Michigan vs. Penn State, 1999: Fourth Quarter

We go three wide and Brady drops back. It's a setup for another screen to A-Train, but Thomas juggles and then drops it. On 2nd, Thomas does a good job with his blitz pickup, but PSU sends the house and Brady can't find anyone. LaVar Arrington comes flying in to smack Brady on a flying leap at his chin.

Punt. Branch is bottled up on the return, stepping out at the 22. TE John "Rory" Gilmore gets the pass from Thompson for a first down at the 33. Jim Herrmann's moustache sees something and gesticulates wildly as the ball is blown ready for play. Larry Johnson gets the carry up the gut for no gain. Michigan rushes four, but James Hall is spun down and sat on as Kevin Thompson delivers a strike downfield to Gilmore on the seam, 25 yards down to the 41, with another 15 tacked on for a dumb, ineffective roughing-the-passer call on Renes. Gilmore was Dhani Jones's man, who was looking to see if Thompson would scramble and was consequently slow to react as Gilmore blew by him.

First down on the Michigan 26. Fields again with a huge cushion from Howard and he takes the easy 9 yards. Flags before the play, false start on PSU. PSU has rushed 17 times for 14 yards. B.A.D. in at corner. Thompson's pass is batted as Jake Frysinger comes in unblocked. On 2nd, Todd Howard comes on a corner blitz that doesn't come close. Thompson finds Fields on the hash. Terrell's playing tighter coverage, but can't break up the pass. First and ten from the 11. Thompson's fade doesn't come close to Corey Jones, who's still out on the 3 with Whitley. On 3rd down, Drummond has Terrell initially beat on the slant, but the ball is slow in arriving and Terrell gets a solid hand on it to break it up. Penn State kicks the field goal to take their first lead of the game, 20-17. 11:59 remains in the 4th quarter.

Walter Cross takes the ball on the goal line and brings it up to the 16. Play action from Brady, but Terrell is covered and well overthrown. Brady comes down to Thompson on second down for a gain of 14. Thomas tries to run the ball behind the right tackle, but he's been driven back too far for Thomas to get more than 2. On the next play, Brady gets destroyed as Maurice Williams (-2) gets owned by DE Justin Kerpeikis. 3rd and 15, Brady hangs in a pocket that's slowly collapsing and hurls one at Marquise Walker near midfield, where Bhawow Jue picks him off and takes it back for 6. It was a tight window, as Walker ends up between three blue jerseys, and Jue went right to the ball and got some blockers. 27-17, PSU. Their mascot looks like an old carpet sample. Danielson thinks lazy route-running from Walker was the cause of the interception.

Lloyd is not happy with Walter Cross ending up on the wrong side of the 20 and Charles Drake gets the kickoff...and takes it to the 19. Blerg. Shea gets the screen and gets hit immediately. Brady gets hit as he lofts one behind Marquise Walker. 3rd and 8. Trips up at the top of the formation. Brady gets hit as he releases and the closest receiver is a PSU LB, but a flag comes out and Brandon Short, the LB, gets flagged for interference. Against the nickel, A-Train finds a big hole and takes it for 9 yards. Brady takes a timeout. Or doesn't. Delay of game, and he's snowed under on the 2nd down. On third down, he hits Terrell at the sticks for the first. 6:47 left and we get a good shot of the band, including my section leader Lucy.

And now we take penalty off a confused/illegal substitution. Double tight ends and Brady can't find anyone, so he takes off. This time he has room to run and scrambles for 15 yards and a first down. 6:00 left, ball at midfield. Brady steps up and fires a strike to Terrell 20 yards downfield. DT is slow to get up. Brady pumps once, then launches a parabola to Marcus Knight on a slant-and-go. The ball is a bit overthrown, but David Macklin has his hands on Knight's jersey and he gets flagged for PI. 5:12 left. Danielson notes that Terrell is limping as Brady gets his pass attempt batted at the line. A-Train on the sweep to the right side and there's nothing there. Michigan goes four wide. Marcus Knight draws attention away from Marquise Walker, who gets the ball and makes a few yards with his feet before getting caught at the 2. First and goal, 4:20 remaining. Toss sweep to Thomas and he loses three, as PSU saw it coming. Brady again can't find anyone, but the middle of the field has cleared out and Brady just manages to extend the ball into the endzone as he's tackled. Woooo! Michigan draws to within 3, 24-27, 3:26 remaining in the 4th quarter.

