Blue By Ninety - Michigan offense sputters, but its stars shined bright | Michigan 1-0 ahead of huge game vs. Texas

Episode Date: September 1, 2024

Justin and Tanner recap Michigan's 30-10 win over Fresno State in their 2024 opener. The offense struggled to finish drives but Colston Loveland, Kalel Mullings, Dominic Zvada, Will Johnson, Mason Graham, and others were massive for the Wolverines.

All right, welcome back to Blue by 90. I'm Justin. Join my Tanner today. It is September 1st and Michigan's 1-0. Listen, I'm starting there. We're taking 1-0. I know a lot of people are saying a lot of things, but that's the 16th straight game that Michigan has won. Absolutely. 29th straight regular season game, which is now a Big Ten record. So so when a lot of football games break some records uh yeah i mean some good some bad uh maybe some ugly that we'll talk about um but we talked about this pre-show i felt this you know i was at the game i was like row two uh kind of towards the end zone so it's like hard to see some of the things that are happening yeah but when they yeah cool seats when it's coming to you but that's tough to see absolutely like will's pick was right in front of us going the other way and i saw it coming a mile away because i don't want to get too ahead but like just some of the moments were

were pretty cool we saw the first touchdown coming to our end zone um so you know but it's hard to see you know in the stadium unless you're you know even like the closer you are the harder it is to kind of see what's going on on the field especially when you're you know in each side of the end zone they're a little more extreme angles but watching it on on replay I watched it on the Peacock app uh kind of skipping around this morning and I felt better watching the TV copy than I did leaving the stadium last night so Justin I know you kind of agree but I it feels a little bit better watching it after the fact than it maybe did in a moment yeah i mean i think that i think listen it is it's a little

disheartening when your offense is sputtering as i would put it right like when when you're struggling to move the ball and when we are so used to the running game just clicking from day one right and being able to get five yards a pop whenever we want like we've been used to that for three straight years and so when you see this michigan offense struggle to get it on the ground and you know even you go to the third and one and we can't get it right against Fresno State. And you're like, damn, we are not used to that for sure. Might need to switch over to the tush push or something there. But sometimes you're doing that.

I listen. And, you know, they, you know, it works. It looks great, but it worked. Yeah. But you don't have Jason Kelsey or, you know, Jalen Hurts is a little bit more difficult. Exactly. But, I mean, we do have Alex Orji, so you never know.

But anyways, you know, I agree with you. I think that it's not like doom and gloom. It's not all doom and gloom. If you went on Twitter during the game last night, I was at the game too, but I just scrolled through some tweets. You got guys no no no just like after the game oh okay yeah definitely off topic can we get wi-fi in this place the wi-fi needs to happen in the stadium yesterday like this is ridiculous um i i get it's a hundred plus year old stadium but and and you know people good whoa you're at the game yeah we're at the game and there's four tv timeouts per quarter at three minutes each like i need

something to do i love i love our boy anthony bellino he does a great job but man i don't want to just sit there and just look at the ground and like i know i know well i want to be with our community i want to be with our yeah we have want to be with our, you know, we have a lot of followers and I enjoy chatting it up with them. So I want to see what people are saying, but no, I don't think it was as doom and gloom as like, maybe it seemed in the moment. So I I'd caution everybody on that and just encourage people to, to take a little breath, take a step back. I want to start.

Let's start with Davis Warren warren um because i think obviously everybody you know he comes out as the starter um i think up until late this past week most people were thinking that it's alex orgy it ends up being davis warren um i think a lot of people are also doom and gloom on Davis Warren. I think if you told me that he was going to go, you know, 15 for 25, have a 60% completion percentage and move the ball in the air, I would have taken that. You know, I think he had 118 yards passing.

I would definitely have liked more than that. If he can get that up to, you know, 180, 200, something like that with the completion percentage that he had, then we're cooking. And, you know, you look at the Fred Moore, the interception targeted at Fred Moore. He's got to throw that to the back of the end zone and try to have Fred go get it. And if he does it, then it's an incomplete pass.

Right. I think, you know, to be honest, though, we saw JJ struggle with that for a long time, too. Right. Like it's it's a hard throw. But if you can get that, if Tyler Morris keeps running down the sideline, that's probably a completion. Yeah, he slowed up. That came right towards us. Speaking of the seed.

He must have lost it in the lights or something. I don't know if he thought the ball was coming. Because he comes out of his out and up break, and he's jogging. If he's spring, that's a touchdown. Right. And then, you know, Peyton O'Leary had an unfortunate drop. Colell had an unfortunate drop. Colson had an unfortunate drop. So, like, you know, you're looking without some miscues.

