Michigan 45, Notre Dame 14
Perhaps Brian Kelly should've thrown a towel.
Michigan ran over, around, and past Notre Dame, breaking out their best offensive performance of the year in a steady rain against a top-ten team. Josh Gattis's offense embraced a run-pass distribution that could've raised Bo Schembechler from the grave. Kelly, meanwhile, ran Kelly's offense.
One of these things was a good idea. Michigan's offensive line bludgeoned the Irish front, opening space for backs Hassan Haskins and Zach Charbonnet to accumulate 142 combined yards by halftime. Notre Dame quarterback Ian Book, meanwhile, spent much of his night on the run from Dr. Blitz's angry horde of defenders.
The Wolverines took advantage of a break on their first offensive drive when an Irish player inexplicably tried to recover a blocked Will Hart punt, allowing Dax Hill to jump on the ball and gain 20 yards in the exchange. While that drive would stall out at the two for a Jake Moody chip shot, the offense had begun to set the tone on the ground, and that continued when they got the ball back. The next drive was mean, muscular, and magnificent: eight plays, all runs, for 59 yards, capped by a seven-yard Charbonnet touchdown.
Cam McGrone (12 tackles) led an overwhelming defensive effort. [Patrick Barron]
The defense forced a three-and-out when Aidan Hutchinson batted down Book's third-down pass. Michigan got right back to it, needing three chunk plays—a Haskins run in which he hurdled a safety, a Patterson third-down throw to Mike Sainristil, and an arc keeper Patterson took 22 yards—to set up another Charbonnet score at the goal line.
Despite trying a fourth down only to be rebuffed by Jordan Glasgow, Notre Dame couldn't break through for the rest of the half. Michigan went into the tunnel with four pass attempts and 34 rushes; the Irish were at 13 and 15, respectively. The Wolverines led, 17-0, and perhaps I'm being too harsh on Kelly for his playcalling, as ND's 15 run plays had netted a grand total of 20 yards.
The game slowed to a halt in the third quarter before infamous referee John O'Neill decided it was time for a signature blunder. Book forced a ball downfield to Chase Claypool into double coverage; Brad Hawkins intercepted the underthrow, only for Khaleke Hudson—who did not so much as touch Claypool—to get hit with defensive pass interference. Five plays later, Book found tight end Cole Kmet all alone on a goal line throwback, and what had been a romp felt like it could turn into a fight, a feeling stoked by the students tossing towels onto the field in protest.
But when Michigan hit back, Notre Dame folded. After a 49-yard run by Haskins, who finished with a game-high 149 yards on 20 carries, Patterson absorbed a hit from Asmar Bilal and got enough mustard on the ball to get it to a sliding Donovan Peoples-Jones in the end zone. A few drives later, the blowout resumed in earnest when Nico Collins pulled down a fade for Patterson's second touchdown pass.
There was little slowing any of M's running backs. [Fuller]
Tru Wilson and Mike Sainristil would tack on touchdowns, the latter in spectacular jitterbug fashion, to extend the lead out to 45-7 before a perfunctory 14-yard toss from backup Phil Jurkovec to Javon McKinley provided the game's final score.
Michigan needed to show a lot heading into the final stretch of the season, and tonight they checked pretty much all the available boxes. The playcalling matched both the situation and the personnel, with the offense churning away at 6.2 yards per play. The defense was hellacious, erasing the Irish run game and forcing Book into a horrible stat line: 8-for-25 for 73 yards. When faced with a moment of potential crisis, both units stepped up.
The Wolverines are now 6-2 and the team has taken an apparent U-turn since halftime of last week's Penn State game. They can build on this next weekend at Maryland, take their second bye week, and hopefully head into the home stretch of MSU-Indiana-OSU with more confidence and competence than they've shown all year.
[Hit THE JUMP for the box score.]
