Aidan Hutchinson named PFF National Defensive Player of the Week (again)
No this is not an accidental re-post. Despite Nebraska fans' instance that a true freshman making his first career start would easily neutralize Hutchinson, he managed to take home the national honor for the second consecutive week.
Turns out this guy is pretty, pretty good...
(Brad Hawkins also made the team of the week at Safety)
https://www.pff.com/news/college-football-week-6-team-of-the-week-player-awards-2021
October 11th, 2021 at 9:19 AM ^
Again? Getting pretty repetitive at this point…
October 11th, 2021 at 9:21 AM ^
What are the chances of Brad Hawkins joining the radio broadcast? He could do it, you know.
October 11th, 2021 at 10:34 AM ^
Michael Barrett would make a great guest! I heard he once listened to a podcast, so he would be pretty good in the radio booth...
October 11th, 2021 at 9:25 AM ^
Wow. Congratulations! Thanks for being such a Baller for Michigan Aidan !!
October 11th, 2021 at 9:26 AM ^
I see a 70s buddy cop TV show in the making: “Hawkins and Hutch”!!!! Corum can play wise-cracking criminal with a heart of gold “Corny Bear”…
October 11th, 2021 at 9:28 AM ^
We need to get rid of this kid so other players have an opportunity to win weekly honors. What a glory hog.
/s
October 11th, 2021 at 9:40 AM ^
Look who was freshman of the week.
October 11th, 2021 at 1:20 PM ^
we don't use WRs like that regardless and we fired Dudek for losing Worthy. what else can be done about it
October 11th, 2021 at 4:52 PM ^
Rage and sorrow?
October 11th, 2021 at 9:42 AM ^
I felt like this was a relatively "quiet" game form him so I was curious to see where UFR/PFF came in at. Looks like it wasn't so quiet after all!
October 11th, 2021 at 9:44 AM ^
I wasn't onboard with some of the Bosa comparisons at the start of last season but I am now.
October 11th, 2021 at 12:30 PM ^
Hard to overstate how important Hutch coming back has been. On-field is obvious; off-field, what it does to the locker room, what it means to have a guy who believes in Michigan as a program and an idea after the year we had... it's huge. Hall of fame stuff.
October 11th, 2021 at 9:47 AM ^
Like the first time, I'm especially pleased that he earned the honor without major stats.
October 11th, 2021 at 9:50 AM ^
I wish him all the good karma he can get so he can stay healthy for OSU game. He can take my karma also, if I have any good karma left.
Seriously, this guy is a beast. Gives us a bigger chance in every game left. Going forward, thread should be created if he is not the defensive player of the week. :)
October 11th, 2021 at 9:59 AM ^
Don't shoot the messenger but PFF was not high on Cade's play.
Michigan’s quarterback play has to be better
Michigan pulled out the victory over Nebraska, thanks to a Brad Hawkins forced fumble late in the fourth quarter that shifted the entire outcome of the game. But while they left the road trip unscathed, their quarterback play was alarming.
Quarterback Cade McNamara completed only eight passes over five yards downfield while tossing seven quarterback-fault incompletions on those same pass attempts. He had more than three times as many negatively graded throws as positively graded ones, en route to a passing grade in the 40s for the game, upon first review.
Whether he was under pressure or kept clean, he was consistently missing receivers. We are starting to see Michigan utilize the passing game 30-40 times a game after relying on the run game to start the season, and the results haven’t been as good as hoped.
QB2 J.J. McCarthy — a 2021 five-star — only got a few designed runs and zero dropbacks, but that could change in the future given what McNamara showed against Nebraska. They have the elite defense and running game that can get them to 10 wins. The quarterback position is the only thing holding them from making major noise.
October 11th, 2021 at 10:41 AM ^
::shoulders rifle, lines up crosshairs::
Cade is 6-0 and played as gutsy a game as we've seen from a Michigan QB since Brady beat Alabama in the 2000 Orange Bowl. We've seen him throw in the middle of the field occasionally, when it's pretty safe to do so. Remember that Michigan's WR group is so new they still have that new WR smell. Give them time to grow up...
