Saturday, November 26, 2022

Still in Shock

©Junfu Han, Detroit Free Press

So let me understand this, because I'm still not sure it makes sense in my brain.   Michigan was without its Heisman Trophy candidate running back, had 10 yards rushing in the 1st half, 5-star RB has a broken thumb and could only hold the ball with his left hand, Michigan's new power back is a LB that hadn't run an offensive play since the Spring Game, Michigan's best DE is not playing, Michigan's defense was pretty much giving up 7-10 yards per play, and Michigan won by more than 3 TD's?
That is madness and maybe one of the most unexpected outcomes in Michigan history.  Maybe the Cheers and Jeers can enlighten us?

Cheers:
  • Hello JJ, best game of his career 
  • Jesse "2nd half adjustment" Fucking Minter!
  • Michigan coaches clearing out the play book on offense
  • Donovan Edwards is the best player on offense 
  • Michigan's offensive line in the 2nd half 
  • COJO with the game of his career at Michigan 
  • Sainrlstil with the motivational talk, end zone pass break up, and good play 
  • McGregor played his best game in college
  • JJ's deep ball 
  • Loveland's blocking and TD catch 
  • Mullings had a QBR of 99.7
  • Barrett had 11 tackles and 5 solos 
  • 252 yards of rushing 
  • 278 passing 
  • Got 2 turnovers 
  • OSU had 9 penalties for 91 yards 
  • First win in Columbus in 22 years! 

Jeers:
  • 1 sack and Stroud had all day to throw 
  • OSU shut down the run game in the 1st half 
  • Bend but don't break defense was bending a lot 
  • OSU's LB turned RB was getting a ton of yards on the ground (he picked OSU over Michigan in the portal this off season)
  • Michigan had to go to the defense to find a power RB 
  • Harrison is really good 
  • I didn't love the idea of trying a 57-yard field goal up 11 
  • Fox really got mixed up a couple times on what was happening on the field
  • Fox was saying how smart Mullings is, when he had a mouth guard in and another hanging from his face mask.  😀

I was actually happy at the half that Michigan was down 3 points, it felt like the lead was much bigger and outside a couple big plays by Michigan, that the Wolverines had gotten outplayed most of the half.  I'm texting friends that Corum is clearly out and Michigan won't give it to Edwards with a broken thumb.  If we can't run the ball, we can't win.  

Then the 2nd half happened, the offensive line was getting a push, and Edwards was off to the races.  JJ played a good game, was accurate, and kept the Wolverines in the game until the running game found its footing.  He also made some important runs when Michigan didn't have a running game at all. 

Ok, I'm going to state this because we're all friends here, but I thought that Edwards might fumble due to his thumb injury and that would change the momentum in the game.  I'm not proud of that thought, but years of watching this game has burned too many images like that in my memory bank. 

Still hard to believe that game happened and it was 3 hours ago. 

Now on to Purdue and the Big Ten Championship game.  (thank you Nebraska for taking out Iowa)

13 comments:

Justwin said...

I’m more “thank you Indiana”… didn’t want to play IL again.

I’m really happy, shocked, overjoyed for these kids. Edwards is without a doubt a beast. JJ is poise and oozes confidence- with a nice mix of incredible talent.

But I think more than anything, football is about imposing your will when it counts. This team, and give harbaugh credit, truly believes they can beat anyone. That is a special thing. Passing game was lights out. Running game was lights out. defense showed when we needed them to.

AND- we don’t have to hear “Michigan Man” make excuses about his team losing. (Can’t blame the weather this time). He better not change his name and just show up again.

Bob, you’re the man. We love this blog. Please never pick Mich over Ohio— I’ve become superstitious.

ScottyDoggs said...

Great post by Justwin!

ScottyDoggs said...

I thought there was a small chance Michigan could pull off a win, but never expected anything like this ... it's almost like Michigan was sand bagging the long ball all year to fool the buckeyes (I doubt it but looked like it). Seems like everyone was giving Michigan-Man a lot of tolerance lately, but it's mt turn to say something. Dear Michigan -man you can no longer call yourself "true-blue". A true blue fan would not call a 100% loss for Michigan. You own your comments.... you are not "true-blue". All the Detroit sports writers, and Bob (himself) predicted a probable loss, but they did it in logical sincere manner, and not "as a matter of fact like you". Maybe you learned something *I doubt it* .... Maybe you should hide out in your Mom's basement for 2/3 months (I mean Dubai "My bad")

ScottyDoggs said...

