Michigan 56, Nebraska 10.

[Detroit Dan]

Nice looking group!

[Hannibal]

My thoughts on the game:

1. Nebraska looked radically different from what they were in the first couple of games. They looked like the 2008 RichRod team. The announcers didn't pick up on it or mention it, but it looked like Nebraska had at least two broken plays on offense where a well set up option got no yardage. Nebraska looked so undisciplined that they made a Brady Hoke team look like a vintage Woody Hayes team. They did retarded shit all day. That might lend some credence to the chatter before the game that there are some players who haven't bought into Frost's system.

2. That was easily the best game for the offense since 2016. One of the best of the Harbaugh era. Unlike the WMU game, Michigan wasn't getting all of their yards because of biffed tackles. It was great blocking, great vision by the running backs to find lanes, and wide receivers consistently getting open like the first guy out for practice because of good play design (mgoblog calls them RPS +3 plays). If only we could do that against somebody who isn't total poop.

3. I thought that Patterson was mediocre as hell. His accuracy is still inconsistent. I'm loving what I see out of McCaffrey so far. . We got cornholed on the holding call on his TD. The ejection on Hudson was bullshit too although it was still an undisciplined play by Hudson and his second ejection in as many weeks. To be fair though, the safety call was total horseshit too. Martinez never controlled the ball and if they were viewing that as a regular catch by a receiver they would call that incomplete 10 times out of 10. Speaking of that ejection, that's a perfect example of a time when Harbaugh needs to scream in the ref's ear until he gets a basketball technical.

4. I think that I like Tru Wilson. If Wilson is what we need to make our play action work then let him be the permanent 2nd string guy. Christian Turner looked decent too. Like Karan Higdon 2.0. I assume that we'll never see Kurt Taylor.

5. Peters sucks. If he's on the team next year I'll be surprised.

6. I loved seeing us "win with cruelty". That was epitomized by that brutal hit that Brandon Watson laid on that poor wide receiver in the 3rd quarter. I liked going for the TD at the end of the 1st half too. Don't let Nebraska take anything positiive away from this game because fuck that. Sweep the leg. No mercy.

7. Both of Nebraska's coordinators got their asses handed to them. I wish that I could say that about the MSU game once but I'll take it for now.

[Jeff Buchanan]

FROM THE STANDS

Absolutely perfect fall football weather. Thanks for posting the picture of some of us at Doug's tailgate enjoying the friendships that have been maintained through our mutual love of M football, Jon. That's Doc Hodgeman in the front row. He's 88 and still making tailgates and games. Long time poster since the freep forum days, through world crossing and now in our current forum. Doc graduated from M in the early 50s and has some great stories about football in those days. Great to have him regale us with some great M football history.

I sat high enough but not too far away to see several red zone plays inside the opponent's 20. Some key take ways:

Harbaugh, as is his history, will abuse defenses that can't hold up on interior runs. Apparently, that was a weakness of Nebraska's DL and it was effectively exploited. I think Entropy noted this in one of his pre-game comments. He was correct. Ben Mason was the beneficiary of this weakness. He scored 3 TDs on the full-back dive. I saw at least two variations of this play: A mid-line and a veer version of it. There is more to this play than smashing directly over the center which is what it looks like on typical TV angles. M's OL in all three of these TDs was getting 4 yards of push at the LOS. I've not seen this kind of bone crushing dominance from the OL in decades. The Warriner effect?

Harbaugh called his best game of the four so far. I think there was a well planned enlarging play-book over time. Most of this was in the run game. Higdon had 139y on 12 carries and a TD before Nebraska's defense knew what hit them. The two big gains he had came off outside veers. These plays are effective against a defense that stacks against a particular play (e.g., power). In M's last two games it was power on the menu, a lot of it. I can't help but thinking that was intentionally done to set these two big plays up. Nebraska's defense was caught flat footed on these well blocked plays with Runyan sealing the playside DE (who also over-ran the play) outside and Bredeson and Ruiz creating the gap Higdon runs through by sealing defenders inside. DPJ cut blocked the S and wiped him out. Well executed counter to what Neb was expecting - this is another thing we've complained about: M's offense doesn't do counters. It did this here; may be the first time we've seen the veer executed like it was.

