9/11/2021 – Michigan 31, Washington 10 – 2-0

It is not, in fact, true that the Michigan fanbase is unique amongst fanbase in its capacity to self-immolate amongst news that in any non-sports context would be taken as "good." Take it from someone who spent years writing This Week In Schadenfreude, a trip through the most psychotic reaches of college football's internet underbelly. TWIS often featured teams who had won (in the sense that their team had a bigger number than the opponent) but had lost in a much more immediate and real way (because the third-string cornerback gave up a touchdown that one time). Sports brain always works the same way.

However, your author will concede if there was a national championship for hand-wringing, Michigan would be in the playoff conversation annually. On the one hand, this makes total sense given the last seventeen years. On the other, it is very annoying. The responses I got to this tweet…

Yeah Michigan can probably kneel this game out but it's real ominous that they're acting like they have to.

— mgoblog (@mgoblog) September 12, 2021

…were split between "this tweet is annoying" and replies like "JJ MCARTHY NOW" that I found annoying. Sports tweeting is like driving: the only appropriate speed to be going is exactly the speed you are going. Everything else == jail.

In the cold, hard light of day on this Monday I can see both sides of the equation. Yes, it is pretty good that Michigan took a P5 opponent with some recent history of being a good defense and paved them in a way I haven't seen in a long time. On the podcast I referenced the 2019 ND game, but even that featured a large number of stuffed runs interspersed with big plays based off misdirection. In this game if Michigan didn't get four yards on a run it was a surprise. When's the last time that happened? Probably at some point when honorary captain Steve "Not Aidan's Dad" Hutchinson was roaming the field. And honestly, my recollection of Lloyd Carr offenses doesn't have anything like this in it. This felt like a game from the 70s.

Yes, it is pretty bad that Michigan seemed to have an aversion to passing that was also out of the 1970s. You can say this makes sense given the game context, and maybe it did. But it nonetheless feels bad when you end up in situations that are obviously passing downs and then barely pass. It conjures up ideas about what the offense will look like when it inevitably runs up against a team that doesn't get paved.

You can be forgiven if the internet has beaten this fact out of your head but it is possible to hold both of these thoughts in your head at once. I am not immune to this, either, despite my clucking. On the podcast I said that I didn't think this offense could beat Ohio State, and then immediately apologized because my expectations going into the season weren't "beat Ohio State," they were "ehhhh… bowl eligible?"

This is the grandeur and glory of sports fandom: you literally never have to be sane or happy. You can hop from grumbling about 7-5 to grumbling about 9-3 to grumbling about beating a P5 team by 21 in a game that wasn't actually that close, spiritually. These avenues are open to you, and you can take them, and anyone not going at your speed will seem insane. But also you can literally never be dissuaded from optimism. There was a certain kind of Cubs fan who thought this was the year, every year, and anyone not going at that speed was insane.

So you get these camps of people and give them a common allegiance and a way to communicate to each other and you get a great firestorm of anger in the midst of Michigan grinding a name brand Pac-12 school into a fine dust. Here too there is a choice. This is what is great about sports; this is what is stupid about sports. If you sit very still in a forest for several months you will find they are the same thing.

AWARDS

Known Friends and Trusted Agents Of The Week

mmm dump truck holes [Fuller]

you're the man now, dog

#1 Your Offensive Line. This column generally punts on specific OL for this section because it does not have time to form an opinion on every dang guy; that's a process that requires UFR. So when the OL needs to be in this bit of the column they get it as a unit. Their placement here should be self-explanatory. If you need an explanation: 345 rushing yards on 55 carries.

#2 Aidan "My Dad's Name Is Chris" Hutchinson. 2.5 sacks and down-to-down terror whilst being frequently matched against a tackle that people think could go in the first round of the draft. One of the lingering Qs from the WMU game was whether Hutchinson could be an every-down problem. The answer appears to be an emphatic yes.

#3(t) Hassan Haskins and Blake Corum. 155 and 171 yards, respectively, maybe not a missed cut between them, and plenty of yards generated themselves after the OL set them up. Full points for both! They're made up and don't matter!

Honorable mention: Mazi Smith got a ton of push on the interior. Josh Ross was quite a bit more active and ended up with 11 tackles, a TFL, a PBU, and three hurries. Brad Robbins had 4 punts with a 46 average and one return for four yards. Jake Moody had a 52 yard field goal and put almost all of his KOs out of the endzone.

