SB Nation - Martavious Odoms

5th Quarter Consensus: Badgers win third straight

Jbharris87 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:18:48 -0000

about 1 month ago: Wisconsin's Aaron Henry (7) runs off the field after Wisconsin's 37-0 victory over Purdue in an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009, in Madison, Wis. Henry recovered a blocked punt for a touchdown. (AP Photo/Andy Manis)

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Michigan at Wisconsin

Kickoff: 11 a.m. CT

Location: Camp Randall Stadium, Madison, Wis.

Weather Forecast: 53F, Cloudy, 20% chance of rain

TV: Big Ten Network

Radio: WIBA-AM 1310, WIBA-FM 101.5 and the Badgers Radio Network

Coverage: A week's worth of coverage at Bucky's 5th Quarter

The Consensus

Jake Harris (8-1, +134): Wisconsin 42, Michigan 28

Adam Hoge (8-1, +137): Wisconsin 27, Michigan 17

Adam Rittenberg (ESPN.com): Wisconsin 31, Michigan 20

The Reasoning

Wisconsin is clearly the better team right now, having won its last two games and sitting pretty at 7-2 overall. Michigan has lost its last five Big Ten games and has yet to win on the road this season. Expect the Badger running backs to find success against a weak Wolverine defense. John Clay is the conference's leading rusher, and he is healthy again after a head injury knocked him out of last week's game against Indiana.

Offensively, Michigan is expected to give Denard Robinson significant playing time at quarterback, after Tate Forcier has proven somewhat ineffective the past several weeks. Robinson is a gifted athlete, but Wisconsin's defense matches up well against him. He has a very shaky arm, which may mask some of the Badgers' problems in pass coverage. Wisconsin is tops against the run in conference play, so expect it to contain Robinson's ground game much the way it did Terrelle Pryor's. Still, Michigan does boast the top scoring offense in the Big Ten, so they will likely put up points. Carlos Brown and Brandon Minor are no slouches at running back, but wide receiver Martavious Odoms will be playing hurt.

The home team has won each of the last five games in this series, with Michigan dropping its last two at Camp Randall Stadium. The Wolverines are playing for bowl eligibility, but the Badgers love beating Michigan and have played with a purpose this season. The Badgers' proficient running game and stout defense will be enough in Madison.

Who has the edge?

Offense: Wisconsin

Defense: Wisconsin

Special Teams: Michigan

Coaching: Wisconsin

Intangibles: Wisconsin

-Jake Harris

Poll

Who you got Saturday, Michigan or Wisconsin?

Michigan by 1-9

1 votes

Michigan by 10 or more

2 votes

Wisconsin by 1-9

5 votes

Wisconsin by 10 or more

15 votes

23 votes | Poll has closed

Agony of Defeat: Are There Any Meaningful Streaks Left?

SCM — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:24:12 -0000

This team has managed to find new and varied ways to tear its fans' hearts out over the past month and a half and yesterday was no exception. A classic recipe of a crippling turnover, a genius playcall by the opposing coach, a missed extra point, and just to top it off a horrifying booth review all combined to stick the needle to Michigan in ways that never cease to be cruel. My heart goes out to these players though, they're fighting their tails off. Oh and let's just get this out of the way at the outset: I cannot conceive of a situation where anyone could possibly defend the overturn on that crucial replay late in the game. Not one. There was absolutely nothing in any of those replays that could've overturned the call on the field, which was a 1st and goal Michigan. It was horrible and I'm now done talking about it, I promise.

For the second year in a row neither of these teams' defenses were able to put up much of a front against the offenses and it made for an extremely entertaining/frustrating-as-hell football game. I certainly tip my cap to Coach Hope for the onside kick call: nobody in the stadium and certainly nobody at home was looking for that and it couldn't have worked out more perfectly for Purdue. I felt as though Purdue formulated a great gameplan to focus on this defense's obvious deficiencies and they executed it well enough to come away with the win, I mean Joey Elliot lit us up for 367 yards and looked downright good doing it (both picks were tips and not exactly his fault). As rage inducing as yesterday's loss was for Michigan fans, I do think there are a few things we can take away from the loss moving forward. I'll cover more of this later, but we've known for some time that the defense is... well it is what it is. This isn't trying to carve out a moral win in any way, shape, or form, but rather just pointing out that amidst the overall continuing struggle, some aspects of this team's game noticeably stepped up yesterday afternoon. The Michigan O put more than enough points on the board to win this football game, but when it comes down to it, a missed extra point (among other issues) proved to be just too much to overcome in the end... sigh.

Miscellaneous

- Boiled Sports had a few things to say about Rodriguez's post-game comments regarding Hope's low-class move after the game. Quite frankly, who the hell cares? Nobody, that's who. Hope apparently didn't like Rodriguez calling out a blatant cheap shot several weeks ago that just so happened to be by a Purdue player. Of course Rodriguez's singling out of this play has nothing to do with the fact that it was Purdue and Hope but EVERYTHING to do with the fact that the Big 10 conference set itself up as judge and jury of such actions earlier in the season. Hope naturally is too uncouth to understand this and so instead of focusing on his team's great win, Hope figured he'd really stick it to Rodriguez. What a class act. BS continues on to make a rather insight-less rant about Rodriguez's future and generally looks foolish doing so, which is pretty apropos actually. How about you lads stick to topics you actually know something about and celebrate your once in a generation win with some class? Too much to ask?

- Navy managed to put a small grin on my face yesterday afternoon, congrats to them.

- Stanford hanging 51 on Oregon gets a "WOW" if you ask me.

- I had a feeling Ohio State would be able to contain Penn State's offense, but I wasn't sure how well the Buckeye offense and Pryor would hold up against Penn State's D... that Ohio State won wasn't surprising, how they won was.

- Iowa losing to Northwestern was pretty cruel not that I have any sympathy for them... but that they lost Stanzi in doing so is pouring a really wealthy helping of salt in the wound.

Offense

- The offense came alive again yesterday for really the first time since the Iowa game, and managed to sustain it for the majority of the game. I loved the game plan, I loved how well Tate played, and I felt that all in all there were some noticeable steps taken. The switch to the two-back set was a true revelation. Michigan's first four drives netted 24 points, which, YAY.

- 12 points in the second half.... Missed FG, and of course that other thing that I said I wouldn't mention again played into that.

- [Edit] I forgot to mention in the initial post that I fail to understand why we didn't kick the FG on 4th and 10 down eight points in the game... This is the second time in the past few weeks I've really questioned an in-game decision by our coaching staff regarding coming back from a deficit... that's concerning if you ask me.

- I continue to be flummoxed about how on plays like crucial two-point conversions we don't have two or three "go-to" plays that you can run that you know the opposing team has not seen or prepared for. At the very least don't you have to roll Tate out and give him the option to run or throw there? Arg.

- Great balance, 11 first downs rushing, 11 first downs passing. 427 yards of total offense. Michigan's rushing offense put up 215 yards on the ground and averaged 4.9 yards per carry. Listen, missed FG and EP or not, the offense did more than enough to win this football game. That's not something we could've said the last two weeks.

- Tate Forcier made a lot of great throws yesterday, and ended up 15/24 for 212 yards and 1 TD. Of course he also made one big mistake on the option pitch, but the rest of his decision making was much improved. With something bordering on a remotely competent defense, that one turnover is not nearly as huge as it ended up being yesterday. All in all it was as good of a game he's played in the last six weeks, which is incredibly encouraging if you ask me. Much less freelancing, much more sticking within the system. Amen.

- Brandon Minor really gutted out a heck of a performance yesterday afternoon, which honestly was the first time this year he looked anywhere close to the player we saw towards the end of last season. 154 yards and 3 TDs, he did everything he could to carry this team, hats off to you Brandon.

- Roy Roundtree, much to the chagrin of Purdue faithful during the game I'm sure, had a fantastic day and has really stepped up in Martavious Odoms' absence. His emergence is another positive sign for this football team going forward. Forcier has been targeting him more and more since he made it into the lineup and the fact that he had seven more catches than any other Michigan receiver yesterday certainly emphasizes that point.

- The offensive line turned in a better performance this week, although I suspect a lot of the improvement also lies with going with the two back set for the majority of the day.

Defense

- I'm not going to re-invent the wheel here, the unit is easily worse than it was last year, which is to say it's really bad. A few positives from yesterday though: a first half where they limited Purdue to 10 points and really did a great job after the opening drive. Also, two forced turnovers, which was great to see after the drought heading into this game.

- I am not going to write the same thing over and over and over again in this space regarding the negatives and deficiencies, they have been well illustrated and have not really changed, and honestly I don't have any new insight into any of them. The following are points that I think could at least be addressed in some small way with two weeks to go and our bowl lives depending on a win against two solid/better-than-solid football teams...

- Tackling. For the sake of our sanity, wrap the ball carrier up. With the way some of our guys are tackling I'd be just fine with moving Kovacs, who has been downright decent in anything that doesn't require him to cover much faster guys downfield, up with the LBs and.... oh wait, we have absolutely no one else at safety, nevermind... sigh.

- Do not, under any circumstances, get beat deep. Why even put the safeties in a position where they have to come up and then drop into coverage? Just don't let it happen. We can't give up easy points and one play drives. I would love to see our corners playing tighter more frequently, but you have to keep the safeties back.

- I almost think that we need to move Woolfolk back to safety at this point and try someone else at corner... I don't know who that would be, but I don't see nearly as much issue at corner as I do at our safety positions. If Woolfolk can perform back there more effectively than Williams then that is where he should be.

- I really appreciate all the great work put in over at mgoblog detailing the disaster that has been our trying to keep defensive talent on the team over the past four years. It illustrates in an incredibly clear way just how little we're actually working with here. I honestly do not know what else Robinson and company can do with this defense, the areas of weakness are too numerous to mask or hide.

Special Teams

- Ugh.

- Giving up the onside kick was bad, it was a great call, but yeeeeeeeeeeesh.

- Olesnavage has been nothing short of rock-solid all year, and his performance yesterday was one of the more perplexing aspects of the game if you ask me. A missed extra point was the dagger, but his miss on the 48 yard FG in the 4th was also enormous. There's no harm in missing a 48 yard FG don't get me wrong, but he dead nailed the 51 yarder earlier in the game going the same way, so I was entirely confident in him prior to that kick. He's still had a great year but yesterday will be one he'd like to forget I'm sure.

