UFR GLOSSARY is here.

FORMATION NOTES: There's no way for me show them all. Here's Eagle Zero:

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Slight tightening of the rotations. Graham and Derrick Moore had the most snaps of the DL, with Jenkins, Grant, Stewart, Harrell out there about half the time, McGregor a bit less, a couple drives of Benny and Goode. LBs were mostly Colson and Barrett, with a dozen snaps for Hausmann in place of Colson and two disastrous snaps for Jimmy Rolder. Rod Moore went the whole way (no Sabb) with Paige giving a quarter of his snaps to Q-Jo. Will Johnson came off a snap after the one he overran Harrison; McBurrows got some nickel time before that, and M put Sainristil outside when Johnson went out.

VIDEO NOTES: In recent weeks Fox has been abusing YouTube's awful policies for copyright control to harass anyone with clips from the game without regard to Fair Use. The best you can do is dispute the claim and wait 7 days for them to even bother to check if they violated the law when they blindly issued a strike on your account, and then if Fox denies your dispute you have to escalate to the legal system. This is the plan, and we've been through it before, but it's not very conducive to visual aids in an article that comes out a few days after the game. I put some of the clips on Streamable and will move others over if Fox issues further strikes.

[After THE JUMP: The Greatest Game of Football Ever Played.]

They are all legends.

I just…I have been so blessed to cover this team. I want to write 10,000 words about what they went through. How they lost their coach for three games two times this year over tinpot scandals that together don't amount to one freshman cornerback. How they lost their linebackers coach to talking about an investigation that the Big Ten commissioner couldn't wait to conclude before issuing a suspension his lawyers told him he wasn't allowed to.

How Ohio State people were quoting stats from this column to gaslight us into believing this year's outcome a referendum on whether the last two happened, then went full Bengazi, knowing their lies for what they were as they spoke them, and putting them out there anyways because it was never about safety, signs, fair play, rules, or anything other than a chance to delegitimize everything a rival earned and celebrated.

How those who managed to lie to themselves now get to experience those Ls with this one all over again.

How this is what comes when your fandom is defined by hate. How the core of Michigan's turnaround three years ago was informed by the opposite ideal. How when this team saw Zak Zinter, one of several who embodied that turnaround, suffer a horrific injury, it was the love of their fans that put them back on their feet.

How they played against Ohio State?

I would also want to talk about how the process that leads you to information tends to qualify that information. How from Brandon Graham to Mason Graham this site's process has been to go through the tape, show our work, explain our subjective decisions, and to allow data to guide conclusions, not the other way around. The unfortunate side effect of letting the data do the talking is it refuses to answer any question that it can't.

Every Monday morning I would start charting another game against another hapless offense and ask what it meant for November 25th. Every Wednesday morning (except the time I was late) I'd file with questions unanswered. Are the linebackers good or did ECU's RPOs make life easy? Why does M play down a man in the box against everybody, and won't this get them blown up on Stretch with their DTs getting doubled? Are we doomed to death by a thousand slants/snags because our zone coverage is too predictable and switch coverages are too complicated for college? Were the struggles with Maryland receivers (and BGSU receivers) a prelude to Harrison/Egbuka, or can Will Johnson go '96 Woodson? Can Harrell's pass rushing work on non-Rutgers linemen, and are the DTs that good on stunts/twists or just competition-dependent? Is it too late for Sainristil to be the 3rd cornerback? If they miss a tackle on Henderson instead of a Maryland RB is it 57 yards? Is Rod Moore right or does he need more time?

Well?

Michigan won 30-24.

Can I have that in a chart?

Chart.

Michigan probably would have won in 2020 as well but we'll never know.

I believe you were saying something about processes and information quality.

Chart.

I will now take your questions.

Can Michigan get away with two safeties high and down a man in the box versus the run?

Well, they did. Excluding penalties and the one sack, Ohio State's ground game gained 106 yards on 26 carries for 4.1 YPC, all with Ohio State spotted a one-player advantage in the box.

