Michigan Football: Grading defense, teams and coaching vs Rutgers

Special teams: B

Michigan football needed its “dudes” to step up in this game and Giles Jackson reminded everyone that he’s one of those guys Saturday night. Not only did he catch four passes for 50 yards, including a 31-yarder, he also returned the opening second-half kickoff 96 yards for a score.

While Cade McNamara got all the attention, Jackson’s return was a turning point in the comeback. And it wouldn’t have happened without a tremendous block from Blake Corum. The freshman struggled running the ball but that was a huge play and he deserves some kudos.

A 96-yard special teams touchdown is normally quite good for the grading scale, but when you miss three field goals, that hurts and Quinn Nordin’s 0 of 3 effort sunk the grade to a B, although the decision to kick may have been worse than the miss, more on that in a moment.

Coaching: D

Michigan football won this game in spite of its coaching staff, not because of it. I’ll give Jim Harbaugh credit for the fact that his team didn’t quit. The Wolverines rallied from 17-0 to win in one of the largest comebacks in school history.

Harbaugh also made the switch to McNamara which was huge. But why didn’t it happen earlier? Why wasn’t McNamara starting all along? That will be an interesting question to come back to if he keeps playing lights out.

The clock management was bad again though, especially at the end of the first half. For a former QB, Harbaugh seems to have no idea how to get his team to execute a two-minute drill.

But the sequence that really drove me insane was in overtime. You know the defense is struggling and after getting to 2nd-and-10, you run it twice? McNamara was great all night and you try to run him for three yards instead of letting him throw?

What are you doing Josh Gattis? Then, the decision by Harbaugh to trot out Nordin for a lengthy field goal after missing two others — badly — was even worse. That was a 100 percent go for it situation, especially considering how poorly the defense played.

Luckily Rutgers got extremely conservative and choked, otherwise Michigan football would be 1-4, so hopefully this staff will quit being so predictable and inept in key situations.