Penn state has the regular kick return formation, and Epstein does indeed boot it deep into the endzone. PSU takes a knee. The Nittany Lions still only have 18 rushes for 14 yards, so they go to the air on first down and Thompson throws it out of bounds. McCoo loses three yards on his rushing attempt, bringing up 3rd and 13. Brady's sacrifice of five yards to preserve a timeout bears fruit as Michigan can use one now, with 3:10 remaining. Thompson throws up a parabola to Eddie Drummond as he starts to feel the pressure. It's underthrown and Whitley's in better position for the ball than Drummond.

The punt is a line drive to DiAllo Johnson at the Michigan 42. He makes the first man miss, finds a hole in the middle of the second wave and busts it down to the Penn State 35. Brady's screen is over Shawn Thompson's head, and it wasn't going anywhere even if caught. Brady looks for Terrell at the sticks, but he's not there in time. Brady from the gun, 4 wide. Knight and Walker combine again, this time Knight coming all the way across the formation as Walker sucks the coverage deeper, leaving him wide open. First down at the 19, the ball goes to Thomas on a sweep. Aaron Shea levels his man. Thomas stumbles leaping over him, but it's a gain of 7 with 2:00 left. Brady has a ton of time and MARCUS KNIGHT!!! Knight headed inside a little bit and then busted back out in the endzone and Brady hit him in stride. For what it's worth, Knight was matched up against the same safety he toasted on his earlier touchdown. Michigan takes back the lead, 31-27.

Another touchback from Epstein. No matter they moved the kickers back. Thompson looks for Fields running down the sideline, but Todd Howard (+1) is locked up on him, finally, and has good position. Eddie Drummond finds the hole in the zone between three defenders and gets the ball for a 19-yard gain. Michigan is rushing three again and Thompson fires the ball out of bounds as McCoo broke off his route waaaaay early. 2nd and 10. Michigan threatens blitz pre-snap but one man bails out for a four-man rush. A DE gets vaguely near, but has two blockers to occupy him as Thompson sails one over Eddie Drummond's head near the Michigan 35. With 3rd and 10, Michigan is playing soft and Thompson makes an easy throw to Corey Jones for 5 and then 3 more before Cato June and Todd Howard escort him out of bounds. It looked like Howard was giving his man miles of room again, but I guess Thompson wanted a sure thing. On 4th and 2, they again go to the air. Michigan has a 3-man line and 3 LBs in the box. Whitley falls on his face from Eddie Drummond's block, leaving Drummond wide open on the slant at the Michigan 45 and he runs for another 10.

1st and 10 from the 34. Three man rush again and Thompson has time. He tries to float a ball into Drummond racing down the sidelines, trying to exploit a hole in the zone, but Whitley makes an excellent play, jumping up to tip the ball out of bounds. The yikes part of the play comes from the fact that instead of taking the man, DeWayne Patmon also took the ball and Drummond has a good shot at 6 if Whitley misses. 0:59 left, 2nd and 10 and Michigan sends the house. Ian Gold comes from the blind side and the fullback takes a lousy angle. Gold speeds around and through him, smacks the ball out of Thompson's hands, and Larry Foote falls on the fumble.

The offense comes out, needing to pick up a first down to guarantee victory. Thomas is tackled after a two-yard gain, as newborn children know what's coming up. PSU timeout, 0:47 left. Give to Thomas on a sweep to the left. Shea locks up on his man, so does Thompson. Hutchinson has moved to the second level and Backus is left with no one to block. Thomas runs for an easy first down at midfield. Brady takes a knee and Danielson emphasises that it's now three in a row for the maize and blue. Musberger, meanwhile, calls Tom Brady "the most underrated college quarterback in the country," and boy did that prove out in a big way. Brady takes a knee, and that's the ballgame.

Penn State would lose its next game to Michigan State, 35-28. Though no doubt devastated over the loss of the Land Grant Trophy, the Nittany Lions would destroy Texas A&M 24-0 in the Alamo Bowl. Michigan still had a chance at the Rose Bowl, but Wisconsin destroyed a woeful Iowa team to secure their trip to Pasadena. Instead, Michigan would go to the Orange Bowl, playing the first overtime game in school history, against Alabama.