That ground game, as we discussed when Michigan practiced it against Maryland, is mostly Stretch (aka Outside Zone) with Counter as a changeup. Michigan prefers to defend stretch by getting their linemen to the playside of their double-teams, thereby forcing cutback after cutback after cutback until the RB has been bouncing behind the line all play and somebody from the backside or topside can come down to collect him. You cannot get away with this unless you have excellent DTs. We do.

You're watching Mason Graham (#55 bottom DT) and Kris Jenkins (#94 top DT). Graham gets an RG-C double and sets the G up in the backfield: cutback. Jenkins gets the LG-LT, gets moved down, but then fights them off, fires back up, and the RB has chose his gap, unwisely.

This one is Graham again, but Stewart gets a bonus dominator badge for tossing right tackle Josh Fryar behind the 35 yard line and collecting the back himself. On the backside of this play, irrelevantly, you can see Grant is actually having trouble with his double. Michigan can survive one of those because they have a linebacker babysitting these gaps and ready to fill if one of them doesn't get controlled, with the other linebacker usually hanging out backside to deter RPOs/zone-reads/etc., then pursue in case the RB bounces all the way back.

Ohio State ran a dozen these with slight variations, including the split variety where they send a guy to kick out the backside. I gave out RPS minuses on a few of these because technically what you're doing is giving the offense an opportunity where your guys have very difficult assignments. But that was only in extreme cases; this is just how Michigan plays, because Graham and Jenkins, and to a lesser degree Grant and Benny are going to consistently get you those wins.

The Ohio State counter to Stretch is Counter, the power play I'm always drawing up with orange kickouts and purple downblocks and green lead blockers. It's basically backside power, but with a twist: run action (usually the RB stepping that way) that goes in the same direction of the downblocks, IE away from the direction of the play. This makes sense when you consider the other run play Michigan is looking for is Stretch, where they have to quickly get to the frontside of blockers angling that way. One wrong step in this game can be lethal.

The Michigan answer brings us to why that rotation of defensive ends is so important. The frontside edge has to restrict the space for this gap play by recognizing a blocker (usually an OL) coming across to kick him out. Stewart (DE on the top) demonstrates it here for us:

Caving in the edge of the run causes a traffic jam with the kickout and lead blockers, giving the DTs time to fight back to the play, as Jenkins and Grant do above. As long as the DL can take care of the lead blocker like that, the linebackers should be free to flow, run up and pop the back if he tries to squiggle out, and protect from bounces. The one of these that came out positive in Expected Points was when the back went outside of the kickout and Rolder didn't follow.

So that's the fastball and the curveball of this offense, and Michigan is able to get good wood on both of them while still keeping their hands back. Ohio State had the most running success with their changeups, which were pitch sweeps and one Pin & Pull designed to muss with those edges. Their longest gain all day was 12 yards on an edge run. Now, the last seven of those you could argue were due entirely to a hold:

But the first five yards are more interesting. Moore is the edge this is attacking, and he sets up as he usually would to push the Cade Stover into the backfield for stretch. Then he gets a puller (#55) as well and is like "Uh, what do I do here?" and suddenly there's no edge (though two blockers expended on one guy).

The next time Michigan saw something like this they had the edge (Stewart again) move that edge into the backfield.

#5 DE on the top

Not only was Henderson unable to get outside of that block as planned, trying to do so just got him five yards behind the line of scrimmage with heavy pursuit.

As for gadget runs, which usually involve their latest Percy Harvin-like object Xavier Johnson* Ohio State did convert a 3rd and long with a well-timed RB draw, but that's more of a passing game thing. They also picked up a (I believed horseshit) penalty on an end-around that got 3 yards clean. Ohio State also tried an old fashioned Michigan arc read, but caught what (I have to check) the first regular-down Michigan run blitz of the season.

Naturally, there's someone on Buckeye Twitter who's sure this is on Stalions.

