Upon Further Review 2017: Defense vs Rutgers

SPONSOR NOTE. Boy it's a little depressing to play a team that brings nothing other than disinterested New Yorkers who mostly spend their time watching Guy Fieri instead of football. Rutgers purports to be an athletic program but it's really just a way to reach into someone's pockets. Unlike HomeSure Lending, which does exactly what it purports to: sure, lend for homes. It's in the name and everything. Like if Rutgers's mascot really was the Cable Subscribers.

That's truth in advertising, and quick excellent rates for you, the discerning Michigan fan.

FORMATION NOTES. Michigan almost entirely shelved the 3-3-5 in this game. There were nine snaps with a three-man line, but eight of those were passing downs. The rest of the day Michigan played a 4-2-5. Usually that saw Michigan with two definite ILBs and Hudson following the tight end around, often a couple yards deeper than the LB crew:

You will be happy to know that Michigan did not put either ILB outside in coverage. When someone got pulled out of the box it was always Hudson. Here Rutgers puts their tight end out wide and he's the guy in man coverage to the bottom of the shot.

Rutgers didn't go empty, which would force one of the LBs out of the box if Michigan was going to play man.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES. Biggest change was a ton of second DT snaps, the vast majority of which went to Solomon. Michigan had 38 4-2-5 snaps and he got 30 of them, with Dwumfour getting five late and Mone getting just spot duty. The rest of the defense was as before, with the secondary the same five guys rotating through, McCray and Bush omnipresent, and Hurst, Gary, and Winovich the rest of the front.

Kemp, Jones, Dwumfour, and Paye got some snaps late on the line. Uche got in a little bit late, as did Gil.

[After THE JUMP: the usual]

Well, this again.

Yep. Blasting of an overmatched opponent. This UFR is short because Rutgers had relatively few plays and most of the stuff I have to say is the same stuff I've said about three or four opponents already. This time the opponent got 14 points because virtually all their yards came on two drives.

Drives:

• 5 three-and-outs.
• 3 first-down-ish and out.
• 75 yard TD drive that's mostly the long Grant run.
• 11 play, 75 yard TD drive.

Rutgers looked about like what we expected going in, unable to block Michigan's front but in possession of Janarion Grant and a burly De'Veon Smith-esque back.

This wasn't playing Penn State.

Nope, although Rutgers tried a fair amount of the same stuff, including wildcat with Janarion Grant, that same speed option off a counter step, and corner routes to the slot receiver. With two notable exceptions, those attempts to replicate the evisceration in Happy Valley did not come off.

I guess we're back to OH NO WHAT HAPPENED THAT ONE TIME, then.

Two times in this game, but yeah. The first Rutgers touchdown was mostly Bush going the wrong way.

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There is action that way but Michigan and McCray have it covered. Gary also contributes there by getting sealed away too easily, and then Kinnel is in no position to respond since he's booking it outside when Hudson has successfully become the force guy. Rutgers would return to this later and Bush had corrected the mistake, flowing to the QB side. Ball didn't get to him; error was repaired.

The legitimate touchdown drive by Rutgers featured a third and 15 conversion where Gary got around the corner instantly and the QB hurled up what looked like a prayer and turned into a perfect back-shoulder throw to his tight end, with Furbush in decent-for-a-LB-dropping-out-of-a-pass-rush position:

Rutgers then ground out another first down on three consecutive four-yard runs and got another 21-yard chunk on a spectacular one-handed catch vs Kinnel. Once in the redzone they got down to the three with the same misdirection screen MSU scored on and Gus Edwards bulled it in from there. That's a good drive; Rutgers made a couple of very unlikely plays to get 50 of their yards there. Tip of the cap; doesn't say much about the defense other than it's comprised of mortals. And Mo Hurst.

Did he...?

No, Hurst didn't have enough time on the field or enough time to get to the passer to rack up truly silly stats. He did thunderously sack on the first play—something my copy of the tape only had a field-level replay of, apologies to Hurst absurdity collectors—and continued to be Mo Hurst, but to get a +30 or whatever you have to be a top ten pick and catch a bunch of breaks.

Still, the...

I guess we can have two RICK THE CHARTS this week

...chart is more or less what you'd expect.

