Michigan Football vs Colorado: 3 Game Balls for the Wolverines

The Michigan football team got all it could handle early on against Colorado, but rallied for a 45-28 win. Here are the game balls for the Wolverines following their come-from-behind victory.

Well, that was . . . something. After falling behind 21-7 in the first quarter Saturday, Michigan football was slowly able to wrestle away control of the game from a Colorado squad that came out of the tunnel with their hair on fire to win 45-28.

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It seemed like Don Brown had no idea how to blitz against the spread without telegraphing exactly which players would be charging and which would be dropping back into coverage. Colorado QB Sefo Liufau was able to pick apart the defense with a steady mix of slants and seam routes up the middle. The safeties and linebackers got exposed in a big way today, and that’s going to be a problem moving forward. Brown did make adjustments, though, and his defense choked the CU offense out from about halfway through the second quarter on. That much was encouraging.

The offense, on the other hand, had a more difficult time finding a rhythm. Wilton Speight finished 16/30 for 229 yards and a touchdown on a screen to Amarah Darboh. He looked out of sorts after he took a shot to his shoulder on a fumble, so hopefully his struggles were due to him being a little banged up because his throws looked rough for most of the game.

Speight showed flashes but in general he was late on throws, tentative, and either sailed or severely underthrew balls. Most of his production came in the form of checkdowns or drag routes to Jake Butt. His offensive line didn’t do him any favors, either.

It wasn’t pretty, to be sure, but it was still a win, so there are game balls to hand out.

Jabrill Peppers

Peppers had 24 yards on the ground, 81 yards returning kicks, 99 yards and a touchdown returning punts, 9 tackles (six for a loss), and a sack. Michigan football went with what I’m just gonna call the ‘LeBron Game Plan’ from now on: when the Cavaliers get in trouble, they just let LeBron work. When Michigan got into trouble today, they just let Peppers work.

Down 21-7, he made his first appearance on offense this season and immediately picked up a first down. He put the offense in Colorado territory every time he returned a punt. He was able to freelance enough to completely blow up a couple screens and create chaos in the backfield on five or seven yard drops.

He was everywhere and impacted the game in every way possible. Football players shouldn’t be able to do that. That happens in basketball because there are only ten players on the court (which is a third of the size of a football field), and everyone plays both sides of the ball. He’s a freak, is what I’m saying, and if it weren’t for him, this game could have been a lot uglier. You know a guy is good if your reaction to a 55 yard punt return touchdown through traffic is “well, that makes sense”:

Shane Morris, Blocking QB

I couldn’t find video of it because it was just a seven yard sweep, but Shane Morris came into the game with Jabrill Peppers and, after handing him the ball, served as Peppers’ lead blocker. Just to make sure this is clear, Shane Morris came into the game as a quarterback for the sole purpose of handing the ball off to and then clearing a lane for a linebacker.

This is my new favorite play.

It was only a seven yard gain, but I don’t even care. Totally worth a game ball. I don’t even have that much to say, other than the fact that Shane Morris came into the game as a quarterback for the sole purpose of handing the ball off to and then clearing a lane for a linebacker. 

Never change, Coach Harbaugh, never change.

Rashan Gary

Rashan Gary had himself a hell of a game. He had 1.5 tackles for loss, a couple solo quarterback hurries, and generally stayed on his assignments and defended the run well. We saw flashes in the first two weeks of Gary’s strength and athleticism, but he was still blowing assignments and getting lost on some plays. Not so today.

The tide of the game turned behind the defensive line. The safeties and linebackers were still late on coverages and blowing assignments late into the game, but the line snapped out of their haze in the second quarter and tormented Liufau and backup Steven Montez for the rest of they day, finally slowing the CU offense down.

Chris Wormley, Mo Hurst, and Ryan Glasgow all ended up having good games, but Gary stood out today. The big guys in the trenches are always going to get worn out or marginalized against teams that attack the edges the way Colorado does, but Gary was able to get out beyond the hashes pretty consistently.

There was an otherwise inconsequential sweep play in the third quarter that really showed how insanely athletic Gary is. Peppers blitzed up the A Gap and ran right past the running back, and as he turned to pursue him he came pretty much equal with Gary, who had broken through the line by the time they both started to run toward the ball. Gary reached the runner first.

Next: Top 10 Michigan Running Backs of All Time

Game Ball Count

• Mike Evans
• Mike McCray
• Ben Bredeson
• Michael Onwenu
• Jabrill Peppers (2)
• Wilton Speight
• Tyree Kinell
• Chris Wormley
• Rashan Gary
• Shane Morris, Fullback