigan doesn't really NEED an impressive 3rd RB to do important things -- even when the 2nd RB is out.
Meanwhile our 4th string OG has played entire games. Our 3rd string CB is now starting. Our 5th string safety made a critical error that cost a FG against PSU. And our 4th most utilized ILB is making 'havoc plays' in a critical game.
Just sayin is someone elses line but...just sayin.
Funny to think I have something to hide on Isaac and Cox.
DeleteRent free
DeleteCheck it there - peaking out from under the bridge - making those strange chirping sounds. Cute lil troll. Awww.
DeleteWe should all be grateful Haskins is healthy. Edwards trips over grass, and Franklin/Dunlap aren't close to ready
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't give up on Edwards.
DeleteNo one is giving up on him. But at this point in his career, there's work to do, and a lot of it
DeleteHassan was a difference maker, again. Dude matters
Everyone matters.
Delete180 yards for Edwards and 80 for Haskins. In fewer touches (13 vs 20).
DeleteMust have been artificial turf.
Nice shot at civility
Delete50/50 game and it turns our in our favor this. Like Nebraska but not like MSU. If we lost everyone would be complaining about Harbaugh and bringing up various voodoo nonsense. But we won and he doesn't get much credit for building up character or the opposite of whatever else would get said.
ReplyDeleteCade keeps getting better and better. Hassan keeps providing the doubters and RB worriers wrong. No backup no problem. Erik All keeps being the damn man. The low key MVP. The OL had some inconsistencies yet still kept Cade clean most of the day against a tough D and gave Hassan the space he needed to be him.
The D was also up and down. The DEs dominated early but PSU kept converting chunks but man - they locked down at the end. Vincent Gray has really put together and excellent year and proved his doubters wrong too. People try and pick on Turner and he Donovan Jeter had a nice game coming back home to PA. Colson is a play-maker.
Great year for this team and program. Here's to one helluva head coach who went out and made some ballsy moves this offseason that appear to be universally paying off. Kudos to Moore, Gattis, McDonald, and Clink. Hopefully people are still feeling positive after OSU.
OHhhh I was going to write a bunch of stuff in response but fuk it...........
ReplyDeleteI'm glad for the win - its a big win, a great win and keeps Michigan Big 10 East hope still alive.
But NO! Harbaugh is not a "legitimately excellent" coach - not saying anymore jus leavin' it' at that.
INTJohn