There was also a pitch sweep on the Drive of Many Runs that came out in the positive on Expected Points. But that was pretty much it for the OSU run game. For the most part Michigan played a man down and got away with it, just like we've been saying they want to. Messirs Graham and Jenkins, please come forth and receive your crowns.

* [His name is actually Xavier not Mavier, which is not always clear with these guys.]

What happened on the Drive of Many Runs?

Unfortunately for our narratives, many things. The thing started with a sack, followed by a slant that Johnson overplayed and Harrison adjusted to well. The running began at the M36. From there:

• 3-yard run when M is playing for pass.
• Tempo'd, Sainristil goes under a block and doesn't get there in time.
• Grant gets scooped, Colson limits damage to 4 yards.
• (Goode enters), blitz trying to catch PA and get stretch for 4 yards.
• 3rd & 1: Grant gets into backfield, gets collared and spun or he has the stuff.
• Power read with the uncalled hold gets 12.
• Pitch sweep catches DTs trying to play Stretch/Counter for 6 yards.
• Goode goes under a block, can't fight back in time, 5 yards.
• Split zone that's getting 2 yards, Moore gets held to make it 8.
• Moore is still complaining, they get tempo'd for the TD.

Goode was –2 on this drive, which isn't much until you remember the way Michigan plays the run is they need their DTs to be putting up consistent positives. Ross Fulton noted on Twitter that one of those Goode issues was probably a tendency that Michigan saw on tape, but which Ohio State had also self-scouted and used to set up a counter.

Grant's mistake earlier might have been the same. I think that's enough to call this Ohio State's July Drive. It's their first possession out of the half, when OSU's seen Michigan's reactions to their base gameplan, and they unloaded a few plays they prepped out of tempo, and a couple of outside runs that reacted to the 1st half. On Michigan's end, Sainristil and Minter threw dice and came up with a run of 7s.

Also a few chunkier runs and a big opportunity to stuff a 3rd & 1 went sour when Michigan players suddenly spun their backs to the guys they were about to tackle.

This and the Wallace one needed to be called. The one on Derek Moore in the redzone was in the tip-your-hat realm of stuff teams get away with all the time, and then he compounded it by pleading his case from the 2 yard line while OSU was lining up to score. The uncalled holding rankles, but remember this is the defensive UFR; I'm sure Brian is finding similar events on offense, because that's which side Big Ten officials tend to favor.

The point is this drive was mostly an anomaly. Minter's two gambles (and Sainristil's one) were the kind worth taking, where if you got it right they're in a long down and your fans are jacked, and if you don't you give up 4-5 yards on 1st & 10. We focus on Cam Goode being a step down from the other DTs in run defense, which he is, but even that is overstated; the biggest DT mistake on this drive was Grant's. The reason offenses rarely get sustained drives like these against Michigan is you're stringing together a bunch of low-/mid-probability events against a defense that at any moment is liable to pop you for a loss. You'll note it didn't recur.

Marvin Harrison said he never saw so many coverages.

All season I was expressing mild annoyance when the opponent would suddenly seize on something that worked, and Michigan stubbornly kept two to four defensive backs deep. Indiana had the slants. Nebraska got snags. Even BGSU seemed to catch Michigan mid-install on complicated switches.

So here's where we finally get the payoff for buying an extra safety by playing light boxes against the run. I had to turn to Coach Twitter* for a lot of it because they often get All-22, and complicated coverages are a major hole in my football knowledge. Anyway: Harrison is right. Michigan bought themselves an extra defender to cloud McCord's reads, and used a dizzying array of coverages to keep Ohio State's excellent receivers in check.

The one I plan to dig into more, because it shows what a deep level this game was being played at, was this switch coverage. Michigan's initial alignment is confusing because both the nickel and field safety are lined up over the #2 receiver on that hash.

The slide motion from the WR on top is supposed to give McCord a clue to the coverage, and from Michigan's reaction he reads man-2 (man coverage with the safety bracketing the deep route), which should give him a quick rub route to Egbuka to the flat. That's close, but Michigan has a switch tag that Match Quarters calls "Palms" where Wallace and Sainristil flip as their respective WRs cross.