Michigan vs. Penn State, 1999: Third Quarter

Second half. Walter Cross is back deep for the Wolverines. Gary Danielson wants to remind us he's not as old as Musberger. I think if I ever attended a game in Happy Valley I'd develop a pathological tic due to that roar. Cross wisely takes a knee 6 yards deep in the endzone. Brady fakes the pitch to Anthony Thomas and finds Courtney Brown in his face. Thompson had released too early for the same TE flare that worked in the first half. Danielson disagrees with me, saying it was Bennie Joppru on a crossing route who was his real target. 2nd and 14. David Terrell! He comes upfield on the skinny post to the middle of the field and Brady puts it right on his hands again. Good protection and it's 1st and 10 on the Michigan 42.

Courtney Brown beats Backus and flows to the hole to bring down A-Train after a gain of three. Brady has nobody and a collapsing pocket. He gets a couple, but there are flags aplenty. Again it's Courtney Brown forcing the issue. Holding on Michigan, 2nd and 17. Brady drops back, launches downfield to Marcus Knight, who can't bring it in. CA-, 2. Brady doesn't like what he sees and calls a timeout. After the break, Brady finds Terrell exploiting a soft spot on the sideline in a rare zone from Penn State and converts the first down.

Thomas has no luck creasing the PSU line and gets maybe a yard. Brady discusses having Henson eager to stab him in the back and steal his job. Marcus Knight takes off on the same skinny post Terrell ran, absolutely smoking his man, and Brady hits him in stride for a beautiful touchdown. Michigan, 17-7! Michigan exploited Knight's matchup against a strong safety in man coverage.

Watson breaks a pair of tackles on his way up to the 22 and gets a bonus 15 for unnecessary roughness on Charles Drake. Eddie Drummond is open on a screen. McCoo gets the handoff and goes nowhere. Whitley gets there right as the ball arrives and breaks up the 7-yard pass to Fields. Terrell is in as a DB. Thompson can't find anyone and tries to run for the first. He slips one tackle, but gets pounded between a pair of Michigan defenders. An excellent punt and lucky bounce leaves Michigan at their own 4.

The give is to A-Train with a small hole and he stumbles for 3 or 4. A-Train again for less. 3rd and 5. Brady can't find anyone and gets rid of it rather than take a sack on the 1. The snap almost goes over Epstein's head and he has to get rid of the ball quickly as someone (Eddie Drummond?) comes flying in, almost getting the block. Naturally, it's a crappy punt, going out of bounds near the 30. Musberger thinks it's because we're trying to avoid Branch, but whatever.

McCoo gets a long run in, relatively speaking, going 4 yards. The FB Mike Cerimele catches a pass for 4 more. On 3rd and 2, McCoo runs up the gut and is stopped nowhere near the first. Travis Forney in for a 39-yard attempt and it's good. Michigan 17, Penn State 10.

Cross should've took another knee. Michigan starts at the 16. Brady drops back and finds Marcus Knight for 4, where he's hit immediately. LaVar Arrington comes across to bring down A-Train after a couple more yards. 3rd and "3". The pass is incomplete, but PSU was clearly offsides, so it's immaterial. Brady is swarmed and sacked back at the 20 as the line collapses on the blitz. On 2nd, Thomas takes the ball up the gut for 5, bringing up 3rd and 13. Brady from the gun. Looks like Terrell was coming across, but not deep enough for the first and the ref set and effective pick. Epstein boots it back to the 34.

Thompson back to pass, pumps and finds Fields wide open on a similar route to his big first-half catch. Todd Howard comes flying in to bring him down, but he was beat like a drum/rug/Todd Howard. Eddie Drummond gets 5 yards, as a matchup with Ian Gold favors him. Whitley helps clean up. Fields again, another huge cushion from Howard on a shorter route to the sideline. PSU is trying to work a hard count aainst Renes. Eddie Drummond fights James Whitley on a fly route and beats him. Whitley can't find the ball up in the air and it's an easy catch for Drummond in the endzone. Tie game, 17 all. 2:09 remaining, 3rd quarter.