-------

So, yep. Another loss, another week of speculation and dampened hopes. I don't really know what to say in this space, we're going to Wisconsin, who lest you forget absolutely housed Purdue 37-0 a week ago... so yeah. I just cannot believe the events of these last two weeks. We've given up a tidy 1000 yards and 76 points to the likes of Purdue and Illinois. What do you want me to say? OT losses to Michigan State and narrow defeats to the likes of Iowa on the road are things that any football team can experience and are hardly a warning sign of impending doom. But for this team, to be in the position they were in two weeks ago and to have come through those two weeks at 0-2 is beyond explanation. It is on coaching, it is on execution, and it's on a team that also can't seem to buy a break since the calendar hit October. These last two weeks represent a blown opportunity that may well cost this team for years to come. Not in terms of coaching stays, I refuse to believe that Michigan would act rashly in that regard, but rather in terms of both practice and recruiting. Last year's team managed to win two conference games. We're a true freshman's heroics away from not having won a single conference game this season. That is so bad it defies words.

But (you knew there would be a but didn't you?), a win in these next two weeks would go miles (haha, not a pun I promise). It would mean Michigan actually did something along the lines of either beating a downright solid team on the road or doing the unthinkable and beating Ohio State for the first time in half a decade (which would instantly cure all ills as far as 90% of the fanbase is concerned). It would mean they somehow pulled this thing out of the fire for 60 mintues, banded together, and played their tails off. Likely? No, not really. Conceivable? If the offense plays the way it's capable of playing and the defense stops the bleeding long enough to tackle someone... then yes. A win would push the record to a wholly unsatisfying 6-6, but a record that produced 3 more wins than last season and one that many at the outset of the year were throwing around as a somewhat pessimistic prediction.... and that was before we had any idea our defense would be this bad.

A lot of talk around the start of this season centered on whether or not we'd make "the leap"... I never would've really considered that half team would make it and the other half would go in the complete opposite direction. The offense is better in every conceivable way, the system does in fact work, and it is working with youth and backups in key areas still. The defense, the defense is as decimated in terms of talent as any unit I can ever remember at this program. The lack of any kind of continuity at the head of the defensive coaching staff likely doesn't help here. There are coaching decisions on defense that I have not understood or agreed with, but I do not think snap evaluations of Greg Robinson's tenure at this point are based on anything called "logic" or "reason". We're working at a significant talent deficiency compared to every other team in the conference on the defensive side of the football. That is a fact. It's something we cannot hide and cannot fix immediately.

If this team is going to salvage anything from this year, a year that brought joy for a whole month, then they're going to have do it by out-gunning people. It is what it is, and it's not going to suddenly change over the next two weeks of practice. So c'mon Blue, go out there and fight your hearts out.

Michigan preview

BoilerTMill — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:59:54 -0000

It has come to this. All of the dreams we have of playing in a bowl this football season come down to winning in Ann Arbor. Doing so would be the first such victory since Griese was at quarterback. I don't mean Brian in the late 90's for the Wolverines either. Our favorite taco-loving announcer was Purdue's quarterback on October 15, 1966 when we won 22-21 in Ann Arbor.

It is a difficult position to be in, but I wouldn't have it any other way. When I was in school, I always tackled the hardest projects first. I knew if I could finish them, everything else would be easy. That is what we face now. Winning at Michigan is the most difficult of our remaining three games. Win, and we have a better chance to win the final two games. Lose, and it is all about building for next year.

Before the season, this was the only loss I had put in sharpie, as the Boiled Sports guys say. I even gave us a chance against Ohio State at home because we play the Buckeyes well and we were at home. Michigan is quite different. In the three victories over Michigan I have personally witnessed (1996, 2000, 2008) we have had to hang on until the final play in each one. Don't even get me started on our visits to Ann Arbor, which have gone as follows:

1969: L 20-31

1972: L 6-9

1974: L 0-51

1975: L 0-28

1978: L 6-24

1980: L 0-26 (This loss cost us the Big Ten title and Rose Bowl that season)

1982: L 21-52

1983: L 10-42

1985: L 0-47

1989: L 27-42

1991: L 0-42

1993: L 10-25

1995: L 0-5

1999: L 12-38 (Our other four losses that season were by a touchdown or less)

2001: L 10-24

2003: L 3-31 (This also cost us the Big Ten title and Rose Bowl)

2007: L 21-48

That is 17 straight losses at the Big House. In six of those games we didn't even score a single point. Kyle Orton, Drew Brees, Mark Herrman, and Jim Everett never even came close to a win. Shoot, Rick Trefzger in 1995 came closer than any of them. This is what we have to look forward to on Saturday. There is good news though: Joey Elliott led a pair of touchdown drives in the last two minutes during our last visit, so he had a better game in half a quarter than most Purdue quarterbacks.

A rare close game by Purdue at the Big House.

2009 Record: 5-4, 1-4 Big Ten

2008 Record: 3-9, 2-6 Big Ten

Bowl Result: none

Blog Representation: MGoBlog, MVictors, Varsity Blue, Michigan Sports Center, iBlog for Cookies, Maize'n'Brew, Maize & Blue Nation

Series with Purdue: Michigan leads 41-13-0

Last Purdue win: 11/1/2008 at Purdue 48-42

Last Michigan win: 10/13/2007 at Michigan 48-21

It is hard to believe that Michigan started 4-0, but their one win since came in a D-1AA exhibition against Delaware State. Even more unbelievably, they got drilled by an awful Illinois team last week. I can't figure this team out right now. They haven't even been competitive the last two weeks against two teams (Penn State and Illinois) they have historically dominated.

Michigan offense:

The key to any victory this time around will be stopping the Wolverines in the first quarter. Michigan has scored 111 points this season it the first quarter of their nine games. By comparison, they have just 28 third quarter points in that time. If we can prevent them from jumping on us early we have a chance. I am also encouraged that they run a similar offensive style to Oregon. Our defense did a good job of stopping the Ducks (remember, 17 of the 38 points given up were because of turnovers) and Oregon has better personnel running it.

We will definitely see two quarterbacks. Tate Forcier (107-193-5) has nine touchdowns and 1,429 yards passing. He is by far the bigger passing threat. Denard Robinson (11-22-4) has two touchdowns and 179 yards passing. With four interceptions in 22 attempts we want him to throw. Make no mistake. This is by far a run first team. Robinson has rushed for 287 yards and five touchdowns while Forcier has 214 and two scores.

Even though we won last year, we couldn't stop an offense that had struggled all year. They have been more successful this season, so we had better hope we have improved in that area. Brandon Minor (332-5) had a field day against us, going for a career high 155 yards and three scores, but he has been battling injuries of late. Carlos Brown (465-4) leads the team in rushing, but Michigan is at its best when it is spreading the ball around in the running game. Vincent Smith (208-1) and Michael Shaw (181-2) have been known to get in on the action too.

While Michigan's passing game isn't highly productive, it is balanced. Martavious Odoms (22-272-1) is the leading receiver, but Greg Mathews (18-204-1), Kevin Koger (15-211-2), Junior Hemingway (13-233-2), and Darryl Stonum (12-189-1) provide balance across the board. Roy Roundtree, yes that Roy Roundtree, has produced 6 catches for 136 yards and a score.

Michigan has had some issues of late with the offensive line. The unit has given up 19 sacks on the season, and has had some trouble opening holes for the running game. This is not a hulking line like Wisconsin's last week. Four of five starters are under 300 pounds, while Stephen Schilling is the biggest guy at 304 pounds. We should have some room to operate and be disruptive with our defensive line this week.

Michigan Defense:

This is where Purdue has struggled historically. They have been unable to generate any points against the Wolverines. In the four games in which Purdue topped 20 points during this streak most of them came after game was well decided. It is not so much that Michigan has had a lights out defense in that time. It has just been that Purdue has been unable to do anything against it.

Our offensive line could have its hands full with Brandon Graham at the end position., Graham has 6.5 sacks on the season, 17.5 tackles for loss, and is generally a disruptive force in the defensive backfield. Defensive tackle Ryan Van Bergen (32 tackles, four sacks) can also cause some problems. Michigan typically goes with a 3-4 set as opposed to the 4-3's we have seen most of the year. That means faster linebackers will be on the field, but there could be more room to run.

Obi Ezeh is the most active of those linebackers, leading the team with 63 tackles. Stevie Brown (55 tackles), Jonas Mouton (53 tackles) and Craig Roh the the remaining linebackers. It is an interesting mix of youth and experience as Ezeh, Mouton, and Brown are seniors while Roh is a true freshman.

Michigan has had some problems in the secondary. Donovan Warren is a solid cornerback with three interceptions, but they are hurting from the loss of Boubacar Cissoko, who was dismissed form the team before last week's game against Illinois. Troy Woolfolk and Michael Williams man the safety positions, but neither has an interception this season.

Michigan should be more vulnerable to the running game than Wisconsin. Illinois went nuts on the ground last week, and they had no discernable running game until two weeks ago. Their pass defense has been suspect as well. If we can limit turnovers and get back to moving the ball we might have a chance.

Michigan Special Teams:

Behold Zoltan, destroyer of worlds! Zoltan Mesko, aside from having the coolest name in the Big Ten, is a pretty good punter averaging almost 45 yards per kick. It's not like we have a punt return game anyway, so we should get ready to field deep kicks.

Jason Olesnavage is a decent kicker, hitting on 8 of 9 field goals with a long of 44. Bryan Wright is actually a kickoff specialist apart from Olesnavage and Mesko. He is holding teams to about 22 yards per return. Michigan's return game itself is pretty dangerous. We all know what Odoms did to us last year. Stonum has a kickoff return for a touchdown. Also of note, Graham has a blocked punt returned for a score, but it was against Delaware State.

Intangibles:

Do I really need to point it out? The Boiled Sports guys and I discussed how a new coaching staff and new players can make a difference. They do not have the history of the 17 game losing streak on them. The truth is that it hasn't mattered. Every team we have taken up there, with different players, coaches, and philosophies, has gotten drilled for the past 43 years. I gave up two years ago when I went to the game and saw us fall behind 48-7 to a team that got worked by a 1-AA squad. This team has reached a rare level for me. I won't believe we can win there until I see it happen. I held the same attitude toward Notre Dame Stadium until 2004, but even then we had a series of close losses leading up to that win. There is no such history here.

Michigan has ownership over us on their home field rarely seen in college football. It is not that they have won 17 straight. They have done it with just two games being remotely close. Yes we have had some bad teams in this streak, but we have had some very good teams (1999, 2001, and 2003 were all in the top 15 at kickoff) get drilled in Ann Arbor. Technically in 2007 we were ranked at game time, so we have taken a ranked team in our last four trips to the Big House and been outscored 141-46. That is even with two meaningless touchdowns late in our last game.

The numbers are just not there to make me believe we can suddenly turn it around. Right now, I feel more confident about winning in any other venue in the Big Ten, maybe even the country, than I do about winning in Ann Arbor.

Keys to the Game for Purdue:

Catch the football
Limit turnovers
Limit special teams mistakes
Play against the run like we did against Oregon
Don't crap ourselves like we always do in Ann Arbor.

