Thursday, September 8, 2016

Michigan Thursday: Asks A Question About Peppers on Offense

Image result for jabrill peppers
desertsun.com
Chris Evans seems to be freshman that is going to make a significant impact on offense this year.   His playmaking ability and speed is a great change of pace to Smith and Isaac power running style.    We all know that Peppers wouldn't play offense in the pre-Big Ten season, but with Evans now available, it bring us to one big question:  Does Peppers need to play offense this year?

I think the answer is no (but he probably will later in the year).   Peppers is a great athlete no doubt, right now he is playing LB, CB, Nickel, and Safety on defense.   That is a lot of assignments on the defensive side of the ball.   Let's not forget he is returning punts and kickoffs as well.   With all that said, I think Peppers will have some offensive packages later in the season but right now Jimmy seems very happy with Evans and his role on offense. 

I was a little concerned how long Peppers was in the game on Saturday after the score got out of hand.  I know the defense wanted a shut out but it's not worth a Peppers injury in garbage time.   Please send out other player if Michigan gets up big against UCF this weekend.

Another Freshman hat tip goes to Michael Onwenu who played on both lines (offense and defense) on Saturday.  With Mone out a couple of weeks, Big Mike will probably see more time on defense now.  

Big Ten Week 2 Big Games

In the past, I have previewed every Big Ten game on Thursdays during the season.   Some games are so bad they aren't even worth a preview.  So this year, I will take a look at some of the bigger Big Ten games coming up this weekend.

Penn State at Pitt:  This is an old rivalry game that has been dormant for some time.   I'm not sold on Penn State yet as they seemed to struggle week one.  We know Narduzzi would love to have a win over a Big Ten team.  Pitt -5 in this game.   Pitt 24 PSU 14

Cincinnati at Purdue:  Does Cincy still have Gunnar Kiel that 5 star QB that signed with ND and then transferred to the Bearcats?  He had some serious concussions and injury issues last year.   Cincy loves to throw the ball and doesn't play a lot of defense.  On a fun side note, Cincy has a Safety named Mike Tyson.   I think this combined score could get over a 100 points.   Cincy is -6 in this one.   UC 51  Purdue 48

North Carolina at Illinois:  This is an interesting game.  NC was a pretty good team at the end of the year and almost beat Clemson in the ACC Championship.  Illinois hasn't been a good team for awhile but Lovie Smith is there now and trying to change the culture.   UNC is -9.   I like UNC in this game but wouldn't be surprised if Illinois gives them a good close game.   UNC 28 Illinois 24

Iowa State at Iowa:  This is another rivalry game and they play for some corn trophy.  Iowa State lost to North Iowa last week and now will hit the road for another instate game.   Iowa is a solid team and won't lose this one at home.   Iowa -15.  Iowa 31  ISU 10

Weird game of the week:  Maryland travels to Florida International on Friday night.  Maryland -10.

2 comments:

Voice of Reason said...

I for one sincerely hope that Chris Evans can continue with his excellent performance throughout the year and especially in the B1G season. It's one thing for a freshman to dominate the likes of Hawaii whose squad some could argue is just a little more than a high school team, but if he can keep it up then we'd really have something to be excited about. That goes with all of the other freshman who performed well this past game.

UCF struggled last season and went without a win, but beat a SCSU team last week that was more in line with the Delaware State University team coach RR dominated several years ago. DSU was the last game that a Michigan team went throughout the game without punting until the Hawaii game. I say that to help put things in perspective. It would seem that Michigan's first two games amount to little more than a pre-season scrimmage. IMHO!!!

Scott K said...

true enough. its encouraging to see a RB hit the holes like he did and accelerate away from would be tacklers... Other than Johnson showing flashes of that, its been a long time.

Hope the thunderstorms get thru A2 before game time tomorrow. Looking forward to watching a thumping from Section 35.

Go Blue!