[Eric Upchurch]

9/22/2018 – Michigan 56, Nebraska 10 – 3-1, 1-0 Big Ten

In the aftermath of an implausible beatdown there is always a race to identify the most emblematic stat of the day. I have participated. I have scoured the box score. I have consulted with the learned elders. This one takes the cake. Prepare thyself. Ensconce. All right: Adrian Martinez had 22 passing yards with a long of 32.

You rn:

Those 32 yards came when a hunted Martinez hurled a 500 ball skyward that one of his receivers was accidentally in position to come back to. Michigan was one arm punt away from a statistic that would implode the fundamental nature of football. Alas.

At least they won? And Martinez finished with negative total yards?

--------------------------

The strangest thing about a game like this is how the goalposts move in the middle of the first quarter. If Nebraska had been moderately feisty and the defensive tackles had been a major factor in a 3.0 YPC day from the Cornhusker ground game, we'd be talking about how they passed a major test against a couple of senior guards who Big Ten coaches thought were pretty good. Instead Michigan held Nebraska's top three backs to ten yards total.

Nebraska now proves nothing. It might prove something later, if the tough-luck Nebraska that outgained Colorado by 150 yards but conspired to lose thanks to Laviska Shenault making absurd plays re-emerges. If Michigan also continues looking like a juggernaut instead of the sad mess that took on Notre Dame, this game will be retroactively upgraded from "accidentally played another MAC team" to the turning point when the Warinner hit and the corner got turned.

For now this was the sort of game where your sack celebration is ripping out and eating your own heart, because nothing else is going to be a challenge.

"If I was gonna take their heart from their offense, I figured it was about time that I took my own heart and ate that too." — Chase Winovich (HT @MikeDPersak) pic.twitter.com/sunipiZYHE

— Alejandro Zúñiga (@ByAZuniga) September 24, 2018

Precisely calibrating exactly how much to take from an unexpected hamblasting of a Big Ten team is far more pleasant than many things you can do after a football game. But we have been here before. With the exception of last year Harbaugh's Michigan teams have paved lower-tier teams flat. This is good! This tends to fling you up very far in predictive ranking systems. Michigan is now 5th in S&P+, like they seemingly always are, and S&P+ is designed to tell you who will win football games in the future. Paving people flat is a characteristic of very good football teams that win many games and leave you with a rich satisfied feeling that we are assured is something football fans can feel after the conclusion of a season.

But because of Certain Events and Certain Circumstances Leading To Third-String Quarterbacks all that feels hollow even if you're gripping onto the random, bloody-minded universe theory with everything you've got. We've been taught that paving folks doesn't correlate with winning the games that might cause the most annoying people in the universe to shut up for at least three seconds. That's not rational, but it sure as hell is sports.

The goalposts are going to keep moving until someone, probably Devin Bush, tackles them and glues them to the floor. Michigan has one more friendly double-digit spread next week against Northwestern, and then we get to play the games that will determine your state of mind, and, perhaps most importantly, the tenor of the takes we will have to endure for eight months of barren, dumb offseason.

Have fun storming the castle! Or paving it! Please pave it.

HIGHLIGHTS

AWARDS

Known Friends And Trusted Agents Of The Week

[Upchurch]

you're the man now, dog

#1 Devin Bush. Bush's main accomplishment was getting up to nine tackles on a day where Michigan's constant rotation and Nebraska's inability to stay on the field spread defensive stats incredibly thin. Michigan's next highest tackler had four; 12 different guys had TFLs. Bush had 2.5 of his own, a sack, and got sideline to sideline to blow up Nebraska's perimeter run game. He is reaching the Mo Hurst level where he is so consistently excellent it's hard to find new talking points about him.

#2 Rashan Gary. Just a half of play from him but it was a monster half. He's got his own section below. Felt terrifying in the way we were hoping he would before the season.

#3 Karan Higdon. The holes were there for him. He took advantage. His power was welcome after some YAC struggles last week, and if he hits the open field he'll outrun a lot of angles. Also he was the only offensive player to, like, feature.

