Maryland rope-a-doped Michigans defense by allowing Corum to pick up 48 yards over three consecutive carries, which sent him to the bench to get a breather. The Wolverines never cracked. Doubt builds and questions go unanswered. Sept 3 Michigan 51 Colorado State 7Sept 10 Michigan 56 Hawaii 10Sept 17 Michigan 59 Connecticut 0Sept 24 Michigan 34 Maryland 27Oct 1 at IowaOct 8 at IndianaOct 15 Penn StateOct 29 Michigan StateNov 5 at RutgersNov 12 NebraskaNov 19 IllinoisNov 26 at Ohio State, Your email address will not be published. Michigan is out to prove that this is sustainable. Tagovailoa had some big pockets to work with in this game. But the schedule is such that they can afford to learn on the fly. The Buckeyes have the ability to take what the defense gives them, but then they also have the ability to just do what they want. . 10 ranking. He missed last weeks big game against Rutgers as well. This is the second-straight game he has set a career low in completions in a Big Ten game as a starter. Michigan Monday: Wolverines Surpass Expectations In Opener - Buckeye Scoop Three weeks ago in a 49-20 loss to Ohio State, the Buckeyes managed 377 yards passing and six touchdown tosses against MSU. Perhaps, but its still better than having to watch the Connecticut game and then also writing about it. Nine of those passes came in the second quarter, so that was actually quite a few in one short span of time, but he completed just four of his attempts. Backup backup Logan Smothers then came in and completed 4-of-8 passes for a whopping 15 yards. The Michigan special teams is a winning complement to both sides of the ball because they set up the offense and defense for success whenever they are involved. Michigan Monday: Everybody Hates Kirk - Buckeye Huddle Quarterback JJ McCarthy rushed for 50 yards on seven attempts. They weigh on opponents like a Sunday night after two weeks off of work. I can quit next time, he says to nobody in particular, already reaching for the flask in the inside pocket of his jacket, careful not to step in the gore. But they did. That is kind of the concern about what this offense is without Corum, and also how much this game will take out of him as the Wolverines head to Iowa City next weekend to face a Hawkeye defense that is just one of two teams nationally to not allow a rushing touchdown this season (Minnesota). The field continues to compress for the Michigan offense. The Wolverines rushed for 335 yards on 43 attempts (7.8 ypc) and passed for 216 yards on 17 attempts (12.7 ypa). They were like pitch meetings in front of your mom. Whatever has happened to this point in the season is merely a suggestion for how Saturdays game is going to go. This is everything a fan of this rivalry could hope for. Buckeye Weekly Podcast: Michigan Monday - Tale Of The Tape Speaking of which, quarterback JJ McCarthy completed 13-of-27 passes for 151 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. Is he still good for a turnover or two a game like he was last year? The Wolverines getting healthy on offense wont win them a national title this year, but it might be enough to get them past Ohio State. They say you can throw the records out when rivals play, but when those rivals are both undefeated, why not keep the records in play a little longer? But Michigan needs everybody else to keep up with him. The Terps had no answer for Corum in this game. Brad Robbins didnt put any of his punts inside the 20-yard line, but that tends to happen when you never actually have to punt. Each of the three receivers ran curl routes (see below), but only one route was actually sent far enough downfield to be a potential score. 2023 Buckeye Huddle | Community Services from. Sophomore Donovan Edwards is still out with an injury. He did play, but only sparingly. Over the first five Big Ten games last year, Corum carried the ball 81 times. Your email address will not be published. pic.twitter.com/5DvpW1QL5n. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. There were plenty of positives and negatives throughout this game for the Michigan defense. Required fields are marked *. Your email address will not be published. Lets just hope Michigan doesnt cancel again. Which is, of course, terribly ironic because even I completed two passes against the Huskies, including a 7-yard touchdown to walk-on receiver Grady Horschelhoeft, and I still didnt learn a damn thing from this game. Defensive end Mike Morris did a good job setting the edge and keeping things contained, not that Penn State tried to actually get to the edge that often. Michigan played this game with confidence and daring. But this is still a Nittany Lions offense that was held to 98 yards rushing at Purdue to open the season, so lets not go crazy. 