Michigan 34, Miami (NTM) 10
WITH AUTHORITY [Eric Upchurch/MGoBlog]
The gulf between box score and eye test is vast this evening.
The box score says Michigan gave hapless Miami their 19th straight loss with authority, outgaining the RedHawks 460-198, moving the ball well on the ground (6.1 YPC) and through the air (8.4 YPA), and ultimately cruising to a 24-point victory.
My eyes saw Michigan cough up three turnovers in the second quarter, allowing Hapless Miami to tie the game at ten apiece and hang around for a while.
The box score shows that Miami scored ten points against the Wolverine defense, but the eyes know those should be charged against Michigan's offense, as those scoring drives covered all of 26 and 21 yards following U-M turnovers.
The box score doesn't contain a giant red "WTF" flag. My eyes saw this at the end of the first half:
You can click to enlarge that picture, or I can just tell you that Michigan ran a four-minute drill with zero urgency or effectiveness. After Michigan tried to run a quick play on fourth-and-1, only for Miami to call a timeout before the snap, Brady Hoke decided to punt on 4th-and-6 from the Miami 37 when the Wolverines took a delay of game penalty coming out of that timeout. The decison to punt was so surprising Miami didn't put out a returner, then called a timeout of the "you can't be serious" variety. Finally, U-M took another delay of game to give Will Hagerup more room to boom a punt that hit the end zone on the fly.* Insert giant red "WTF" flag here.
The box score shows Devin Gardner had an efficient 184 yards and two TDs on 20 attempts, with one lone interception blemishing his stat line. The eyes saw his mechanics, which are all over the place, and at least two should-be interceptions hit the turf or, in the case of Jake Butt's first catch, get rescued by a great effort on the receiver's part. In fairness to Gardner, the box score also doesn't show that his interception was tipped at the line.
A crease, that. [Upchurch]
The box score and eye test agree on a couple things, at least. The offensive line did a fine job opening up holes after Miami stopped packing the box with eight defenders; when the RedHawks had to adjust to account for Michigan's wide-open receivers, Derrick Green went off, finishing the game with 137 yards and a pair of scoring runs on 22 carries. Green showed off patience, vision, and the decisive cuts necessary for success in a zone running scheme, and the numbers say as much.
Amara Darboh also looked good as he stepped into a starting role with Devin Funchess in street clothes; the redshirt sophomore caught six passes for 88 yards and Michigan's first touchdown—when he caught a quick slant and powered through a tackle to poke the ball across the plane—though he did lose a fumble during that stressful second quarter. Jake Butt looked healthy after playing sparingly against Notre Dame, finishing with three catches for 59 yards and a score on a clever fake screen called by Doug Nussmeier.
The defense thoroughly dominated Miami. RedHawks QB Andrew Hendrix could only muster 165 yards with one TD and one INT on 26 passes. The Miami passing game fared a whole lot better than their running game, which managed a paltry 33 yards on 24 attempts. The defensive front looked great, and even without starters Ray Taylor and Jarrod Wilson, the secondary held strong. Jourdan Lewis recorded his first career interception with a leaping grab on the sideline, while Jabrill Peppers impressed with his physical man coverage, forcing throw after throw to sail into the sideline.
The box score, which must be taken into account—our lyin' eyes being what they are—says Michigan turned in a dominant performance, with the final score a bit deceiving thanks to those turnovers. While it took longer than anyone hoped or expected, the Wolverines ultimately dispatched a bad team with relative ease.
On my drive home, however, I'll remember the groans that accompanied Hagerup's ill-fated punt, and the boos that followed the team into the tunnel, and I'll wonder what that kind of first-half performance would result in next week, when a plucky Utah squad coming off a bye week visits the Big House. The mental image isn't a pleasant one.
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*Apologies for initially screwing up this sequence of events; now edited for accuracy, though the general "WTF" feeling stands, of course. This was horrible clock management and an infuriatingly conservative call in a one-score game against an overmatched opponent.
September 13th, 2014 at 11:22 PM ^
Doesn't that actually justify the punt, if anything? If Miami has all 3 timeouts, the decision looks a lot worse than if they have none. With no timeouts, they need field position to be able to do anything.
