Saturday, September 3, 2016

Hawaii Post Game

Detroit News
The line was 40 points and I thought Kenny might not get a chance to punt in this game.   Michigan didn't punt and the Wolverines scored 63 points against a well traveled Hawaii team. 

Michigan's first team defense looked early that they might not even give up a first down.  I'm not sure what the Hawaii coaching staff was thinking,  by continuing to try to run the ball into the strength of one of the best defenses in the country.   The only time the Rainbow Warriors moved the ball all day was when they spread the Wolverines out and threw the ball. 

Michigan was a bit more banged up then originally thought.  Jourdan Lewis, Ben Braden, Drake Johnson and Mo Hurst didn't play at all.  DeVeon Smith hurt his ribs early and Taco turned an ankle.   Mone who missed all of last year, also go hurt and will have an MRI on a un-known body part on Sunday.

The rest of the game was pretty much a cake walk for the talented Wolverines.   Wilton started as expected and nervously threw a pick on the first play of the game for the offense.   After that he calmed down and connected on 10-13 throws for a total of 145 yards and 3 TD's.   I liked how he rebounded and was pretty accurate after that first mistake.   I'm pretty sure at the end of the game, Michigan was putting helmets on kids in the student section to run the ball or play QB.

The nicest non-surprise of the day was the play of freshman Chris Evans.  He had over 100 yards on the ground and 2 touchdowns on only 8 carries.  In game one, Chris more then lived up to his camp hype.

Michigan looked great in a 63-3 win over a poor team.  Still there is room for some cheers and jeers for game one of the year!

Cheers

  • Chris Evans was impressive in his first game
  • Peppers was everywhere on defense
  • At least 13 true freshman played in the game
  • No Punts
  • Michigan's defense looks to be dominate at times
  • Michigan ran for 306 yards
  • 63 points scored!
  • The Michigan defense out scored the Hawaii offense with two touchdowns
Jeers

  • The first pick was not a good throw or decision
  • The only deep ball thrown was another bad throw
  • Michigan's defense still seems to struggle when an offense spreads the field
  • Gary whiffed on a sack and got a penalty on a 3rd down in the red zone
  • The injuries don't seem serious but did hit important starters

Hard to find issues in a 60 point win and Michigan looked pretty darn good on both sides of the ball.  I even thought the LB's played pretty well.   I was impressed with Mike McCray he seemed like he was around the ball a ton and even had a couple of sacks.  Jehu look 100% recovered from his knee injury in the Citrus Bowl.  You have to love the opening win and all the players that got game action.    If Michigan can continue to be hungry and build on this performance, they will be a difficult team to beat all year.

4 comments:

dude1984 said...

My two takeaways...
-Chris Evans need to get at least 50% of rushes;
-If teams decide to run the spread the Wolverines could be in serious trouble.

Outside of that, it was a good game. To be honest, it got a bit boring. Onward to UCF.

In Harbaugh we trust said...

Loved watching Michigan act like Michigan again....days ago it was said on this site that Kareem was looking at transferring...with his boy back at Rutgers, and the immergence of Evans, any more info???? I hope this is just a rumour, but where's there smoke....

Big35Hurt said...

"Big Mike" was in there on defense. Is he not going to play offense (long term)?

madmen said...

not enough to say they are ready to compete with the big boys,time will tell