Two questions for anyone who was at the game...

(1) Where was Ben Mason?  On several third-and-shorts, I didn't see him in the backfield (though Higdon handled the situations well).
Did anyone see him on the field as a BLOCKER at least, on some plays?

I was also thinking, the way their bruising ground game had its way with us early on, why our toughest, maybe strongest, man wasn't
put in a LB role to help stuff them, given the "chat" about him playing both ways.  

(2) Speaking of BIGGER (albeit slower) bodies at LB to stuff their smash-mouth style, where was Noah Furbush?  Seems he would have
been better-suited than Hudson to absorb 310-pound veteran OL-men.


On the flip side, it was GREAT to see Michigan Dwumfour in there on at least a few plays. Obviously coach wasn't whistling Dixie when he said his
injury sustained vs. Maryland wasn't nearly the disaster it seemed at the time. Same comment holds for Carlo Kemp. Assuming Rashan Gary DOES play this coming Saturday, our D-line will be in fine shape. And with our secondary finally living up to its preseason billing, we have to have a warm feeling about the trip to Bovine Utopia.


Though in honesty, I'm not convinced the QB they handled last night was nearly what he's cracked up to be, given he's [a] a three-year starter who [b] was 15-1 on the road coming in. You know who I'm talking about: his name is suggestive of actress SHIELDS suffering a bout of nymphomania...eh?

OOPS---typo.  MICHAEL Dwumfour.  Despite the fact he's a MICHIGAN man, I certainly don't mean to insult him by confusing him with "another"
MICH[igan]MIKE...

Re Mason- I was at the game and we were wondering what was up as well. I THINK he played very sparingly and then just early. When we did use a fullback later, it was Wangler.

I thought he must have been hurt. So you are saying that when I watch my tv replay they won't mention it? I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

As for playing linebacker as well I think that is too big of an ask in today's game without having practiced extensively at the position.

Also Woody- as I meant to say your prediction was right on the money! Someone must have hijacked my computer when I questioned you before the game.

I'll tell you what happened. Look at the first several plays. Twice in those plays Mason made the worst attempts at blocking as I've ever seen. I'm almost positive that is why he was benched.

I mean it was so clear where I was sitting. He led around the corner, ran past 3 defenders and blocked a guy pretty much while the runner was getting hammered. Another play was misdirection in the backfield and he was the lead blocker around end. Let's just say I blocked as many people in the tailgate as he did on a sweep.

I saw him get back in for a play later and he did the exact same thing. He was benched for good after that play.

He got held out because of these. If you have the game recorded look early in the game. He was abysmal.

You might be right about that Joe, although not sure why we wouldn't run him on the 3rd and 1's. As it turned out the tailback was picking them up anyway.

Did you record the game shoes?

I did. I just erased it though in favor of the BTN one hour long condensed version.

Watch it early in the game. He didn't have a good day saturday.

Now I don't have any idea if that is what happened but I listened to 2 podcasts this morning (WTKA and MGoBlog) and they have no clue either.

Lol, until we get a real answer we are all right!

Ok, I'm watching the game again.

At about 11:25 of the second quarter Mason leads Ambry Thomas on a sweep left. Mason runs right by his guy and then reaches back for a total non-block.

At about 6:09 he blocks an outside linebacker the wrong way right into the ball carrier.

Now he hardly played except for 5 or 6 plays the first half so I could be wrong about the blocking. But when he was in he did nothing.

I'm not bashing the kid. We need him. I'm just reporting.