Wha Happened? Week Nine

RossWB — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:44:48 -0000

Sooo... that was an uneventful day in the Big Ten, right? A blowout here, an unexpectedly tight game there, wins by two of BHGP's favorite embattled coaches, and a flawless day of work by the league's refereeing and replay officials. Yep. Nothing to see here. Just the usual. But if you insist... here's Wha Happened.

Come to think of it: has anyone ever seen Batman and Ron Zook in the same place? HMM.

Illinois 38, Michigan 13
Not a dream, not a hoax, not an imaginary story -- Illinois really did crush a conference rival by 25 points. The same sad-sack Illini outfit that hadn't cracked 17 points in a single game against FBS competition this year scored more than that by the ten minute mark of the third quarter; then tacked on another 17 points because they were feeling frisky. Much-maligned (and deservedly so) Juice Williams had a quiet but efficient day passing the ball (8/11, 123 yards), but he took care of the ball (no turnovers) and he helped key an Illinois rushing attack that churned out 377 yards on 56 carries (Juice had 97 yards and a score on 21 attempts), numbers would that make even the potent Illinois rushing attack of 2007 envious. Jason Ford and Mikel Williams both finished with over 100 yards rushing, including a 70+ yard touchdown run by each man. This was a very nice and much-needed win for the embattled Zooker, which makes the BHGP joke writers (we pay them in collector's edition STANZI 4 HEISMANZI t-shirts) very pleased. But, hell, after the ongoing nightmare that this season has been, a win like this is a nice port in the storm; so sit back, relax, and do the Batusi, Ron -- for one night, you've earned it. Wha Happened? was all prepared to write the official obituary for the 2009 Illinois season as they became the first B10 team to clinch bowl ineligibility, but that will have to wait for at least one week.

Meanwhile, former wunderkind Tate Forcier continued his brutal October; he did go 13/23 for 257 yards, but he fumbled three times (losing two), failed to throw a touchdown pass, and failed to lead Michigan to touchdowns of any kind after the first quarter (and failed to lead them to any points whatsoever in the second half). In fact, Forcier hasn't thrown a touchdown pass since the end of the Michigan State game. Whether it's his ailing shoulder, the increasingly cold and nasty midwestern weather, or just the physical grind of Big Ten football on an undersized true freshman's body, Forcier's play has clearly taken a dip. That 4-0 start looks more and more like a mirage and with a pair of home games (against Purdue and Ohio State) sandwiched around a road game at resurgent Wisconsin, achieving more than a 6-6 record may be difficult for the LOLverines. Good thing it's a short road trip to Detroit for the Pizza! Pizza! Bowl.

Finally, a sad farewell to the gloriously-named Boubacar Cissoko, unceremoniously booted from the Michigan team earlier this week for the always-mysterious "violation of team rules" (BHGP theory: swindled Rodriguez out of seed money for City Boyz, Inc. 2.0); between this loss and the impending departure of Zoltan Mesko, Michigan is losing ground in the "totally awesome names" department. At least they still have Martavious Odoms.

Only a quarter as insane as this actual game.

Minnesota 42, Michigan State 34
If Iowa-Indiana wasn't the wildest Big 10 game of the day, then this one almost certainly takes that honor. Over 800 total yards of offense, 76 points, five touchdowns of longer than 30 yards, and, oh yeah, 17 penalties for 157 yards for Minnesota (they tacked on 9 penalties for 73 yards against Sparty; needless to say, the officials had some busy whistles). Absolute lunacy. And words can't even begin to describe how preposterous some of the touchdowns were: Minnesota opened up the scoring with a 62-yard bomb that featured Duane Bennett doing one of the best tightrope walks you'll ever see; Brandon Green followed that up by hauling in an acrobatic 37-yard score. MSU scored their first touchdown on one of the wackiest, most schoolyard-looking scramble-and-chuck-it-downfield plays. MSU then attempted to trump that by having Keshawn Martin rattle off a 93-yard kickoff return touchdown and an 84-yard rushing touchdown within a ten minute span in the third quarter. But the icing on the cake was Minnesota's clinching touchdown: Duane Bennett plucked the ball out of the air after the initial receiver, Nick Tow-Arnett, got cracked by brutal hit and coughed the ball up, then scooted 59 yards. Like I said: pre-fucking-posterous.

Meanwhile, the Iowa-Indiana game wasn't the only one that featured some questionable replay calls; moments before Minnesota's clinching touchdown, the replay booth inexplicably overturned a critical fumble call after a Minnesota receiver appeared to catch the ball, take 1-2 steps, and then get hit and fumble the ball. I have no idea what the replay official saw there to change that call. Regardless, Adam Weber had a career day -- 19/31, 416 yards, 5 TD/1 INT -- and the fact that this happened a week after he lost his safety blanket in Eric Decker seemed somehow appropriate on a thoroughly wild and woolly day of Big Ten action. A week after Ricky Stanzi made the Spartan secondary look good for 58:23, Adam Weber confirmed what we all knew to be true: they kinda suck. As for the rest of Spartans, it's hard not to look at the catastrophic opening of the game and not conclude that there was a hangover effect from the Iowa game a week ago; whether there was or not, they're 4-5 and may need to win out to guarantee themselves a bowl game (which could be tricky since they end the season against Penn State), which is not exactly how you want to follow up a 9-win campaign that finished up in the Capital One Bowl. All five of their losses have been by single digits, but close losses don't do anything but keep you up at night. But what to make of the TRY FIGHT WIN HEAVILY PENALIZED Gophers a week after losing their top offensive weapon (Decker) and nearly getting shut out in back-to-back games by Penn State and Ohio State (only a garbage-time touchdown against OSU's reserves prevented that ignominious fate)? Was this an aberration? A sign that the Gopher offense may not be quite as woeful as we thought? Considering that Weber hadn't thrown for a TD pass since the Wisconsin game 28 days ago and that he nearly doubled his season total for TD passes in one game, we lean towards the former explanation.

The Nittany Lion got moves, yo.

Penn State 34, just Northwestern 13
At halftime, jNWU was actually winning 13-10. After three quarters, the game was still tied, 13-13. Then came ~~STANZITIME~~, er, the fourth quarter and Penn State absolutely blew up, scoring touchdowns on three consecutive drives to take control of the game. Daryll Clark continued to cruise towards 1st-team All-Big Ten honors, going 22/31 for 274 yards and a touchdown; just another fine day at the office for him. Evan Royster tacked on 118 yards and a touchdown on just 15 carries. The bad news from LOLcat land is that starting quarterback and existential warrior Mike Kafka left the game with a hamstring injury, which puts into doubt his availability for the Iowa game this coming weekend. Back-up Dan Persa wasn't bad, per se (14/23, 115 yards; 14 carries, 42 yards; 0 TDs), but he didn't exactly do much, either. Once again, the jNWU running backs were a no-show: their top two leading rushers were Persa and Kafka. Actual running backs ran the ball 14 times for 33 yards. These are not exactly the proud descendants of Darnell Autry, Damian Anderson, and Tyrell Sutton.

Is there anything that muppets don't make better? Of course not.

Wisconsin 37, Purdue 0
Two weeks ago, Purdue was on top of the world after engineering a wildly improbable upset over Ohio State. They followed that up with a tidy win over a reeling Illinois team. It's safe to say the honeymoon is over now. John Clay carried the load on offense (123 yards and three touchdowns on 24 carries), a blocked punt returned for a touchdown late in the first half deflated Purdue, and the Badger defense squeezed the life out of Purdue, holding them to a measly 141 yards on 62 plays, or barely more than two yards a play. This was vintage, Alvarez-era Wisconsin football.

Honestly one of the first three returns on Youtube on a search for "new mexico state"; maybe they were just playing Ohio State in the wrong sport...

Ohio State 45, New Mexico State 0
Even this seemingly innocuous blowout is still further proof of what a thoroughly insane day it was in the Big Ten. When the fuck does Senator Sweatervest (who is now getting actual political advice from someone who knows a thing or two about moving from coach to politician) ever beat someone 45-0? Especially with an offense that, prior to the past few weeks, had been one of the most anemic offenses of the Sweatervest Era? Has Terrelle Pryor truly turned the proverbial corner? Well, let's not get too hasty -- he was just 11/23 for 135 yards and a touchdown, plus 83 yards and a touchdown on nine carries -- and New Mexico State (who, it should be noted, is not the New Mexico school with the "fists of fury" coach) does have one of the worst defenses in the nation. They also have one of the worst offenses in the nation, which is just making it a little too easy for the stout Buckeye defense; that said, anytime you can hold FBS competition to just 62 yards of total offense, well, you're doing something very, very right. Either way, Ohio State did exactly what a good team is supposed to do at home to a horrifically overmatched team: beat the everloving shit out of them.

Agony of Defeat: There Will Certainly Be Better Days

SCM — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:53:58 -0000

First and foremost, hats off to Penn State. They came out and executed, played mistake-free football, took advantage of Michigan's numerous errors and put this game away when they got the opportunity to. Again, when someone comes in and does that, you have to acknowledge that. That said, it's still difficult to couch a game like this... yes we were throughly outplayed and yes I was exactly right when I said this:

Looking at our defense, I'm concerned about the secondary, you're concerned about the secondary, hell all of us are downright worried about the secondary (I mean, 3rd and @#$%@# 24!!!!!).

The question was whether JoePa and company would throw rock. They didn't for the most part. They came up with a gameplan that basically put Michigan's linebackers in positions where they were in single coverage mismatches and gave Clark easy throws which to his credit he made look even easier. They saw that our secondary was the straggling wildebeest of the heard and they did what you're supposed to do to straggling wildebeests. Perfect gameplan. Stevie Brown and Obi Ezeh were victimized repeatedly without a single iota of safety help. It got to the point where I and several others near me in the stands were pointing it out a solid 5 seconds before the snap, and yet no adjustments were made. Elsewhere, Donovan Warren was giving approximately a 30 yard cushion when a screen was blatantly obvious. Penn State basically ran three plays yesterday: a counter, a WR screen where God's Gift would split wide and block a corner who was usually giving a 10 yard cushion anyway, and up-the-seem routes against linebackers. They converted on all accounts and that was all she wrote. Was Penn State a vastly better and talented team? Well in terms of their offense vs our back seven, yes. Everywhere else? Eh, not really.

The weather wasn't really cold and bad until we came out after halftime and apparently had learned nothing about what PSU planned to do and they quickly extended the lead to put pressure on the Michigan offense. Suddenly I started to notice the rain a little more at that point... go figure. Quick aside, honestly who designs ponchos with short sleeves? I'm content to be dry everywhere except from the elbow down? Really? Secondly, I would give anything for us to have punched that blocked punt into the endzone, there was still eons of time in the game and the crowd (well, allow me to rephrase, the actual fans that still remained with most of the second half to go) was dying for anything to set them on fire again. Unfortunately it was just not meant to be.