October 27th, 2019 at 7:20 AM ^
I have to admit, the crowd was louder than I thought it would be. How well we were playing made the constant rain not a problem. Yes, a bunch of students left at halftime but maybe 1/3 at most. But as you say, the loudest ones were the ones who stayed.
October 27th, 2019 at 9:08 AM ^
Those who stay will be loud.
October 27th, 2019 at 8:53 AM ^
The reign of boos after every play that followed the BS DPI call and nullified the interception was absolutely fantastic! I'd like to think it caused O'Neill to get his head out of his ass for the rest of the game, because he wasn't too bad, actually. That one call was egregious, but otherwise it was pretty well officiated (given his crew, especially).
I thought the crowd was great...
October 27th, 2019 at 2:03 AM ^
Now can we say Penn State was a moral victory?
October 27th, 2019 at 4:45 AM ^
Amoral
October 27th, 2019 at 2:59 AM ^
That was 3.5 hours of straight football porn minus the bit when John O’Neil played the part of the used condom.
October 27th, 2019 at 3:00 AM ^
Fucking congrats to Hassan Haskins for becoming a player. I love to see it.
October 27th, 2019 at 4:27 AM ^
2 yards from a Rushing Rutger.
October 27th, 2019 at 6:02 AM ^
When ND started to close in, Michigan put the hammer down and pulled away. They did the same thing versus Illinois.
In the past they would have wilted. I like this newfound mental toughness.
October 27th, 2019 at 6:31 AM ^
Oh man those Notre Dame people have got to feel like absolute shit right now. Not only were they embarrassed but it was by a mediocre Michigan squad who recently beat Army in double OT. Army, who is like a couple and a million. Jeebus! What a fun game for us!!! It’s nice watch a game and have some fingernails left for once.
And on that one non-garbage time score they had, that PI was so bad, I almost felt bad for them because they needed some Irish Luck to even do anything. They must have felt guilty for about a minute before they went back to feeling like shit from the absolute curb stomping.
That was fun!!!!!! Hassan Haskins was a beast!!!
October 27th, 2019 at 7:39 AM ^
Teams evolve over the course of time. Michigan was mediocre when then played Army, but seemed much better last night.
October 27th, 2019 at 9:10 AM ^
Biased officiating calls are not "luck" or "breaks" they're closer to cheating.
October 27th, 2019 at 7:13 AM ^
Respect for all the fans who attended tonight and kept the place rocking despite the elements
October 27th, 2019 at 7:21 AM ^
Sure led to the expiration of Notre Dame!
*Edit: In response to the comment about run games being “expiring.”
October 27th, 2019 at 7:56 AM ^
I didn't get to watch the game. Pending the UFR for defense. how did the interior D-line do against Notre Dame? I'm looking at the box score and it looks like most of the tackles came from the linebackers. Did the interior D-line get push?
October 27th, 2019 at 8:08 AM ^
They played well. Hutch and Kemp made some interior stops, but ND was trying to run outside against our back seven and that was dumb. QB pressure from the front was pretty good too.
October 27th, 2019 at 8:57 AM ^
For the most part, Book had no place to scramble and no room to step up. That whole boa constrictor thing! He had to back out and escape to the sides when the pocket started closing in - pretty much every time he dropped back. I thought the DL played an excellent game. Aside from caving the OL on pass rushes, they kept the LB's clean. We know what happened from there...
October 27th, 2019 at 10:56 AM ^
Notre Dame had fewer than 100 yards of offense in the first three quarters — and that was legitimate; there wasn’t some 40 yard loss on a bad snap or anything. That doesn’t happen unless the interior of the DL was solid (although, it’s true that ND mostly seemed to run outside).
October 27th, 2019 at 8:06 AM ^
This is the first time I enjoyed a Michigan game in a long time. Others have always been stressers, but this is one to savor. I only went into BPONE when the bogus PI came in, but once the offense got going again, i relished seeing sad Brian Kelly on the sideline all night. Ride this momentum boys!
Go Blue!
