Michigan Monday: A Sign Of The Times

The Wolverines moved to 8-0 on the season with a never-in-doubt 49-0 win in East Lansing over Michigan State. The Spartans now move to 2-5 on the season and 0-4 in conference play.

In a week where the entire Michigan football program was under the microscope for the alleged actions of one rogue staffer who acted completely alone and without any direction from anybody above him and who certainly wasn’t hired to do precisely what his LinkedIn profile said he specialized in and definitely didn’t have a cozy spot on the sideline for any sign-theft-suggesting reasons prior to Saturday, Jim Harbaugh’s program heroically and defiantly put all of that behind them and showed everyone why those jealousy-laden allegations are a bunch of skunk-house bunk that may have merited a leave of absence for the alleged rogue actor but certainly don’t merit any further scrutiny, especially when the investigators see what a certain laptop that definitely wasn’t wiped has to say about it.

“The only thing on this computer is a Google search on how to send flowers to a nursing home. What a sweetheart. Cut him loose, boys”

Obviously, what these wild accusations lack in proof, they make up for in hollow fiction and harmful diction. But thankfully Saturday’s game put it all to bed like whiskey in a baby bottle.

The arguments from the Michigan side of things are impenetrable.

“We don’t steal signs, and this game was proof because we didn’t even have our sign-stealing guy there this time.”

And those people are possibly correct.

You don’t just go into Spartan Stadium and beat Michigan State by multiple scores without a supremely talented football team. Only Minnesota, Maryland, and Washington have been able to do that over MSU’s previous six home games against Power 5 opponents.

Hell, Indiana couldn’t do it. They only won in East Lansing by eight points last year.

If that’s not closing the case on this sign stealing thing, I don’t know what is.

Besides, “everybody does it.”

Except for Michigan, of course.

When Michigan Was On Offense

Now that that’s out of my system, let’s talk about the actual game.

It is starting to look like the Heisman Trophy may be decided in Ann Arbor on November 25.

I need to take a moment and amend something I’ve said in the past. Previously, I’ve stated that JJ McCarthy is the closest thing east of the Rockies to USC quarterback Caleb Williams. But the more accurate statement right now is that Caleb Williams may be the closest thing west of the Rockies to JJ McCarthy. Though Oregon’s Bo Nix may have an argument to that second-hand crown.

McCarthy completed 21-of-27 passes for 287 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions. He threw one pass in the second half, which was an 11-yard touchdown to tight end AJ Barner.

McCarthy is at his deadliest on the move, but he was JJ Wick in the pocket as well.

Inside the pocket, McCarthy was 16-of-22 for 204 yards and two touchdowns. Outside the pocket, he was 5-of-5 for 83 yards and two scores.

Normally, I’d say if you can keep him from making plays outside the pocket, you increase your chances of slowing him down. This game was an argument against that. But it was also further proof that when McCarthy gets outside the pocket, his range of causing problems goes from Localized Annoyance to Neighborhood Menace.

Michigan unleased the full power of their 12 personnel passing attack. Tight ends Colston Loveland and AJ Barner were frequently on the field together on passing downs, and McCarthy found them often. Barner caught eight passes for 99 yards and a touchdown. Loveland scored twice on his four receptions for 79 yards.

JJ McCarthy is fourth on his own team in number of pass attempts in the fourth quarter. He has just four throws in the fourth quarter this year, placing him 28th in the Big Ten in that category.

I know Jim Harbaugh would like to see this team face some adversity before they face some adversity, but it’s just not going to happen with as good as Michigan is and as bad as this schedule is.

Despite the lacking schedule, the Wolverine running game was the same unimpressive self it’s been just about every week this season.

Michigan rushed for 120 yards on 36 carries (3.5 ypc), with a long rush of 17 yards. Blake Corum was responsible for the 17-yarder, finishing with 59 yards rushing on 15 attempts. Donovan Edwards rushed for 14 yards on six carries.

Only one of Corum’s 15 attempts went over 5 yards.

When Washington played Michigan State a month ago, they rushed for 57 more yards than the Wolverines on one fewer carries. Maryland averaged 4.5 yards per carry against the Spartans, compared to UM’s 3.5 yards per carry.

But when you have somebody like JJ McCarthy who always has enough in his wallet to bail you out, you can get away with a lackluster running game. Just ask Ohio State by way of Marvin Harrison, Jr.

