Michigan 40, Middle Tennessee State 21
It was far from a flawless debut. Two Michigan fumbles, including a Shea Patterson miscue on the season's first play from scrimmage, led directly to Middle Tennessee State touchdowns. The receivers couldn't haul in a handful of catchable passes. The offensive coaches repeatedly tried a two-quarterback package that produced little but confusion. The O-line couldn't get the needed push on a fourth-and-goal. The second-string secondary yakety saxed a late deep ball into MTSU's third touchdown.
The natural progression of the season should work out many of those problems, however, and what was left was exciting indeed. Examine Michigan's opening drive of the second quarter, for instance, if you want to understand the optimism surrounding first-year offensive coordinator Josh Gattis. After a Patterson keeper for five yards, Gattis called consecutive run-pass options to free up Tarik Black for big gains, then a conventional play-action bomb to Nico Collins for a leaping 28-yard touchdown. Four plays, 67 yards, no huddles, 1:14 off the clock, seven points. This isn't last year's Michigan offense.
There were other signs of a contender. Blue chip freshman running back Zach Charbonnet got the start, ripped off a 14-yard gain on his first career carry, later added a 41-yard dash through contact, and made multiple blitz-killing pickups. Christian Turner made some nifty cuts and displayed surprising power, while Dylan McCaffrey hardly had to use his arm to move the offense downfield. Michigan finished with 252 rushing yards at 5.9 a pop.
Deep fly to right-center. [Fuller]
The aerial attack didn't quite produce as much, though that had more to do with gameflow than anything else. Before the quarterback shuffling began, Patterson looked comfortable and confident; he began the game 15-for-20 for 188 yards and three scores before scuffling to a 2-for-9 finish in a choppy, frippery-filled second half. Collins and Black looked dominant, combining for 129 yards and two scores on nine targets and seven catches. Sean McKeon bulled through a safety to finish off a 28-yard touchdown up the seam. True freshman Cornelius Johnson reeled in a difficult catch when he plucked a comeback route out of the air that he appeared to expect over the other shoulder.
The defense also had a somewhat uneven performance, letting MTSU QB Asher O'Hara rip off some annoying runs, though they were relatively dominant statistically until the backups ceded a 59-yard touchdown pass deep into garbage time. That allowed the Blue Raiders to edge over 300 yards; unless Michigan's secondary depth is tested against a stronger opponent it shouldn't be too relevant. It felt like the defense could do more—perhaps because Lavert Hill not only muffed a punt but also let an easy pick-six slip through his fingers—but in reality they did about as much as they could.
Ambry Thomas stood tall in the secondary. [Patrick Barron]
We may have even seen a couple questions answered. While injuries held Donovan Peoples-Jones, Donovan Jeter, and Jon Runyan Jr. out of the game, cornerback Ambry Thomas took his place in the lineup after fighting off colitis. He made an impact, too, cutting off a throw to the flat for a leaping interception, then later coming up with a fumble recovery.
His cornerback counterpart, redshirt freshman Vincent Gray, was the biggest unknown in the starting lineup, and he passed his first test with flying colors. Gray looked adept in coverage and fought through traffic for a few jarring, no-YAC-allowed tackles in the flat. With Thomas evidently healthy, Gray looks like the third corner everyone hoped would emerge.
Not everything clicked tonight. That's a season opener for you. Even with the errors, you didn't have to squint much to see a very dangerous football team on the Michigan Stadium turf.
[After THE JUMP: the box score]
September 1st, 2019 at 1:57 PM ^
I think my usher has been on the job longer than Yoda.
September 1st, 2019 at 7:55 AM ^
Reddit game threads in r/cfb are fun and full of relatively level-headed takes. Went there at halftime last night and stayed the rest of the game. It was a nice change of scenery.
September 1st, 2019 at 9:37 AM ^
The format is also so much better equipped to deal with game and post - game threads. You can sort by points, comments are collapsed in a reasonable way, and you can actually see more than 50 posts at a time without having to load another page.
September 1st, 2019 at 10:09 AM ^
Agreed. The board seems to have degraded in the last 3-5 years. I come to mgoblog mainly for the authors and front page content, but go to /r/cfb for general discussion. Much more level headed
September 1st, 2019 at 9:39 AM ^
That sucks, man. I used to enjoy your takes. Seems like a lot of the old regulars stopped commenting too, it's a downward spiral now where only the trolls and hot-take commenters are left.
September 1st, 2019 at 10:02 AM ^
I think it's just the growing popularity of mgoblog that it's drawing more and more uneducated knee-jerk hotheads to the site. It seemed when I first found this blog ten years ago it was much more literate and with a clubby vibe, even developing its own lingo and inside jokes. It was kind of self-policing. Now it's overrun with shit-slingers who otherwise spend their time on political sites calling each other mouth-breathers and commies and fascists. The world has become a cacophony of total assholes shaking their fists at a computer screen.
Sometimes I long for the days of 20 years ago when I knew relatively little about the team or the players except what I saw when I tuned in every Saturday. I may have to go back to that.
