Michigan 24, Army 21 (OT)
What did we say about scheduling a military academy?
Army, as expected, was misery. They played trench warfare, basketball before the shot clock, bash your face against the wall ass football. They ran the ball on damn near every play at a halting 3.3 yards per carry; this worked well enough because they converted all three of their fourth-down tries. There were very few scenarios in which this game wasn't at least going to be profoundly annoying.
Michigan conspired to make it a near-catastrophe. They lost three first-half fumbles, two of which led directly to Army's pair of regulation touchdowns. The other came one play after Josh Metellus was incorrectly whistled down while picking up an Army fumble en route to the end zone. Shea Patterson was scattershot as a thrower and limited as a runner, seemingly ordered not to keep on a read-option no matter how much Army overplayed the running back. The deployment of Dylan McCaffrey was again confusing and ineffective. Zach Charbonnet churned out 100 yards and all three Michigan touchdowns on 33 carries; he also had no chance on a pair of fourth-quarter fourth downs that were dead to rights.
hnnnnnnnnnnngh [Campredon]
So there we sat, collective butts clenched, as Army's freshman kicker attempted a 50-yarder as time expired to put this game on the ultimate upset highlight reel. Cole Talley's boot slipped just wide to the right, and Michigan had new—if not wholly earned—life.
After the two teams traded touchdowns in the first overtime, it appeared the Wolverines would give that gift right back to the Black Knights. Patterson missed an open Nico Collins in the end zone before throwing two incompletions Tarik Black's way, leaving Jake Moody to salvage three points and giving Army the chance to win with a touchdown.
Then the defense, which had fought tooth and nail against the triple option all afternoon, saved the day. Aidan Hutchinson ripped through the line for a tackle for loss that set up third and long, not a specialty of Army's. As Kelvin Hopkins Jr. dropped back to pass for only the fifth time on the afternoon, Kwity Paye flew around the edge and met Hutchinson at the quarterback. Hopkins couldn't hang onto the ball and Paye eventually pounced on it, bringing a sudden end to a miserable slog.
Let's never do this again.
[Hit THE JUMP for the box score]
September 7th, 2019 at 5:07 PM ^
I really, really didn’t understand that. We’d been poor on short yardage all game and you know it’s going to be a low scoring affair. Our kickers are good. Take the points (this is of course the first failed 4th 2, not the last drive, where I think they were out of reasonable range).
September 7th, 2019 at 4:57 PM ^
Games like this are why Michigan's season record for TD passes is 25, or whatever. Let Collins and Black eat. It's like Gattis expected Army to use ball control to limit Michigan's plays, so he only prepared to call 40-50 plays. When he ran out, it was time for slamming Zach into the line over and over again. People complained about running up the middle over and over last season. They must be shell-shocked today. I'm not a fan of the "speed in space" plays where they throw passes to WRs running toward the sidelines away from the QB, or maybe it's Shea's inability to lead a WR so that they can get easy YAC. We played like ass. The coaches coached like ass. My high expectations for the season have been knocked down a notch or two.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:04 PM ^
I’m not sure that passing more and thus giving Shea a bigger role today was a great suggestion. You want him to have more opportunities to mess up? Today is a prime example. If he threw more today he would have thrown picks. His fumbles nearly killed us. Just my opinion. I respect your passion, just not sure I want Shea to have any more responsibility
September 7th, 2019 at 5:24 PM ^
I don’t think I saw Shea make any dangerous throws - I think I’m still in Brian’s camp that says Shea needs to throw more interceptions, because at least it means he’s throwing decisively. We’ve got WRs that can win 50-50 balls, put some up there.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:34 PM ^
If you can't trust your QB to throw the ball and he can't keep the ball on zone reads, he shouldn't be playing.
September 7th, 2019 at 6:31 PM ^
This is a bad take. Patterson rarely makes dangerous throws. After watching the extended highlights, there was lots of Pep Hamilton mixed with a freshman at left tackle. Way too many long-developing routes.
September 8th, 2019 at 12:55 AM ^
I agree with this. Shea's throws are rarely "chuck it up and pray to the gods". However, he CAN be criticized for not throwing to the best options on any given play. He tends to lizard brain in the pocket. And his ball security thus far has been not good. Clean up the ball security and we have something that can get us to 10 or 11 wins this year. But getting over the hump and winning a B1G will involve Shea making better scans of the field and better quick twitch decisions.
September 7th, 2019 at 4:58 PM ^
Thank you, Ace, for the simple and eloquent eulogy to a game all Michigan fans are sincerely glad is over. Agreed, let's NEVER do this again. Only I feel a bit sadly reminded today of other games we played in recent years that shall not be named. I pray we never schedule a peewee team of 10 year olds, because our coaches would find a way for us to play down to them too, and still keep it close.
September 7th, 2019 at 9:55 PM ^
I knew Ace would have the best writeup, he always does.
Agreed with everyone over not scheduling service academies. Can't do the You Suck chant because of fear of offending... an opponent? Who isn't at all afraid to play dirty.
However, schedule weak opponents for the non conference. Alabama does this and never has to worry about starters getting hurt early in the season,
September 7th, 2019 at 4:58 PM ^
I'm just glad it's over
September 7th, 2019 at 5:08 PM ^
It ain't over until it's over the singing fat lady.
