P.J. Fleck: Michigan 'best team I've seen in 11 years as head coach'

Michigan plastered Minnesota, 52-10, to keep the Little Brown Jug in Ann Arbor for another year, dominating on both sides of the ball for most of the game. The Golden Gophers moved the ball on the ground a bit in the first half, but the Wolverines adjusted and held them to 7 total yards in the third quarter to end any suspense.

RELATED: Michigan 52, Minnesota 10: Notes, quotes, and observations 
Report Card: Grading Michigan in a 52-10 win at Minnesota

“That’s not many yards,” Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck understated in his postgame press conference. “They’re pretty good … First and foremost, congratulations to Michigan. They’re as good as advertised. I said this on the radio a second ago — I think they’re the best football team I’ve seen in 11 years of being a head coach. I’ve never seen a football team like that, that deep. I’m not sure if this is true, but I was told this walking off the field — I think they traveled 75 people and maybe played like 74 of them. I don’t know.

“They’re one of the deepest teams, one of the best teams, one of the biggest teams, fastest teams, strongest teams, and they do not make mistakes. They are truly like a boa constrictor, and they do not beat themselves. They’re very good at each position. They’re very aligned with everything that they do. They know who they are, and they go and execute that game plan. There were times they did it it at will tonight.”

Fleck took full responsibility, but he also noted again it was what Michigan did and not much more his team could have done. Had they played their best game — and at times their offensive line went toe to toe with the No. 2 Wolverines — they would still probably have come up way short.

“They’re a really good football team, though, so you can’t take that away from them. We got beat tonight, period,” Fleck continued. “We didn’t lose the game — they beat us, period, in every facet of the game. Every aspect of the game — offense, defense and special teams. You can’t win games by giving them two pick sixes. The main difference was they were really efficient and we were off schedule, and it felt like we were behind the chains the entire game. I thought we ran the ball well, and then all of a sudden we’d be behind the chains.

“The minute you drop back with these guys — and you saw that — they just suffocate your pocket. It’s unfortunate. The kid [Michigan sophomore corner Will Johnson] makes a heck of a play on the first pick six. We’ve got a protection route, and all he does is just kind of eyes it, eyes it, and falls off the protection. A protection route means it’s a go route — it’s protecting the inside out route. And he just falls off, makes a great play … I mean, it’s a heck of a play.”

Michigan sophomore safety Keon Sabb used his length and athleticism — as Harbaugh would call them, his blessings from mom, dad, and God — to pick off the second one with a leaping grab. Harbaugh noted he climbed the proverbial ladder, high pointing the ball before running it in for six more.

“The second one I don’t think he even saw him, but he still threw it and the guy had to make a heck of a play,” Fleck continued. “He had to jump in the air, make the play he did, and pick it. But again, we just didn’t execute at a high enough level. And again, we were behind the chains, and we get it … possessions are everything against them. It’s almost like playing a triple option team that doesn’t run the triple option, but scores at will. Every possession counts. And if you go three and out and punt, it’s going to be a long afternoon. If you get a holding penalty on a long run, it’s going to be a long afternoon. You get an illegal formation or illegal shift and we don’t wait for him to get set, it’s going to be a long afternoon. You get sacked, it’s going to be a long afternoon.”

They’re that good up front, Fleck continued, and ‘won the line of scrimmage, period.’

“Once you get down three touchdowns to these guys, it’s hard. It’s really hard to come back,” he said. “Everything changes, and then you got to give it at least a shot, start throwing the ball down the field. Then you get sacked, give it back to them, and then they score again. Then the game is out of reach at that point.

They’re a really good football team. Really good. Well coached, disciplined, aggressive, everything you want to talk about a great football team is, they are. They give you nothing. They don’t give you anything. I would say we’re a pretty physical team … but the physicality of it, the precision of it, and then the multiple ways they get to a lot of different things. Then having threats on the outside that can just flat out fly, an accurate quarterback, big running backs.

“They run tons of gap schemes … multiple pullers. They’re good. And those are big pullers — big athletic pullers. There’s a difference between being big, and being big and athletic, and then strong on top of it. They’re very good.”

And 6-0 as a result, heading into the second half of the slate with a ton of momentum.