'This is speculation on my (and Klatt's) part, but I think McCord notices the switch too late, when he's already in the process of throwing, and purposefully adds extra follow-through to avoid a pick-six.

It ends up looking like an inaccurate throw, and maybe that's all it was, but it's a good example of the layers you have to pick through, and why despite doing a lot of reading to try to prepare for this stuff, I am wholly unequipped** to UFR the game when it's played at the level Michigan's NFL pass defense and Ohio State NFL pass offense play it.

Even with the best receiver room in college football and McCord having one of his best games (more on that in a minute), Ohio State's best means of sustaining drives was on the ground because Michigan was moving players all over the secondary. Here's a run on their long run drive but watch Sainristil dropping like a safety while Rod Moore comes down. That's an "Aztec" ploy from the base three-high defenses they run in the Big XII.

This didn't make them superheroes, but I think it's what allowed Michigan to keep up. Ryan Day teams may shit the bed on 3rd & 2 more than anyone else in the Big Ten, but when it comes to teaching his players to identify coverages and having the playcalls to exact maximum punishment, he is peerless in the NCAA.

This was the story on the 44-yard bomb that beat Will Johnson and turned a chance for Michigan to have an end-of-half shot at points to a chance for Ohio State. The camera caught Day on the sideline this whole time as he noticed the Wolverines' setup and gave the sign for flipping.

(This kind of clip by the way is how teams get each others' signs)

What I think Day saw here is Michigan's nickel, #18 Ja'Den McBurrows, motioning out and Sainristil remaining outside when the tight end, #8 Cade Stover, motioned outside. WR#4 Julian Fleming doesn't understand, but Stover is telling him they're flipping jobs and Michigan, crucially, is *Not*, with Michael Barrett remaining on the boundary instead of following the TE. Michigan is unlikely to expose a linebacker to the 2020 #1 receiver prospect (and #4 overall) in the country in pure man coverage, so it's almost certainly some kind of zone where the safety, Rod Moore, is providing Barrett help on anything vertical from the #2 receiver. Then they line up Fleming behind Harrison, which is typically a man-beater, but in the context of Michigan's switching zones is likely to get Johnson to step outside and keep an eye on Fleming for a break outside.

He does, Harrison breaks downfield with inside leverage, and though Johnson makes up all the ground and has time to turn around and play the ball, he doesn't know the pressure has forced a short throw and tackles Harrison to avoid a touchdown. Harrison does know the ball is short, gets tackled, and catches it anyways.

That also has to do with trust; Day doesn't trust his freshman center to execute his assignment against an Indiana defensive slant on 4th & 1, but he does trust Marvin Harrison to win a fade against the best cornerback in the Big Ten.

For Ohio State those are probably equivalent propositions, and for all the crap Day gets for the short yardage cowardice he deserves all the credit for designing, coaching, and recruiting for an unstoppable downfield passing game.

Keeping that passing game under 25 points three years in a row took a similar program-level commitment to installing NFL-style switch zones, teaching everyone not to bust, and finding 100 snaps for guys like Quinten Johnson while playing 5-man run defense against 6-man boxes so that when the time came there wasn't an ounce of hesitation when the #6 QB (#28 overall) of 2021 stands in a clean pocket and throws a perfect ball to the #1 WR (#9 overall) of 2021.

#28 the bottom safety

Again, I ask that you watch the moments before the play to see how much is really going on. Egbuka lines up on the backside, motions out past the field hash, Sainristil and Barrett communicate that they're *not* going to match this shift in personnel, and Barrett communicates some specific version of "Hey I'm a linebacker playing nickel out here" that Q-Jo understands. We don't get to see it, but somewhere off to the right of the camera's view Quinten's mind is able to get his body, which doesn't have the speed it used to before his early career injury, heading to that spot five yards wide of the hash and arriving with full force a fraction of a second after the point when he's allowed to make contact with the receiver.