September 7th, 2019 at 4:59 PM ^
Defense needs to get healthy on the line. But otherwise showing great potential. Offense, on the other hand looked about as organized as a monkey fucking a football. The monkey would probably be more entertaining than Michigan was today too. I sure hope they get their shit figured out during the bye week.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:00 PM ^
"Let's never do this again."
That pretty much covers it. These games against the academies are almost all downside.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:01 PM ^
Year 5 into Harbaugh era and the offense still has constant problems. I think this is what we’ll have under Harbaugh - average to sometimes good offense paired with a good to great defense. Enough to get us 9-10 win seasons but not enough to get us to playoffs on consistent basis without a lot of luck. Unless Harbaugh leaves, I doubt we’ll see a major change from this.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:06 PM ^
I agree that Harbaugh has issues, but Harbaugh isn’t the one who has fumbled 7 times.
Dont get me wrong, he messed up a lot today in his coaching, but what would this team be like without gratuitous turnovers?
September 7th, 2019 at 5:25 PM ^
It’s not like the offense looked great when it wasn’t dropping the ball either.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:25 PM ^
It’s not like the offense looked great when it wasn’t dropping the ball either.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:19 PM ^
And if he leaves we may see change like we did before. Back to 5-7 win seasons.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:01 PM ^
I hope the day eventually comes where we are not discussing handcuffing play calling due to injuries or fear of...whatever turnovers, more injuries, etc. Are we ever gonna be able to just let it rip?
September 7th, 2019 at 5:37 PM ^
Just let our athletes be athletes.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:02 PM ^
Meanwhile Ohio State cruises, 42-0. Another pointless season on tap this year!
September 7th, 2019 at 5:07 PM ^
Nihilism is the only tolerable stance
September 7th, 2019 at 11:55 PM ^
Thank you for the laugh. I needed that.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:05 PM ^
Probably keeping the qb keepers in pocket for a bit, like last year. We know how Harbaugh likes his gamesmanship with offensive features. Wisconsin coaches would be pretty daft to not coach their players to watch for it after last year though. We debuted it on them.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:16 PM ^
I agree. JH again denied post-game that the qbs are instructed to hand off, just that the "reads weren't there" but I believe they have been at least instructing them to not keep unless it's broad daylight. I think the gloves will come off in big games. We also tend to forget we have two qbs who have had their share of injuries, and a couple of keepers late had me nervous in that regard. I wouldn't be surprised if there's some protectionist thought to the reads thus far.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:30 PM ^
If that's the case, then I presume that Charbonnet must have stolen Shea's girlfriend, because the missed reads were obvious enough that the announcers were harping on them.
September 7th, 2019 at 11:22 PM ^
The reads weren’t there? If that’s his honest opinion, then just fucking close this book because we can’t coach the read option.
September 8th, 2019 at 7:13 AM ^
"reads weren't there" - my ass they weren't there. They were there all fucking day. Just keep it a few times and we easily move the chains and open up the running game for Charbonnet as well.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:06 PM ^
This win might have been critical for bowl eligibility. There is no team on the schedule now that is an easy win.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:08 PM ^
I introduce Rutgers to you...
i get your point, but let’s not overreact?
September 7th, 2019 at 5:40 PM ^
That’s a rivalry game. All bets are off.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:09 PM ^
Exqueeze me? Rutgers?
September 7th, 2019 at 5:07 PM ^
Complete crap play. Michigan is going to get their asses handed to them by Wisconsin if they don't clean things up.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:09 PM ^
But they won't lose next week.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:07 PM ^
RIP Herm.
Missing Herm today.
September 7th, 2019 at 7:53 PM ^
Was that the college kid pretending to be an old dude?
September 7th, 2019 at 5:08 PM ^
Are they looking towards Wisconsin? That's my only explanation as to how flat the offense was. There is nothing spicy about the offense that I have seen these two weeks... The offense is supposed to be a str helping a defense that is finding its footing. The defense won us this game today.
September 7th, 2019 at 6:27 PM ^
Why would they look towards Wisconsin when they're not playing them in 2 weeks?
September 7th, 2019 at 10:01 PM ^
Are they looking ahead to bye week?
September 8th, 2019 at 1:33 PM ^
No way the offense was flat because it was looking forward two weeks. No way. We will roll out the same exact offense in two weeks that we've rolled out thus far. I just hope we make fewer mistakes.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:09 PM ^
Our only goal this season may be to beat OSU at home. It is starting to look like Gattis offense is not working here!
September 7th, 2019 at 5:10 PM ^
But it's been sterling over there.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:18 PM ^
The pass RPO worked well last season for Alabama. But of course this is Michigan where 21st century offensive football does not work.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:10 PM ^
Wtf is going on. Did they practice in August ?
September 7th, 2019 at 5:11 PM ^
The O-line really needs Runyan back, at the very least. It’s hard to lose an important player of that caliber and maintain the same consistency.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:13 PM ^
you are a very talented writer.
September 7th, 2019 at 5:16 PM ^
It seems like all the other B1G teams are playing well except for us! OSU blows out Cincinnati not too shabby of a team. WI is destroying CMU in 2nd 44-0, NE all over CU on the road.
September 7th, 2019 at 6:56 PM ^
Colorado says not so fast my friend...
September 7th, 2019 at 5:17 PM ^
A Supposedly Fine Thing We'll Hopefully Never Do Again
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