You're looking at more like 20 for 25 for 200 yards and a couple touchdowns, right? And so, like, we can play the what-if game for sure, right? That's kind of what we're doing right now. But I'm just saying it's, you know, you're just a couple plays away from that looking a lot differently for Davis Warren. couple plays away from that looking a lot differently for davis warren um and you know i i want to so alex orgy obviously had his fair share of plays in there too um i think we were expecting

that we knew that they were going to have packages for alex orgy he's too good of an athlete to keep off the field completely um and i like that they have you know a dynamic offense with the two of them now what i would say about having alex orgy in the game is I don't want it to be an auto run when Alex Orji is in the game. You know, obviously he had the touchdown pass to Donovan, which he could have underhand tossed that to him and it would have been a touchdown. And then, you know, he did on his other pass, he threw it into the ground like that. There's no way around it i think if you ask him he just straight up say that's a bad pass um but i you know what are your thoughts on the on davis warren's play and then also how they you know mixed in alex orgy yeah i thought

davis for the most part was fine um know, it wasn't otherworldly. And, you know, again, play the what-if game. You can do it for both teams. You can go both ways, right? Like, what if this happens? What if that happens? But, you know, just looking at it from a Michigan perspective, he's able to put a little bit more on that ball to Freddie Moore.

That's a touchdown, right? And then you're up 14-0. You know, crowd's into it, momentum. And that's – We got to – Real quick, that's his first ever deep ball in a like meaningful snap also, you know what I mean? So like he's going to learn, right? Yep. Yep. So, you know, get that out in front, you know,

Freddie Moore had beat the corner. He's got a couple of guys underneath. So the only place for that ball to go is just miss deep, right? If you're going to miss miss deep, only put it where more can get it. And that's, you know, that was a, that was great field position set up by a punt return by Tyler Morris at that point in the game. So, hey, you know what? Second and ten, maybe we go out and hit something underneath,

hit Colston where we're setting up. Maybe we at least get a field goal out of that scenario instead of an interception where they end up getting a pretty good field position on the return. But, yeah, you mentioned a couple drops. You know, Colston had one that would have been a first down and unfortunately michigan had to settle for a field goal which i don't want to get ahead of myself here but dominic zavada dog dog we have we've got ourselves 55 yards money down the middle and they hit the net so you know actually okay

why don't actually we'll talk about that in a minute keep going with your code tracks so with davis though um there were some some misreads the the dump down to donovan out of the kind of in the flat on a third and long um that linebacker had kind of shifted over and kendrick bell was open to potentially run after the catch for a first down that's what that one right there i think is like the clock was going way faster in Davis Warren's head than it was actually on the field because he had plenty of time to sit back there let the play develop and then Kendrick's wide open and you can come off him even I believe Tyler Morris was kind of open coming across the middle to the right too but I think in his mind

he's like gotta get it i'm gonna get it out and he he went to donovan too quickly he's got to let that play develop a little bit more and then you hit kendrick belford touchdown yeah so i think his his you know processing and the mental clock and all those sorts of things will be improved as he plays more and more snaps and meaningful scenarios obviously pretty big pretty big game coming up. That means a lot for Michigan's season here next week against Texas. So, you know, what can you take from this game from a quarterback perspective with Davis moving forward, you know, in the processing and making the right reads and making the right throws?

Because I thought a lot of times, you know, he made accurate throws. You know, again, the one to Tyler Morris was a pretty good throw if Morrisris is you know sprinting uh because again he coming out of his break he's kind of jogging i mean it's coming right towards us right i'm like 10 feet from this play basically and i'm like man that might be six and then he's kind of slow and then he gets on his horse and it's just out of reach so i thought overall warren played well um with regards to bringing in orgy you know we've seen it the last three years uh especially in 2023 not so much in 22 except for in garbage time but you you see number 10 come in you know what's happening it's a right right and the thing i will say about orgy is i watched that end

that he's reading he made the correct read every time and so he had he was averaging six yards of carry so he was very efficient in the in the runs and the opportunities that he got. He short arms one, sprinting out. Like, you know, that's tough to judge because he's cold, right? He's only ran the ball. His one throw was in the first drive, the first couple minutes of the game to Donovan Edwards. Like you mentioned, we could have made that throw. So, you know, it's kind of tough to judge, you know, what he is going to look like as a passer in the opportunities that he's given when he comes in, because you can't just do that all the time. Right. Yeah.