This took years to get right on both sides, and the result is football on a caliber that I would argue has never been played before at this level. The Bryce Young vs Georgia double bouts are the obvious comparison, but those were more talent vs talent fights that turned on whether or not Alabama had Jameson Williams available.

I am *NOT* saying this Michigan defense is as good as *THAT* Georgia defense. I am saying this game was the passing equivalent of when the service academies throw their 1100 seniors' triple-options against each other.

Neither am I saying Michigan managed to go the whole game without busting. The first TD wasn't switch coverage at all. It was man, and McBurrows got beat.

Sometimes they call the right play on you too.

The late TD was possibly a bust, and possibly OSU finding the right response to one of Michigan's coverages. On the podcast Brian and I agreed Wallace (CB on top) is supposed to come off the tight end and help Colson with Marvin Harrison on the drag route. Our basis was "duh" but also because McBurrows (#18 in the slot) is passing Egbuka off to Rod Moore and looking up Stover when he goes inside. Wallace should be coming off Stover, keeping leverage in case of a double move to the corner, but also watching the QB for a pass underneath. Right?

But others think Day just found a major hole in the coverage when Michael Barrett almost got a pick. Space Coyote explains:

Clearly the TD was Poach or something like it. It's a trips formation, Michigan steals help on the #3 receiver's vertical release from the boundary safety (thus avoiding a situation like what McCarthy exploited against MSU), and that creates a linebacker v. mutant matchup on the drag underneath. For the second example Michigan switched up the roles of Barrett and Wallace after OSU attacked the Stover-Barrett matchup, and Wallace was not repped enough on this to realize where the hole in their plan was. He got a ding, and I went –2 on RPS.

The reason they probably swapped Wallace and Barrett was because Ohio State found another hole in this coverage when Jimmy Rolder came on the field.

According to Ross Fulton, Michigan is running their "2 Steal" coverage that brings a safety from the boundary to wall off the #2 receiver. It's the same idea as "Poach" where a safety from the boundary side is borrowed to add a pass defender to the field side. This is a 2nd & 1, and once again Day motions a receiver across the formation to get a coverage reveal, which they spot and McCord runs up to audible.

Sure enough, Moore leaves for the field side and McCord gets the ball out ahead of the pressure because he knows instantly where he wants to go with this ball.

Also: Benny came this close to knocking it down.

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* [Coach Twitter starter pack: Chris B. Brown (Smart Football) is the gold standard. Brett Kollmann is NFL Chris Brown. Cody Alexander of Match Quarters is my go-to for coverages. Ross Fulton is my favorite Buckeye, watches film like a college coach, and spots concepts and tendencies. For Michigan: Space Coyote is excellent at the kinds of coaching points players get. James Light is a brilliant local who can show you where in the playbook something came from. Manuel Excel (aka Colin) is the guy to follow if Neck Sharpies Seth is your favorite Seth because he's way smarter than I am. Ian Boyd is my OC (my DC, Steve Sharik, doesn't post much). Fulton, Coyote and Light also get All-22 film, and there are always other coaches and the odd insightful attorney in their replies.]

** [The reason I suck at coverages but feel confident enough to try a dissertation on Michigan's NFL run offense vs Ohio State's NFL run defense is a matter of exposure. The broadcast footage I've been charting with since my Foe Film days shows every run play, but those directors are woefully bad at showing the action downfield until the ball is halfway there, and then if you get a replay it's usually just endzone footage of the receiver running a route. I've seen Power a thousand times; I've seen enough to identify a coverage as Palms maybe eight or ten.]

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How did the cornerbacks hold up in man? Were the issues with BGSU/Maryland receivers a thing?

Will Johnson did fine.

This play is Ryan Day trying to copy the success that Maryland had with their double-slant RPO. But Maryland puts a ton of time into making that thing go, and knowing when they're being played. McCord here is being played. He is reading out the RPO portion of it and thinks Michigan is going to be in the same kind of soft coverage they showed last week. They are not. Johnson is in man, knows he has safety help and can thus play the slant super-aggressively. McCord realizes this only after he throws it.

