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Michigan Football vs. MSU Game Balls: Monkeyectomy, Part One
Oct 29, 2016; East Lansing, MI, USA; Michigan Wolverines wide receiver Jehu Chesson (86) makes a catch in front of Michigan State Spartans safety Montae Nicholson (9) during the second half of a game against the Michigan State Spartans at Spartan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mike Carter-USA TODAY Sports
Michigan football beat Sparty to get to 8-0 and remain ranked No. 2 in the country. That makes for one monkey successfully removed. OSU is next.
It wasn’t quite the cathartic beatdown that the optimistic among us were expecting, but a 32-23 win for Michigan football in East Lansing will do just fine.
After the Sparty script worked flawlessly on their first offensive possession, Michigan won the rest of the half 27-3. Rivalry games are fickle beasts, though, and MSU kinda-sorta-but-not-really managed to make it a game in the waning moments of the fourth quarter. Given the recent history of this matchup, it seemed a lot closer than it actually was.
Michigan jumped out early against Rutgers and Illinois and put those games away by the end of the second quarter because both of those teams just kind of gave up. Michigan State—a team whose record suggests it’s on par with those two cellar-dwellers—was never going to give up Saturday, even if Mark Dantonio tried to by kicking a field goal down 12 in the second half.
A quick aside: Michigan has the best defense in the country by most all reliable metrics, but the one that could truly indicate how soul-crushingly dominant a defense is is how many field goals an opponent kicks in a 3-plus-score game in the second half. At that point, the coach is saying, “I know we can’t win, and I know going for six would result in some sort of embarrassment, so let’s take three and maybe the box score will look a little less gory.”
Off the top of my head, I can think of this happening against MSU and Penn State, two immensely satisfying surrenders.
Michigan seemed to expect them to completely fold, though, and everything from the playcalling to the tackling looked a little sloppy in the second half. Still, there’s no question that Michigan was the better team.
A road victory against a hated rival to get to 8-0? That’s good no matter the score, so we’ve got some game balls to hand out. This particular monkey is off Michigan’s back for now; it’ll have a chance to remove the other by the end of the season.
Oct 29, 2016; East Lansing, MI, USA; Michigan Wolverines wide receiver Amara Darboh (82) is tackled by Michigan State Spartans linebacker Ed Davis (43) during the first half of a game at Spartan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mike Carter-USA TODAY Sports
Amarah Darboh
Amara Darboh had his best day as a Wolverine and the best any receiver has had since Jehu Chesson last year against Indiana. He had eight catches on eight targets for 165 yards and was instrumental in keeping the offense on the field on most of its possessions.
He’s still out here, just making one handed catches like it’s nothing.
At this point, he’s Speight’s surest target, which was clear on a bootleg at the beginning of the third quarter. On third-and-2, Speight rolled out to his left as Jake Butt dragged along with him about five yards upfield, and Darboh was 10 yards behind him running the same route.
Even though Butt had a man on him it still seemed like an easy completion and enough for a first down, but Speight waited a second longer for Darboh to get over to the sideline and hit him instead.
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Darboh isn’t the first read on that play, especially on third-and-short, so it seems significant that Speight has so much confidence in Darboh that he feels comfortable in passing up a first-down throw to an All-American tight end to wait and pick up 10 more yards.
He spent most of the game just abusing the patchy Michigan State secondary. Speight was seemingly able to find Darboh every time he was in trouble, probably because Darboh was everywhere. He had catches on deep outs, dig routes, slants and broken plays. He’s probably at his best when he can get between 10 and 15 yards from the line of scrimmage and find holes in zone coverage, something he was able to do to great effect on Saturday.
Even against better teams, a couple desperation throws to Butt and Darboh—both of whom have proven they can bring in such passes—might be the difference between a win and a loss, which I’m probably too comfortable with right now because Darboh made it seem like he’ll never drop a pass again.
Oct 29, 2016; East Lansing, MI, USA; Michigan Wolverines defensive end Taco Charlton (33) rushes the passer against the Michigan State Spartans during the second half at Spartan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
Taco Charlton
It seems like Charlton is just going to own the second half of the season after his early-season injury. Michigan got blown off the ball on MSU’s first possession, but it managed to quickly gather itself after that. Charlton led the way, either by blowing up his blocker or drawing double teams.
Maurice Hurst had one of his better games of the season because because he was left in one-on-one situations (or he’d stunt to a free gap), and that’s because Charlton was demanding so much attention outside.
The pass rush was pretty good for most of the game and Charlton was in the backfield more consistently than anyone else. He can do anything he wants. If he wants to bull rush a tackle, he can; if he wants to spin inside and slip a double team, he can; if he wants to speed rush outside, he can.
Taco showing off the spin move and pressure that led to the INT #FutureSundayPlayer https://t.co/9Sf3yAaORf
— Dane Brugler (@dpbrugler) October 29, 2016
I mean, that’s just not at all fair to that poor offensive lineman (also bear in mind that Charlton is 6-foot-6, 275 pounds). He finished with four tackles (three solo) and three quarterback hurries, but—as is typical when talking about this defense—even though his numbers were good, they don’t reflect how much of an impact he actually had on the game.
Charlton was really good, is what I’m saying.
Oct 29, 2016; East Lansing, MI, USA; Michigan Wolverines linebacker Jabrill Peppers (5) rushes the ball as Michigan State Spartans cornerback Tyson Smith (15) defends during the second half at Spartan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
Jabrill Peppers
Peppers had something of a relatively uneven game. He picked up a ticky-tacky pass interference call that seemed to contribute to him having a hard time getting going early. It looked like he also got the wind knocked out of him sometime in the first half, but he predictably got everything rolling.
Despite what Brock Huard claimed during the broadcast (over and over and over again), it’s a bad idea to run right at Peppers, and he affirmed that basic fact.
He finished with seven tackles, four of them solo and two for a loss, and one sack. One of his solo tackles behind the line of scrimmage was on an MSU fourth down in the second half, ending a drive that had the Spartans getting a little too close for comfort.
He also carried the ball five times for 24 yards and a touchdown and freed up Eddie McDoom for a big gain on an option reverse that the Spartan front seven overpursued just because Peppers had the ball.
He also did this:
He returned Michigan State’s spite two point conversion for a safety to finally put an end to the game. He’s the best.
That’s one monkey off Michigan’s back, the next is waiting at the end of the regular season schedule.
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