I mean, they're going to start to kind of look at that and play that a little bit differently. Exactly. And I, you know, one thing that we don't know yet is how much of what they were doing this week is setting things up for next week. For sure. Are they, are they not showing his ability to throw the ball or some Pat or some plays where he's going to actually get the ball in the air because they,

they don't want to show it to Texas. Are they trying to, you know, date Texas out? Are they, you know, what, what is he,

the decoy? What, what I don't think we'll they, we know Sharon more. We know Kirk Campbell. They're setting something up here. We didn't show all of our cards in week one against Fresno State. Yeah, and I do wonder, obviously,

Kirk and Sharon had a huge part in last year's game plans in 2022. Well, I guess Kirk was there in 22, but Sharon did in 22 and 21. How much are we seeing Michigan miss miss jim harbaugh on his ability to game plan and prep right like he's a hell of a coach so you know i think he didn't get enough credit for that either because he's not a flashy you know throw it 50 times a game kind of guy but a lot of this you know run of the run fits that they would have like it was it was good stuff so you know how much are they missing harbaugh in the game plan in the prep um versus you know what we saw last year where I mean the Alabama game plan was awesome you know and Sharon had a big hand in that so you know how much of it is really just hey it's Fresno State

really good program by the way uh it's won a lot of football games are one of the best non-power four teams in the country they have been for a long time they're always cheering on nfl talent so how much of that is we're just you know saving some stuff for texas versus this is what it's going to be because like there's one drive where it was a first and 10 you try to go tunnel screen to samaj it gets blown up you run up the middle for basically no gain and then you try to go and screen the other side to tyler morris and you have to punt and it's like things like that i don't like to see because there's really no like what what is the what is kind of the point here like what are you trying to accomplish versus like oh we're just gonna get our guy the ball and see what he can do like i don't really like plays like that all the time well let me let me ask you

a question on that by transitioning to our next topic here, which is, is Michigan's O-line a concern? Because my guess on what you're talking about with play calling is they felt that they needed to go with something different, like a bubble screen or something like that, because the run game was not there for the first half, the first three quarters really right so yeah you know i wonder i wonder if sherelle moore is trying to you know kirk campbell are trying to figure out like all right we got to do we got to do something different we can't just run it up

we got a hundred times with no uh you know no good result there um so you know, I watched that first half, and that's where, you know, the run game is where I was most underwhelmed, obviously. We talked about that right at the beginning of the show. But, you know, it was very apparent that you don't have Zach Zinter and Trevor Keegan and those guys getting a huge push off the ball every single play, right? You mentioned it before we hopped on here very concerned about the lack of getting to the next level for for this offensive line so what's

your take here yeah i thought it was a lot of guys getting stuck on the the defensive line assignment you know um and not able to get off that block get to the next level to propel a longer run um so i don't know because how i mean we talked about this before the show how much of it in that last drive that thank god they got that because that i mean again how much of it was them wearing down an inferior opponent versus like things starting to click it's tough to tell late for probably a little bit of both right but guess what you had to have something there you're in a six-point game we we clown michigan state and now let's not get it twisted florida atlantic is not a good is not

as good in any stretch of the word good as fresno state is so let's not get it twisted in michigan one by 20 at the end of the day but you know it's 16 10 you're like you're also if we want to compare games real quick i i don't want to spend too much time on this because i don't care that much but um that's fine right i just frankly don't care um but it's uh but like michigan was closer to this game being 41 to 10 much more closer to that where m Michigan was closer to this game being 41-10, much more closer to that, where MSU was closer to losing that game. Like, they were lucky to get out of that game alive. For sure.

And one team won four games last year, one team won nine. Exactly. So, you know, if we want to get into that, yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I think that it was very apparent that there are five, six new linemen on this squad. Absolutely. Right?

Like, you're missing a lot of talent. I saw Zinter and Carson Barnhart were back in the big house last night as well. So, good to have those boys back. But it is, you know, if you were thinking, you know, that we were just not going to miss those guys at all, I think you were sorely mistaken. And I get it because we have reloaded on the offensive line for the past three years. And it seems like every time that we're going to lose somebody out or have a weakness,