September 14th, 2014 at 2:16 AM ^
They weren't going to have field position regardless. Not with their tire fire of an offense. You absolutely go for it. How would going for it when they have three time outs make more sense?
September 14th, 2014 at 9:54 AM ^
You definitely go for it, but on the other hand 3 TOs definitely factors into the decision. Driving 60 yards with 0 TOs is a lot harder than with 3.
September 13th, 2014 at 8:31 PM ^
Not when your kicker can't make 50 yarders and you risk giving a bad team good field position with 1 minute to get a score.....this is why you all don't coach. To be clear, I too am frustrated with the progression of this team, but this site is a hotbed for armchair qb's.
September 13th, 2014 at 9:37 PM ^
But is trading 17 yards of field position versus the potential to put points up should you get a first down really worth it? Against that team, possibly, but against a good opponent I would argue that no, it's not.
September 13th, 2014 at 10:29 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 10:32 PM ^
You mean the way Akron did in last year's game?
September 14th, 2014 at 2:08 AM ^
The most supportive argument in favor of Brady Hoke's terrible coaching is reminding us that he almost lost to Akron last year.
September 14th, 2014 at 4:27 AM ^
If he doesn't get a first and Miami scores, he is a fool and OMG Michigan is tied with Miami at half!
Miami was never in this game. They had 88 yards at half time. Why give them momentum and good field position? Kick it, get in the locker room with a lead and do exactly what we did in the 2nd half.
September 14th, 2014 at 9:57 AM ^
The thing is they get the ball after the half, so you just gave them a free possession. I get the make sure you don't go in tied thing, but the strategy definitely favors going for it, IMO. Our defense has been killing them all day up to that point and there really wasn't much time left for them to do much unless something flukey happens. I think you take that chance all day, everyday.
September 14th, 2014 at 10:20 AM ^
We should keep mind though that going for it on 4th and 6 is a low-percentage play. Odds are that you'll turn it over on downs. There's a huge difference between 4th and 1 (which is relatively easy to convert) and 4th and long.
Neither option here is a great one. The punt isn't a great thing here but turning it over on downs - which is the most likely outcome of going for it - is worse.
September 14th, 2014 at 1:19 PM ^
That area of the field is worth going on 4th and 6th though, and teams do it all the time, let alone when your defense is dominating. It's pretty widely known as 4 down territory. Too far to kick the FG, too close to punt because a touchback brings it right back. It's really whether 4th and 6 is a lower percentage than being able to pin your opponent deep, which I think is worth the risk.
September 13th, 2014 at 7:57 PM ^
we got a delay of game at that point? I was at the game, so I apologize if there was some network broadcast explanation. But, Michigan didn't take that much time to get the play off after Miami called a timeout. WTF?
September 13th, 2014 at 8:02 PM ^
No explanation was given, but someone messed up the clock. Neither the refs nor the Michigan coaches caught it, though.
September 13th, 2014 at 8:08 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 8:12 PM ^
When the ref told Michigan to break the huddle on the sideline they started the 25 second play clock.
That's not usually how they do it. Usually they call the team to break the huddle, the two teams get on the field, they set the ball and run the play clock. That turned out to be about 15 seconds difference. Michigan thought they lined up with about 20 seconds on the play clock as they usually would in that case, but instead the play clock was down to about 5. No one was looking at the play clock because no one was worried about it. Still a mistake to not be aware of it (the QB should find it when he gets to the LOS), but yeah, it was a weird move by the refs, and the reason the Michigan staff was saying the clock needed to be reset.
September 13th, 2014 at 9:14 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 7:41 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 8:26 PM ^
Same here.
September 13th, 2014 at 9:31 PM ^
I was at the game and it really felt different to me. Very deflating feeling. It did not feel like the same program/team I remember growing up. The shine is really wearing off with this staff.
September 13th, 2014 at 11:09 PM ^
Hmm, this game actually reminded me a lot of how we tended to play MAC teams under Carr. We'd typically let them hang around an annoyingly long time, mostly due to our own sloppiness, before putting them away in the second half.
September 13th, 2014 at 11:36 PM ^
This is what I remember as well. There was a good stretch there (2000-2005?) where his teams would play to the level of competition that was really pretty annoying.