Miscellaneous

- If I was a Penn State fan, I'm certain I would've been saying angry things when my coach decided to punt from the opposing team's 33 YARDLINE, holy bejeezus. It was almost as if JoePa was saying, "Oh yeah? Top that Kirk Ferentz!"

- Boy does Daryll Clark lock on to receivers. When they're wide open against our secondary it works just fine, but the few times we did manage to actually, you know, cover he looked downright mediocre trying to go through a progression. I mean, he's clearly not Anthony Morelli, but if Ohio State manages to lock down in coverage I think it'll be a long day for Mr. Clark.

- So when is it legal to have 76 men on the field on defense? No seriously, how could any official have missed that call? That it happened on Denard's mind-blowingly-bad interception made it even worse. I have no idea where he was throwing that ball and likely neither does he, but uh, Penn State had half their team on the field still when the ball was snapped and somehow did not get flagged for it. This was the only other point in the game where I felt we were running the offense at the pace we needed to by the way.

- Oh and yes, ANOTHER "five men in the backfield" penalty on Michigan. This is insanity. Notre Dame does that on every snap, I'm not joking.

- Alabama needed two blocked FGs to get by Tennessee? Can't wait for Iowa and Alabama to lock horns in what promises to be a 2-0 game with 14 blocked kicks. You know, when everyone gets all over Boise State's case because they "didn't look impressive enough in a win" then you have to do likewise when a BCS school does the same thing. #1 team in the blogpoll? Uh, no.

- Way to go State... you were going to end the Big Ten's nightmare of having an undefeated Iowa and then you go and do that, no really, well done.

- Junior Hemingway's injury was downright ugly, right in front of our seats and though I haven't seen a replay yet, it looked horrible. He has been star-crossed since stepping on campus. Also, was Warren blocked into him or did he trip? Martavious Odoms also looked dinged and wasn't much of a factor after that opening drive. Losing Molk again really killed momentum (and yes, safety snap blur blur blur). Donovan Warren clearly tweaked something though he stayed on the field, and Tate Forcier was holding that right arm pretty gingerly several times walking off the field. Sigh.........

Offense

- So uh, what happened after that first drive fellas? Anyone? Anyone care to explain to me why we pretty much abandoned what we were doing there? I mean, that was machine-like, the pace was perfect, and Penn State was hopeless to stop it. Then we start going 5-wide and trying to keep our QBs in the pocket to make throws? This made sense in what way? I loved the two back set and quick throws, but apparently the coaching staff didn't. This team is so much better when they go into "jet mode" or whatever you want to call it where they push the pace and make short high percentage passes and zone-read runs.

- End of the first half... You simply cannot spike that ball, you cannot. Tremendous error in coaching. There was more than enough time to get set and run a play, a TD would've really been a boost heading into the locker room. Arg I was furious. The clock stopped for some reason down there several plays before, naturally we were given no explanation, but there should've been about 6 less seconds methinks. I'm sure it had the PSU faithful howling. Even if they had gotten the clock right, we would've had time to run a play into the endzone and still kick a FG if it didn't connect.

- Penn State had 18 first downs... Michigan? 17. I wouldn't have believed that at first either.

- 3rd down conversions? 3 of 15. Definitely believed that one.

- Lots of people like to say TOP doesn't matter... bull@#%, this offense needs as many attempts as possible, and when it holds the ball for all of 10 minutes in the second half, that's not enough.

- I'm going to just estimate that there were six drops that probably would've accounted for at least 80 yards out there... Usually sure handed Kevin Koger really had an off day as did Kelvin Grady. Tate (and actually Denard as well) made some great throws that the receivers just have to bring in, regardless of the rain.

- Between the drops, four* turnovers, and a vintage Jermaine Gonzalez safety we made enough self-inflicted mistakes to overcome. That asterisk is for Denard's interception which should've been a nice automatic first down for the Maize n' Blue by the by. Tate had time in the pocket, though their linebackers made a number of very solid plays on his roll-outs and improvised-hop-around-the-backfield plays. The Penn State D was solid, but they weren't wreacking havoc and disrupting what we were trying to do. Of course, you certainly can't fault a defense for doing what they were supposed to do. They made solid tackles and avoided making mistakes that let Michigan hit a home-run to get back into the game.

- It annoys me how easily we seem to lose track of the running game, Minor and Brown combing for 20 carries just is not enough. Tate having 14 rushes is just way too many. Carlos Brown's fumble was in front of the opposite endzone so I didn't see much of it, but I'm sure it was horrifyingly bad. Regardless, we abandoned the running game FAR too early in this football game... again.

- Backed up on our own goal-line we did the same thing we did at Iowa, which was a non-sensical run wide and two pocket pass attempts... that series of play calls made exactly ZERO sense.

- I'm ok with Denard Robinson getting a designated series, but this is how it should go: "Denard, we have two pass plays for you to run along with the usual compliment of running plays. Both pass plays feature one read, if that guy is not open you take off. Got it? Good, go get em." Seriously, eliminate a side of the field for him, roll him out and have him make short simple throws. That's it, period, done. Don't ask the kid to do more right now.

Defense

via www.morasclass.com

- Our secondary is in shambles. It's not a simple question of trying to cover up one weak position, and we cannot overcome it right now. I don't know what else to say.

- How did we not adjust to that screen against the soft coverage and the seem routes against linebackers?? They didn't exactly disguise either of those plays.

- Boubacar Cissoko saw the field again, and apparently thought it was a good idea to taunt the Penn State bench prior to a big 3rd down... it worked out wonderfully as they connected (AGAIN.... /Valenti) for a TD. Sigh. Not at all what we need right now.

- I continue to be awfully impressed with how well our D-line has played, Van Bergen and Roh in particular have really been tremendous surprises this season. Van Bergen made one of the better plays of the year on a Penn State third down screen that would've gone for acres of yardage if he didn't fight through three blocks to get to the ball carrier. It was a great call by Penn State and just a better play by Van Bergen. Unfortunately there weren't too many other instances of that combination.

- When Penn State's defensive players tackle someone, they don't eventually do it 4 yards after contact... Our tackling has regressed as the year has gone on. We make contact and then get dragged for extra yardage far too often.

Special Teams

- Pretty terrible kick coverage to open the second half...

- We blocked another punt, yay.

Overall

So 5-3 when many predicted a 7-5ish year (or 8-4 if you're yours truly), it's do-able, but considerably more difficult sitting here right now than it was three weeks ago. This team is undoubtedly better than last year in many ways, but they are not immune to the type of mistakes that were commonplace last season. I am concerned though that we've struggled so much in conference play so far. If Tate goes down, we're in enormous trouble.

While the Iowa game in particular was one we let slip away and the Michigan State game was a hard fought loss, this was neither. We got thumped yesterday. This is particularly concerning considering that we're now 1-3 in our last four and that "one" was, well we all know what it was. This team is in a tailspin right now. Yes we're still ridiculously young, we're still so terribly thin on defense, etc, but uh, suddenly that "house money" everyone talked about is gone. There needs to be some coaching done now to get this team where it needs to be. Where is that, you ask? It's 7-3 heading to Wisconsin. There is no excuse to drop a game to Illinois, a win there places us in a bowl and that monkey is thrown off the back. It, quite simply, is a must win. Zook is an appallingly bad coach, there's no excuse there. The Purdue game is looking tougher now than it did at any point in the last several weeks and given our inability to stop a pass, I'm more concerned about it. Frankly though, we need to start beating some teams that are above the level of MAC squads. The ND win was huge, but we haven't replicated that level of play since.

I really, really, really want to see us pound the football. We have far too much talent at running back to let them only see the football 20 times a game. Minor and Brown need to be the plow-horses for this offense right now, and there's nothing wrong with that. Tate is trying to do too much out there on the field as well. I can understand why, he started off on fire, but I think we might be trying to do too much with him. Go back and look at the gameplans from the Western and ND games, I'd simplify the offense back to those core plays and just run with it. Let Tate make the short throws and easy reads rolling out of the pocket that he's so good at and call it a day. Work in the occasional deep shot and that's your passing game. Again, Minor and Brown need to touch the ball about twice as often as they are currently.

Unfortunately I have absolutely no solutions for our defense at this time, how we ever let ourselves get into this position from a recruiting standpoint is a travesty of great magnitude.

This disappointing performance needs to be put in the rearview mirror and this team needs to get ready for the finishing stretch that starts with Illinois next Saturday. I know that there will be better days ahead, but we have some serious work to do right now to get there, and the Illinois game is a no-questions-asked must win.

GO BLUE!

The Rivalry Is Watching You: Iowa LB Pat Angerer v. Michigan

grahamfiller10 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:26:30 -0000

This week, I chose to watch Pat Angerer take on the zone read of Michigan. Would the Michigan O-Line get to the 2nd level and mitigate the effect of PA? Would Pat turn Tate Forcier's lights out? Is this all-conference MLB worthy of the praise lavished on him since the Penn State game?

First Possession, First Half, 7-0 Michigan

Lined up in an offset 4-2, Angerer is almost heads up on a WR. He bumps the WR and ignores the Forcier run. If Tate doesn't slip, this is a huge play for the Wolverines. Lined up on the other side (strong side), PA adjusts and dives at Minor, missing the tackle. Now at MLB, PA sniffs out the play and easily chases down Minor. Lines up on the inside slot receiver and chases him down the field as Forcier whips a pick to Hunter.

Second Possession, 7-7

On this kickoff return, Stonum got absolutely killed by a backup Iowan, btw. PA as the MLB, gets shielded easily by the OT and Minor gets a 7 yard gain. Next play, PA run blitzes and gets picked off again by the OT. Not swimming past those blocks yet. Reads pass correctly on third down, but cannot stay with Martavious Odoms and gives up a completion. 2nd and five and PA is not fooled by the read option. Forcier looks at Angerer and falls down. PA picks up Forcier. Seems like a good guy. 4th down and the Wolverines go for it; PA bumps and holds the slot receiver while Forcier scrambles for a first down.

Hunter and Klug clean up the blocking on first down and PA gets a tackle for no gain. After a long pass, the Wolverines run away from PA and score from three yards out.

Third Possession, 14-10 Michigan

MLB, PA is eaten up by an OL and Minor flies by him. MLB again, but the Iowa outside contain works well and PA jogs over to watch his teammates clean up. First down, Forcier fumbles the ball off his foot and Iowa recovers. Angerer had read the screen anyways.

Fourth Possession, 14-13 Michigan

UM runs right at PA, who holds up the tight end until help arrives. Minor still gets 7. PA blitzes again, but Forcier throws for the first. Forcier scrambles on the read option and Angerer misses the tackle, but forces Tate back into the middle.

