Fantastic, Functional, Forgettable: Michigan, CMU victorious as MSU, WMU and EMU falter

One rivalry week is out, another comes into focus.

Michigan beat Michigan State, 31-20, this weekend, and now attention in the state turns to the Battle for the Victory Cannon between Central Michigan and Western Michigan. But first, let's wrap up the weekend.

Central Michigan beat up on UMass in a homecoming win, while Western Michigan lost on the road to Miami (OH), putting both teams at 3-1 in conference going into this weekend.

And Eastern Michigan fell, 28-21, to Ohio to fall to 2-7 on the season.

Fantastic

Jimmy Rolder: The Michigan linebacker played at a different speed on Saturday night, and came up big for the Wolverines time and time again. He also led the team with 10 tackles, nine of them solo. He showed up early, recovering a fumble forced by Brandyn Hillman on Aidan Chiles on the third play of the game that set up an early Michigan field goal. He’d stunt outside-in a few series later on a blitz and sack Chiles. 

And in the second half, as Michigan State chased the game, Rolder came up big twice in pass defense. He first broke up a two-point attempt as MSU tried to go down nine instead of 10. And later, as Michigan State trailed by 11 and attempted a fourth down rollout pass, Rolder keyed on his man, tight end Jack Velling, and flew downhill to break up the pass, nearly intercepting it. The senior starred for Michigan’s defense.

Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall: Michigan ran for 276 net yards, with Haynes and Marshall accounting for 262 of them. Haynes returned from a one-game injury absence, having sat out the Washington win after sustaining an injury against USC, and took 26 carries for 152 yards and a pair of second-half touchdowns. He opened up the second half with a pair of big runs, and has now rushed for 100 yards in six of the seven games he’s played for Michigan this year. 

Marshall followed up a 100-yard outing against Washington with 110 yards on 15 carries, including a 56 yard touchdown with fewer than four minutes to play to put Michigan up, 31-13, and seal the game. The one-two punch in Michigan’s backfield that seemed possible in the preseason put on a display in Spartan Stadium. 

Central Michigan’s defense post bye: In two games out of a week off, Sean Cronin and the CMU defense have allowed 19 points, intercepted opposing quarterbacks thrice and are a big part of the Chippewas being a win away from bowl eligibility in Year 1 of Matt Drinkall’s tenure. And Saturday against UMass showed off the mettle secondary and the continued ascendence of the defensive line. 

UMass quarterback AJ Hairston finished 21-for-51 for 176 yards and threw an interception to Kalen Carroll, the first of his career. The Chippewas also broke up eight passes to cut into Hairston’s paltry passing line. The CMU defense front also came up with three sacks and seven tackles for loss, with five players combining on the sacks and nine on the TFLs in a continuation of good play out of the bye. 

Central Michigan’s offense: Pretty much everyone got to chip in for the Chippewas en route to 38 points against the Minutemen. Quarterbacks Joe Labas (148 yards, 2 TDs) and Angel Flores (75 yards) combined to go 12-of-13 for 223 yards with two touchdowns passing. And the running game continued to churn, producing 279 yards and three touchdowns. 

Six Chippewas carried the ball on Saturday, and Brock Townsend punched in two touchdowns while Nahree Biggins led the team with 94 yards, powered by a 58 yarder early in the game. Trey Cornist added 70 yards, and Flores ran for 63 and a touchdown. Seven Chippewas caught passes, too, as Townsend led all receivers with 78 yards on two catches, plus a touchdown to give him three total on the day. 

Devin Miles on special teams: Miles returned seven kickoffs for 218 yards, good for a cool 31.1 yards per return. He fueled that total with a 72 yarder that was one of several returns he came close to returning for a touchdown. He also had returns of 21, 35 and 41 yards. His shortest went for 13. 

In a low scoring, low possession game, Miles gave the Broncos excellent field position that helped the defense stay on top of a solid Miami (OH) offense. And while it wasn’t enough to shift the game on its own, the Broncos will always take the type of special teams performance Miles produced on Saturday.

Functional

Eastern Michigan’s 1st 3 quarters: The Eagles raced out to a strong start, leading Ohio 14-7 after one quarter and holding that lead until late in the third quarter on the back of a heroic defensive effort. Eastern Michigan had a pair of interceptions and turnover on downs defensively among five stops on seven drives through the first three quarters, or at least until 1:13 remaining in the third quarter. Ohio took the ball back at that point after a missed Eastern Michigan field goal attempt, the Bobcats having tied the game finally on the prior drive. 

In a 14-14 game, Ohio drove 70 yards and went up 21-14 with 13:36 to play in the game. The teams traded punts, then Eastern Michigan fumbled. Ohio gave the Eagles one last shot to get back in the game, missing a field goal with 6:03 remaining. EMU went three and out, punting back to the Bobcats down a touchdown. Ohio drove 69 yards and scored to go up 28-14, and a last-gasp touchdown drive by Eastern Michigan couldn’t be parlayed into a true comeback when Ohio recovered an onside kick. With the loss, the Eagles fall to 2-7 and out of a way to play into bowl eligibility. 

Western Michigan’s 1st 3 quarters: The Broncos suffered a similar fate as the Eagles, taking a 17-9 lead into the fourth quarter before Miami (OH) went on a 17-0 run to end the game and win, 26-17. The Redhawks took an early 6-0 lead with back-to-back field goal drives, and the Broncos eventually answered with back-to-back touchdown drives in the second quarter, with Miami (OH) kicking a field goal in between for a 14-9 halftime margin.