Cross takes a knee on this kick. It's loud in Beaver Stadium. Shea gets the handoff and gets nothing. On second, screen to Thomas. Chris Ziemann on the turf gets just enough of LaVar Arrington to open the play up for a 24-yard gain, but there's a flag on the play, likely on Ziemann's grab, especially since it's a spot foul. 2nd and 12. Arrington looks like he's coming dead in on a blitz from Brady's blind side, but actually tries to come between the tackles, but there's no hole for him. Instead Brady finds Terrell on the 30 at the numbers. David Macklin slips as he tries for the pickoff and Terrell races to midfield for another 20 yards. Anthony Thomas and LaVar Arrington collide like Japanese movie monsters and fall to the turf. Thomas loses a yard, but Arrington is shaken up and has to come off the field. So ends the 3rd quarter.

Michigan vs. Penn State, 1999: First Half

The year: 1999. Joe Paterno, a young and spry 73, leads his Nittany Lions (9-1) against a 7-2 Michigan team that had dealt with back-to-back losses against MSU and Illinois by escaping from Indiana with a 34-31 victory and then thrashing Northwestern 37-3.

Musberger makes a reference to "putting Minnesota behind them", as the Nittany Lions had lost to the Gophers the week before, 24-23. CB Jeremy Miller takes a knee. In an interview, QB Kevin Thompson talks in despairing tones of the loss ruining PSU's national championship dreams. Uh, Kevin? Don't look now, but...

Eric McCoo carries it nowhere as safety Tommy Hendricks comes up to stop him. McCoo tries the same thing again, but James Hall takes him down after a couple yards. Musberger calls Todd Howard "the corner to watch". Diplomatic, that Brent. FUUUMMMBLLLEEE! The exchange is dropped, Rob Renes drives his man straight back more than two yards, allowing Ian Gold to pounce on the ball.

Michigan ball at the 22. Brady drops back, looking for David "B.A.D." Terrell down the sideline, but his man is in good position and the ball falls harmlessly out of bounds. Brady pitches to Anthony Thomas heading up the right side for four yards. Aaron Shea is the tailback on an obvious passing down, and Brady wings one wide of Terrell, who shows up his QB by giving the universal "What was that?" signal. PSU deploys that stupid lion roar. Hayden Epstein boots it through to put Michigan up 3-0.

12:42 remaining in the first. Another deep kick, but Watson brings this one out to the 25. Dhani Jones and Ian Gold blitz straight up the middle. Both are cut, but Thompson doesn't move and Ian Gold reaches up and grabs his leg to drag him down. 2nd and 15. Renes jumps across to give those five yards back. Chafie Fields is getting a huge cushion from Todd Howard, who compounds the error by backing off further when Fields turns to the sideline on his flag route. Easy throw and catch. First and ten from the 45. McCoo gets the carry and goes for good yardage until he's hit by Cato June. June puts his helmet on the ball and it pops out. It looks like the Lions have it back initially, but it's Michigan coming up with the ball. It looks like NT Eric Wilson came up with it.

A Train gets the call, running inside of the right tackle. Brady gets mauled by LB Brandon Short coming free on a blitz. On 3rd and 15 from about the M 40, Terrell takes off on a skinny post and Brady delivers a perfect strike to the hash, only to have Terrell absolutely smoked by James Boyd. Miraculously, he holds onto the football. Amazing catch. After the play, Brady goes off to the sidelines and Musberger suspects he's injured as Henson comes to the line. First and ten on the PSU 43. He throws a long handoff to DiAllo Johnson who steps and throws it right back to him. It's a prototype for the Navarre Water Buffalo Stampede of '03 and Henson takes off down the sideline with a wall of blockers. He rumbles down to the 21. Wooooo! DiAllo Johnson: Also a high school QB.

Thomas gets the handoff on a counter and Steve Hutchinson blows up a guy in the second level. Thomas delivers the hit down at the 3 for an 18-yard gain. TE Bill Seymour moves early to back things up 5 yards. Thomas gets the ball again and drives down to the 5. Thomas again, getting the pitch. He probably could have cut it up behind Jeff Backus, who was owning his man, but instead heads outside where he's tackled by a couple Penn State players at the 2. Same play, run to the other side. Thomas cuts it up and heads into the endzone untouched. Touchdown! Epstein hits the extra point to make it 10-0. Fun fact: This is the last time the full MMB traveled to Penn State.