October 27th, 2019 at 9:26 AM ^
My BPONE started setting in when the refs ran in to review the Nico Collins catch what surely appeared to be AFTER Michigan got the next play off.
October 27th, 2019 at 9:37 AM ^
I still think Patterson is holding team back. Mccaffrey should be in. Patterson knew now after PSU that his prior play of before the seoncd half psu and he would be benched now that we can't make it to BIg title. He will play better rest of year.
October 27th, 2019 at 11:04 AM ^
You are terrible and mindless and don't even fucking know who Carl Grapentine is. Begone.
October 27th, 2019 at 5:50 PM ^
Captain Caveman...is that you? Unga bunga.
October 27th, 2019 at 8:07 AM ^
Re: ". . . the team has taken an apparent U-turn since halftime of last week's Penn State game."
O'Neill's isn't the only crap crew in the Conference; it's maybe not even the worst. If the first half of the Penn State game was reffed properly, then Michigan would be 7-1, ranked #6 and rolling.
This offense is everything that we anticipated and when it plays clean, then it's really scary good.
What is Chris Fowler's problem with Michigan? ND was not a No-Show; they just got smoked.
October 27th, 2019 at 9:13 AM ^
Herbstreit is the one that started in with the ND No-Show BS. Chris Fowler has been good to Michigan going back to the early days of College Gameday IMO.
October 27th, 2019 at 10:36 PM ^
I don't think Herbstreit was trying to denigrate Michigan's performance; I think that he expected more from the #8 team in the nation. I suspect most if not all of us here at MGoBlog did, too.
October 27th, 2019 at 8:45 AM ^
I felt pretty good about this game when I read the preview yesterday, ND didn’t seem that good and there were no obvious mismatches to worry about. I felt we had a good shot at a 17-14 win or something. But this! I went to bed happy, and I woke up happy. Nice parting gift to them for the next 12 years. ND would get chewed up playing Michigan, OSU, Wisconsin, Iowa, Penn State, etc. regularly. Small wonder they never wanted to join the Big Ten.
October 27th, 2019 at 10:25 AM ^
Claypool was a pretty obvious mismatch but the weather helped significantly
October 27th, 2019 at 8:49 AM ^
Bitch Woolfolk here, I just want to say Go blue baby
October 27th, 2019 at 8:59 AM ^
Haa!!! I caught that, too!
October 27th, 2019 at 11:55 PM ^
Yeah. That definitely drew a chuckle from me.
October 27th, 2019 at 8:59 AM ^
I. AM. HAPPY. GO BLUE!
October 27th, 2019 at 9:37 AM ^
The offensive line mauled them. It was amazing!
October 27th, 2019 at 10:02 AM ^
I’m happy about the obvious progress. The offense isn’t yet the smooth, well-oiled machine of a handful of top tier teams, but they’ve come far. The defense has improved. They’re playing with confidence.
I’m glad for Patterson, who’s had the weight of the world’s criticism on his shoulders for weeks. I loved what happened last night.
October 27th, 2019 at 10:38 AM ^
Fun game to watch. Team played a great game last night and picked up a huge win. They kept things going from the second half of PSU. Let’s keep it going and finish the season 10-2
October 27th, 2019 at 11:02 AM ^
How can someone who makes calls as bad as the PI against Hudson be allowed to continue refereeing games? A call like that is so obviously wrong that one would think another ref would go up to him and tell him it should not be called and at least initiate a zebra conference. A call that bad actually calls the integrity of the game into question, and refs who make such egregiously bad calls should be fired.
October 27th, 2019 at 11:03 AM ^
Season is shaping up like 1969! The only difference is that it is unlikely we can win the Big Ten championship and will have to be satisfied with beating OSU.
October 27th, 2019 at 11:58 AM ^
great game recap
October 27th, 2019 at 12:59 PM ^
Thoroughly enjoyed the shot of Kelly shown on the big boards in the stadium in the second half. He looked absolutely miserable.
