Michigan plastered Minnesota, 52-10, to keep the Little Brown Jug in Ann Arbor for another year, dominating on both sides of the ball for most of the game. The Golden Gophers moved the ball on the ground a bit in the first half, but the Wolverines adjusted and held them to 7 total yards in the third quarter to end any suspense. <\/p>\n
RELATED:<\/strong>\u00a0Michigan 52, Minnesota 10: Notes, quotes, and observations\u00a0<\/a><\/strong> \u201cThat\u2019s not many yards,\u201d Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck<\/a><\/strong> understated in his postgame press conference. \u201cThey\u2019re pretty good \u2026 First and foremost, congratulations to Michigan. They\u2019re as good as advertised. I said this on the radio a second ago \u2014 I think they\u2019re the best football team I\u2019ve seen in 11 years of being a head coach. I\u2019ve never seen a football team like that, that deep. I\u2019m not sure if this is true, but I was told this walking off the field \u2014 I think they traveled 75 people and maybe played like 74 of them. I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re one of the deepest teams, one of the best teams, one of the biggest teams, fastest teams, strongest teams, and they do not make mistakes. They are truly like a boa constrictor, and they do not beat themselves. They\u2019re very good at each position. They\u2019re very aligned with everything that they do. They know who they are, and they go and execute that game plan. There were times they did it it at will tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n Fleck took full responsibility, but he also noted again it was what Michigan did and not much more his team could have done. Had they played their best game \u2014\u00a0and at times their offensive line went toe to toe with the No. 2 Wolverines \u2014\u00a0they would still probably have come up way short. <\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re a really good football team, though, so you can\u2019t take that away from them. We got beat tonight, period,\u201d Fleck continued. \u201cWe didn\u2019t lose the game \u2014\u00a0they beat us, period, in every facet of the game. Every aspect of the game \u2014\u00a0offense, defense and special teams. You can\u2019t win games by giving them two pick sixes. The main difference was they were really efficient and we were off schedule, and it felt like we were behind the chains the entire game. I thought we ran the ball well, and then all of a sudden we\u2019d be behind the chains.<\/p>\n \u201cThe minute you drop back with these guys \u2014 and you saw that \u2014 they just suffocate your pocket. It\u2019s unfortunate. The kid [Michigan sophomore corner Will Johnson<\/a><\/strong>] makes a heck of a play on the first pick six. We\u2019ve got a protection route, and all he does is just kind of eyes it, eyes it, and falls off the protection. A protection route means it\u2019s a go route \u2014 it\u2019s protecting the inside out route. And he just falls off, makes a great play \u2026 I mean, it\u2019s a heck<\/em> of a play.\u201d<\/p>\n Michigan sophomore safety Keon Sabb<\/a><\/strong> used his length and athleticism \u2014\u00a0as Harbaugh would call them, his blessings from mom, dad, and God \u2014\u00a0to pick off the second one with a leaping grab. Harbaugh noted he climbed the proverbial ladder, high pointing the ball before running it in for six more.<\/p>\n \u201cThe second one I don\u2019t think he even saw him, but he still threw it and the guy had to make a heck of a play,\u201d Fleck continued. \u201cHe had to jump in the air, make the play he did, and pick it. But again, we just didn\u2019t execute at a high enough level. And again, we were behind the chains, and we get it \u2026 possessions are everything against them. It\u2019s almost like playing a triple option team that doesn\u2019t run the triple option, but scores at will. Every possession counts. And if you go three and out and punt, it\u2019s going to be a long afternoon. If you get a holding penalty on a long run, it\u2019s going to be a long afternoon. You get an illegal formation or illegal shift and we don\u2019t wait for him to get set, it\u2019s going to be a long afternoon. You get sacked, it\u2019s going to be a long afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n They\u2019re that good up front, Fleck continued, and \u2018won the line of scrimmage, period.\u2019 <\/p>\n \u201cOnce you get down three touchdowns to these guys, it\u2019s hard. It\u2019s really hard to come back,\u201d he said. \u201cEverything changes, and then you got to give it at least a shot, start throwing the ball down the field. Then you get sacked, give it back to them, and then they score again. Then the game is out of reach at that point.<\/p>\n They\u2019re a really good football team. Really good. Well coached, disciplined, aggressive, everything you want to talk about a great football team is, they are. They give you nothing. They don\u2019t give you anything. I would say we\u2019re a pretty physical team \u2026 but the physicality of it, the precision of it, and then the multiple ways they get to a lot of different things. Then having threats on the outside that can just flat out fly, an accurate quarterback, big running backs.<\/p>\n \u201cThey run tons of gap schemes \u2026 multiple pullers. They\u2019re good. And those are big pullers \u2014 big athletic pullers. There\u2019s a difference between being big, and being big and athletic, and then strong on top of it. They\u2019re very good.\u201d<\/p>\n And 6-0 as a result, heading into the second half of the slate with a ton of momentum. <\/p>\n\n The post P.J. Fleck: Michigan \u2018best team I\u2019ve seen in 11 years as head coach\u2019<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Michigan plastered Minnesota, 52-10, to keep the Little Brown Jug in Ann Arbor for another…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18922\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Report Card: Grading Michigan in a 52-10 win at Minnesota<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n