Michigan Football, Team 138, 2017 Season.

[froot loops]

Just to make a note, offensive lines in college are rarely stable. Patchwork is the norm more often than not. Good recruits are great and you want them, but in any season you may have to make it with backups, third stringers or guys out of position.

It is also important to note, big guys are generally late developers and when they are in high school, they can dominate opposition through sheer size.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I'm not sure what "statistically decent" means, but Rutgers run defense is bad.........I'll brook none of this "Rutgers isn't bad" crap. Maybe relative to their historically unfathomable terribleness in 2016, but in absolute terms -- CRAP.

Yeah ..... I didn't mean to oversell M's rushing performance v. Rutgers in 2017. I did try to temper my enthusiasm. The biggest point I wanted to make and I think I made it is that M's run game is way better in game 7 than it has been going back to the start of the season. There actually is an identity to it.

And, you're right about the relative crappiness of Rutger's rushing D. But 334 and fucking "boulevards" for running backs to run on is a damn site better than just about every rushing performance M has put on in 2017. I could list them but we both know it has sucked ass. Give me a small break here.

BTW, M had 600+ rushing yards v. Rutgers in 2017. Give Chris Ash the credit he is due.

Hello .....

[Jeff Buchanan]

Just to make a note, offensive lines in college are rarely stable. Patchwork is the norm more often than not. Good recruits are great and you want them, but in any season you may have to make it with backups, third stringers or guys out of position.

It is also important to note, big guys are generally late developers and when they are in high school, they can dominate opposition through sheer size.

Agree with your first point. My point is that it's taken 7 games with this patch-work group to make M's OL appear to be good (we'll see how good going forward).

I don't know how that compares in relative terms to say, Wisconsin that always seems to have huge road grading OL's .... but then again the Badgers have some serious continuity in getting to where they've gotten with thier run game. I mean like maybe 25 years going back to Barry Alvarez. Wisconsin is still running the same offense from a running game perspective that Ron Dayne played in.

That was another point I was trying to make. Continuity in offensive styles and coaching technique seems to me to be really important.

On the big men comment ..... Onwenu is a perfect example of that dictum. He's actually matured in that regard really quickly. I'd use him as maybe the best example of decent coaching that a lot of M fans haven't seen and instead bitch about. Note ..... I am a homer.

[Tom W]

Tom W, ??? They went nuts when Peters came in, and I thought O'Korn may have been a bit embarrassed by that.

Legumes, maybe, at least from my perspective in the south end. But hey, the acoustics have sucked big time since the latest renovation. There's been plenty of crappy play to get pissed about over the last decade, and in the grand scheme of things, and this one is rather far down the list.

That's not to say that O'Korn's pride didn't take a hit.. But sorry .. He had his chance and nobody can question the guy's toughness or character. He'll do quite well for himself- just not in the NFL.

[hack]

I was feeling for O'Korn too but the reality is that these guys know the deal going in. Better be prepared for it. No harm in JH going over and giving him a pat on the back, but no need for a participation trophy either.

[Jeff Buchanan]

.........I'll brook none of this "Rutgers isn't bad" crap. Maybe relative to their historically unfathomable terribleness in 2016, but in absolute terms -- CRAP.

Well, get to "brooking" then.

I'm not the only one working to put lipstick on the pig THAT WAS Michigan's run game. Here's Brian's fast take:

A hamblasting. Rutgers's rush defense has a pulse this year. They've held most opponents under the national average of 5.1 sack-adjusted YPC, with one notable exception and one weird one:

Washington: 4.3 YPC
EMU: 3.8 YPC
OSU: 8.6 YPC
Nebraska: 4.5 YPC
Illinois: 3.5 YPC
Purdue: 6.8 YPC

It's not great but neither is it last year's 95th-ranked outfit. So Michigan putting it on these guys is legitimately encouraging, especially given the context. Michigan had 13 yards passing a third of the way through the game when O'Korn was replaced and ran almost three-quarters of the time even when Peters was in.

To average 7.6 YPC* given the above helps redeem all the stuff I've been saying the past few weeks about the run blocking's improvement. There were far fewer One Guy plays, and many of the Zero Guy plays featured Michigan blockers hammering their opposition. On a rewatch of the game I saw McKeon, Onwenu, Cole, JBB, Bredeson, Mason, Hill, and Wheatley all rack up dominating blocks that'll probably end up being +2s in UFR. There are probably some others lurking out there as well.

A game against Rutgers isn't proof of anything but I do think Michigan's been building to this and should continue on more in this vein than the rough first half of the season. Michigan has two more weeks of iffy run defenses remaining before the stretch double-header against Wisconsin and Ohio State. Prior to this weekend Minnesota and Maryland were 89th and 50th, respectively, in S&P+ rush defense. If Michigan can approach what they did in this game the next two weeks you could maybe have some optimism heading into Madison.

Pretty much what I said but with better data ....... look, I'm taking credit for being right, FOR ONCE, in a 1 v. 1 with you on football.

[iam416]

M's run game has a pulse, and I'll gladly concede it's better than that of Nebraska, Illinois and EMU. I mean, I watched UNL play OSU and there was pretty much no chance of them running the ball. And last week against Purdue they went for 40 on 27 carries. So, yeah, that 127 on 27 carries or whatever it was against Rutgers sort of actually suggests Rutgers defense stinks.

Rutgers defense is still not good. To wit, their most recent game Purdue gashed them.

Ohio State probably could have rushed for 500 yards, but it was also way too easy to pass against them, so JTB hogged up some of the yardage.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Who asked ya?

[iam416]

You did.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Shit. Gotta stop asking retarded people shit...

[SeattleLionsFan]

It was weird that once they brought in Peters it seemed lime that offensive line turned into road graders. It is similar to a basketball or hockey team playing a lot better after the coach is fired.

The OLine played really well (Rutgers!) after Peters came in, but it did well with OKorn too. They did have one TD drive that they didn't complete a pass.

FWIW, I got the sense that the team had given up on OKorn and thought that they were no longer trying their best to win.

[hack]

As they had with Speight, too.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Coaches and even players say they are all in for whoever is under center ...... but they know. They see the same thing coaches see in practice. They're not stupid. Maybe not as experienced in fleshing out who does what and does it well but they know.

As fans, we have to be careful about making observations about this. But yeah, the effort by a couple of the backs on individual plays was notably upped. Receivers, like Evans on the wheel route, seemed to work for the reception.

I dunno ..... looked to me like the players knew Peters should be playing and wanted to make sure they proved their point by putting in a little bit extra to make the play. This kinda stuff is difficult to judge but I saw it.

Some have pointed out that O'Korn got the same support when he came in after Sp-8 went down. Personally, I didn't see that. I just saw a new guy playing against a defense that had no video on him and didn't know quite what to do so, he looked good ..... that was very short lived. O'Korn is O'korn sad to say. A guy that got benched at Houston and transferred.

To be sure, we need to see Peters after there's some video on him to help Minny's and Maryland's DCs decide how they're going to play him. If he continues to do well, make plays and lead the offense to scores, then we'll know. I'm waiting a couple of games before I anoint him as good.

[SeattleLionsFan]

Good take.

[hack]

My how I want to though. Some of those throws were such a nice change from O'Korn and Speight. But it's true. Stay calm.