Plenty of discussion around the web about the solid RB depth that seems to be developing. Christian Turner in particular. Also, plenty of positive comments about the OL with hopefulness that what appeared to be very good pass pro and run blocking against a not terrible Nebraska D is confirmed in this week's UFR Offense.

In the passing game we also saw a lot of use of the TEs. Gentry and McKeon had 5 combined catches for 61 yards and a TD. Gentry got the TD on a 21 yard seam route in which he was wide open. Perry had 5 catches, one slant for 9 yards and 4 throws to the flats that didn't get much. All in all there were 18 throws to 11 different receivers. These 11 guys accounted for 206 yards and 2 TDs. Ronnie Belll had the longest catch - 56 yards from McCaffrey. Patterson was sharp but victimized by at least three drops of catchable long balls that I can remember - one big one by Oliver Martin in the end zone that he caught then dropped. He was 15/22 (67%). Just about his norm. The short passing game was much more evident in this game than it was in the previous 3. The only stale pass play is the throw to the flat wide. Defenses are expecting this and the LBs and Ss routinely cover this play well. Nebraska played a good deal of press man one high S. Their coverage was good to very good and one can see Patterson's accuracy fitting the ball right where it needed to be.

Lots of discussion on the web this morning about Peters. His one long ball to the end zone was short and resulted in an INT. Is he #3 right now? Is he still suffering from a knee injury as he was limping around. McCaffrey looked good. In limited action, he seems to be more inclined to keep the ball on the RPO. He had a long run on one that got called back by a holding call on Gentry. He also appears to have nice touch. Small sample size but McCaffrey looks more confident and throws a better ball than Peters. Will Peters be playing for Western or Central Michigan next season?

Defense? Yes! Very impressed with how well the defense seemed to be prepared for anything that the supposedly brilliant Scott Frost threw at them. I don't care if Martinez was hobbled. He played and he played poorly mostly becasue of the relentless pressure M's D put on him. He made a lot of Freshman mistakes. Neb's OL was unable to contend with the inside or outside rush. Gary had a very good game and I think part of that was due to scheme. We'll see in the UFR Defense. Nothing exotic, just some positional change ups that seemed to confuse Nebraska's OL blocking and protections. Bush was everywhere and if you couldn't here the hits he was delivering on TV, you could here them in the stands. Brutal. Hudson got a targeting call that resulted in his second ejection in two games. Glasgow looked competent if not as aggressive replacing him in the first half, so, that bodes well for NfW next week when Hudson will sit again for the first half. On the replays shown in the stadium - a lot of them - it did not look like he led with the helmet but the hit was late and should have been flagged. Targeting? This gets in to the widely interpreted rule depending on the crew. If I were M, I'd send video of the several hits by Nebraska players that looked like targeting to me that were not called. I believe this rule, while it is intended to protect players doesn't do that, results in the potential for game changing calls putting the game results in the hands of the referees. This is not a good situation and needs to be changed. Interpretation of PI is also widely varied depending on the crew. This crew let a lot of them go compared to last week's crew but decided to mysteriously call one on M that was bad and resulted in one of two long ball pass plays that Nebraska got credit for and should not have. Obviously didn't matter and seems to me they got the call out of sympathy - that should never happen. Fucking refs.

[Rocky Bleier]

Just watched a replay of the first half. Targeting could be called multiple times per game on running plays. Ball carrier and defender both try to get low and helmets collide all the time. I know the game was already a blowout early, but officials let two obvious PI penalties on #23 Bootle go uncalled.

[hack]

I wanted to see more drop-back prostyle passing in the second half, from the first unit. The OL had a few nice snaps doing it. Game to game improvement. More reps of that pls.

McCaffrey looked really good.

[Rocky Bleier]

The targeting call on Hudson was total bullshit. I don't care what the rule is. Put the QB in a dress.

[Detroit Dan]

The officiating was horrible.

Jeff -- Nice recap. Thanks. Also appreciate Hanni's thoughts.