When Michigan Was On Defense

Michigan shut out a Big Ten opponent for the first time since 2019 when they blanked Rutgers 52-0.

Michigan State rushed for 49 yards on 29 carries (1.7 ypc), and two Spartan quarterbacks combined to pass for 133 yards on 16-of-29 attempts. They were sacked three times and threw a pair of interceptions. One of those interceptions was returned by Mike Sainristil for a 72-yard pick six down the sideline.

The Wolverines now have more pick sixes (4) than touchdown passes allowed (3).

That’s an impressive stat, but it’s made less impressive by the quarterbacks throwing those passes.

Here are the Big Ten leaders in pass efficiency. The quarterbacks that Michigan has faced are in the red box. Not pictured are the two MSU quarterbacks they faced on Saturday. Neither of whom have enough attempts to qualify for the leaderboard because they have been Michigan State’s Nos. 2 and 3 QBs most of the season.

The Wolverine defense has not suffered foolish quarterbacks this season. If you’re going to bring a bad product to the game, they’re going to leave a bad review.

“Product did not work as advertised. Now is broken. Customer service has been no help.”

The Wolverine defense has been incredible this season, and it can’t all just be stolen signals. We must also give credit to the terrible offenses they’ve played.

That may be a cheap shot, but it doesn’t make it wrong.

The ease of Michigan’s schedule is a weekly topic here because it has to be. The Wolverines are off this week, and as far as I can tell, the five touchdowns that Michigan has allowed through October are the fewest since at least 2009. I’d go back further and look, but that’s all the further back CFBStats.com goes.

So either this is one of the three or four best defenses in college football over the past 15 seasons, or they’ve been gifted a very easy road.

What does that road look like? Well, here is where their eight opponents would rank nationally in total offense with their respective performances against Michigan taken out of the equation. And no, asking for the yards per play or some analytical number isn’t going to suddenly make these offenses look formidable.

Rank	YPG	Team
128	283.8	East Carolina
19	458.3	UNLV
118	315.4	Bowling Green
103	337.1	Rutgers
106	332.8	Nebraska
113	325.0	Minnesota
113	325.0	Indiana
95	350.3	Michigan State

Michigan’s defense is Kramer in karate class right now.

Sure, the Wolverines may be bigger and older than their competition, but they’re all playing at the same skill level, Jerry!

Having said all of that, I will also say there is no reason to think that this defense can’t win it all. They are doing precisely what a great defense should be doing against some of the nation’s absolute worst offenses.

It’s just too bad that we can’t see what they look like against somebody who actually knows how to offense.

The Michigan Special Teams

Michigan had so little respect for Michigan State that Wolverine receiver Semaj Morgan took the opening kickoff out from four yards deep in the end zone. The instructions before the game were probably something along the lines of, “If it feels crazy, do it. What’s the worst that can happen? We only win by 42?”

The return went for 16 yards. Nothing else of merit happened in the return game. Punter Tommy Doman averaged 46.8 yards per kick on his four punts — with no returns, and six of his eight kickoffs went for touchbacks.

What Does It All Mean

It means that the Wolverines are national title contenders. And possibly favorites.

In JJ McCarthy, they have a Jenga wizard at quarterback who can have everything stacked against him, but still finds a move to stay alive. And he has the playmakers around him who know how to work with that kind of creativity.

Defensively, it may not matter that they have not yet been tested because there may not be any truly great offenses out there this year. Certainly nobody has proved unstoppable to this point.

Still, the last time this team had their backs against the wall, they failed. It would be good for them to be stressed at some point this season, just so they can be reminded of what it feels like and how to get through it.

It also means that this is Michigan’s off week, and the off week will be the Wolverines’ toughest opponent of the season.

Why toughest?

Because if there’s no opponent, there are no signs to steal.

The Road To The Game

Sept 2 – Michigan 30 – East Carolina 3
Sept 9 – Michigan 35 – UNLV 7
Sept 16 – Michigan 31 – Bowling Green 6
Sept 23 – Michigan 31 – Rutgers 7
Sept 30 – Michigan 45 – Nebraska 7
Oct 7 – Michigan 52 – Minnesota 10
Oct 14 – Michigan 52 – Indiana 7
Oct 21 – Michigan 49 – Michigan State 0
Oct 28 OPEN
Nov 4 – Purdue
Nov 11 – at Penn State
Nov 18 – at Maryland
Nov 25 – Ohio State

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