For any Pizzagating Buckeyes rubbernecking, no this isn't a "Michigan has their signs" thing. Michigan is in a coverage that they didn't show before this game but used a lot on Saturday, and the cornerback is using his knowledge of how that coverage works to read an opportunity to make a play. If you're grading this from an OSU perspective I'd give McCord a BRx/–3 and an RPS-2 for calling this play expecting to get a different coverage reaction.

Is the pass rush that good or just competition-dependent?

YMMV on this one. Ohio State's offensive line was certainly more athletic than most of those Michigan's been going against this season, but they weren't as strong as many of them, nor any better prepared than all of them save Penn State and Michigan State, two programs with some of the worst offensive line coaching in FBS.

Which is to say Michigan's front four tore them up as much they did anybody else. Poor Carson Hinzman here is a 6'4"/300 redshirt freshman who would be at least 4th on Michigan's center depth chart, not counting various walk-ons and guards who'd be more likely to move over before they got to him. He was a star recruit, of course, but only Rivals had him ranked below Mason Graham and only On3 had him behind Kenneth Grant. Offensive linemen take awhile to develop but I'm ready to say a lot of rankers were wrong.

Mason Graham coming around you on a twist with Kenneth Grant is too much to handle. Graham moves like an end and has the motor of a Winovich.

Grant is larger than any offensive lineman across from him, and can beat Kaytron Allen or Gavin Wimsatt in a footrace. The Pressure metric in this game (PR+ total / [Rushers/4]) came out to 26/29, which is in line with what Michigan's been doing to everyone else.

Ohio State won some clean pockets along the way by going tempo, using play-action after the run drive set it up, and good old fashioned Big Ten-style tackling of the guy who edged you, but McCord was under siege on most of his dropbacks despite just four instances when Michigan brought more than four. As they'd done all year, they were winning with stunts and twists, using the threat of their DTs to pull protection away from the real danger.

This is why Ohio State had to go to the ground in the 2nd half. As the pass-rushers refined their attacks, the game-winning interception was coming. You could tell from the first snap of the drive, when a stunting Josiah Stewart—the Sun Belt transfer who was "too small"—put the classy #1 interior lineman and #7 overall player of his class on his high-class ass.

Yes, Josiah Stewart. The one where Jaylen Harrell—the boppable guy who can't pass rush—put Jackson on his ass wasn't until three plays later.

Someone in my timeline suggested Jackson should start a support group with Thayer Munford, but Munford can at least point to what Aidan Hutchinson is doing in the NFL. As much as I've come around on Harrell this year, it's fair to say that Jackson's excuse will be pointing at Mason Graham. "You want me to take my eye off THAT guy?"

Are the linebackers good?

Michael Barrett is.

This is known, but it's nice to have confirmation that our process, which has consistently ranked Barrett ahead of Junior Colson, is onto something. It's also nice to see the other site that uses a process like ours is coming to the same conclusion.

The Big Ten coaches named Barrett a 3rd teamer and Colson a 2nd teamer, with Tommy Eichenberg on the 1st team. That would not be my order. (They also put Maryland's Ruben Hyppolite on the 3rd team, so nobody knows anything when it comes to linebacking except, as the kids say, it is hard). For the record, IU's Aaron Casey and Mike Barrett would be All-B10 on my list.

We've expended many words on Colson in these articles but there has been a change. He used to be the guy with +12/-14.5 days because he would balance +2 events with –2 events and the odd –3. Now he will have five –1 plays in a game and six +1s, and I have decided this is fine. The minus events in this one were not carrying a seam far enough, carrying a seam too far, not carrying a drag far enough, biting on a fake pull, and hanging out backside too long. His positives were getting off a block, shooting a couple of gaps, and feats of athleticism in coverage or backside run defense. None warranted a clip. There's more to explore if he returns, but I'm not bringing up soccer anymore.