Jeff-- I believe the Oliver Martin "drop" you mentioned was about the most blatant pass interference I've ever seen. That was at the end of the first half -- and not quite in the end zone. There was an equally horrible P.I. non-call in the 2nd half when Nico Collins was the intended receiver. In both cases, M receivers were about to make long receptions when their arms were grabbed before the ball arrived. The announcers even said the refs probably let it go because the game was so lopsided.

And the targeting calls are incomprehensible, which I'm guessing is because the rules are bad.

[Hannibal]

Michigan's opponents have 26 first downs by passing. And 17 by penalty. I think that we have yet to get the benefit of the doubt on a discretionary personal foul or pass interference this year.

17 first downs by penalty. Nobody else has more than 13.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Unfortunately, the hit was targeting and the ejection was legit. In this video, you can see Hudson use the crown of his helmet to contact the QB's neck region. Watch the lower part of his face mask bounce up right as Hudson makes contact and the QB falls backwards at the hit. The way to correct that is to drive lower, wrap the QB up, helmet left or right of the mid torso. Not that hard.

[Rocky Bleier]

I need a better angle to see what you described.

[Jeff Buchanan]

That's the only angle floating around out there Rocky. When I saw the replay on the big boards in the stadium, I didn't think it was even close to targeting. Looked like a late hit but a legal tackle. Targeting and an ejection? No way.

So, I'm watching GB and the Redskins. LB Clay Mathews gets a clean run and makes a huge hit on the Redskins QB. It was a form tackle. Wrapped up around the torso just below the arm pits and helmet to the side. Perfect. It was a sack becasue the QB still held the ball. He was flagged for the new helmet rule, mashing the QB into the ground or whatever they call it in the NFL. It's designed to keep QBs safe in the game. It's a decent rule in its intent, just like the targeting call is in CFB but it so widely interpreted by the refs that it has become something that enrages players and coaches. The flag on third and 12 resulted in a 15y penalty and a first down for the Redskins who were leading at the time a TD. Drive extended, touchdown and Redskins ultimately won. Game changer? Probably as GB got the ball back with only minutes left.

After the call GB HC Mike McCarthy was livid and got into the ear of the sideline refs closest to him. Mathews threw up his arms in disgust. Most players don't like the rule and have said it's turning the NFL into a flag football league where the QBs are concerned. It's a little different in CFB but these calls are game changers in many respects putting the outcome of football games too often into the hands of the referees. Safety is fine. I get it. But, this process at the pro and college level needs to be closely examined before it turns a win into a loss for teams victimized by it's subjective nature and it probably already has.

[Jeff Buchanan]

WInovich in his post game comments was very direct in saying that Frost's comments 2 years ago after he brought UCF to Ann Arbor and lost to M 51-14 or something like that, motivated them. He also said that after 1/2 way through the first quarter, he could see that in the eys of the players, they didn't want to be there. Here's what Frost actually said:

"It's hard to say when the score is what it is, but we came in here and outhit those guys today," Frost said. "Standing on the sideline, there was no doubt who was hitting harder. Our guys came in hungry and wanting to do that. It's rare you can come into Michigan and rush for 300 yards on them. They had to run a fly sweep in the fourth quarter to get to 100...

"There was no lull. We outhit them in the first half, I thought we outhit them in the second half. They've got a lot of playmakers and they made a bunch of plays. But standing on the sideline, watching the impacts and watching the collisions and watching the line move, I thought we won that battle."

You know, this was stupid to say this in public and he thought he could motivate his players and never be held accountable for these dumb public comments. Think again Frost. You are not well liked in Ann Arbor by folks who remember 1997 and you got pay-back for that and for your comments on out hitting M. Say it to your team in the locker room but make it public and you'v got bulletin board material for what happened on Saturday that you sure as hell didn't need that added to what you're already dealing with in Lincoln.

Welcome fucker, to the BIG Ten.

[iam416]

[AlabamAlum]

Frost is just three satellite camps from having the players he needs. Maybe two if he also flies them to Prague for spring practice.

[WingsFan]