Honorable mention: Will Hart is gonna get on the board if Michigan ever punts six times in a game. DPJ had a punt return TD. The tackles didn't give up a pressure? Is that true? I think it might be. The 10 guys with TFLs not mentioned.

KFaTAotW Standings.

4: Chase Winovich (#1 ND, #3 SMU), Devin Bush(#3 ND, #1 Nebraska), Rashan Gary(#2 WMU, #2 Nebraska), Karan Higdon (#1 WMU, #3 Nebraska)
2: Ambry Thomas (#2 ND), Rashan Gary(#2 WMU), Donovan Peoples-Jones(T1 SMU), Zach Gentry(T1 SMU), Josh Metellus(#2 SMU).
1: Devin Bush(#3 ND), Shea Patterson(#3 WMU)

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

You gotta put some style points on it.

Honorable mention: The first half.

​MARCUS HALL EPIC DOUBLE BIRD OF THE WEEK.

Khaleke Hudson is ejected on a dubious targeting call and will miss the first half against Northwestern.

Honorable mention: Injury worries for Gary, who was holding his shoulder, and Kwity Paye. Harbaugh passes on a potential program-record field goal. Four commercial breaks in the first eight minutes of gametime.

[After THE JUMP: Ol' Murderback]

OFFENSE

[Upchurch]

Ol' Murderback. Michigan deployed Ben Mason in the Sione Houma singleback role and he proceeded to pave his way into the endzone at at precisely three yards a carry. On his final touchdown Mason was momentarily stopped short of the goal line but various Nebraska players found it impossible to tackle him and he plowed into the endzone upright. Somewhere, Bo Schembechler shed a single tear.

I wonder if last week's Higdon absence, which really seemed to bite on short yardage, was the catalyst here. Chris Evans is a lot of things, but he's not a short yardage guy. Neither is Tru Wilson. Michigan needs another guy who can get you exactly three yards a carry on third and two no matter how many velociraptors are hanging off him. Enter Mason.

Mason's emergence here isn't a huge surprise. He was a productive runner in high school. From his recruiting profile:

He had 67 touches as a junior—43 carries, 24 catches—for 647 yards and 15 touchdowns. As a senior he ran for 719 yards and added another 15 catches. ... Dude was the Owen Schmitt of Connecticut high school football. ...there's a decent chance Mason adds some value as a runner, a la Sione Houma.

The next step might be the resurgence of the fullback traps that were delightful chunk plays early in Harbaugh's tenure.

The G stands for great. You can't build the whole plane out of Down G. If a defense can read it and gets just one linebacker over to the gap you're gonna have a bad time. This the the high point of Down G in the offense. It'll get scouted to death and will immediately lose effectiveness; Michigan will move on to other stuff that plays on that scouting and eat a few meh plays per game when they run it to keep 'em honest and get two yards.

Let's appreciate the peak, then. Nebraska emphatically could not read Down G despite Michigan's frequent usage in the previous two weeks and got eviscerated. I imagine much of this is just regular year zero stuff where they're trying to get them to not bork it against inside zone and power.

Michigan did have a couple wrinkles, most prominently the RR-vintage shotgun set with a fullback opposite the running back. Michigan's first snaps in that formation saw Ben Mason insert to the backside of the line as M ran Down G opposite it, and at one point the linebackers could hold hands:

Not great when you deliver zero linebackers to the playside, let alone the gap the back is targeting.

Nebraska got coached up on Down G immediately after this, the long Higdon TD, and started playing it much more effectively. Time to move on.

Tru Wilson watch. One giant MGoPoint to Tru Wilson for a vivid demonstration of what one cut can buy you:

This space spent about half of last year complaining that Michigan backs ran in one direction and then got tackled (this was during the inside zone portion of the season; things got better later). On the above run Wilson kills multiple guys by threatening an inside gap until the last second and then making that cut back outside. The LBs are done. The relevant DL rips inside at the wrong moment, and Wilson's gone. He makes those blocks work.

Still early days for him; they're going about as well as possible for the opposite of Leonard Fournette.