October 11th, 2021 at 11:18 AM ^
He passed the eye test for me. I was surprised PFF had him rated so low. It seemed like he was under more pressure than previous weeks (credit Nebraska's front 7). Cade did enough to get the win and the major negative, the interception, came on what many thought was a free play. PFF is likely interpreting data without context but their interpretation is worthy of examination.
October 11th, 2021 at 10:41 AM ^
Careful. I quoted a statistic about Michigan not being very good on a third and long last week and got negged significantly. People around here can be kind of fragile to any mention of possible gray clouds.
Yes, McNamara has to execute throws better - we know it, coaches know it, he knows it. I thought his footwork was a little better, and apart from the INT, didn't see many errors in decision-making.
That said, it looked to me like four or five balls, while not perfect, went off the hands of (or ripped out of the hands of) Baldwin. Michigan didn't play scared, and showed they were not afraid to let McNamara throw "50/50" balls.They didn't panic when they lost the lead, and McNamara led them on two drives where they absolutely needed points.
That said, McNamara can throw better, but the receivers also have to go up stronger for the ball than they have been doing. Hopefully the bye week and Northwestern willl give a chance to get things further straightened out.
The longer Michigan can keep winning with McCarthy coming off the bench, expanding his repertoire, the better off he and the team will be if he is absolutely needed.
October 11th, 2021 at 11:10 AM ^
I am treading lightly. These are not my words but those of PFF. They are the opinion of one writer. I will wait for Seth's appraisal in the UFR.
October 11th, 2021 at 12:22 PM ^
Careful. I quoted a statistic about Michigan not being very good on a third and long last week and got negged significantly. People around here can be kind of fragile to any mention of possible gray clouds.
Nonsense. There is plenty of room here for not-so-positive opinions; check my posting history for plenty of that. You didn't get negged because you weren't optimistic. You got negged because the thread you posted was neither particularly good nor particularly well-worded. Don't get too down about it--we all post dumb stuff occasionally--but don't pretend it's just that people want all optimism all the time, either.
October 11th, 2021 at 10:08 AM ^
Highest-graded D-Lines in Week 6
— PFF College (@PFF_College) October 11, 2021
1. Michigan - 90.0
2. Georgia - 88.2
2. Oklahoma - 88.2
4. Alabama - 87.3 pic.twitter.com/EHOm6y2EzR
October 11th, 2021 at 11:00 AM ^
This is truly remarkable. There isn't any Kool Aid on earth strong enough to have gotten a single mgouser to have said before the season that Michigan would have a top rated D line in any game in the conference, let alone in the country.
This defense isn't a top 5 unit but they're playing well and it starts up front. Very impressed with the work the players and coaches have put in.
October 11th, 2021 at 11:10 AM ^
That's amazing!
October 11th, 2021 at 12:24 PM ^
The sample size is starting to get larger. Nebraska isn't Bama or anything, but they're not UConn, either.
I still have to believe that our DTs are going to be in for a tough fight against the toughest competition, but the worst-case scenarios are off the table, and the players continue to produce performances that suggest my preseason concerns were overblown.
Definitely would not have expected this.
October 11th, 2021 at 1:01 PM ^
Does anyone else find it odd how frequently our defense has been so highly graded for years? I can't help but feel like PFF leans toward Michigan more than is deserved. I know we have had solid defense for years but so have a number of other teams.
And no, I am not down on this team. I am quite happy with the on-field results so far.
October 11th, 2021 at 5:15 PM ^
We have had some absolutely elite production on the defensive side in recent years. Hurst, Bush, Peppers, Lewis, Taco, Long, Winovich, Uche, Paye, and now Hutchinson are all truly elite. We just had some games where we got outschemed or the defense had some semi fatal weakness (no DT's for our great edge players for example).
October 11th, 2021 at 10:22 AM ^
This is probably going to get me neg'd and sound hot-take-ish.....but as much as I love Hutchinson, he didn't earn that grade this week. He was solid and is the straw that stirs our drink on defense....but without any direct impact (TFL, Sacks, PBU, etc.) that stood out and being directly involved with the tying TD late in the game....there has to be someone in the country that had a better day. Heck, even on our own team I would have put Hawkins ahead of him for POG because of the 4th down stuff in the 1st quarter, forced fumble & recovery in the 4th.
Don't get me wrong, I'm fine if Hutch is still on the PFF team of the week, but this feels like a glitch in their scoring system to some extent. Or there are multiple Michigan alums grading players over at PFF.