The Broncos added a field goal in the third quarter before the Redhawks began to turn the game. WMU punted back to Miami (OH) on the final play of the third quarter, and the four drives in the fourth quarter for the Red Hawks, starting with a nine-play touchdown march, went like this: touchdown, touchdown, field goal, end of game. Saturday’s loss isn’t nearly as damaging to WMU’s long-term outlook as EMU’s was, but it was a major missed opportunity to be the lone undefeated team in conference play, still. 

Makhi Frazier: MSU finished with 305 yards, and Frazier had 109 of them, plus one of three touchdowns the Spartans scored. He did all his damage on the ground, and averaged 7.8 yards per carry, racking up his 109 yards on 14 carries. Much of Frazier’s damage came on a 49-yarder in the first half, which sparked MSU’s lone first-half score, a touchdown to cut the margin to 10-7, Michigan. 

He added a 25-yarder in the second half, but the Spartans failed to convert a fourth down later on that drive. Frazier often got swallowed up shortly after hitting the hole, if not sooner, but when he got a chance to make someone miss in the hole, or get out wide as he did on his 49-yard run, he made it count. 

Michigan’s secondary: Without Rod Moore for the second-straight week, Michigan’s defensive backs put together a strong outing. The coverage unit got away with grabby play, with at least one hold uncalled over the middle and a bevy of physical coverage reps that straddled the line of pass interference but went uncalled. The Wolverines played with good technique and more or less dared the officials to call it tight with their play, and it worked out in their favor. 

Things got a little loose later on as they played with a lead, as Nick Marsh got free and nearly scored a touchdown on a 24-yarder — the Spartans scored on the next play anyways, Frazier punching it in from inside the 1 yard line. And the Wolverine DBs took a few bad angles on his long run in the first half. Hillman forced the fumble on Chiles early, though, and on balance, the unit did its job against a good group of receivers. 

Michigan State’s pass rush: During the week leading into the game, Joe Rossi and Michigan State’s defenders spoke of the need to disrupt Michigan freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood. While they only ultimately sacked him once for a short loss, they made an early and sure impact on him. And it came about in part because of some strong individual play and a well-concocted gameplan from Rossi. 

Firstly, defensive end Jalen Thompson had a strong game and shined in the first half playing bully ball against Michigan right tackle Andrew Sprague. He pressured Underwood on a goal-to-go play after the early fumble, forcing an incompletion. The next play, Rossi took his turn, dialing up a corner blitz that heated up Underwood for another incompletion. The would-be magnum opus was Malcolm Bell’s sack fumble in the third quarter that got undone by a controversial offsides. 

Forgettable

Bryce Underwood, Michigan’s passing game: He had a nice touchdown run — with a great block from Max Bredeson to spring it — and delivered a few nice passes down the field to Andrew Marsh, but Underwood didn’t do a whole lot on Saturday night. That’s due in part to the aforementioned MSU pass rush, and in part due to some game script choices by the Michigan coaching staff. 

Regardless, when Michigan did drop back to pass, it often looked gummed up as receivers didn’t come open, or at least took too long too. And a resultant 8-for-17 for 86 yard line reflects that. There were no complaints from the Wolverines post game, as a win is a win and this was a rivalry one, at that. But the Michigan passing attack is surely hoping for better days ahead. 

Aidan Chiles, Michigan State’s passing game: Flipping to the other side, it was much the same, though slightly more productive and voluminous. Chiles went 14-for-28 for 130 yards and nearly picked up a passing touchdown on his toss to Marsh. But much like it went for Michigan, dropbacks were not generally going well for Michigan State. 

The Wolverine defense played its role in that equation, both rushing Chiles and challenging at the catch point. There were inaccurate moments or questionable decisions, too, like when Chiles nearly threw an interception that Jyaire Hill had in his hands the play before Hillman forced the fumble. He also had a rushing touchdown, like Underwood. And like their rivals, the Spartans will surely look for more out of the passing game ASAP. 

Michigan State’s offensive line rotation: The Spartans have been shuffling offensive linemen in and out all season. The move made plenty of sense early in the season, giving players some live reps to develop, building depth and creating more tape to evaluate them off of. Then injuries struck, and the Spartans seemed to be searching for whatever combo might work, without a lot of success. 

The group got a bit healthier this week, with the return of left tackle Stanton Ramil, though the shuffling continued. It’s probably not the case that Michigan State’s offensive line would turn into world beaters if the coaching staff just settles on a healthy five to start, but letting a one group play more consistently together could help the group play a little better than the sum of its parts. 

Michigan’s return game: Michigan’s actual specialists had a good game, so saying this was “special teams” as a whole isn’t quite accurate. But Semaj Morgan continues to be an adventure returning punts. He’s gotten a fair bit better of late at judging kicks in terms of fair catches and returns or letting it go, though he had a major gaffe in that department when he fair caught a punt at the 4 yard line. 

He also had a few returns where he ran away from blockers and got tackled quickly. And Marsh called for a fair catch on a kick return after a personal foul — meaning MSU kicked off from its own 20 — when he likely could’ve returned it further than the Wolverines’ 25. It just wasn’t a great showing on the whole for the returners on Saturday.