I also think we're going to be just fine when these guys leave, because next year Ernest Hausmann is going to blow up. When he gets drafted I want people to remember the time he got in a footrace with Treveyon Henderson and it ended in a draw.

OSU ran its pitch sweeps when Hausmann came on the field, which tells you they probably wanted nothing to do with Colson's speed, and Hausmann got to both of them. It's nice to see they couldn't escape it.

Michigan could have stopped there and put out the best linebacker rotation in the Big Ten. I could also stop here and you'd know exactly what I mean by that. So let's do so.

Who's going to be the cornerback who emerges in the rotation this year?

Kechaun Harris was the 3rd corner until he got hurt around MSU. That was when Michigan starting putting Sainristil outside and McBurrows at nickel, and Sainristil told us "Stay Tuned." McBurrows played about a third of this game—a drive earlier and then after Johnson went out—and ended up with a +1/-0. That +1 was a coverage event but as I said our process for coverage grading is flawed—if you're on screen you've probably done something to deserve a throw in your direction. I bet a coach watching this game came out a lot higher on McBurrows, who was involved in all of the switching and whatnot, and didn't get targeted except on the throwaway where he earned his point.

I did not mark McBurrows for a negative on the touchdown when he was in coverage.

If he managed to get out on Egbuka and make that play he's getting rained with pluses; that is just way too much traffic for him to get through, and Sainristil needs to alert and make the switch. I am told Sainristil admitted blame for that on a podcast they recorded that I haven't heard yet.

Staying tuned.

Okay now THAT is an underrated Mike Sainristil of the week.

I did no such thing.

You talked about McBurrows for a paragraph and only casually mentioned—oh yeah—Sainristil stepped in for Will Johnson against Marvin Harrison after never playing cornerback until a few weeks ago and didn't get burned.

My dude.

Tackle of the game, that.

People are going to remember Mike the way the guys at Mama Wangler's tailgate talk about the Dufek boys. That is because Sainristil was once again a major factor in Michigan defeating Ohio State. He picked up a cheap +2 on the final drive that I gave out because PBUs are +2s and I'm an unabashed Sainristil homer. But he was also out there setting edges on stretch that Henderson wasted time trying because you don't expect a little nickel to be two-gapping a big receiver like Egbuka. Sainristil also thunked the YAC out of another Henderson run to set up 3rd & long on the first drive.

Sainristil's cornerback work wasn't as polished, understandably. There was the switch on the TD, and he played it by the book on the last drive instead of dropping back to help on a deep smash route to Harrison. The reason it seems teams always get 6 yards on the sideline when they're driving late in games is because cornerbacks don't do this.

CB#0 at the bottom

As for Wallace, he did fine. I gave him +2 for the rake-out/fumble like substance on the last drive, because either way he got the ball out of the receiver's hands. The touchdown when he didn't switch to help Colson on Harrison was discussed above.

Quinten Johnson.

Also already talked about.

I'm sorry this was a line from the Google doc where you've been dropping questions all year from UFRs that you intended to answer after Ohio State, and now I don't remember what it was supposed to signify.

I'm guessing it was after I gave him a cyan for his UNLV game when he was standing around unsure of where to go. Or else when he followed that up with an interception against Rutgers that ended the feels-bad portion of that game.

Okay then: Quinten Johnson.

Quinten Johnson.

[Brian 2019 Recruiting Podcast voice] Quin-ten John-son.

Quinten Johnson.

Okay next question: When is Rod Moore going to be right? Is something wrong, and is this why Sabb is playing so much?

No coverage busts, never left the field, was the much afore-mentioned safety being "borrowed" for most of Michigan's coverage games. Michigan probably doesn't hold down this passing attack without Rod Moore being Rod Moore. Keon Sabb did not play.

Ohio State won the RPS game. Is that the Stalions Effect?

I need to define our Rock, Paper, Scissors metric. This was an example of an RPS event:

Kyle McCord is awful, can't throw under pressure, and cost the Buckeyes the game.

Why are you repeating Buckeye Takes™?

I point out, once again, that you select these, not me.

