4B — September 19, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday
THE MICHIGAN
DAILY TOP-10 POLL
2. OHIO STATE: Noah Brown
had four touchdowns. We can’t
even touch our toes.
1. ALABAMA: Nick Saban
said he didn’t need an IV after
Bama’s win over Ole Miss. Uh,
congrats?
9. WASHINGTON:
Washington is one blue field
from being a legit playoff-snub
contender.
3. LOUISVILLE: Lamar Jackson
sealed the coveted September
Heisman, joining a group that
includes Denard Robinson
(twice) and Tate Forcier.
6. STANFORD: Did you guys
know Dylan McCaffrey has a
brother?!
5. CLEMSON: Clemson won
in a blowout, but let’s see
what they can do in a full 60
minutes.
7. HOUSTON: Would you fight
Tom Herman? We wouldn’t
fight Tom Herman.
4. MICHIGAN: Paramus
Catholic University just keeps
on winning!
8. MICHIGAN STATE: Dark
Mantonio is coming, and he
feels risdespected.
10. WISCONSIN: The coaches
poll also ranked Wisconsin
10th. See? We really could be
coaches!
Each week, Daily sports staffers fill out ballots, with
first-place votes receiving 10 points, second-place
votes receiving nine and so on.
Five Things We Learned: Colorado
By JACOB GASE
Daily Sports Editor
When the Michigan football
team faced its first Power Five
opponent
of
the
season
on
Saturday
against
Colorado,
most fans probably expected
to see a few flaws emerge in
the Wolverines. Granted, they
probably didn’t expect them to
go down 14-0 and 21-7 in the
first quarter, but superior talent
prevailed in the end, as Michigan
outscored the Buffaloes, 38-7, in
the final three quarters to take a
decisive 45-28 victory.
Still,
the
fourth-ranked
Wolverines (3-0) now look like
a team with considerably more
weaknesses than it showed the
last two weeks. Michigan coach
Jim Harbaugh has said his
favorite weeks are ones where
the Wolverines win comfortably
and still have things they can
improve. This week, he’ll have
that chance again.
Here are five things we learned
from
Michigan’s
final
non-
conference game of the season.
1. Jabrill Peppers is no longer
an “almost” guy.
Redshirt
sophomore
linebacker Jabrill Peppers has
been touted as a lethal threat in
all three phases of the game since
before he arrived on campus.
And though he starred as a
safety, return man and offensive
weapon for the Wolverines in
2015, he failed to record a special
teams touchdown in his first full
collegiate season.
That weight was lifted off
Peppers’ back Saturday, when he
dodged two tacklers and took a
54-yard punt return to the house
in the fourth quarter. After a
number of potential touchdowns
came up short over the last
year — he says being tackled by
Minnesota’s punter last season
still “haunts” him — Peppers
expressed relief after the game
to no longer be considered “an
‘almost’ kind of guy.” The score
was the icing on the cake for
Peppers in a game in which he
tallied 204 all-purpose yards and
3.5 tackles for loss.
2. Michigan’s secondary is
beatable without Jourdan
Lewis.
Through
the
first
two
games without injured senior
cornerback Jourdan Lewis, the
Wolverines’ secondary looked
more than capable of making
up for his absence. But when
Colorado came to Ann Arbor
with a flock of talented receivers,
things took a turn for the worse
for Michigan’s defensive backs.
After
doing
a
great
job
protecting the deep ball against
Hawaii and Central Florida, the
Wolverines allowed a 50-yard
pass to Bryce Bobo, a 37-yard
touchdown to Devin Ross (who
scored twice) and a 70-yard
strike to Shay Fields. And it
wasn’t
one
single
Michigan
player being targeted the entire
afternoon — senior cornerback
Channing Stribling, fifth-year
senior Jeremy Clark and senior
safeties Dymonte Thomas and
Delano Hill all were beaten at
different times.
For the first time all season,
the Wolverines really missed
Lewis’ All-American presence
on the field.
3. The offensive line has plenty
of room for improvement.
After struggling to protect
the run last week against a
heavily stacked box by Central
Florida, Michigan’s offensive
line had trouble with pass
blocking this week. Redshirt
sophomore
quarterback
Wilton Speight got through
his first two games as a starter
relatively pain-free, but he was
constantly under duress in the
first quarter against Colorado.
Speight was sacked three times
and appeared rattled early on,
completing just three of his
first 12 passes and totaling just
25 yards.
He ultimately settled down,
throwing for 229 yards, a
touchdown and no interceptions
(despite a number of passes that
made contact with defenders),
but he certainly could have
benefitted from some better
pass protection.
On the flip side, the Wolverines’
run game was markedly better,
as senior running back De’Veon
Smith broke free for a 42-yard
touchdown and the backs tallied
168 yards as a group, even with
the 22 yards lost by Speight sacks.
Michigan has the talent to beat
teams even if the ground game or
passing game is neutralized, but
an improved offensive line might
help the Wolverines craft a more
balanced attack.
4. The kicking unit’s rhythm
needs fine-tuning.
After fifth-year senior Kenny
Allen had an uncharacteristically
poor game on Saturday, going
1-for-3 on field goals and booting
a few below-average punts early,
it was apparent that something
was slightly off with Michigan’s
kicking unit.
After the game, Harbaugh
pointed
to
a
slight
timing
problem, also mentioning that
redshirt junior Scott Sypniewski
might have overcompensated for
a few high snaps in warmups by
snapping the ball too low during
the game.
“Go back and look at it, but
(since last year) our operation
with the snap, hold, and the kick
has been as good as any in college
football,” Harbaugh said. “The
snap’s been over the spot, laces at
6:00, ball through the middle of
the upright on the kick.