KFaTAotW Standings.

(points: #1: 8, #2: 5, #3: 3, HMs one each. Ties result in somewhat arbitrary assignments.)

8: Ronnie Bell (#1 WMU), The OL (#1 Wash), Blake Corum (#2 WMU, T3 Wash)
6: Aidan Hutchinson (HM WMU, #2 Wash)
4: Hassan Haskins (HM WMU, T3 Wash)
3: Dax Hill (#3 WMU)
1: Andrew Vastardis (HM WMU), AJ Henning (HM WMU), Mike Sainristil (HM WMU), Brad Robbins (HM Wash), Jake Moody (HM Wash), Josh Ross (HM Wash), Mazi Smith (HM Wash)

Who's Got It Better Than Us(?) Of The Week

lol nope [Barron]

Blake Corum. Meep meep.

6⃣7⃣ yards, untouched.@blake_corum runs by Washington for the game's first TD. pic.twitter.com/MpKgi8ahBZ

— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) September 12, 2021

Honorable mention: Pick anything off the third quarter drive that was seven runs, zero passes, and a touchdown. John Donovan calls a run play on fourth and four. McNamara and Cornelius Johnson execute an excellent back shoulder throw to convert third and long.

​MARCUS HALL EPIC DOUBLE BIRD OF THE WEEK.

This one goes out to the people in the crowd booing when Michigan was up 10-0. Yeah, some frustrating playcalling. Let's get it together.

Honorable mention: Haskins is stuffed on fourth and goal from the one. Various McNamara dropbacks go Not Well.

[After THE JUMP: successful coordination, shirts edition; unsuccessful coordination, football edition]

OFFENSE

Made 'em quit. Ryan Hayes is the willowy converted tight end left tackle who's mostly a pass protector, and also on Michigan's final touchdown he blew his guy inside the hash:

After stopping Washington on 4th down, Michigan goes 10 plays (ALL RUNS lol) for 56 yards in 5:13, capped off by this Blake Corum 4 yard score. pic.twitter.com/j2E1lFvwYe

— Due# (@JDue51) September 12, 2021

This was a game in which you could just feel the opposition defensive line wilt as the game went along. Those do not happen all that often these days.

[Barron]

I promise that if he gets hurt I will never speak to anyone again about anything. Okay so the thing that I thought when Corum broke into the open field and the safety came up to take an angle that was so very, very wrong was "that is Denard fast." Corum let up over the last ten yards and nobody got any closer. Is that crazy? I asked Seth if that was crazy and he was like "…maybe not?" I feel like it has to be crazy, and then I feel like it's not crazy.

Also in this game, Corum jump cut over two gaps at the last second to hit a hole that was indeed there and busted another chunk run.

can't stop watching this cut pic.twitter.com/NrwmLUdV48

— The Bucket Problem (@BucketProblem) September 13, 2021

That is what I am talking about when I say "Mike Hart but fast." It figures that Michigan gets the Chosen One at RB as soon as I don't get to chart him.

hey WRs exist [Fuller]

A palpable hit. Michigan did do one good thing downfield in the passing game when McNamara hit Cornelius Johnson on a slick back-shoulder throw to convert a third and long. There's always some consternation about whether the QB in fact meant to do that when a back shoulder is completed (*cough* Mitch Leidner *cough*) but this one saw Johnson stop very early, look prepared for it, and achieve a ton of separation. Verdict: slick.

Overrun on the edge. Washington was extremely prepared for Michigan's edge dinks. We had a slack discussion about a particular play that probably should have worked but for an MA; other instances of bubbles were crushed. This is a natural thing to happen when you're not really threatening downfield. In that case those throws are not valid because you haven't backed anyone off.

Thunder and lightning manifest. One thing about that long Corum TD: I think that's an example of why Thunder and Lightning backfield combos are powerful. That safety's very bad angle probably had something to do with tackling Hassan Haskins earlier in the game. Haskins isn't going to go around you; he's going to run you over, so you need to match momentum with momentum. So you go forward fast. That's death against Corum.

