Jim Harbaugh Offended By Rutgers' Halftime 'Celebration,' Responds By Running Up The Score
By Ashley Scoby
@AshleyScoby
Jim Harbaugh and his players will have none of your moral victories.
According to Michigan players, several of Rutgers' players were celebrating in the tunnel at halftime, down 35-16 to the Wolverines.
"They were just saying things like, 'Oh yeah, it's our time this second half,' 'we the comeback kids' and 'these guys can't really finish games,'" Michigan all-purpose player Jabrill Peppers said.
Harbaugh apparently took offense to Rutgers' excitement, and decided he wanted his team to pile on to what was already a dominant performance.
"They were celebrating and he was upset about that," Michigan cornerback Jourdan Lewis said. "He wanted to put points up on the board and make sure that we establish our dominance."
Mission accomplished.
The Wolverines pulverized Rutgers, 49-16 on the scoreboard, but perhaps even more so in mentality. Even though quarterback Jake Rudock had already thrown for 237 yards in the first half, Michigan kept throwing it deep in the first half. And when De'Veon Smith punched in a four-yard touchdown to make it 41-16 with 12:20 to go in the third quarter, Harbaugh made the call to go for two.
"The chart says to do that," Harbaugh said. "If that's what the chart says, we went with that."
But that decision to go for two in what was clearly a blowout victory for Michigan was about more than a piece of paper on the sideline highlighting win probabilities based on point differentials.
Harbaugh easily could have seen Saturday's game against hapless Rutgers as a stat-padding opportunity, even before they stepped on the field.
Add a few happy Rutgers players, celebrating "only" trailing by 19, and that stat-padding game became a "we'll show you" game.
The numbers were similar to those from a video game. Michigan finished with 487 total yards, a season high, including 337 through the air. It was Rudock's largest total since being at Michigan. Tight end Jake Butt caught one of Rudock's passes, for 56 yards, and it was the longest passing play of the year for the Wolverines.
Jourdan Lewis recorded his 19th pass breakup of the season against Rutgers, which set a single-season record at Michigan, with three games to go.
Some of those numbers surely would have happened no matter what; Rutgers is 3-6 and has flopped its way through controversy after controversy throughout the season.
But their biggest mistake Saturday was apparently taking their moral victories. Teams at Michigan Stadium leave the field for halftime via the same tunnel, which is already a ripe opportunity for trash talk. So when they started celebrating the 19-point differential, Harbaugh remembered.
"I don't think I can say that right now," Lewis said of what Harbaugh told the team during the break. "It was a lot, but he wanted to bring that fire back in the second half and finish those guys off."
Said Peppers: "Just to come out and keep the pedal on the gas, don't let up and just keep playing 'til the final whistle. Eventually we'll find their breaking point and I definitely think we did a great job of doing that."
