Best: Expectations

Listen, I'd love to dive into some deep discussion about Michigan's outlook, how beating a top-10 team by 30+ points should be enough to quiet the worst parts of the "narrative" surrounding Jim Harbaugh. Yes, his teams struggle to win on the road against highly-ranked teams; that's true for most teams but it is acutely prevalent with Michigan. In both of their major road tests this year Michigan fell behind early and struggled to get their footing; they almost got back against PSU while Wisconsin not so much. But you've heard it all already, and considering Kirk Herbstreit was already downplaying the significance of this win by dismissing Notre Dame as unprepared and overrated midway through the 4th quarter, my guess is the Rorschach test for this game has already taken hold for most.

And in all honesty, this season was always about beating Ohio State. Hell, even at the start of the season everyone sorta knew the Game was the only one that truly mattered. Michigan can beat Notre Dame, Penn State, and Wisconsin; it's not a given by any means but we have ample recent evidence that none of these programs are unstoppable. But Ohio State has been riding a 162-game winning streak against Michigan since before Civil War (citation needed), and until Michigan under Jim Harbaugh breaks through on that front the sentiment around Harbaugh, that he has underperformed as the head man at UM, won't go away regardless of his other successes. So I'm going to savor this win a bit (mostly because the next time Michigan plays ND both my kids will be in college), but it's more of a data point to figure out if this team truly can compete with the one elite club in the league.

Meh: Small Hands and Wet Balls

So yeah, Shea Patterson had an up-and-down day. He did well to manage the offense during the worst part of the weather, and his ability to scamper for 7-8 yards when nobody was open downfield kept some drives alive. His topline numbers weren't great (6/12, 100 yards and 2 TDs), and he had some just bad plays (the left-handed throw deep in Michigan territory jumps out), but he also didn't turn the ball over and (as we saw) in a game where being down 2 scores felt like 50, Patterson guided the team to a 17-point lead in the first half they never really had to worry about losing.

I'd also like to add that, as another man with small-ish hands, I identified with Patterson's struggles to hold onto what I can only imagine was an unwieldy, water-logged ball. The announcers alternately focused on it and seemed to dismiss the notion any of it mattered, but you could tell on a couple of his throws the ball just slipped out of his hand, resulting in inaccurate and/or wobbly throws. His second fumble-type substance to end the half looked like a ball that just jumped out of his hands a bit. Once the weather let up his handling definitely improved, and his receivers bailed him out a couple of times (DPJ caught a ball that was behind him early on) to boot. It was a small step down compared to last week's game when I thought he really took over the offense, but he still looks light-years better than he did to start the season and, hell, was throwing blocks up big into the 4th quarter. I'm sure this hasn't been the season he envisioned but it's also clear he's still engaged in the season and what's still on the table.

Best: Always Moving Forward

Early on in this game I wondered why Hassan Haskins was given the start over Zach Charbonnet; after dealing with some type of injury after the Army game, Charbonnet has been quietly been having a really good year, averaging about 5 ypc and scoring 9 TDs. He's quick, elusive, and shown a consistent ability to get yards regardless of the game situation. But Haskins has been steadily improving all year and looked great in this game. He consistently muscled his way to positive yardage after contact, had Michigan's longest run from scrimmage where he ran through some arm tackles and stiff-armed an ND defender, and even hurtled a guy in such a way that I thought he might behead the defender. For a guy who has bounced around between RB, LB, and back to RB, he looks like a keeper in the backfield now and his size and willingness to take on would-be tacklers is a nice compliment to Charbonnet and Wilson. Do I think he'll be able to muscle through MSU or OSU's defensive lines? Less likely, but basic physics says 6'1" and 220 lbs is a load to handle if he gets a head of steam and the offensive line can deposit him a couple of yards downfield to start. For the game, Michigan's three lead running backs (I'm throwing Tru Wilson in here despite him not seeing a ton until the second half) didn't record a negative yard, something that feels like more of a trend than a blip.

