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| Jon Horwedel, Detroit News |
What were we watching? A loss to this up start Purdue program?
Then Wilton goes down on a apparent late hit and heads directly back to the locker room/medical facility not to be seen again. It was John O'Korn's chance to be the Michigan QB and this time it wasn't on snowy field, it was in 90 degree weather for the Florida boy. John took the reins of the offense and marched down the field by hitting the tight ends for a scoring drive that ended in a TD. Maybe things were looking up?
We know the rest of the story. Purdue then confuses the Michigan defense on basically the same play 3 times in a row and scores its only touchdown. John throws a pick that turns into a field goal and then The Wizard Don Brown puts a complete stop to the Purdue offense the rest of the day.
Michigan scores 21 points in the second half and wins the battle in West Lafayette. Michigan used better play calling and strong QB execution in the second half. The defense barely gave up a yard as all the trick plays had run out.
I think we all learned a few things about this team on Saturday.
- Michigan's offense line will not be dominating any team left on the schedule. Michigan will have to pass to run.
- Michigan will need good QB play to score TD's on offense.
- Don Brown deserves a raise
The first half to me was a throw away half, I hated the play calling and the trick plays by the Purdue offense. I knew the trick plays wouldn't last but Michigan running into the line for two yard gains on first down was clearly frustrating to everyone except the play caller.
The second half was Michigan Football and it was great to see the play calling open up and Michigan be aggressive on offense. When Michigan is scoring touchdowns and letting the defense do it's thing, this team will be tough to beat.
Cheers
- John O'Korn who played well and in front of the Purdue OC who was the head coach that benched him at Houston.
- Don Brown and the Michigan Defense!
- Chris Evans for finding his stride and putting the game away
- Sean McKeon had 5 catches for 82 yards
- Zach Gentry for being a team player and scoring the first TD
- Chase Winovich had 3 sacks
- Devin "The Missile" Bush is everywhere!
- Brad Robbins averaged 40 yards per punt
- Watching the Purdue DC "Mr. Clean" vein pop out on his head.
- First half play calling
- Offensive line in the first half
- Purdue's trick plays that worked
- Fox's Baseball game coverage
- Purdue's locker room not having AC is embarrassing
- Wilton's injury that was a late hit
- 2 turnovers on offense
- The illegal man downfield call on the Hammering Panda
Michigan is 4-0 and win is a win on the road. You will take them pretty or ugly, just get out of there with a win. I hope the Michigan offensive coaches now understand this team will not run over anyone and each defense will stack the box to stop the run and make the Michigan QB beat them.
I think John O'Korn has made the case to be the starter, no matter what the injury status is for Wilton (Jimmy said it was a soft tissue injury and didn't know how long he was going to be out). Either way, Michigan has two weeks to prepare and rest for a difficult rest of the schedule.
5 comments:
Well written article that covers all bases, so I can not continue ranting... except:
Harbaugh is a "near God" to us, it saying > that he is not infallible... in saying that, we are lucky to have him.
my case in point is the 1980 season, where Michigan got off to a 1-2 start... the next home game the Michigan crowd erupted in a monotone chant... Wangler... Wangler... Wangler! What I am trying to say is, you do not have to be a rocket scientist to see a solution to a problem. We were just Fan's; but Wangler led us to 3rd place finish in the polls, and the 1980 season was considered by Bo to be one of his most satisfying!
I thought about the legendary Lou Gehrig's opportunity to play in the NY Yankee line-up after an injury. The Iron Man began his run into baseball history. This is not to say John O'Korn's opportunity to start at quarterback is on the same level as that.
Interesting point Gregory: You made me think of a perfect example: is our own Brady, he started to cover an injury(forgot name of injured quarter back), and the rest of the story goes along with his collection of super bowl rings.
I know I am over doing the "post thing", but I skip lots of days so it's not as bad as it looks:
Anyways, did not Purdue platoon their quarterbacks? To me that is a Giant "no-no"... even the announcers commented on the situation. Purdue also helped us by being too "hyped up", and ran out of gas, and made mental errors in second half.
Two weeks of practice for O'Korn... O'Korn should be able to eradicate the depleted Spartan's, like a bunch of loathsome cock-roaches.
I am very encouraged for our offense particularly since O'Korn took over (because it's a start). I hope Speights is okay, but you have to go with the hot hand and think that O'Korn has more than proven that he should be the starter based upon meritocracy.
What I had observed from the game was that the entire offense struggled with Speights and the defense and special teams had to take up the slack. However, when O'Korn came in, he was hitting his receivers with the easy passes and more importantly he was moving the team and they were scoring TD's looking more like a Michigan offense. Therefore, because the offense was moving the ball and staying on the field in the second half, the defense was able to be even more effective when they played. The offense's success with long drives always helps a good defense succeed (especially on a hot day).
I believe this is a good start for the offense and if O'Korn continues to play (IMO), it will help their confidence which is something that they need right now; because they have so many freshman receivers and are still 3/5 of a brand new O-line and so we shouldn't expect O-line dominance "this" year, but we can expect them to round into form and be effective and productive.
I know there could be an argument that Purdue was not prepared for O'Korn and that other teams would have a chance to prepare for him, but I would still go with him now because he's earned it. IMHO!!!
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