October 11th, 2021 at 10:46 AM ^
Hawkins had a good game, for which you can only specifically call out two plays. Two large plays, yes - but TWO plays. Hutch caved in both tackles on every single play. There wasn't a single drop that Martinez made where you couldn't see Hutch getting close. Well, where you could see the OT Hutch was moving getting close... The only bad play was the TD, where he was optioned like a f'in pro! That play was going to eat whatever DE you want to name, CFB or NFL...
October 11th, 2021 at 10:46 AM ^
While understandable I think the results oriented/stats nature if this ignores the individual contribution Aiden makes. Basically each time he was beating his blocker it counts as a huge positive and disrupts the play - if he played this way against a less mobile QB you’d get a Wisconsin-level Dline impact with many sacks and busted plays. With Martinez he was mobile enough to step up and there wasn’t enough support to contain him.
October 11th, 2021 at 10:51 AM ^
Aidan destroyed their poor tackles. It was not fair. That said, I do think he got too deep on a few rushes, particularly the two long Martinez runs.
October 11th, 2021 at 11:01 AM ^
I'd love to see how much time PFF actually spends time reviewing games and who is doing the ratings. I picture 20 something kids fast forwarding through games.
October 11th, 2021 at 11:07 AM ^
Basic tackles, sacks, etc. don't always accurately reflect how an individual plays. Someone can make a tackle because the guy who was supposed to block him blew an assignment. Or some may make 2 good plays but get easily handled the rest of the time.
On the other hand, the edge may be dominating all attempts to block him so the offense always runs away from him or only throws quick passes that come out before he can possibly get to the QB.
So an edge can cause a team's coaches to plan their offense around him and that means he had a much bigger effect on the game than just making a couple tackles.
October 11th, 2021 at 11:07 AM ^
Basic tackles, sacks, etc. don't always accurately reflect how an individual plays. Someone can make a tackle because the guy who was supposed to block him blew an assignment. Or some may make 2 good plays but get easily handled the rest of the time.
On the other hand, the edge may be dominating all attempts to block him so the offense always runs away from him or only throws quick passes that come out before he can possibly get to the QB.
So an edge can cause a team's coaches to plan their offense around him and that means he had a much bigger effect on the game than just making a couple tackles.
October 11th, 2021 at 12:28 PM ^
Counting stats do not necessarily tell the full story of how great a player is. To use one well-known example, Charles Woodson netted 7 interceptions in 1997, which is a nice total, but that doesn't approach the level of impact he had on games, because teams threw away from him so much. Like, against Northwestern he literally intercepted the only pass they tried to throw against him all day. Dre Bly had 11 interceptions the year before, but counting stats are not everything.
Now, I'd be open to the argument that Hutch did not dominate in those situations where he was not facing double teams. But in situations where he was drawing doubles, Hutch can get graded well even when he has little apparent impact on the play, because he is eliminating an extra player from the rest of the field.
Without looking as closely as I'd like at Ojabo impact plays, I have to believe that he is benefiting from Hutch absorbing all of the offense's best blocking schemes and players.
October 11th, 2021 at 10:35 AM ^
I'll be honest, I'm surprised to see Hawkins on that list. I'm sure his huge play with the fumble played a big impact there, and that was certainly a massive play he made. But prior to that, I actually thought he had had a bad game. I'll be curious now to see how he grades out in UFR, and I'll gladly eat crow if I turn out to be wrong.
October 11th, 2021 at 12:06 PM ^
I thought the same thing. He played well, but I thought Hill would have taken the honor.
October 11th, 2021 at 12:13 PM ^
Hawkins had two enormously high leverage plays and I don't think he was responsible for any busts (Dax was on the opening screen).
Boring safety except two awesome plays that changed the margin by 10 points seems national player of the week level.
October 11th, 2021 at 12:59 PM ^
Exactly. He almost single-handedly stopped a touchdown on the fourth and 2 play, shedding a solid-block to stop Martinez. And then he single-handedly won the game with both the strip and fumble recovery on the last drive.
Depending on what you think Nebraska gets on that drive, you could directly attribute Hawkins anywhere from +10 to +17 points singlehandedly. For one safety to have a +17 point effect on a game is fantastic.