[Upchurch]

Ask again later about Patterson. Shea Patterson had even more of a day off than his previous limited outings. His 5.5 YPA has to be taken in context. After 5 minutes were gone Michigan was relying on the run game for big plays and asking Patterson to convert third and medium when it happened to occur. The inch-perfect corner route above was a nice counterpoint to the dinking.

When Michigan did go deep a couple of pretty obvious PI calls did not get made: Oliver Martin had a guy jump on his back well before the ball arrived; Nico Collins suffered a similar event on Michigan's last play of the second half. Both balls were on the money but external circumstances prevented completions.

Patterson did have a couple of uncharacteristic misses, but hey: "uncharacteristic misses" is a nice phrase to use when describing Michigan's quarterback.

Chips. This is probably going to last for the duration of the season: Michigan is chipping opposition DLs frequently. RBs and TEs will frequently help out JBB; I don't know if they're doing it for Runyan as frequently. Unlike last year it seems like JBB understands this help is coming and is able to adapt his game to deal with it.

[Upchurch]

Hello Ronnie Bell. Injuries may be forcing Michigan's hand a little but they could still be working a redshirt for Ronnie Bell if they wanted. They do not want to do that. Bell's gotten a few snaps here and there before garbage time in previous games in addition to special teams work; in this one he introduced himself with a long touchdown on which he got a (probably legal) shove from the cornerback that he hadn't quite gathered himself after. His ability to bring the ball in and keep his feet was impressive.

Michigan also put him out there on punt returns after DPJ was retired for the day. These are the kind of things you do when you think you have a hit and are getting someone ready for lots of snaps in the near future. Given the shape of the WR corps—no upperclassmen except Grant Perry—that might not happen. Seems likely Michigan's coaching staff thinks they've hit on him.

McCaffrey. Brandon Peters injury issues haven't been talked about for a bit so McCaffrey is your new backup quarterback. Hitting Bell down the sideline was important for McCaffrey vibes since his earlier cameos were all short stuff. He had another accurate deep ball that Ambry Thomas couldn't bring in—that one wasn't perfect but it wasn't far off—and a third that would have been a touchdown but for a good play by the Nebraska defensive back. I also liked his ability to come off the flat read on a couple of waggles and hit the deeper crossing route.

Oh also he had a 75-yard touchdown run on which he ran away from the Nebraska secondary that got called back. So that's a thing.

[Upchurch]

New blood. The blowout gave Michigan an opportunity to deploy a couple of new running backs for their first extended playing time. Both O'Maury Samuels and Christian Turner looked impressive in their reps. Samuels broke a few tackles and displayed hints of the athleticism that got him a Michigan scholarship. Unfortunately, a fumble ended his day.

Turner then came in and looked like a young version of Higdon, as Nick Baumgardner asserted. He's low to the ground, he's hard to get a direct shot on, he runs behind his pads. The hulked-up power will come.

Don't look directly at this. It might get skittish.

Michigan's highest-graded players on offense from their win over Nebraska pic.twitter.com/rkYvKYk7lc

— PFF College (@PFF_College) September 23, 2018

That's mostly down G featuring the tackles downblocking, I'd imagine.

DEFENSE

[Upchurch]

Gary read a selection of mild criticism. Rashan Gary had an elite day—er, half—just after people like your author started ratcheting down expectations. Gary's best play was just a QB hurry so it hasn't made the highlight films but it's going to be in UFR: he had a speed to power rush where he knocked the left tackle on his ass with one explosive shove. He also came around two guys on a rollout to get the ultra-rare rollout sack, and was generally impregnable on the ground.

Particularly relevant for MSU purposes was Gary's ability to run down both bits of a speed option (with an assist from Metellus). MSU can't run the ball at all even against tomato cans and is relying heavily on speed option when they have a critical third down they need to convert.

Targeting roulette hits home. Three targeting hot takes:

• The call on Hudson last week was 100% legit.
• None of the grainy screenshots you are sending me about Nebraska targeting violations that went uncalled are particularly convincing.
• Hudson's targeting call in this game was the steamiest pile of horsecrap since Joe Bolden's ejection against Michigan State.