Fifth Possession, 20-14 Iowa

Lined up offset middle, Angerer takes on a block but the defense pretty much cleans up. Another blitz from the outside but PA doesn't get close to Tate. Hunter is a killer btw. Now third down, PA drops back in Zone and then chases Forcier down on the scramble, but someone else ends up making the tackle. Sort of a reoccurring theme.

Sixth Possession, 20-14 Iowa

The announcers have embarked on a conversation about keeping balls warm, slippery balls, and Forcier being unable to handle the Michigan balls. Anyways, Angerer is again pushed out of the way by an OL, but the run is stuffed anyways. After a Forcier scramble and the lucky long completion to Odoms, PA makes his first big play. Bombing down the line, PA and Klug slam into Minor and force a fumble.

Seventh Possession, Second Half, 20-14 Iowa

As the MLB, PA flows to the ball on first down, but is unable to make a play...so someone else does. It's punt time after a low Forcier throw and a Binns knock down.

Eighth Possession, 23-14 Iowa

Angerer drops into pass coverage and moves properly with the roll out. He does the same on the next play. Michigan is not throwing the ball anywhere near Angerer, a mistake that too many teams make. Plus, PA is never out of position. On third down, PA sticks with an inside slot receiver running an out. It doesn't matter, Binns knocks another ball down.

Other "Watching You" Articles

Corey Wooten struggled mightily when I watched him battle Minnesota's big tackle Jeff Wills.

Playing at home versus Cali, Adam Weber hates throwing the ball away and loves Eric Decker.

Ian Thomas, promising Illinois linebacker, is a coach on the field even as a sophomore against Illinois State.

Ninth Possession, 23-14 Iowa

MLB again, Angerer holds up Minor for five yards. Michigan switches to the I-Form and Angerer is double teamed - Minor picks up a first down. Now Michigan is running right at PA and a fullback cuts Angerer down, allowing Minor to fly by. UM is driving, it's first down. Forcier playactions right, but PA doesn't allow himself to be sucked into the line, holding his ground and forcing a dump off to the tailback. Now second and six, Michigan pounds the ball at Hunter and the left side of the Iowa line. PA is blocked by two Wolverines and Minor picks up another first down. The Power-I is finally moving the Hawkeye line and PA isn't able to fight off the blocks of the O-Line. First and goal, RichRod isn't throwing anymore, instead running directly at PA, who is blanketed by the offensive tackle. If your OT is getting to the MLB in the zone spread, it's a great sign. On second and goal, Minor scores easily as the d-line gets caved in.

Tenth Possession, 23-21 Iowa

Michigan is pinned at the two yard line and Iowa is hoping for a safety, ala two weeks ago. PA is offset middle; he avoids a block, chops his feet, but it doesn't matter because Klug makes a tackle for no gain. After Iowa almost gets a coverage safety, Forcier rolls right to throw the bomb and Angerer almost gets to Tate in the end zone.

Eleventh Possession, 30-21 Iowa

Angerer is getting no balls thrown his way. Dropping in coverage, Forcier simply won't toss a ball over the middle. Second down now - a Michigan draw doesn't fool PA, who gets half a tackle for helping slam Minor to the ground. On third down, Clayborn (literally) concusses Forcier and another incompletion follows; PA was running with the slot receiver downfield.

Twelfth Possession (The Denard Robinson Experience)

A concussed and struggling Forcier is benched by RichRod, installing Denard Robinson in at quarterback. As Michigan State said last week, if Denards in, their running the ball. This should provide more excitement for Angerer. First Down and 10 - Angerer collides with Minor, but Denard runs right by for an 8 yard gain. Second and 2, PA skates down the line and smacks Denard, who barely picks up the first down. First and ten - a simple Robinson run and PA hangs onto the track star until help arrives. Second and five - finally a pass, a completion to the sideline to pick up the first. First and ten - PA as a true MLB, fights off a block and stops Denard again. Second and seven - Denard scrambles, Angerer gets juked, first down Meechigan. First and ten - Denard sprint middle left and PA detaches from a block enough to make another tackle after an eight yard gain. Second and two - Robinson throws a quick sit down route for a first down. First and goal - Angerer fills the hole and Clayborn lights Mike Shaw up. Second and goal - a quarterback sweep and it's third and goal, three yards to go. Some confusion on defense and Robinson dives by Angerer for a TD.

Conclusions, Statistics, Etc.

Angerer's Statistics: 8 tackles, 3 missed tackles, no passes defensed, no sacks, 1 quarterback hurry.

PA can line up all over the field; it's obvious Ferentz has complete confidence in his veteran linebacker. I thought all those interceptions he accumulated last year were luck - I was wrong, he's fantastic in pass coverage. Not only does he run downfield comfortably in coverage, but he matches up well with slot receivers too. Oh, he's tough as nails too, but I assume that's a given for Iowa linebackers. On the final drive, we finally saw Michigan challenge Angerer, but he did well to stop Robinson from breaking a long run. It's too bad Iowa won't face that many big time passing attacks - it would be a joy to watch him against an active pass catching tight end or quick slot receivers.

Physically, PA moves his hips well and moves smoothly instead of jerking around for fakes. He's not quick, but his good football instinct allows him to make up for the lack of quickness.The Iowa defense gets contributions from so many players that Angerer (who will make all-conf bearing a disaster) didn't have to do much of anything for most of the game. Does PA have any weaknesses? He doesn't lean into offensive lineman to fight for position, nor does he swim move effectively by, instead choosing to hand fight and ward them off. The seconds he spent jousting allowed Minor to break through for first downs. But that's nitpicking - I guess we'll see how he handles the stiff arms of Pryor and the precision of Cousins.

When a player comes from a long line of dominant linebackers and sports the coolest last name in football, it's easy for the hype machine to go into undeserved overdrive. But a healthy Pat Angerer has maintained his quickness and excellent form as the season has worn on - it will be exciting to see him take on Pryor's stiffarms and the finesse of Cousins.

Agony of Defeat: Michigan Beats Michigan, Iowa Named Beneficiaries

SCM — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:58:08 -0000

Arg. Arg, arg, arg, arg, arg. Deep breath (remember man, we're so young), another deep breath... arg that was infuriating. How do we couch this? Well for one thing Michigan outplayed Iowa on Saturday night. An offensive line that was a glorified strainer last week turned their highly-touted D-line into a non-factor, we pounded the ball on the ground against a team that just doesn't give up rushing TDs to the tune of three of em and 200 yards on the ground (and that was without a lightning bolt big play in there too), we completely shut down Iowa's running game: 2.4 yards per carry, and the defensive line controlled the line of scrimmage throughout most of the night and came up with several huge stops, including a goal-line stand. And yet there's the 800 lb turnover beast that is sitting in the corner over there... five of those bad-boys, four completely unforced turnovers and one kinda-forced fumble proved to be just enough to hold Michigan back from knocking off the #12 team in the country on the road. Iowa did what you are supposed to do with gifts, they cashed them in, and it proved to be barely enough for Michigan to overcome. Two of the factors that Michigan fans, us included, worried about prior to the season reared their ugly head on Saturday night: play of the safeties, and freshman mistakes at QB. Mike Williams unfortunately showed up in the replays of many key plays last night in the entirely wrong way... I mean really, 3rd and @#%@#%@#@#% 24? 3rd and 24? Fans like to throw around "inexcusable" in all kinds of ways, but uh, giving up 3rd and 24 is inexcusable. To get beat once on a nicely timed throw to the TE was acceptable, to let it happen again was not. Anyways, more on that later too. The team's youth and lack of depth in certain spots showed up at the worst times last night, and we couldn't overcome it. Freshman mistakes? You betcha.

Miscellaneous

- There was some good old fashioned slobber-knocking in this football game, the crown jewel of which was the hit on Daryll Stonum's kickoff return... goodness gracious me, that was a lick.

- Um, when the ball was snapped over Ricky Stanzi's head in (I believe) the first half, and their running back simply tackled Jonas Mouton while he broke through the line... how's that not called a hold? It carries no consequence as I understand that we would've declined it as it put them in a 3rd and long anyways, but is there something I'm missing there, that has to be a flag right? If not, someone please educate me.

- Alright, a coaching quibble from me: why the onside kick? Three minutes and change was enough time, even with one timeout, to kick it deep and rely on your defense to come up with a stop and not forfeit 20-30 yards of field position. I didn't understand the call there.

- I was stunned, literally stunned, that Ferentz went for it on 4th and goal.

- This team isn't quite good enough to get away with playing poorly and winning, but hotdamn they're close.

Offense

- I guarantee some Iowa fan will wax poetic about how their defense caused the benching of Tate Forcier... which is patently wrong. Forcier's unforced errors last night that lead to him getting the hook. An unrushed throw into double coverage for the pick, a fumble in which he wasn't touched, tripping over a yardline on 2nd and 4 to kill a drive, happy feet in the pocket with good protection, and throws into areas that just simply did not make sense were the story of Tate's night. What ultimately lead to the benching was the series where we came out after a kickoff, promptly got a delay of game (AFTER A KICKOFF... BREAKING THINGS HERE), and he just started chucking the ball for no real apparent reason: he wasn't running the offense, and that earned him a spot on the bench. Iowa's D had nothing to do with the majority of these mistakes.

- Brings me to my next question... Tate is so good throwing on the run, why wasn't he rolling out more in this game?

- Hats off to the O-line, even sans Molk they turned in a great performance. After watching what happened last week, I was awfully worried about going up against Iowa's D-line, but the guys up front did a fantastic job giving our QBs time and creating holes.

- All night long the offense just couldn't quite get up to the pace we wanted to run at. It will come with more experience, but when we did approach that kind of speed, we moved the football.

- Oh yeah, about Denard Robinson getting the nod on that final drive... I can say at the time I didn't really question it, he had just driven us right down the field for a touchdown and looked quite good in doing so. Now then, the end result doesn't sit all that well with everyone who watched Forcier do nothing but look eight shades of awesome at the end of practically every game thus far this season. If I were wearing the headset, I probably would've tapped Tate's shoulder, looked him in the eye and said "Get it done" and sent him out there all while thanking Denard up and down for kick-starting the offense again. Even despite that, I am reluctant to second guess the call because based on what had happened in the game to that point, sending Denard back out there made all kinds of sense, he had made several good crisp throws on the previous drive and moved the ball down the field for a score, hard to argue with that. Let's recall that Denard got put into the game in an incredibly difficult position, down two scores late in the 4th and he too is a true freshman.

- Robinson made the one mistake you just can't make in that situation... I'm not sure what prompted the throw, particularly when he could've taken off (there was TONS of time) or hit Odoms for an easy first down, but ugh... That's all that needs to be said about it, just ugh.

