JJ Leads Nation in Completion Percentage; Corum First in Rushing TDs
Not too shabby! After five weeks, J.J. McCarthy leads the nation in completion percentage at 78.6%. He’s also fifth in QB rating at 186.9 and sixth in average yards per completion at 10.1.
Blake Corum is also first in the nation with 10 rushing TDs and fourth in rushing with 611 yards.
Complete stats HERE.
October 2nd, 2022 at 10:39 PM ^
Indiana should be a good opportunity to pad the stats.
October 3rd, 2022 at 7:36 AM ^
Pump the brakes a bit. JJ has hit ZERO deep throws and is 42nd in YPC not 6th. He’s 6th in YPA.
Absolutely love what he’s done with his legs, albeit a small sample size.
Zero INTs is great. Three fumbles - not so much. Fortunately M recovered all 3.
Nothing has changed yet. JJ has demonstrated tremendous upside but has yet to realize his full potential. Hopefully he’ll take IU deep a few times and get that monkey off his back!?
As for BC, not surprised. He started last year fast too. And I always smiled at the “thunder and lightning” label because BC was tough to bring down.
Go Blue!
Edit: By deep ball I was referring to the (several) missed TDs. As for the 29 yarder to Anthony, I would classify that as intermediate. Knew that “hot take” wouldn’t go over with the Team JJ crowd, but are they really happy with all of the misses on true deep throws? JJ himself has noted he needs to get “air under those throws”. Hope he gets that solved!
October 3rd, 2022 at 8:13 AM ^
Zero deep throws?? He hit at least 2 against Hawaii and 1 against Maryland. There might be 1 or 2 others I forgot about.
October 3rd, 2022 at 8:33 AM ^
29 yard pass to Anthony on Saturday
October 3rd, 2022 at 8:20 AM ^
I can't tell what you're getting at wrt JJ's stats but YPA is a better/more significant stat for a QB than YPC. The story that's being told by those stats is that he's an accurate passer who's taking what the defense is giving him.
October 3rd, 2022 at 10:52 AM ^
YPA is definitely a better measure of performance than YPC.
That said, JJ's YPA on Saturday was 6.5.
Spencer Petras' was 7.9.
That's a so-so number for JJ and an outright ugly stat for our D.
October 3rd, 2022 at 11:21 AM ^
Meh, both look like the Michigan game plan for Iowa. Take what the defense gives you, and then make Petras beat you. Both worked quite well. Is it annoying to let their TEs keep leaking out for a few chunks? Yeah. Can you build a successful offense out of that? Apparently not.
October 3rd, 2022 at 1:01 PM ^
Petras had his stats padded some on the last drive when the defense was essentially giving him completions in kind of a prevent defense.
October 3rd, 2022 at 8:54 AM ^
This is not an Air Raid offense, or even a pass-first offense! The Harbaughffense has ALWAYS been about ball control - ie: rushing first, using the pass to enhance the ground game. He'll take shots downfield occasionally, which is what frustrates the hell out of us (myself included) - the seeming lack of use of great targets deep (Nico, anyone?). He's got the WR group and QB to fling it deep nearly every play right now, but what do we get vs Iowa? Ball control. What did we get during 42-27? Ball control. What did we get at MSU? Ball control. What did we get against UMD last week? Ball control. What are we going to get against Penn St? Ball control.
Football is Harbaugh's name, ball control is his game.
As much as I want to see JJ fling it around "SPEED IN SPAAAAAACE" style, it's not going to happen the way we want. It will come in the package we've already seen it delivered in. I need to deal with it, and so do you.
October 3rd, 2022 at 8:59 AM ^
Ugh. Why do people overstate things like this? It is simply untrue by any reasonable factual basis that JJ has hit zero deep throws. It’s amazing how the culture of online hot takes prompts people to speak in the hottest absolutes and completely undermine their arguments.
Has JJ missed more deep shots than we expected? Yes. Has he failed to hit them all? No.
Has he been much more precise and accurate than we could have hoped for going into the season?
100% yes.
Given the choice between “good arm and good running but needs to work on reads and accuracy” and “accurate and precise and needs to hit the deep shots we’ve seen he is capable of nailing” I’ll take the latter.
October 3rd, 2022 at 9:46 AM ^
His post sucked. It is one of those posts that you wish you could downvote 10 times. I believe there were 2 deep throws just last game. Anthony and Bell (the Bell one was 3rd and short to medium too!)