Last week's Hudson incident was a head-down launch that resulted in the top of Hudson's helmet earholing the SMU QB. The QB's head snapped back like he'd just been shot. It was a brutal, unnecessary hit that warranted an ejection.

This is Khaleke Hudson hitting the chest of a quarterback with his facemask:

For the second straight week, Khaleke Hudson has been ejected for targeting. pic.twitter.com/EDD1Nvo1uq

— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) September 22, 2018

The QB's head does not snap back. The vast majority of the force goes into his chest. Hudson lowers his head a little but I don't think that's a crown hit; his head slides back up and his facemask is in the guy's chest. Nothing about that hit was particularly violent. Targeting absolutely should not be ejecting players for hits that make incidental helmet contact.

So of course Harbaugh complains about last week's call but not this one. I dunno man. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

Glasgow takes. Hard to get much of a read when the world is collapsing upon Martinez. Glasgow was one of five different back seven defenders who paid no attention to Stanley Morgan on the woulda-coulda RPO TD that got deflected and intercepted. He was the closest to the WR, so suspicion falls on him. A mitigating factor: Nebraska went with an unbalanced formation that may have found a tactical hole in the defense instead of a player bust. Also they put nobody on the LOS:

On what planet is that a legal formation? All three of those WRs are off the LOS. Even if judged to be on the LOS, the #3 WR is covered up by both outside WRs. You can make a case that the right tackle is also not on the line of scrimmage. I think the right guard is an eligible receiver? The O'Neill crew, folks.

Anyway: Glasgow did have a sack where he made a free run count and did not have any obvious mistakes. I don't think his presence is going to be a problem against Northwestern, which won't be running out the sort of super athletes he might struggle to keep up with.

Lawrence Marshall certificate of appreciation. Martinez's arm punt and a couple other plays gave Nebraska the semblance of a drive on their first possession. That was about to be capped off by a touchdown as Michigan blew an RPO pretty badly until Lawrence Marshall's meaty paw intervened. Good to see him make a big play.

But there's a dropoff to the second team DL. Nebraska had a third and short conversion in the second half on which the line got ground back and the pile surged five yards downfield. That has not happened to the starters—nothing close to that has happened to the starters—and suggests that even with Marshall back the depth chart isn't 1A and 1B but a definite 1 and 2. Maybe Solomon can change that whenever he gets back.

[Upchurch]

Hutchinson getting there. Aidan Hutchinson's looked like a promising freshman for the bulk of his playing time; he got a lot more PT in this game and started to shed the "promising" part. He was able to control the opposition and shed better, and induced the safety with a PBU.

SPECIAL TEAMS

I guess that was fine. On replay the Donovan Peoples-Jones punt return was okay. I mean, don't get me wrong: it was fine. I found it acceptable.

Unsung hero. One point to Brad Hawkins for springing DPJ down the sideline with a demonstrative "I'm not blocking this guy in the back" block where he ran by his guy to the outside with his hands up.

Boo! Boo, Jim Harbaugh, boo.  With ten seconds left in the first half of a giant blowout, Michigan had the opportunity to send Quinn Nordin out for a sixty-yard attempt that would have been a Michigan record—a Mike Gillette 56-yarder is the current champion—and may have induced Ace to get a stupid haircut. Instead a bomb down the sideline that was mildly exciting but not 60-yard-field-goal-that-would-have-been-good-from 75 exciting. What's the point of anything?

UNABATED. Will Hart added 168 yards on three punts to take his season average up to 52.6 yards per punt(!). He had a fourth bomb that got called back because of a false start. Nebraska managed just three return yards total on these punts. Michigan is third in the country in punting average behind Texas A&M and Georgia State; #4 Colorado State is almost four yards back of Hart. Hot damn!

This is well into the range of unsustainable. Texas's Michael Dickson is currently setting the NFL on fire as the nearest thing to Orin Incandenza that's ever been seen and he led the nation with a 47.2 average a year ago. Hart's going to hit some non-bombs or be asked to pooch it; the numbers will come down. Even when they do Hart is on track to be one of the best punters in the country. #collegepunters, except awesome.