Jim Harbaugh, he found somebody to fill that hole. He found Drake Nugent to fill the hole, right? He found Ladarius Henderson um so I think that uh you know this is something that I'll just I'll put it like this like Michigan's gonna have to figure this out Jerome Moore and Grant Newsom are gonna have to figure this out if they want to be an elite team if they want to go 10 and 2 11 and 1-0, something like that. They have to figure this out because what I'll say about Davis Warren in the passing game is that offense, we're thinking about Davis Warren very differently

if we ran for 200-plus yards yesterday. If the rushing game gets moving, then we're thinking about, we don't want to have to rely on davis warren to win us football games in my opinion right i think we want to have a balanced attack where davis does his job does the things that he needs to do and then you know and then this offensive line takes care of the of uh of things on the ground um so you know you look at donovan edwards with 11 11 rushes for what 27 yards like that's tough that's so and with donovan too you know obviously we've seen the highs and the lows from number seven in his career i mean 2022

late in the season was one of the best running backs in the country. Right. I mean, the Ohio State game, the Purdue game in the Big Ten championship that year. Last year comes on late again. You know, he makes some big plays against Ohio State. He makes some big plays in the national championship game, obviously. So coming in, there were some times where I was a little disappointed with his decision making and some of the holes that might have have been there but he also had a lot of plays that were just kind of doing from the start you know like there were just some plays he didn't really have anywhere to go the one thing that I wish Donovan would kind of add to his game I don't know I mean I don't know if it's there with the jump cut like Blake but even if it's just sometimes it's tough because sometimes we get mad at him for bouncing things outside and trying to make a big play.

But the one and he got the first down. I mean, it was a third or second one or third one. He gets the first down. It's where he's you know, he's kind of slower in the hole. And then, you know, you run through and gets the first down. Man, everybody's on the inside of the line. Right. So if he cuts left, he might he's got a receiver out there blocking. I think it was Tyler Morris. He might have a big play. Right. So it's like, how do you balance not wanting to bounce everything, but still taking a chance? Right. Taking a chance on the cutback or bouncing it out to get a big play to get the offense rolling.

So that's a balance that he's going to have to try to find throughout the year. But then, you know, for Donovan's sake, man, that I hate that sweep. Like, yeah, it just seemed doomed from the start because you're not even faking it's a club close pulling and blocking and colel's a great blocker but the whole defense flowed to that side so you didn't set anything up with that there was no chance of misdirection they knew from the moment that he got in motion that that ball was going left and then i'll let you hop in here just but the other point i wanted to make his best run of the night called for a hold on on josh pre which was very weak he was inside yeah he's got a little bit of jersey but he's inside he's finishing the block but donovan

does a great job he breaks a tackle he bounces gets the first down and then that's where we had to settle for three i think that was in the second half uh or maybe it was in the late late in the second quarter but so he had he bounced it out we're at the 20 and then it comes back a second to 17 and then davis tries to go deep to samaj which is covered well and then colell gets like five yards and they kick a long field goal so you know it's just there was a couple moments to your point where it's closer to being 41 45 10 yeah then then then you know whatever but yeah it just you know some things that happened that weren't donovan's fault. There were some things that he can clean up.

But, again, and we'll talk about this, but I think with the Texas game coming up, he's got to be used in a more creative way. He can't just continue to run in between the tackles. You've got to get him out in space. You've got to get him in the ball. You've got to get him in motion. Get him on a backer. You know who you can run in between the tackles though is this guy and so i mean this

is a little bit of a facetious uh headline here is camille mullings rb1 but like is it i don't know it's a legitimate question man i you know i i think a we've all loved colal mullings but you thought i think most people thought including myself that he's just that hammer almost the fullback type of guy the reality is man this guy's got moves he the way he runs the ball is exactly what sharon moore wants right like that's my opinion on it i i think that he like you know he does the jump cuts. He's got bounce. He finds the hole. And I think the biggest thing that I like about him,

I was actually texting with Jake Butt this morning, just recapping the game and talking through it. And we both said, listen, when the first guy gets to Kal-El and then the second guy, like, those guys don't tackle Kal-El. You got to get to that third guy he's shedding tackles a lot and I think it's it you know I loved what I saw from him um and it's just like it's very Blake Corum and Hassan Haskins ask that like every single time you're getting three four yards even when there's nothing there because you're falling forward you're making shit happen when there's not shit there and like i i don't know i think i think that

kirk campbell cheryl moore grant newsome you know is the run game coordinator they're gonna have to think about what's going on at the running back position here because i think everybody liked what they saw out of cole absolutely i think cole think Cole, you know, 15 carries 92 yards, 6.1 yards per carry. The last drive that Michigan had meaningful snaps on is the seven play 75 yard touchdown drive. Donovan gets the first two carries, gets the first down. Donovan does a good job. They bring Cole in. He gets them down to the 18 with a couple of big runs, man. There's one that he spins through some contact he gets about 15 to 20 yards he's got one where he cuts it back uh against the defense

that he gets a first down on so that that drive they go six plays 57 yards all on the ground and then that leads to the play action which is a thing in football that you can do kirk drone you can fake the run. I thought that there should have been a little bit more play action last night, but they fake it, my back is sucked in, and Colston gets a touchdown. So, you know, I thought later in the game it got a lot better, and even when they weren't scoring touchdowns, they were moving the ball a little bit better.