Best: Underwater Trenches

A cottage industry centered around former players of varying levels of insight finding second life (and relevance) by providing "real talk" about teams has always existed to some extent, but with the advent of social media, a billion "content generator" sites, and the craven commercialization of the sport, it has proliferated to a degree that you couldn't load a podcatcher without snaring a couple. Most recently, former lineman Doug Skene provided "tremendous analysis" following the PSU game, mostly centering on such in-depth analysis as "the offensive line should run, not walk" and "players who I won't name (as he points at a depth chart of the WRs) are loafing". Admittedly, he did point out that Michigan's snap count was predictable for parts of the game (which seems to happen to lots of road teams in loud environments, but that's neither here nor there), so it wasn't all the usual bluster. Still, one of the issues I have with this type of commentary is that is imputes so much intentionality on the players and their motives that it's hard to parse what is a real issue and what is an imagined offense. DPJ runs toward the sidelines and it's suddenly "he's afraid of contact because he's a prima donna" and not, I don't know, trying to get past a defender. Or offensive linemen don't run to the line because they're quitting and not because running needlessly isn't a sign of toughness or dedication and they are simply heading out to the field the way they want.

I thought the offensive line played very well last weekend; the UFR largely confirmed this as well. After weathering an initial flourish of PSU linebackers shooting themselves out of cannons, they were able to grind out 141 yards while only giving up 1 sack and 3 TFLs. Notre Dame isn't quite at PSU's level on the disruption front, but they did come into the game top-30 nationally in both sacks and TFLs, and as anyone who remembered last year they absolutely are capable of eating a lineman's lunch on the way to the backfield. They held Michigan to 58 yards on 33 carrie, and even factoring out sacks and special teams insanity Michigan didn't crack 100 yards. And to make matters worse/more predictable, this weekend's game was played in an MSU special of rain, wind, and cold, practically signalllng that nobody was going to throw the ball unless they absolutely had to (hell, even Brian "hurricanes are for chumps" Kelly ran the ball more times than he threw in the first half).

And yet, Michigan just rolled over ND to the tune of 303 yards on 57 carries, a nice 5.3 ypc that is even more impressive if you throw out Patterson's two sacks. They came into the game with a total of 4 runs greater than 20 yards(!); they had 6(!!) 20+ yard runs in this game alone. While at times Notre Dame seemed unsure how to respond to Michigan's rushing attack, there were enough wrinkles and simple positional "wins" that this wasn't a beating concocted by smoke and mirrors. The past 3 weekends Michigan has been able to consistently move the ball in the run game against teams fully capable of slowing them down; Penn State is #2 in the country in yards allowed on the ground, ND has good athletes and knew what was coming, and Illinois held Wisconsin to under 4 ypc. It's been harped on for a long time, but they have seemingly settled back onto a lot of the running playcalls that worked last year (arc read, pin-and-pull, some designed QB runs) while adding a couple of wrinkles.

As for the passing game, Patterson wasn't asked to do much on that front, and the line was rarely tested as a result. Mike Sainristil leading the team in receptions with 3 (and being one of 2 completions the entire first half) highlights how few times Michigan really tried (or had any inclination) to air it out downfield. Patterson ate a couple of sacks and made one horrendous decision by trying to throw the ball away with his left hand that instead resulted in a backward pass for a big loss, but otherwise the pocket was reasonably clean and Patterson threw as necessary. And Michigan did pick up 3 PIs on ND's defense in this game, including one on their first TD drive on a deep ball to Collins, so there were probably a couple of yards lost due to Notre Dame's venial sins. On the day, though, Michigan still averaged about 10 ypa while completing 57% of their 14 pass attempts, and especially when the rain let up a bit in the second half looked as dangerous throwing the ball as they did last weekend.

Does part of me wish this hadn't taken half a year? Sure. But for all the talk about "9 of 11 returning starters" on offense, any coaching transition as significant as a new offensive coordinator (and system) is going to have some installation costs. Michigan's was probably a tad higher than you'd like, but LSU's seemingly no-cost transitions probably skewed the timetable a bit as well, making it seem incredibly easy to change some key elements of your offense. Still, it's no coincidence that once the offensive line started to gel a bit (Runyan was out for the first couple of games this year, which probably didn't help) and really punish teams on the ground the rest of the offense shifted up a gear. Do I still foresee them running into some issues against MSU and (especially) OSU? Absolutely. But in a game where Michigan needed to establish itself offensively early, the ability of the offensive line to keep ND at bay and deliver guys 3-4 yards downfield regularly was key.

Best: Slippin' Side to Side

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While Michigan found quite a bit of success on the ground in this game, the same absolutely couldn't be said for Notre Dame. Like most of their offense the Fig Things* aren't particularly great at running the ball, but they still came into the game averaging 5.3 ypc; they wracked up only 1.5 ypc in this game with a long of...9, and that cam when UM was up 38 to 7. And for some inexplicable reason, they thought it prudent to test Michigan's edge defenders throughout the game, repeatedly trying to get Armstrong or Jones toward the sideline. Perhaps less surprisingly as a result, Cam McGrone led the team with 12 tackles, including a team-leading 6 solo as well as 6 assisted. To put that in perspective, Khaleke Hudson was the second-leading tackler on the team at 5 total. McGrone was everywhere in this game, but mostly he was at the LOS; of his 12 tackles, 10 were for gains of 4 or fewer, and the other 2 were for 7 and 9 yards deep into garbage time.