We now move ahead in the action. 11:14 left in the 2nd quarter, Michigan still leads 10-0 and has the ball on its own 25. Brady finds Shawn Thompson on that TE flare route for an easy 15 after he disengages from his man. A Train tries to bounce it outside, but loses three. On 2nd and 13, Brady looks downfield and delivers a perfect ball right on the hands of David Terrell, but B.A.D. flat-out drops it. Maybe he was afraid of getting destroyed again, but he had the CB beat. On 3rd and 13, Brady can't find anyone and is under pressure. He moves up in the pocket to avoid the sack, but has no chance to pick up a first down with his feet.

Epstein punts it away and Bruce Branch takes it near the sideline, immediately cutting back across the field, and he's gone. A couple bad angles and that's all Branch needs to take it to the house. Apparently Michigan had already taken two halo violation penalties and Danielson thinks that affected our tepid punt coverage.

And so ends all action from the first half, according to ESPN Classic. Penn State was held to a meager 6 yards of rushing in the first half on 7 attempts and neither QB completed a pass for more than 20 yards.

The Brady Inexperience Lie

There seems to be a running recurrent in the post-Brady injury apocalypse to call Tom Brady "inexperienced" when he came in to the NFL, which was why he was taken in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft.

While I would normally chalk this up to the MSM developing and holding to a story line, this one drives me mad, because I watched two seasons of Tom Brady as Michigan's starting quarterback. I have fond memories of Tom's years at Michigan and I need to define "inexperience", because the statistics back up the facts, which should hopefully put this argument to bed.

Tom Brady came to Michigan in 1995 and redshirted that season, allegedly landing at seventh on the depth chart at quarterback.

During the 1996 season, Lloyd Carr's second as Michigan's head coach, Tom Brady saw action two games, UCLA and at Minnesota where he attempted a grand total of five passes in mop up duty during a pair of blowout victories.

During the 1997 season (sighs longingly for a better time), Tom Brady was Brian Griese's backup. Brady saw action in four more blowouts and attempted 15 passes in three games (Brady's appearance in the Penn State game consisted of negative yardage runs, which would lead me to think victory formation kneel downs. I do not have the time to download the torrent to be sure.)

During the 1998 season, Brady, now a redshirt junior, was named the starting quarterback, but that was not without controversy, as wunderfrosh Drew Henson was also turning heads and leading many fans and in the media to see him quickly supplanting Brady in the starters role. Brady, however, started every game for Michigan in 1998. The only game in which Brady did not see a majority of the time was the Syracuse debacle (or the Donovan McNabb DAMN! show, however you want to look at it.) and Henson was largely ineffective as a passer (though with Anthony Thomas, you really don't need an exceptionally effective quarterback). Henson was 19 for 45 for the entire season in limited time.

This brings us to the 1999 season. Brady is a senior, and Henson is pushing him, leading to a platoon between the two. The stats (http://tinyurl.com/6atpcf) bear us out here. Brady started every game. The reason people tend to remember Henson as the "starter" is that Brady was concussed during the Syracuse game at the Carrier Dome, which had him knocked out after attempting just ten passes, and the Michigan State debacle, where Henson was leaned on for far too long in the game when he was ineffective and Brady rallied the team to a near miraculous comeback, but fell short. That game, as it sticks in the craw of many Michigan fans, leads to false memories. Henson was not the starter and did not start a game for Michigan until the 2000 season. Save the Northwestern blowout and one pass in the Orange Bowl, Henson did not see the field again during Brady's tenure at Michigan.

All in all, Tom Brady started for two full seasons at Michigan, a total of 25 games. He threw for over 5,000 yards in his career (then a Michigan record, believe it or not), and completed roughly five out of every eight of his pass attempts and threw a touchdown pass one in every 20 passes. All this for a team that had Anthony Thomas, who ran for 2,000 plus yards and 32 touchdowns during Brady's junior and senior years. I don't know what people want out of Brady in his college experience. He, admittedly, finished behind Joe Germaine and Drew Brees for all-Big Ten quarterback honors in 1998, and was all-Big Ten second team in 1999 (again behind Brees.) But Tom Brady was not an unknown when he was drafted with the #199 pick in the 2000 draft. He was experienced.