Now, look, they had less than 300 yards, so it was not ideal. But I thought later in the game some of these guys you know stepped up a little bit um you know and jay do on twitter if you don't follow him definitely a great follow a former michigan player does a great breakdown on sundays and just you know some some very basic analysis he's he calls it a low-hanging fruit and just gives his input but there was a play where max is coming in to fill the gap to block a linebacker he trips on somebody's foot right and so it's like there's just some of these things where you're going to get used to like hey you know Zach Zinner used to be right here or Trevor Keegan was right here and now you know El Hadi and Preeb they maybe are a

little bit different and so it's just kind of you know finding that you know the ability to mesh with the with the new offensive line that yeah totally and I think the last thing I want to say about that offensive line in the running game is like, that's part of them being young and inexperienced, right? Is it not of all of them are young, obviously, they're, but they are very inexperienced. Like, absolutely. I think more, more than like, getting experience and just blocking. It's you need experience on how to play together. Right? That's where I i thought crippen and jadis at the center position need to be better need to figure it out and be able to command the offensive line to know where they're going because i thought there were a couple times where they looked a little bit lost to be honest and so i i think that that group is going to get better as the year goes on because they're going to figure out, to your point, who's going where. All right, when this guy, you know, I think on Davis Warren's sack, it was like El Hadi let his guy go to the inside

thinking that the center was going to take him, and he didn't get any help. And then all of a sudden he's running free. So there are things like that that they've got to figure out. But one thing I wanted to talk about just on the offensive here one of the biggest keys to me is that Michigan's got to stay out of third and long there were many many times where we had third and ten third and seven third and eight third and nine even you know there was a third and 17 at one point where we just ran the ball but if we continue to play behind the sticks at all times

this is not going to go well for Michigan's offense because that was the magic of J.J. McCarthy that on third and nine he'd do some J.J. McCarthy shit and they would get a first down right uh you know or even Blake Corum would do it right right? But Davis, I love him to death, and I think he's going to do the job that he can do. He himself is probably going to tell you he doesn't have that in his bag, right? And it's obvious, too, we'll talk about Colston being a huge spot for – a huge guy for Davis, but it was obvious that the wide receivers weren't going to be able to get open in that know, in that second level for the most part either. So, you know, what are your thoughts on this?

Because I thought this was a huge key to Michigan's offense's lack of movement. Yeah, absolutely. I think they need to be more creative. And, again, it's tough to gauge. And I keep – disclaimer, but, like, I don't know what that's going to look like in a real game. I mean, with the big-time implications on the line. So, they need to be more creative on first and second down, I think,

to get – to set up those third and shorts. Because you don't have Blake Corum, you know, getting seven yards on first down consistently and falling forward and driving his feet. Now, Colell may turn out to be that guy. I don't know. But you don't have somebody doing that 25, 30 times a game with Blake Orman in the NFL now.

So I think they need to be a little more creative. I'm really going to judge the Texas game a lot more closely when it comes to the designs of the plays and the play calls and kind of how – Well, to your point, too, like, Sharone and Kirk are figuring out what they have too right like they've obviously seen it in camp but i think once you see it on the field against an actual opponent like they're learning what they have in terms of personnel as well and how they're going to use those guys right no absolutely so i'm curious to

see what it looks like against texas um you know with again i want to see donovan getting getting moved around the field i want to see him get mash up on a linebacker even a safety because he is a dangerous threat in the past game he might he might be our best downfield shot uh uh you know outside of colston like he might be the best downfield threat that michigan has because n because NBC when I was watching the replay Todd Blackledge was talking about Kendrick Bell being the best downfield threat and I think Kendrick Bell might be a player for us but that does not give you the warm and fuzzies Justin I will tell you that um well let's talk about somebody who does give you the warm and fuzzy

so yeah and our guy Colston Lovell number number 18, is that dude, 100%. Mackie. He's got it, man. Like, it's, you know, because here's my thing about Colston Loveland. Obviously, we all knew going into the season that he was going to be really good. But what I wanted to know is when you're the lone guy or when you're the one guy that everyone's keying in on can you still do it right i think there are a lot of times like you see this on the basketball court a