October 3rd, 2022 at 10:01 AM ^
JJ has been insanely good on short and intermediate throws, but you're obsessing over a handful of deep balls (that honestly weren't that open) that he missed and few fumbles (one or two of which probably should've been incomplete passes)?
October 3rd, 2022 at 10:02 AM ^
Yeah and he doesnt have a 12" cock :(
October 3rd, 2022 at 10:32 AM ^
nice use of all-caps
October 3rd, 2022 at 12:01 PM ^
The stat I liked the best was the final score. JJ did what was asked of him to achieve that stat. Personally, I was impressed with how he conducted his business.
October 3rd, 2022 at 11:19 PM ^
He hit deep shots in the first part of the season. But, by all means, use all-caps to emphasize that you're incorrect.
Not to mention, the 30-yarder to Anthony was essentially perfect, and we could have done that 10 times if it was in the game plan. That's not going to be the scheme, though, with a young QB in his first road start, against a team whose only chance to win is by getting TOs.
October 2nd, 2022 at 10:44 PM ^
But we haven't played anybody!?!?! /s
But seriously, after seeing how JJ handled Iowa's defense, how could you ever doubt this kid? He's gonna be incredible
October 2nd, 2022 at 10:58 PM ^
It was impressive how poised and methodical he was in that environment and against a defense that really punishes mistakes.
Seems like the pass protection issues are getting cleaned up as well. On both fronts, I feel a lot better heading into the Penn State game.
Penn State has the bye week, but I think having the Indiana game might actually be a good thing for him to get one more game under his belt and continue to work on things.
October 3rd, 2022 at 9:11 AM ^
Nator - I like that Michigan is playing this week. A bye does provide an opportunity to do two things - first - game play with more detail and prep time, and second - allow players who may be nicked up - some additional time to recover.
In favor of playing - a few things. First, the weekly cadence is maintained. Second, it's a road game - a tougher, more challenging environment - and, experience gained will be helpful for this teams. And, three - reps for the team to work on a couple of items that appear to be a bit of a challenge this season - substitution and getting the play call in - with a snap prior to a "delay of game", or timeout.
So - my glass is "half full". I am sure the Hoosiers will bring their best - as will Penn State. One play, series, and game at time. Go Blue!
October 2nd, 2022 at 11:01 PM ^
Among teams in the East, which wins are to-date better than vs. Maryland and @Iowa? It feels like the competition is two for PSU (Purdue and Auburn) and one for OSU (ND). I assembled this quickly and it deserves a crowd check; is that actually comprehensive?
*If* it were, then I think there are two arguments worth making. (1) How sad. (2) Wins versus Iowa and Maryland are arguably the best of the bunch to-date and Michigan has both.
October 2nd, 2022 at 11:48 PM ^
MSU has western and Akron.
October 3rd, 2022 at 12:09 AM ^
Michigan at least has played a both a good offense and a very good defense.
OSU's defense hasn't been particularly dominant and gave up 21 to both Toledo and Wisconsin at home. Hard to know what they have until they play somebody who can score.
October 3rd, 2022 at 12:27 AM ^
When OSU scored to go up 45-7, Wisky had had 9 possessions, 114 yds and 7 points. Wisconsin's possessions were:
5 plays, 11 yds, INT
3 plays, 3 yds, punt
3 plays, 9 yds, punt
10 plays, 72 yds, TD
3 plays 1 yd, punt
4 plays, 7 yds, Halftime
4 plays, 3 yds, punt
4 plays, 6 yds, punt
3 plays, 2 yds, punt
Outside of one drive the Badgers did absolutely nothing until garbage time. Wisconsin's offense isn't very good, but they pretty much got dominated.
October 3rd, 2022 at 12:05 PM ^
Thanks for posting the actual drives... point taken. But, until they play an offense with a pulse it's hard to tell what they have on the defensive side.
October 3rd, 2022 at 12:30 AM ^
Wisconsin scored 14 pts in garbage time when the game was already out of reach so OSU pretty much gave up 7 against them. Toledo is a better example since they scored 21 pts through 3rd quarter but OSU scored 42 at halftime so the game was uncompetitive. We'll see how they'll do against PSU to get a better gauge of how OSU defense has played this season. At the very minimum, they're better than last year.