Back to the top of lists. Per the Mathlete's numbers Michigan special teams have been worth three touchdowns more than the average team's; this ranks third nationally. So far they've blocked a punt, gotten return touchdowns from both phases, blasted punts 53 yards each, and hit a 50-yard field goal. The only slight downer is the occasional Nordin hiccup.

MISCELLANEOUS

Just like old times. Nebraska just got bombed and they're 0-3 but by God they're back to being Nebraska. Here's a guy named Martinez throwing the football.

[Upchurch]

Daddy's Nebraska football Cornhuskers. Like God intended.

I have a bizarre love/hate relationship with Nebraska where if their quarterback is threatening to crack 1,000 yards on the ground I am all about them and if they have a pocket passer I want them to go 0-1200. I look forward to the Frost era because it should be good enough to last for a real long time and always have a guy who can run at QB. The universe cannot be in balance unless this is the case.

That was quite the update from ESPN. pic.twitter.com/j7sFeFF9to

— Erin Sorensen (@erinsorensen) September 22, 2018

Handing out safeties like they're 40-yard runs. The other major refereeing event: the safety. Baffling. I don't know why they decided that Martinez had caught the ball. He leapt. He clearly wanted to bat it down. It stayed in his hands a moment before getting batted down. His feet didn't touch the ground and he did not attempt a Football Move. If he had the ball in his hands for that long before a DB separated him from the ball there would be no question that the pass was incomplete. Therefore: incomplete.

Are we really so stringent on what a catch is when someone's actually trying to catch it and so harsh when they're not? Football is not volleyball, which has serious brow-furrowed rules about what constitutes a hit and what constitutes catching the ball. Martinez was within his rights to try to bat the ball down. Awarding a safety in that situation is the worst kind of rules pedantry, or a major error nobody has to care about because of the final score.

Elsewhere in that. Ronnie Bell had his dang face ripped off; no flag. Michigan's on-point replay guy put up a replay. And then:

[Upchurch]

They were probably having a discussion about it already and were going to change it; replay couldn't hurt. And it didn't take 3 minutes.

I'm sure you get it but I have to mention this. Four commercials in the first 8 minutes of clock time. One sequence that went commercial, one play, commercial, three plays, commercial. FFS.

Who are you and why are you the way you are? This thing keeps showing up to games, looking like an escaped experiment in Mascot Sciences that will moan "please kill me" to anyone within earshot.

The tubes were good. The, uh, muppet aliens were good. This thing is only suitable for Purdue's long tradition of mascot nightmare fuel.

HERE

Ethan:

“After the first series, we went back out there and just knew they wanted to give up,” Josh Metellus said. “You could see it in their eyes.”

“It just seemed like they didn’t really wanna be out there at some points,” Winovich added. “I know that’s gonna come off as very controversial. It’s just, at some points, I don’t know. I’m gonna stop myself there.”

After another question, he kept going.

“There’s something about this game, especially, there’s an energy to it that how you just feel, you look at the person across from you. Whether it’s their playcalling or how operate, how they move about, they just — I just didn’t feel like they wanted it as bad as we did.”

Best and Worst:

Anyway, this particular party featured a pinata, which for small children raised on a steady stream of parental orders not to hit others provides quite a conundrum. On the one hand, you aren't supposed to hit things, both living and not; on the other hand, said adult also handed you a bat, dropped a pikachu-shaped box in front of you filled with candy and toys, and said swing away.

What followed was a rough approximation of the Nebraska-Michigan game. Like the pinata, Nebraska could take a beating without completely crumbling; there was some fight in the Cornhuskers even when they were down big early. At the same time, every series felt like Michigan just hitting a red and white jersey as hard as possible, sometimes with little to no aiming.

ELSEWHERE

MVictors:

Husked.  We’ve done this before to the Huskers, back in 1905 the Yostmen rolled up the Huskers 31-0 at Ferry Field and the Daily pulled out the thick typeface to let campus know:

October 22, 1905 [U-M Bentley, Michigan Daily digital archives]

ICYMI, we had less luck in 1911 when we tied, 6-6 but team, fans and everyone had a lovely time afterward at the joyous feast.