lot as well when a guy is the second option he's a star because you're not getting their best defender but colson loveland is going to get every defense's best shot. Can he shine when that's the case? On Saturday, he absolutely did. There were a lot of times where you absolutely knew that the ball was going to Colson, and he's still making an incredible move or holding onto the ball. So I want you to talk a little bit about Colson Loveland here. Man, when you needed it, he gave it to you. When you needed a third down conversion, and that's where, to your point,

you've got to stay ahead of the chains and stay in third and short. It's very cliche when you talk about football, but if you can get in third and five or less, you've got the ability for Colson Loveland to go win one-on-one, whether that's coming off as an inline tight end or split out wide, because he did both last night. And he had the one drop, but otherwise he was as advertised. And, you know, we talk about michigan is three first

round picks man if he continues to play like this and put up these kinds of numbers it may have four first round picks on this team um because he is that good and i really wanted a brock bowers type season for him great start on pace eight catches 92 yards is that what it was i don't have it in front of me um a touchdown at eight catches for 87 yards and a touchdown i mean that it listen if we get that out of him every game like holy that's that's a thousand yards if he is talking with jake but too he is now closer to 700 yards i believe away from jake butts uh record as a uh tight end um yeah and jake talked about it right like he want he wanted at minimum six targets how many i don't know if he had nine or ten targets and eight catches um so yeah he was as advertised great after the catch uh he he i

mean he drug a pile by himself with three defenders on him like five yards there was a good touchdown dude yeah i i mean i he is very hard to tackle he is a specimen like the athleticism is unbelievable and it was on full display because there's you know here's what colson loveland does he does all the the tight end stuff of just like out routes and stuff like that. But then he also goes out wide. And then the one shimmy move that he made to the inside for a catch early, like that is a wide receiver cut that you're seeing right there. And he left that dude in the dust.

So if he gets matched up on linebackers, like that is, they got no shot. But my favorite part is he does all that, and then he goes back inside and blocks his ass off. Oh, my God. He's our best – he might be our best blocker, legit. Between him and Bredesen, like, I take them in blocking over most of our linemen, legitimately. It's crazy how good they are.

I wish I was – I'm getting ahead of myself but he had some you know he had uh he had a defensive end cross his face uh which jay do on twitter pointed out um and that kind of blew up one of the one of the run plays so um but yeah you get him on a smaller you get him on a you know linebacker or backs back four guy any back seven defender he's gonna you to typically have his way. I thought Marlon Klein looked good too, kind of in that same vein of like, hey, any smaller defender, he's going to be able to kind of get a nice block.

It's really like, can somebody be A.J. Barner? Which A.J. Barner is a dog I think very appreciated. And I think we'll come to appreciate him even more because his ability to be a catcher and a blocker is is really rare to find in guys that are his size and athleticism but yeah I you know to this point I think I mentioned this earlier but like I want to see Colson and Marlon on the field a lot more often together because I think you know let's just touch on the receivers real quick because I know we're going to get out of here but we're talking about the defensive special teams which that's probably not going to need as much analysis but I want to see colson lovelands out wide versus seeing some some of these you know formations that they have some of these guys in at receiver i also want to say this i do not need to see max

split out wide ever again uh i don't know the play they got a first down on that play the one time i saw them do that but i'm like what are we doing i know i i love you max we love you so much and you do a lot of things really well he does not need to be out there you just don't need to be split out wide like it looks weird with the number 44 to be honest yeah but by the way i just i just hit puberty there my voice is shot like i listen it was we haven't even talked about it but the tailgate was electric. We had a time last night that was electric. My feet hurt. Anybody who's listening needs to come out next week

because we had a hell of a day. The DJ was phenomenal. That pizza saved my life. Shout out Joe's Pizza. We appreciate you for coming in. A little flop. A little floppy. You know, had to fold it a certain way. Yeah a little floppy you know had a folded yeah very floppy uh

halfway down but it was delicious and uh you know we had we had north peak uh we had the hail ipa we had a bunch of their other beers uh we had some trulies we had dude wipes there randomly that came in clutch and i got the i got the dude wipes to clean me up um shout out dude they bought the they they had bought the mini pooper that they had a mini cooper car um with an actual turd on the top of it so it was the poop emoji yeah it was interesting it was incredible but uh okay all right let's talk about the the defense um yeah to your point like you know there isn't much analysis other than this defense is really fucking good yeah you know like a couple things but yeah they need to clean up but yeah

it was it was really good man um josiah stewart was all over the place i mean yeah two sacks the play where he drops into coverage and then they're trying to set up a screen and the guy doesn't even get a hand on him he just blows it up for two yards and then he just like ragdolls the guy he threw him down like he was 40 pounds he was phenomenal all night he earlier in that drive that set up kind of that third and long for them he had come off the edge down the line and made a play on the run um you know that went through right off the center i mean he's coming off he's in a wide stance he just shoots down the the line, makes a play. I thought Derek Moore was very good too. He caused one of Josiah's sacks, made the quarterback step up, and Mikey Keene just ran right into Josiah Stewart.