By the way, the team looked fine. There will be some tight games ahead.
September 1st, 2019 at 9:43 AM ^
You should be negged for visiting a snowflake thread when checking the health of the board. Stupid move. I mean, it's titled "Snowflakes", for Godsakes! SNOWFLAKES!!!!!
Read the comments on the game column from Ace.
EDIT: Oh, wait - you're here... Haa! Where am I?
September 1st, 2019 at 10:35 AM ^
I avoid the game threads at all times. They're always terrible and not just on MGoBlog.
The snowflake threads have evolved into something similar. They seemed like a good idea at first, but I'd prefer to do away with them and just have the mods nuke all the bad and whiny post-game threads. Why not substitute one postgame thread dedicated to bitching? I can't see myself wading through more snowflake threads. Sorry mods. I don't like asking more of you, but game days are when the board needs you most.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:56 PM ^
Sorry to read this; you have provided some good input in the past. The game thread last night was populated by some disturbed humans.
September 1st, 2019 at 1:46 PM ^
You could definitely tell when the alcohol kicked in. After halftime the comments were 3/4 calling to get rid of Shea. It was pretty insufferable. Maybe it was carry over saltiness from the end of last season, but the posters were just unhinged. Like did nobody see him have a big first half then get obliterated by a defender?
September 1st, 2019 at 4:01 PM ^
Same here as well. Barely visit the site anymore due to the boards. Only came here now to attempt to inspire some personal excitement for this season. Big mistake.
September 2nd, 2019 at 1:52 AM ^
I didn't watch Wisconsin but did watch a bunch of PSU and most of OSU and MSU. I'll give you cliff notes. Pretty much every team, including the 3 I mentioned, Bama, and OU tonight made a bunch of mistakes and looked sloppy, just like Michigan did.
There is no preseason, and they nixed two a days, while cutting back the number of practices in the fall. So, week one isn't sharp at all.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:20 AM ^
It was a solid first game. You can see the foundation of something special here and I hope we can take this into a win against army.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:22 AM ^
Me thinks we’re a really good DT and a LB away from being a Top 10 defense. TBH, it didn’t look close to what we’ve been accustomed to nor did I expect it be. Should be a top 25 D and hopefully our offense can move into top 20 status. It’s early but I’m moving the needle down to 9-3, perhaps 10-2 if the breaks go our way. We have a really, really tough schedule.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:52 AM ^
Second all of those points. Frankly I also think the volume stats are somewhat misleading vs. the eye test for this game. We looked solid overall but the offense really looked out of sync and didn't seem to have a natural flow or momentum at times. Our skill players didn't necessarily jump off the page either, making that OSU game look even more daunting than it is each year. Some bad overthrows and drops too. Still early but there is a not insignificant amount of things we need to improve upon.
September 1st, 2019 at 8:09 AM ^
Because OSU looked sooo much better than us in their opener?
September 1st, 2019 at 8:49 AM ^
OSU supposedly did poorly after the first quarter, but I watched the first quarter and they absolutely dominated. FAU could have been off the field for all they held up OSU.
The big ten announcer guys after the OSU game and after our game said the same cliche that they were perfect openers because there was lots of good and then lots of bad to work on.
This is our year, but MTSU wasn't a dominating performance. We had too many unforced errors and didn't use our size and skill advantage.
September 1st, 2019 at 9:49 AM ^
So Ryan Day rep'd the 15 plays they used in the first quarter for the last two weeks, but nothing else. That's what your post tells me, and it explains a very well executed first quarter.
September 2nd, 2019 at 1:59 AM ^
FAU didn't show up in the first quarter at all. They were blowing coverages every other play leading to chunk plays or TDs to wide open WRs. They also flowed so hard to the zone stretch portion of the read option that when fields pulled and ran up the middle there was literally no one there.
FAU decided to actually show up in the second and started actually stopping the offense. In fact, OSU really could run on them from the second quarter until garbage time. And fields didn't look as amazing when the windows tightened either.
September 1st, 2019 at 8:13 AM ^
It will take some time to get everyone on the same page offensively. A lot of guys played tonite, so that probably attributed to the jankiness at times. MTSU came to play though. Have to give those guys credit for playing very hard. I watched the Army game Friday and MTSU looks like the better team of those two.
My biggest disappointment was not getting that yard on 4th and goal. We have to be able to get a yard when we need a yard.
We need an injury report thread. What is with all of the injuries? Dwumfor, Runyan, DPJ, Jeter, Tru Wilson, Shea's ribs. When I heard that DPJ was out, I figured he tweaked that groin or something. Looks maybe like a foot or ankle now? How many snaps has Jeter taken in his career? Seems like he is always hurt. Probably won't need everyone next week to beat Army, but it would be nice to be at full strength for Wisc.
And I'll add some props for the officiating as they did a nice job. I don't think I was mad at them one time last night.