October 3rd, 2022 at 1:14 AM ^
Indiana has beaten Illinois and Western Kentucky, which is weird because those teams are much better than Indiana
October 3rd, 2022 at 10:55 AM ^
Indiana is a weird team this year. They've beaten teams they should have lost to (Illinois, Western Kentucky) and lost to teams they should have beat (Nebraska, maybe Cincy but they may still be a decent squad)
October 3rd, 2022 at 5:59 AM ^
Even though Auburn is circling the drain down there, going into Jordan-Hare and whooping them was really impressive. It's either that one or ours at Iowa
October 3rd, 2022 at 6:31 AM ^
It might--in retrospect--have been more impressive from a purely spectacular than a football perspective.
October 3rd, 2022 at 9:39 AM ^
I know you added "/s" but my God, think about Corum's stats if he played every quarter this year...
Strength of opponent cancels itself out in the gross numbers because our starters sat so much in the 2nd half. Only the percentages (arguably) are influenced by SOS
October 2nd, 2022 at 10:49 PM ^
Corum has been a delight this year. Seems to have even better vision, which is saying something, and I love watching him get those last couple of “Haskins-yards” with greater frequency.
October 2nd, 2022 at 11:00 PM ^
I don't remember the number, but a LOT of his yards were after contact. He's been amazing in that regard, considering how spoiled were with Haskins.
October 3rd, 2022 at 9:40 AM ^
I dare say Corum is Mike Hart, but faster.
October 2nd, 2022 at 11:19 PM ^
As amazing as Corum is, I miss the feeling of knowing they could pick up any short yardage play with Haskins. They were the perfect compliment for each other.
October 3rd, 2022 at 6:54 AM ^
He is special. 59 carries over the last two weeks is a lot. Hopefully he can get a much lighter load this week against Indiana.
October 3rd, 2022 at 8:37 AM ^
with Edwards being healthy, Blake isn't going to get 29 or 30 attempts a game..... I'm sure they were limiting #7's plays, as it was his 1st game back.
If we don't have the best backfield in NCAA, we are in the top 5, no doubt.
October 3rd, 2022 at 12:28 PM ^
I think C.J. Stokes might get a few carries, hopefully he works his way out of the doghouse after putting the ball on the ground vs Maryland. The depth at our skill positions is A1, especially when Cade gets back.
October 3rd, 2022 at 9:16 AM ^
Able to get tough yards, but also juke fools like Haskins couldn't as well. He broke that linebacker's ankles on that touchdown run. I don't recall Hassan doing that (he was more likely to run him over or hurdle him!)
October 2nd, 2022 at 10:55 PM ^
Honestly kinda wild for a Michigan QB to lead the nation in completion percentage given that we don't do a bunch of Big-12 style dink-and-dunk throws. We default to handing off, so when our QB throws, there tends to be some degree of difficulty involved, especially in terms of what the defense expects. Pretty impressive
October 2nd, 2022 at 11:15 PM ^
Did you watch the UConn game?
October 2nd, 2022 at 11:16 PM ^
No, clearly I don't watch University of Michigan football
October 3rd, 2022 at 5:57 AM ^
username checks out
October 2nd, 2022 at 11:21 PM ^
UConn shamelessly put their defenders ten yards away from the line of scrimmage. That was the right throw screens.
October 3rd, 2022 at 8:19 AM ^
I completely agree, but still.
October 2nd, 2022 at 11:24 PM ^
We're five games into the season now. One game isn't going to explain why JJ leads the country in completion percentage.
October 3rd, 2022 at 12:19 AM ^
The one where McCarthy was 15/18 and 11.9 yd AVG?
October 3rd, 2022 at 8:21 AM ^
Yes, the one we, rightly dinked and dunked. I am just saying don’t say we don’t have that type of offense, because we have kind of done that this season in a couple games. It is not, in any way, a rip on JJ. We just shouldn’t throw stones either.
October 2nd, 2022 at 10:56 PM ^
Michigan Football is in a really good place. These two are elite talents who also happen to be outstanding human beings. They are also both having an absolute blast - which is fitting for a game. Go blue!
October 2nd, 2022 at 11:02 PM ^
Lookin' good.
Go Blue!
October 2nd, 2022 at 11:52 PM ^
Embarrassment of riches on offense.