Mikey Keene is very good. Yeah, man. If he wasn't 5'11", he might be an NFL prospect. Honestly, Mikey Keene is very good. They're the Fresno State quarterback. I thought – we haven't really talked about this, but I thought that Fresno State is a damn good team, honestly. Oh, yeah.

They've only been eight, nine, ten games. They have a chance to be that group of five team that heads to the playoff if they can make a run here in the MWC. But, you know, yes, Mason Graham, like we've already said all this stuff about all these guys right they're they're as good as we thought they were um one thing that i thought was interesting though which the i as i was watching the replay today the the tv announcers were talking about it as well they're michigan rotated a lot in the secondary. And when I say rotated, I mean having a full second guy on the depth chart back up in there for a drive, two drives, three drives.

Like, it was almost the whole second quarter. Yeah, no, they rotated a lot. And I'll tell you this, from what I saw, I think Wesley Walker is a very good football player Amir Hall laying the wood I mean they scored the next play but he came in and just laid that dude out broke the score because we because Wink thought he was Don Brown for one I didn't like that at all I saw I saw like no safety and I'm like oh god we're just going we're just bringing eight and we've got three guys in coverage I'm like wait you can sit in like a cover two or cover four on third night

in the red zone you don't need to bring eight because we've got four guys that can get at you like you can organically create pressure that's what's like if we didn't have mason kenneth and the and the two edges i'd be like all right right, yeah, we need to be able to bring pressure. No, no, no. You can do that and drop seven and not leave McBurroughs on an item. Mikey Keene literally was just like backpedaling and like wafted it up. Absolutely. Because there was not anybody there.

Yeah. Like show pressure, drop guys, like confuse the quarterback. And, yeah, you want to bring pressure sometimes, but not in the red zone at 13. When you're up 13 points, you don't need to do that that was yeah i was not happy at that moment but for michigan fans even after coming off the national championship we get a little pissy uh which we did as a collective group at the amount of penalties before will johnson how many times okay i've never seen three cold interceptions in one drive have you that was

it was we were kind of laughing because, like, we'd get the turnover buffs on and then come over and it's like, all right, got to throw that picture away, I guess. But it was like the collective boos in the stadium on that drive then turned into Will Johnson's pick and the crowd just erupted. I was down. That was electric. I mean, well, I wasn't down because they had just scored on that long drive

we talked about in the offensive segment. But I was like, damn, like, you know, they're moving it. And I will say, you know, Will got beat a couple times. Yeah. That third down where they had to settle for a field goal, you know, he got beat on the – The one in the corner of the end zone? Yeah.

And that was right there. And I'm like watching. I'm like, is he going to trap that ball? Thank God he did not. You know, Will, the one that set up their touchdown drive that was like a 28-yarder, Will had really good coverage. It was just a great throwing catch. Like, Will almost had perfect coverage.

He was in his hip pocket, and it just, you know, dropped in a bucket, right? That's a veteran quarterback with a bunch of guys he's played a lot of football with. So, you know, Will wasn't perfect, but, damn, he made up for it with that pick six and man you should have heard some of the things being said to the to the linesman uh to the to the field the umpire team just getting the zebras were just i was i was involved in that i said some things and it felt great there was a there was a lull where i got real quiet and i was like this is my moment you know i'm gonna shine and maybe the mbc TV will pick me up. But, you know, dude, so I want to start with this Will Johnson play because, again, he didn't have a great night.

He admitted it in the postgame interview. You know, he's like, it was nice to get the pick because I didn't feel like I played up to my standard, which I agree with. I mean, he got beat a couple times. He almost had a pick early in the game, too, that he got a hand on. But they had kept running that, like, that diamond package or that, like, three-receiver stack. And he almost jumped it the first time the play before because they went to the to the big receiver tight end i don't know what position he was but over the top that's what

set up first and goal and then he he read that like he was in that flat and he picked it i was like just stay up because he almost tripped i know he almost tripped. I know. You almost tripped. But that was incredible. Hell of a play. Hell of a play. The buildup for it was unbelievable. Worth it. Worth it. So worth it. So worth it. And it got the place fired up. Like, we were kind of down.