- Brandon Minor finally looked like a healthy Brandon Minor out there, some really tough running from him in big spots, and he was pretty much responsible for an entire touchdown drive... BUT he also had that HORRIFYING fumble, which by the by was the ONLY forced turnover on the night. Maybe we're still spoiled by Mike Hart's excellence but uh, you can't fumble the football on a 3 yard gain in which you're going nowhere, just protect the thing... that just killed a big drive at the end of the first half.

- I liked the new pitch wrinkle we threw into the rushing game last night, and I have a feeling I will like it more when Carlos Brown is healthy and back on the field.

- Someone please tell me why we're not taking two to three deep shots a game, anyone? Anyone? Junior Hemingway and Daryll Stonum are essentially non-factors in our offense right now, and that should not be the case. Kevin Koger and Martavious Odoms again came up big with drive sustaining catches throughout the night, they are by far the most consistent aspects of this offense right now.

- 3 for 11 on 3rd down wasn't and isn't good enough.

Defense

- This defense is either on or off, there is no in-between it appears.

- Donovan Warren was incredible last night, and that's even with him dropping another pick inside Iowa's 25. Huge game from him, just huge.

- Fool me once, shame on you... Great call for Iowa's first TD to Moeaki, Mike Williams bit HARD on the fake-block and the middle of the field was beyond vacant. Fool me twice, shame on me: that it happened again was ludicrous.

- The safety play was appalling, no other word for it, appalling. The lack of ability of this defense to get off the freakin' field on 3rd and long has already shortened the lifespan of the majority of this fanbase, I guarantee it. I know we're tissue paper-thin, I know that, but there were mistakes made that even tissue-paper thin defenses can't make out there.

- Brandon Graham did whatever he wanted with whomever was lined up across from him, he was a beast last night. Mike Martin also played a very solid football game.

- Stevie Brown made a great read on that 3rd and goal stop, just a tremendous play. And actually, I thought the LBs as a group played well, Mouton and Ezeh seemed to be in position more often than not, and both made key plays during the game.

- We brought a lot more pressure last night, I liked that we brought guys up to the line of scrimmage and got into the backfield, it's just too bad the coverage wasn't up to par in key spots. In line with that, we saw much less of the soft coverage stuff giving up the sticks, which yay, but too many missed assignments particularly from the safeties.

- Troy Woolfolk stepped into the corner spot and made a number of big plays, you can count me as pleasantly surprised, that certainly was an area of concern heading towards kickoff and he played well.

Special Teams

- So if Iowa's punter is a "weapon" according to Brent Musberger, what's Zoltan Mesko? 53.8 yards per punt? Zounds!

- Why the dropped punt... just why? If you have to go to your knees to catch the punt, isn't it better to just let the stupid thing go? Iowa was going to get the ball anyway due to the "roughing" the kicker penalty, but good GOD, that was terrible.

- Our kick and punt coverage was decidedly "meh" last night, part of that was because Zoltan was hitting bombs and outkicking the coverage, but how many times did the first two guys not even touch their returner?

Overall

- After getting flat outplayed for the majority of the Michigan State game, this team responded in the areas that were truly lacking in East Lansing, and made gaffs that you just can't overcome against a solid team at home. Minus 4 in the turnover margin was the death knell for Michigan on Saturday night.

- So goes the Penn State game so goes the rest of the season, period. We need to destroy Delaware State and get ready for the Nittany Lions to come to Ann Arbor.

Agony of Defeat: Michigan fails to show up in East Lansing until the very end, nearly gets away with it

SCM — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:18:47 -0000

Sonofa.....

First off congratulations to Michigan State on winning the football game. Frankly, I'm not sure if our football team has any feet left after we shot them all off yesterday, what more can you say? In a game that featured approximately 54 minutes of woeful offensive ineptness coupled with periods of alternating defensive brilliance and stoutness-resembling-that-of-a-wet-noodle, it's difficult to imagine that we forced it to overtime. Consider that after the first quarter, State had tallied somewhere around 150 yards of offense to our none and you'll get an idea of how things were going for the Michigan Wolverines on Saturday. Yet, despite all of the missed opportunities, the turnover on State's 10 yardline, the failure to punch our first possession forward in any way from their 14, and Zoltan's mind-bending decision to take off from inside our own 20, and our rage-inducing ability to let a team convert on 3rd and long time and again, there we were with a chance to walk out of East Lansing at 5-0. Arg indeed.

Miscellaneous

- If anyone can explain Mark Dantonio's in-game decisions yesterday, you go ahead and let me know. Between his insistence on switching his QBs on a whim and going into super-shell mode at the end of the football game that gave us those opportunities to come back I was continually thinking to myself "what the @#%@ is he doing?" Sure he's going to be an insufferable imbecile for the next year, but who cares?

- Going for two at the end of regulation never entered my mind. Why would you when you have all of the momentum in the football game?

- If an Irish fan ever complains about the refs again, they should have their face caved in by all bystanders. What happened to Washington in that game was criminal.

Offense

- Carlos Brown and Brandon Minor combined for ten carries.... TEN @#%@#% CARRIES! Of my "um, excuse me coaching staff, would you mind addressing this?" questions from this football game, this is at the top of the list. That Carlos Brown touched the football eight times total is CRIMINAL. I mean, I have no explanation for it, none. Brown deserves to touch the football 20 times a game, period. He's the most explosive player on the field, feed him the ball.

- The offensive line had its worst performance of the year, I haven't re-watched the game (and to be honest I won't) but we had absolutely no movement off the line and more often than not they were blown off the ball. State dominated the line of scrimmage. Though it does at least appear that we've worked out the snap issue.

- I hate being one of those people who questions play-calling, but you pick off State to start the game and have the ball inside their 15 yardline... very next play should be taking a shot at the end-zone. That was an eerily similar start to last year's OSU game, except this time we at least managed 3 points...

- If Michigan had come out on top of this thing, we'd be talking about that 92 yard drive in the rain with no timeouts for many moons to come. Angry though I am about the loss, I'll take our football team and this quarterback every day of the week and twice on Saturdays thanks. That Michigan played approximately 5 minutes of offensive football and nearly won this thing... well it's just ridiculous is what it is.

- Tate Forcier also got away with MURDER on two throws during that drive... the first one to Junior Hemingway that Junior essentially just took away from the Spartan DB and then the second to last play into the endzone where he appeared to shoot a free-throw towards the back line and miraculously did not have it picked. Moxy? Boatloads. Living on the edge? Yes. He made a poor decision that bit us in the very end, but you take the bad with the good at this point, if it weren't for Tate picking the team up on his shoulders we don't even make it to OT. Not letting him off for the pick, but let's realize that without him this wasn't even a contest yesterday. I'll flat out take him over every QB in the league without even blinking... and he's a true freshman.

- I want us to let Denard Robinson throw the football. I had no problem with him coming in the game, we had done NOTHING on offense up to that juncture so why not? But if you're going to put him in, you have to let him throw. Make the plays really easy one sided reads with a quick check down for God's sake, but let him throw it!

- Another quietly solid football game from Martavious Odoms, I really really like how he plays the game. Roy Roundtree! Welcome Sir! Junior Hemingway, where have you gone?! Daryl Stonum had me thinking all kinds of poor thoughts prior to his outstanding 60 yard touchdown... that, however, does not preclude me from saying this: HOLD ON TO THE FREAKIN' FOOTBALL. I'm surprised we didn't try more down-field passing early in the game, I know there was lots of pressure, but that matchup favors our receivers every single time. Greg Mathews was pretty much unheard of the whole day.

- I can't be the only person who thought at halftime, "we're going to make a couple of adjustments and pop the clutch on the offense here to start the 3rd quarter." If anyone noticed any offensive adjustments, please point them out to me.

- I'm not naming names on this one, but blatant drops are like white-hot fire pokers to the soul.

Defense

- I don't really know what to say... to give up 20 points based on all of that yardage and time of possession was a great effort. BUT, to give up all of that yardage and time of possession was agonizingly awful considering how many 3rd and a million's we gave up. If the D managed to get off the field even half of the time it had the chances to, we win this thing going away. That sounds overly critical, but it gets back to the whole argument of "number of trials", the offense needed more plays, and the D didn't deliver in that area enough.

- Hey, pressure on the QB!!! Alright!

- Hey, rushing three on 3rd and 17.... hide the sharp objects. My cat vomited right after that play, possibly due to noise level in the house, but I prefer to think that even he was able to recognize just how stupid that was and was made physically ill by it.

- Brandon Graham must've finally decided that despite being held blatantly on every play that he was just going to get to the QB regardless. A couple of outstanding plays by him yesterday. He also broke that felon Winston in half on 3rd and goal after our "fake punt", nicely done.

- We held their passing game in check, something I don't think many of us would've ever predicted heading into the game. We also reverted even further in our tackling... which is enraging. Way too many freakin' missed tackles, including the final one. Those are also like white hot fire pokers to the soul.

- Stevie Brown continues to be the most consistent player in the LB corps, which, awesome. This is just based upon what I saw during the game again, but Jonas Mouton continues to be out of position more often than not and on big plays too.... I don't have a fix for this, but the coaches really, REALLY need to figure one out. I thought Ezeh played better, but again I wasn't paying attention to where he was on every play.

- Did Cissoko even see the field? I thought JT Floyd played pretty well, better than his debut performance without a doubt.

- Several of our safeties have a terrible habit of simply running into people rather than, you know, tackling them.

- Holding that team to 20 points should've been more than enough.

Special Teams

- Jason Olesnavage, good job man, has been more than reliable thus far.

- Zoltan Zoltan Zoltan Zoltan Zoltan... even Space Emperors aren't immune from momentary lapses of reason apparently.... Jesus Tapdancing Christ what were you thinking? Yeah we held them to three... which uh, would've been a nice three to have back with 2 seconds to go in the game no? By the way, the spot on Forcier's scramble that lead to that "punt" was criminally bad, but that's beside the point.

- Stonum is unbelievably lucky that guy was out of bounds when he recovered his fumble... young man, this is not 2008, hold on to the football (again).

- I think we're going to block a punt next week, we've been oh-so-close quite a few times this year, so I'll go out on a limb and call for it here.

Summary

- 4-1 after 5 games would've had a lot of people thrilled back in August... After seeing how we lost that "1" though, I'm disappointed. Not in a stupid way, just disappointed. 5-0 was well within our grasp.

- Our perfect OT record is now ruined, arg.

- This week's game is enormously important now, which, duh.

- GIVE CARLOS BROWN THE FOOTBALL, PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU.

GO BLUE!

Preview: Michigan State vs. Michigan

LVS — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:35:20 -0000

Rawk music, man. Rawk.

