My Thoughts on The Big Win in Dallas
Can’t complain too much, I was frankly terrified of this game for months.
5. Speight was still wildly inaccurate on all but one of his touch passes yesterday (including passes to several receivers who were wide open), after his shoulder injury last year he had a really hard time with any and all passes that required touch — hopefully he regains his touch soon. We are not going to survive Penn State or Ohio State with that kind of QB play.
4. I liked Harbaugh’s new accountability standard for QB play. He seemed to be communicating that he cares what you do under pressure. Throw an interception, no problem, but how do you respond. Respond by throwing an even worse interception on the very next play, time to spend some time on the pine. Take a bad sack fine. Take a second bad sack, spend some time on the pine. Seems clear to me he is communicating that he wants someone to show their class under pressure.
3. Florida’s special teams were supposed to be massively better than Michigan’s, but in many ways, aside from a blocked punt, we kind of dominated the special teams play. That is really good news going forward. One cautionary note, if Donovan People’s Jones doesn’t learn when not to field a punt, he is going to get hurt or cause a number of turnovers soon.
2. Michigan’s Defense was really fast and really good today. Yes, Florida’s offense wasn’t great and they were missing some players, but they had a ton of good players on the field and our defense absolutely smothered them (Devin Bush seemed to be everywhere). One worry was the multiple CB’s coming out for a few plays with ‘hamstrings’ (or leg injuries). They all came back, but we are thin at the position.
And, Number One with a Bullet
The run game was GOOD for the first time in years. Florida may not have be a great team, but they did have a good defensive line (and LB’s). It has been a LONG time since I have seen Michigan be able to run the ball against a good defense. Our O-Line may be young, but they are already better at run blocking than the holdover Hoke line (something I mentioned might soon be the case after the Spring game). After several games against lesser defenses, they could really start to gel. This was, to me, the most exciting thing I saw all day (Ty Isaac was ‘The Truth’).
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