I haven't posted about Michigan in a while because, frankly, the Harbaugh Mania was a little strong for me. About 99% of it had absolutely nothing to do with football, and most of it was really ridiculous. I was excited as the next guy about Harbaugh coming to Ann Arbor to coach Michigan, but that didn't make me want to write about how he once put Gatorade on his cereal or what crazy thing he said in his Twitter feed. So I decided to wait until I had actual FOOTBALL to talk about before I posted anything Michigan-related.
Last night's game in Utah was a tough matchup. Utah beat Michigan soundly in Ann Arbor last year. The Harbaugh Effect was supposed to help (last year's team was a disaster), but there were plenty of built in excuses. Utah is at a high altitude, giving the home team an extra advantage. Utah is a good team, and Harbaugh was bringing along a LOT of new people. I HOPED Michigan would win, but I didn't really expect much and Michigan delivered on that expectation... not much.
The quarterback play was pretty mediocre, and that might be a generous assessment. On one hand, Jake Rudock seemed to have all the throws you need to be successful in this offense. At times he looked very crisp. He had a couple of passes for a first down that were tight and perfectly placed, and the TD pass to TE Jake Butt was a thing of beauty. At other times he was inaccurate and made bad decisions. The obvious thing to point out would be Rudock's 3 picks, which absolutely killed Michigan's chances in this game. I could excuse the first INT as a miscommunication. Rudock thought the receiver was going to run an out and instead he ran a stop. Whoops. The second INT was a bad throw. BAD. The third was a telegraphed 5-yard out to the sidelines, which is a pass that gets the opposing DB so slobbery-excited that they drop the pick half the time. He didn't though, and took it to the house. Bad decision on Rudock's part. The worst throw that wasn't a pick was probably a Tebow-esque "jump pass" that Rudock put at his RB's feet from about 10 yards away. While Tebow's version was successful, "Tebow-esque" isn't a made-up adjective that I'd like associated with my QB. He also missed badly on a couple of easy deep passes, either of which would have flipped Michigan's fortunes in this one.
I was actually encouraged by what I saw from Rudock. While I expected him to be better overall, he showed flashes of a greater ability. If he can clean up the mistakes, he could be pretty good. That's a big "if", but I think we probably saw a BAD game from Rudock, not a TYPICAL game.
There was much to be desired from the running game/offensive line. Michigan struggled to get anything going on the ground. Either the hole was non-existent, or the RB wasn't making the right reads. This will have to get better if Michigan wants to make a bowl this year. I would say that the pass-blocking was a bit better than it was last year, when Gardner had until about 2-Mississippi before he was running for his life. They only gave up 1 sack, and Rudock usually had enough time to get a throw off. Still, the LT had trouble maintaining his block at times, and there was pressure up the middle that caused several of Rudock's passes to be released earlier than he would've liked. Only 1 sack, but he took some hits.
This is the part of the game that concerns me the most. The line was by far the team's weakest point last year. It probably isn't anymore, but that run game HAS to get better and the pass protection is going to totally dissolve against MSU & OSU if it doesn't improve.
The defense was solid, but not spectacular. Well, PARTS of the defense were spectacular. Jabrill Peppers looks every bit as good as advertised. Chris Wormley and Mario Ojemudia looked good in spots as well. As a unit they weren't totally cohesive and missed some tackles, but I liked how they sniffed out the screen passes, and they might've had another sack or 2 if the opposing QB hadn't been a frickin' giant. They did manage to get a pick (I don't remember that happening, to be honest), but the coverage was iffy most of the game. Utah moved the ball with relative ease. They only gave up 17 points on D, but if Utah had converted their 2 missed FGS it would've been a less respectable 23 points instead.
The defense will be okay. It won't be a classic Michigan defense that crushes its enemies, sees them driven before it, and hears the lamentation of their women, but it'll be okay. Overall, Michigan looked like a middle-of-the-road team. Not really good, not really bad. They'll have more growing pains at first than the class of the Big Ten, which makes them a little hard to evaluate. A lot depends on the QB. If this was just Rudock stumbling a bit out of the gate, it's not a big deal. They might win 8 or 9 games. If Rudock continues to stumble and that running game never comes around, they'll be lucky to win 6.
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