But despite McGrone's singular dominance on the boxscore, this was a holistic beating by the defense. Michigan rolled out 3 linemen for most of the game and Kemp, Paye, and particularly Hutchinson dominated the line of scrimmage. This being a Don Brown defense Uche and Glasgow were never far from the line, but with what amounted to a 4.5 man line Michigan was able to consistently hold up at the point of attack while also generating enough pressure to get 5 QB hits to go along with 2 sacks. Again, the weather undoubtedly helped at times, but Michigan was able to consistently move the ball far better than Notre Dame on the day, and a big reason why was Notre Dame consistently found themselves behind the sticks and having no luck getting anything going on the ground.

* For those interested in seeing just how dangerous it is to assume everyone will always not be awful, check out a reference to Brendan Gibbons in that diary. Yeesh.

Best: You Don't HAVE to Throw the Ball

And when ND did throw the ball it rarely worked, as Michigan picked up 6 PBUs and probably dropped a pick or two as well. Early on they did have some luck tossing balls in the general vicinity of Claypool, a mountain of a man who muscled his way to a couple of nice catches and only sometimes punching the defender in the face in the process. But that's for another more acerbic section.

Still, once those initial kinks were worked out the secondary played admirably in, admittedly, ideal conditions. Ian Book does not possess a particularly impressive arm but he still seems capable of throwing guys open; he didn't have any such opportunities in this game. In fact, most of his scrambles arose when it was clear passing downfield was futile and he abandoned ship. Despite hte incredulousness of the announcers, Don Brown dialed up a nice mix of man-to-man and zone to confuse Book and disrupt his passing lanes, and both Metellus and Hawkins found like much easier without a Hamler on the field.

The secondary won't likely be tested by Maryland or MSU these next couple of weeks, but both IU and (ugh) OSU sport good-to-scary receivers and it'll be imperative for them to continue this uptick in coverage.

Worst: John O'Neill

It takes a special type of guy to elicit a "oh gawd, HE's calling this game?" from literally every fanbase in America. Like, every team's fans believes John O'Neill is so incompetent that he's out to screw their team out of a game. In this game he found a way to enrage everyone with awful pass interference calls on both UM and ND defenders who were in great position and, at worst, were fighting for position against defenders. And I'll admit to apparently not understanding what constitutes OPI after last weekend, but at least one of Claypool's catches was him just punching Gray in the face before coming back to the ball. Yes, Gray needs to get his head turned around on those throws, but it was still a receiver forcibly trying to remove a defender who has earned that space in coverage.

Honestly, I was just happy he didn't mess up that weird punt block situation in the 1st quarter. It was pretty obvious in the moment what happened but, again, it was a tense could of minutes there as he watched a billion angles of an ND player trying to recover that kick for no good reasons. My only hope is that we've reached our O'Neill quota and he can haunt someone else for a bit.

Quick Hits

• DPJ largely stayed away from punts in this game, which was probably the right call. But he also dove at one as it skidded along the right sideline and, call me crazy, I didn't have a problem with it. It saved Michigan about 10 yards and there was little danger of a turnover with no ND players around. Still, I'd advise against him trying that again.
• ND averaged about 43 yards per punt on 10(!!) kicks. That offensive drought in the late second and early third quarters coincided with Michigan starting at about their own 20 yard line, and a lot of that was because Notre Dame started to win the field position battle. Michigan was finally able to break through for a 6-play, 75-yard TD drive that started the rout.

Next: The Mike Locksley Experience

Early in the season people wondered in maybe Michigan should have snagged Locksley from Alabama instead of Gattis. I know Maryland has had some injuries at QB, but after scoring 79 and 63 points against Howard and Syracuse to start the year, they've scored 17 (L), 0 (L), 48 (W, but Rutgers), 14 (L), 28 (L), and 10 (L) against the likes of Indiana, Rutgers, and Purdue. Gattis has a lot of flaws, but nothing quite that bad. You never know how a team will respond on the road after a bit win/at home after a big road loss, but this feels like another game where the offense can refine what's working before the bye week and the final push to end the year.