“Today it was off. Snaps were
low, laces were at 12 (o’clock),
Kenny was hot and cold a little
bit on kicks — kickoffs and punts,
and the kicks.”
5. BOLD PREDICTION:
Peppers scores an offensive
touchdown and special teams
touchdown in the same game
this season.
Since Peppers first committed
to Michigan in 2013, he has
drawn comparisons to another
elite three-way player for the
Wolverines:
former
Heisman
Trophy winner and likely future
NFL Hall of Famer Charles
Woodson. And Saturday night,
Speight
compared
Peppers’
offensive skills to an elite runner
and return specialist, Stanford’s
Christian McCaffrey.
Now that Peppers has scored
a special teams touchdown and
played offense for the first time
this season, he could be poised
to achieve one of McCaffrey’s
biggest accomplishments: scoring
in multiple phases in the same
game. If Harbaugh uses Peppers
on offense in big games like he
did last season — and if Peppers
adopts Woodson’s flair for the
dramatic — the feat could come
against a huge rival like Michigan
State or Ohio State.
SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily
Michigan’s offensive line struggled with pass blocking Saturday’s against Colorado, allowing three sacks, including one that forced a fumble returned for a touchdown.
Stingy third-down defense lifts ‘M’
Wolverines limit
Colorado to 1-for-13
on third down
By MAX BULTMAN
Managing Sports Editor
It comes with a caveat, but
here’s Michigan’s stat of the
night,
(non-Jabrill
Peppers
division):
1-for-13.
That
was
Colorado’s
third-down
conversion rate — the only
success
was
a
meaningless
third-and-2 in the final minute
— and it’s a big reason the
fourth-ranked
Wolverines
emerged from Saturday’s game
unscathed.
Colorado
was
billed
as
Michigan’s first test of the
season, and it was. Behind the
same big-play bursts Central
Florida used to great success a
week ago, the Buffaloes built
leads of 14-0 and 21-7 in the first
quarter to put a scare into an
announced crowd of 110,042 at
Michigan Stadium.
Were it not for a blocked punt
returned for a touchdown by
sophomore wide receiver Grant
Perry, it would have been worse
at that point. And were it not
for stellar play on third downs
all game, Michigan might well
have lost.
“You always give yourself a
good chance to win when you
have stats like that,” said fifth-
year senior defensive tackle
Ryan Glasgow.
By the start of the second
quarter, the Wolverines trailed
by two touchdowns with the
Buffaloes
at
the
Michigan
17-yard line. It was a truly
compromising position, the first
the Wolverines had been in all
season. Guided by quarterback
Sefo Liufau, Colorado worked
its way down to the Michigan
11-yard line, where it faced a
2nd-and-4.
But from there, something in
the Wolverines seemed to click.
Redshirt
sophomore
Chase
Winovich and senior linebacker
Ben Gedeon combined for a sack
to set up third-and-10. Then
Peppers came flying in to stuff a
receiver for a loss.
The Buffaloes missed the
ensuing field goal, and though
Michigan did not convert on
the
ensuing
drive, it held
Colorado
scoreless
for
the rest of the
half.
A
21-7
deficit turned
into a 24-21
lead. And it
happened
because
Michigan
stopped
letting drives continue.
“When
they
say,
‘Punt
return, get ready,’ I know punt
return’s probably going to go
on the field, because the third
down conversion’s not going to
happen,” Speight said. “That
gives us a sense of pride as a
team to have the defense come
off the field on third down every
time. It makes the offense look a
lot better.”
Impossible
to
ignore
in
the
Wolverines
third-down
dominance
was
defensive
coordinator Don Brown. In 13
third-down
tries,
Michigan
tallied
two
sacks
and
a
quarterback hurry against the
Buffaloes and allowed just two
completions out of the nine
passes Colorado got off.
That
points
to
intense
quarterback
pressure,
and
Brown
is
the
man
likely
responsible.
Commonly
referred to as Dr. Blitz, he was
liberal with his prescription pad
on Saturday.
“His blitzes are something
else, let me tell ya,” Glasgow
said. “He’s got a new one every
third down, it feels like.”
But there is one caveat
to
Michigan’s
third-down
success. Trailing 14-7 and fresh
off a punt-block touchdown,
the Wolverines forced Colorado
into a 3rd-and-4. The following
play was close to a first
down, but the officials never
measured because of an offside
penalty
on
redshirt
junior
linebacker Mike McCray.
If McCray hadn’t jumped, and
Michigan had indeed stopped
the Buffaloes, it would have
been a three-and-out. Instead,
the drive went 10 plays for 67
yards and a touchdown.
The
Wolverines
are
fortunate
that it didn’t
matter
Saturday.
They got the
job done on 12
of the other 13
third
downs
and
escaped
with a sound,
if not comfortable, win.
There are just a few likely
blowouts left on Michigan’s
schedule, and that’s why a
dialogue that Glasgow said
developed
on
the
sideline
Saturday is so crucial to the
Wolverines
success
going
forward.
“You stop ‘em, we’ll score,”
Glasgow said the offense would
tell the defense.
“You score,” the defense
would respond, “We’ll stop
‘em.”
FOOTBALL
BY THE NUMBERS
Michigan Defense
7.7%
Colorado’s third-down conversion
percentage against Michigan’s defense
Saturday in the Wolverines’ 45-28 win
52.9%
Buffaloes’ completion percentage (18-
for-34 for 261 yards)
1.9
Colorado’s rushing average (64 yards
on 33 carries)
4
Michigan sacks against Colorado
(coming from six different players)
“His blitzes are
something else,
let me tell ya.”