00:00. Michigan Monday: The QB Battle Is Already Over - Spreaker The two defenses are much different, but Colson could have made more plays than he did in this one. The Wolverines have played a lot of players, but eventually they need to know who they can rely upon. 10 Evan Pryor, Closer Look: Malik Hartford Checks Every Box At Safety, 5 True Freshmen Who Could Make An Impact On Ohio States Offense, Malcolm Jenkins, Nick Mangold, Rick Middleton Among 2023 Ohio State Athletics Hall Of Fame Class, Closer Look: Josh Simmons Brings Experience, Athleticism To Offensive Line - Buckeye Huddle, Closer Look: Physicality, Length Set Calvin Simpson-Hunt Apart, Closer Look: Defensive End Joshua Mickens Is A Complete Run-Pass Defender, Closer Look: Jelani Thurman Provides Punch, Potential At Tight End, Closer Look: Lincoln Kienholz A Complete Package At Quarterback, Ranking Ohio State's Top 10 Playmakers On Offense For 2023 - No. Having a mobile quarterback also helps because it gives the offense another weapon and the defense another headache. It was a far cry from that bastion of third-and-sevens that we had come to know and tolerate. Michigan moved to 3-0 on the season with Saturday's 63-10 win over Northern Illinois, and it's okay that we didn't learn anything new. Which is much less notable. Kicker Jake Moody made all four of his field goal attempts, but nothing longer than 37 yards. Or is he just going to try to fire everything into a window, whether its open or not? It means that for the tenth time this season, the Wolverines played against a quarterback who shouldve used some PTO time instead. Ohio State held on, just as theyd seen Michigan do earlier in the day. Brown rushed for 140 yards on 29 carries, including a 37-yard touchdown that gave Illinois a 17-10 lead that they took into the fourth quarter. Michigan won 19-17 with a field goal in the final seconds to finally secure the victory over an Illinois team that put up more of a fight in this one than they had the previous two weeks. The return game did nothing of note. Never blinked. McCarthy is still deadly on the move and appears to throw better when hes out of the pocket and not thinking too much. Coulda, woulda. Jim Harbaugh now moves to 4-4 against Michigan State as Michigan's head coach. Michigan doesnt. He is not as good as Corum yet, but just because Dr. James Andrews isnt doing your knee surgery doesnt mean youll never walk again. Ryan Day needed this win to avoid the pressure that is now on his shoulders. Only one guy is deep enough to actually score. The Wolverines moved to 4-0 on the season, more relieved than happy. We have no idea. Blake Corum is a very good running back but he should have averaged more than six yards per carry in each of the three non-conference games, instead of doing it just once. As such, there were receivers running open as a run-defense focused secondary kept losing track of the receivers that they were responsible for. Defensively, the Wolverines have more of an idea of what its going to take to deal with Big Ten offensive lines. Michigan Monday: Happy Warriors Super Fun Time - Buckeye Huddle But the inability to connect downfield isnt just on McCarthy. We dont yet know if he can carry an offense. Corum has been fantastic this season and is probably the most consistent offensive player in the nation, but the lack of an explosive passing game is making life more difficult for him than it was supposed to be. They havent even allowed 400 yards of total offense to an opponent yet this season. Closer Look: Josh Simmons Brings Experience, Athleticism To Offensive Line, Ranking Ohio States Top 10 Playmakers On Offense For 2023 No. For McCarthy right now, valor seems the better part of discretion. The Wolverines are ninth in the Big Ten in red zone touchdown percentage, converting just 26 of their 39 trips (66.7%) into touchdowns. And those are the few that are catchable. Iowa falls to 3-2 overall and 1-1 in the Big Ten. He completed 12 of them. Michigan had some trouble with the tempo on MSUs first touchdown drive, which isnt the first time thats happened. He chose the Buckeyes. How well will he protect the ball against a good defense? Were not seeing a ton of touch from him just yet, either. They have run against heavy fronts and thrown against eight-man zones. Tom Orr (@tomorr4) 1 min read November 21, 2022. And right now, thats still plenty good enough for the people at Michigan. Defensive tackle Mazi Smith was as active as ever with eight tackles. The Wolverine pass catchers averaged 8.5 yards per reception and picked up half of those yards after the catch. Both players continue to be dynamic threats who arent as consistent as Corum, but just as dangerous in a one-off situation. Michigan Monday: Rammer Jammer Maize Hammer - Buckeye Huddle Its just unfortunate for him that hes having to learn on the job in Big Ten play. At one point this season I started to think about charting throws into the end zone but decided against it. Or even to the end zone. 10 Evan Pryor, Closer Look: Malik Hartford Checks Every Box At Safety, 5 True Freshmen Who Could Make An Impact On Ohio States Offense, Malcolm Jenkins, Nick Mangold, Rick Middleton Among 2023 Ohio State Athletics Hall Of Fame Class, Closer Look: Josh Simmons Brings Experience, Athleticism To Offensive Line - Buckeye Huddle, Closer Look: Physicality, Length Set Calvin