October 27th, 2019 at 1:52 PM ^
I’ve been highly critical of the offensive coaches - their poor game plans and inability (or refusal) to target defensive weaknesses. This game they were much better - they worked within the weather, and kept going with what worked. We saw the opposite from Notre Dame - poor planning and questionable play calling throughout. Go Blue!
October 27th, 2019 at 2:33 PM ^
Same here. This is the first game that they looked like the better prepared and better coached team. They had purposeful gameplans that took advantage of our strengths and ND weaknesses. They seemed to abandoned the previous mindset of banging their head into brick walls. Let's hope it's a trend.
October 27th, 2019 at 2:55 PM ^
I was really surprised at how much more physical we were. Kelly's ND teams aren't necessarily smashmouth but they've been fairly tough at the line of scrimmage the last couple of years. But we just mashed them on offense and stoned them defensively.
Despite that, I couldn't believe how much Kelly tried to throw the ball in miserably bad weather. Yeah, they had a good matchup on the outside, but it just was highly difficult to complete passes for a good portion of this game. We seemed to learn from our experience against MSU two years ago but Kelly apparently didn't learn from their NC State game.
After the phantom PI and ND touchdown, BPONE started to set in and I could see that being a game-changer. But the offense stepped up. Fantastic blocking and a great run by Haskins to flip the field. I'm really impressed with how our OL and running backs have come along this season. Suddenly this feels like a classic Harbaugh offense.
Are we really not going to play ND again until 2033? I will be in my 50s then, yikes.
October 27th, 2019 at 5:53 PM ^
Enjoy your 40's.
October 27th, 2019 at 9:13 PM ^
Let's rate position groups:
- OL = A
- RB = A
- QB = B+
- WRs = B
- TEs = B- (mediocre blocking, more Mason)
- HB/FB = A (more Ben Mason he destroyed the edge)
- DL = A
- LB = A
- Viper = B+
- CB = B+
- S = B+
October 27th, 2019 at 9:21 PM ^
Great win yesterday. Here's why I think we not only have a chance to be very competitive against OSU, but could possibly beat them if we continue to play the way we have been playing:
-OSU's toughest matchups (i.e. MSU, Wisconsin, PSU) are all at home. So they've had home field advantage. Not with us as they will have to brave a hostile crowd at the Big House.
-I would argue that OSU hasn't been tested b/c the teams they have beaten are one-dimensional at best:
MSU: Solid defense but their offense sucks
Wisconsin: Solid running offense, but their QB/passing is mediocre at best. As yesterday showed, you shut down Jonathan Taylor, their offense starts sinking. While Wisconsin also boasts a top level defense, I noticed while watching the OSU-Wisconsin game that Wisconsin has really slow LB's which is why JK Dobbins was able to break for long, back breaking runs. Whereas with us we have two vipers (Hudson and Glasgow), combined with Uche and McGrone, to wreak havok on the field. We got the size and the lateral speed to minimize the damage that Dobbins and Fields can have on the run
PSU: That will be an interesting matchup bc they have a solid defense led by Micah Parsons.
Chase Young is going to be a beast when he plays us and it will be very intriguing to see how Jon Runyan and our O-Line handles him. But if our OLine continues to play the way we have been playing, I am confident we are going to hold our own there.
Our D-Line has proven to be faster, longer and more athletic than last year's D-Line when we could barely touch Haskins.
So if our front 7 can stand up to contain the run, the x-factor is going to be in our secondary. Match speed for speed by puttting Dax Hill on Olave or Garret Wilson, then assign Ambry and Lavert on the other top 2 WR's, with Gray on the fourth WR and Metullus/Brad Hawkins as a high level safety and you have the foundation to make sure that last year's passing debacle won't happen this year.
October 29th, 2019 at 12:47 AM ^
1-0 vs rivals so far. Next up MSU
Go Blue!
Comments