Sap:

OFFENSIVE CHAMPION – There have been some impressive offensive performances down through the years of Michigan football. I can remember the 1991 Mazda Gator Bowl where the entire offensive line was awarded the game MVP award as the Wolverine offense churned our 715 yards of offense that January 1st.  On Saturday, there were so many impressive players on offense – Higdon, Patterson, Wilson, the O-Line – that I couldn’t single out just one.  As a result, I’m awarding helmet stickers for the ENTIRE OFFENSIVE UNIT!  Just a very solid, all-around performance from everybody on offense.  The best performance of the year!  Was it perfect? No. But as Bo Schembechler used to say, “It’s easier to correct mistakes after a win than it is after a loss.”

Bill Connelly on the re-emerging pattern and if next week can mean something more:

So we have to wait another month, until the trip to MSU, to figure out what Michigan’s got? Not necessarily.

This week, Michigan will make its first trip to Northwestern since 2014, when the Wolverines logged Brady Hoke’s final win as head coach, 10-9.

Pat Fitzgerald’s Wildcats are a disappointing 1-2 following an unlikely but humbling loss to Akron. But their disappointments have come mostly on one side of the ball — they’re 96th in Off. S&P+ but still 24th in Def. S&P+. Akron scored 39 points on them, but they needed three return scores to do it. (Like I said, it was an extremely unlikely loss.)

NU isn’t quite as strong against the pass as it has been in years past; in the Wildcats’ two losses, Duke and Akron combined to complete 67 percent with a 176.7 passer rating. Meanwhile, Michigan quarterback Shea Patterson has been as good as advertised since basically halftime of the Notre Dame loss. He’s completed 72 percent of his passes with a 180 passer rating in his last three games.

That, combined with an inconsistent run game, likely means that Northwestern won’t be able to keep up with Michigan for four quarters.

The Wildcats can still shut down the Michigan run game, though. The Wolverines have never had a particularly consistent attack under Harbaugh, ranking between 51st and 79th in rushing success rate in each of his first three seasons. And even this year, despite three straight blowouts, they rank 71st, while NU’s defense ranks 16th.

Michigan is still a run-first team — the Wolverines run the ball 63 percent of the time on standard downs, four percentage points above the national average — so this does offer Northwestern an opportunity to force second-and-9s or third-and-7s. And that plays to the Wildcats’ strength: rushing the passer. Their 10.3 percent sack rate ranks 13th in the country.

If Michigan overcomes this and still puts up plenty of points and yards on Northwestern, that’s a good sign.

The Daily provides useful context for folks who beat the traffic:

What you missed when you left at halftime: Nebraska

Baumgardner:

There's a narrative that makes its way into my inbox or Twitter feed any time Michigan lines up against a team with athletes on the edge.

Perhaps some older fans are holding onto memories of Donovan McNabb shredding the Wolverines back in the 90s. Or Vince Young doing his thing nearly 15 years ago. Either way, the "Michigan's defense struggles with athletic teams" thing gets kicked around here and there.

In the Don Brown era, the one that matters right now, this is false. And one of the reasons it continues to be false is because of Brown's inside linebacker Devin Bush Jr.

Hoover Street Rag. TTB. Maize and Blue Nation. Maize and Brew. Maize and Go Blue. MGoFish. Lorenz:

Outside of two crucial mistakes (targeting against ND, late hit against WMU), junior safety Josh Metellus has played excellent football this season. He continued that Saturday with maybe his most complete game.

One area where he appears to have improved in a big way is coverage down the field. He's also been excellent in setting the edge in the run game and wrapping up the ballcarrier.

A much maligned player (probably unfairly) in the past, Metellus will continue to be one of the defense's most important players if he can eliminate those mistakes. He's now done that two weeks in a row.

OL pushing people.

UMBig11 offered an injury update at 24/7: Paye, Filiaga and Gary are good to go. Going to be a while for Solomon. The Northwestern game opened up Michigan –11 and is up to Michigan –13.