Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I'm surprised by the seemingly near-consensus of "the play didn't work, so it was a bad play call" here.  

I'm in the "near" camp and not in the "consensus" camp
I actually think it's a very good call vs the defensive call.  The D-line stunts outside, leaving LBs and safeties in the middle.  If the O-line isn't completely confused and absolutely whiffs on 3 of 5 blocks the play could spring for a big gain up the middle.
on the other hand, if your O-line is easily confused and prone to whiffing on anything more complex than a simple dive, then it's a bad call.

So the entire team sucks except for the qb recruit because he was the #1 recruit in the nation a few years ago. Got it.

And somehow Higdon sucks even though he’s the only Michigan player to find the end zone this week, which he happened to find twicle. Hopefully when Patterson is done walking on water, he can actually throw for a touchdown. The Messiah threw for zero touchdowns against The Irish and Northwestern. He had a staggering 120 yards passing against Nebraska.

I’m confident Patterson will put up good numbers against poor defenses, but it’s going to be a hard landing after he faces Wisconsin, State and PSU in consecutive games. Like I said, I’ll happily eat crow.

To be clear, I’m not saying he can’t throw the ball. He throws a very nice ball. He doesn’t have the IT. He doesn’t have the moxie or the special factor in my eyes. I spend about 3  hours a week watching football, so I’m clearly not the expect, but just my take. He proves me wrong, we’re both happy campers.

Never said the entire team sucks. Some starters and players who get starting like minutes (*cough* McKeon) sure do suck though.
Never said Higdon sucks either. Said Michigan fans need to stop pumping him up. He's nothing more than an average starting B1G RB. Solid player. That's it. Kind of kid that should be starting at Purdue or Minnesota. At Michigan? Nope. Not if Michigan wants to become an elite program. Not going to ever be an elite program with that RB. Yes, he scored twice. Both runs were set up by Patterson marching that team down the field. And both runs were very short runs near the NW goal-line. And both runs he had holes you could drive a semi-truck through. Both runs Ruiz and Onwenu destroyed the defensive tackle and Mason ethered the LB'er. Can't block it any better than those three guys did. I could've scored TD's on those plays. Higdon also lost yards or got one or none yards on a significant amount of his carries. He averaged just over 3.5 yards per carry. He had a few giant holes that he got very little out of, whereas the elite backs would've popped for big gains. Higdon also failed to get that 1st down that would've sealed the game. He just dove into a tackler a yard short of the 1st down. Was a really weird move on his part. Didn't try to put a move on, make him miss or didn't try to just run over him. Just dove into him and the tackler kinda shoved him to the ground.
Hard to throw touchdowns in the red zone when the play callers try and throw fades to Grant Perry. Who is 5'11 max. Where are the goal-line fades to their 6'7+ TE Zach Gentry, 6'4+ WR Nico Collins, or 6'2+ DPJ with an insane 45" vertical. Hard to throw TD passes when you are throwing the ball 22 times a game on average. He had 120 yards passing vs Nebraska because he threw the ball like 15 times. And they didn't call any deep shots. Where the hell is Ambry Thomas or DPJ on deep routes? They have two insanely fast deep threats that they don't even try to use.
Patterson is far from the problem. Jim Harbaugh's offenses flat out suck. The RB talent is mediocre. The starting offensive tackles suck. The play calling system sucks. There is zero urgency or tempo on offense. Zero creativity or innovation in the pass game. Harbaugh is to blame. Period. It's his offense. It's his mess of an offense I should say. He could fix it easily. Fire Pep Hamilton. Hire a legitimate offensive co-ordinator. Then let that co-ordinator run the offense and call the plays. Stay out. Problem solved. Jim won't do that though. He's too much of a control freak and head case and ego maniac. Unfortunately it will be his down fall and keep this program from moving to the next level.

Admitting you are wrong is the 1st step in recovery -I kid,I kid.Things got over analyzed - it's football - read & react.It cracks me up all the different names given to the variety of formations and schemes.Yogi Berra once said "you can't think and hit at the same time"IMO that applies to football also - so much of it is improvisational.And way too many times formation or intent are disguised or flat out spoofed to confuse the opposition.The immediate hand off from McSorley didn't look anywhere except to Sanders.Herbstreit recognized it - he gets his chops busted a lot but he's dialed in IMO.Was a great game to watch - that took a couple of years of my life that I can ill afford to lose at this time

before that he states he was shocked,why not put the ball in to the hands of Trace McSorley with option to throw or run.Indicating it was a bad call to go to Sanders.Either way it was a designed run.There was a lot of action/emotion and I never really listened past the tackle except that he said it was a bad call(to hand off)

Lol.   Still talking about this, despite it being completely settles by SB Nation and Sports illustrates.

Really HB? I thought it was completely settled when the PSU Head Coach, Offensive Coordinator, Quarterback, and Running Back all called it a running play.*
*See quotes and links up-thread 

The great run/pass debate of 2018!

My contribution:

I thought it was weird calling it an RPO, because that is the relatively new trend of reading a safety or linebacker and whether they play run or pass and then doing the opposite, but that is usually on a slant route in the middle of the field.  Reading a linebacker or safety on whether they cover the screen has been around forever, but no one really called them RPO's, despite the fact that yes, they are run/pass options.

In any event, everyone can be right.  The reason they set up the screen is to move a Buckeye defender out of the middle of the field to make it easier to run.  Had no one moved over there they probably would have passed it, but that's like saying if if no one covers a receiver throw it to them.  It rarely occurs that a defense completely forgets to cover a receiver (counterpoint see Florida/Kentucky 2017). 

No participation trophies - the coaches/players involved said it was a designed run,good enough for me