Michigan Football: 3 Studs and 3 Duds against Rutgers

Duds

Joe Milton

As McNamara rose, Joe Milton suffered a corresponding fall. The uber-athletic passer from Pahokee, FL completed only 5 of 12 passes for 89 yards and failed to deliver points for the Wolverines on five offensive drives.

While an opening drive fumble by Cornelius Johnson and an untimely drop from Giles Jackson certainly did not help his cause, Milton struggled with accuracy a few times in his limited action. Accuracy has been his downfall all season and McNamara proved to be surgical in that aspect while leading Michigan football to the comeback win.

My biggest takeaway from Milton’s performance was actually about the players surrounding him. There was an undeniable energy that overcame the offense when McNamara replaced Milton and that energy permeated through the entire team as the defense was more feisty and special teams picked up its play with a kick returned for a score.

A huge positive for Milton on Saturday was his mentality after he was replaced. After each big play and scoring drive Milton could be seen congratulating his teammates and he appeared to stay engaged throughout the contest. His leadership ability cannot be understated — even if he remains on the bench for the rest of the season.

Quinn Nordin

Failing to convert any of your three field goal attempts certainly qualifies as a dud performance. Michigan’s kicking woes continue as they went 0-3 on field goal attempts for the second time this season. However, as 247 Sports Michigan beat writer Zach Shaw pointed out, Michigan seems to win when that happens this season.

While this is certainly a factual trend, I don’t see this as a winning game plan moving forward. The Wolverines need to figure out the kicking situation fast. Both Nordin and Jake Moody are quality FBS level kickers but there is clearly a mental block that is hindering them from reaching the potential they both possess.

Daxton Hill

A week after Hill landed in the Stud category for his play against Wisconsin, he earns a Dud for his play against Rutgers. Yes he did have the game ending interception but that was too little too late to save his game.

From playing two hand touch with a receiver on an end around, to not attacking the ball at its high point on a deep pass in the first quarter, Hill lacked his usual aggressiveness throughout Saturday’s matchup.

Michigan football fans have grown accustomed to the hit sticks on opposing receivers and the impressive open field tackles on accelerating running backs from Dax but Saturday the safety must have left the chip on his shoulder in Ann Arbor.

At times Hill looked timid and he just struggled to finish plays. That was the most bewildering part of his game to me.

For example, he was in position to make an interception in the first quarter on the aforementioned deep ball but instead of rising up and catching the ball at its highest point, he tried to catch the pass in his lap and he let the receiver cut right in front of him to make the grab.

Hopefully, this was a one game aberration for Michigan’s most talented player in the secondary and he gets back on track as the Wolverines take on the Penn State Nittany Lions in their next matchup.