Your MICHIGAN STATE SPARTANS vs. the MICHIGAN WOLVERINES
SPARTAN STADIUM, EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN
NOON, BIG TEN NETWORK
WEATHER: 50 DEGREES, 50% CHANCE OF RAIN

So, I suppose this is where The Great Redemption Tour begins. We were hoping/expecting a better effort at Wisconsin, and that was shot to hell by the second quarter. So, will the team (defense, really) show up this week? I've talked about the "crossroads" idea in this space for the past two weeks; it was important for the Notre Dame game, and it was even more important last week. But, here it is: win tomorrow, and with games against seemingly-awful Illinois and Northwestern looming, we have a great chance to be 3-1 in Big Ten play heading into the Iowa game. Lose, and it's nearly impossible to concoct a scenario where we even make the freakin' Motor City Bowl. That's what's on the line.

But, apart from the long-view considerations, it'd be a lie to deny that this game means more than most. Of course I want our guys to demolish Michigan tomorrow. We haven't had a winning streak against the Wolverines in more than 40 years. How sweet would that be? And it's absolutely a winnable game: Michigan has an explosive offense but quite possibly the worst (non-Montana State) defense we'll face all season. We can outscore them, but we'll have to show a hell of a lot more moxie and resolve than we've shown the past three weeks. But if our guys can't be motivated for this game, under these circumstances, well HEY LOOK BASKETBALL SEASON STARTS SOON!

---

A legitimate argument can be made that Michigan should have lost to Indiana last week. Michigan was outgained, lost the turnover battle, and would have lost had it not been for Indiana repeatedly settling for field goals instead of touchdowns. (Of course, you can give the Wolverine defense some credit for that, as well.) Previously, as we all know, they won a roller coaster game against Notre Dame wherein they also were outgained. So, this is clearly not an invincible Michigan team, although there's certainly a lot to be said for making big plays at the right time (winning late touchdown drives against ND and Indiana, the quasi-interception last week, etc.). It's something we were tremendous at last season and have been failerrific at so far this one.

WHEN MICHIGAN STATE IS ON DEFENSE: While it would have been difficult not to improve on their 2008 horror show, this year's Michigan offense much more closely approximates what Wolverine fans expected to get with Rich Rodriguez: an often-dominating running attack that nonetheless bears no resemblance to the Carr/Moeller/Schembechler/Crisler/Yost power running games of yore. Michigan will take very few snaps (if any) from under center, and once their quarterback receives the ball, speed, misdirection, and variety are key.

If you've recently eaten your lunch, don't watch.

Michigan has 961 rushing yards and 12 rushing touchdowns on the season so far, compared with 1771 and 17 for the entirety of last season; in this case, stats don't lie. This is an excellent rushing team. Brandon Minor and Carlos Brown are Michigan's primary running backs; in a nutshell, Minor is the more punishing runner of the two, while, as you can see above, Brown is, uh, fast. Maize 'n Brew has been particulary impressed by Brown:

Carlos Brown should never, ever, ever leave the field. Ever. He is by far Michigan's best and most effective back right now. He's showing us a cut back ability I never knew he had. He's running with authority, carrying tacklers for an extra five yards. He's breaking away from everyone. He's our best pass catcher out of the backfield. Never take him out. Ever.

As mentioned, Brown has also shown ability as a receiver: 6 catches for 111 yards (a very impressive 18.5 yards per catch, for a running back no less) and a touchdown already this season.

I'm also concerned about the weird shakeups going on with our defensive line. Blake Treadwell (ok) and Dion Sims (what?) are possible new additions to the d-line this week; I understand that given how things have transpired over the first three games, a change is in order. But seriously, this level of shake-up right before a big game against a team with a dominating rushing attack is not. a. good. thing. Our rush defense's performance against Wisconsin was encouraging to the extent that there were no home runs, but quite discouraging in the sense that, seemingly, whenever they needed yards, they got them. Our rush defense is still better than the pass defense, but I fear that this is a mismatch in Michigan's favor.

Pass offense for Michigan is a huge upgrade over last season, if nothing else, as the FORCIER = ACCURACY bit has at least somewhat been proven to be true. Forcier is completing 62% of his passes -- unspectacular but solid -- and has 7 touchdowns against only 2 interceptions. (One of the interceptions against Indiana was particularly bad.) But Michigan fans are relatively impressed, even by his less impressive performances:

Well, if you were expecting a game where Tate truly played like a freshman, this was it. Even so, he played like a senior leading two critical scoring drives in the fourth quarter. You take the bad with the good sometimes, and dammit, the good keeps prevailing. [ . . . ]

The Kid isn't perfect, but he is really, really good. One thing that I especially liked is that he used his safety valve when the home run wasn't available. The biggest thing he's gotta work on is realizing he's not the most athletic guy on the field anymore, and getting rid of the ball rather than running around like a chicken with his head cut off. It'll come with time, but overall, even though the middle of the game was kinda meh, a good start and finish for Forcier.

I'm completely sure that Forcier will be able to execute the quick slants and the outs that Wisconsin was repeatedly able to use to good effect. However, he is a freshman, and one whose first start on the road is against a major rival. He made mistakes against Indiana and he's going to make mistakes against us; the key will be capitalizing on those mistakes. Our secondary has only two interceptions this season: one was on a terrible throw by Dan LeFevour, and the second was an end-of-the-half Hail Mary by Notre Dame. I'm sure that Mike Valenti won't mind if I appropriate his mantra: our guys need to MAKE PLAYS.

Michigan's wide receivers are solid but unexceptional, and range from the speedy-but-slightly-inept (Darryl Stonum) to the shifty slot guys (Kelvin Grady and Martavious Odoms) to the seemingly-underused outside receiver whom I still have nightmares of gashing us with 40 yard fly rountes (Junior Hemingway). Perhaps the guy I'm most concerned about is Kevin Koger--given the way David Garrett carved us up last week, I'll be concerned about tight ends for the rest of the year. But Koger has shown a penchant for catching everything thrown his way. I expect him to have at least one touchdown. (Late edit: mgoblog agrees with me:)

Given the tendency of the MSU linebackers to suck up against the run and the absolute field day UW tight ends had against Michigan State, this might be the game in which Kevin Koger goes nuts

I don't know what to say about our secondary which hasn't already been said. They're not good. Might as well give Johnny Adams a whirl; how much worse can it get? In other news, getting some pressure on Forcier may be possible due to injuries on Michigan's offensive line: they've struggled particularly on the right side of the line and HOORAY that's where Trevor Anderson lines up. Fingers crossed.

Finally, Denard Robinson will obviously play some at quarterback for Michigan. When he's in the game, use everyone necessary to spy him; he's absurd with his feet but will not beat us passing the ball.

WHEN MICHIGAN STATE IS ON OFFENSE: Thankfully, it will be playing against a very poor Michigan defense. Said Brian after the Eastern Michigan game:

The team is basically what we thought it was. If you want to load up against it and grind down the field you'll have success doing it, though I wonder if teams will manage to score a lot of touchdowns with that sort of approach. Michigan's going to bend a lot; hopefully they won't break.

Greg Robinson is busy installing all sorts of different stuff and slants and various games to cover up for the fact that he's got no depth, two seniors, and three walk-ons contributing. I think we're going to see a lot of instances where the games work and Michigan swarms something and a lot of instances where Michigan gets caught and gashed. There are places to attack this defense, and the safeties are going to have to do a lot of cleanup in Big Ten play.

Is there any upside for these guys? Maybe. It is a new system so Michigan is behind mentally and should improve more than veteran units whose failings are more likely to be physical shortcomings than mental errors. Look at Eastern's long touchdown drive: mental error after mental error. If Michigan can fix those things—or, more conservatively, mitigate them—they appear to have the horsepower to be completely mediocre. Again: getting Ezeh and Mouton up to a level where they are decent is the key to the defense's season.

Of course, we haven't proven the ability to grind anyone down thus far. I suppose that if it's going to happen at all, it could happen this week, as Michigan's rush defense is nothing to write home about: 69th in the country at the moment. (But then again, our rush offense is 86th in the country, and that's having played against 3 crappy rush defenses and one mediocre one.) Based on last week's performances, you'd figure that Caper and Winston will pretty much be option 1 and 1A, but they should be strictly be used as a change of pace. (If it rains hard and we can't throw the ball, we're going to lose.)

So, essentially, this is the easiest preview ever. We as MSU fans, should want 2 things from our offense:

Kirk Cousins throwing . . .
. . . to whomever's not being covered by Donovan Warren.

No need to rehash the Cousins/Nichol thing at this point: every Friday night, I say a little prayer that ~~Nichol~~ Cousins will play the whole game; every Saturday, I have a corresponding crisis of faith.

But as to the Donovan Warren thing: yeah, given our depth at wide receiver, we should just write off whomever he's covering and go elsewhere. The major thing being lost in all the discussion of the game-ending-interception-that-maybe-wasn't against Indiana is, why were they throwing at Warren in the first place? Michigan's secondary is otherwise terrible:

Whatever lingering hopes you had that the corner spot opposite Warren could turn into a non-liability should be put in the corner and told to be quiet for a while. JT Floyd did better than I thought he did live but still remains a timid redshirt freshman who transparently lacks the speed to be an elite corner. Michigan is going to have to cover up for him. Kovacs is okay but really slow.

Not mentioned in that blurb is that JT Floyd was only getting playing time because Boubacar Cissoko spent the first three games of the season throwing his name into the "WORST MICHIGAN CORNERBACK EVARRR" discussion. Two of Cunningham, Dell, and White will be matched against inferior defensive players. Throw the ball to them, Kirk.

As far as I can tell, only two things will be able to derail our passing game. 1) The weather. Dammit, the weather. 2) If Michigan is able to get lots of pressure on Cousins/Nichol. And, it's possible: Brandon Graham utterly pwn3d the right side of our line last year, and this year's line is obviously banged up:

Starting left guard Joel Foreman didn't play against the Badgers because of an ankle injury. Tackle J'Michael Deane injured his leg earlier this season and also didn't play. Joel Nitchman, a starting center, moved to guard at Wisconsin, while John Stipek once again played center to help fill a void.

Foreman should return to the starting lineup on Saturday, which should be a big boost for the team. In any event, our pass blocking was generally very good in the first three games of the season, but not so much against Wisconsin. Given Michigan's struggles against the pass, I wouldn't be surprised if they'll abandon trying to contain us in the secondary and instead send the house with regularity in the hopes of shutting down the pass that way. (Of course, if they do that, it would behoove us to try to throw screens to Caper, and get tight ends involved with with quick go routes and so forth)

FINAL PREDICTION: Bleh. I felt good about the last two weeks, and I don't about this one, although I'll admit that even after last year's triumph, I still have a mental block regarding us being successful against Michigan. I do think that the coaching staff's relentless focus on this game will help out; last year, we were clearly prepared to play Michigan, as we did a tremendous job of timing their snaps, taking away their preferred wheel routes, and generally calling a pitch-perfect defensive game. I'd love to believe that we can do that again, but we've seen nothing so far to indicate that we can do it. Furthermore, Michigan runs the type of non-traditional spread offense which we've n ever done well against. The weather forecast doesn't make me feel any better. When I talked to Brian earlier this week, I said 41-38 Michigan; I don't think it'll be quite that high scoring, but I still think the general idea's right. 34-31 Michigan.

