Saturday, October 3, 2015

Maryland Post Game

Michigan cornerback Jourdan Lewis hauls in a third
David Guralnick, Detroit News

Memo to BTN:  Please stop giving Matt Millen contracts to do color commentary on your network.  There is a reason he is no longer at ESPN.  He is terrible!  He is captain obvious of the press box.   Please try to develop new talent from former players then recycling fired commentators from other networks.  If you can't fire him mid-season, please only allow him to cover Penn State games.  I understand he is targeted for Michigan - NW next week, please re-consider that choice.  Maybe he can cover another Big Ten sport.
----------------

That was a Big Ten game at it's finest and at it's worst.  Maryland was out manned and had been giving up rushing yards like rain drops on the East Coast this weekend.  But today they stiffened up and tried to make Michigan beat them with the pass in the high winds. 

Michigan running backs had issues all day.  Smith was in Ann Arbor with an ankle injury, Isaac ran hard but kept forgetting to take the ball with him, Green was nursing a knee, which left Drake Johnson coming off an ACL and a guy that was a DB last year. 

Thank goodness for Michigan's second ranked defense!  As Drake did find some holes and ended up running for 68 yards just two more then Chesson's 66 yard sweep.  Michigan pulled away in the second half on some big plays but looked pretty confused in the first half as they were up 6-0 at the midway point.  For awhile, I thought M00M was going to be trending on twitter. 

Did I say think goodness for our defense?  Michigan held Maryland to 105 total yards again (same as last week) and pitched another shut out.   They also forced 3 more interceptions and pressured Maryland QB's all day.

I was a little frustrated with the play calling in the first half as Michigan was gaining nothing between the tackles but the creativity I was looking for showed up in the second half.   I assume the wind was much stronger then it looked on TV. 

A road win is a good win and the match-up between Michigan and Northwestern next week looks to be a very good one. 

Did I mention, thank goodness for our defense?

Cheers
  • Two Harbaugh head coaches on the sideline is better then one Harbaugh
  • Michigan's Defense
  • 3 Interceptions
  • Second Half Big Plays
  • Drake Johnson running and screen play
  • Chesson is fast!
  • Did I say Michigan's defense?
Jeers
  • Offensive turnovers
  • Rudock's pick was terrible - fumble was not important
  • The first half
  • Offensive line - running between the tackles
  • Kenny Allen on not knowing what a squib kick is
  • Dumb penalties
  • Still not hitting long throws

Michigan's offensives totals came mostly on big plays, so it's a little miss leading.  Either way, any time you can get a conference win on the road, it's a good day.  Michigan has plenty of things to clean up before next week, but it's nice to win games that we should win. 

4 comments:

dude1984 said...

Defense has been better than anybody could have imagined. The play calling and execution has been near perfect. The offense is another story.

The play calling was not that good today. Keep the plays simple and the passes high percentage. Let the athletes do their thing. ...run between the tackles, RB Screens, Jet Sweeps, Swing Passes, and short to intermediate Play Action. The play calling wasn't playing to their strengths and it was too inefficient with a wild card like Rudock at QB.

Renegade said...

210 yards surrendered in 2 games. That would be good for just one game.

The offense, well. Turnovers are a concern. That will cost them when playing good teams. But the biggest issue for me in the last two games is its complete disappearing act for an entire half. First half against Maryland, second half against BYU. Need more consistency throughout the game.

Have outscored opponents (according to ESPN) 119/7 over the last 15 quarters. Wow!

Scott K said...

millen and dierdorf should both retire... They are the WORST!

1UM_Fan said...

We went to the game and had a blast. While the offense was at times hard to watch, the big plays really got us on our feet. It was a home game on the road for Michigan, outnumbering the Maryland fans by quite a bit. I hope that they can keep the momentum going next week as they will face Northwestern. Can't peek ahead for the Sparty game.

GO BLUE!