ONCE AGAIN RICK, THE CHART

They're back. Hurst was "just" +16.5. We almost had the first cornerback shutout in UFR history, but Hill picked up a half point in the fourth quarter. Teams are avoiding Michigan CBs at all costs.

Other bits of note: that pressure number, that Gary number, and up-and-down days for Bush and Kinnel.

That Gary number though. Comin'?

The headline news from another walkover of an overmatched offense was Rashan Gary's continued emergence into a terror. The Rutgers right tackle is probably bad but he had zero shot at containing him. This was the whole day for poor damn Rutgers RT:

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Dude had no chance on basically every rush. This is a cut block on what's supposed to be a quick slant that's mostly interesting as a demonstration of Gary's raw speed:

Rutgers only had three pressure minuses all day, largely because this kind of stuff kept happening.

Gary also blew by Rutgers's left tackle, who's supposed to be an NFL prospect, on a number of occasions. I'm dubious of that and his numbers since the Rutgers passing game is a dink production, but he must be half-decent. Gary made him look silly before another one of his almost-sacks:

I think we can expect this going forward against the bottom-feeders in the league; next step is seeing him translate it to the Wisconsins and Ohio States of the world.

Winovich also chipped in his usual relentlessness. He would have had a thunderous edge rush sack if his guy hadn't tackled him, and this thunk from behind is a very Chase Winovich play:

As the man himself said, his name is "Chase." Like Gary he was going through the right tackle like a knife through butter.

How did Solomon do in his first extended playing time?

He was Brandon Peters on defense: good-ish, not amazing, clearly promising. He's not blasting guys like Hurst or teleporting into the backfield. The things he did were more prosaic. But still good. Here he takes a double well and is able to come off of it when one of his blockers leaves for the LB level:

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This did get a +2 as he blows through a backside guard and gets a TFL with help from Hurst's usual play:

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He had the occasional freshman dorf, as you'd expect. Here he ends up in the same gap as Bush, allowing Rutgers to convert on a play that is otherwise destined to end up in Mo Hurst's belly.

#5 DT to bottom

He didn't have a ton of impact; when not making mental errors he was there physically. Freshmen DTs rarely aspire to anything better.

FWIW, Mone had a few nice plays in scanty snaps. I don't think he's out of the picture just yet. Solomon getting the lion's share of the playing time has to be a wake up call.

Are we dialing back the Bush hype a bit here?

I mean, not really. He's made a number of errors the past couple weeks because he's being exposed to stuff he hasn't seen before and getting bitten on misdirection. That will happen to a new starter, especially one that hasn't seen a ton of spread stuff in practice. Bush isn't repeating his mistakes, and that's more important than what happens the first time.

When Bush's head is on straight he remains the definition of a sideline to sideline linebacker. Rutgers tried to edge him a couple times and that wasn't happening. This OL has no shot at getting to Bush before he reads and flows here:

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And now that he's had that speed option drilled into his head it, too, is a dead play.

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Ditto the misdirection screen, at least for Bush. As he's reading the backfield action he gets plowed by a tight end (which is legal since the throw is behind the LOS); he gets off that and then slaloms through two OL leading out to initiate a tackle after four yards. This is asking everything from your MLB:

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Michigan was in an RPS hole on that play and Bush about rescued it if he could just have gotten some more help from Metellus on the tackle.

Since he's not the biggest linebacker in the world he usually needs a head of steam if he's going to win a block against a free releasing OL, but even when he finds himself in a tough situation he usually does well with it. The first Rutgers play breaks outside the tackles and he gets a blocker but he's able to bring enough force to hit his opponent and get around that block to tackle.

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The result there isn't ideal but that's more about the players around him than his part in the play. Kinnel in particular comes up and just runs by the play. If he delivers a pop there that's probably four yards.

Bush did have some trouble with Gus Edwards, who is a hoss. You youngin's don't know the significance with which I apply this term, but thanks to Dr Sap you can get an inkling:

Edwards is a dump truck of a back who ran through a Mike McCray tackle, and that's barely ever happened. Bush also had his issues trying to stall him out.