I beg you to talk me out of this prediction in the comments.

Unit by Unit: Breaking Down Michigan Football's Offense After Its Win Over Indiana

Maize n Brew Dave — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:21:17 -0000

Hey! Lookit this, we're not running hopelessly behind, so it's time to get started with the Michigan Indiana Unit by Unit breakdown. We'll take a hard look at the players and the coaches for each particular unit on the team, and bring them in for a pat on the back or a wag of the finger. After we've looked at each position, we'll give you a final wrap on the team's play on Offense and Defense (Special Teams too!). If you're looking for more detail, game bullets are here, the wrap up is here, the boxscore is here, and the general AP recap is here. If you're looking to peruse the Michigan Official photos from the game, check out this. There are the links, so now let's take a good hard look at....

The Offense

David Guralnick via Detroit News.com

It's funny to think that when our offense puts up 36 points we're sitting here, at least initially, thinking it was a rough day. But the numbers bear this out. Michigan was outgained by Indiana 467 to 372. Forcier looked like he was pressured the whole day and the offense stagnated for large stretches of time. In hindsight however, I am nowhere near as concerned about the offense's performance after rewatching the game. The offensive line did a more than passable job. The receivers had three drops but were dependable and picked up crucial yardage when we needed it. The run game was nearly unstoppable, even when Tate or Denard took off. A handful of bad snaps killed some drives and two turnovers (one just a horrid horrid play by Forcier, the other a fluke hit on Robinson) did the rest. Despite those issues, Michigan had the lead in the fourth and still rallied to win even after the Defense gave up it's first truly big mistake of the season. You can have some gripes about personnel, play calling, execution; but they're all minor after a second glance. All in all, the offense performed pretty well when it didn't shoot itself in the foot with bad snaps. Take away the bad snaps and Michigan is easily over 400 yards for the game and they're still averaging over 35 points a game.

The Offensive Line

David Guralnick via Detroit News.com

My initial reaction to the game was that the O-Line had it's worst performance of the year. After review, I actually think they had a decent game. Quite a turn around, eh? How's that happen? The answer is in the blocking. Despite David Moosman's issues with snapping the ball in the second half, the line did an excellent job opening up running lanes for Carlos Brown, Brandon Minor, and Denard Robinson. A lot of the penetration I saw was on blitzes by the outside LB's that the Tight Ends probably should've picked up. The biggest issue the line faced all day was that there was a new center. There were numerous instances where two to three guys moved early. One play in the second both Ortmann and Schilling left early when Michigan was trying to pooch punt. These types of procedure penalties didn't happen with Molk in, and I'm guessing there's still a little communication problem on assignments and snap counts that Moosman will need to resolve as the Center going forward.

Regarding the illegal formation penalty, the first one was legit, IMO. The second is a 50/50 call, but could've been made. Michigan's formations were arcing badly as they tried to ward off Jamie Kirlew and Indiana's outside pass rushers. And don't sleep on Indiana's pass rush. There were two instances where Michigan tried to block Kirlew with Koger or Brown, one ended in disaster (Forcier INT) the other almost did (Forcier's last second pitch to Brown on the last drive).

(more after the jump......)

Indiana got pressure with it's blitz or when Michigan tried to get cute with one of the Conference's best pass rushers. Otherwise, the Line generally got a good push and opened up some mammoth holes. Had Minor been at 100%, some of those TFLs never would've happened. Better communication and better snaps will eliminate most of the issues the line had on Saturday. And if you look past the bad snaps and procedure penalties, the Line actually had a decent day. Michigan's linemen were consisently clearing space and getting to the second level on run plays and were standing their ground on passing downs. Perry Dorrestein was more than passable at left Tackle. Michigan spent most of the day running left behind Mark Ortmann and Steve Schilling, successfully. Mark Huyge had a great block second level block on Minor's TD run.

You can't give it more than a C grade because of the mistakes, but there are a lot of positives to take away.

The Running Backs

David Guralnick via Detroit News.com

Carlos Brown should never, ever, ever leave the field. Ever. He is by far Michigan's best and most effective back right now. He's showing us a cut back ability I never knew he had. He's running with authority, carrying tacklers for an extra five yards. He's breaking away from everyone. He's our best pass catcher out of the backfield. Never take him out. Ever. If I'm right, and I think I am, after Brown's second touchdown (in just the second series of the game) he didn't get another carry for the next NINE SERIES with his next carry coming a couple of plays into the tenth series after his second touchdown! That's insane. He's the hottest player on the team. You have to feed him the ball, and that's a big mistake by the coaching staff. Maybe they want to protect him, but in a close game getting away from him almost cost us. 146 yards on just 12 total touches. Seriously. Give him the ball. I'm begging you.

Whew. I needed to get that off my chest.

Outside of Brown, I thought Brandon Minor had a good game though it's clear he's still not 100%. Minor had some very good straight ahead runs, but I can count only one play where he was forced to make a cut (or the play called for it) where he was able to move laterally as quickly as we're used to. Straight ahead though, man, he was awesome. He plowed Indiana like a cornfield, picking up 51 yards on 12 carries. Honestly, if he was 100% I think he'd probably have been in the 70-80 yard range. The ankle's healing, he was great in pass protect, but I think he still needs another week to two weeks to be totally healthy and the Brandon Minor we all expect to see.

A special shout out to Kevin Grady who is becoming one of my favorite role players on the team. Kevin was huge in run blocking and showed great hands, shiftiness, and determination picking up two first downs on two catches. I think we're going to start to see more of him in this offense as a Tatenard safety valve. Also, give Grady massive props for his blocking on Tate's dive to the endzone touchdown. I really want to see Grady score a TD this year after all he's been through. One more note, Michael Shaw saw some limited action but largely watched this game, getting only two touches.

When the running backs got the ball, I thought they were great. I'll get into why they didn't get as many touches when I talk about the Quarterbacks. Overall, the Running Backs turned in an outstanding game in all aspects.

The Receivers

Couldn't be any other photo, courtesy David Guralnick via Detroit News.com

Martavious Odoms is the man. I wasn't sold on him going into the year, but now I'm a believer. He just keeps getting better and better. It's not just the great route running and TD catch, it's the little things. His blocking on Carlos Brown's TD run, was the reason Brown went in clean. On the two point conversion, he saw Tate sprint for the endzone and closed off the safety. Sure he had a drop of a poorly thrown ball, but the kid truly is something special. Like Odoms, Kelvin Grady had a busy day. He did have drop on a questionable screen pass by Forcier, but still managed three catches including a crucial 19 yard pickup on Michigan's final drive. Watching him, I get the feeling he's still getting his bearings on the field, but the fact that he's contributing in such a meaningful way so quickly is amazing to me.

The rest of the receiver corps had an okay, not great, day. It's hard to stand out when you throw the ball 24 times, 3-4 are throw aways, 3-4 are drops, 3-4 are bad passes, and the ball spread around to 8 different receivers. Greg Mathews deserves some praise for his run blocking and drawing a flag for PI that got (even though it shouldn't have) picked up. But overall, like Junior Hemingway, Michigan's bigger receivers were largely shut out of the boxscore (one catch between them). Regardless, Hemingway had a great game run blocking and helped clear the way for a lot of yards on the ground, including Brown's first TD and Forcier's 10 yard scramble on Michigan's second to last scoring drive. Roy Roundtree made and appearance and notched a 35 yard catch at the end of the first half, but nothing more.

The Tight Ends had a decent day. The highlight was Kevin Koger's outstanding 36 yard grab that set up Minor's TD run, which Koger also added a good block on. Martell Webb's day was a little rougher, in that the only ball thrown his way was dropped and he didn't see a lot of playing time.

Overall, the receivers were great in run support, good in passing game, and came through when it mattered.

The Quarterbacks

David Guralnick via Detroit News.com

Well, if you were expecting a game where Tate truly played like a freshman, this was it. Even so, he played like a senior leading two critical scoring drives in the fourth quarter. You take the bad with the good sometimes, and dammit, the good keeps prevailing. Prior to the fourth quarter, Tate was not having a good day. Early in the game he was gunning everything at 100 mph. His first throw was rifled to Tacopants, and his second throw to Brown required the back to make a much harder than necessary catch before sprinting to the endzone. Tate was victimized by some drops, but only one throw was material (Webb's drop). The drops by Odoms and Grady weren't good throws or good decisions. Tate chucked one ball over junior Heminway's head that should've been picked, then scrambled around like a fool before throwing a "I'm getting tackled THROW IT!" pick that he should've just eaten. He also picked up an intentional grounding penalty and could've been called for another that ended up just being a sack. In the run game, I think he's got the Notre Dame game stuck in his head. Six legit rushes (sacks and bad snaps excluded): three scrambles and three really bad decisions on the zone read. He misread the DE on some, didn't see the late blitzer on another. He needs to keep handing that off for the time being, especially when the runningbacks are picking up 5 a carry on the opposition.

Now all that criticism aside, damn, what a fourth quarter. Forcier was on target whereas earlier he hadn't been. He showed some great athleticism scrambling for some first downs, and his pass to Odoms and TD runs were things of beauty. The Kid isn't perfect, but he is really, really good. One thing that I especially liked is that he used his safety valve when the home run wasn't available. The biggest thing he's gotta work on is realizing he's not the most athletic guy on the field anymore, and getting rid of the ball rather than running around like a chicken with his head cut off. It'll come with time, but overall, even though the middle of the game was kinda meh, a good start and finish for Forcier.

While Forcier took a minor step sideways, Denard Robinson took a HUGE step forward on Saturday. The kid is just electric on the ground. I know he fumbled before the half, but the fumble was a helmet on football occurrence. There's not a lot you can do when that happens. Robinson's rushing numbers are distorted by two bad snaps and a couple of dropped snaps, but when he actually got the ball off the hike, he was dangerous and picked up some tough yards. Where he impressed me the most was in the passing game. His pass the Koger was absolutely beautiful and perfectly thrown. He had one bad pass to Grady that was behind Kelvin, but he's showing he can handle the full offense and make the team vertical in the air. Right now he's light years ahead of anyone under center last season and a solid number two quarterback. While he's clearly the number two guy, he played like 1A when called in on Saturday. Great game from Denard.