September 13th, 2014 at 7:43 PM ^
Book it - we beat Utah by 20+
September 13th, 2014 at 7:48 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 7:54 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 9:47 PM ^
At least Utah is a home game, where Hoke actually has a stellar resume.
September 14th, 2014 at 4:20 AM ^
Utah has been poor on the road, too.
This blog sees the bogeyman under its bed.
September 14th, 2014 at 9:02 AM ^
includes last year's Akron game and yesterday's game -- both wins, sure, but only due to hapless competition. When you play like that and upgrade the competition all the way to, say, last year's Nebraska, things don't go so well.
September 13th, 2014 at 7:43 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 8:27 PM ^
But I think Ace was inferring the opposite conclusion.
September 13th, 2014 at 10:20 PM ^
September 14th, 2014 at 11:20 AM ^
Yes, I was pretty buzzed up last night.
September 13th, 2014 at 7:43 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 8:07 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 8:17 PM ^
in a tough game and beats the shit out of its next opponent 66-0. Team B gets beat in a tough game and then looks like cold crap against its next opponent somehow winning 34-10. What do you suppose is the greatest difference between those teams?
September 13th, 2014 at 9:05 PM ^
...didn't uh... execute.
September 13th, 2014 at 8:18 PM ^
The team practiced well this week per Hoke.
September 13th, 2014 at 9:01 PM ^
where we didn't have a great week of practice. We're undefeated all week.
September 13th, 2014 at 9:41 PM ^
I thought a good portion of the reason we looked like crap is because we coached like we were ok with being predictable and we woule work on our running game. Miami coached like that's what they expected us to do and adjusted accordingly. That and some fluky TOs made this a close game at the half. I'm going to wait and see what we look like next week before making any definitive statements about the future of this season.
I will say that I would like to see Gardner be sharper.
September 13th, 2014 at 7:43 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 7:44 PM ^
Skittish QB, below-average (but improved) OL, decent but not great defense.
7-5 regular season. Losses: @MSU, @OSU, PSU, and one of Utah or @Rutgers.
There were bright spots today, but it was still painful.
September 13th, 2014 at 7:56 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 8:27 PM ^
I think we have a good chance at beating one of them this year. I don't think we are worse then last year and I know OSU isn't as good as last year and we almost beat them. I know we suck on the road but, come on we have to win one on the road sometime.
September 13th, 2014 at 7:57 PM ^
September 14th, 2014 at 4:31 AM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 7:50 PM ^
This was the most Lloyd Carr game in about ten years or so. Let a team that's obviously much worse than us hang around because we're trying to just smother them, instead of trying to create mismatches and leverage our significantly better skill on offense.
We've come full circle.
September 13th, 2014 at 8:28 PM ^
Yeah, there was some of that. But the more I watch this team the more I get the feeling that we won't be able to truly utilize our skill at WR with Gardner at QB. He just seems so mentally shaken (understandably so given what he went through last year) that I don't see how we can ever really be successful as a pass first team.
If that's the case, I'm all for trying to ground and pound our way to a half a dozen victories, especially given that I think we have a defense that can hold most big ten teams to 20 points or fewer. It's the remaining games where we'll need to open up things for the potential of higher offensive output, albeit at the expense of the risk of dealing with Gardner and the turnovers that come with our passing game.
Don't get me wrong - I have a ton of respect for DG. But I just don't trust him to lead sustained drives at this point given his susceptibility to turnovers.
September 13th, 2014 at 8:33 PM ^
I repeat; Devin Gardner will be fine. As long as we don't let him get beat up like he did last year. I think that's why Nussmeier is limiting his use as a true dual threat guy, which is a bit of a shame. Understandable though. It's also likely to be the reason that Gardner looks hesitant. I think he's clearly been coached to stay in the pocket, but his instincts are fighting him. Give him time, he will round back into form.
September 13th, 2014 at 9:00 PM ^
September 13th, 2014 at 9:10 PM ^
I give DG mad props for being gritty and tough. But his QB instincts are woeful. His mechanics are just bad as well as his ability to read coverages, look off his receivers, etc. I wish we'd just cut the cord and go with Morris. I think this kid has tremendous potential. That throw to the corner of the end zone that was dropped was really nice.
Edit: Spelling error...
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