Michigan Wolverines football sideline reporter Doug Karsch gives his up-close and personal takes … From The Sidelines.
Here’s Karsch, on…
The late first-half sequence in which Northwestern cut Michigan’s lead to three at the half: “You ask whether there were any moments of tenseness. After Michigan fumbled going in, right before half, [sixth-year senior center] Andrew Vastardis called about three-quarters of the offense around the offensive line bench, and was just screaming.
“I didn’t catch all of it, but I heard him say: ‘Whatever plays are called, should work! We need to execute, and we need to stick together!’ He was screaming it so much that spit was coming out of his mouth.
“It wasn’t just directed at the offensive line. There were other position groups gathered around him.
“It was after the game that [redshirt freshman quarterback] Cade McNamara mentioned that Vastardis said some things that needed to be said, and then he added ‘and more was said in the locker room.’ It seemed pretty clear they responded in the second half.
“Vastardis was fired up, and the spit was flying…”
The difference in the second half for Michigan’s offense: “Obviously, No. 1 is that Michigan finished drives. You look at the halftime stat sheet, Michigan had run 53 plays and Northwestern had run 19. That’s the kind of half where the score could easily be 28-0.
“But when you don’t finish drives, that’s why the game was close. They clearly corrected what needed to be corrected and finished drives in the red zone after that, and pulled away.
“The defense was fine, minus one play. You don’t want to give up one play, but that’s really all that Northwestern mustered in their 19 plays, the one big run.”
Observations on the game-changers of a punt block and an acrobatic interception: “They definitely fired the team up. On [sophomore wide receiver] Cornelius Johnson’s blocked punt, I was told that was the first time he was on punt rush all year. Somebody else said that he had one of those earlier in the year and he’d just missed it.
“They had run [redshirt sophomore defensive lineman] Julius Welschof up the middle, pretty much as the lone rusher, and he’d run into the three protectors three times. Then they hit them with a completely different look and brought Cornelius from the outside.
“You generally don’t see an edge rusher on punt rush go in without being even so much as chipped. He blocked that one emphatically. That definitely was an injection of life.
“The interception was funny, because Jim Harbaugh went out on the field and met [redshirt freshman cornerback] D.J. [Turner], and was right in the middle of a scrum of players celebrating over by the defensive players’ meeting area. D.J. was pretty fired up — he had the football in the locker room, after the game.”
McNamara and missed opportunities: “It’s the passing game. To me, it’s not the quarterback as much as it is the passing game. On deep routes, the receiver has got to complete the route. Don’t stop and jump up.
“When you’re in the red zone, go back and look at a couple of those plays. The one where there was a fumble, a wide receiver completely whiffs on a block that might have sprung [sophomore receiver Mike] Sainristil.
“On another one, the completion to [sophomore tight end] Erick All, it looked to me, if you watch Cade’s head, the first read was to [redshirt sophomore tight end Luke] Schoonmaker in the end zone. He had gotten knocked down, and wasn’t open at all.
“Erick All came in motion, and his route looked to me like it was supposed to carry him into the end zone. He got bumped back right away, and had no depth to his route. The pass rush was on Cade so quick, he couldn’t wait for All to get to the end zone. He just had to get rid of it.
“There are some plays in the passing game that can be made. Maybe Cade can be better, but there’s so much that goes into it.
“The wide receiver screen to [freshman wideout] Roman Wilson, where the other guys that were blocking completely whiffed. Roman gets dragged down for no gain. All those things contribute to plays in the passing game not working.
“That’s where the meat’s still on the bone, where Harbaugh always refers to that. There are some plays there that could be big gainers. But they have to be executed — from the quarterback position, from the receiver position, and from a blocking position.
“You go back and look at the anatomy of some of the plays that failed, you’ll notice it wasn’t the wide receiver who caught the ball or the quarterback who threw the ball. It might be the wide receiver who didn’t get the block that would have spring a screen pass for a big gainer.”
The scrum play where redshirt sophomore running back Hassan Haskins eventually broke free: “Everybody loved it, of course. I thought it was funny that Cade got in there himself, and pretty much everybody was pushing.
“It’s amazing that Haskins almost burst out the far side. That’s incredible balance, incredible strength.
“Hey, if they learned anything at Nebraska, it’s play to the whistle, right? That’s playing to the whistle, something Nebraska didn’t do, and [senior safety] Brad Hawkins took advantage of it. Michigan clearly did do it.
“I said at the beginning of the year, I thought Hassan Haskins was a better De’Veon Smith. De’Veon Smith was a powerful, strong back. Haskins has more wiggle, just as much strength. That one was reminiscent of one De’Veon broke for a touchdown against BYU back in 2015.”
A significant sideline observation: “Northwestern hit Michigan with some screen plays. I was walking behind the bench, and [defensive coordinator] Mike Macdonald was addressing it with the defense, and talking about tracing running backs out of the backfield — don’t just let them go, get on their hip and follow them.
“They did a better job, after they got hit back-to-back on Northwestern’s opening drive of the second half. The first one doesn’t work, as [freshman linebacker] Junior Colson makes the tackle there.
“Coach Macdonald told me before the game that, what Nebraska did in the second half, he was fully convinced they’d see plenty of that. That all goes back to eye discipline, not falling for fakes that are out there.
“There was a play to be had against Michigan’s defense, that would have been a big gainer. On Northwestern’s opening or second possession, they had a third-and-one, and [Northwestern quarterback Ryan] Hilinski lofted a pass out of the backfield to a tight end. There was another tight end that broke wide open deep, that could have been a big gainer.
“They’ve got some stuff to clean up, because this is a big-play offense that they’re playing this weekend.”
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