DEFENSE

Caveats apply. We talked about this in the run-up to the game and to be consistent now we should reiterated: against Montana the Huskies did not look snakebit or unfortunate or on the verge of putting it together. They just looked bad. They continued to look bad in this game. To be perfectly honest, two drives in I thought to myself "these guys aren't scoring." Their late surge-type substance where they hit some shots between levels in the zone and actually put up points were maybe the most surprising occurrences of the day. I think we're going to find out this is a MAC caliber offense.

Even so, you'd be very happy if Michigan came out and put this beating on a MAC caliber offense given preseason expectations. Alex detailed some major problems with one guard spot in particular for the Huskies, but other than that this OL should be at least okay, and Michigan's defensive line whipped them. Going into the season we were worried that the DE/DTs as a potential fatal flaw. This was at least a reasonable step forward.

Tight end on Hutchinson: inadvisable [Fuller]

No caveats there, though. Washington LT Jaxson Kirkland is universally considered a candidate to go high in the draft; PFF had him for two pressures allowed in 124 pass blocking snaps during Washington's abbreviated 2020 season. There were bonafides to establish here; consider them established.

Hutchinson puts this 6'7" 310# All-Pac12 left tackle on skates. pic.twitter.com/b7yV3mBPUC

— Due# (@JDue51) September 12, 2021

Hutchinson just sucked some of that draft status into himself, Highlander-style.

Let's read a lot into a butt tap. Junior Colson is a true freshman linebacker who is rotating in for meaningful snaps early in his career. That's a good sign for a guy who was ranked around 100th, since those rankings often rely more on physical presence than aptitude. Many of Michigan's best linebackers have been badly misranked—hello Devin Bush—because they don't look like superheroes. Then they blow up because they've got a mind like a diamond.

Anyway at some point in the third quarter Colson was in and butt-tapped Mazi Smith into a different technique because he realized he was lined up wrong. Then Michigan stuffed Washington—which okay they were always doing that. Let's keep a careful eye on Colson; if he's ready to be on the field this early and has a preternatural grasp of the D combining that with his top-100-ish athletic status would be real nice.

moving on up [Fuller]

Useful depth? Mike Morris seemed to have another productive game as an OLB/DE sort in the Wormley mold, and Michigan even got some snaps out of mountainous Oregon State transfer Jordan Whittley, who came in on short yardage and was relative immovable. Also in Whittley news, Michigan wisely put a single digit on him after the first game. He's now #3, and it is always deeply entertaining for a person the size of a small moon to have a single-digit number.

There was a little bit of woofing. Giles Jackson was not welcomed back warmly, which is to be expected I guess. The team got in his face a little too:

woo! you did not get many yards! [Barron]

WHAT ARE WE DOING DOT COORDINATOR. There was much merriment on the podcast about John Donovan, particularly the fourth and four where the Huskies—who had approximately 15 rushing yards at the time—decided this was their best move:

this was Washington's run call on 4th and 4

the running back is the pair of legs beneath Michigan #97 pic.twitter.com/58HAsKLFMt

— BUM CHILLUPS AKA SPENCER HALL (@edsbs) September 12, 2021

Note also that Moten has the QB keep nailed if that's the way it went. So it looks like Michigan… run blitzed here? On fourth and four when the opposition cannot run? And was right? Somewhere Christian Hackenberg was very itchy Saturday night.

Secondary: ask again later, again. I still don't want to draw any grand conclusions about the state of the secondary after that game. I tentatively believe they'll be significantly improved, give up more chunk plays on zone breakdowns than we're happy with, and will still be vulnerable to bad things when they go up against elite WRs. Doesn't look like there are a ton on the schedule until the end of it.

SPECIAL TEAMS

A continued strength. Special teams rundown, like last week. Michigan:

• Hit a 52 yard field goal.
• Punted four times for 46 yards gross with just one four-yard return, that on a 59 yard punt.
• Converted a fake punt.
• Allowed Giles Jackson just one kick return, which ended inside the 25.
• Almost broke both kick return opportunities, with Corum getting ankle-tackled just before afterburners time on both.

Punt returns were a notable exception. Caden Kolesar did have a 20 yard return on a line drive; to me it didn't look like he got more yards than were there on the catch. He also didn't field a couple of punts, costing Michigan a significant amount of field position on the second. In the aftermath it kind of seems like Michigan should be auditioning other guys; if Kolesar isn't actually the reliable option then we can have an unreliable guy who runs really fast try his hand at it.