Simpson-Hunt Apart, Closer Look: Defensive End Joshua Mickens Is A Complete Run-Pass Defender, Closer Look: Jelani Thurman Provides Punch, Potential At Tight End, Closer Look: Lincoln Kienholz A Complete Package At Quarterback, Ranking Ohio State's Top 10 Playmakers On Offense For 2023 - No. Penn State returned four kickoff returns and had a long of just 19 yards. Weve said here for weeks that its a two-way street between the QB accuracy and the receivers ability to get open or make 50/50 catches. The Wolverines attempted 25 field goals in 14 games last year. I had one thought about just reposting the Michigan Monday from Toledos win over Michigan in 2008, but I dont remember what it says and I dont want to get canceled for something I wrote back when it was acceptable to be written. There was nothing cheap about his evening. Nebraska tailback Anthony Grant came into the game averaging 95.3 yards rushing per game. It means that Michigan is well on their way to 11-0, but if they want to keep that zero in the loss column theyre going to need to get better in the red zone. The second one was a fourth-and-8, so thats a bit different. This is now JJ McCarthys team, and while that means a higher ceiling, we still dont know what the floorplan looks like. Fellow cornerback DJ Turner made a diving interception that should have been overturned but wasnt. Unless, of course, he continues to lose control of his players on and off the field. They also need to get more from starting end Jaylen Harrell and starting tackle Kris Jenkins. They each bring something different to the passing game, and all three possess the reliability a young quarterback needs. Robbins averaged just 28.5 yards on his four punts. Im not saying he cant carry a running game, Im just saying he hasnt done it yet. He was knocked out of this game for a spell and then benched at the end as he still wasnt quite right. But I did say way back when I first took this column over from Tom Orr that if Ohio State ever loses two in a row to Michigan, there would have to be a post-mortem Michigan Monday. Everything is just fine here. They each took different paths to 11-0 but got there about four hours apart from each other. This means that you should fully expect Michigan to hit a couple of deep shots on the Buckeyes because everybody breaks tendencies at some point in this game. Some of it feels like fear. So while they broke the tendency early, theres probably not enough evidence to expect a pass or to even be worried about the damage a completed pass could cause. Or the halfback option pass from between the tackles with Kalel Mullings, who was a linebacker weeks earlier. Donovan Edwards was missed in this game, but he wouldnt have fixed the weird play-calling on that first drive in the third quarter. Two weeks ago Michigan gave up a 16-point lead to Michigan State and that loss still stings. The longest carry between them was nine yards. Michigan Monday: Everybody Hates Kirk. There is some thought that he wont be able to hold up to this continued amount of touches, but those concerns may be going away because of the upcoming schedule. The Michigan offensive line dominated this game. Punter Brad Robbins put two of his five punts inside the 20-yard line, but only averaged 40.8 yards per kick on the day. Nearly every championship team has had a win like this, including whichever team ends up winning it all this year. Ryland is a future pro, but Locksley seemed to think that field goals would give the Terps a better shot at winning the game. Especially if these two teams play like they did this past week. McCarthy was 2-for-4 passing in the red zone for six yards. But the passing game is still a station-to-station thing, and those stations are generally pretty close together. Thats nearly 30 per game. 93 offense nationally, so holding them to 17 points is pretty much what was expected. Closer Look: Josh Simmons Brings Experience, Athleticism To Offensive Line, Ranking Ohio States Top 10 Playmakers On Offense For 2023 No. He finished with 22 yards on 11 carries. Corum came back out in the second half and carried the ball once, but that was it. Jake Moody hit both of his field goal attempts (30, 43) and they allowed very little in return yards. It is the fifth time theyve held an opponent under 100 yards rushing this season, and the third time against a Big Ten foe. He is 7-of-13 passing for 23 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Other than that and the Wolverines stupefying inability to scheme against long-distance field goals things went just as solidly as they normally do for Michigans special teams. This is going to be one of those thoughts pieces that dont require a set format. I wont be surprised if he has another score this season. They will have learned more about themselves from this game than all of their first three games combined. You can look at the stats and see Ohio States 492 yards of total offense and say that they did their job, but going 0-for-3 on touchdowns in their final three red zone attempts would argue otherwise.