Spotlight #1: Iowa WR Marvin McNutt
Spotlight #2: Iowa CB Shaun Prater
1st quarter
11:41: McNutt with a catch over the middle in stride. 20 yards. Smooth. Nice hands.
9:39: Prater has a dump off go to his side of the field. Good closing speed and instincts, though it was dropped because the throw was behind the receiver a bit.
9:20: McNutt catches one short and then is driven out of bounds.
7:42: Prater with a solid tackle after a short completion.
6:05: Prater sticks his nose in on a tackle after a gain of 8 on the ground.
5:04: Prater almost allows a short catch, but the receiver drops it, hearing Prater’s footsteps. Prater was able to get a hand on the ball after the drop as well.
4:56: Prater can’t wrap up the tight end in the open field.
0:39: False start penalty on Riley Reiff.
0:33: McNutt catches a slant short of the sticks on 3rd and 14. Nice catch, but can’t break it. 4th down.
2nd quarter
12:25: Iowa’s Broderick Binns with his 2nd pass deflection of the night.
11:37: McNutt catches one for 14, he didn’t have a lot of room and didn’t do much after the catch.
9:30: McNutt gets open quick on 3rd and 7, but drops a sure first down.
4:58: Prater with excellent coverage on a deep route. It might have been borderline pass interference, but it looked clean to me.
4:00: McNutt gets a few on an end around. He could have gotten a bigger gain had he been running full speed the whole time. He wasn’t because it was a designed pass. McNutt is a former quarterback.
3:01: Ryan Van Bergen with a tackle for a loss.
2:43: McNutt catches a screen, breaks one, but not enough for the first.
3rd quarter
14:31: Prater can’t get off a block on a sizeable run. 7 yards.
10:13: Prater blocked off the play on a quarterback run.
7:45: Prater in on a tackle for a loss.
7:03: Binns with his 3rd deflection of the night. The 6-1 255 defensive end could be drafted late as a 3-4 outside linebacker. He has 38 tackles, 8 for loss, 3.5 sacks, and now 6 pass deflections on the year.
4:57: McNutt thrown to, but he’s well covered. The quarterback makes a bad decision under pressure from a blitz.
4th quarter
14:10: McNutt just has one broken up. The true freshman has done a great job on him.
14:04: McNutt with a nice catch for a first down. Quick, strong hands to snatch it.
12:45: McNutt can’t quite break one after a short completion. 3rd and 2 now.
12:03: McNutt getting into a rhythm. Good chemistry with his quarterback, 3rd down conversion.
10:47: McNutt with a lazy break out of his route. This one was bad.
7:43: McNutt plucks an inaccurate ball out of the air for 24 yards.
1:54: Prater with an excellent deep coverage, runs stride for stride with the receiver, forces the route out of bounds. He had the best shot at the ball.
1:48: Prater defending Roundtree deep, beat after a poor jam at the line, but overthrown.
1:30: Prater allows a sizeable gain, but keeps the play in front of him, a key in a close game under 2 minutes.
0:00: Coming into this game, McNutt had 48 catches for 858 yards and 9 touchdowns in 8 games. He’s rising up boards and could be a day 2 pick. Tonight he had 9 catches for 101 yards and seemed to solidify himself as a day 2 pick. He looks like a solid possession receiver. He is big and has solid hands, catches the ball the right way, and gets open well, but he doesn’t seem to have a two gear on deep routes. He doesn’t look very fast.
He also had a few mental lapses, a dropped pass and a very lazy, poor route, though I’d have to see more tape to decide if that’s a habit or not. I think he’d be a nice #2 receiver at the next level, but I don’t know if there’s anything special here or not. He wasn’t all that good before this season and he doesn’t appear to have elite athleticism either.
Shaun Prater looked very solid as well, though his matchup wasn’t very tough. He was matched up with Roy Roundtree, who had 12 catches for 241 yards and 2 scores coming in, though he was much better last season. Roundtree had 2 catches for 37 yards in this game, though one of them was when he wasn’t covered by Prater. The other one was a late catch when Prater was playing off him, just trying to avoid the big play. Prater also could have surrendered a much bigger gain on a poor coverage by Denard Robinson overthrew his receiver.
The 5-11 195 Prater had a few nice plays against the run, but he also whiffed on a couple tackles and had trouble getting off a couple blocks. He looks like a solid player against the run and nothing more, although I will give him points for effort. At 5-11 195, the effort is what I like to see. He’s not a very big cornerback so he’s not going to be known for his ability against the run. Overall, I’d like to see him with a tougher matchup, like next week against DJ Cunningham, but he looks like the late day 2/early 3 day prospect people are making him to be.
Iowa defensive end Broderick Binns also stood out in this one. He can’t stay at defensive end at the next level at 6-1 255, but it was good to see him have 3 pass breakups. He also dropped in coverage on several occasions and looks like someone who could be a nice late round flier as a 3-4 outside linebacker. On the season, Binns has 38 tackles, 8 for loss, 3.5 sacks, and a whopping 7 pass breakups in 9 games.
As for Michigan, both Ryan Van Bergen and Mike Martin had good games. Both are strong against the run and should be drafted in day 3. The 6-2 305 Martin has 5.5 tackles for loss and 3 sacks on the year and looks like a solid rotation 4-3 defensive tackle. Van Bergen has 8 tackles for loss and 3.5 tackles for loss on the year. At 6-5 285, he looks like a mid rounder as a 3-4 defensive end or 4-3 left end.
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