Is it me or the Ohio Stae coach was a touch arrogant ass the last year vs. Michigan ....I am so glad Michigan handed his hat back to him after knocking (blasting it off his swelled head).

dude1984 said...

Michigan did what they had to do:
• Limited the amount of Ohio State big plays on offense
• Adjusted for Ohio State selling out against the run
• Didn’t turn the ball over
• Didn’t commit stupid penalties

The game plan was great, and the execution was as close to perfect as possible. It was a great win, and so much more satisfying than last season for one reason…it was in Columbus in perfect weather.

Team needs to enjoy this one for a night and then it’s time to move on. There is more winning to do!

Off-topic: Michigan also got a commitment from Cam Calhoun, a CB from Cincinnati, this afternoon. He was in Columbus on an official visit to Ohio State.

Blue said...

Great game plan by the coaches! JJ was right, there was plenty of meat still left on the bone, and did come off today with multiple explosive plays. Plays that were set-up these past few weeks that enable today's thrashing. Another great write-up, thanks!

MichiganMan said...

Guys great victory for Michigan...I had my doubts...I am glad they won...I will miss you guys...unless you all find a place in your heart to let me come back...but I Am a man of my word...this is my last post...

Blue for life

BlueManGroup said...

Du bye, ya' Buckeye!!!!!!!! Go Blue!

Chowman said...

Yeah early on in that game I didn't have a good feeling. It just felt like Michigan was just barely hanging on and it was only a matter of time before OSU snapped our necks. then CJ took a short gain on a sideline route to the house and you could feel things shifting. Think that was the play that found the chink in OSU's armor. After that the OL started to play better, the defense played better, it just energized the Wolverines and put doubt in the minds of the Buckeyes!

Dogs scurried to their crates when I was questioning why the bleep are you going for a 57 yd FG JIM! Up until the Don broke off the 2nd long TD run, I just had this feeling OSU would find a way to make it at least close in the end. But my angsts was for naught!

Hays67 said...

What a team effort! I admit I was scared about Edwards hanging onto the ball too, but wow! Happy to see Mike Barrett play so well in the Game. The job this coaching staff has done the past 2 seasons is incredible! HAIL!

Tim said...

It’s a great day to be a wolverine

szanreno said...

"We went to Columbus" someone posted yesterday. Damn I love that statement. Somewhere between disbelief and elation was how I would describe Edward's second long TD run. An 85-yarder wide open for all but a second while we was going through the line. Three plays before that the pressure that never came all day finally got to Stroud and he made a decision he is living with today. As he was going down an ill-advised shuffle pass was intercepted, a gift interception, and it was at this point I felt that Ohio State conceded. Edwards run a minute late sealed it. Earlier in the quarter right after the Sainristil pass break up in the endzone, a break-up that was not just good but smart, I said to myself their going to get to Stroud down the line here in a critical moment. That moment came about the 3:30 mark. The fourth quarter was one for the ages.
The 57-yard FG attempt was not, in my opinion, the right call for obvious reasons.
JJ making all the passes, running hell bent for leather and then lowering his shoulder and bullying in for a TD better make all the haters issue a blog post of "I may have been mistaken".
Who in the hell is Kalel Mullings and where did he come from?!? What a gimmick. Hahaha.
Harrison cannot be stopped. We had good coverage on him and he still came through. A beast.
Don't understand why Stroud didn't run at all yesterday, it was there several times?!?
It was a tale of two halves. But our half was way better than their half.
It took 3.5 hours, two cigars, and three 16 ouncers, but what an afternoon! Go Blue!
How you say that, Du-bui-a? Hilarious.

Gemini4 said...

My feeling going into the game was that Michigan had an overall better team than OSU. From my observations, Michigan has an elite secondary that is vastly underrated. The quality of the team's secondary play performance throughout the season compensated for a lack of an exceptionally strong pass rush (that never materialized and more than likely will not appear this season). The Michigan secondary's performance in Saturday's game should have been mentioned in your Cheers section. Without the quality of Michigan's secondary's, OSU would have clearly been the better team and likely won the game.