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Michigan has faced gunslingers at quarterback over the course of the last five seasons. The Wolverines have faced mobile quarterbacks too.
But in all the games Michigan has played since Jim Harbaugh took over in 2015, the Wolverines may not have faced a better opposing quarterback than Ohio State’s Justin Fields.
Fields is a combination of three Buckeye quarterbacks that gave Michigan nightmares. His size and passing ability rivals that of Dwayne Haskins. His speed and athleticism induces fear like Braxton Miller. And his grit and toughness reminds you of J.T. Barrett.
Let’s throw in a fourth, from a different era, just for fun:
Think Troy Smith, but bigger.
Fields’ ability to hurt a defense in multiple ways isn’t lost on Harbaugh, who had plenty of good things to say about the quarterback on Monday.
“Justin Fields has had a tremendous year, playing winning football at all times,” Harbaugh said. “Really athletic, runs the ball extremely well. Gets a lane, gets a throw, he’ll make the throw. And also when there’s a lane, he’ll escape and he’ll do damage with himself running the football.”
Completing 69.4 percent of his passes, Fields has thrown for 2,352 yards with a staggering 33 passing touchdowns against just one interception. He’s also carried the ball 105 times for 445 yards and 10 touchdowns. Due to this running ability, Fields is an especially frustrating guy to defend on third downs.
“He’s a good dual-threat guy,” Harbaugh said. “He can hurt you in the passing game. He’s got a lot of good receivers and tight ends. Also, if they’re covered, he can pull it down, make the yardage, make the first down. Extend the drives, extend the plays. A very good player.”
If there is one criticism you can direct at Fields this season it’s this – he’s fumbled eight times in 11 games, losing four. Two of those lost fumbles came last week against Penn State, the second of which helped the Nittany Lions get within 21-17 after being down three touchdowns.
Fields made up for that later, however, throwing a touchdown pass to wide receiver Chris Olave to put Penn State away.
“He’s just very dynamic, he’s very good,” said Michigan defensive tackle Carlo Kemp. “And, as you can see, he makes little mistakes. It’s just going to be [doing] whatever we can to cause those mistakes to happen.”
The Wolverines have grown accustomed to facing dynamic Buckeye quarterbacks. But familiarity hasn’t led to success.
Of all the quarterbacks mentioned above, it’s possible that Fields will be the most difficult to contain. Michigan’s defense knows the challenge that’s ahead. It remains to be seen if they have an answer.
“Execution,” defensive captian Khaleke Hudson said. “Executing the job. Every defense that we have is made to stop the run and pass. All of our guys executing our job, doing what we’ve gotta do for every second of the game — we’re gonna get that done.”
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