Like, it was a weird environment. Like, we're excited about last year. Yeah. Where, you know, we score right away. And then it's like, what? This is weird. And it's not working. And people are, you know, upset.

Because, again, we're Michigan fans, and this is what we do. And so, yeah, I felt like it really brought some energy back to the stadium. It got us fired up, and it felt good to end on that note. Again, just to recap, everything was not perfect. A lot of good things to take out of it, a lot of things you need to clean up, and to your point here on the board, Texas is on the the clock man so this is a huge game coming up non-conference game though 12 team playoff though so if you have the ability now moving forward in this new college football environment that we're

in you want to win this game i want to win this game so bad right i want to win this game but if you lose it you got everything in front of you still right here's what i want to say well obviously we'll be talking about this later this week too but my my the one thing i want to say to you about that is i think that this game is huge for this team because it kind of determines the trajectory of this team right if you come out and win this game, all of a sudden they have a different confidence about themselves. And we're thinking, you know, they're thinking about themselves like, oh shit, we can do this. Like this is, we're a squad.

If you lose this game, I think that's where there can be some doubt that creeps into some bodies in Sheb Beckler Hall. And so I think it's very, very important for the trajectory of the season, what happens in this game. Because to your point, yeah, you can still go 10-2. But I think if you lose this game, especially depending on what fashion it could be, then all of a sudden if you lose a heartbreaker and you played really well

and Texas is just a really good football team, that's probably the case but if you if you out struggle to run the ball again you know things aren't working the way that you want i think that then all of a sudden we're we're you know having some questions that that need to be answered but on the flip side you go out and win this game in dramatic fashion or you you play a really good football game against a good Texas team, all of a sudden it's like, oh, shit. People aren't questioning Michigan anymore. You know, there's not like, oh, they're going to fall off after Jim Harbaugh in the national championship. Like, all of a sudden it's like, no, Jerome Moore is here.

He's the guy, and he's going to have this program at the top for a long time. So I'll leave it at that uh and uh we'll have another episode coming for you guys this week at least one i think there's a lot to talk about um here leading up to the longhorns horns down baby horns down well i'm not used to this i gotta figure it out we mightized, to be honest. I don't know what the – what's the Big Ten SEC. Like us? Just us as guys? We just got zebras throwing flags at us?

Flank or foul? Well, it felt like that last night. I felt like I could be penalized. I mean, TJ Guy got penalized for literally just like tapping the guy. Yeah, that was – just that whole drive was crazy. It was the worst. And also, at that point, the ball had been intercepted. So isn't that technically just a block in the back or a clipping call?

Literally. Roughing the passer. It should have been just a personal foul, if anything, right? It shouldn't be roughing the passer. I mean, Mikey Keene just fell flat on his face somehow. I don't know if that was on purpose. Yeah. No.

But no. Great to be back, man. Great to be back. Good to be back in the big house. Dale Gate was awesome. Yeah. Shout out North Peak. Shout-out North Peak. Shout-out Hale IPA. Shout-out Truly and Sun Cruiser.

Thanks to Joe's Pizza providing the food that saved all of our lives. And shout-out to Dude Wipes. So, shout-out to Jake Butt as well for hooking it up with Dude Wipes. Shout-out to Ian Bunsen. Came through. Shout-out to Ian Bunsen for coming through. We did not see Brad Robbins. A little disappointed.

Thought he was coming. You know. Bellino came through, though. Bellino came through to say hi before he went in and did his thing in the stadium. So, love all those people. We'll be back. Larry Lage was there? Is that true? Larry Lage from the AP was there?

Yes. Jerry, man. We're official. Friend of the pod. But, yeah. I mean, this week it'll be 8 a.m start it'll be early i'm gonna be up at like four in the morning ready to fucking go i can't wait so um it's gonna be a hell of a day uh i think ann arbor is gonna be buzzing which i can't wait for but oh man it's different for the big

games as you know i mean it is just a different vibe in the air. It's just the tension's thick, you know. And it's going to be 66 as the high as of now for Saturday. Oh, perfect. Football weather, baby. 80-whatever and we're dying. It was like 87. I was dying. Oh, my God.

I got a sunburn. I think I've got a nice little Apple Watch tan and probably a wedding ring tan as well. So, you know, just getting beat by the sun. Listen, somebody tell the We're Back department that we are back. Somebody notify them. We're filing a claim. We are back.

We are back. All right. For us, you can follow us at Blue by 90 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, at Blue by 90 Podcast on YouTube and Blueby90.com. We appreciate you. Go Blue. Go.