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That's a weakness if Michigan runs up against a dump truck type. I don't think there's one on the schedule. Wisconsin's Jonathan Taylor has been impressive this year but he's not the kind of 235-pound brick Edwards is. Maybe Minnesota's Rodney Smith this weekend. But probably not.

*Weekly owlish glances at Kinnel*?

That's not a question

Time for *weekly owlish glances at Kinnel*?

Kinnel, by virtue of being a not-at-all-boring safety, has come in for extensive discussion in this space the last couple weeks and that's not changing this week. He did well on the two plays he was most visible on—the two corner routes. He was victimized by a one-handed catch on the first, but I don't know how you can criticize this coverage:

That's a dead on throw and Kinnel's eliminated one of the WR's arms. If he can do that he gets a gold star and Kinnel still gets a plus. The incompletion was actually dodgier but Kinnel has his hand in the WR's stomach and that gives him a platform to rake the ball out, which he does:

Penn State made those corner routes look easier than they are.

Unfortunately Kinnel had a couple of plays on which he gave those positives back. Michigan got away with one. Janarion Grant is screaming "ya burnt son!" as he runs downfield here, but he arcs his route back outside and away from the ball:

That was damn near a 14-7 deficit and a long indigestion-filled day, because Michigan did not get away with the other one. That is the Grant touchdown described above; he booked it for the sideline and couldn't even get a tackle attempt in. He was not primarily responsible but he coulda should held that to 20.

On the other hand, Hudson? I didn't notice him doing anything?

Hudson didn't seem like he had a ton to do t since he was mostly following around a TE who didn't get targeted much, but when I added the numbers up he'd put up one of the better days of his season. This was a nice play. He has to take on a lead block and does so productively. Edwards spins out of the tackle but he's done his job:

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Rutgers sees zone and motions into a situation where Hudson is the other LB in the box and Hudson holds up. That's begging to be RPS minused if Hudson gets blasted; instead, that.

He also managed to not get picked on this incompletion that wasn't going to be much either way:

#7 S on TE in slot

And on a third quarter wildcat run he was able to jet up on the corner and get Grant on the ground in space.

#7 LB/S to bottom

I did find it a bit baffling that on the next drive Michigan was faced with a third and two and Hudson did not execute a similar jet upfield. Instead he sat fairly motionless for too long and the Rutgers back had an easy bounce read that picked it up. Given how hossy this guy was Hudson would have had to fire hard and get lucky to stop this. No resistance at all was disappointing.

That was about the only negative I had for him, though. Hudson has not been a spectacular wrecker of worlds this year, but a large part of that is Bush doing most of that lifting himself. When he does blitz he gets very good results, as he did against PSU. Those blitzes come with a McCray-in-coverage cost, though, and so Hudson's been limited to being a consistent, somewhat boring presence. We'll see if his impact plays pick up next year if someone like Jordan Anthony draws into the lineup.

Anything... else?

Not really. Rutgers was a 3-wide spread and Michigan played a ton of man; Rutgers couldn't protect at all or run unless Michigan busted or their hossback was hossin' out four yards after contact. It was the same approach Michigan's had all season with the same level of success.

Heroes?

Hurst, Winovich, and Gary were all dominant. The cornerbacks get a nod here for being so terrifying one does not throw at them ever except sort of once. Hudson had a nice day.

Maybe not so heroic?

Nobody really; Kinnel did have a couple of large-seeming errors. Bush vacated his spot on the big play and got away with another missed read, but made up for that with the rest of his play.

What does it mean for Minnesota and the future?

The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to shut out some rubes. Seriously, the Minnesota game is going to look exactly like this.

Not much else. We know how this story plays out against the Rutgerses.

Solomon throws his hat in the ring. Michigan has three options for DL-ish person #4 right now: Mone, Furbush, and now Solomon. Solomon's audition was intermittently promising and could be a useful item in the future; I will not be surprised if the other two guys get more run going forward. He was okay.

Bush is vulnerable because he runs at things he hasn't seen before sometimes. As he adds more stuff to his database he will do this less often. His track record with things he's seen before is excellent; lest we forget, true sophomore.

Gary is getting there. This RT was terrible, but it's another game where he looks unblockable.