Well this might come as a shock but your Ohio State friend is 100% wrong about this, and so were your friendly neighborhood MGoBlog previewing team. McCord may have struggled under pressure all year, but he averaged 9.6 yards per attempt on plays when his blocking gave up a pressure, and gained 27 yards on the 7 plays when that was a PR+2 or higher. The Rolder play and the 44-yard pass to Harrison are also +2 events for McCord, especially the bomb.

I'm not here to grade Ohio State's play, but after charting this game hearing that take from Ohio State fans made my brain explode. I guess if they'll believe Connor Stalions was more important than Aidan Hutchinson, Mike Sainristil, or Kris Jenkins they'll believe anything. What a gas it must be to play for those people.

There's a giant officiating conspiracy against Ohio State.

lolwut?

Look,

I don't have the offensive events so maybe things happened there. Defensively, I think Xavier Johnson's hip may still be off the ground right here before he rolls over and stretches out, and if they got a review it's probably an inch short not a foot.

This was the lone Refs+ event in my charting this week. Opposite that are three turned-the-defender-around holds on the run-run drive, calling Mason Graham for holding after he got ripped to the ground by his collar,

…and letting a handful of false starts and illegal formations slide when OSU went tempo. For a Michigan-Ohio State game this is tame.

Regarding the fumble or "fumble" on the last drive, if Michigan recovered the fumble I guarantee 100% of Ohio State fans would be arguing that it was incomplete, but it was probably a catch and a fumble. I always fall back on this: watch in real time. It was close though; whatever they ruled on the field was going to stick. Fumble ended up being worse for Michigan in this case so we can just agree on it.

Redshirt updates? Rolder played in his third game so he can play in one more unless they exempt the bowl games again like they did last year because too many guys are in the portal or sitting out.

Heroes?

Everyone. They're all heroes.

Especial Heroes?

Mason Graham was the best player on the field. Kris Jenkins was death to the OSU run game and the reason Michigan got to play with an extra safety back. Josiah Stewart stood out markedly from the other ends. Jaylen Harrell ended it with help from Rod Moore and both had great days besides. Mike Sainristil oh man Mike Sainristil. Will Johnson had the pick against Harrison and survived. Jesse Minter saved a wealth of switch coverages with weird names all season just for this. Ben Herbert turned Jaylen Harrell et al. into the kinds of people who can knock a five-star 3rd-year guard on his ass.

Maybe Not So Heroic?

Nobody. Like I said, heroes all.

What does it mean for Iowa and Beyond?

The DL is, in fact, good enough to play a man down in the run and beat Ohio State. Local blogger needs to look for a new first bullet point.

Mason Graham was the best player on the field. I am telling you he is going in the Legendarium.

Will Johnson Covers the Earth. Locked on Harrison outside, only guy trusted on Harrison without help. Gonna remember that battle for a long time.

Josiah Stewart! The DEs have been running equal all season until now. This was what he came here for. +10 day that was half run defense.

The Hat Metric was invented for OSU's passing game. Much respect. Harrison is incredible. Fleming had the best game of his disappointing career. Henderson is the real deal and Trayanum is a load. Day was masterful at revealing coverages and taking advantage when he could. Took a great Michigan team and a year of Saving It to keep them to 24 points.

Jesse Minter take a bow. NFL passing game, meet future NFL defensive coordinator.

Now they've seen Palms; show them the palms. Michigan was saving so much stuff for this game it's going to be kind of fun now that they don't have to pretend to be a Cover 3 all the time team.

Michael Barrett should have been 1st team now I'm mad. Didn't expect to be so mad. Got at least a couple more games to spread the gospel.

Junior Colson is no longer Junior Colson he is Senior Colson. The mistakes and makes aren't so loud.

Oh gods poor Iowa. I am racing Alex Drain to get this published before he has FFFF ready and the two dropping next to each other is going to be one of the most uncanny moments in blog history.

Love wins. Hate gets to Die Mad*.

Your Moment of Zen:

And look who's first there with him.