I probably shouldn't put all the special teams bits into a single bullet point. Looks silly.

MISCELLANEOUS

Slice of life.

[Barron]

"So what are you doing after the game? Want to get a beer?"
"I'm sorry, but my lupine jaws are incompatible with your human glasses."
"You could just take the suit off."
"Oh… this isn't a suit."

not a good place to be [Fuller]

An operative demonstration of "go for it" philosophy. I don't think we need to argue about whether going for it on fourth and goal from the one was the right move, right? At this point in the evolution of football that is the conventional wisdom. The stuff, while not so great for winning football games, was an excellent example of why it makes sense.

Washington, which had no run game, was stuck on their own one. They ran for zero yards, threw incomplete, and would have been facing a third and ten from their one if they hadn't gotten bailed out by a terrible roughing the passer call. In those situations teams almost always run for a few yards to give their punter room, and then they run a max protect punt with horrible coverage that sets the opponent up 30 or 40 yards away from goal.

A bizarre sequence. So we got 1) a fourth down measurement for Washington that was ruled a first down despite a seemingly obvious gap between the ball and the sticks, 2) a review of that spot that actually overturned it, which never happens. Also we had the more familiar "we're gonna go for it, timeout, nah" sequence from Washington in the first half.

Maize-out: accomplished. Michigan Stadium heeded the internet bullying and actually did something coordinated for the first time ever.

[Fuller]

I, too, yielded to the bullying and found something "maize" to wear. This was the strength of the peer pressure. As previously stated, I have found the fanbase's absolute refusal to wear a particular colored shirt endearing. Alas, all half-ass traditions must pass. I promise you that if there is a night game and it's cold that this temporary unity will evaporate like so many motes of snow, because ain't nobody got a bright yellow coat.

HERE

Best And Worst:

A vocal smattering of Michigan fans had booed the predictable playcalling, and I have to assume that a key part of  Washington’s halftime adjustments was shifting formations and bringing safeties even closer to the line in order to dissuade Michigan from running the ball.  Even people who were very much content with the first-half playcalling (I count myself in that group) likely assumed Michigan would be forced, whether by gameplay circumstance, expected adjustments to counteract the UW defense, or sheer human nature to seek out variety, would switch up the playcalling a bit and maybe throw the ball around a couple of times.  It would be like making a full song out of a single riff – it’s gotta be unlistenable.

You would, of course, be wrong in this assumption –  we’ve got popular one-riff songs and Michigan proceeded to run the ball 7 straight times for 73 yards and a TD that felt like the end of the game with a half to play.  First it was Haskins just grinding forward for 4 yards, 4 yards, then ripping off a 20-yarder and then a run featuring him (and the rest of the line) turning a 6-yard run into 11 through sheer spite.  Corum followed that up with runs of 17, 6, 4, and 7 for a TD, each one featuring clockwork line blocking and surgical running.

A mini-UFR on the passing game:

In conclusion, I think the pass calls made sense for the most part. There were a couple of duds from a play-calling perspective for sure, and Cade made a couple of bad reads and had a bad throw. But the biggest issue on these pass plays was that the blocking was just not ideal, especially by the receivers. However, the good news is that these are all fixable. The blocking issues were more about angles and technique. And that can be taught and improved week by week. Honestly, this is where I think losing Ronnie Bell really sucks.

Michael Scarn is certainly on one side of the divide in the column:

And yet, grumblings of "pass the ball" repeatedly rained around me in the stands all game.  Board posts reflected many of the same thoughts.  "Give McNamara experience," "develop the receivers" yada yada yada.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

And the state of our open threads:

Across 2,030 posts, there were 894 instances of tracked words, which translates to an efficiency rating of 2.26. This is consistent with the more frustrating wins of the Harbaugh era, as well as some of the more heart-rending losses, which to me means that for as much as some of us sometimes bitch about not caring, we do. We certainly engage in these games to some degree anyway, even if it is merely to drop a "fuck".

ELSEWHERE

Apologies to the rest of the Michigan football internet but I got socked with a head cold yesterday and have to get this out due to another commitment. We'll fire up the UV machine tomorrow.