September 1st, 2019 at 9:23 AM ^
It's hard to get a yard on the goal line when you NEVER line up your QB under center. I can't understand why we wouldn't put in a jumbo goal line package.
September 1st, 2019 at 9:51 AM ^
Because that doesn't exist in Gattis' offense. Unless he saved it for later, against better teams. But I wouldn't expect it for the rest of the year...
September 1st, 2019 at 12:31 PM ^
MTSU came to play though
And I'll add some props for the officiating as did a nice job. I don't think I was mad at them one time last night.
Absolutely agree on both counts, give them credit.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:24 AM ^
You’re going to be dragged for a re-cap where you didn’t open up your veins and lie in a tub...too optimistic for the crowd here tonight
September 1st, 2019 at 12:29 AM ^
Brandon Peters was the best qb I saw today. Threw well, ran well and managed the offense well. Congrats to BP.
M also showed promise. Good W. Much to work on.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:40 AM ^
Hmm.. Looked the same to me where he randomly overthrows the receivers. Against a better opponent that puts pressure on him, I think we'll see that he fundamentally hasn't changed.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:41 AM ^
The best? Honestly man?
13/24 163 yards, 3 TDs but did he even air one out for over 15 yards? In all seriousness, he played well but wasn’t asked to do much, ahem, against, Akron.
September 1st, 2019 at 1:52 AM ^
The stat line for our #1 was
September 1st, 2019 at 7:58 AM ^
Our #1 also only played basically half the game, and was dealing with an injury after halftime...
September 1st, 2019 at 8:53 AM ^
I'd really like to see Peters do well, but he was way over throwing people when there was no pressure. Maybe he'll get that under control getting the starters reps and playing time, but he's not good right now.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:30 AM ^
Someone should just post these in the snowflake threads. This was spot on and anyone acting like the world is on fire is either a troll, or a very sad person(please seek help).
September 1st, 2019 at 12:38 AM ^
People will overreact to week one whatever happens. If we put up 60 points they'd be singing hallelujah and looking forward to a 15-0 season.
September 1st, 2019 at 1:01 AM ^
Haha, valid point. Don't forget they would also be looking to make Gattis the next head coach because he would be the only reason the program took the next step.
September 1st, 2019 at 1:34 AM ^
People will overreact to (every game) whatever happens. If we put up 60 points they'd be singing hallelujah and looking forward to a 15-0 season.
September 1st, 2019 at 7:12 AM ^
Not sure why you needed to post this from your burner account as well.
Edit: I can now see that maybe you are another user and were trying to FIFY
September 1st, 2019 at 9:02 AM ^
Exactly.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:30 AM ^
Offense was fine tonight. The QBs were just out of sync in the second half.
If the receivers catch some easy throws then this game is a blow out in the second quarter.
Defense needs to tighten up big time tho on the line especially.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:34 AM ^
We have a lot to work on before Wisconsin and a lot of what we saw today on both sides of the ball should be concerning
September 1st, 2019 at 5:39 AM ^
From the get-go when I saw our first Bye Week came early in the schedule right after the first two non-conference games, I figured the week off would allow the team to fine-tune the new offense before starting conference play. I just hope we survive the Army game with a win and no additional injuries.
September 1st, 2019 at 11:28 AM ^
I will be surprised if Army gets any closer to us than MTS did.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:35 AM ^
Might be nice to finish a season playing our best ball instead of falling apart in November. Plenty of promise, let’s see if the boys can learn and grow into a dominant B1G championship team. BPONE around here after our 1st game is standard par...?
September 1st, 2019 at 12:36 AM ^
It was a rough first game but the problems all looked like first game stuff. Patterson needs to make quicker reads though. If the defense is bringing six guys you can’t go through all your reads
September 1st, 2019 at 12:36 AM ^
I appreciate and agree with your optimism, Ace. Reading the board, you’d conclude we just need to cancel the rest of the season, because we suck.
September 1st, 2019 at 7:26 AM ^
Agreed. Let’s all take a deep breath and remember how #10 Florida looked in their first game.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:37 AM ^
They looked really sloppy on all sides of the ball. They seemed like they had a ton of miscues on offense and frequently put the ball on the turf. It seems like guys were regularly not on the same page. They need to improve a lot and fast because if they don't then the idea of a conference championship will quickly become a pipe dream.
Playing like that against many B1G teams will result in a loss. Last year's game against Wisconsin had me thinking they should win in Madison, but this game has me thinking it'll be a loss.
September 1st, 2019 at 8:26 AM ^
I have been in my underground bunker and missed everything. I assume we had 6 turnovers and got blown out?
September 1st, 2019 at 12:38 AM ^
I'm extremely stoked about Charbonnet. He did great work in very little time tonight. Hopefully they ease him into more carries over time.
September 1st, 2019 at 9:44 AM ^
Turner looked great too, the two of them could be a great 1-2 punch.
September 1st, 2019 at 10:16 AM ^
We should feel good about our RB room.
September 1st, 2019 at 12:47 AM ^
We won, but I feel kinda dirty.
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